More than 6 million people in southern California remained in danger of life-threatening wildfire on Wednesday as weather officials in Los Angeles issued fresh warnings about more extreme winds set to blast the parched region and four blazes still burned fiercely.
The deadly Palisades fire in the western suburbs of Los Angeles – the largest of the four wildfires – was still only 18% contained on Wednesday morning, more than a week after it ignited and has destroyed thousands of properties and killed residents. The Eaton fire, the next largest fire, in the Altadena area in north-eastern LA county, was only 35% contained with 14,100 acres burned. Firefighters were also struggling to put out two smaller fires, the persistent Hurst fire in north Los Angeles and the newer Auto fire, in Ventura county.
The authorities warned of a “particularly dangerous situation”. Such a warning, usually rare, has been issued three times this season as southern Californiahas been suffering through a long drought and now faces the return of hurricane-strength gusts as the seasonal Santa Ana winds blast westwards from inland.
As of Tuesday, 88,000 people remained under evacuation orders, with another 84,000 at risk of being placed under new orders should the fires spread. Officials raised the official death toll on Tuesday to 25 people – 18 from the Eaton fires and seven from the Palisades fire. That number is expected to rise as crews strive to reach some of the burnt wreckage across many square miles, with huge swaths still ablaze.
The last significant rain in Los Angeles was in early May last year, when the city’s downtown saw just 0.13in of rain, according to the Los Angeles Times. The lack of moisture in the area, along with the winds, is a recipe for dangerous wildfire conditions.
“Any kind of red flag warning is dangerous. But there’s a gradient even within that range of situations, and so we wanted a way to message the extreme of the extremes. And the [‘particularly dangerous situation’ warning] is what came from that,” meteorologist Ryan Kittell told the LA Times.
Brief respite came on Tuesday, when winds were much tamer than what had been forecast, allowing firefighters to push forward efforts to contain the Palisades and Eaton fires. But forecasts say that extreme winds of 50mph to 70mph are possible in parts of Los Angeles and Ventura county until Wednesday night.
Estimates put economic losses due to the fire at between $250bn to $270bn, making it the costliest fire disaster in American history.
Erik Scott, fire captain of the LA fire department, told the LA Times on Tuesday that the wildfires are “the most devastating natural disaster to hit the Los Angeles area”.
“I’ve worked here for 20 years and I’ve never seen nor imagined devastation to be this extensive,” he said.
On Tuesday, Southern California Edison, the area’s largest electricity provider, shut off power for over 58,000 customers in Los Angeles and Ventura on Tuesday. The utility said over 200,000 more customers could see their power shut off on Wednesday in anticipation of extreme winds.
The electricity provider has been under scrutiny in recent days as multiple lawsuits were filed against the company. Residents and business owners in neighborhoods close to the Eaton fire said they saw the base of a transmission tower on fire before the Eaton fire started.
The company has said it has received evidence preservation notices from insurance companies and noted that analysis of electrical circuit information showed no interruptions or anomalies around the time of the fire started.
