Millions of residents in the Los Angeles area were shaken by a magnitude 4.7 earthquake that struck early Thursday morning, as the region continues to battle multiple wildfires that are still burning.
The quake’s epicenter was four miles north of Malibu, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The quake’s shaking sent rocks onto Malibu roads, visibly shook Santa Monica’s historic 1909 wooden pier and jolted people out of bed. No injuries or damage were immediately reported.
The quake was felt as far away as 45 miles (72 kilometers) away in Orange County, where people reported things moving in their homes. It was followed by several smaller aftershocks. A live camera on the 115-year-old Santa Monica Pier, about 10 miles from Malibu, captured several seconds of violent shaking. Malibu City Councilman Bruce Silverstein said he has lived in the area for 13 years and this was the strongest earthquake he has ever felt.
“The house shook for about two or three seconds. I was afraid the windows were going to break,” Silverstein said.
Several Los Angeles-based celebrities, including Paris Hilton, took to social media in the aftermath: “That earthquake was scary,” the billionaire media personality wrote on X. “Wow what a big quake,” reality TV star Khloe Kardashian wrote.
Thursday’s quake was one of many small earthquakes that have struck the region recently, including a magnitude 4.4 temblor last month that jarred nerves and shook buildings. Southern California has seen 14 earthquakes of magnitude 4.0 or higher this year, up from an average of eight to 10 per year over the past few decades, but it’s too early to tell whether the increased activity is statistically significant, said Lucy Jones, a seismologist at the California Institute of Technology. The previous high was 13 quakes of that magnitude in 1988.
The quake came as three major wildfires were burning in the greater Los Angeles area, burning dozens of homes and forcing thousands to evacuate, and during a brutal heat wave that was only just beginning to subside.
Firefighters had hoped to take advantage of cooler weather as they gradually gained the upper hand, but before that could happen, dozens of homes were destroyed and thousands were forced to evacuate.
California is in the middle of wildfire season, but has already burned nearly three times the amount of land area it will burn in all of 2023. Wildfires have threatened tens of thousands of homes and other buildings across Southern California since gaining momentum amid a weekend heatwave that saw triple-digit temperatures.
No deaths have been reported but at least 12 people, mostly firefighters, have been injured, mostly from heat stroke, authorities said.
In the small town of Wrightwood, about 90 minutes from Los Angeles, officials urged residents to flee the exploding Bridge Fire, which has grown tenfold in a day, burned more than 50,000 acres and destroyed at least 33 homes.
Explaining US wildfire terminology
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Burned area
Wildfires in the United States are measured in acres. While the size of a wildfire doesn’t necessarily correlate to its destructive impact, the number of acres gives us a way to understand the extent of the fire and how quickly it spreads.
There are 2.47 acres in a hectare and 640 acres in a square mile, but this can be hard to visualize. To give you some quick comparisons, an acre is roughly the size of an American football field. London’s Heathrow Airport is about 3,000 acres. Manhattan is about 14,600 acres, Chicago is about 150,000 acres, and Los Angeles is about 320,000 acres.
Mega Fire
The National Joint Fire Center defines a megafire as a wildfire that burns more than 100,000 acres (40,000 hectares).
Containment Level
The containment level of a wildfire indicates how well firefighters have contained the blaze. Containment is achieved by creating a perimeter that keeps the fire from spreading. This is done by methods such as spreading fire retardant on the ground, digging trenches, and removing brush and other flammable fuels.
Containment is measured by the percentage of the fire that is surrounded by these control lines. A fire with low containment levels (0% or 5%) is essentially out of control. A fire with high containment levels (such as 90%) is not necessarily extinguished, but has a large protective perimeter and controlled growth rate.
Evacuation orders and warnings
Evacuation warnings and orders are issued by authorities when wildfires pose an imminent danger to people’s lives and property. According to the California Department of Emergency Services, an evacuation warning means you should leave the area or prepare to leave immediately. An evacuation order means you should leave the area immediately.
Red Flag Warning
A red flag warning is a type of forecast issued by the National Weather Service that indicates when weather conditions may cause or spread a wildfire. These conditions typically include dry conditions, low humidity, high winds and high temperatures.
Planned Incineration
Planned burns, or controlled burns, are fires that are intentionally set under carefully managed conditions to improve the health of a landscape. Planned burns are carried out by trained professionals, such as members of the U.S. Forest Service or Native American fire experts. Planned burns have a variety of benefits, including removing flammable vegetation and reducing the risk of larger, more devastating fires.
Planned burns were once a common practice among Native American tribes who used “good fire” to improve the land, but for much of the last century they were limited by the U.S. government’s suppression-based approach. In recent years, U.S. land managers have re-embraced the benefits of planned burns and now conduct thousands of burns across the country each year.
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Resident Erin Elias said she had been running up the mountain when she was told to evacuate, but grabbed her passport and her dog and escaped. On Wednesday, she and her husband splashed water on the roof of their home, which still stands. Their cat is missing, she said.
“It’s really scary,” Arias said, looking at the burnt remains of her neighbor’s house. “We’re really lucky.”
Daniel Swain, a meteorologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, said the fire moved unusually quickly through complex terrain, giving people less time than usual to evacuate, surprising even experienced fire officials.
“(The fire) had to burn up the mountainside, downslope, jump a valley, over a new ridge and then back downslope again at least twice during essentially one burn period,” Swain said.
Gov. Gavin Newsom has deployed the National Guard to help with evacuations, and the White House said Joe Biden is monitoring the situation.
Meanwhile, in Riverside County, more than 5,500 homes were evacuated and more than 19,000 residents were affected by the so-called Airport Fire, which also damaged several recreational cabins and buildings in the Cleveland National Forest.
In San Bernardino County, the Line Fire is putting about 65,600 homes and buildings at risk, and residents along the southern end of Big Bear Lake, a mountain town popular for winter sports and lake recreation, were told to evacuate on Tuesday.
The Davis Fire on the Nevada-California border near Reno forced thousands of people to evacuate over the weekend, destroyed one home and 12 buildings and burned about nine square miles (23 square kilometers) of forest and brush along the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada mountain range.
