‘Not out of the woods yet’: Extreme red flag warnings are back in effect for L.A. area
The most extreme level of a red flag fire warning, a “particularly dangerous situation,” returned to parts of Los Angeles and Ventura counties Wednesday morning, heightening concerns about the potential for new fires to start.
The period of highest risk was expected to begin just before sunrise through midday. Mountain wind gusts were expected to rise to 45 mph to 55 mph, with local gusts up to to 60 mph, according to the National Weather Service office in Oxnard. Forecasters expect Wednesday will be noticeably windier than Tuesday.
This article is provided free of charge to help keep our community safe and supported during these devastating fires.
Ventura County is expected to be at particular risk if a fire sparks. The northern Ventura County mountains may get stronger winds than typically seen during a Santa Ana wind event. Gusts reached as high as 54 mph — in the Santa Susana Mountains — Wednesday morning.
“The danger has not yet passed,” Los Angeles Fire Department Chief Kristin Crowley said during a news conference Wednesday. “So please prioritize your safety.”
Winds on Tuesday ended up being calmer than forecasters had anticipated — good news for firefighters. In the past several days, crews have stopped the growth of the devastating Palisades and Eaton fires and have rushed to boost containment ahead of the anticipated winds.
Firefighters continue to focus on hot spots to reduce the risk that winds will pick up smoldering embers and firebrands and carry them into new areas.
The Palisades fire has burned more than 23,700 acres and was 19% contained as of Wednesday morning up from 17% a day earlier. Containment is a reference to how much of the fire’s edge, or perimeter, has been surrounded to the extent firefighters believe they can stop the fire from expanding.
Infrared flights indicate there are still numerous hot spots burning within the Palisades fire footprint.
“Very close attention was paid to address any flare-ups swiftly as to prevent any fire spread outside of the perimeter,” Crowley said.
The Eaton fire in the Altadena area has burned just more than 14,100 acres and was 45% contained as of Wednesday morning, up from 35% a day earlier.
A “particularly dangerous situation” signifies the most extreme level of a red flag fire warning, although officials note that Wednesday’s winds will not be as severe as the historic windstorms that fueled the fires last week. The warning began at 3 a.m. Wednesday for portions of the San Fernando Valley and Ventura County, including Northridge, Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley, Camarillo and Fillmore and was expected to last through 3 p.m.
“We are not out of the woods yet, and people need to stay on guard for a fast-moving fire,” Ryan Kittell, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service office in Oxnard, said.
A conventional red flag warning — which warns of severe wildfire behavior if ignition occurs — remains in effect for large portions of L.A., San Diego, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura counties, as well as some mountainous areas of Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties.
The air is expected to be quite dry, with relative humidity as low as 8% in Los Angeles and Ventura counties.
Red flag fire weather warnings are expected to last until 6 p.m. Wednesday but will extend through 3 p.m. Thursday in a few spots in Los Angeles and Ventura counties, including the Grapevine section of Interstate 5, the western San Gabriel Mountains and the Santa Susana Mountains.
Fire weather conditions are expected to improve starting Wednesday night through Saturday. But starting around Monday, there is a moderate risk for another round of red flag warnings.
The region is experiencing a painful dry spell that is among the driest starts to a winter on record, a major reason the fire risk is so high. There are still no significant chances of rain through Jan. 25, forecasters say.
Those looking to assist residents affected by the Los Angeles County firestorm have a number of options to donate money, materials or their time.
Downtown Los Angeles has received barely a drop of water for months — just 0.16 of an inch since Oct. 1, or just 3% of the seasonal average. Typically, at this point in the water year, downtown Los Angeles has received an average of 5.45 inches of rain. The annual average is 14.25 inches.
“As long as we go without seeing rain, it just doesn’t take much. The vegetation is just starving for moisture, and then when you get the wind on top of it, there’s definitely potential for fire behavior” after an ignition, said Alex Tardy, meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in San Diego.
Exacerbating the fire risk is that January is the peak season for Santa Ana winds — powerful winds that develop when high pressure over Nevada and Utah sends cold air screaming toward lower-pressure areas along the California coast. The air dries out and compresses and heats up as it flows downslope from the high deserts — from the northeast — over California’s mountains and through canyons, drying out vegetation as the wind gusts through.
The havoc caused by the blazes — more than 28,000 acres have been scorched — necessitates immediate and long-term relief.
While Santa Anas are common in December and January it’s not typical to have conditions this dry, Tardy said.
For many areas of Southern California, “this is the driest start to any water year,” Tardy said, “and you can see extreme fire behavior with the ignitions.”
The winds come as thousands of Angelenos remain under evacuation orders or warnings. Many whose homes were destroyed in the Eaton and Palisades fires have not been allowed back to their properties as officials continue damage assessments and search for additional fatalities.
As firefighters continue to battle multiple major wildfires, The Times has compiled a list of resources to help.
There are 2,191 structures that have been destroyed in the Palisades fire and 397 that have been damaged, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. However, officials are also still doing damage assessments, so those numbers are likely to increase. Authorities estimate that 5,300 structures have burned in that fire.
Damage assessments have confirmed 4,627 structures destroyed in the Eaton fire, though inspection teams have completed assessments for only 45% of the structures in the fire’s footprint, according to Cal Fire. Officials estimate that 7,000 structures were damaged or destroyed; structures can include homes, businesses, smaller outbuildings, sheds and even vehicles.
The Palisades and Eaton fires are also among the deadliest in California’s history. Officials confirmed the number of deaths from both fires is 25 — 16 from Eaton and nine from Palisades —but warned the death toll is likely to keep rising.
There are more than 30 missing person reports across both fires, officials said.
Questions were being raised on a number of levels about planning leading up to last week’s fires.
As the Los Angeles Fire Department faced extraordinary warnings of life-threatening winds, top commanders decided not to assign for emergency deployment roughly 1,000 available firefighters and dozens of water-carrying engines in advance of the fire that destroyed much of the Pacific Palisades and continues to burn, interviews and internal LAFD records show.
Coverage of the Eaton and Palisades fires, including stories about the unprecedented losses, issues firefighters faced and the winds.
The causes of both large fires are under investigation.
Investigators looking into the Eaton fire are focusing on an area around a Southern California Edison electrical transmission tower in Eaton Canyon.
As for the Palisades fire, sources with knowledge of the investigation have told The Times that the fire, which started in the Skull Rock area north of Sunset Boulevard, appears to have human origins. Officials are looking into whether a small fire possibly sparked by New Year’s Eve fireworks could somehow have rekindled Jan 7.
Gov. Gavin Newsom has ordered an investigation into the causes behind water supply problems that left fire hydrants dry and hampered firefighting efforts during the devastating fires in Southern California.
The Times has reported that numerous fire hydrants in higher-elevation streets of the Palisades went dry, leaving crews struggling with low water pressure as they combated the flames. The Times has also found that a large reservoir in Pacific Palisades, Santa Ynez Reservoir, that is part of the Los Angeles water supply system was out of commission when the Palisades fire broke out.
The L.A.-area fires may pose the first big test of California’s wildfire fund, which was set up in 2019 to protect utilities from bankruptcy.
Times staff writers Andrew J. Campa, Howard Blume, Noah Goldberg, Matt Hamilton, Salvador Hernandez, Ian James, Jenny Jarvie, Paul Pringle, Dakota Smith and Alene Tchekmedyian contributed to this report.
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