There are fires in Southern California that spread to the Hollywood Hills

Los Angeles Firefighters Effort to Control “Peaceful” Flares that Arose from the Rose Parade of All Things

California Gov. Gavin Newsom said more than 7,500 personnel are responding to the fires across local, state and federal agencies. They are using helicopters, water tenders, air tankers and dozers to fight the fires.

“We just finished cleaning up from the Rose Parade of all things, and now this,” she said. “We had the big thing about how wonderful life is in this place and then something showing off how bad life can be.”

When Cheryl Heuton and her husband moved to Pasadena from California, they left behind just a toothbrush, laptop, and some stuffed animals that belonged to their children when they were younger.

An evacuation order signals the fire poses an “immediate threat to life” and mandates evacuations, while an evacuation warning carries a “potential threat to life and/or property” and suggests that those with pets and livestock, and those who would need more time to evacuate, do so, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, better known as Cal Fire.

Only two fires have been somewhat contained — Lidia (40%) and Woodley (100%) — according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection — Cal Fire.

The Palisades Fire east of Malibu, which has burned almost 20,000 acres, was 0 percent contained on Thursday. Celebrities like Billy Crystal and Paris Hilton were among the many people who had lost their homes. The fire department was able to slow its growth, as the fire was 25 miles from Pasadena. The Sunset Fire that started in the Hollywood Hills on Wednesday was quickly hemmed in, and two others are partially contained.

There are three fires burning in the area, and they are all being caused by the warm winds and very dry conditions.

Nearly 30,000 acres remained burning early Thursday across Los Angeles County as firefighters struggled to control a patchwork of deadly blazes that has forced mass evacuations and leveled entire communities.

The Santa Ana Wind and Wildfires in Los Angeles, California, During the First Two Days of the Big Fire Season, the National Weather Service, and the School District

A wind advisory will remain in effect until at least 2 p.m. PT on Friday. The NWS advises residents to stay at least 100 feet away from downed power lines and call 911.

“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 typical strengths of the winds are on the order of, say, 30 to 60 mph when they occur, a couple times a year,” Ariel Cohen, chief meteorologist for the NWS Los Angeles/Oxnard, told NPR’s Morning Edition.

This week’s wildfires have been fueled by Santa Ana winds, dry, gusty winds that blow toward the coast. They are relatively common in the region, but not at this strength.

But the winds began easing up on Wednesday and Thursday. According to the National Weather Service, they were expected to go up to 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 combined have created dangerous, complex situations that present unsafe conditions for our school communities,” the district said.

The Red Flag Fires in Los Angeles: The First Year after the First Day of the President’s California Fires, and What We Can Do About It

Biden has offered all federal assistance needed to put out the fires, because of the real-time information he is receiving. The president said in a statement on Wednesday that the Federal Emergency Management Agency had approved a fire-management grant to support the areas affected by the fires in California. The fires were declared a disaster by the president.

We are with you in Southern California. The president had canceled his planned trip to Italy to focus on the fire response.

The premiere of the movie Better Man, which is about the life and times of British musician Bobby Womack, has been canceled due to dangerous conditions. On Thursday, California authorities ordered the evacuation of the Hollywood neighborhood after a fire broke out a few hundred yards from Hollywood Boulevard. The American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and sciences decided to delay the announcement of Oscar nominations by two days because of the out-of-control situation.

AccuWeather, a company that provides data on weather and its impact, said on Thursday it had increased its estimate of total damage and economic loss from $125 billion to $150 billion.

The NBA game between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Charlotte Hornets has been moved to an alternate date while the Vikings and Rams game has been moved from California to Arizona.

The fires that ravaged Los Angeles have become the most destructive in the city’s history, with at least six people dead and thousands of buildings destroyed. 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. We can have a more powerful assault now that we are able to operate at full capacity.

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. At times earlier in the week, planes had to be grounded because of the severity of the wind.

“I would say [the tide] is turning,” says Ken Pimlott, former director of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire. The red flag fire weather conditions are the most important windows to get through today and tomorrow. I think we will see more progress.

The key factor was the wind speed of 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 essentially unstoppable.

The winds explode out of the canyons, said Janet Upton, former deputy director of Cal Fire. The only thing you can do is work to get something out of the way.