One Year Since the Palisades Fire Devastated California: What It Shares with the Camp Fire and the Reality of Wildfire Risks We Face in Canada

Driving on the freeway near Los Angeles this past weekend, the scarred mountainsides looked just like they did the day after, a year ago. Charred, blackened trees stand like skeletons, and ash still blankets many slopes. It's hard to believe that soon, it will be a year since the Palisades Fire shook Southern California to its core in January 2025.

That day, the notorious Santa Ana winds—those dry, fierce gusts barreling down from the Santa Monica Mountains—exploded the flames into an inferno. The affluent community of Pacific Palisades was suddenly engulfed, forcing tens of thousands to flee. It was part of a series of simultaneous blazes that made headlines across the country as the January 2025 Southern California wildfires. While the Palisades Fire, thankfully, resulted in relatively few casualties, it scorched nearly 10,000 acres—an area roughly the size of 8,000 football fields.

Haunting Parallels to the Camp Fire Nightmare

Seeing this devastation, I couldn't help but be transported back seven years. To November 2018, and the Camp Fire further north. That fire didn't just burn a town; it obliterated Paradise. I went up there, and the scene was straight out of a war zone. They recovered 85 bodies from the ashes, with many more never accounted for. The Camp Fire remains the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California's history, a tragedy that hasn't faded with time.

Palisades and Camp. Two different fires, but a chilling commonality: they both erupted in the Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI). When you push neighborhoods right up against forests and chaparral, and a fire catches, there's almost no stopping it. In a California increasingly parched by climate change, wildfires are no longer a freak occurrence; they've become a brutal seasonal reality.

What This Means for Us Back Home

It's easy to think, "That's their problem, not ours." But we can't afford to be complacent. We saw it with the 2016 fire in Fort McMurray, Alberta—a whole community swallowed by flames under high winds. Closer to home for many, we only need to remember the fires following the Kobe earthquake to know the devastation fires can wreak. The key is to weave preparedness into our daily lives, not just think about it when a crisis hits.

Out here in California, officials hammer home a few key steps before every fire season. They're simple, practical, and just as relevant in Canada.

• Create that defensible space: Keep your property clear of dead leaves, firewood, and anything flammable within at least 5 metres of your home.
• Pack a go-bag: Have a backpack ready with essential documents, water, non-perishable food, N95 masks, and medications—anything you'd need if you had to leave in a hurry.
• Make a family fire plan: Wildfires can strike at night. Talk with your family now about multiple escape routes and a meeting point.
• Know your risk: Check your local municipality's hazard maps. Find out if your neighbourhood is in a zone considered at risk for wildfire.

That last point is crucial. Even here, agencies like Natural Resources Canada are improving online tools and maps to show these risks. And don't assume you're safe just because you live in a city. Pacific Palisades was an upscale, manicured urban neighborhood, and it was turned to ash in a matter of hours.

Don't Let Fire History Become Faded Memory

They still haven't finalized the death toll for the Camp Fire. That's how catastrophic it was. And for the people who lost their homes in the Palisades Fire, the struggle to rebuild their lives continues. The least we can do is remember. And hope that if, or when, a similar disaster strikes closer to home, the hard lessons learned here might just help save a life.

If you heard the emergency sirens tonight, would you know exactly what to do? Wildfires, like all fires, don't give much warning. Standing here, looking at the scars on the California landscape, it feels like a silent question we all need to be ready to answer.