Los Angeles hit by double whammy of wildfires and earthquake

Millions of residents in the Los Angeles area were rattled by a 4.7 magnitude earthquake that hit early on Thursday morning and came as the region continues to battle multiple wildfires that have yet to be brought under control.

The quake’s epicenter was 4 miles north of Malibu, according to the US Geological Survey. The tremor unleashed boulders on to a Malibu road, visibly shook Santa Monica’s historic 1909 wooden pier and jolted people from bed. No injuries or damages were immediately reported.

The shaking was felt as far as 45 miles (72km) away in Orange county, where people reported items moving in their homes, and was followed by several smaller aftershocks. A live camera at the 115-year-old Santa Monica pier, about 10 miles away from Malibu, showed several seconds of intense shaking. Bruce Silverstein, a Malibu councilmember, said he had lived in the community for 13 years and this was the hardest quake he’d felt yet.

“Our house shook for about two or three seconds. I was concerned the windows were going to pop,” Silverstein said.

Some of LA’s celebrity residents including Paris Hilton took to social media shortly after. “That #Earthquake was scary,” the heiress and media personality wrote on X. Reality TV star Khloe Kardashian posted: “Damn that was a big one.”

Thursday’s tremor was one of many smaller earthquake that have recently hit the region, including a 4.4 magnitude quake that rattled nerves and swayed buildings last month. There have now been 14 earthquakes with a magnitude of 4.0 or higher in southern California this year. While this is above the average of eight to 10 a year in the past few decades, it’s too soon to tell whether the increased activity is statistically significant, said Lucy Jones, a seismologist at the California Institute of Technology. The previous highest number was 13 earthquakes of this size in 1988.

The quake happened as the greater LA area has been dealing with three major wildfires that torched dozens of homes and forced thousands to evacuate. The blazes erupted during a blistering heatwave that has only just begun to ease.

Firefighters hoped to take advantage of cooler weather as they slowly gained the upper hand, but not before dozens of homes were destroyed and thousands of people were forced to evacuate.

California is only now heading into the teeth of the wildfire season but already has seen nearly three times as much acreage burn than during all of 2023. The wildfires have threatened tens of thousands of homes and other structures across southern California since they accelerated during a triple-digit heatwave over the weekend.

No deaths have been reported, but at least a dozen people, mainly firefighters, have been treated for injuries, mostly heat-related, authorities said.

In the small community of Wrightwood, about 90 minutes outside Los Angeles, authorities implored residents to flee the exploding Bridge fire, which grew tenfold in a day and has burned more than 50,000 acres and torched at least 33 homes.