Why Seawater Isn’t the Answer to Wildfires

Los Angeles kicked off 2025 with a disaster worthy of one of its Hollywood scripts. A wildfire so extreme it became the ‘costliest’ natural disaster in US history, complete with apocalyptic visuals: towering flames, multi-million-dollar mansions reduced to ash, and aerial firefighting squads battling against an unstoppable inferno.

Naturally, it dominated global headlines.

Meanwhile, Patagonia has been burning for over a month — and still is. Flames expected to last until April have already devoured over 65,000 acres— or 1.5 times the LA fires. Yet, unlike California, there are no endless news cycles, no international outcry.

No one is asking how we fight back even if we don’t have LA’s infrastructure, its fleets of helicopters and aircrafts, or its army of firefighters while our president denies climate change and dismantles protections.

But Patagonia does have one thing that LA is running out of: freshwater.