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Firefighters attempt to extinguish a fire in a home along the Pacific Coast Highway in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood.

USA TODAY NETWORK via Reuters Connect

Hard Numbers on the LA wildfires: From evacuations and deaths to estimated losses and insurance woes. Plus: Inmate firefighters

180,000: At least 180,000 people have been ordered to evacuate and an additional 200,000 face evacuation warnings. At least 10 people have been killed, but the death toll is expected to rise, and 20 people have been arrested on suspicion of looting.

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Firefighters battle the Palisades Fire as it burns during a windstorm on the west side of Los Angeles, California, on Jan. 8, 2025.

REUTERS/Ringo Chiu

War of words as LA burns

Out-of-control wildfires are devastating southern California, which, in the hyperpolarized political world of 2025, has resulted in a war of words between Republicans and Democrats.

The fires are without precedent, the result of a warming climate, residential development in woodlands, decades of fire suppression that have left a lot of dead trees and dry grass, and powerful Santa Ana winds.

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A house burns as powerful winds fueling devastating wildfires in the Los Angeles area force people to evacuate, in Altadena, California, on Jan. 8, 2025.

REUTERS/David Swanson

Wildfires are raging in Los Angeles. So is their politicization.

As wildfires scorched Los Angeles for a second day on Wednesday, hurricane-strength winds and limited water supplies complicated efforts to contain the flames. The three main fires – in the Pacific Palisades, the Pasadena area, and the rural San Fernando Valley – have burned thousands of acres, decimated hundreds of buildings, killed two people, and placed tens of thousands of people under evacuation orders.

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Graphic Truth: Will this year's wildfires scorch records?

Wildfires are burning across Western Canada, causing smoke to drift over Montana, Colorado, Kansas, Wisconsin, and other parts of the Midwest.

If you’re having a flashback to the amber smoke that cloaked cities across Canada and the US last summer, you’re not alone. That’s why we decided to look at how this year’s wildfire season compares to last year’s.

This year, Canada’s nearly 3,917 blazes have already burned more than 2.7 million hectares, with about 852 active wildfires as of the end of July. The good news? It’s considerably less land than had been scorched by the end of July 2023.

While that may paint the picture that the 2024 wildfire season will be less severe than the historic 2023 season, this year’s blazes may just be off to a slow start. Experts have warned that last year’s warm fall and winter, along with droughts and minimal snowfall, could potentially lead the 2024 fire season to be even worse than last year.

Jess Frampton

Five-alarm fire: Why Canada’s wildfire season could scorch last year's record

Remember last summer, when New York’s skyline glowed orange – looking apocalyptic – thanks to Canadian wildfires? Last year, between May and October, some 6,500 fires burned nearly 46 million acres of Canada’s land, the worst year on record. The blazes sent toxic smoke throughout much of the country and down into the United States as far south as Florida, at one point leaving New York City with the worst air quality in the world.

And now, this year’s wildfire season looks like it may scorch last year’s record.

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Paige Fusco

Graphic Truth: Canada braces for wildfire season

As the weather warms, the US and Canada are bracing for the potential of another record-breaking wildfire season. Canada’s 2023 wildfire season was the most destructive on record, with more than 6,000 fires tearing through tens of millions of acres and blanketing the US East Coast and Midwest in smoke.

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Paige Fusco

Graphic Truth: Home insurance costs are on the rise

From devastating hurricanes and ceaseless wildfires to catastrophic floods, natural disasters are increasing in frequency and cost in Canada and the US. As climate change makes disasters more frequent and destructive, insurers are having to raise rates and reduce coverage.

In the US, the home insurance industry has had three straight years of underwriting losses. Insurance rates rose an average of 21% in 2023 as a response, with some insurers in disaster-prone places like California and Florida ceasing to write new policies altogether. As a result, homeowners are forced to pay higher premiums for the fewer insurance options that remain.

In Canada, last summer’s record wildfires compounded with historic floods, costing more than $3.1 billion in insured damage and spiking rates in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and British Columbia.

For this week’s Graphic Truth, we looked at how much insurance rates have risen around the US and Canada.

Jess Frampton

Are the US and Canada ready for wildfire season?

Last year marked the worst wildfire season ever recorded in Canada as 18.5 million hectares of land burned — shattering the previous record of 10 million hectares in 1989. Those fires accounted for 23% of global wildfire carbon emissions in 2023. They also sent toxic smoke throughout the country and into the US, putting the health and safety of Americans at risk.

At one point, New York City had the worst air quality in the world as Americans were exposed to more smoke per person than ever before. The smoke, which reached as far as Florida, also put US crops at risk.

This year might be as bad — or worse — which means that domestic and cross-border policies for fighting fires will be more important than ever.

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