The raging fire situation in Los Angeles County looked ominous for many residents Wednesday morning, even if they were not immediately in view of the flames. And while the Palisades Fire has captured coverage in the last 12 hours, the Eaton Fire in the northeastern part of the county is looking potentially even more destructive.

After the Palisades Fire broke out Tuesday morning and quickly grew in Pacific Palisades and the hills adjacent to Santa Monica, a second, potentially more destructive fire broke out Tuesday evening on the other side of LA in Altadena, dubbed the Eaton Fire.

Fed by winds gusting up to 90 miles per hour in some spots, the Eaton Fire quickly grew from a couple of hundred acres to 10,600 acres as of Wednesday morning, according to Cal Fire.

Many densely populated neighborhoods in and around Altadena, Pasadena, Eagle Rock, and Glendale are now under fire threat and have been issued either evacuation orders or evacuation warnings.

Kevin McGowan, director of the L.A. County Office of Emergency Management, called the multiple fires a "historic natural disaster" Wednesday morning, warning residents that "This is not a normal Red Flag" situation.

Because of the insufficient number of fire personnel in the area — in part because Cal Fire is not staffed up with seasonal firefighters as they typically are in summer and fall — residents are being warned to evacuate and not wait until they hear from firefighters or emergency personnel directly.

As KTVU reports, multiple Bay Area fire companies have dispatched firefighting strike teams to the LA area to help.

Meanwhile, the county is facing a potential water crisis as hydrants get tapped to fight these major blazes, and residents were being told to conserve water across the county. As the Chronicle reports, Mark Pestrella, director of Los Angeles County Public Works, said Wednesday, "The municipal water systems that service our homes and businesses continue to work effectively. However, they are not designed to fight wildfires. A fire fight with multiple fire hydrants drawing water from the system for several hours is unsustainable."

Indeed, the LA Times has reported that diminished water flow was already being seen from hydrants in Pacific Palisades.

The Eaton Fire is being fed by the same "mountain wave" phenomonenon, in which strong wind gusts are accelerated as they pass over a mountain and down a slope, that fed the Lahaina Fire in Maui, and the horrific Tubbs and Camp fires in Northern California in 2017 and 2018 respectively. As the Chronicle is reporting, these gusts are clocking in at 60 to 80 miles per hour as they come over the San Gabriel Mountains.

At least two deaths have occurred so far in the Eaton Fire, and multiple injuries have been reported in the Palisades Fire, but no deaths as of yet. An estimated 1,100 structures have been destroyed so far, including homes and businesses, but that number is expected to rise.

UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain has suggested that the Eaton Fire could become much more destructive than the Palisades Fire, because of its location in relation to both the strong offshore winds, and to densely packed neighborhoods. Swain has also predicted that the combined fires could turn out to be "the costliest on record" due to the sheer volume of expensive property under threat.

The Palisades Fire stands at 15,832 acres as of this writing, up from just 3,000 acres overnight, while the Eaton Fire was last measured at 10,600 Wednesday morning.

Two other smaller fires, the Woodley and Hurst fires, have also broken out in an inland area north of the Palisades Fire, further straining firefighting efforts.

President Joe Biden was on a previously scheduled trip to Los Angeles when the fires broke out, and he was scheduled to visit a fire house this morning before heading back to Washington.

Vice President Kamala Harris's Los Angeles home was reportedly part of one of the evacuation zones. Its current status is not known.

Governor Gavin Newsom was in the area as well, and said Tuesday night, per KTVU, "We’re not out of the woods by any stretch of the imagination. Having just quite literally an hour or so ago, gone up the canyon and saw firsthand the impact of these swirling winds and the embers and the number of structures that are destroyed… Not a few, many structures already destroyed."

Top image: A person views a home burning during the Eaton Fire on January 8, 2025 in Altadena, California. Over 1,000 structures have burned, with two people dead, in wildfires fueled by intense Santa Ana Winds across L.A. County. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)

*This post has been updated to reflect the most recent estimates of the fire sizes. A previous version reported that the Eaton Fire was larger than the Palisades Fire, but that is no longer the case.