Firefighters battling to keep wildfires in Los Angeles in check since last week were braced on Wednesday for powerful wind gusts, combined with very low humidity.
Some 6.5 million people in the Los Angeles area were under a critical fire threat as winds were forecast to be 32-64 km/h with humidity dropping into the single digits, the National Weather Service said.
The death toll from the fires rose by one on Tuesday to 25, according to the Los Angeles medical examiner’s office. The estimated number of structures damaged or destroyed held steady at over 12,000, portending a large rebuilding effort.
Winds were tamer than expected on Tuesday, allowing firefighters to extinguish or get under control some small brush fires that ignited, while no large wildfires erupted in the area as feared. During the day, the milder-than-expected conditions also allowed some 8,500 firefighters from at least seven states and two foreign countries to hold the line on the Palisades and Eaton fires for the second day running.
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The Palisades fire, on the west edge of town, held steady at 96sq km burned, and containment nudged up to 18 per cent- a measurement of how much of the perimeter was under control. The Eaton fire, in the foothills east of the city, stood at 57sq km with containment at 35 per cent. The fires have consumed an area the size of Washington, DC.
A fleet of aircraft dropped water and retardant on to the rugged hills while ground crews with hand tools and hoses have worked around the clock since the fires broke out on January 7th, with the aircraft occasionally grounded by high winds. Southern California has lacked any appreciable rain since April 2024, turning brush into tinder as Santa Ana winds originating from the deserts whipped over hilltops and rushed through canyons, sending embers flying up to 3km ahead of the fires.
Despite losing his Altadena home, Aaron Lubeley, a 53-year-old lawyer, handed out food and water to his neighbours.
“When you stare at your front door that’s gone and you have the few moments to contemplate, what does this really mean to my life? I mean, I still don’t fully understand everything I have is gone,” he said as he stood in his front yard, distributing items. “You have to decide, I have to make ... I have to find some meaning in why this happened.”
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.
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 to remove artwork” from its safe harbour, 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 US history, surpassing Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
– Reuters
