How do the Los Angeles fires compare to the Great Seattle Fire?
We mapped it out
January 14, 2025
By: Teo Popescu
Los Angeles is battling another week of high winds and multiple wildfires.
The Palisades and Eaton fires have burned over 37,830 acres as of Tuesday afternoon. That’s a burn area 315 times larger than that of the Great Seattle Fire of 1889, which burned down the city’s business district and spawned the remaking of Pioneer Square in its iconic brick and stone architecture.
The magnitude of the Los Angeles wildfires becomes even more clear when compared to modern Seattle.
Washington state sent hundreds of firefighters and dozens of fire engines to help battle the Los Angeles wildfires last week. Hilary Franz, Washington state’s outgoing Public Lands Commissioner, told KUOW on Friday that the LA fires could be a sign of what’s to come for Washington state, especially in more populated areas west of the Cascades.
“This is an incredibly tragic situation, and it is also one that is truly highlighting the incredible risks that we are facing in the western United States, especially in the wildland urban interface where you have a lot of people living within an area that has become more and more at risk of fire,” she said.
Credits
Story: Teo Popescu
Design: Teo Popescu
Editor: Liz Brazile
Product Manager: Lisa Wang
Sources: California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection and University of Washington Collections
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