Shorouk Express
The Los Angeles wildfires continue to grow rapidly Thursday, engulfing homes in the Pacific Palisades and other neighborhoods, including star-studded Studio City, Calabasas and Altadena.
The Palisades and Eaton fires, along with other smaller blazes, have spread in just days across some 36,000 acres. Flames have been fanned by a fierce windstorm known as the Santa Ana winds, which could begin again early next week, meteorologists warn. The Palisades Fire is eight percent contained, while the Eaton Fire is three percent contained as of Friday afternoon.
At least ten people are dead, officials said, as the fast-moving blazes force nearly 200,000 residents to evacuate their properties across California. Hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses have been left in blackout conditions with schools in impacted areas closing their doors.
Multiple injuries have been reported from residents who did not evacuate and officials say more than 7,000 structures have been damaged or destroyed by the Eaton Fire alone.
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A new blaze erupted in the Hollywood Hills on Wednesday night, prompting further evacuation orders. Another brush fire was sparked in Granada Hills on Friday afternoon.
California Governor Gavin Newsom announced that more than 7,500 local, state and federal firefighting personnel and 1,200 fire trucks have been deployed in a bid to grasp a handle on the fast-moving fires.
President Joe Biden has told California officials to “spare no expense,” noting the federal government will cover “100% of the cost” for the next 180 days.
“I want to underscore I told the governor and local officials, spare no expense to do what they need to do and contain these fires,” Biden said.
Where are the fires currently burning?
The first and most major fire is burning in the Pacific Palisades, an affluent coastal neighborhood on the west of Los Angeles, having started in 10.30 a.m. local time Tuesday. The fire covers more than 20,000 acres as of Friday afternoon.
The blaze caused flaming embers to rain onto trees and rooftops in the neighborhood, with residents rushing to escape. It also created a traffic jam on Palisades Drive, blocking emergency vehicles from getting through. Crews used a bulldozer to push the abandoned cars off to the side, the Associated Press reported.
Later on Tuesday at around 6:30 p.m., the Eaton Fire erupted in the Altadena area, north of Pasadena, and has engulfed more than 13,000 acres, as of Friday afternoon.
The Hurst fire in the San Fernando Valley has burned about 855 acres and it is at 10 percent containment. The Tyler fire in Coachella, home to the world-famous music festival near to Joshua Tree National Park, burned about 11 acres before it was contained late on Wednesday.
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A new blaze erupted in the Hollywood Hills on Wednesday night called the Sunset fire, which was fully contained as of Thursday afternoon, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said.
Another conflagration, the Kenneth Fire, ignited on Thursday afternoon.
The Kenneth Fire began around 3:30 p.m. and has now burned 1,000 acres near the Los Angeles-Ventura County line, according to Cal Fire. It is at 35 percent containment as of Friday afternoon.
“Fanned by strong Santa Ana winds, the fire threatens nearby communities and infrastructure, prompting swift evacuation orders,” the agency wrote on its website. “Firefighters from Los Angeles and Ventura counties are actively engaged in containment efforts, deploying both ground crews and aerial resources.”
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Which areas are being evacuated?
Some 200,000 residents are reported to have been evacuated across southern California.
Many of the evacuations were in the Pacific Palisades area, but others were in parts of Santa Monica and Altadena, with a mandatory evacuation order in place for the region between Piedra Morada Drive and Pacific Coast Highway due to dangerous conditions.
Fire Chief Kristin Crowley said that areas north of the highway, south of Mulholland Drive and east of Topanga County Boulevard were also being evacuated.
Several Hollywood stars – including Ben Affleck, Tom Hanks, Rita Wilson and Mark Hamill, have been forced to flee.
Live: evacuation order areas in Los Angeles County
The Eaton Fire alone prompted tens of thousands of evacuation orders, Angeles National Forest officials added. City spokeswoman Lisa Derderian said at least 550 houses were within the evacuation zones of the Eaton Canyon fire.
“We were having dinner with the family and we just had to leave because the fire was coming so fast,” Darinka Whitmore from Eaton Canyon in Altadena, who fled with her husband and their four children, told The New York Times. “We just grabbed our backpacks and our kids and our doggies.”
Emergency shelters are open for Angelenos who have been evacuated due to these devastating fires. The Palisades fire shelter is located at the Westwood Recreation Center and the Hurst fire shelter is at Ritchie Valens Recreation Center.
In addition to the evacuations, more than 200,000 customers were without power in southern California, with the vast majority of them in Los Angeles County, according to PowerOutage.us, which tracks outages nationwide.
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Have there been any casualties?
The death toll is currently at ten as of Friday afternoon. Several people are injured, officials added, but the exact number is unknown.
The identified victims include 83-year-old grandfather Rodney Nickerson; 66-year-old Victor Shaw; 67-year-old father Anthony Mitchell and his early-20s son, Justin Mitchell; and grandmother Erliene Kelly.
What is causing the fires?
The fast-moving wildfires are being fueled by a weather phenomenon known as the Santa Ana winds.
The Santa Anas are dry, warm and gusty northeast winds that blow from Nevada and Utah to Southern California toward the coast. They move in the opposite direction of the normal onshore flow that carries moist air from the Pacific into the region.
The name is understood to be linked to Santa Ana Canyon in Orange County, but the weather has other nicknames such as “devil winds” or “red wind.”
Gusts calmed on Thursday, but the Santa Ana winds are expected to pick back up early next week, The Weather Channel reports. A red flag warning, which indicates dangerous fire conditions, is in place through at least Friday.
The weather service has issued an extreme weather warning of a life-threatening and destructive windstorm for some areas.
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What have officials said?
“By no stretch of the imagination are we out of the woods,” California Governor Gavin Newsom said on Tuesday afternoon. “I saw firsthand the impact of these swirling winds and the embers and the number of structures that are destroyed. Not a few, many structures already destroyed.”
Newsom dispelled claims of waning water supplies after President-elect Donald Trump perpetuated the rumors and accused firefighters of not using ocean water to “protect a tiny little fish”.
“Broadly speaking, there is no water shortage in Southern California right now, despite Trump’s claims that he would open some imaginary spigot,” the governor said.
Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass declared a state of emergency because of the Palisades fire. “The city is working aggressively to confront this emergency,” she said.
On Thursday, Bass called on residents to “conserve water to the extent that you can” as firefighters battle the historic blaze. She said: “But make no mistake, Los Angeles will rebuild stronger than ever.”
