Follow continuing coverage of the wildfires in Southern California.
The wildfires burning in and around Los Angeles have razed neighborhoods, killed at least 24 people and forced desperate evacuations. The two largest have become some of the most deadly and destructive blazes in California history.
The sights of thick columns of smoke, eerie orange skies and beloved landmarks in ashes have instilled a new sense of vulnerability in residents, many of whom are used to fires but unaccustomed to this much destruction.
Dismay was palpable in the city last week as the fires burned out of control, and erroneous evacuation alerts only added to the anxiety. Firefighters were able to contain the smaller blazes over the weekend and partly contain the two largest, but they are still raging, and the danger is far from over.
Here’s the latest.
Where are the fires burning?
Beginning last week, a series of large and small blazes formed a ring of fire around Los Angeles.
The largest is the Palisades fire, along the Pacific Coast west of downtown, which as of Monday evening had scorched more than 23,700 acres and was 14 percent contained, according to Cal Fire. The fire forced evacuations along Pacific Coast Highway, including in Pacific Palisades, Malibu and Santa Monica.
The next largest fire is to the east: the Eaton fire in the San Gabriel Mountains north of Pasadena. It has burned more than 14,000 acres, destroyed thousands of homes and displaced tens of thousands of people in evacuations. The fire’s growth started to slow on Thursday, allowing firefighters to increase containment, which reached 33 percent by Monday evening.
Fire crews have fully contained a number of smaller blazes: the Kenneth fire, which broke out Thursday evening in the West Hills neighborhood of the San Fernando Valley; the Lidia fire, in the Angeles National Forest; the Sunset fire, which ignited Wednesday in the Hollywood Hills; and the Archer fire, which broke out Friday morning in Granada Hills.
Firefighters were close to hemming in the Hurst fire, which started at the northern edge of the metropolitan area near Sylmar. As of Monday evening, that fire had burned nearly 800 acres and was 97 percent contained.
How many homes have been destroyed?
Preliminary estimates of the scale of damage done by the Palisades and Eaton fires put each among the five most destructive in California history. As of Monday, according to Cal Fire estimates, the Palisades fire had destroyed about 5,000 structures and the Eaton fire roughly 7,000 structures, a category that includes homes, garages and businesses.
The Palisades fire destroyed beloved institutions like the Palisades Charter High School, the alma mater of numerous celebrities and a filming location for many TV shows, including “Modern Family.”
Also destroyed was the ranch house that Will Rogers, the popular entertainer and movie star, owned until his death in 1935, and the Topanga Ranch Motel, which appeared in a number of films over the decades.
The National Guard and local law enforcement agencies have been enforcing curfews and trying to keep evacuated neighborhoods locked down until residents can safely return.
At least 34 people had been arrested in the areas affected by the Eaton and Palisades fires on various charges including looting, identity theft, possession of narcotics and possession of burglary tools, officials said on Monday morning.
The Los Angeles County district attorney announced several prosecutions related to the fires on Monday afternoon, primarily on charges of looting.
How many people have died?
So far, 24 people have been killed in the fires. The Eaton fire has killed 16, making it one of the deadliest in California’s history, and at least eight have died in the Palisades blaze. Another 23 people have been reported missing in the areas of the two fires, and officials have warned that the number of fatalities is likely to rise.
Details have begun to emerge about those killed. Five of the victims of the Eaton fire lived within blocks of each other in a close-knit neighborhood in the eastern part of the city of Altadena. The dead in the Palisades fire included a hang-glider, a surfer and a former child star from Australia.
Why did so many wildfires break out at about the same time?
Forecasters warned for days before the first fires erupted last week that fire danger would be very high. They cautioned that wind gusts could reach 50 to 80 miles an hour, and even 100 m.p.h. or more in some places in the mountains. And vegetation built up over two consecutive wet winters had turned to tinder after months of drought this year. The combination of high winds, dry air and ample fuel combined to make a critical fire-weather event likely in Southern California.
Late fall and early winter tend to be when catastrophic fires are most likely to break out in California. Cooler weather coincides with the arrival of Santa Ana winds, the strong, dry gusts that blow southwest from Nevada and Utah into Southern California and are linked to the region’s most devastating fires.
The deadliest and most destructive fire in California’s recent history, which destroyed the town of Paradise in the foothills of the Sierras, broke out in mid-November 2018.
Are the fires expected to keep growing?
Firefighters have been racing to contain the blazes, and their efforts made significant headway as winds eased over the weekend.
But another round of strong, gusty conditions is forecast for late Monday and Tuesday. Forecasters cautioned that while the coming winds might be slightly weaker than they were last week, their prolonged duration could worsen fire conditions.
President Biden, who is in his final week in office, said in a statement on Monday that his administration remained “laser-focused on helping survivors” of the wildfires and would “continue to use every tool available to support the urgent firefight as the winds are expected to increase.”
There is some relief in sight, according to the National Weather Service. Wind speeds are forecast to drop on Thursday and remain low over the weekend.
Jacey Fortin and Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs contributed reporting.
