Los Angeles firefighters continue to fight back after the Rose Parade: “Ginormogenesis hasn’t stopped yet,” said Cheryl Heuton
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.
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.”
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.
Those who need more time to evacuate are encouraged to do so, even though an evacuee warning suggests a threat to life and/or property.
The biggest fires, theEaton and Pacific Palisade are still without any containment, with firefighters running low on water. Despite the wind speeds slowing, it is expected that the fires will continue to spread and cause more damage. They are already the most destructive in California’s history.
The Los Angeles area continues to have high risk for fires as of Thursday morning. The city has been ravaged by fires and is now at risk of its famous landmarks, including the Hollywood sign. The fire has been putting thousands of firefighters in danger.
“Critical fire weather will last through Friday for portions of LA and Ventura counties, including major wildfire locations such as the Palisades Fire, the Eaton Fire and the Hurst Fire,” the NWS says. “Gusty winds and very dry conditions will continue to fuel fire starts and existing fires. Please use extreme caution with any ignition source and stay alert to the forecast and follow instructions from local officials.”
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.
Wildfires in the Los Angeles-Oxnard Valley fueled by the Santa Ana Winds, as predicted by the NWS, on Tuesday and Thursday
The wind advisory will remain in effect until later on Friday. The NWS advises people to stay at least 100 feet away from downed power lines.
The NWS Los Angeles/Oxnard office’s chief forecaster said the typical strengths of the winds are 30 to 60 mph when they occur. “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 forecaster told Morning Edition that the winds are usually 30 to 60 mph when they occur and a couple times a year.
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.
On Wednesday and Thursday, the winds began to relax. 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. The firefighters who were powerless against wind-driven fires were 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.
CALIFORNIA Firefighters are Turning Their Own: The President Biden Disaster Declaration on Wednesday canceled his Trip to Italy
By declaring a major disaster on Wednesday, President Biden provided federal funding to residents as well as grants for temporary housing and home repairs, and low-cost loans to cover uninsured property losses.
We’re with you in Southern California. On Wednesday the president canceled his planned trip to Italy in order to focus on the fire response.
Multiple fires are burning out of control as gusts of wind whip across the area so red flag warnings have been extended for parts of Los Angeles and Ventura counties.
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. On Thursday, California authorities ordered the evacuation of the Hollywood neighborhood after a fire broke out a few hundred yards from Hollywood Boulevard. The announcement of the Oscar nominations were delayed by two days because of the out-of-control situation.
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 now have a more powerful assault because we are able to operate at full capacity.
Fire fighters and bulldozers have been using bulldozers to starve the fires of fuel, while aircraft have intensified their dousing of the fires. The severity of the wind made it necessary for planes to be grounded earlier in the week.
“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. We will start to see more progress after that.
The winds have been 99 miles per hour or more. 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. The movement of air in the canyons created a blowtorch that spread the Palisades Fire. The flames have been essentially unstoppable.
“These pressurized winds literally explode out of these canyons,” says Janet Upton, former deputy director of Cal Fire. All you have to do is work to get something out of the way.
