The California wildfires are likely to get worse before they get better
A Los Angeles Firefighter’s View of the Laguna Sectos in the Early Phase of the Sunset and Pacific Palisades Fires
With reinforcements from other states, California firefighters have shifted from defense to offense. Rather than just saving individual buildings, they are now trying to stop the overall advance of the flames.
“We just finished cleaning up from the Rose Parade of all things, and now this,” she said. “We had the big thing that showed off how wonderful life is here followed immediately by something showing off how awful life can be.”
Cheryl Heuton and her husband left their home in Pasadena with just toothbrushes, laptops and old stuffed animals that belonged to their children when they were younger.
An immediate threat to life is implied by an evacuation order, and those who need more time to leave should do so.
Despite efforts, the largest fires—Eaton and Pacific Palisades—are still zero percent contained as of Thursday, with firefighters running low on water. Although wind speeds have slowed from their highs of earlier in the week, it’s expected that the fires will continue to spread and cause more devastation. In California’s history, they are the most destructive.
There were mandatory evacuees in parts of the area, such as Runyon Canyon Park and Mulholland Drive, as well as the Hollywood Hills, due to the Sunset fire. According to the Los Angeles Fire Department, the majority of the zone had been lifted by early Thursday morning.
The NWS is predicting that critical fire weather will last through Friday for parts of LA and Ventura counties. There will be warm and dry conditions that will fuel fire starts. Please use extreme caution with any ignition source and stay alert to the forecast and follow instructions from local officials.”
About 40 kilometers away in the Eaton area in Altadena, a second fire broke out. Along with several other smaller fires, the Pacific Palisades and Eaton fires have since burned more than 30,000 acres of land in Los Angeles County, destroying thousands of buildings and forcing 130,000 people to evacuate their homes.
Santa Ana Winds and Fires during the First Two-day School Fires in the Northwest 48 Hours after the First Day of Snowmass
There will be a wind advisory in effect until at least 2 pm on Friday. The NWS advises residents to stay away from downed power lines and call for help.
“Every once in a while we get a much stronger Santa Ana wind event like what we had over the past 24 to 36 hours, in which case we ended up with a widespread, life-threatening and destructive windstorm.”
The NWS Los Angeles/Oxnard chief meteorologist stated that the typical strengths of the winds are between 30 to 60 mph.
The Santa Ana winds that blow toward the coast have been a factor in this week’s fires. It’s not uncommon in the region, but it’s not this strength.
But the winds began easing up on Wednesday and Thursday. The National Weather Service estimated that they would reach 15 to 20 miles per hour on Thursday and then reach 30 to 40 miles per hour on Friday. Firefighters that were helpless against virtually unstoppable wind-driven blazes have been able to return to their normal tactics.
“The confluence of factors — wind, fire and smoke — have created dangerous, complex situations that present unsafe conditions for our school communities,” the district said.
On Wednesday, President Biden made a major disaster declaration, which provides federal funding to affected residents, by way of “grants for temporary housing and home repairs, low-cost loans to cover uninsured property losses, and other programs to help individuals and business owners recover from the effects of the disaster.”
Los Angeles Fires: The First Days After the Palisades Fire, Your Firefighter Is Counting. A Giant Fire And More Than One Thousand Fires
We are with you in Southern California. The president canceled his trip to Italy on Wednesday to focus on the fire response.
A red flag warning has been in place for parts of Los Angeles and Ventura counties since late Tuesday as a series of fires burn out of control.
Several movie premieres—such as those of the Robbie Williams biopic Better Man, the Jennifer Lopez vehicle Unstoppable, and Wolf Man, starring Julia Garner and produced by Ryan Gosling—have been canceled due to dangerous conditions. The Hollywood neighborhood was ordered to evacuate on Thursday after a fire started a few hundred yards from Hollywood Boulevard. The out-of-control situation has also led the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to postpone the announcement of the Oscar nominations by two days.
The giant fires that are scouring Los Angeles have officially become the most destructive in the city’s history, killing at least six people and destroying at least 5,000 buildings. But as the winds driving the inferno have slackened, experts are cautiously optimistic that the blazes can soon be beaten back.
“Tuesday and Wednesday our priority was saving lives and protecting as much property as possible,” says LA Fire Department spokesperson Margaret Stewart. “Now that we’re able to operate at our full capacity, we’re able to have a more powerful assault.”
In a two-pronged attack, aircraft have ramped up dousing the fires from the air while firefighters and bulldozers starve them of fuel on the ground. The severity of the wind made it difficult for planes to land.
Ken Pidlotto, former director of the California Department of Fire Protection, or Cal Fire, says the tide is turning. “Today and tomorrow are really the key windows to get through, the red flag fire weather conditions. Then I think we’ll start to see much more progress.”
The key factor has been the winds of up to 99 miles per hour. They’ve been raking down from the northeast to the southwest, fanning the flames and throwing burning embers half a mile in front of the main fire. Canyons running largely the same direction have funneled and intensified that movement of air, creating what Pimlott called a “blowtorch” that spread the Palisades Fire. The flames have been so strong that they have been unstoppable.
Janet’s comments were that these pressurized winds explode out of the canyons. All you can try to do is get something out the way.
