Los Angeles Wildfires Now Visible From Space, ESA Shares Photo Showing Smoke Rising From Pacific Palisades

California: Wildfires in Los Angeles have become so huge and devastating that it's now visible from space. The European Space Agency (ESA) has captured the smoke arising from the wildfires ripping through the Pacific Palisades in Los Angeles. Many Hollywood celebrities have also lost their luxurious homes in this raging wildfires.

The image captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission depicts the smoke billowing from the fire near Santa Monica at 10:36 local time on 7 January 2025, not long after the fire broke out.

This image shows an area about 35 km across, from central Malibu on the left down to El Segundo and Manhattan Beach at lower right under the cloud, the European Space Agency said.

What is causing the Los Angeles wildfires? 

Powerful Santa Ana winds, near hurricane strength at times, swept down the mountains outside Los Angeles and pushed wildfires into several neighborhoods starting Jan. 7, 2025. Well over 1,000 homes and several schools had burned by January 8, and at least five people had died.

Officials urged more than 100,000 residents to evacuate at the height of the fires, but with the winds so strong, there was little firefighters could do to control the flames.

Jon Keeley, a research ecologist in California with the US Geological Survey and adjunct professor at UCLA, explains what causes extreme winds like this in Southern California, and why they create such a dangerous fire risk.

With inputs from AP