Fire Strikes In Los Angeles: The Most Expensive Disaster In US History

A plane dropped a water bomb to tackle the Palisaades fire in Mandeville22, Los Angeles, California, United States, Saturday (11/1/2025). (ANTARA/REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton/rwa)

JAKARTA The number of victims who died from fires in Los Angeles, United States, increased to 16 people. Climate and atmospheric researchers from the National Research and Innovation Agency or BRIN Erma Yulihastin said the forest and land fires that occurred in Los Angeles were an anomalous phenomenon.

In at least the past week, people around the world were presented with news of a fire that broke out in Uncle Sam's country. According to a number of sources, it was the first time this morning that occurred on Tuesday (7/1/2025) local time in Pacific Palisaades, the Los Angeles County area to the east ofwastland.

The biggest fire, in Palisades, has now burned more than 23,000 hectares of land despite thousands of firefighters making some progress in controlling about 11 percent of the fire.

Now the fire has spread to the Mandeville levy, prompting evacuation orders for most of Brentwood's territory. This is an elite area where Arnold Schwartz, chief executive of Disney Bob Iger, and NBA star LeBron James live.

Citing BBC, LA City Fire Chief Kristin Crowley on Sunday (12/1/2025) said officers were doing everything they could to stop the spread.

The barred continues to move east, which threatens Brentwood's exclusive environment, including Getty Center, a world-famous art museum that has now evacuated its staff. Getty Center is known to keep more than 125,000 works of art, including the works of Van Gogh, Rubens, Monet, and Degas.

The fire that broke out in the Pacific Palisades area, which many celebrities live in, was the worst fire in Los Angeles history. More than 12,000 buildings were reportedly burned down and forced more than 150,000 residents to flee.

As of Sunday local time, the number of victims who died from forest fires in Los Angeles rose to 16 people, with details of five deaths from the Palisades fire and 11 others related to the Eaton fire, as confirmed by the Los Angeles District medical examining office.

Fires in Los Angeles are projected to be one of the most expensive disasters in the history of the United States. The total loss from this fire is estimated at more than half of Indonesia's State Revenue and Expenditure Budget (APBN).

Quoting News, initial estimates stated that fire losses reached 135 billion US dollars (Rp2,202 trillion) to reach 150 billion US dollars (Rp2,447 trillion). In comparison, the Ministry of Finance released the Indonesian State Budget in 2025 amounting to Rp3,621.3 trillion.

Head of Meteorology Accuweather Jonathan Porter said, this fire has the potential to be the most expensive in the modern history of the US. The calculation of losses includes various factors, such as property damage, infrastructure, vehicles, health costs, pay loss, and supply chain disruptions.

"This fast-moving and wind-driven fire has created one of the most expensive forest fires in modern US history," Porter said.

Meanwhile, insurance broker Aon PLC also said the fire would surpass Camp Fire 2018. Camp Fire 2018 became the most expensive fire with a loss of 12.5 billion US dollars or Rp203.9 trillion and killed 85 people.

Some experts estimate it will take several months to calculate the total loss concretely. Porter from Accuweather said the disaster was still in its early stages and losses might continue to grow.

Until now, it is not known for certain the cause of the devastating fire that hit Los Angeles. However, a number of experts are trying to unravel the reasons why fires are difficult to tame even though they occur during winter.

The accelerating climate change is said to be one of the causes of the ferocity of the fire eating a number of parts of Southern California, according to director of the Center for Illegal Fire Research at Swansea University, Stefan Doerr.

"Some studies have conclusively shown that the California fire season has been significantly extended over the past few decades," Doerr told Anadolu.

At the same time, they also warned that forest fires in winter could occur more frequently in the coming years, as climate change does.

Climate and atmospheric researcher from BRIN Erma Yulihastin also commented on the fire that occurred in Los Angeles, United States. In an upload on X's social media account, Erma mentioned an anomalous phenomenon.

Erna explained that forest and land fires that scorched tens of thousands of houses usually occur naturally, which is triggered by the gusts of the Santa Ana wind. Santa Ana wind is known to have dry properties and can burn dry leaves when the wind blows.

"Only, normally Santa Ana is generated from a high-pressure system in California, this should have happened during a summer-time rummer. If Santa Ana occurs during a cold winter- like January today, then this is truly an anomaly and even a climate deviation," said Erna.

Erna continued, angina Santa Ana generally occurs from the northern area of Great Basin, which is a desert area that carries the nature of hot and dry winds.

"Although the winter is cold-, the temperature reaches 27 degrees Celsius in the Angeles forest indicates that hotspots have been formed," he said.