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Dangerously strong winds are expected to continue Monday in Los Angeles, potentially hampering efforts to put out two stubborn wildfires that have leveled entire neighborhoods and killed at least two dozen people.
Santa Ana’s dry winds of up to 80 to 112 kilometers per hour are forecast to continue Monday and last through Wednesday, the National Weather Service said, issuing a “specially hazardous situation” warning.
The most dangerous day will be Tuesday, fire behavior analyst Dennis Burns warned at a community meeting Sunday night.
In anticipation, California Gov. Gavin Newsom said over the weekend that the state is pre-positioning firefighting efforts in vulnerable areas including those around the Palisades and Eaton fires, the two largest wildfires to break out in Southern California.
At least 24 people died in the fires that broke out on January 7. The flames turned entire neighborhoods into smoldering ruins, leaving behind an apocalyptic landscape. Officials said at least 12,300 structures were damaged or destroyed firefighters from CanadaMexico and seven other US states have gathered in the Los Angeles area to help their California-based counterparts.
The return of strong winds threatens the hard-won progress crews have made in containing the fire. Over the weekend, aerial and ground firefighters were able to contain the Palisades Fire as it swept through upscale Brentwood and advanced toward the populous San Fernando Valley to the north.
That blaze on the western side of the metropolis has consumed 96 square kilometers and is 14 percent contained, a figure that represents the percentage of the extent of the fire that firefighters have under control.
The Eaton fire in the foothills east of Los Angeles has scorched 57 square kilometers — almost the size of Manhattan — although containment has risen to 33 percent.
North of the city, the Hurst Fire is 89 percent contained, and three other fires that ravaged other parts of the county are now 100 percent contained, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) reported, although areas inside the containment line may be worse. .
Caleb Serban-Lawler recalls the moment he drove up a mountain into the Los Angeles wildfires to rescue a stranded woman and her four dogs.
‘Like from 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 hill.
Instead, Perez insisted on trying to save his property and the homes of his neighbors.
“Your yard is on fire, the palm trees are lit up — it looked 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 house, help save their houses.”
As crews continue to battle the devastating wildfires around Los Angeles, scientists and other experts are battling misinformation, from how the fires started to ongoing efforts to extinguish the flames.
In anticipation of strong winds returning Monday, officials warned the entire Los Angeles County population of nearly 10 million to be prepared to evacuate.
As of Sunday afternoon, more than 100,000 people in Los Angeles County had been ordered to evacuate — down from the previous high of more than 150,000 — while another 87,000 were under evacuation warnings.
