In California, deadly wildfires continue to burn out of control. One of the most devastating is the Palisades Wildfire, which killed 8 people and ruined multiple houses. Now, a reported cause has surfaced for the blaze. The Washington Post is reporting that New Year's Eve fireworks may have started the inferno.
It's likely that strong winds may have caused the dying embers of fireworks to grow. From there, the winds grew the embers into the current inferno that's ravaging California. Firefighters had previously put out a fire in the area on New Year's Eve. But locals say that firefighters had been slower to respond to the second fire that formed last week. As a result, it grew into the current California wildfire.
Local Michael Valentine placed the blame at the slow response time letting the blaze get out of control.
Wildfire Causes
"For the longest time, I didn't see any police, firefighters, not on the ground or in the air. I was disappointed because the second fire was moving so fast, and there was no one there," Valentine said. He said that it took an hour for firefighters to respond. He noticed a helicopter flying over the blaze. But he didn't see any firefighters combating the growing fire.
Later, he suffered burns while trying to wet down surrounding homes and stop the spread himself.
"We know that fires rekindle and transition from smoldering to flaming. It's certainly possible that something from that previous fire, within a week, had rekindled and caused the ignition," Michael Gollner, a professor of mechanical engineering and fire scientist at the University of California at Berkeley, told the Washington Post.
The new fire's origin site overlaps with the burn site for the New Year's Eve fire. Meanwhile, another resident blamed people lighting fireworks for causing the fire. They said, "I don't know if you've ever been camping, but when you go camping and put a fire out, that doesn't mean that it's not hot below. Then the Santa Anas came on Monday, and that's what started, that's what reignited the fire."
However, authorities haven't announced an official cause for the wildfire.
