Newsom’s Sacramento Fire Department Reports that Fires have Been Contained for Tens of Million Acres
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.
She said that they had just finished cleaning up from the Rose Parade. “We had the big thing that showed off how wonderful life is here followed immediately by something showing off how awful life can be.”
When Cheryl Heuton and her husband left their home in Pasadena with just necessities, they left behind a few things their kids had grown up with.
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.
According to the Cal Fire, there are only two fires that have been contained.
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 Eaton Fire in Pasadena, roughly 25 miles to the east, was also uncontained, but the fire department has been able to slow its growth. The Sunset Fire that started in the Hollywood Hills on Wednesday was quickly hemmed in, and two others are partially contained.
The National Weather Service said the area had a “critical risk of fire”, due to high winds, dry vegetation and low humidity.
Fires continue to rage on in Southern California, as tens of thousands of acres of land have been decimated, and the flames have been partially contained.
The Los Angeles-Oxnard Sheriff’s Office says the Santa Ana winds have fueled a widespread, life-threatening, wind-driven fire
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.
When the winds are strongest, 30 to 60 mph, there are a couple of times a year when they occur, according to the NWS Los Angeles/Oxnard office. “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.
The Santa Ana winds — dry, gusty winds that blow toward the coast — have fueled the fires in Southern California this week. They are relatively common in the region, but meteorologists say the current strength is abnormal.
The winds began to diminish on Wednesday and Thursday. They were anticipated to reach 15 to 20 miles per hour Thursday afternoon, before ticking up to 30 to 40 miles per hour on Friday, according to the National Weather Service. Firefighters have been able to return to their usual tactics despite being powerless against wind-driven blazes.
“The confluence of factors — wind, fire and smoke — have created dangerous, complex situations that present unsafe conditions for our school communities,” the district said.
The Los Angeles Fires: So What? When the USA Fires are “Falling Fires”: Presidential Brief Address Addressing the Emergency Management Agency
US president Joe Biden is receiving real-time information on the situation and has offered “all federal assistance needed” to put out the fires. The president said that the Federal Emergency Management Agency has approved a fire-management grant to support the affected areas and help reimburse the State of California for the costs of fighting the fires. The president has declared that the fires are a disaster.
“Southern California, we are with you. The president canceled his trip to Italy on Wednesday to focus on the fire response.
There are multiple fires in Ventura and Los Angeles counties that have been out of control due to gusty winds.
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 be evacuated after a fire broke out 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.
AccuWeather, a commercial company that provides data on weather and its impact, raised its estimate of the damage caused by hurricanes to between $135 billion and $150 billion.
The NBA has postponed a game between the Los Angeles Lakers and Charlotte Hornets to an unannounced date, while the NFL has moved a game between the Vikings and Rams from Inglewood, Calif., to Glendale, Ariz.
Search for Arson near the Kenneth Fire in Altadena, Calif., on Sept. 22, 2003 at 7:00 p.m.
If the containment lines can hold up against gusts of up to 60 mph, it’s a success. There is a red flag warning in place.
Californians are in a state of shock over the destruction. Jinghuan Liu Tervalon, who lost her Altadena home to the Eaton fire, told NPR she only expected to evacuate for just a day and did not know her home’s fire insurance coverage.
She said that she keeps on waking up at night wondering how she didn’t anticipate this. “If I could go back in time, I would have packed a lot more stuff from the house.”
A curfew is in place for the area from 6p.m. Friday to 6p.m. Saturday. LA Sheriff Robert Luna said Friday that the curfew is in place to “enhance public safety, protect property and prevent any burglaries or looting in the area.”
A person was arrested Thursday after reports of suspected arson near the Kenneth fire. The individual is being held because there is not enough evidence to charge them, according to the police department assistant chief. The investigation is ongoing, he said.
The Two Fires That Were: The Continuum Report from Los Angeles, Calif., during the First 24 Hours of the 2009 California Wildland Fires
While there’s been a lot of progress made in containing the Hurst and Lidia fires, the two biggest fires are still burning, according to city officials. On Thursday night, a new blaze erupted in West Hills, destroying over 1,000 acres within hours.
Massive fires began clawing through the Los Angeles metropolitan area on Tuesday thanks to a combination of long-standing drought and a bout of strong Santa Ana winds, seasonal air that blows from the high desert of Nevada and Utah into Southern California.
“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 can operate at full capacity.
In a two-pronged attack, aircraft have intensified their use of dousing 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. “Today and tomorrow are really the key windows to get through, the red flag fire weather conditions. I think we will see a lot more progress after that.
The pressurized winds explode out of these canyons, says Janet Upton, former deputy director of Cal Fire. “All you can do is work to get anything with a heartbeat out of the way.”