Keep a go bag ready, say fire authorities
With dry windy conditions forecast through Wednesday fire authorities are urging residents to keep a go bag at the ready.The extraordinary Palisades Fire is still “dynamic” with only 14% containment (as of Monday) according to fire personnel who updated the community at a press conference with law enforcement and elected officials Sunday. The fires have claimed more than a dozen lives and scorched more than 60 square miles while wiping out more than 9,000 homes and beloved businesses. According to LA City Councilperson Traci Park the Palisades Fire alone, the most destructive fire in LA’s history, has engulfed over two 23,713 acres since it erupted on Tuesday.
With entire neighborhoods from Pacific Palisades to Malibu reduced to rubble and ash, one incident commander stated, “We are moving resources around this fire to the best of our ability and prioritizing where those resources need to go. Crews have been working and will continue to work 24 hours a day. Many of them have been working over 36 and 48 hours at a time, and our aircraft has been working 24 hours a day when the weather permits. We did have some periods where the wind was too strong, but we’ve had good success the other past few days.”
Los Angeles County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath expressed her gratitude to the firefighters on the front line, saying, “They are nothing short of excellent. They are not here by choice; they are here by calling, sacrificing time with their loved ones in order to ensure our safety.”
A state emergency representative reminded if you need to apply for disaster assistance, go to disasterassistance.gov or call 1-800-621-FEMA.
A Los Angeles County Fire Department spokesman reported 4,077 personnel are assigned to the incident. “We have hand crews and engine companies out there scouring the edge, mopping up the edge, securing those edges, continuing to put those control lines in to make sure that we have no fire progression or limited as much as possible,” he said, however Rich Thompson a meteorologist with the National Weather Service forecasts very dry, windy conditions. “We haven’t had any rain of note in this area since last April, so the combination of those strong winds, earlier gusting 80 miles per hour, the low humidity, and the fact that brush is critically dry, allowed the fire to spread very rapidly and display some very extreme fire behavior. Now, going to the forecast for the next several days, unfortunately, we’re still under a Santa Ana wind pattern. We have expectations of moderate to strong Santa Ana winds from today through Wednesday. So, there is a Red Flag warning in effect, for this area until 6 p.m. Wednesday. We’re expecting north to northeast gusts anywhere from 35 to 55 miles per hour, maybe locally stronger on Tuesday. Very low humidity, and again, the vegetation is still very, very dry. These conditions produce some very critical fire conditions, and therefore, that’s why we do have the red flag in effect until 6 o’clock Wednesday evening.”
The California Highway Patrol has 750 officers working along with LASD and LAPD. The California National Guard has “1800 boots on the ground right now. Fifty-four of those are supporting law enforcement agencies across this area to ensure that officers can do the work to ensure their operations and man traffic control points and checkpoints across the area. On the firefighting front, we have 529 service members currently supporting CalFire; 35 of those are currentlyemployed with CalFire. On the aviation side, we continue to man 11 type one bucket-equipped UH 60 Blackhawk helicopters, and C130s from the California Air National Guard, and from Air National Guards across the country.
LA Sheriff Robert Luna reported on the grim tasks assigned to his department, which are search and rescue and recovery operations. LASD, along with the Los Angeles County Fire Department, are using cadaver dogs in grid searches. “I don’t expect good news from those. We will keep people updated,” Luna said.
As for repopulation, a law enforcement official explained, “Safety must remain our top priority.” Bottom line is, if you don’t live there, you don’t belong there, stay away from there. The minute it’s safe, we’ll let you know. The last thing we want is to report on more fatalities.”