Eaton Fire death toll rises as authorities find more human remains
Already one of California's deadliest wildfires, the Eaton Fire death toll rose to 18 after the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner discovered human remains near Eliot Arts Magnet nearly three months after the devasting disaster.
Forensic teams found the remains in the 900 block of Boston Street in Altadena. They said they would need to use complex scientific methods to determine the identity because of the condition of the remains.
The Eaton Fire is the deadliest fire in modern LA County history. The only wildfire to kill more people happened roughly 80 years ago in Griffith Park. That brush fire killed 29 firefighters in October 1933.
The combined death toll of the Eaton and Palisades fires now stands at 30 victims.
The two blazes started on Jan. 7 amid a "life-threatening" Santa Ana storm that produced 100 mph gusts. The howling winds hampered firefighting efforts throughout Southern California by grounding all water and retardant-dropping aircraft until weather conditions improved. With flames raging out of control, crews had little chance of stopping embers from spreading to homes.
At its height, the fires placed an estimated 331,335 people on an evacuation advisory, with nearly 192,000 residents facing mandatory evacuation and roughly 140,000 subject to warnings. For perspective, 331,335 people can fill SoFi Stadium three times over.
The blazes burned a combined 37,469 acres and leveled entire communities in the Pacific Palisades and Altadena neighborhoods of LA County.
"The conditions, that night, were unbearable," LA County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone said during an interview with 60 Minutes. "It was a devil wind that came out, you know, that extreme Santa Ana wind condition."
The Eaton Fire destroyed 9,418 buildings, the second-most destructive fire in California history. It damaged another 1,074 buildings, including the school near the location of the human remains, Eliot Arts Magnet. The Palisades Fire is the third most destructive fire in state history, with 6,837 structures destroyed.
A UCLA study estimated that the wildfires caused as much as $164 billion in losses and resulted in an insurance crisis. State Farm noted that the company received more than 8,700 claims totaling more than $1 billion by Feb. 1. To remedy this, it requested emergency rate increases of 22% for homeowners, 15% for renters, 15% for condominium tenants and 38% for rental dwellings, according to the Insurance Commissioner's office.
"I don't think you can realize how rough it is, how devastating is until you see it," President Trump said while visiting the Pacific Palisades in January. "I mean, I saw a lot of bad things on television, but the extent of it, the side of it, we flew over it in a helicopter. We flew to a few of the areas, and it is devastation."
Several lawsuits have been filed against Southern California Edison, claiming its equipment started the Eaton Fire.
