On Monday night, fire crews across coastal Ventura County and the Santa Clarita and San Gabriel Valleys moved engines outdoors and positioned them to prepare for high winds and extreme fire danger.
The National Weather Service issued an unusual warning Sunday, calling it a particularly dangerous situation (PDS).
The PDS Red Flag Warning is in effect Monday night through Wednesday due to a “strong, widespread, and prolonged Santa Ana system that will bring widespread severe to extremely severe fire weather conditions to many areas of Los Angeles and Ventura counties,” according to the NWS. The order will be issued.
(National Weather Bureau)
The NWS says the most dangerous conditions will occur between 10 p.m. Monday and 2 p.m. Tuesday, with wind gusts of up to 50 to 80 mph, humidity dropping to 5 to 15 percent, and fires likely to spread quickly. It is predicted that sex will increase.
“Current conditions are extremely dangerous,” warned NWS senior forecaster Andrew Rourke.
Rourke told KTLA’s Sandra Mitchell that the weather event poses a “heightened sense of crisis” and warned residents to be prepared.
Just last month, a wildfire exploded in Ventura County under similar circumstances, destroying about 250 homes.
Currently, the NWS is warning of extreme fire activity, many downed trees, and power outages.
Southern California Edison also warned that up to 250,000 customers could be without power as downed power lines could cause a huge fire.
Malibu city officials said they expected Southern California Edison to shut off power to some circuits.
As of 10 p.m., no fires or power outages had been reported, but officials told KTLA they expected the situation to get more severe overnight.
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