A home is destroyed by the Airport fire in El Cariso Village along Ortega Highway. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
We’re at peak fire season in the West, and this year has been notably busy compared with the previous two seasons, which were tempered by back-to-back wet winters.
According to Cal Fire incident data, roughly 838,575 acres have burned so far this season. That’s more than in 2022 and 2023 combined.
Although fires are part of our forests’ natural ecosystem, human-caused climate change and roughly a century of flawed forest management have greatly increased the risks that wildland fires will explode into the massive infernos we’ve seen happen more frequently in recent years.
A Riverside County Sheriff deputy walks through the area where many vintage and antique cars were destroyed next to a destroyed by the Airport fire off Ortega Highway. (Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)
Firefighters battle the Airport fire along Ortega Highway in the Santa Ana Mountains. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
Fountain Valley firefighters douse a home along El Cariso Road as the Airport fire burns in the Santa Ana Mountains. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
Orange County firefighters from Engine 126 battle the Airport fire along Ortega Highway in the Santa Ana Mountains. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
A taco truck in Lake Elsinore serves Mexican food as the Airport fire burns in the Santa Ana Mountains. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
Fire crews keep a watchful eye on the Airport fire in the community of Ranch Santa Margarita on Tuesday. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
A firefighting helicopter battles the Airport fire near Santiago Peak on Tuesday. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
A crew keeps an eye on the Airport fire Tuesday along Meander Lane in Rancho Santa Margarita. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
Bridge fire - Angeles National Forest
A firefighter uses hand tools to try and stop the Bridge fire from advancing toward homes in the mountain community of Wrightwood. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
The Bridge fire consumes hillsides on both sides of Highway 2 in Wrightwood. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
A firefighter puts water on a barn after the Bridge fire spread into the community of Wrightwood. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
San Bernardino County firefighters work to contain a spot fire from the Bridge fire burning in Wrightwood on Sept. 11. (Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
Line fire - San Bernardino County
Firefighters are overcome with smoke while battling a house fire as the Line fire burns in Running Springs. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
The Line fire burns Tuesday evening just south of Running Springs as seen from Highway 330. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
Residents flee the Line fire Tuesday in Green Valley Lake, which was under an evacuation order along with other mountain communities in the San Bernardino National Forest. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
As darkness falls Sunday, the Line fire burns on an eastern ridge over Highway 38 near Mountain Home Village in Thurman Flats. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
Firefighters from the Mill Creek hotshot crew monitor the Line fire burning over a ridge off Highway 38 on Monday. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
At least 11 people died as Hurricane Milton sent tornadoes spinning across Florida, officials said Thursday as the state grappled with flooding, power outages and other woes from a milder than expected storm that many had feared would be catastrophic.The southeastern US state was able to avoid the level of catastrophic devastation that officials had feared.
A great white shark has been found dead on the coast of Haida Gwaii in northern B.C..It was discovered by Mike Miles, who says he saw it while driving just south of Tlell, B.C., off Haida Gwaii's east coast."I thought I was seeing a young orca, then thought it was a beaked whale," he told CBC News via text message. "Then, a great white shark! Cool and a bit sad."He reported it to the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO), which has confirmed the species, saying it was a male measuring
To some, the thought of snakes flying through the air is the scariest thought imaginable, but, as we'll explain, flying snakes don't actually fly, they "fall with style."
At the spot where the Chari and Logone Rivers meet, residents of Chad's capital, N'Djamena, have been scrambling to face flooding brought on by torrential rains that have submerged entire neighbourhoods.Like dozens of others, Faba's family fled their neighbourhood four days ago after it was flooded by the Logone River, becoming accessible only by boat.
A camera captured the moment a tornado tore part of a building off while passing through in St. Lucie County, Florida. Four people are confirmed dead in the area as a result of a tornado caused by Hurricane Milton.
Long Beach utility officials are no longer asking residents in three ZIP Codes to boil their water after water quality test samples showed water is safe to drink.
Elegant white swans have an outsize presence in this upstate New York village measuring less than 2 square miles. “Swan Fest” is celebrated each fall. Residents say it’s hard to imagine Manlius without the mute swans that have inhabited a pond in the village center for more than 100 years.
Rescue teams plucked Florida residents from the flotsam of Hurricane Milton on Thursday after the storm smashed through coastal communities where it tore homes into pieces, filled streets with mud and spawned a barrage of deadly tornadoes. At least eight people were dead. Arriving just two weeks after the misery wrought by Hurricane Helene, the system also knocked out power to more than 3 million customers, flooded barrier islands, tore the roof off a baseball stadium and toppled a construction crane. Among the most dramatic rescues, Hillsborough County officers found a 14-year-old boy floating on a piece of fence and pulled him onto a boat.
Em Phat, 53, studies his eel tanks with the intensity of a man gambling with his livelihood. For millennia, fishermen like him have relied on the bounty of the Tonle Sap in Cambodia, Southeast Asia’s largest lake and the epicenter of the world’s most productive inland fishery. Phat hopes that raising eels — a delicacy in Asian markets like China, Japan and South Korea — will provide a way forward.
Residents of St. Petersburg, Florida, who decided to ride out Hurricane Milton despite dire warnings and mandatory evacuation orders emerged from their homes on Thursday morning to find their city largely intact after the powerful storm's overnight passage. In the downtown, situated alongside Tampa Bay, many streets avoided flooding, boats in the city marina fared well and damage to the city's buildings appeared limited. The hurricane's shredding winds ripped a gaping hole in the fabric roof of St. Petersburg's Tropicana Field, home of the Tampa Bay Rays baseball team, scattered tree limbs across many streets and brought down power lines.
