LA fires: Santa Ana hurricane-force winds could intensify wildfires

Firefighters on Tuesday held the line against two massive wildfires that have ravaged parts of Los Angeles for the past week, even as desert winds and a parched landscape presented extremely hazardous conditions.

Some 8,500 firefighters from at least seven states and two foreign countries prevented the blazes from growing for the second day running. Still, the fires have consumed an area the size of Washington, D.C.

A fleet of aircraft dropped water and retardant into the rugged hills while ground crews with hand tools and hoses have worked around the clock since the fires broke out on Jan. 7, with the aircraft occasionally grounded by high winds.

The Palisades Fire on the west edge of town held steady at 23,713 acres (96 square km) burned, and containment nudged up to 18% – a measurement of how much of the perimeter was under control.

The Eaton Fire in the foothills east of the city stood at 14,117 acres (57 sq km) with containment at 35%.

Southern California has lacked any appreciable rain since April, turning brush into tinder as Santa Ana winds originating from the deserts whipped over hilltops and rushed through canyons, sending embers flying up to 2 miles (3 km) ahead of the fires.

Winds were weaker than expected during the day on Tuesday but forecast to peak around 3 a.m. (1100 GMT) on Wednesday, with gusts in the mountains possibly reaching 70 mph (112 kph), the the National Weather Service said, as it kept a red flag warning in place.

The death toll from the fires rose by one on Tuesday to 25, according to the Las Angeles medical examiner’s office. The estimate of structures damaged or destroyed held steady at over 12,000, still portending a Herculean rebuilding effort ahead.

Entire neighborhoods have been leveled, leaving smoldering ash and rubble. In many homes, only a chimney is left standing.

In hard-hit Pacific Palisades, Karina Maher and her husband Michael Kovac experienced some “survivor guilt” that their home made it through the fire while many of their neighbors’ properties were lost.

“Designing the house so close to nature and knowing the history of Southern California, we were acutely aware that, at some point in the house’s life, there would be a serious fire,” said Kovac, an architect who designed the building. “So we designed the house to be both fire resilient and sustainable. And happily, those two systems are often one in the same.”

A few thousand more people were allowed back home but 88,000 remained under evacuation orders with another 84,000 under evacuation warning – large-scale displacements unprecedented in the metropolitan area’s history.

“It’s one thing to see it on television. It’s another thing to see it from the air. The massive, massive destruction is unimaginable until you actually see it,” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass told a press conference after taking an aerial tour.

John Adolph, 48, who lost his home in Altadena to the Eaton Fire, was grateful to be safe but uncertain of what lies ahead. Adolph said he went back to see what he could salvage as the fire raged.

“There were burning grocery stores, gas stations, exploding cars that went pop with glass flying … Walls of flames two stories tall, tornadoes of flame. I was stupid with a side of crazy to try,” Adolph said.

Urban search and rescue teams worked from an Altadena grocery store parking lot, tracking progress on whiteboards and handing out assignments from inside a trailer.

A team of 50 firefighters and sheriff’s deputies conducted house-by-house searches, looking for any lingering fires and hazards such as lithium-ion batteries connected to solar panels.

PRICELESS ART DEEMED SAFE

The Palisades Fire also approached the priceless art collection at the J. Paul Getty Museum, which houses paintings by Van Gogh, Rembrandt, Monet and Degas.

But the collection remained safely inside the Getty Center’s fortress of travertine stone, fire-protected steel and reinforced concrete. “It would be extremely foolish to try and remove artwork” from its safe harbor, Getty Trust President Katherine E. Fleming said. In Washington, a battle over emergency aid broke out between Republicans and Democrats over what is already the costliest wildfire in terms of insured losses.

Private forecaster AccuWeather estimates total damage and economic loss between $250 billion and $275 billion, which would make it the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history, surpassing Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Democrats in Congress opposed the suggestion by House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, that conditions be placed on aid. Johnson also said any wildfire disaster assistance funding should be “paid for,” meaning the cost should be covered to prevent adding to the budget deficit, possibly by cutting other programs.

That is a departure from many previous natural disasters, and Democratic Representative Ted Lieu of California called Johnson’s position “outrageous.”

“We should not be leveraging the pain and suffering of our fellow Americans to try to force new policy changes,” Lieu said. (Reuters)