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🙏 L.A. inferno
 
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Parts of Sunset Boulevard in Pacific Palisades were left in ruins yesterday. Photo: Apu Gomes/Getty Images

The Hollywood Hills blazed as the worst wildfires in L.A. history raged deep into the storied heartland of the film industry, Reuters reports.

  • A crescent of flame squeezed L.A. in a huge pincer visible from space.

130,000 people were ordered to evacuate as dry, hurricane-force winds hindered firefighting operations.

  • Five people have been killed and at least 2,000 structures have been destroyed or damaged since the fires erupted Tuesday.
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A wildfire-ravaged property in Pacific Palisades yesterday. Photo: Damian Dovarganes/AP

"This firestorm is the big one," L.A. Mayor Karen Bass said after rushing back to the city, cutting short an official trip to Ghana.

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The Pacific Palisades location of Gelson's, a fancy supermarket chain in Southern California, was completely lost to fire. Photo: Damian Dovarganes/AP

Being there: The Sunset Fire in the Hollywood Hills started last evening as officials were holding a news conference to update residents on efforts to fight massive fires in Pacific Palisades and Altadena, AP reports.

  • The Hollywood Walk of Fame was bustling and the streets around the TCL Chinese Theatre and Madame Tussauds were packed with stop-and-go traffic. Sirens blared and low-flying helicopters flew overhead to dump water on the flames, which were only about a mile away.

Within a few hours, firefighters had made major progress. L.A. Fire Department Capt. Erik Scott said: "We hit it hard and fast, and Mother Nature was a little nicer to us today than she was yesterday."

phkrause

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Fires could force insurance overhaul
 
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A playground burns Tuesday in a residential neighborhood of Pasadena, Calif. Photo: Josh Edelson/AFP via Getty Images

L.A. wind-whipped fires are reopening a debate about how the insurance industry can model and manage risk, as large-scale disasters become frighteningly common, Axios' Ben Berkowitz reports.

  • Why it matters: California's insurance market is in the middle of major reforms to deal with the cost of fire. But they may not be fast enough given the billions of dollars at stake.
Axios Visuals: 2023-09-22-insurance-maps
Data: First Street Foundation. Map: Kavya Beheraj/Axios

Some market experts warn California may need to consider becoming a primary insurer for fire risk, much as it already did with earthquakes and Florida did with hurricanes.

The bottom line: Heavily populated parts of the U.S. — particularly in California and Florida — could become virtually uninsurable due to climate change, Axios' Erica Pandey reports.

phkrause

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Los Angeles wildfires

At least five people have died as several major fires in Los Angeles County remain mostly uncontained. The seaside neighborhood of Pacific Palisades has been devastated, with many residents and reporters describing the area as "apocalyptic" and a "ghost town." Officials say the Palisades Fire has exploded to more than 17,200 acres with zero containment. It has destroyed at least 1,000 structures, making it the most destructive ever in Los Angeles County. The other massive blaze, the Eaton Fire, is overtaking homes across Altadena and has ballooned to more than 10,000 acres. With wind speeds easing, crews say that air tanker planes will be better able to drop water and fire retardants today to hopefully contain the fires and protect property.

phkrause

Obstinacy is a barrier to all improvement. - ChL 60
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As wildfires rage in Los Angeles, Trump doesn’t offer much sympathy. He’s casting blame.

WASHINGTON (AP) — As cataclysmic wildfires rage across Los Angeles, President-elect Donald Trump hasn’t been offering much sympathy. Instead, he’s claiming he could do a better job managing the crisis, spewing falsehoods and casting blame on the state’s Democratic governor.

https://apnews.com/article/trump-newsom-wildfire-los-angeles-california-hydrants-water-3d20474ceb25f163adff4456a54efbf2

ps:As per usual, nothing to offer!!

phkrause

Obstinacy is a barrier to all improvement. - ChL 60
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LA Budgeted Money For Cop Jobs While Cutting Fire Department Positions. Now the City Is Burning.

Less than 12 hours after a massive fire began ripping through the Pacific Palisades on Tuesday, the Los Angeles Fire Department made a rare request. All LAFD firefighters, including those off-duty, were asked to phone in their availability. Stoked by high winds, the blaze was growing quickly, and the LAFD was already fighting a losing battle. Such a summons hadn’t been issued in nearly two decades

https://theintercept.com/2025/01/08/la-police-budget-palisades-fires/?

It’s not really the typical time for nasty California fires. What changed that?

Southern California is experiencing its most devastating winter fires in more than four decades. Fires don’t usually blaze at this time of year, but specific ingredients have come together to defy the calendar in a fast and deadly manner.

https://apnews.com/article/fire-devastation-climate-change-santa-ana-winds-a46e2bb6785b1e325f6076fb22c8fcc5?

🔥 Fires have killed at least 5
 
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A before-and-after satellite view of homes and buildings on East Altadena Dr. in Altadena, Calif. Photos: MAXAR

This side-by-side image shows the intense destruction the California wildfires have caused as they have roared through residential areas of Los Angeles. See more.

🚒 Where it stands: The Palisades Fire — the largest and most destructive of several fires burning now in L.A. — is still 0% contained.

  • And it may get worse before it gets better. Strong Santa Ana winds, which helped fuel the fires' sudden onslaught, are expected to strengthen again tonight and into tomorrow.
  • "It is safe to say that the Palisades Fire is one of the most destructive natural disasters in the history of Los Angeles," Los Angeles City Fire Chief Kristin Crowley said at a press conference today.
  • The destruction across the greater L.A. area is so vast that parts "look like a bomb was dropped" on them, L.A. Sheriff Robert Luna said at the press conference.
mail?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimages.axios.com%
Today's L.A. Times front page

phkrause

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LA fires burn 10,000 buildings
 
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Pacific Palisades neighborhood of LA yesterday. Photo: Mark J. Terrill/AP

The two biggest wildfires ravaging LA have killed at least 10 people and damaged or destroyed 10,000+ homes and other structures, AP reports:

  • The Eaton Fire near Pasadena, which started Tuesday night, has burned more than 5,000 structures, a term that includes homes, apartment buildings, businesses, outbuildings and vehicles. Firefighters were able to establish the first bit of containment yesterday.
  • To the west in Pacific Palisades, the largest of the fires burning in the LA area has destroyed over 5,300 structures. Firefighters had no containment.

At least 130,000 residents are under evacuation orders.

  • All the major fires are located in a roughly 25-mile band north of downtown, spreading a sense of fear and sadness across the nation's second-largest city. No cause has been identified for the largest fires.
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Malibu, Calif., yesterday. Photo: Mark J. Terrill/AP

Billy Crystal lost the Pacific Palisades house where he had lived since 1979. Paris Hilton watched her Malibu beach mansion burn down on live TV, Reuters reports.

  • The list of celebrities who lost their homes and neighborhoods in the worst fire in LA history reads like a Hollywood who's who.

Jamie Lee Curtis, James Woods, Mandy Moore, Mark Hamill and Maria Shriver were among those who publicly described being forced to evacuate as out-of-control fires swept across some of the most lavish real estate in the world. Read on.

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LA Times front pages, yesterday and today

While the fires that devastated celebrity neighborhoods near Malibu have caught the world's attention, a similar size blaze in Eaton Canyon, north of LA, ravaged Altadena, a racially and economically diverse community, Reuters reports.

  • Black and Latino families have lived in Altadena for generations. The suburb is also popular with younger artists and engineers working at the nearby NASA rocket lab. Read on.

📷 See four before-and-after images.

 

Los Angeles wildfires

At least 10 people have died this week in wildfires across Los Angeles County, but officials warn the death toll may rise once it's safe for investigators to access neighborhoods. Five fast-moving fires have scorched over 25,000 acres and destroyed nearly 2,000 homes, businesses and other structures. The Palisades Fire, which is now the most destructive ever to hit Los Angeles County, and the Eaton Fire, which has devastated communities, remain mostly uncontained. Crews made progress against the fires on Thursday morning as the Santa Ana winds weakened, but gusts picked up across the region as the day went on. Firefighting teams expect more wind and dry conditions to complicate efforts this weekend and into next week.

phkrause

Obstinacy is a barrier to all improvement. - ChL 60
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phkrause

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Los Angeles wildfires: Updates from Jan. 10, 2025

As fierce winds die down Friday, firefighters are looking to make progress on stopping and containing the massive blazes in the Los Angeles area. At least 10 people have died and 153,000 residents are still under evacuation orders.

https://apnews.com/live/wildfire-california-los-angeles-updates?

phkrause

Obstinacy is a barrier to all improvement. - ChL 60
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phkrause

Obstinacy is a barrier to all improvement. - ChL 60
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🧠 Fires' psychological toll
 
Illustration of a paper silhouette of a head with charred center.
 

Illustration: Lindsey Bailey/Axios

 

Entire neighborhoods in Southern California have been destroyed by deadly wildfires, displacing communities that don't know what — if anything — they'll have to return to.

  • Researchers have linked wildfires to long-lasting anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder in survivors, in addition to the well-documented physical toll, Axios' April Rubin writes.

"There is the lingering, not knowing status of what happened," Jeff Katzman, a Connecticut-based psychiatrist who grew up in the Pacific Palisades told Axios. "There's the experience of loss of an entire community that has generations of meaning."

mail?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimages.axios.com%
Front pages of today's Washington Post, LA Times

🔎 Zoom in: People exposed to California's deadliest wildfire, the 2018 Camp Fire, showed greater chronic symptoms of PTSD, anxiety and depression, according to research published in 2023.

  • Another study from last year linked wildfires to increased emergency room visits for anxiety disorders.

Case in point: LA families calling Parents Anonymous, a nonprofit helpline, have been expressing extreme distress this week, said Lisa Pion-Berlin, CEO of Parents Anonymous.

  • For those whose houses were destroyed, "it's not just the things in the building you lost, you lost a home," she said. "And that's a safe place where you're raising a family, where you go to relax, where you go to cry, where you go to celebrate, where you have birthday parties."

phkrause

Obstinacy is a barrier to all improvement. - ChL 60
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phkrause

Obstinacy is a barrier to all improvement. - ChL 60
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LA’s fire chief is at the center of a public spat with City Hall as wildfires rage

Kristin Crowley was elevated to Los Angeles fire chief in 2022 at a time of turmoil in a department consumed by complaints of rampant hazing, harassment and discrimination among its 3,400-member ranks. As a career firefighter, she was portrayed by the then-mayor as a stabilizing force.

https://apnews.com/article/los-angeles-fire-chief-crowley-bass-9076f31e7929b559e3afede572e119a4?

phkrause

Obstinacy is a barrier to all improvement. - ChL 60
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🔬 New LA fire clues
 
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A home burns in Pacific Palisades on Wednesday. Photo: Agustin Paullier/AFP via Getty Images

The Pacific Palisades fire may have been caused by the re-ignition of an old fire, according to a Washington Post analysis of images, radio communications and witness interviews (gift link).

  • Firefighters had put out the old fire six days before the Palisades fire started. Residents believe that one was caused by New Year's Eve fireworks. Then, the Palisades fire appeared to start from the same spot.

🔭 The big picture: "From Colorado to California to Hawaii, flare-ups of previous fires, known as re-ignition, have been the cause of some of the nation's most catastrophic and deadly wildfires," The Post reports.

  • "This past summer, California officials coordinated a social media campaign to warn residents that terrain scorched but seemingly extinguished can spawn deadly new fires for weeks after the old ones appear to have gone out, as fire can smolder almost undetected underground or inside wood."

The latest: The death toll from the Eaton and Palisades fires has risen to at least 24, per the L.A. County medical examiner's Sunday evening update.

  • 16 people have been reported missing, a number authorities said was likely to rise.

More than 100,000 residents remain under evacuation orders and over 12,000 structures have been destroyed, Axios' Avery Lotz reports.

  • The Kenneth, Sunset and Lidia fires have been 100% contained, Gov. Gavin Newsom said yesterday.
  • The Hurst fire was at 89% containment yesterday evening, per Cal Fire.

The Palisades and Eaton fires, the biggest of the blazes, were 11% and 27% contained, respectively.

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Flowers and a car are covered by fire retardant in Mandeville Canyon, where firefighters managed to fight back flames. Photo: Ringo Chiu/Reuters

"This is your Hurricane Katrina," Craig Fugate, who led FEMA under former President Obama, told The L.A. Times.

  • "It will forever change the community. It will be a touch point that everybody will remember, before and after. And for Los Angeles, this will become one of the defining moments of the community, the city and the county's history."

What's next: Firefighters are bracing for several days of winds that could make it even more difficult to contain the firestorm, The L.A. Times reports.

🗞️ Headline du jour, from The Wall Street Journal: "Hollywood Stars in Its Own Disaster As Fires Ravage Los Angeles"

phkrause

Obstinacy is a barrier to all improvement. - ChL 60
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LA fires

At least 24 people have died and dozens are missing as firefighters continue to battle the deadly Los Angeles wildfires. It’s been less than a week since the year’s first wildfire embers raced through the air over LA, carried by hurricane-level Santa Ana winds to spark some of the deadliest wildfires California has ever seen. The Palisades Fire started Tuesday, and by the end of Wednesday, it had burned more than 17,000 acres. Now, with the Palisades blaze and the nearby Eaton fire still mostly uncontained, renewed Santa Ana winds threaten to enlarge those blazes or even start new ones. Winds are expected to slightly increase through today and could gust between 45-55 mph. That’s put nearly eight million people under critical fire weather, according to the Storm Prediction Center.

 

phkrause

Obstinacy is a barrier to all improvement. - ChL 60
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How the wildfires in the Los Angeles area could affect California’s home insurance market

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — The wildfires that destroyed homes in multiple sections of the Los Angeles area will test California’s efforts to stabilize the state’s insurance marketplace after many insurers stopped issuing residential policies due to the high fire risk.

https://apnews.com/article/california-wildfires-los-angeles-insurance-6fbb51bd3060743da0638baf4cf2845d?

🔥 New fire warning
 
Volunteers help people load bags at a large donation site
 

Volunteers help people load bags at a large donation site that has sprung up at the Pasadena Community Job Center. Photo: Nick Ut/Getty Images

 

Weather forecasters have only more bad news for firefighters battling the L.A.-area fires, Axios' Andrew Freedman reports.

🚨 Zoom in: Winds during this event will be closer to a typical strong Santa Ana, at 50–70 mph instead of up to 100 mph as seen last week.

  • But the east-to-west air flow will likely target areas that didn't have such strong winds last week, particularly in Ventura County.
  • "THIS IS A PARTICULARLY DANGEROUS SITUATION (PDS) FOR PORTIONS OF LOS ANGELES AND VENTURA COUNTIES!" the NWS said.

Go deeper ... How to help.

🚩 "Red flag" warning for LA fire resurgence
 
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Fire and utility trucks, plus other vehicles, park yesterday along Pacific Coast Highway near homes destroyed in Pacific Palisades, Calif. Photo: Mario Tama/Getty Images

Weather forecasters have more bad news for firefighters battling the LA fires, Axios' Andrew Freedman reports.

The latest: Four major fires have consumed more than 62 square miles, an area larger than San Francisco.

Go deeper: The calamity shows what can go horribly wrong even when weather forecasts and warnings prove eerily prescient.

phkrause

Obstinacy is a barrier to all improvement. - ChL 60
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LA wildfires

Firefighters are facing challenging conditions in their battle against the Los Angeles wildfires, with powerful winds forecast over the next 24 hours that could cause extreme fire behavior in the existing blazes or turn any new spark into an inferno. A new blaze, the Auto Fire, broke out late Monday in Ventura County, part of an area under the highest fire threat as winds pick up, prompting a swift response from local fire departments that managed to halt the fire’s forward progress. Meanwhile, the Eaton and Palisades fires are likely the second and fourth most destructive in California history. The total area burned by the Palisades, Eaton and Hurst fires is about 60 square miles, an area larger than Paris.

phkrause

Obstinacy is a barrier to all improvement. - ChL 60
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phkrause

Obstinacy is a barrier to all improvement. - ChL 60
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‘Nobody’s dying': A look inside how a senior home evacuated before burning down in LA wildfire

Flush with her $1.25 winnings at the bingo tables, Sharon Tanner retired to a room off the dining hall to discuss the top worry for the residents council at her senior living community: what to do about people leaving their laundry in the washing machines and dryers.

https://apnews.com/article/california-wildfires-escape-evacuate-senior-citizens-7068811f9be7a03c4932817320d97b73?

 

Los Angeles wildfires

The death toll from the catastrophic wildfires in Los Angeles has risen to at least 25, according to an update from the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner. Nine people died in the Palisades Fire and 16 people died in the Eaton Fire, the update said. Meanwhile, over 6 million people in Southern California are currently under critical fire threat as crews work tirelessly to prevent further spread. As investigators search for answers, a new analysis shows the fires were larger and more intense because of planet-warming pollution. The study raises the question of whether the fires could have been controllable were it not for the fire-fueling effects of climate change.

phkrause

Obstinacy is a barrier to all improvement. - ChL 60
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phkrause

Obstinacy is a barrier to all improvement. - ChL 60
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After the Palisades Fire, What Can We Really Rebuild?

As the community of Pacific Palisades, California, burns, ProPublica’s Tim Golden reflects on how the blaze will transform his hometown.

https://www.propublica.org/article/pacific-palisades-california-wildfires-rebuilding-community?

Los Angeles wildfires

A period of dangerous fire weather conditions in Los Angeles has passed but confidence is increasing that another Santa Ana Wind event will impact Southern California next week. "We are not out of the woods yet," Mayor Karen Bass said Wednesday as Cal Fire warned of "extreme hazards and the potential for fire growth." The National Weather Service said another round of Santa Ana Winds is set to begin in parts of Los Angeles County late next Monday and into Tuesday. This comes as the Palisades Fire is still just 21% contained, burning across more than 23,700 acres. The Eaton Fire — the most destructive fire in Southern California history — is only 45% contained.

 

phkrause

Obstinacy is a barrier to all improvement. - ChL 60
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We Will All Be Paying For L.A.’s Wildfires

Los Angeles’ wildfires and an industry-tied insurance regulator may prove a tipping point for the country’s faltering financial safety net.

https://www.levernews.com/we-will-all-be-paying-for-l-a-s-wildfires/

Inside the monumental effort behind LA’s firefight, from strategy to meals and laundry

On a recent day fighting the Los Angeles wildfires, a fire crew’s radios crackled to life, warning of nearby flames as helicopter blades thudded overhead. Juan Tapia — an experienced firefighter from Morelia, Mexico — tore out scrub brush as tall as himself, just days after arriving in California. And Karley Desrosiers, fresh from British Columbia, scrambled to communicate the latest update on the fire to an anxious public.

https://apnews.com/article/wildfire-los-angeles-palisades-eaton-firefighters-canada-mexico-64e8c5f9da32e38ab4ca010ced7e5457?

phkrause

Obstinacy is a barrier to all improvement. - ChL 60
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Los Angeles wildfires

Tens of thousands of residents in Los Angeles County who were forced to evacuate the wildfires raging in the area will have to wait at least another week before they can return to their homes to survey damage, retrieve necessities and assess what can be salvaged of their remaining property. More than 12,000 structures have been destroyed in the Eaton and Palisades fires and securing the evacuation zones goes beyond ensuring the blazes are out. Toxic ash, hazardous waste and charred debris left in the wake of the infernos must be cleaned up, plus repairs to infrastructure such as water and electricity, officials said. As of today, over 170,000 people are still under evacuation notices in LA County. 

 

phkrause

Obstinacy is a barrier to all improvement. - ChL 60
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Johnson’s strings-attached disaster aid stance could come back to bite Louisiana in the butt

Any disaster aid to help Los Angeles recover from devastating wildfires could be predicated on whether local and state policy in California contributed to the natural disaster, U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson said earlier this week.

https://lailluminator.com/2025/01/16/johnson-disaster/?

phkrause

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Homes were burning and roads already jammed when Pacific Palisades evacuation order came, AP finds

The first evacuation order covering neighborhoods closest to the start of the devastating Pacific Palisades wildfire didn’t come until about 40 minutes after some of those homes were already burning, according to an Associated Press analysis of emergency communications and interviews with survivors.

https://apnews.com/article/california-wildfires-evacuation-alerts-69f10d320df14c6394fc2c646d1ff0ce?

phkrause

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Warnings for dangerous winds extended in Southern California as new wildfires break out

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Forecasters warned that dangerous winds will buffet Southern California for at least two more days as new wildfires broke out on Tuesday, a pair of major Los Angeles-area blazes burned for a third week, and officials made preparations to protect scorched neighborhoods from toxic ash runoff ahead of potential rain this weekend.

https://apnews.com/article/california-fires-los-angeles-winds-red-flag-warnings-5e599783ebd34a446e5b6690e0ecc777?

phkrause

Obstinacy is a barrier to all improvement. - ChL 60

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