Weather service issues its most severe fire warning for parts of L.A. area as winds pick up
After a brief reprieve, Southern California faces two days of dangerous winds that officials fear could expand current fires and spark new ones.
Firefighters spent Monday carving containment lines around the Eaton and Palisades fires and finalizing preparations ahead of a windstorm that’s expected to hit a swath of the region including Ventura County, the San Fernando Valley and part of Los Angeles and the San Gabriel Valley, bringing wind gusts ranging from 45 mph to 70 mph.
Officials have been able to make progress over the last few days thanks to an easing of winds, which allowed for an aerial campaign that stopped the Palisades fire from hitting Brentwood and Encino. Authorities hope to be able to keep aircraft up Tuesday, but it’s unclear how much the conditions will allow.
“We are not in the clear as of yet, and we must not let our guard down,” Los Angeles Fire Chief Kristin Crowley said during a news conference Monday.
The National Weather Service’s warning of a particularly dangerous situation “is one of the loudest ways that we can shout,” said Rose Schoenfeld, a National Weather Service meteorologist.
“This is a continued extreme fire weather and wind scenario,” Schoenfeld said.
The Palisades fire had burned more than 23,700 acres and was 14% contained as of Monday. The Eaton fire, which has burned more than 14,100 acres, was 33% contained, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
Mexican firefighters and emergency personnel have arrived in Los Angeles to help fight the fire. Gov. Gavin Newsom said 72 firefighters arrived Saturday, joining thousands of others battling the fires.
An additional 1,000 members of the California National Guard are also being sent to fire-ravaged Los Angeles. They will bring the total number of Guard members in the region to about 2,500, according to the governor’s office.
Hundreds of federal personnel and aircraft have also been deployed to California to support firefighting efforts, President Biden said Monday.
About 92,000 people remain under evacuation orders, and 89,000 others are in areas where evacuation warnings have been issued.
Crowley said that fire crews had made extensive preparations for the latest extreme weather event.
“As we speak, the Los Angeles City Fire Department has maximized our resource capabilities and response capabilities. ... I have strategically pre-positioned engine strike teams and task forces, which are dedicated to rapid response for any new fire that breaks out in the city,” Crowley said.
The preparations include reinforcing fire control lines around the Eaton and Palisades fires, clearing dry brush from surviving structures, and staging resources in areas where new fires could ignite. The Governor’s Office of Emergency Services has also pre-positioned additional engines, fire crews, helicopters, bulldozers and water tenders across Southern California.
Crews are preparing for a worst-case scenario in which high winds prevent the use of firefighting aircraft from strategically dropping retardant around the fires’ perimeters.
Those looking to assist residents affected by the Los Angeles County firestorm have a number of options to donate money, materials or their time.
“The National Weather Service is predicting close to hurricane-force-level winds and so we’re making urgent preparations,” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said. “My top priority and the top priority of everyone else is to do everything we can to protect lives.”
Although the Eaton fire area is not expected to see gusts as severe as elsewhere in the county, firefighters are focusing on putting out any hot spots on the perimeter in an effort to reduce the chances that the winds will pick up smoldering embers and carry them into new areas, said A.J. Lester, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles County Fire Department.
On the north end of the fire, where winds are forecast to be among the most dangerous Tuesday and Wednesday, crews are hoping they will be able to keep the fire from overtaking the ridgeline, he said.
“If that were to happen, you have fire running downhill on the other side, headed for other communities,” including areas such as La Cañada Flintridge, Lester said. Similar efforts are underway at the Palisades fire.
On Monday, the number of confirmed deaths from the Palisades and Eaton fires jumped to 25. Eight died in the Palisades fire and 17 in the Eaton fire in Altadena, Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said.
There are also still 29 missing persons reports across both fires, all of which are for adults, officials said.
Officials warn that the death toll is likely to keep rising. Search and recovery operations are underway in the Eaton and Palisades fire zones using cadaver dogs and grid searches, Luna said.
“Unfortunately, every day we’re doing this, we’re running across the remains of individual community members,” Luna said.
The Palisades and Eaton fires are among the deadliest in California’s modern history. The state’s deadliest wildfire remains the Camp fire, which leveled the town of Paradise in Butte County in 2018 and killed 85 people. The second deadliest was the Griffith Park fire of 1933, with 29 fatalities; followed by the Oakland-Berkeley Hills fire of 1991, in which 25 died; and the Tubbs fire in Napa and Sonoma counties in 2017, with 22 killed.
Coverage of the fires ravaging Altadena, Malibu, Pacific Palisades and Pasadena, including stories about the devastation, issues firefighters faced and the weather.
Although there is no final tally yet of structures burned, the fires are already among the most destructive the state has experienced.
Damage assessments have confirmed 1,902 structures destroyed in the Eaton fire, though inspection teams are through only about 30% of the fire footprint. Officials estimate that 7,000 structures were damaged or destroyed, though structures can include homes, businesses, smaller outbuildings and sheds and even vehicles.
Officials estimate the Palisades fire has burned more than 5,300 structures.
If those numbers hold, it would make the Palisades and Eaton fires among the top four most destructive wildfires in modern California history, according to Cal Fire.
Officials have been working to secure the fire zones from those who they say are traveling to the area to burglarize evacuated homes and commit other crimes. Authorities have arrested 34 people, including one burglary suspect who was allegedly dressed as a firefighter.
Of those arrested, 30 were apprehended in the Eaton fire zone and four in the Palisades fire zone, Luna said.
Coverage of the fires ravaging Altadena, Malibu, Pacific Palisades and Pasadena, including stories about the devastation, issues firefighters faced and the weather.
As officials try to determine the cause of the Eaton fire, which burned areas in and around Altadena, investigators have focused on an electrical transmission tower in Eaton Canyon. Early photos and videos taken by residents captured what appeared to be the first flames of the deadly Eaton fire burning at the base of a Southern California Edison electrical transmission tower before racing down the canyon toward homes.
Edison officials have so far said they do not believe their electrical equipment was responsible. Four lawsuits were filed against the utility Monday.
As for the 800-acre Hurst fire near Sylmar, fire agencies are investigating whether downed Southern California Edison utility equipment might have played a role in igniting the blaze, company officials said. The fire — which began Jan. 7 near Diamond Road in Sylmar — was 95% contained as of Monday and evacuation orders had been lifted, though firefighting efforts were continuing.
Coverage of the fires ravaging Altadena, Malibu, Pacific Palisades and Pasadena, including stories about the devastation, issues firefighters faced and the weather.
The utility issued a report Friday saying that a downed conductor was discovered at a tower in the vicinity of the fire but that it “does not know whether the damage observed occurred before or after the start of the fire.”
Authorities are also still trying to determine what caused the Palisades fire, but officials speaking to The Times on condition of anonymity said it appears to have human origins. In recent days, the focus has been on a popular Temescal Ridge trail where an earlier fire had ignited.
Although this week’s fire weather is not expected to be as severe as last week’s historic windstorms that fueled the Palisades and Eaton fires, weather officials warn that it could result in extreme fire behavior, which can turn small blazes into raging infernos.
This wind event will be a more conventional Santa Ana wind, with winds coming out of the east and spreading fires to the west. Last week’s windstorms were worsened by a “mountain wave wind,” which occurs when gusts rapidly drop down mountain slopes, then gain strength upon hitting a flat landscape. The phenomenon caused short bursts of strong, dangerous winds, with gusts of up to 100 mph reported near Altadena. Winds last week came primarily from the north and affected areas that don’t typically see strong winds during Santa Ana events, Schoenfeld said.
The area covered by the particularly dangerous situation warning affects a relatively smaller area — primarily the northern San Fernando Valley, including Porter Ranch and San Fernando; the western Santa Monica Mountains and the Malibu area; wide swaths of Ventura County, including the cities of Ventura, Simi Valley and Fillmore; and the Grapevine section of Interstate 5.
Coverage of the fires ravaging Altadena, Malibu, Pacific Palisades and Pasadena, including stories about the devastation, issues firefighters faced and the weather.
Southern California has not received much rain this winter, heightening concerns before the winds pick up. Only 0.16 inches of rain has fallen since Oct. 1 in downtown Los Angeles, essentially nothing compared with the 5.23 inches that is, on average, seen by this point in the water year.
There will be a higher risk of downed trees and power lines than with a typical red flag fire weather warning, Schoenfeld said. Public safety power shutoffs are more likely in the area of the particularly dangerous situation.
About 17,600 Los Angeles Department of Water and Power customers in high fire risk areas including Pacific Palisades, Brentwood, Sylmar and Encino are without power, the agency said Monday.
More than 25,000 Edison customers in Los Angeles County were without power Monday afternoon, and an additional 122,000 customers in the county could have their power shut off in the coming days, according to the utility.
This is the fourth warning of a particularly dangerous situation issued since autumn. Each of the three previous warnings was followed by major, destructive fires — the 19,904-acre Mountain fire in Ventura County, which razed more than 240 buildings in November; the 4,037-acre Franklin fire, which spread rapidly in Malibu and destroyed 20 buildings in December; and last week’s Palisades and Eaton fires.
A conventional red flag warning — alerting about critical fire weather conditions — has already been in effect since Saturday for large swaths of Southern California and will continue until Wednesday evening. The red flag warning covers a much larger area than the particularly dangerous situation.
Coverage of the fires ravaging Altadena, Malibu, Pacific Palisades and Pasadena, including stories about the devastation, issues firefighters faced and the weather.
“These next few days are crucial in our fighting of the existing fires and also preventing any new fires,” said Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger. “Thank you for taking it seriously.”
Coverage of the fires ravaging Altadena, Malibu, Pacific Palisades and Pasadena, including stories about the devastation, issues firefighters faced and the weather.
Times staff writers Rebecca Ellis, Clara Harter, Salvador Hernandez, Faith Pinho, Jenny Jarvie, Laura J. Nelson, Kevin Rector, Ruben Vives and Julia Wick contributed to this report.
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