The Palisades Fire is now visible throughout the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles, with authorities concerned that the fire could spread into the Encino and Brentwood neighborhoods, jump the 405 freeway and into Bel Air. This is a worrying development.
A flare-up caused the Palisades Fire, now 21,596 acres, to move north and east Friday, burning through the Santa Monica Mountains.
Helicopter crews worked overnight to extinguish the blaze by dropping water on the blaze. It was helped by relatively calm winds. A red flag fire weather warning for Los Angeles County ended early Friday.
The Saturday morning fire broke out near Mandeville Canyon Road in Brentwood, which is home to large multi-million dollar homes. Evacuation orders were issued for large areas of Brentwood and Encino, including Mountain Gate Country Club and the Getty Center.
The Getty Center in Brentwood, which houses one of Los Angeles’ largest art collections, is currently closed following an evacuation order issued Friday night, with only emergency personnel on site, a spokeswoman for the J. Paul Getty Trust said. Ali Shivak said. In a statement.
The last time the Getty Center faced a wildfire crisis was in 2019, when the Getty Fire threatened the edges of the museum’s campus but did not affect its collections. The Getty Villa in the Pacific Palisades came under threat from the Palisades Fire earlier this week, but escaped largely unscathed.
Evacuation orders were issued for other parts of Encino and parts of Bel Air.
Josh Sutter, president of the Encino Neighborhood Council, said the new evacuation order sent a shockwave of panic through the community. “People were completely freaked out,” he says.
The area under evacuation orders includes parts of Encino south of Ventura Boulevard, including the Gelson’s supermarket. Encino Hospital Medical Center is located across the street from the evacuation zone.
“The winds are pretty light at this point,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Todd Hall. Wind gusts of up to 30 mph are possible by dawn Saturday.
Caltrans has closed sidewalks on Highway 405 near the fire scene, including Getty Center Drive and Skirball Center Drive.
Weather conditions have improved significantly since earlier this week, when strong winds with gusts of up to 160 mph fueled the devastating Palisades and Eaton fires that burned Altadena, Pacific Palisades and Pasadena.
At least 11 deaths were reported and more than 12,000 structures were damaged or destroyed. Sheriff Robert Luna said the death toll could rise further.
Video from a KCAL-TV news helicopter showed a fire vortex forming at the Palisades Fire early Friday morning.
However, the improved weather is expected to deteriorate soon. Santa Ana’s gusty winds are expected to return by Saturday night, with a high wind watch expected to begin at 6 p.m., and forecasters predicting wind gusts will reach at least some valleys in Los Angeles and Ventura counties by Sunday morning. A wind advisory is expected to be issued. Similarly along the coast.
“Santa Ana’s wind gusts on Saturday will cause a short period of significant damage from elevated fire weather conditions,” the National Weather Service said.
Stronger Santa Ana winds are possible Tuesday into Wednesday, with wind speeds of 40 to 60 mph in Los Angeles and Ventura counties, with isolated gusts of 80 mph in mountainous areas.
However, this is expected to be a more typical Santa Ana wind event, similar to the extreme wind conditions that caused the Palisades and Eaton fires to become some of the most destructive in Los Angeles County history. Not yet.
Winds earlier this week were very unusual for Los Angeles County. Typically, when winds of up to 100 mph hit Los Angeles County, they are often isolated from the mountains.
The storm from Tuesday to Wednesday was “extremely rare because the winds were very widespread and strong. Not only in the foothills, but also in the valleys and areas that are not affected during typical Santa Ana high winds. “It was spreading,” said Kristan Lund, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
For example, Altadena and the foothills of the San Gabriel Valley typically experience “minimal impact” during Santa Ana winds, Lund said.
Some long-term forecasts suggest there may be rain later next week, but it will likely be on the “lighter side”, the Bureau of Meteorology said.
Los Angeles is unusually dry. Only 0.16 inches of rain has fallen in downtown Los Angeles since the start of the water year on October 1st. This is only 3% of the average precipitation (4.99 inches) that downtown Los Angeles should receive at this point in the season.
The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health declared a local health emergency due to the fire.
“The fires, combined with strong winds, have significantly degraded air quality by emitting harmful smoke and particulate matter, posing immediate and long-term risks to public health,” the ministry said in a statement Friday night. said.
The declaration prohibits the use of electric leaf blowers and other devices that can kick up ash and particulate matter into the air until further notice.
Public health officials said if you see or smell smoke, you should close windows and doors to keep indoor air clean. If you need to be out for an extended period of time, wear an N95 or P100 mask. If you experience severe shortness of breath, cough, wheezing, chest pain, palpitations, nausea, or unusual fatigue, call your doctor or seek emergency medical care. If your symptoms are life-threatening, call 911.
Multiple unauthorized drones flew over a fire scene in the Palisades on Friday afternoon, forcing fire planes to retreat from the area to ensure safety and angering front-line workers, authorities said.
These sightings came just a day after a drone struck and damaged a fixed-wing Super Scooper aircraft, taking it out of service for several days for repairs and reducing the number of aircraft available to fight the fire.
Questions are being raised about Los Angeles city officials’ response to the fire disaster and why water problems led to depleted hydrants and hampered efforts to extinguish the fire.
The Times has discovered that a large reservoir in the Pacific Palisades, part of Los Angeles’ water system, was shut down during the raging wildfires. The Santa Ynez Reservoir has been closed since February for repairs to the cap, and the 117 million-gallon storage facility in the heart of the Palisades has remained empty for nearly a year, officials said.
The revelation comes amid growing questions about why firefighters ran out of water in the fight against the blaze, which started this week. The Times reported that numerous fire hydrants on high-altitude streets in the Palisades neighborhood had run dry and crews fighting the fire were suffering from low water pressure.
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday ordered an independent investigation by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, calling the loss of water pressure and the empty Santa Ynez Reservoir “very alarming.”
Local fire officials acknowledged Wednesday that they are overwhelmed by the power and size of the largest fire in Los Angeles County this week, putting an extreme strain on their crews and resources.
In other areas, firefighters gained the upper hand on smaller wildfires. It shows how the ability to use aircraft to drop water on flames can play an important role in limiting the spread of fires when winds are calm.
Officials on Friday praised firefighters for their quick actions at the Kenneth Fire, which broke out Thursday around 2:30 p.m. near the west end of Woodland Hills. The fire started from Victory Boulevard to the rolling hills of the Upper Las Vergenes Canyon Open Space Preserve.
Firefighting helicopters moved quickly and sprayed water. The fire had charred 1,052 acres of brush and was 50% contained as of Friday, authorities said.
A man “attempted to start a fire” Thursday in the West Hills neighborhood burned by the Kenneth Fire and is being investigated in connection with the fire, according to law enforcement officials and documents reviewed by the Times.
Times staff writers Rebecca Ellis, Hannah Fry, Matt Hamilton, Ian James, Sandra McDonald, Luke Money, James Querrey, Nathan Solis, Grace Twohey and Richard Winton contributed to this report. I did.
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