Los Angeles Faces Little Relief From Wildfires As Winds Persist

(MENAFN- Live Mint) (Bloomberg) -- Dry, hot winds will fan blazes in Los Angeles into midweek - and some forecasts show little relief for the rest of the month - as Southern California struggles with one of the worst starts to a year for wildfires.

While good progress has been made blunting two of the region's smaller blazes, the largest are raging almost out of control Sunday even as thousands of firefighters take on the infernos in what the city fire chief described as a“relentless air attack.” Firefighters from across the US, as well as Canada and Mexico, have converged in California to assist in battling the flames.

The weather is proving a formidable foe. Red flag fire warnings have been posted through Wednesday as dry winds sweep the region, spreading blazes, turning vegetation to fuel and making water dropped from aircraft less effective. More than 8.4 million people will face critical fire-weather conditions Sunday, and that danger will linger for days, the US Storm Prediction Center said, with no rain in the forecast.

A stagnant pattern of high pressure and low pressure across the West has created a natural funnel to blast winds over Southern California.

“It is a disastrous pattern and there is not much chance of it changing,” said Bob Oravec, a senior branch forecaster at the US Weather Prediction Center.“If anything it just looks like it reloads across the West and it looks like it gets worse by the end of the month.”

Expanded evacuation areas include the ultra-affluent neighborhoods of Brentwood and Bel Air, as well as some of Los Angeles' most important cultural institutions. The Getty Center, an architectural landmark with a world-class art collection, has a fire-resistant design that may be put to the test.

The devastation had killed 16 people as of Saturday night. Eleven died in the city of Altadena from the Eaton Fire, while five perished in the Palisades fire.

Thirteen people are missing, officials said. Another 19 have been arrested in the Eaton Fire and an additional three in the Palisades for curfew violations, burglary and looting. More than 16,000 people have applied for assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Regional Administrator Bob Fenton said.

By late Saturday, the Palisades Fire near Malibu had burned 23,654 acres and was only 11% contained, while the the Eaton blaze close to Pasadena had consumed 14,117 acres and was 15% contained, officials said. More than 10,000 structures have been destroyed in the two fires, placing them as the third- and fourth-most destructive in state history.

At least 101 fires have started this month, which is higher than last year's 39 and the five-year average of 46, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, commonly called Cal Fire.

In addition to the threats posed to residents, the University of California, Los Angeles has told students and staff all classes will be remote through at least Jan. 17 and the entire campus is operating under emergency conditions, according to its website.

At least 17,587 emergency responders have joined the fight. California Governor Gavin Newsom also announced Saturday that he has doubled National Guard personnel working on the fires to 1,680 responders. Altogether, the state has deployed more than 14,000 people to support firefighting efforts.

Newsom said he's planning measures to fast-track rebuilding and recovery in affected areas, including eliminating requirements under California's Environmental Quality Act, changing the state's Coastal Act and ensuring that property tax assessments don't rise for homeowners who rebuild.

“We've got to be thinking three weeks, three months, three years ahead at the same time we're focusing on the immediacy, which is life safety and property,” Newsom said on NBC's Meet the Press.

California officials have invited President-elect Donald Trump to tour the areas damaged by the fires, but he hasn't responded to them publicly. His staff didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

The fires also have put pressure on utilities that preemptively cut electricity to residents. Edison International's Southern California power company has been asked by attorneys representing insurance companies to preserve evidence in connection with the Eaton Fire.

Edison has also said fire agencies are investigating whether the company's equipment was involved in the ignition of the smaller Hurst Fire near San Fernando.“Right now, we don't have any evidence that says that the Hurst Fire was caused by our equipment, but there's a lot more investigation to be done,” President and CEO of Southern California Edison Steven Powell told reporters Saturday.

As of Sunday, 63,485 customers were without power, PowerOutage said.

The US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms is investigating the fires, Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell announced Saturday.

California has a history of devastating wildfires sparked by electric utility equipment during wind storms. The state's largest utility, PG&E Corp., filed for bankruptcy in 2019 after a series of deadly blazes blamed on its wires.

The fires are the most devastating natural disaster to strike Los Angeles since the 1994 Northridge earthquake, which killed 57 people, and are likely to rank among the costliest natural disasters in modern US history. Commercial-forecaster AccuWeather Inc. estimates direct and secondary losses, which account for uninsured destruction and indirect economic impact such as lost wages and supply-chain disruptions, may reach between $135 billion to $150 billion.

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