Elon Musk on Thursday inserted himself into the debate over the role climate change plays in wildfires as at least five fires scorched the Los Angeles area, charring entire neighborhoods, killing at least five people and forcing tens of thousands to flee.

“Climate change risk is real, just much slower than alarmists claim,” Mr. Musk wrote to his 211 million followers on X, the social media site he owns. He said the loss of homes was “primarily due” to “nonsensical overregulation” and “bad governance at the state and local level that resulted in a shortage of water.”

But scientists are clear: A warming planet, driven largely by the burning of fossil fuels, has created the conditions for increasingly destructive wildfires, along with more damaging hurricanes and other extreme weather.

Studies have found that extreme wildfires are getting more frequent and more intense, and fires are spreading faster, too.

“Wildfires have become larger and more frequent because of climate change in the Western part of the United States,” said Michael F. Wehner, a senior scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Regarding Mr. Musk’s comments, he said, “I find the whole thing pretty alarming.”

Scientists are unable to say with certainty that any single weather event was caused by global warming. But coming off the hottest year in history, the Los Angeles area has received less rainfall since the start of the rainy season in October than almost any other year since record-keeping began in 1877.

That drought turned vegetation into ready kindling, and temperatures have been above normal, further drying out grasses and scrubs. At the same time, Santa Ana winds have been unusually ferocious, blowing as fast as 100 miles per hour.

Benjamin Hatchett, a fire meteorologist at the University of Colorado, said there have been dry starts in past years but the combination of drought and high winds is fueling more destruction.

“This is probably just a bad, unfortunate, confluence of events,” Mr. Hatchett said. “I would be very hesitant to immediately say this is climate change and I don’t think that’s the right message here.

But because of climate change, he said, “this is the kind of conditions we expect to see more of going into the future.”

President-elect Donald J. Trump, Mr. Musk and other Republicans have sought to politicize the wildfires, using it as a way to attack Democratic officeholders in California. Mr. Trump in particular has seized on environmental regulations, including federal and state protections for California’s endangered delta smelt fish. He falsely claimed that those regulations led to inadequate water availability for firefighting efforts.

Peter Gleick, co-founder of the Pacific Institute, a California research organization that focuses on water, said Mr. Trump was spouting “complete nonsense.”

“There’s no link between California’s water policies and efforts to protect endangered species and water availability for firefighters,” Mr. Gleick said. “They’re completely unrelated.”

He noted that Southern California reservoir levels, including ones that feed Los Angeles, are above normal for this time of year. “There’s no water shortage,” he said. “The real issue is that urban water systems are not built or designed to fight massive, urban wildfires.”

Los Angeles firefighters have managed to contain three smaller wildfires, though the largest fires remain uncontained as the southern California region continues to navigate one of its most destructive natural disasters.

The Woodley, Sunset and Sunswept fires have all been contained as of Thursday morning, authorities said.

The Palisades fire has spread 17,200 acres as of Thursday morning. Los Angeles Fire Department chief Kristin Crowley said wind gusts were up to 60mph and expected to resume throughout the day. She estimated that thousands of structures had been damaged. 

Los Angeles County Fire chief Anthony Marrone said growth of the Eaton fire had been “significantly stopped”, but the fire — which has spread to 10,600 acres — had not been contained and more than 1,000 structures had been damaged.

The third largest wildfire, Hurst, has spread 855 aces and has also not yet been contained.

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Fast-moving fires are blazing trails of destruction in the Los Angeles area, killing at least five people, injuring many more, and destroying hundreds of homes and businesses. Satellite images by Maxar Technologies show homes and businesses before the fires started and the charred aftermath after one day.

The Palisades fire has burned more than 17,000 acres, including homes along the Pacific Coast Highway. The fire has also damaged landmarks across Los Angeles County, including some vegetation and trees on the site of the Getty Villa, a Greco-Roman art museum on the highway.

In the image from Jan. 8, the remains of homes in Altadena, Calif., near Marathon Road are seen from space after the Eaton fire blazed through the area. The Eaton fire has destroyed 10,600 acres, including parts of Altadena, north of Pasadena, an area bordering the Angeles National Forest.

Homes and businesses along Altadena Drive are seen burning in the image from Jan. 8.

The California Newsroom is following the extreme weather from across the region. Click through to LAist’s coverage for the latest.