LA fires live updates: Southern California gets break from fire-fanning winds but warnings persist
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Wind speeds in southern California are declining, the National Weather Service said Wednesday, though sudden gusts and dry conditions could still help spark new fires.
While speeds will go down throughout Thursday, the winds will “be slow to weaken,” the NWS said. As conditions change, the “potential for rapid fire growth and localized downed trees and power outages will still remain,” the agency said.
Wednesday was expected to be “the last really windy day” of the Santa Ana winds event, but more winds could reach the area by next week, officials said.
Meanwhile, officials urged more than 90,000 residents to be alert and heed any evacuation warnings and orders.
“I urge everyone to stay alert. The combination of low humidity and strong winds has further dried out the brush, increasing the risk of fire,” Los Angeles County Fire Department Chief Anthony Marrone said at a Wednesday press briefing.
The area’s largest blazes, the Palisades and Eaton Fires, are now among the most destructive in Southern California’s history. Significant progress has been made on the fires in the last couple of days, despite tricky weather conditions.
The Palisades Fire has torn across nearly 24,000 acres and is 19 percent contained. The Eaton Fire is 45 percent contained after burning more than 14,000 acres.
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More than 200 employees at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena and Caltech have reportedly been left homeless due to the Los Angeles Fires, according to FOX Weather.
“It was like driving through a video game,” Marcy Harbut, a senior technical writer for the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute at Caltech, told the network. “Turn down the street. Got to turn around. And then all these people in that house, watch out for those flames. And these people are packing up their van. Be careful. Don’t run over people. It was just chaos.”
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California wind speeds expected to decline on Thursday
Wind speeds in southern California are set to decline Thursday, the National Weather Service said Wednesday afternoon.
While speeds will go down throughout Thursday, winds will still “be slow to weaken,” the NWS said. As conditions change, the “potential for rapid fire growth and localized downed trees and power outages will still remain.”
More than 111,000 people are without power in California as of Wednesday night, according to PowerOutage.us.
The two largest blazes, the Palisades Fire and Eaton Fire, are among the most destructive in Los Angeles history.
The Palisades Fire has torn across nearly 24,000 acres and is 19 percent contained as of Wednesday night. The Eaton Fire is also 45 percent contained after burning more than 14,000 acres.
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