“With those winds being very calm this morning, I believe we can actually make progress, turn a corner and start to contain these fires,” Cal Fire Battalion Chief Brent Pasqua said. 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 falsely accused California’s governor of mismanaging the state’s water resources to save an endangered fish.
City crews have now reached three water reservoirs on the hills near the Palisades fire to increase pressure. Stewart says this allows the reservoirs to refill more quickly so they can continue to supply hydrants. Each tank can hold 1 million gallons. “We have flowing hydrants,” he says.
More firefighters are starting to arrive from Utah, Oregon, Arizona, Washington and New Mexico. According to Stewart, dozens of task forces are on the way, each with five fire engines plus a command vehicle.
The planes started flying again on Wednesday. 12 helicopters are filling huge buckets of water suspended from cables and suctioning seawater through scuba diving. Six aircraft are also working on the fire, including a pair of “SuperScope” planes that have crossed the surface of the Pacific Ocean to scoop up water. Helicopters and helicopters drop water on spot fires, allowing firefighters to get close to the fires and put them out.
Meanwhile, other planes drop fire retardants before the inferno, coating the potential fuel with a layer of non-flammable chemicals and slowing its progress. A C-130 cargo plane that Cal Fire purchased from the Coast Guard and upgraded this summer can drop 4,000 gallons of retardant. This takes time for firefighters to dig and bulldoze the bare earth fire pits.
With the ocean bounding the Palisades fire to the south, rescuers are trying to prevent it from spreading east or west. “The real expansion will be on the sides,” Pimlott says.
A red flag warning for increased fire danger will remain in place through Friday with humidity at just 8 to 12 percent. California suffers from a dry winter with 40% of the state in drought conditions.
“Fuels remain extremely dry,” Cal Fire’s James Magana said at a briefing Thursday morning. You can expect to see critical rates of expansion, especially in those ridges or those drains that are aligned with the wind.
The wind direction is expected to change on Saturday. If firefighters are not prepared, the heel of the fire can turn into a front and escape to the north.
Even when they can contain the fire in a circle of firebreaks and natural barriers, it will not be the end. Firefighters must contain smaller fires in this area.
“This is a critical step, to clear these hot spots or anything that could flare up again if the winds pick up again,” Upton says.
Moving forward, the city must clean up debris, restore electrical installations and analyze environmental damage before allowing people to return. Mudslides can become a threat once the rains return, as valleys are emptied of trees and soil-holding vegetation.
Los Angeles will face the prospect of rebuilding devastated communities. It’s an opportunity to make them less vulnerable to the next fire, says Max Moritz, a fire expert at the University of California.
Although in many cases homes must be built with fire-resistant materials, California law does not say anything about how they should be installed. Techniques such as clustering houses instead of spreading them among the trees can make fire defenses easier and evacuations easier, he says.
“It’s part of the hope that we can do some of these things better, smarter and safer,” Moritz said.
Updated 2024-10-1 1:10 GMT: The number of destroyed structures has been updated.
