The Line of Fire
The most startling early account of the pace and ferocity of the multiple, massive LA fires was likely the description of the evacuees who had to abandon their cars and escape on foot. Those vehicles would soon be bulldozed off the road to make way for first responders who faced a daunting and Dantean scene created by a perfectly terrible storm of wildfire conditions. Those searing scenes were quickly dwarfed by images the damage done by several fires burning through heavily populated areas such as Pacific Palisades. In the air, winds prevented fire-fighting planes from joining the fight. On the ground, hydrants lost pressure due to the intense demand. The region hasn’t gotten rain yet this year and the Santa Ana winds whipped to hurricane-level force; the combination of which has created some of the most sweeping California wildfires in recent memory. The LA County Fire Department ‘was prepared for one or two major brush fires, but not four,’ the county’s fire chief said. The new normal Californians feared the most is here—and zero percent contained. Here’s the latest from CNN, The Guardian, and LA Times.
+ “Everything, it seems, caught fire in a matter of minutes, outpacing the swarm of police and fire officials who raced to the scene. ‘It’s going to burn everything,’ one sergeant sighed after hearing the news come across his radio that the fire was making its way to Palisades High School. On Sunset Boulevard, the remnants of a chaotic, harrowing evacuation were littered everywhere: at least 50 cars crunched together, their mirrors and doors smashed after a massive red L.A. Fire Department dozer came through to make way for trucks. The fire moved so fast that police officers ordered the drivers to get out and run.” WaPo (Gift Article): What it was like on the ground as the Pacific Palisades fire spread.
+ Here are photos from The Atlantic, NPR, and BBC.
+ SoCal officials were warning of the intense risk associated with the dry and windy conditions for days before the fires. But they knew of the general risk long before that. David Wallace-Wells with this sadly prescient forecast in NY Mag from 2019: Los Angeles Fire Season Is Beginning Again. And It Will Never End.
+ Right on cue, our next president addressed the tragic, ongoing fires by throwing water on his political opponents. Trump, Musk unleash on California Democrats over wildfires. When there are hellish fires, the devil is never far behind.
