Lori Dengler | The Great Fire and the Story of the 2025 North Coast Earthquake in Brief – Times Standard

The best news about earthquakes in 2025 is that the North Coast didn't top any lists. Only 10 earthquakes in our area reached the M4 scale and they were only mildly felt. Before I move on to the shaky details of 2025, I can't help but mention this week's Arcata fire. There is no earthquake to blame, but magnitude, surprise, and response all have seismic links.

On the afternoon of Friday, January 2, the Arcata Fire Response Team was returning from a call when they noticed smoke near the old Seely and Titlow building at H and 10th St. Fire crews from around the county responded quickly but the winds were bad, quickly igniting the entire mass of structures from the Hensel parking lot to the H and south to the alley adjacent to Northtown Books. The razed buildings followed by vacant lots will serve as an ugly reminder for months or perhaps years.

For anyone who spends time in Arcata, the damage is heart-wrenching. I have artist friends who lost their studio spaces, their life's work, and all of their art supplies. I have been a regular at the Hensel paint and housewares store. Northtown Books was my favorite business in Arcata, where we launched our book about the small boat Kamome that drifted into the Crescent City after the 2011 Japanese tsunami. We have no degree of detachment from the losses.

It will likely take some time before the cause of the fire is determined. It's a reminder that even on a rainy winter's day, coastal Humboldt County is at risk from fire. This corner of Arcata is no newcomer to fires. This was the fifth major fire in this area since 1979. The combination of older, high-use wooden buildings creates a vulnerability that can be exacerbated by wind and earthquakes.

One of those fires caused an earthquake. On New Year's Eve 1994, fire destroyed the historic Feuerwerker building on 10th Street. At first, there appeared to be no apparent cause for the fire. All the shops were closed and there was no one in the building at that time. A careful investigation identified the culprit a few weeks later. The old gas line was shaken by the Dec. 26, 5.4 earthquake off Eureka Beach. The gas was slowly seeping between the walls of the old building, and after five days, enough gas had accumulated to burn it.

The January 2 fire was a tragedy and anyone who lives, works or frequents the area will be affected by it for some time. But the response was as quick as possible, and no one was injured or killed. Imagine how it might unfold in the aftermath of a major earthquake. Earthquakes often cause multiple fires. In the 1992 Cape Mendocino earthquakes, Petrolia lost its fire station and Scotia Mall to fires.

Earthquake planning should always include fire safety. On the northern coast, our dependence on wood heat represents an additional weakness. The Cape Mendocino earthquake caused more than 70% of the wood stoves in Petrolia and half in Ferndale to fall or be pulled away from the stove pipe. Fortunately, it was a warm April day, and there were only a few people in use at the time. Charging fire extinguishers and knowing how to use them are essential life-saving skills.

It took nearly all of Humboldt County's firefighting assets to respond to the Arcata Fire. What if there were two or more fires of this size at the same time? What if roads are blocked by ground failure and earthquake debris? It may take hours or days before trained responders can reach you. During these crucial first minutes and hours, the response will be in the hands of community members. Your community actions will be much more effective if you establish a Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) in advance. Knowing how to organize and what to do and what not to do can make a huge difference in life safety. Learn more about Humboldt CERT programs at https://www.humboldtcert.com.

How did you know about the fire and what did you do if you were near it? I don't live in Arcata, and it was a Facebook post that alerted me. My son lives three blocks from the fire, and the strong smell of smoke raised his head. Arcata's Code Red emergency notification system was activated and registered people received a notification at 3:37 p.m., about an hour after the fire started, advising people to shelter in place unless told to evacuate. Like the county system, you must register in advance. And from the responses of my friends, it seems that only a few of you have taken this step. Just go to https://www.cityofarcata.org/685/CodeRED. This fire was confined to Arcata, and the county's notification system was not activated. Cal Poly Humboldt sent notice several hours after the fire started that no campus facilities were at risk, but power was briefly out.

If you are anywhere in the affected area, follow the instructions of emergency personnel. People who are reluctant to leave and those who are streaming into the area further complicate the ability of our limited responders to do their jobs. If you are not in the immediate area, the best thing you can do is follow the events remotely. The posts on the Redheaded Blackbelt and Lost Coast Outpost were far more informative than anything I would have learned had I been at the scene.

The January 2 fire was far more damaging than any seismic event on the North Coast in 2025. This year was one of the quietest for local earthquakes. There have only been two other years since 2000 when this region did not produce earthquakes of magnitude 5 or larger. Our largest earthquake of 2025 was a magnitude 4.6 on January 17. This earthquake occurred just five weeks after the M7.0 Mendocino fault earthquake on December 5, 2024, and we were still in the midst of the aftershock sequence. Aftershocks continued through most of 2025, accounting for the majority of the M≥2 earthquakes we've seen this year, but none were large enough to cause more than a passing notice. By the end of the year, we were still experiencing a few small earthquakes monthly that could be said to be aftershocks, but we are essentially back to normal background levels now.

There is another earthquake that occurred in 2025 that is worth mentioning briefly. A magnitude 4.5 event occurred on the South Gorda Plate on July 29, 46 miles west of Ferndale. Minor feeling was reported from Ferndale to Trinidad. It sticks in my memory because it happened just six minutes before the largest earthquake of the past 14 years, the M8.8 Kamchatka earthquake. No, it wasn't a 4.5 foreshock and the timing was pure coincidence, but I was looking at the seismogram for our local event when I saw much larger signals from Kamchatka starting to arrive.

The Kamchatka quake was centered about 3,500 miles from our coast, but it caused far more damage and disruption than any local earthquakes in 2025. Tsunami messages began arriving just minutes after the quake and over the next two days, we went from statement to warning to warning to warning before cancellation. Humboldt and Del Norte counties will be placed under a tsunami warning for the second time in seven months and a few issues that arose during the December 2024 warning have been addressed.

When the water finally calmed, the Crescent City dock sustained $1 million in damage, but fortunately no damage or casualties to the merchant fleet. The harbor boat evacuation plan went well. What didn't go so well was the confusion among tourists and residents alike when the Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) announced the warning and still contained the phrase “You are in danger,” even though almost no one was in danger. I hope for improvements in 2026.

More on other earthquakes of 2025 next week. We hope that the Arcata fire that broke out on January 2 remains the North Coast's worst disaster story of 2025 and that the seismic lull of 2025 continues.

Lori Dengler is professor emeritus of geology at Cal Poly Humboldt and an expert in tsunami and earthquake hazards. Questions or comments about this column, or want a free copy of the “Living on Shaky Ground” preparedness magazine? Leave a message at 707-826-6019 or email [email protected].

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