LA County Fires / Palisades Fire

"Today, a brush fire started in Pacific Palisades fueled by extremely high winds. At the Getty [Roman] Villa, some trees & vegetation on site have burned, but no structures are on fire, and staff and the collection remain safe.The Villa is closed to non-emergency staff and the public." https://x.com/GettyMuseum/status/1876806922709397577

A longer message is posted on the Getty Museum's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/DEi-ISkvlta/
A brush fire started late this morning in the Pacific Palisades, fueled by extremely high winds. We swiftly closed the Villa to non-emergency staff, and the site is, in any case, closed to the public on Tuesdays. The Getty Villa will remain closed at least through Monday, January 13. We, of course, are very concerned for our neighbors in the Pacific Palisades, Malibu, and the surrounding areas.

Fortunately, Getty had made extensive efforts to clear brush from the surrounding area as part of its fire mitigation efforts throughout the year. Some trees and vegetation on site have burned, but no structures are on fire, and staff and the collection remain safe. Additional fire prevention measures in place at the Villa include water storage on-site. Irrigation was immediately deployed throughout the grounds Tuesday morning. Museum galleries and library archives were sealed off from smoke by state-of-the-art air handling systems. The double-walled construction of the galleries also provides significant protection for the collections.

We are grateful for the tireless work of the Los Angeles Fire Department, Los Angeles County Fire Department, and other agencies to keep the Villa and its staff safe, as well as for the on-site presence of fire trucks throughout the day.

ABC 7 Los Angeles live updates:
abc7.com

New round of evacuation orders lifted as LA mayor names chief recovery officer

Firefighters are working around the clock to contain the Palisades Fire and Eaton Fire. Thousands of people were forced to evacuate when the blazes ignited and destroyed more than 12,000 structures. Here are the latest updates.
abc7.com abc7.com
 
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Actor Steve Guttenberg popping up in a "man on the scene" interview (unbeknownst to the young reporter).

Vintage Virgo (@vintagevirgo.bsky.social)

Watching live news coverage of the Pacific Palisades fire and Steve Guttenburg appears out of the smoke to provide a PSA.
bsky.app bsky.app


The abandoned cars he was referring to on the main evacuation route. They later got a bulldozer to push them out of the way. 😯 I've never seen anything like that before in any recent SoCal fires.

Matt Novak (@paleofuture.bsky.social)

Here's that moment. [contains quote post or other embedded content]
bsky.app bsky.app
 
There is now a second fire in LA - this one further east in the Pasadena & Altadena called the Eaton Fire. It's currently at 400 acres - it was about 50 acres a couple hours ago. There are terrifying videos on X of a senior center/home being evacuated with residents being frantically wheeled across a street and other folks leading their horses through burning embers down a street to evacuate.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1876858662238535699

https://twitter.com/x/status/1876852978142842981

https://twitter.com/x/status/1876833488902439002

On a personal note, I'm worried about this one - one of my cousins, his wife & their kids live in Pasadena. I checked in with my aunt who says they are fine & as ready as can be but some friends have already lost their homes & others are evacuated.

The Palisades Fire has already reached at least 2900 acres and is spreading both east into Santa Monica & Brentwood and west along the PCH - I don't think it's gone beyond the western side of Pacific Palisades, so it's still a few miles from Malibu.
 
Another small fire has broken out about 3 miles south of where the Eaton Fire started - there are other reports of multiple structures on fire in the about halfway between these two fires.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1876864437979640312

The Eaton Fire may be the more dangerous one if it isn't contained tonight. The Santa Ana winds blow in a southwesterly direction and if this takes off, it's going to have a direct line into downtown LA with thousands of structures destroyed.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1876857505034228079

Reports on the Palisades Fire are saying that there are multiple burn injury victims reported to be located at Duke's Malibu, which is about halfway between Pacific Palisades and Malibu proper.
 
Hoping everyone is safe. Forest fires (or bushfires as we call them in Australia) are so dangerous.
 
The Bert Fire is right in the middle of Pasadena in the flats, not in the hills (although still in the pricey area). Only about 2 miles from where I grew up -that is not normal.

For those interested there’s a wonderful app called Watch Duty where you can watch and look at how the fires are doing on maps.

Great local coverage on KTLA.com
 
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And a third fire has broken out - the Sylmar Hurst Fire, which is at the very northern end of the San Fernando Valley. This one is growing fast - an hour ago it was about 50 acres and reports I'm seeing now say it's burned at least 100 acres.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1876882523407487219

ETA - fire has been renamed

https://twitter.com/x/status/1876888487116308915

There are reports that the water lines in Pacific Palisades are dry - no water running through them. I'm seeing reports on X that both the Eaton & Hurst Fires are basically out of control.
 
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My best friend from college has lived in the same house in the Palisades for 40 years, it’s almost certainly gone. She’s in AZ and her husband made it out with the dogs but it’s horrifying, the stories of people being told to leave their cars and run….
 
There is another fire... The Woodley Fire is on the SE side of the San Fernando Valley, near Sepulveda Dam. If you draw a straight line between the Palisades Fire & the Hurst Fire, this one would be almost exactly in the middle of that line. This one is already 100+ acres.

I saw a report earlier that the Eaton Fire is up to 2200+ acres. The Hurst Fire also continues to grow.
 
Live press conference - LA County Fire Chief

Palisades - 5000+ acres, 1000+ structures destroyed, 0 fatalities, 0% containment

Eaton - 2000+ acres, 100+ structures destroyed, 2 confirmed fatalities & multiple serious injuries, 0% containment

Firefighters from Nevada, Oregon, Washington & northern California already on the road to LA.

LA City Fire Chief - not much substantive information, speaking with a LOT of generalities. Their public information team is going to be, rightly, skewered for sending her up to the podium with so little new or specific information, especially by comparison to the info the LA County Fire Chief just delivered.

Hurst - 500+ acres, 3000+ residents evacuated, 0% contained

Onto school closures from the LA Unified School District superintendent... about 10% of students in the district are affected by school closures.

Palisades Charter HS (the main HS in Pacific Palisades) sustained major damage, but they don't know the extent yet.

LA County Sheriff - very fluid situation, especially in Altadena (Eaton Fire), working to evacuate people in life-endangering situations.

Eaton - 32k under evacuation orders, 36k (I think I heard that # correctly) under evacuation warnings - multiple cities along the San Gabriel Mtns impacted (Altadena, Pasadena, Sierra Madre, Duarte, Monrovia, LA Canada Flintridge). 2 arrested for looting this morning (certainly not the only vultures, just the only ones caught so far). Rose Bowl Stadium has been designated as a large animal evacuation shelter site.

Palisades - 37k under evacuation orders, 20k under evacuation warnings.
 
quartz said:
My sister is in Pasadena. 💔
Click to expand...
@quartz I hope she is safe!

From a friend who lives in old town Pasadena but is not there right now:
“They’re evacuating people to the Pasadena convention center next to the ice rink two blocks north of me (closer to the fire), so I think that area should be ok?”
 
This is like Lahaina all over again. Winds were 90 mph in that fire.

Looking at all the meteorological data, the winds will slacken a bit this afternoon but all indications point to the winds increasing again overnight. Malibu had gusts to 94 mph which is just off the charts…..
 
Sylvia said:
@quartz I hope she is safe!

From a friend who lives in old town Pasadena but is not there right now:
“They’re evacuating people to the Pasadena convention center next to the ice rink two blocks north of me (closer to the fire), so I think that area should be ok?”
Click to expand...
Should be. But this is just an Unprecedented number and size of fires. There are 4 major fires!
 
Apart from the fires and the risk of fire, the Santa Ana winds are causing widespread damage throughout Southern California. A co-worker of mine in Orange County had no electricity or Internet access for several hours yesterday.
 
Early afternoon update - Palisades fire 11,800+ acres burned; Eaton fire 10,600+ acres burned; Hurst fire 700+ acres burned; Woodley fire seems to be remaining at the same acreage as earlier, so maybe it's been contained?

High wind warnings remain in place through at least tomorrow.
 
Vagabond said:
I have been in close proximity to two major wildfires. When you are given an evacuation order, you evacuate immediately. It is better to lose everything you own than to lose your life.
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Absolutely.

If I had to evacuate I would take..

1) The toadies who have travel carriers
2) My wife’s ashes
3) Our wedding album
4) The small fireproof box that has all the important papers.

Everything else would just become pleasant memories…..
 
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