Dangerously high winds are expected to resume Monday in Los Angeles, potentially hampering efforts to extinguish two stubborn wildfires that have razed entire neighborhoods and claimed the lives of at least two dozen people.
Dry winds in Santa Ana of up to 50 to 70 miles per hour are expected to resume Monday and persist through Wednesday, the National Weather Service said in issuing a “particularly dangerous situation” warning.
The most dangerous day will be Tuesday, fire behavior analyst Dennis Burns warned at a community meeting Sunday evening.
In anticipation, California Governor Gavin Newsom said over the weekend that the state was pre-positioning firefighting in vulnerable areas, including those around the Palisades and Eaton fires, the two largest fires that broke out in Southern California.
At least 24 people died in the fires which started on January 7. The fires have reduced entire neighborhoods to smoking ruins, leaving an apocalyptic landscape. Authorities said at least 12,300 structures were damaged or destroyed. firefighters of CanadaMexico and seven other U.S. states converged on the Los Angeles area to help their California counterparts.
The return of strong winds threatens crews’ hard-won progress in containing the fires. Over the weekend, air and ground firefighters managed to stop the Palisades Fire as it encroached on the upscale Brentwood section and advanced toward the populous San Fernando Valley to the north.
This fire in the western part of the metropolis has consumed 96 square kilometers and stands at 14 percent, a figure representing the percentage of the fire perimeter that firefighters have contained.
The Eaton Fire, in the foothills east of Los Angeles, ravaged 57 square kilometers – itself almost the size of Manhattan – although containment increased to 33 percent.
North of the city, the Hurst Fire was 89 percent contained, and three other fires that had ravaged other parts of the county were now 100 percent contained, the California Department of Forestry and Conservation reported Cal Fire, although areas within the containment lines may still be on fire.
Caleb Serban-Lawler recounts the time he climbed a mountain and found himself in the Los Angeles wildfires to rescue a stranded woman and her four dogs.
“Like something out of a movie”
In Altadena, on the edge of the Eaton Fire, Tristin Perez said he never left his home, defying police orders to evacuate as the fire raced down the hillside.
Instead, Perez insisted on trying to save his and his neighbors’ property.
“Your yard is on fire, the palm trees are lit up — it looks like something out of a movie,” Perez told Reuters in an interview in his driveway.
“I did everything I could to stop the line and save my home, help save their homes.”
As crews continue to battle devastating wildfires around Los Angeles, scientists and other experts are battling misinformation, ranging from how the fires started to ongoing efforts to extinguish the flames.
In anticipation of the return of strong winds on Monday, authorities warned the entire population of Los Angeles County, nearly 10 million residents, to be prepared to evacuate.
As of Sunday afternoon, more than 100,000 people in Los Angeles County had been ordered to evacuate — up from a previous record of more than 150,000 — while another 87,000 faced evacuation warnings.
