With a fresh brush fire breaking out in the Hollywood Hills, multiple wildfires have raged uncontrollably around the Los Angeles area, killing at least five people. The Palisades, Eaton, and Hurst fires are burning in Southern California, forcing more than 100,000 people to evacuate.
The number of California homes and businesses without electricity ballooned to more than 400,000 on Wednesday.
The out-of-control fires are leaving firefighters and water supply overwhelmed.
"This is an absolutely unprecedented event. We have another fire that just broke out. Any fire department, even our size is stressed thin," said LA Fire Department’s Jacob Raabe.
"Southern California is continuing to endure some of the most historic fire conditions on record," LA City Fire Chief Kristin Crowley said. "The incident is very very dynamic as we speak."
LA Mayor Karen Bass brushed off questions about the fire department budget and water supplies. She said that in this fiscal year, the fire budget will have topped last year.
“Our family and friends have been affected and it's easy to get caught up in information that is not accurate which is the reason why we do press conference exactly like this.”
She also addressed the city's water supply.
“The water pressure dropped due to a massive need to fight this unprecedented incident,” said Bass. “Water remains available in the Palisades through hydrants but also through water tankers that have been deployed.
"On Monday evening, all available water tanks were filled before the fire,” she said, refuting claims that the tanks weren’t full.
LA Fire Department’s Jacob Raabe said the fire had been unprecedented in his 16-year career.
“This is something we have not seen in my 16 years in LAFD and five years in another fire department I’ve never seen winds that made it to the Pacific Ocean, turned around, and went back up the canyon,” said Raabe. "This is not something that any fire department can be prepared for and we always want to have more resources and we’re always going to ask the mayor for resources for that.”
Janisse Quiñones, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power general manager said fire hydrants are not made to fight multiple houses at a time.
“We opened every valve available to push as much water into the Palisades area,” said Quiñones. “This fire was different and unprecedented because they didn’t have air resources to fight it.”
A fast-moving fire broke out in the Hollywood Hills on Wednesday night, threatening one of Los Angeles’ most iconic spots as firefighters battled to get under control three other major blazes that killed five people, put 100,000 people under evacuation orders and ravaged the city from the Pacific Coast to inland Pasadena.
The Sunset Fire was burning near the Hollywood Bowl and about a mile (kilometer) from the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
The streets around Grauman’s Chinese Theatre and Madame Tussauds were packed with stop-and-go traffic as sirens blared and low-flying helicopters soared by on their way to dump water on the flames. People toting suitcases left hotels on foot, while some onlookers walked towards the flames, recording the fire on their phones.
More than 1,000 structures, mostly homes, have been destroyed, and more than 130,000 people are under evacuation orders in the metropolitan area.
Winds eased up some Wednesday, a day after hurricane-force winds blew embers through the air, igniting block after block, and hundreds of firefighters from other states have arrived to help, but the four fires burning out of control showed the danger is far from over.
More than half a dozen schools in the area were either damaged or destroyed, including Palisades Charter High School, which has been featured in many Hollywood productions, including the 1976 horror movie “Carrie” and the TV series “Teen Wolf,” officials said.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said air operations were dousing flames. She warned they still faced “erratic winds,” though not of hurricane force like Tuesday evening, when much of the destruction occurred.
In Pasadena, Fire Chief Chad Augustin said between 200 and 500 structures have been damaged or lost from the Eaton Fire that started Tuesday night.
He said the city’s water system was stretched and was further hampered by power outages but even without those issues, firefighters would not have been able to stop the fire as embers blown by the intense winds ignited block after block.
“We were not stopping that fire last night,” he said. “Those erratic wind gusts were throwing embers for multiple miles ahead of the fire.”
On the Pacific Coast west of downtown Los Angeles, a major fire leveled entire blocks, reducing grocery stores and banks to rubble in the Pacific Palisades, a hillside area along the coast dotted with celebrity homes and memorialized by the Beach Boys in their 1960s hit “Surfin’ USA.”
More than 1,000 structures were destroyed in the Palisades fire, the most destructive in the modern history of LA. Many people were hurt, including first responders, LA County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone said.
The scope of the destruction was just becoming clear: Block after block of California Mission Style homes and bungalows were reduced to nothing but charred remains dotted by stone fireplaces and blackened arched entryways. Ornate iron railing wrapped around the smoldering frame of one house. The apocalyptic scenes spread for miles.
Swimming pools were blackened with soot, and sports cars slumped on melted tires.
As flames moved through his neighborhood, Jose Velasquez sprayed down his Altadena home with water as embers rained down on the roof. He managed to save their home, which also houses their family business of selling churros, a Mexican pastry. Others weren’t so lucky. Many of his neighbors were at work when they lost their homes.
“So we had to call a few people and then we had people messaging, asking if their house was still standing,” he said. “We had to tell them that it’s not.”
Beyond the burned areas, residents worked wearing N95 masks, unable to escape the toxic smoke wafting over huge sections of the city.
Actors lost homes
The flames marched toward highly populated and affluent neighborhoods, including Calabasas and Santa Monica, home to California’s rich and famous. Hollywood stars.
Mandy Moore, Cary Elwes and Paris Hilton are among the stars who said Wednesday they had lost homes.
Billy Crystal and his wife Janice lost their home of 45 years in the Palisades Fire.
“We raised our children and grandchildren here. Every inch of our house was filled with love. Beautiful memories that can’t be taken away,” the Crystals wrote in the statement.
In Palisades Village, the public library, two major grocery stores, a pair of banks and several boutiques were destroyed.
“It’s just really weird coming back to somewhere that doesn’t really exist anymore,” said Dylan Vincent, who returned to the neighborhood to retrieve some items and saw that his elementary school had burned down and that whole blocks had been flattened.
The fires have consumed a total of about 42 square miles (108 square kilometers) — nearly the size of the entire city of San Francisco.
Fast-moving flames allowed little time to escape
Flames moved so quickly that many barely had time to escape. Police sought shelter inside their patrol cars, and residents at a senior living center were pushed in wheelchairs and hospital beds down a street to safety in the foothills northeast of LA.
In the race to get to safety in Pacific Palisades, roadways became impassable when scores of people abandoned their vehicles and fled on foot.
Higher temperatures and less rain mean a longer fire season
California’s wildfire season is beginning earlier and ending later due to rising temperatures and decreased rainfall tied to climate change, according to recent data. Rains that usually end fire season are often delayed, meaning fires can burn through the winter months, according to the Western Fire Chiefs Association,
Dry winds, including the notorious Santa Anas, have contributed to warmer-than-average temperatures in Southern California, which has not seen more than 0.1 inches (0.25 centimeters) of rain since early May.
The winds increased to 80 mph (129 kph) Wednesday, according to reports received by the National Weather Service. Forecasters predicted wind gusts of 35-55 mph (56 to 88 kph) which could rise higher in the mountains and foothills. Fire conditions could last through Friday.
Landmarks get scorched and studios suspend production
President Joe Biden signed a federal emergency declaration after arriving at a Santa Monica fire station for a briefing with Gov. Gavin Newsom, who dispatched National Guard troops to help.
Several Hollywood studios suspended production, and Universal Studios closed its theme park between Pasadena and Pacific Palisades.
With an estimated 1,000 structures destroyed and the fire still active, the Palisades Fire is by far the city’s most destructive in modern history, topping the Sayre fire in 2008 that destroyed just over 600 structures, according to statistics kept by the Wildfire Alliance, a partnership between the city’s fire department and MySafe: LA. Structures refer to homes and other buildings.
Southern California Edison shut off service to thousands because of safety concerns related to high winds and fire risks. More than 1.5 million customers could face shutoffs depending on weather conditions, the utility said.
Several Southern California landmarks were heavily damaged, including the Reel Inn in Malibu, a seafood restaurant. Owner Teddy Leonard and her husband hope to rebuild.
“When you look at the grand scheme of things, as long as your family is well and everyone’s alive, you’re still winning, right?” she said.
Raging wildfires in Los Angeles killed at least two people, destroyed hundreds of buildings and stretched firefighting resources and water supplies to the limit on Wednesday, as more than 100,000 people were ordered to evacuate. Fierce winds were hindering firefighting operations and fueling the fires, which have burned unimpeded since they began Tuesday.
Numerous buildings were destroyed and nearly 2,900 acres (1,200 hectares) burned in the area between the beach towns of Santa Monica and Malibu, officials said.
Before the fire started, the National Weather Service had issued its highest alert for extreme fire conditions for much of Los Angeles County from Tuesday through Thursday, predicting wind gusts of 50 to 80 mph (80 to 130 kph).
Powerful winds fuelled the fast-spreading fire, which grew in size more than five-fold over just four hours on Tuesday night, and were hindering efforts to fight the blaze.
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Roads were jammed with people fleeing the inferno, some abandoning their cars as flames licked the edges and plumes of smoke and flames rose in the night sky over Los Angeles and its suburbs.
The National Weather Service said in an advisory: “This is a particularly dangerous situation for portions of Los Angeles and Ventura Counties!”
Before the fire started, the service had issued its highest alert for extreme fire conditions for much of Los Angeles County from Tuesday through Thursday.
Precipitation accumulation along Southern California coast
With low humidity and dry vegetation due to a lack of rain, the conditions were “about as bad as it gets in terms of fire weather,” the service said.
Sources
California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection; California Water Watch; PRISM Climate Group