“Since those winds have been very calm this morning, I believe we can actually make some progress, turn the corner and start building some containment on these fires,” Brent Pascua, Cal Fire Battalion Chief, told Today’s show on Thursday.
So far, the response to the disaster has been marred by misinformation and controversy. After some fire hydrants ran dry, President-elect Donald Trump baselessly accused California Gov. Gavin Newsom of mismanaging the state’s water supplies to save endangered fish.
City employees have now been able to reach three water tanks on the hills near the Palisades Fire to increase pressure. This allows the tanks to be refilled more quickly so they can continue to supply the hydrants, Stewart says. Each tank can hold 1 million gallons. “We have flowing hydrants,” she says.
More firefighters began arriving from Utah, Oregon, Arizona, Washington and New Mexico. Several dozen task forces are on the way, according to Stewart, each with five fire engines plus a command vehicle.
Planes started flying again on Wednesday. Twelve helicopters fill huge water buckets hanging on cables and suck up sea water through snorkels. Six aircraft are also fighting the fires, including a pair of “super scoop” aircraft that flew over the surface of the Pacific to collect water. Helicopters and planes drop water onto the fire, allowing firefighters to get closer and put it out.
Meanwhile, other aircraft drop fire retardant ahead of the inferno, covering the potential fuel with a layer of non-combustible chemicals and slowing its progress. The C-130 cargo plane that Cal Fire acquired from the Coast Guard and retrofitted this summer can drop 4,000 gallons of retardant. This gives the firefighters time to dig and bulldoze the fire belts into the bare ground.
With the ocean bounding the Palisades Fire to the south, emergency responders will try to prevent it from spreading east or west. “The real expansion will be on the flank,” says Pimlott.
A red flag warning for increased fire risk will remain until Friday, with humidity of just 8-12 percent. California suffered from an unusually dry winter, with 40 percent of the state in drought conditions.
“Fuels remain critically dry,” Cal Fire’s James Magana he said at the Thursday morning briefing. “You can expect to see critical spreading rates, especially on those ridge tops or those drainages that are flush with the wind.”
The wind direction is expected to reverse on Saturday. If the firefighters are not ready, the fifth fire could become the front and escape to the north.
Even when they manage to contain the fire within the circle of fire escapes and natural barriers, it will not be the end of the task. Firefighters will have to fight smaller fires within that footprint.
“It’s a critical stage, to clear these hot spots or anything that could reignite if the winds pick up again,” Upton says.
Moving forward, the city will have to clean up the debris, restore utilities and analyze the environmental damage before allowing people to return. With canyons devoid of trees and vegetation to hold the ground, mudslides can become a threat when the rains return.
Los Angeles will be faced with the possibility of rebuilding destroyed communities. It’s an opportunity to make them less vulnerable to the next fire, says Max Moritz, a wildfire expert with the University of California Cooperative Extension.
Although homes in many cases must be built with fire-resistant materials, California law says nothing about how they should be installed. Techniques such as grouping homes instead of spreading them among trees can make them easier to defend against fire and easier to evacuate, he says.
“That’s part of the hope here, that we can do some of this better, smarter and safer,” says Moritz.
Updated 1-10-2024 1:10 GMT: The number of structures destroyed has been updated.