LA County Fires / Palisades Fire

PRlady said:
But dozens of municipal fire chiefs are saying that a fire like Palisades could never be handled by any municipality hydrant system. They needed air support from planes and helicopters that couldn’t fly because of the wind. And cutting an upcoming budget a month ago has nothing to do with what was available this week.
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Fire hydrant water comes from local reservoirs, whose capacity is limited. In the 1991 Oakland Firestorm, the water pressure in the overly burdened system was at times too low for hydrants in residential areas even to function. Added to this is that there simply aren't any fire hydrants in uninhabited areas such as the open space right behind Pacific Palisades.
 
PRlady said:
I don’t understand leaving your dog behind. How can people do that. Unless they were away from home when evacuated.
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Or the dog was frightened and took off before the owner could get it in a vehicle.

My brother's dog, when it was young, healthy & full of energy would zoom right out the front door and take off up and down the street, zipping & darting away anytime you got close enough to grab it by its scruff and get it back inside. Such an annoying little terrier mutt that every single family member, myself included, chased after on more than one occasion. A dozen years older, she's not nearly as interested in escaping any time the front door opens nowadays - and I like her a lot more as a result, lol.
 
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Inside the dash to save the Getty Villa from the Palisades fire: a timeline - LA Times article by Jessica Gelt (Jan. 9): https://www.latimes.com/entertainme...-save-the-getty-villa-from-the-palisades-fire
Alternate link:
www.yahoo.com

Inside the dash to save the Getty Villa from the Palisades fire: A timeline

The Getty Villa activated its emergency operations center at 10:40 a.m. Tuesday, and within two hours, the fast-moving blaze had reached the grounds. Here's how the staff, museum and precious art were kept safe.
www.yahoo.com www.yahoo.com
Excerpts from the beginning & end:
Fast-moving, wildly unpredictable and catastrophic in the damage it caused along a vast swath of prime coastline, the Palisades fire ultimately spared the Villa and its more than 44,000 objects, including many Roman, Greek and Etruscan relics dating from 6500 BC to AD 400.
J. Paul Getty Trust President and Chief Executive Katherine E. Fleming described for The Times the scene on the ground and how she and her staff worked from a conference center-turned-war room at the Getty Center in Brentwood, about 10 miles away — all while 16 staff members remained at the Villa to implement emergency protocols.
"We did get lucky in some ways, and people were rushing around," Fleming said in an interview Wednesday evening after the most immediate danger had passed. "But there were also a lot of people who were really thoughtful about this over a long period of time, and I think that clearly paid off for us."
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People on social media and news sites may have seen images of flames whipping next to a structure by the Getty Villa sign on Pacific Coast Highway. That structure was not the museum but rather Villa de Leon, a 35-room Italian Revival mansion that's not affiliated with the museum.
Villa teams continued to monitor the fire threat throughout the night, and for now the Villa appears to be safe.
"A lot of what there was to burn has burned. The rosemary is gone. The low-level vegetation is gone," said Fleming, who added that she was too superstitious to say the danger had completely passed.
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PRlady said:
I don’t understand leaving your dog behind. How can people do that. Unless they were away from home when evacuated.
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Notwithstanding leash laws, some people still let their dogs roam free. Even more people let their cats roam free. There are still plenty of houses in places like Pacific Palisades that do not have fences.

After the Oakland Firestorm, people left dry pet food out for strays. Some pets were found months after the fire.
 
Confirmed that one friend lost their home in Altadena. Another returned to a house covered thickly in ash, but still standing. A third one is on her way back to find out.

I'm not going to pass any judgment on that dog's owner - too many unknown variables about the owners location, access to the neighborhood, etc. I just hope he's reunited with his family. The last time a fire edged close to us I was at work a half hour away and our dog was home alone. I was just lucky that I could leave early and our road was still open. The Palisades evacuation did start during standard work hours and traffic in Los Angeles is notoriously bad even under normal circumstances.
 
Karen-W said:
Or the dog was frightened and took off before the owner could get it in a vehicle.

My brother's dog, when it was a young, healthy & full of energy would zoom right out the front door and take off up and down the street, zipping & darting away anytime you got close enough to grab it by its scruff and get it back inside. Such an annoying little terrier mutt that every single family member, myself included, chased after on more than one occasion. A dozen years older, she's not nearly as interested in escaping any time the front door opens nowadays - and I like her a lot more as a result, lol.
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Yes, let’s not forget the adorable Izzie who was frightened and ran when there was not a moment to spare:

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.
youtu.be youtu.be

New Yorker contributer details LA Fire experience:
apple.news

On the Ground During L.A.’s Wildfire Emergency — The New Yorker

With four fires raging, tens of thousands have evacuated and others are confronting the precarity of where they live.
apple.news apple.news
 
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AngieNikodinovLove (ANL) said:
All of my friends here in Hollywood / West Hollywood got mandatory evacuation again Im putting on KTLA there seems to be fires in West Hills but that’s not near Hollywood. Somewhat close. KTLA says they know we all got mandatory evacuation and they’re trying to find out what’s going on
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An emergency alert issuing an evacuation warning for all of Los Angeles County was sent out by accident, according to officials.

“I have been informed the evacuation warning that many of us just received on our phones was mistakenly issued countywide due to a technical error,” County Supervisor Janice Hahn wrote on X. “A correction will be issued shortly.”

Another statement from Hahn stated that the alert was only supposed to go to residents impacted by the [new] Kenneth Fire in West Hills.

ETA:

LOS ANGELES (KTLA) – Firefighters are racing to contain a new wildfire that has erupted close to homes in the area of Calabasas and Hidden Hills, northwest of Los Angeles, on Thursday afternoon.

The Kenneth Fire was first reported around 2:30 p.m. in an area of dry brush in the Upper Las Virgenes Canyon Open Space Preserve, north of the 101 Freeway.

The fire was estimated to be 50 acres at 3:45 p.m. and growing rapidly fanned by Santa Ana winds. Homes were imminently threatened.
 
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My mind boggles when trying to imagine (1) the event that would precipitate an actual evacuation order for nearly ten million people across all of Los Angeles County and (2) how it would even be feasible for everyone to comply with the order. :scream:

Remind me to be somewhere else at the time. :yikes:
 
peibeck said:
abcnews.go.com

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass pushes back against criticism over management of wildfires

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass repeatedly dodged questions about her leadership and alleged lack of initial presence during the ongoing wildfires affecting the area.
abcnews.go.com abcnews.go.com

It's discussed in the section boldly highlighted "Clearing up confusion over fire department budget."
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Honestly, I don't think that anything that comes out of any city official or department spokesperson's mouth right now, in the immediate aftermath, when they're clearly CYAing like mad, can be trusted.

There is zero excuse for the hydrants having no water pressure. None. These people who are attempting to explain away their incompetence need to take ownership & responsibility for their colossal screw-up. More Truman, less toddler, please.
 
Karen-W said:
Honestly, I don't think that anything that comes out of any city official or department spokesperson's mouth right now, in the immediate aftermath, when they're clearly CYAing like mad, can be trusted.

There is zero excuse for the hydrants having no water pressure. None. These people who are attempting to explain away their incompetence need to take ownership & responsibility for their colossal screw-up. More Truman, less toddler, please.
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Oh yes, now I don’t have to leave at this moment I have CNN on and they are addressing this right now with Karen. Karen is playing total defense right now.

Everything you’re mentioning is what our mayor is in defense at the moment right now.

By the way, Karen, the mayor, not you
 
Barbara Manatee said:
Sure, what this horrific situation really needs is vigilantism and murder.

Your suggestion is indeed ugly.
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Not to mention if all of these things are going to be lost to the fires I'd rather someone take them so they can be salvaged/used etc. This kind of thinking reminds me of people wanting to shoot "looters" who were swimming away with perishables, diapers, and electronics when New Orleans was flooding. I guess we'd rather shoot people scavenging in a weather-related catastrophe than let people take things for free that will be unusable and/or destroyed anyway.
 
Sparks said:
There are many reasonable explanations for decreased water pressure
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But there is one very simple one, which I have already touched on. Firefighters are using up water from local reservoirs faster than they can be replenished from sources like Lake Mead and the Owens Valley, which are hundreds of miles away. Certain people need to brush up on their physics and geography. 👨‍🏫
 
I just talked to my son who is in the Glendale area. He was coming in from helping to put out a small brushfire nearby. My god, how do you even sleep? He said he knew the evacuation alert wasn't accurate because nothing showed up on the fire watch app. His neighbors are watching and keeping each other informed, but I'm terrified. He was supposed to fly to Taiwan on Saturday for a long-planned and much needed trip but wisely doesn't want to leave his girlfriend and their animals.
 
bladesofgorey said:
Not to mention if all of these things are going to be lost to the fires I'd rather someone take them so they can be salvaged/used etc. This kind of thinking reminds me of people wanting to shoot "looters" who were swimming away with perishables, diapers, and electronics when New Orleans was flooding. I guess we'd rather shoot people scavenging in a weather-related catastrophe than let people take things for free that will be unusable and/or destroyed anyway.
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These are not homes that have been destroyed. These are homes that have been evacuated and the residents haven't been allowed to return home yet because of the continuing fire danger. Looters are literally going in and stealing from homes that are intact and, in some cases, even have electricity - there are people who have seen looters on their Ring cameras.

Beyond that, shouldn't the people who actually own those items be able to salvage them first rather than having them stolen?

Excusing criminal behavior is what turns a civil society uncivil very fast.
Vagabond said:
But there is one very simple one, which I have already touched on. Firefighters are using up water from local reservoirs faster than they can be replenished from sources like Lake Mead and the Owens Valley, which are hundreds of miles away. Certain people need to brush up on their physics and geography. 👨‍🏫
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The local reservoirs were not full. Try that on for starters before you start mentioning the Owens Valley or Lake Mead.
 
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Karen-W said:
Honestly, I don't think that anything that comes out of any city official or department spokesperson's mouth right now, in the immediate aftermath, when they're clearly CYAing like mad, can be trusted.

There is zero excuse for the hydrants having no water pressure. None. These people who are attempting to explain away their incompetence need to take ownership & responsibility for their colossal screw-up. More Truman, less toddler, please.
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Physics. Physics is hard. For hydrants to have water pressure, there has to be water in the piping. As the water gets used up, more water needs to be pumped uphill (or flow downhill) to refill hydrants. Water systems are not designed for maximum flow to last indefinitely from many hydrants simultaneously.

Furthermore, unless you're willing to see more firefighters put at serious risk for their lives, there is a serious limit to active firefighting in the midst of windblown fires like those in the Palisades or Alhambra.
 
Karen-W said:
Honestly, I don't think that anything that comes out of any city official or department spokesperson's mouth right now, in the immediate aftermath, when they're clearly CYAing like mad, can be trusted.

There is zero excuse for the hydrants having no water pressure. None. These people who are attempting to explain away their incompetence need to take ownership & responsibility for their colossal screw-up. More Truman, less toddler, please.
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Did you read the article?

Seems like this issue is easily verified.

A spokesperson for Los Angeles City Councilman Bob Blumenfield, who previously chaired the council's budget and finance committee, told ABC News the updated budget in November saw a $53 million increase over the previous year once the council took into account the department's unappropriated balance calculation, which provides funds after the budget is approved.
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It's incredibly unfortunate that elected officials have to waste time dealing with politically motivated accusations while they are trying to coordinate efforts against an unprecedented firestorm in a residential area not to mention a massive rescue/recovery.

You can choose not to believe her. I choose not to believe accusations against Dems from right wing media, or allegations that ignore the laws of physics. (Not you, stuff I've read elsewhere.) And there you are. Nothing solved.

But let's all make an effort to keep this thread about the fire and relief efforts. Start a thread in PI if you can't resist.

Exception for people living in it. Say whatever the hell you want. We are with you.
 
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