XPost: alt.wildland.firefighting, ca.environment, alt.los-angeles
XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, sac.politics
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/01/08/us/california-wildfire-la-
palisades
Multiple wildfires were consuming acre after acre, and building after
building, in the Los Angeles area on Wednesday, displacing tens of
thousands of people and ravaging entire neighborhoods as strong winds and
a dwindling water supply stymied firefighters’ efforts to stop the
destruction.
More than 1,000 structures have burned in the Palisades fire, making it
the most destructive in Los Angeles history, according to CalFire, the
state fire agency. It is also among the top 20 most destructive fires ever
in California, based on the number of structures that have been destroyed.
Wednesday afternoon brought some advances to the efforts to control the
fires, though officials have cautioned that they were far from being
contained. Helicopters and planes that were previously grounded because of extremely high winds were cleared to drop water on the blazes. The winds,
which reached 80 to 100 miles per hour in some areas, had weakened on
Wednesday afternoon to 50 to 60 m.p.h., according to Devin Black, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
Another round of high winds may arrive on Thursday afternoon and continue
into Friday morning, with possible isolated gusts in the mountains
reaching 70 m.p.h., the National Weather Service said.
The toll of the quick-moving fires was only beginning to take shape. Five people have died, Nicole Nishida, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, confirmed on Wednesday afternoon. More than 25,000
acres have burned, razing at least 1,000 buildings, as glowing embers
floated through the sky like a swarm of disoriented lighting bugs and
thick black smoke turned day into night. As of Wednesday afternoon, 1.5
million customers were out of power, according to PowerOutage.us.
“This is going to be devastating, a devastating loss, for all of Los
Angeles,” said Traci Park, the Los Angeles city councilwoman whose
district includes Pacific Palisades, the site of the biggest fire. That
fire began on Tuesday morning in the neighborhood west of downtown Los
Angeles and had exploded to nearly 16,000 acres by Wednesday afternoon.
Here’s what else to know:
Other fires: East of Los Angeles in Eaton Canyon, the Eaton fire has
consumed more than 10,000 acres since starting on Tuesday evening and has
moved miles from where it started, reaching Pasadena, said that city’s
mayor. A third blaze, known as the Hurst fire in Sylmar, in the San
Fernando Valley, also started on Tuesday and has grown to more than 500
acres. Officials are also responding to smaller fires, including in Santa Paula, Fontana, the Sun Valley and Angeles National Forest. Read more
about the three major fires.
Water availability: A lack of water has hampered crews’ efforts to beat
back the fires. “A firefight with multiple fire hydrants drawing water
from the system for several hours is unsustainable,” said Mark Pestrella,
the director of Los Angeles County Public Works.
Evacuations: Sheriff Robert G. Luna of Los Angeles County said that approximately 37,000 residents were under evacuation orders for the
Palisades fire alone. See a map of the evacuations here.
Event cancellations: The National Hockey League canceled a Wednesday night
game between the Los Angeles Kings and the Calgary Flames, while the 30th annual Critics Choice Awards, which were scheduled for Sunday in Santa
Monica, were postponed.
Dangerously dry and fast-spreading: Santa Ana winds are notorious for
spreading wildfire, and they often occur in colder months. By January,
though, their impacts are usually less dramatic, as the landscape is
typically less flammable after rains in the fall and early winter. But
this year, the rains have not come, leaving most of Southern California extremely dry. Scientists have also found that fires across the region
have become faster-moving in recent decades.
Yan Zhuang, Jacey Fortin, and Ken Bensinger contributed reporting.
--
November 5, 2024 - Congratulations President Donald Trump. We look
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