Alex Wigglesworth to cover wildfires as part of Metro’s environment team

Sent on behalf of Deputy Managing Editor Shelby Grad:

Alex Wigglesworth is joining Metro’s environmental team to cover wildfires, effective April 12.

Fire is one of the most elemental parts of life for California, and Wigglesworth will devote herself both to covering breaking news during fire season but also diving deeply into the ecological, climate, economic and political facets of the topic. She will work closely with the rest of the environmental team as well as the breaking news, state and Sacramento desks to make sure we are covering all the bases.

In addition to having her fire gear nearby at all times, Wigglesworth plans to focus on how government agencies perform, land-use planning and resource allocation. She will also delve aggressively into the scientific factors that have brought such unprecedented destruction to the state in recent years.

Wigglesworth previously spent nearly two years as a breaking news reporter on L.A. Now, where she was a key player in our coronavirus coverage and still managed to have time to write several Page 1 stories on such subjects as racism, drug crimes and pandemic mental health. Wigglesworth started in 2016 as an editor on the home page and, before joining The Times, was a reporter at the Philadelphia Inquirer.