Los Angeles Wildfires Timelapse Shows Sierra Madre Mountains Ablaze

Timelapse footage shows mountains to the north of Los Angeles burning as numerous major wildfires swept across the Californian coastal city.

Why It Matters

As several fires have raged through the built-up and populated region, hundreds of homes have reportedly been destroyed, with more than 100,000 people having been ordered to evacuate, per Reuters. At least five deaths have been reported.

The fires also pose a threat to many of Los Angeles' famous landmarks and venues.

What To Know

A 24-hour timelapse on Windy.com for Mount Wilson, situated just north of the Eaton fire, showed plumes of dark smoke billowing into the sky by day, with fires illuminating the sky by night.

A screenshot of the cam footage. Fires can be seen burning near Mount Wilson. Windy.com

According to Windy.com, the camera is located not far from the Mount Wilson Observatory. Smoke continually rises throughout the entire duration of the video.

On-the-ground footage shared on social media also showed the mountainside lit up in flames.

"Just devastating," said one person who shared a video of the fire to X, formerly Twitter. "Trainer Jay Nehf sent this video of the Eaton fire north of Santa Anita. As he says in the video, he lives in Sierra Madre, near where the fire is."

In the video, a man can be heard saying: "I'm... looking up at Sierra Madre where I live, or used to, and it doesn't look good."

Firefighters in Los Angeles have been tackling multiple blazes across the city, including the Eaton fire, Hurst fire, Palisades fire, and the Sunset fire.

It's been estimated that more than 100,000 people have been given orders to evacuate, and hundreds of homes have been destroyed, per Reuters.

What People Are Saying

Los Angeles County Fire Department said in a Wednesday evening update: "On Tuesday, January 7, 2025, at 6:18 p.m. firefighters responded to a fire reported near Eaton Canyon in Pasadena, California. Crews fought aggressively throughout the evening and were challenged by extreme weather and fire behavior. Several evacuation orders and warnings have been issued for the affected area.

"Resources are currently operating in difficult to access terrain and extreme wind speeds present rapidly changing operations conditions. There have been reports that a number of structures have been damaged and destroyed."

What Happens Next

At the time this article was written, the Eaton fire was burning at more than 10,000 acres, according to a map from Watch Duty. The Sunset fire was burning at around 43 acres to the southwest of Hollywood Reservoir

The Palisades fire had engulfed over 17,000 acres around the Pacific Palisades neighborhood, while the Hurst fire was burning at around 855 acres just to the north of Sylmar.

Do you have a story we should be covering? Do you have any questions about this article? Contact LiveNews@newsweek.com