After wildfires ravaged Los Angeles a year ago, the city’s Cedars-Sinai hospital saw a spike in patients with heart attacks, respiratory illnesses and even strange blood tests.
The health dangers were outlined in one of the first major studies about the fires’ effect on public health and added to other research that indicated the blazes may have changed the blood chemistry of area residents and firefighters. The full scope of the wildfires may not be known for decades.
Erupting in early January 2025, the Eaton and Palisades fires killed 31 people, destroyed more than 16,000 structures and exposed millions of residents to toxic smoke. While the city burned, researchers who study public health and the effects of wildfire smoke saw a looming tragedy: chemicals contained in the harmful smoke had inundated a densely populated area. Questions poured in from concerned people about the dangerous air they were breathing.
“This is a catastrophic event for Los Angeles, and LA needed a really large-scale response because it is so geographically spread out, there are such differences in the community and because the fire was not your average wildfire, it was really an urban conflagration,” said David Eisenman, director of the Center for Public Health and Disasters at UCLA.
