The new year had barely begun when New Orleans was rocked by a jihadist car ramming attack on the 1st of January. In Las Vegas, there was an explosion in front of the Trump hotel. Then, on the 7th of January, what arguably could be the most destructive fire in American history commenced. They are called the Los Angeles fires.

Thousands of homes and businesses have been burned to the ground. Prestigious suburbs like Pacific Palisades or working-class Altadena look like war zones. Thousands of acres and buildings in America’s second-largest city have been destroyed and dozens have lost their lives or are recorded missing.

People were told to evacuate their homes. Many abandoned their cars along the way because of the impasse. Thank God, they made it out alive but they lost everything but the clothes on their backs. It is a humanitarian crisis of the highest order.

Like Australia, Southern California is dry and prone to fires. With the history and technology, there should have been prudent action to prevent a fire or mitigate one that does happen. How could America’s largest and most wealthy state, with the seventh-biggest economy in the world, end up being so flat-footed?

Was it Due to ‘Climate Change?’

Some voices have declared that these fires were caused by ‘climate change,’ (as well as the strong and fierce Santa Ana winds) as if to say that this explains everything. Please consider – climate change does not explain:

1. Why Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass cut $17.6 million from the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) just a few months ago;
2. Or why she was overseas when she was warned repeatedly that fire danger was high and imminent;
3. Or why Los Angeles reservoirs and fire hydrants were empty;
4. Why record rainwater and snowpack were not sent by aqueduct to water-starved Los Angeles but allowed them to flow into the sea, supposedly to save a small fish called the Delta Smelt;
5. Why there was no ‘back-burning’ (as they call it in Australia) of the undergrowth in the Hollywood Hills and Pacific Palisades, which should and could have been done; this is a successful fire inhibitor;
6. Why were cultural Marxism programs like Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) prioritised at the LAFD over training to prevent and stop fires?
7. Why many – possibly most – firefighters were hired based on identity rather than on qualifications?
8. Why reservoirs in Los Angeles that residents approved of a decade ago were not built?;
9. And finally, climate change did not light the arsonist’s match or wield a blowtorch.

Is this really a natural disaster? Or is it a political disaster? Surely a state with all the wealth and resources of California could prevent or stop these fires early. What we are seeing is the breakdown of society in the face of a natural disaster, something you would expect in a third-world country. 

Consider this: Pacific Palisades is one of the wealthiest, prestigious, and exclusive suburbs in the world. If it could run out of water and burn to the ground, is there anywhere on Earth that is truly safe?

A classic example of societal collapse was Hurricane Katrina in 2005 which destroyed the city of New Orleans. The flood protection system, known as ‘levees,’ had serious flaws and poor maintenance that contributed heavily to the death toll of 1,400. New Orleans was covered with floodwater for many days while the damage bill totalled $125 billion. But that’s not all. The government response, particularly FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) was highly criticised for a weak or incompetent effort. In addition, a tribalism set in where looters callously took advantage of victims and some people were firing guns at first responders sent to help them. Like the BLM riots of 2020, Katrina exposed a glimpse of civilisational collapse.

Respected scholar and California resident Dr Victor Davis Hanson (when Hanson writes, this author reads) described the Los Angeles fires of 2025 as ‘a combination of DEI plus Green New Deal hydrogen bomb, something out of Dante’s Inferno.’

California, known as the ‘Golden State,’ has become a ‘deep blue,’ far-left one-party state run by progressive Democrats. Part of the reason for this is that conservative evangelical Christians, which constitute 15 million people out of 40 million in the state, are not registered to vote or do not vote on election day. If they did, California would become golden again.

Hanson not only comments that water management is poor but so is fire management. California’s timber industry is nonexistent because recent fires destroyed 60 million trees. California governor Gavin Newsom has not only allowed this to happen while simultaneously ‘saving the smelt.’ But there’s more: he bragged how he blew up four dams on the Klamath River – water that could have been used for generating power, irrigation and flood control.

Add it all up and the lack of proper systems of water acquisition, storage, irrigation, fire prevention, forest management, and reforms in the insurance industry, mixed together, constitutes Hanson’s ‘Green New Deal-DEI hydrogen bomb.’

The Larger Issue

Western Civilisation consists of the twin pillars of Judaeo-Christianity and Greco-Roman. Though not perfect, the West has given the world so many good things like parliamentary democracy, human rights, freedom of speech, rule of law, industrial revolutions, free market economics – and more. The 2025 LA fires show the vulnerability and decline of the West.

The West has been under attack for decades. It is as if its enemies, which include the Far-Left, cultural Marxists, radical Islamists and ‘the woke,’ want to turn back the clock to a pre-civilisational, pre-industrial, and pre-Christian era (without saying so). Yet there is hope. The causes of the potential civilisational collapse are spiritual and the solution is equally spiritual: revival, reformation, restoration, and renewal. 

How should we respond?

1. Be situationally aware: In our interconnected, globalised world, what happens in Hong Kong, Cape Town, and New York, can affect the rest of the world. You do not have to master every detail but, like the LA fires, know what is happening and why, just like the sons of Issachar (1 Chronicles 12:32).
2. Respond appropriately: When Nehemiah, living in royal splendour at the Persian court, heard that his people in Judah were demoralised and the walls of Jerusalem broken down, what did he do? He prayed to God and then took action; he courageously asked the king for a leave of absence. 
3. Invest in your spiritual life: This is the most important step of all. No matter how informed and clever you may be, you cannot control everything that comes your way. Come close to the God who – in the Name of Jesus – is your Saviour, Redeemer, Healer, Refuge, Guide, Protector, and more – who has everything you need. Uncertain times like these are more spiritually opportune than in the ‘good ‘ole days.
4. Los Angeles – where Hollywood is located – means ‘the angels.’ It is home to the 1906 Azusa Street, where the Pentecostal revival was born and spread to the ends of the earth. The charismatic movement and Jesus Revolution were based here, too. May the horrible fires of 2025 compel the Angelenos to drink the deep wells of living water where they will never thirst or lack for water again (John 4:14).