Over 100,000 people are under mandatory evacuation orders after wildfires began burning in the Los Angeles metropolitan area Tuesday morning. According to Cal Fire, six fires are currently active and have burned more than 25,000 acres. 

Noah Goldsmith ’27, who is a video staffer for The Daily, said his family evacuated their home in Santa Monica last night when the area was under a warning and not yet a mandate. While their home was alright, he said he had friends who lived in the Palisades only a 10-minute drive away who “have already seen their houses burn down.”

The Palisades fire is the most destructive on record in Los Angeles, and has destroyed at least 1,000 structures since its onset. Near Pasadena, the Eaton Canyon fire has commanded at least 700 firefighters from throughout Los Angeles County and the surrounding areas. According to Accuweather’s preliminary report, the direct damages and economic loss caused by the fires are between $52 and $57 billion.

“I was glued to news feeds covering the fires for the 24 hours starting on Tuesday, when I learned of the fire,” said Jack Moreland ‘27. “I slept for about four hours. I was only watching to see if my house and neighborhood generally would burn down, and they did.”

“If every fire truck within ten hours driving distance had come to the Palisades I still don’t think they could have saved the streets where I live,” Moreland said. “I think the fire departments’ response was good for what they could do. Our town was just doomed.”

Approximately 32% of Stanford students are from California, per the Stanford undergraduate profile. 

“Being from LA, [wildfire] is unfortunately something we’ve dealt with in the past,” Goldsmith said. “Instead of snow days, we had fire days.” Still, Goldsmith said that the rapid escalation of wildfires in the last two days was unprecedented.

“There’s a little bit, a lot a bit, of anxiety,” Goldsmith said.

The Daily has reached out to the University for comment.