Another town hall scheduled for Saturday evening
Those expecting a town hall focusing on how to move forward from the devastating Palisades Fire may have been disappointed by the virtual meeting held Friday night led by fire and law enforcement officials who are battling the disaster. Because the most destructive fire in Los Angeles history is still being fought, officials gave updates and answered important questions.
On another positive note, weather was more favorable on Friday, Jan. 10 as fire fighters used bulldozers, hand crews, and even drones to make progress on the blaze’s northwestern flank near Monte Nido, Malibu’s latest threatened community. Further south in Malibu, the fire butted up against the burn scar from last month’s Franklin Fire. “No activity there looks really good,” a fire spokesman stated.
Fire officials confirmed 11 fixed-wing air tankers and 33 helicopters had been dropping fire retardant over the blaze on Friday. “Sometimes people say they don’t see them,” an official explained because helicopters and fixed wings can’t work on the same area at the same time, “so sometimes there’s a pause where the fixed wing aircraft come in and return, and then we circle in helicopters. They are out there dropping continuously all day, and then we’re even using them into the night.” Fire authorities said they have been closely monitoring the Highlands reservoir used as a water source.
A huge problem for fire authorities is civilian use of drones in the fire area. “That is a very dangerous situation for us because any time a civilian is out there flying a drone, we have to pull back operational aircraft. We want to make it very important that we stop flying private drones so that we could keep our operational aircraft engaged at all time to keep the footprint down and as low as possible that we have. But we still work in at a contingency. Contingency means we’re building extra outside of the perimeter. It’s like another layer of preparation for fire growth, just in case. We’re battling the weather and the conditions we’re constantly battling, the different situations of fuel topography and the weather…,” he continued.
While some residents have been sneaking through into evacuation zones, fire officials are asking people to stay away. “It’s incredibly dangerous. We are still actively fighting fire. That being said, it’s going to be a while before we can get people in there,” a spokesman stated regarding repopulation.
In order to curb the possibility of looting and other crime, law enforcement reminded there is a curfew in effect from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. until further notice. A Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy urged residents to heed evacuation warnings so “the fire department can continue to be fully committed in supporting the community doing everything possible and to meet the need of the community we serve.”
LAPD Commander Randy Goddard also requested residents to “stay out of the area,” adding, “We’re doing crime suppression to make sure that no looting or burglaries are going on. When your home is not occupied we’ve got a lot of officers out there and we also are doing welfare checks.” LAPD claims it has just over 2000 sworn police officers monitoring all fire zone areas including on mountain fire roads where people have been trying to enter the fire areas. Of 93 calls for service related to possible trespass, looting or theft in the mandatory evacuation zone officials reported there have been no related arrests and “no radio calls have come out to be criminal acts.” Law enforcement did however report one arrest for the vandalism of a news van and that they found one abandoned dog tied to a fence that they turned over to a local animal shelter to try to reunite that dog with an owner.
LA County Fire, LA City Fire, and Cal Fire all will continue to provide updates and have scheduled another town hall community meeting again Saturday evening at 6:30. There will be a virtual option as well as an in-person opportunity to join. The meeting will take place at Calvary Community Church Westlake. The address is 5495 Via Rocas in Westlake Village.
