Los Angeles Wildfires
Palisades burn area showing cleanup progress, 6 months after fire
RAPID Staff and researcher set up geotagging points for more accurate data collection
Palisades residential area, mixed burned and unburned structures
The Palisades and Eaton Fires burned across the Los Angeles area in January 2025, causing extensive damage to homes and infrastructure in densely developed wildland-urban interface communities. Together, the fires burned approximately 60 square miles and destroyed more than 16,000 structures, with the Palisades Fire affecting Pacific Palisades and Malibu and the Eaton Fire affecting Altadena and Pasadena.
Beginning shortly after the fires, the RAPID Facility supported a UCLA-led, multi-institutional research team investigating the performance and resilience of wildfire-affected infrastructure. RAPID staff and equipment supported high-resolution aerial and ground-level documentation using drones, LiDAR, hyperspectral imaging, street view imagery, and structure-from-motion photogrammetry. Initial surveys captured conditions largely before debris removal, establishing a detailed baseline for studying structure-to-structure fire spread, infrastructure performance, and the factors that contributed to differences in wildfire damage.
RAPID has continued to support repeated data collection, equipment deployments, and data processing and publication, building a longitudinal record of the affected communities as recovery progresses. The project has produced approximately 30 square kilometers of high-resolution aerial imagery and 640 kilometers of ground-level documentation, along with orthomosaics, three-dimensional point clouds, and digital surface models. By comparing surveys collected at different points in time, researchers can track changes in the built environment, evaluate recovery and mitigation strategies, and improve models of wildfire behavior and infrastructure resilience. The resulting datasets are being made available through the NHERI DesignSafe Data Depot to support continued research and future studies of wildfire-affected communities.
Initial Support Announcement →