Palisades Fire

About

The Palisades Fire was a highly destructive wildfire that began in the Santa Monica Mountains of Los Angeles County on January 7, 2025, and grew to destroy large areas of Pacific Palisades, Topanga, and Malibu before it was fully contained on January 31. One of a series of wildfires in Southern California driven by extremely powerful Santa Ana winds, it spread to 37 sq mi (95 km2), killed 12 people, and destroyed 6,837 structures, making it the tenth-deadliest and third-most destructive California wildfire on record and the second most destructive to occur in the history of the city of Los Angeles. The fire burned simultaneously with the similarly destructive Eaton Fire at the foothills of the nearby San Gabriel Mountains.

On October 8, federal authorities arrested a man in Florida and charged him with three felony counts of arson, alleging that he used a combustible material to set an eight-acre (3.2 ha) fire on January 1 named the Lachman Fire that was not fully extinguished by the Los Angeles Fire Department and later reignited to become the Palisades Fire. On June 26, 2026, a mistrial was declared in the man's federal trial.