If you’re scrolling through social media or looking at the horizon from a Westside balcony right now, you might feel like the entire city is about to go up in smoke. It’s a valid fear. Last year, the world watched in horror as the Palisades Fire and the Eaton Fire tore through more than 57,000 combined acres, essentially reshaping the geography of communities like Altadena and Pacific Palisades. But if you’re asking how much of Los Angeles is on fire today, January 18, 2026, the answer is actually a lot more nuanced than "the whole place."
Right now, there aren't any massive, uncontrolled mega-fires devouring the county.
Wait. Let me rephrase that. While we aren’t seeing the 20,000-acre walls of flame that defined January 2025, the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) is still playing a constant game of "whack-a-mole" with smaller incidents. According to current CAL FIRE and LAFD incident logs, the city is mostly dealing with localized structure fires and small brush ignitions that are being contained within minutes or hours. For example, just yesterday, crews had to knock down a recycling yard fire in Atwater Village and a small apartment fire in Valley Glen.
These aren't "the big one," but for the people living on those blocks, LA is very much on fire.
The Ghost of the 2025 Disaster
To understand why everyone is so twitchy right now, you have to look back exactly one year. January 2025 was a statistical anomaly that broke the brains of fire scientists. Usually, January is "wet season." Instead, we got a "whiplash" weather event—record heat following a dry autumn, topped off by hurricane-force Santa Ana winds.
The numbers from that period are still staggering:
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- The Palisades Fire: Burned 23,448 acres and destroyed over 6,800 structures.
- The Eaton Fire: Claimed 14,021 acres and was responsible for at least 18 deaths in the Altadena area.
- Total Acreage: Over 57,500 acres across the county were scorched in a single month.
Honestly, the trauma from that event hasn't faded. When a single transformer blows in the Hollywood Hills today, people start packing their "go bags." It’s a kind of collective PTSD.
How Much of Los Angeles Is on Fire Today?
As of mid-January 2026, the active "burn" is minimal. CAL FIRE statistics show that for the 2026 year-to-date, we’ve only seen about 12 wildland fires statewide, resulting in roughly 1 acre of total burned land. Compare that to the same time last year, when 105 fires had already swallowed 40,300 acres.
We are currently in a "near-normal" fire threat level.
Does that mean you can relax? Kinda. But not really. The National Weather Service still keeps a close eye on the "fuel moisture" levels in the Santa Monica Mountains. Even though we’ve had some late December rain, the invasive grasses that grew after the 2025 fires are now standing dead and dry. They are basically nature’s kindling.
Why the "Acreage" Number Is Often Misleading
When people ask how much of Los Angeles is on fire, they are usually looking for a percentage of land. But in a sprawling metropolis, a 50-acre fire in a dense canyon like Mandeville or Topanga is a catastrophe, whereas a 500-acre fire in the high desert might barely make the evening news.
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The real metric we should care about is "structure threat." In 2025, the fires weren't just burning trees; they were burning the urban-wildland interface (WUI). We lost nearly 18,000 structures in that season. Today, the number of structures currently on fire in Los Angeles is effectively zero—though the LAFD averages over 1,300 emergency responses a day, many of which involve residential kitchen fires or electrical shorts.
The Struggle to Rebuild After the Smoke Clears
If you drive through Altadena right now, you won't see flames, but you will see the scars. It’s been a year, yet the "recovery" is a mess.
Reports from organizations like the NAACP and UCLA researchers highlight a "K-shaped recovery." Basically, if you were wealthy and well-insured in the Palisades, you might already have a foundation poured. But in Altadena, where almost half of Black households were impacted by the Eaton Fire, progress is stalled. Debris removal is finished, sure. But roughly 70% of homeowners haven't even applied for a building permit yet.
They are stuck in "insurance limbo."
Joy Chen, who leads the Eaton Fire Survivors Network, describes it as a full-time job just to manage the adjusters. People are living in trailers or temporary rentals, watching the weeds grow over where their living rooms used to be. For these families, the fire never really stopped; it just changed form from heat to red tape.
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Surprising Factors Keeping the Risk Low (For Now)
- The "La Niña" Factor: We are entering a weather pattern that typically brings drier conditions, which sounds bad. However, the lack of massive "growth spurts" in vegetation over the last few months means there is slightly less new fuel than we saw in the record-breaking 2024-2025 cycle.
- Increased Staffing: The LAFD and CAL FIRE have moved to "peak staffing" levels earlier this year as a precaution. They aren't waiting for the first plume of smoke to call in the air tankers.
- New Fire Severity Maps: Authorities finally updated the Fire Hazard Severity Zone maps—the first time in 14 years. This has forced homeowners in "Very High" zones to clear brush more aggressively, creating better defensible space.
What You Should Actually Be Doing
If you live in LA, the question isn't just how much of Los Angeles is on fire today, but how ready you are for when that number changes. Wildfire season in Southern California is now a year-round reality.
Check your "Home Hardening" status. Forget just raking leaves. Are your vents covered with 1/16th-inch metal mesh? Embers from the Palisades fire traveled miles ahead of the actual flame front, sucked into attics through standard vents. That’s how most of those 6,000+ homes actually burned.
Update your digital footprint.
Follow the LAFD "Alerts" page or use the Frontline Wildfire Defense app. If you wait for the emergency broadcast on your TV, you’re already too late. In the 2025 fires, cell towers in some canyons failed, leaving people reliant on old-school radio or neighborhood "phone trees."
Review your policy. Most people found out they were "underinsured" only after their house was a pile of ash. Check if your policy has "extended replacement cost" coverage. With inflation and the surge in construction demand, building a house in 2026 costs about 30% more than it did in 2023.
The fire situation in Los Angeles is currently stable, but "stable" in a Mediterranean climate is a relative term. We are one dry wind event away from a headline. For now, the city is breathing a sigh of relief, even as it continues to sweep up the ash from a year ago.
Actionable Next Steps:
- Sign up for NotifyLA: This is the city's official mass notification system. It’s the fastest way to get evacuation orders.
- Clear your 100-foot zone: Even if it’s winter, if the brush is dry, it’s a threat. Clear everything within 30 feet of your home to bare mineral soil if possible.
- Inventory your home: Take a video of every room in your house today. Open every drawer. If you have to file a claim, that 5-minute video will save you six months of headaches.