3 weeks ago
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As forecasters warn of another “particularly dangerous weather situation” across northern Los Angeles, residents braced for new wildfire evacuation orders, even as the official death toll from last week’s fires in Altadena and the Pacific Palisades was still expected to rise.
Los Angeles, and parts of Ventura county to the north, faced “extreme fire risk” warnings through Wednesday, with officials warning of “significant risk of rapid fire spread” due to the Santa Ana winds – which have gusts of up to 75mph – and low humidity. The “particularly dangerous weather situation” designation is used very rarely, and was designed by meteorologists to signal “the extreme of the extremes”.
“I don’t want people to start thinking everything’s OK now. Everything’s not OK yet,” the Los Angeles county sheriff, Robert Luna, said in a Tuesday morning press conference. “It is still very dangerous for the next 24 hours.”
This is the fourth time in recent months that Los Angeles has faced a “particularly dangerous weather situation”, and the three previous warnings all resulted in major wildfires, the Los Angeles Times reported.
As of Tuesday morning, 84,800 people have been warned they might be ordered to evacuate because of fire risk, while another 88,000 people remained under current evacuation orders. At least 24 people have died from the fires across Los Angeles last week and over 12,000 structures have been destroyed. Estimates put the cost of damage at about $250bn, which could make it the costliest fire in American history.
At least two dozen people have been reported missing, 18 of them in the Eaton fire in north-east Los Angeles, and six around the Pacific Palisades.
At a press conference, the Los Angeles mayor, Karen Bass, described the level of destruction across parts of the city as the aftermath of a “dry hurricane”.
As of Tuesday morning, the Palisades fire was 14% contained with 23,700 acres (9,600 hectares) burned, and the Eaton fire was 33% contained with 14,100 acres burned. The smaller Hurst fire has almost been completely extinguished, with 97% and nearly 800 acres burned.
About 85,000 customers were without power on Tuesday morning in southern California, but Southern California Edison had warned nearly half a million customers on Monday that their power may be shut off temporarily because of the expected high winds on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Angelenos have responded to the destruction with an outpouring of support for the wildfire victims, and for the firefighters working around the clock to prevent the fires from moving further down into densely populated city neighborhoods. Some informal donation centers have been overwhelmed with contributions, as restaurants and clothing boutiques across the city offer up free meals for first responders and free clothing for the people who have lost their homes.
Approximately 40,000 people have already applied for assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema), which has provided more than $8m so far for immediate needs, said Robert Fenton, regional administrator for Fema Region 9.
Joe Biden has said the federal government would pay 100% of the firefighting and recovery costs in the first 180 days, but Fenton noted that did not mean Fema would cover 100% of individual families’ costs.
With firefighters continuing to battle the huge blazes, Pasadena area residents and business owners had started filing lawsuits against the power company Southern California Edison. The plaintiffs alleged that some of the utility company’s equipment ignited the Eaton fire.
Their lawsuits cite multiple eyewitness accounts saying that the base of a Southern California Edison transmission tower had caught on fire before the wildfires started to spread.
In a 12 January statement, the company said that data from the tower showed “no interruptions or operational/electrical anomalies in the 12 hours prior to the fire’s reported start time” and noted that it received evidence preservation notices from insurance companies.
The company noted it found a downed conductor in the area of the Hurst fire – but said any connection to the fire was unclear.
Pedro Pizarro, the chief executive officer of Edison International, the parent company of Southern California Edison, said that the company has been trying to investigate its equipment. But “we have not been able to get close to the lines yet”, he told CNBC Monday.
Officials have said investigating the cause of the wildfires is difficult as the fires continue to scorch the area. The US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is heading the investigation into what precisely started the fires.
Officials have also announced the arrests of nine people who are accused of looting evacuated homes in the neighborhoods of the Palisades and Eaton fires, including one from which an Emmy award was taken.
A group of three men are accused of stealing $200,000 worth of items from a single home in the Palisades – and another group stole valuables, including an Emmy award, from homes evacuated for the Eaton fire.
“These crimes are appalling and represent a direct attack on our community during a time of unprecedented loss and vulnerability,” the Los Angeles county district attorney, Nathan Hochman, said in a statement. “Let me be clear: if you exploit this tragedy to prey on victims of these deadly fires, we will find you and we will prosecute you to the fullest extent of the law.”
The Los Angeles police chief, Jim McDonnell, also said that three people were arrested on suspicion of arson, though none of the attempts resulted in a serious fire.
One person was using a barbecue lighter to start fires. Another person lit a trash can on fire. The third person was caught lighting brush on fire. Those small fires were all quickly extinguished.
Across Los Angeles county, which has a population of nearly 10 million people, there have been fewer than 40 arrests so far for looting, flying drones illegally that could interfere with firefighting aircraft, curfew violations and other things, Luna, the Los Angeles county sheriff, said.
The Associated Press contributed reporting
