Weather forecasters in Los Angeles expect strong, dry winds to return by the end of the weekend, threatening to fan a wildfire that has already destroyed 10,000 structures and killed 10 people.
Immediate “red flag” alert – meaning severe fire weather conditions – declared by the US National Weather Service (NWS) Said moderate to strong winds and low humidity will continue Friday morning five fires broke out Throughout the metropolis.
Barbara Bruderlin, head of the Malibu Pacific Palisades Chamber of Commerce, described the impact of the fire as “complete devastation and loss.”
“There are areas where everything is gone. Not even a single piece of wood was left. It’s just dirt,” Bruderlein said.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has come under intense criticism for her absence from the city during the first 24 hours of the crisis, when she was in Ghana as part of the official White House delegation for the inauguration of that country’s president. She was attacked by political rivals on the right, including Rick Caruso, a developer running against Bass in the 2022 mayoral election, while she was also getting blowback from activists on the left who attacked the mayor. Hui was accused of cutting the budget for policing and firefighting. ,
“Giving billions of dollars per year to the LAPD will have the consequences of continued defunding of other city programs,” said Ricky Sergienko, an attorney and organizer with the People’s City Council LA. told the intercept“The city is not prepared to deal with this fire, and Los Angeles should not be in that position.”
Officials estimate that the Palisades fire destroyed at least 5,000 structures, including many homes in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood, where houses on yellow beaches were hollowed out and homes in neighboring valleys turned to dust. They went. Cut trees and telephone poles were scattered across the streets around the still-smoldering debris.
Further east near Altadena, roads were also littered with fallen branches, while entire blocks of homes were missing. In some areas, the destruction appeared almost random, one resident said, with one house razed to the ground while a neighbor was still standing.
“You see this stuff on TV, but I’ve never seen anything like this up close,” Pasadena resident Alex Neuse, 36, said after returning home Wednesday.
Dead dogs and teams searched the debris to see if there were more victims. Officials have said that they fear the death toll will increase.
The dead include four men who were unable to leave or remained there to protect their homes in Altadena, a community near Pasadena where working- and middle-class families live, including many Black residents who have lived there for generations. Are. Two of them were Anthony Mitchell, a 67-year-old disabled man, and his son, Justin, who had cerebral palsy. Mitchell’s daughter, Hazim White, said they were waiting for an ambulance to arrive when the flames grew stronger. Washington Post,
“He was not going to leave his son behind. No problem,” White said. White — who lives in Warren, Arkansas and is Justin’s half-sister — said her father called her Wednesday morning and told her they had to escape the flames. “Then he said: ‘I’ve got to go – there’s a fire in the yard,'” she said.
In another incident, Shari Shaw told local media outlets KTLA He tried to get his 66-year-old brother, Victor Shaw, out, but he wanted to stay and fight the fire. His body was found with a garden hose in his hand.
Rodney Nickerson died in his bed in his Altadena home. His daughter Kimiko Nickerson told KTLA that the 82-year-old man had been through several fires and thought it would be best to wait at home.
The NWS said winds are expected to subside on Friday afternoon, but warned that fire weather conditions are forecast for an extended period of potentially severe fire conditions from Sunday to Wednesday.
Authorities urged more people to heed evacuation orders after a new blaze, called the Kenneth Fire, broke out Thursday. grew to 1,000 acresAbout 400 firefighters remained at the scene overnight to prevent the fire from spreading, and by Friday morning it was about 35% contained.
Firefighting efforts in such difficult conditions, effectively with no rain for months and no forecast in the coming days, have stretched the workforce and left the country’s second-largest city in trouble.
The largest fire to burn in the LA area, the Palisades Fire, destroyed the beautiful mountain peak neighborhood. According to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection website, that flame More than 21,300 acres have burned and only 8% is “contained.”
prevention, according to Western Fire Chiefs AssociationRefers to a “control line” around an area of fire that flames should not be able to cross. So if a wildfire is said to be 25% contained, firefighters have created containment lines – usually wide trenches – around 25% of the fire’s perimeter. Once the fire is 100% contained, firefighters can begin extinguishing it.
To the east, the Eaton Fire near Pasadena has burned more than 5,000 structures spanning about 14,000 acres – a term that includes homes, apartment buildings, businesses, outbuildings and vehicles, and is only 3% contained.
The Hearst Fire in the hills above Sylmar, which threatens the San Fernando Valley, was about 37% contained as of Friday morning and firefighters informed That they “successfully contained the fire while establishing containment lines north of the I-210 Foothill Freeway”.
The Los Angeles Fire Department lifted an evacuation order Friday afternoon in Granada Hills, northwest of downtown Los Angeles, after firefighters “combined with an aggressive attack by LAFD Air Ops” rapidly brought the Archer Fire, which flared up Friday morning. It was brought under control before any structures were damaged.
Human-caused climate disruption is fueling extreme weather around the world, including wildfires. In California, fire season now starts earlier and ends later.
data from eu Copernicus Climate Change Service Data released on Friday showed that annual global temperatures rose above the internationally agreed 1.5C target for the first time last year. That jump represents a level of heat never experienced by modern humans.
More than 150,000 people are under evacuation orders, and the fire has destroyed about 57 square miles, an area larger than the city of San Francisco.
At least 20 arrests have been made on charges of looting. Authorities have imposed a mandatory curfew in evacuation zones as well as in the city of Santa Monica, which is next to Pacific Palisades.
LA County Sheriff, Robert Luna, said the curfew will be strictly enforced and anyone found in violation will be arrested and face a fine of up to $1,000 or jail time if found guilty.
“We’re not doing anything wrong with this,” he said. “We don’t want anyone taking advantage of our residents who have already been victimized.”
The Associated Press contributed reporting