CNN
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As winds across the Southern California area are calmer than their peak and firefighters are making progress, the threat to the fire-weary region remains with Santa Ana winds expected to continue in the coming days.
“Everyone needs to be on high alert,” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said Monday. “Los Angeles and partner firefighters are pre-deployed, and we ask Angelenos to be prepared in case they need to evacuate.”
“Particularly dangerous situation” red flag warnings are in effect until 10 a.m. PT Tuesday for much of the foothills and mountainous areas of Los Angeles and Ventura counties, including Malibu, meaning prevailing conditions including low humidity and strong winds will increase the risk of fire, the National Weather Service warned.
Although these warnings – which indicate the possibility of wind gusts reaching up to 100 mph – are set to expire Tuesday morning, the impacts of the prolonged Santa Ana Wind event may persist until Thursday. Fire weather watches are already in effect for the mountains and valleys of San Diego County, as well as most of Los Angeles and Ventura Counties, starting Tuesday evening and lasting until Thursday evening.
Despite a slight weakening Monday night, strong winds and extremely dry air continue to elevate the fire risk, according to the National Weather Service. Wind gusts reached notable heights across Southern California Monday evening, peaking at 77 mph at Sill Hill in the San Diego County Mountains and 74 mph at Magic Mountain in Angeles National Forest, according to the National Weather Service in Los Angeles.
The Storm Prediction Center declared two “extremely critical” fire zones – its highest alert level – for Tuesday. The first is for many areas of the San Gabriel Mountains, extending west toward the Santa Monica Mountains and the Santa Susana Mountains, including the Malibu coast. The second is for portions of the eastern San Diego foothills and the western San Jacinto Mountains are included in this warning.
In total, more than three million people are under an “extremely critical” fire threat, while over 10 million people face a critical fire threat, categorized as level 2 of 3, according to the prediction center.
Conditions are expected to persist through Thursday due to sustained offshore winds and exceptionally low humidity levels, with many areas likely experiencing humidity between 2% and 5% from Tuesday through Thursday, the agency said.
Gov. Gavin Newsom announced the mobilization of “more than 130 fire engines, water tenders, and aircraft to Southern California,” a release from his office said Sunday.
The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection “has surged and positioned over 790 firefighting personnel who are ready to respond above and beyond its usual staffing levels,” the release said.
Making matters worse, nearly all of Southern California is in severe drought, although officials at the National Weather Service said there are chances of rain Saturday.
The red-flag warnings come as questions are raised about the local response to the disaster, and whether the Los Angeles Fire Department was properly prepared.
Mayor Bass faces fierce criticism for the timing of an overseas trip and budget cuts made months ago affecting the fire department.
At least 27 people have died and thousands of homes have been destroyed in the wildfires, according to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner and fire officials. Some 41,000 people remained under an evacuation order or warning in Los Angeles County on Saturday, the sheriff’s department said.
Firefighting teams have pre-deployed in anticipation of the high winds and greater fire risk.
The Los Angeles Fire Department “has deployed all available resources and strategically positioned fire patrols and fire engines in the high risk areas across the city of Los Angeles … we are also strategically managing our emergency operations to ensure a rapid response to all new fires,” Chief Kristin Crowley said.
Regional and state firefighting partners have also pre-positioned fire engines and aircraft across Southern California, according to Crowley.
The region faces an elevated risk of wildfires due to a troubling lack of rainfall: It has seen little precipitation since spring, leaving grasses and brush dry and highly flammable.
This extended drought, exacerbated by Santa Ana winds, has rendered the landscape increasingly vulnerable. Current data from the US Drought Monitor indicates that 90% of Los Angeles County is now classified as being in severe drought — a stark increase from less than a month ago when there were no severe drought conditions.
The Palisades Fire, which has burned 23,713 acres, was 61% contained, and the Eaton Fire was 87% contained at 14,021 acres as of Tuesday night, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said.
“We’re pretty confident that it’s going to remain in its footprint, and that’s mainly due to all the hard work that our firefighters have been doing,” Dennis Burns, a fire behavior analyst for the California Incident Management Team, said Monday.
But Burns warned firefighting aircraft may not be able to be used during the strong winds. “Once those winds get up beyond 30 to 40, miles an hour, that very much limits what the aircraft can do,” he said.
Several areas previously under evacuation orders reopened to residents, but many others are still waiting to be allowed to return to their homes to survey damage, retrieve necessities, figure out what their insured losses are and assess what can be salvaged of their remaining property.
A wlidfire briefly broke out near the famed Griffith Observatory on Monday, but firefighters quickly put it out, with no damage to nearby structures.
In pictures: Deadly wildfires in Los Angeles County
All mandatory evacuation orders have been lifted, except in the fire burned areas, where a curfew remains in effect from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell said Monday.
In Altadena, one of the communities hit hardest by the Eaton Fire, a majority of residents were now able to go back to their homes as of Monday with proper identification, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said in an alert. Officials advised caution as there’s toxic debris in these area.
Former Vice President Kamala Harris visited a food distribution site and a fire station in Altadena Monday.
Harris, whose home is in Los Angeles, said the federal assistance granted by the Biden administration will help Los Angeles rebuild after this tragedy.
“It was really important to us before we went home, and we are some of the lucky ones. Our home is still standing,” Harris said. “We wanted to come out, and particularly to this extraordinary community, and just let people know that we see them and that they are cared for.”
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has already provided more than $32 million to wildfire survivors, spokesperson Michael Hart said.
Pasadena will implement red-flag parking restrictions beginning Monday, the city said in a release.
The parking restrictions will “allow for improved fire department access and resident evacuation,” on the “narrow and/or winding roads within Pasadena’s urban-wildland interface areas,” the city said.
As a “last resort,” electric utility SoCal Edison is considering public safety power cuts to nearly 250,000 customers. In that scenario, the utility would temporarily shut off power to specific areas in high-risk fire areas during dangerous weather conditions to prevent electrical equipment becoming a source of ignition.
As of Monday morning, SoCal Edison said, 10,261 customers were without power, but only 5,877 of SoCal Edison’s 5 million customers were impacted by public safety power shut-offs.
But the utility said it was considering outages that would affect an additional 247,024 customers, the majority of those being in Riverside, Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Ventura counties.
Los Angeles fire Chief Crowley warned the city’s board of fire commissioners two years ago the lack of a regularly staffed wildland “hand crew” could be problematic if not addressed.
“Without this resource methodically creating and supporting fire line on a wildland fire, weakness in the line can mean the difference in containment or out of control spread,” Crowley wrote in a January 5, 2023, memo first reported by The Washington Post.
Los Angeles only has a volunteer, part-time and mostly teenage hand crew, who use axes, shovels and chain saws to stop wildfires spreading, according to the Post.
As flames advanced on homes in the Pacific Palisades, there was no professional Los Angeles Fire Department unit ready to take on the initial attack, the newspaper reported. Crews from Los Angeles County and the state were the first to reach the Palisades Fire that erupted January 7.
CNN has reached out to the Los Angeles Fire Department for comment on the memo.
“The Mayor quadrupled the allocation for wildland hand crews – fully resourcing our LAFD has always been a priority for the Administration, and with climate change getting worse every year we’re accelerating these efforts to protect Angelenos,” Zach Seidl, a spokesperson for the mayor’s office, said in a statement to CNN on Saturday.
The LAFD is less staffed than almost any other major city, a CNN analysis of the most recent data from the 10 largest US cities and other comparable departments shows.
The FireAid benefit concert, set up to “raise funds for rebuilding wildfire-devastated communities and support fire prevention efforts in Southern California,” will be shown at select AMC Theatres, AMC has announced.
The performances will take place on January 30 at two venues, the Kia Forum and the new Intuit Dome, both located in the Los Angeles-area city of Inglewood, and viewers around the world will be able to watch, stream and make contributions on several platforms including Apple Music, Apple TV, Max, KTLA+, Netflix/Tudum, Paramount+, Prime Video and others.
The concert, which will also be broadcast on 860 iHeartRadio radio stations, is set to include native Angelenos Billie Eilish, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Gracie Abrams, along with a host of other stars.
CNN’s Taylor Romine, Robert Shackelford, Sarah Dewberry, Angela Fritz and Alli Rosenbloom contributed to this report.
