Red flag fire warning for most of LA

A Red flag fire weather warning has been issued by the National Weather Service for most of Los Angeles and Ventura counties starting before dawn Tuesday, underlining the continuing threat in a region weary after nearly a week of fires. The “particularly dangerous situation” warning was first issued by the local National Weather Service office in October 2020, and then in December 2020 and then not again until 2024. Issuing this warning “is one of the loudest ways that we can shout,” said Rose Schoenfeld, a National Weather Service meteorologist. 

“This is a continued extreme fire weather and wind scenario,” Schoenfeld said. Gusts could range from 45 mph to 70 mph, and the air will be quite dry, especially Tuesday, with relative humidity as low as 5%. There will be a higher risk of power outages, rapid fire spread and extreme fire behavior, with fires able to travel swiftly as embers fly at high speeds.

“Do NOT do anything that could spark a fire,” the weather service said. The particularly dangerous situation warning was set to go into effect at 4 a.m. Tuesday and continue through noon Wednesday. Los Angeles Fire Chief Kristin Crowley said that fire crews had made extensive preparations in advance of this latest extreme weather event. “I want to reassure you that your LAFD, all of our regional partners, every single agency that has come from up and down this state and outside of the state we are ready,” Fire Chief Crowley said Sunday afternoon. 

These preparations include reinforcing fire control lines around the Eaton and Palisades fires, clearing dry brush away from surviving structures, and staging resources in areas where new fires could ignite. “We’ve pre-positioned additional engines, fire crews, helicopters, bulldozers and water tenders across all of Southern California,” said Nancy Ward, director of the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services. Sunday’s forecast came as the number of confirmed deaths from the devastating Palisades and Eaton fires jumped to 24.

Eight of the fire victims died in the Palisades fire and 16 in the Eaton fire in Altadena, according to a news release from the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner. “If [aircraft] get grounded, we have actually built ourselves a little bit of barrier in time for crews to get in there,” said L.A. County Fire Battalion Chief Christian Litz on Sunday afternoon.

The officials warn that the toll will probably keep rising. Search and recovery operations are underway in both the Eaton and Palisades fire zones using cadaver dogs and grid searches, said L.A. County Sheriff Robert Luna. These fires are among the deadliest in California’s modern history. The state’s deadliest wildfire remains the Camp fire, which leveled the town of Paradise in Butte County in 2018 and killed at least 85 people. 

The second deadliest was the Griffith Park fire of 1933, with 29 fatalities; followed by the Oakland-Berkeley hills fire of 1991, where 25 died; and the Tubbs fire in Napa and Sonoma counties in 2017, with 22 killed. Although there is no final word of how many have died or as of yet of structures burned, the fires are also already among the most destructive in modern California history. 

According to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, the Palisades fire has burned more than 5,300 structures, and the Eaton fire more than 5,000, ranking as the third and fourth most destructive fires on record. They are only eclipsed by the Tubbs fire, which burned over 5,600 structures in 2017 in wine country, and the Camp fire, which burned nearly 19,000 structures. The Palisades fire was at 23,713 acres and 13% contained on Sunday evening, while the Eaton fire was at 14,117 acres and 27% contained, according to Cal Fire.

As officials try to determine the cause of the Eaton fire, which burned areas in and around Altadena, investigators have focused on an electrical transmission tower in Eaton Canyon. Early photos and videos taken by residents captured what appeared to be the first flames of the deadly Eaton fire burning at the base of the Southern California Edison electrical transmission tower before racing down the canyon toward homes. 

Southern California Edison officials have so far said they do not believe their electrical equipment was responsible. As for the 800-acre Hurst fire near Sylmar, fire agencies are investigating whether downed Southern California Edison utility equipment might have played a role in igniting the blaze, company officials said. 

The fire which began Tuesday near Diamond Road in Sylmar was 89% contained and evacuation orders had been lifted as of Sunday, though firefighting efforts were continuing. The company issued a report Friday saying that a downed conductor was discovered at a tower in the vicinity of the fire but that it “does not know whether the damage observed occurred before or after the start of the fire.” This week’s fire weather is not expected to be as severe as last week’s historic windstorms that fueled the Palisades and Eaton fires, Schoenfeld said. 

The area covered by the particularly dangerous situation warning affects a relatively smaller area primarily the northern San Fernando Valley, including Porter Ranch and San Fernando; the western Santa Monica Mountains and the Malibu area; wide swaths of Ventura County, including the cities of Ventura, Simi Valley and Fillmore; and the Grapevine section of Interstate 5. “However, this is an extremely dangerous situation that may result in very extreme fire behavior and life-threatening conditions,” Schoenfeld said. “Fuels remain critically dry, with an extended period of very low humidities across the region.”

Exacerbating the situation is how little rain Southern California has received. Only 0.16 inches of rain has fallen since Oct. 1 in downtown Los Angeles, essentially nothing compared to the 5.23 inches that is, on average, seen by this point in the water year. Sustained winds are forecast on the coast and in valleys from 25 mph to 40 mph, with gusts of 30 mph to 50 mph. In the mountains and foothills, sustained winds of 30 mph to 45 mph are possible, with peak gusts of 50 mph to 70 mph. 

While downtown L.A. and Long Beach should be expecting peak gusts of 15 mph, gusts could hit 40 mph in Canoga Park and Lancaster, 43 mph in Oxnard, 47 mph in Santa Clarita, 53 mph in Fillmore, 55 mph at Pyramid Lake and 69 mph in Acton. There will be a higher risk of downed trees and power lines than with a typical red flag fire weather warning, Schoenfeld said. 

Public safety power shutoffs are more likely in the area of the particularly dangerous situation. The area covered by this warning does not include the footprint of the Palisades and Eaton fires but is close by. It does include the Hurst fire area in Sylmar. This wind event will be a more conventional Santa Ana wind, with winds coming out of the east and spreading fires to the west. Last week’s windstorms were worsened by a “mountain wave wind,” which occurs when gusts rapidly drop down mountain slopes, then gain strength upon hitting a flat landscape. 

The phenomenon caused short bursts of strong, dangerous winds, with gusts of up to 100 mph reported near Altadena. Winds from that event came primarily from the north. Last week’s windstorms were rare because the winds were extraordinarily widespread and affected areas that don’t typically see strong winds during powerful Santa Ana wind events, Schoenfeld said. Typically, when gusts of 100 mph are reported, they’re isolated to the mountains. 

Altadena and foothill areas of the San Gabriel Valley don’t usually see severe winds during conventional Santa Ana wind events but they did last week, one main reason that Altadena was so devastated by the Eaton fire. This is the fourth warning of a particularly dangerous situation issued since autumn. Each of the three prior warnings was followed by major, destructive fires the 19,904-acre Mountain fire in Ventura County, which razed more than 240 buildings in November; the 4,037-acre Franklin fire, which spread rapidly in Malibu and destroyed 20 buildings in December; and last week’s Palisades and Eaton fires. 

A conventional red flag warning alerting about critical fire weather conditions has already been in effect since Saturday for large swaths of Southern California, and is set to expand Monday. The red flag warning areas cover regions much larger than those covered by the particularly dangerous situation. The red flag warning for L.A. and Ventura counties is expected to end at 6 p.m. Wednesday. Officials also warned of a risk of hazardous seas and gusty winds off L.A. County. The affected area extends from Malibu to Santa Monica and includes Anacapa Island and the San Pedro Channel. 

Avalon Harbor on Catalina Island could see significant gusts.There is expected to be a respite in extreme fire weather starting Thursday and lasting through the weekend or so, “with lighter winds and increasing humidities,” Schoenfeld said. Gov. Gavin Newsom said Sunday he was deploying an additional 1,000 members of the California National Guard to fire-ravaged Los Angeles. The new additions will bring the total number of Guard members in the region to about 2,500 by Monday, according to the governor’s office. 

Los Angeles authorities said Sunday they arrested 29 more people overnight in the fire zones, including one burglary suspect who was allegedly dressed as a firefighter. Of those arrested, 25 were apprehended in the Eaton fire zone and four in the Palisades fire zone, authorities said. Mexican firefighters and emergency personnel have arrived in Los Angeles to help with the fire fight. Gov. Gavin Newsom said 72 firefighters arrived Saturday. They joined thousands of others battling the fires. Times staff writers Rebecca Ellis, Grace Toohey, Jenny Jarvie, Laura J. Nelson, Kevin Rector, Ruben Vives, Julia Wick and Richard Winton contributed to this report.

WAS LAFD Chief Kristin Crowley FIRED?

BREAKING: NO Rumors are false as L.A.F.D Chief Kristin Crowley was not DISMISSED by LA mayor Karen Bass after explosive public criticism of city officials but the one who should have done the dismissing here Karen Bass needs to step the hell down herself. IN FACT her, Gavin Newsom & Nancy Pelosi and Kristin Crowley all need to be held responsible for the mess that is California, and ALL need to go.

With the current rage by the people in California due to all this I hope they can now see that this DEI, and their Democrat agendas are a failure and these people in charge don't care about them. These people only care about themselves, making money and keeping power. So in my hate for these people and yes I really do hate evil people and trust me these people are EVIL!

So I made this Banner Below to show how much damage they have caused.

'Fire department needs help'

Now that dam's broken LAFD chief Kristin Crowley goes all in on Mayor Karen Bass, who recenly slashed budget.

'$17M budget cut and elimination of our civilian positions like mechanics did has and will severely impact our ability to repair apparatus' https://t.co/GdfIxQ83IX pic.twitter.com/2pgFmF45qX

— RT (@RT_com) January 10, 2025

This folks is when you let the inmates RUN the show... This is the result. These people belong in a white padded room they're all evil people. 

Gavin Newsom is the GOV from hell. Ironically he sounds like and looks a little like Will Arnett. They should use him like on SNL or something cause I think he would nail the part. LMAO but seriously who doesn't see it? Check the pic here with both side by side. Will on the left, and Gavin on the right. And Will and Gavin even have that same kind of voice to them.

Hilarious as I think I'm the only one who's said it now publicly. Maybe Will can do impressions of him?

You disgusting liar wipe that smirk off your face and step down from the Mayor chair you don't belong in office you're a disgrace to the state, and country! Go move to Africa YOU ARE NOT AMERICAN! YOU CLEARLY HATE THE USA! LEAVE WE DON'T NEED YOU!

— Real Angel Espino - Tha Jackal (@TheEspinoReport) January 12, 2025

The Fire Department (LAFD) did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Did Mayor Bass really cut fire department budget?

Question is being asked by main stream media, and folks on the ground who lost it all in California but did Mayor Karen Bass really cut the fire department budget? Well here is the answer... When Mayor Karen Bass unveiled her budget plan for 2024-25, she called for a 2.7% reduction in spending at the Los Angeles Fire Department. Her proposal, unveiled in April, sought $23 million in cuts to the department, with much of it focused on reduced equipment purchases. 

But while her citywide spending proposal was being reviewed, Bass was also in closed-door negotiations over a major boost in pay for the city’s 3,300 firefighters. Those pay hikes four years of raises and an array of other financial incentives were not finalized until several months after her budget went into effect. The City Council approved the firefighter raises in November, adding more than $53 million in additional salary costs. By then, the council had also signed off on $58 million for new firetrucks and other department purchases.

Once those two line items were added, the fire department’s operating budget actually grew by more than 7% compared to the prior fiscal year, according to the city’s financial analysts. The issue of fire department spending, boring and burdened with specifics in normal times, is now a critical issue in Los Angeles following the massive destruction caused by a wildfire in Pacific Palisades, which continues to burn. The Eaton fire, which has destroyed swaths of Altadena, is outside L.A. city limits. While the L.A. fire department’s annual operating budget has been growing overall and is on track to exceed $950 million the agency also has had to scale back some of its operations.

This idiot Mayor who looks like the new California version of Chicago disgraced Mayor Lori Lightfoot and both look a like, both are black lesbians, and both are morons... We need to stop voting DEI on these dumb people just because they check off a box in DEI! This is costing lives! 

I don't care what color the person is but if she looks like these two bitches don't vote for them. Other officials said the reductions have not affected the department’s ability to fight the Palisades fire. After the blaze broke out on Tuesday, critics of the Los Angeles Police Department seized on the numbers in Bass’ 2024-25 budget document, arguing that funds allocated for police came at the expense of firefighters. 

Elon Musk, owner of the social media platform X, shared a post that bemoaned “LAFD under funding.” Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, who owns the Los Angeles Times, has also criticized the city’s handling of the fire department budget on social media and elsewhere.

Bass, who was in Africa when the fire broke out, has sought to counter the budget cut narrative, saying that spending at the department has grown during the current year. She said funding for firefighter raises was part of her budget from the beginning but was included in an account separate from the fire department budget. “Money was allocated to be distributed later on, which actually went to support salaries and other parts of the fire department,” Bass told reporters at a briefing on Thursday. Last year, faced with a serious budget crunch, Bass and the council eliminated dozens of civilian positions in the department, all of them already vacant.

Those cuts have hampered “core functions” in the department, including payroll, community education programs and the equity and human resources bureau, which addresses personnel grievances and workplace equity, according to a Dec. 4 memo by Fire Chief Kristin Crowley. In her memo, Crowley said a $7-million reduction in overtime variable staffing hours, or “v-hours,” had “severely limited the department’s capacity to prepare for, train for, and respond to large-scale emergencies, including wildfires.” 

According to the memo, the loss of the overtime funding has hindered the department’s ability to test radio equipment, complete pilot training and carry out brush clearance inspections, which are “crucial for mitigating fire risks in high-hazard areas.”

Crowley, appearing Friday on Fox11, was asked whether the city of Los Angeles failed her and her department. After the question was posed multiple times, she said, “Yes.” City Administrative Officer Matt Szabo, whose office helps prepare the city budget, said that overall fire department overtime, counting all categories, actually increased in this year’s budget by nearly $18 million. In addition, he said the budget reductions did not limit the number of firefighters who responded to the Palisades fire, or how long they worked. “The fire department is authorized to deploy whatever emergency resources are necessary, and those costs will be covered as they are every year,” Szabo said. Bass, appearing at the news conference earlier this week, echoed that message, saying the reductions at the fire department “did not impact what we’ve been going through the last few days.” Freddy Escobar, president of the United Firefighters of Los Angeles City Local 112, said he does not fault Bass over her handling of fire department spending. 

At the same time, he said, “the fire chief does not have the money to staff the resources that are needed” to address the city’s public safety needs. “Unfortunately, everything was lined up to have a disaster,” Escobar said in an interview. “And it occurred with winds that were 80, 85 miles per hour.”

Jack Humphreville, who serves on the watchdog group Neighborhood Council Budget Advocates, said the fire department had to scale back operations to make way for employee raises. Now, employee overtime from the Palisades fire, along with pay increases approved for the entire city workforce, are going to make the city budget crunch worse at least in the short term, he said. “I think the city’s in for a real world of hurt,” he said. 

In May, the City Council approved the mayor’s 2024-25 budget, reducing the size of her proposed spending reductions at the fire department to $17 million, down from $23 million. Council member Traci Park, for example, was able to restore funds for a handful of department mechanics. As part of the budget, more than $100 million for salary increases was placed into an account known as the “unappropriated balance,” which serves as something of a holding tank for expenses that are expected but not finalized. About half of those funds were set aside for firefighter raises, Szabo said.

The money went into that account, and not the fire department one, because the city’s labor negotiating committee, made up of Bass and four council members, had not yet signed off on the firefighter contract, Szabo said. The deal also needed to go to the firefighter union for a ratification vote by its members and could have been rejected, requiring additional negotiations. 

That four-year agreement, which included annual pay hikes of 3% and improved healthcare benefits, provided the same types of increases that Los Angeles police officers received a year earlier, according to a city analysis. The starting salary for a firefighter is $85,315, Szabo said, and is expected to reach $90,514 in the coming months, not including overtime and bonuses. Szabo said he will ask the council in the coming weeks to move the $53 million for firefighter raises out of the unappropriated balance and into the fire department budget. 

The salary deal will consume an additional $23 million in increased pension and healthcare costs, he said. Separately, the council is expected to put into the fire department budget an additional $27 million for the transportation of MediCal patients by city paramedics, a service that will be reimbursed by the state.

Those changes, planned last year, would push the fire department’s operating budget to $963 million a 9% increase over the previous year, Szabo said. Tracking spending at the city’s public safety agencies is a difficult task. Both the police and fire departments routinely overspend their budgets, particularly after emergencies or unexpected public safety needs. 

Bass’ first budget as mayor, covering the 2023-24 fiscal year, allocated $837 million to the fire department. By the time she released the 2024-25 budget, her office was expecting fire department spending for that first year to exceed $900 million. Last month, Szabo informed the council that the fire department had already begun to overspend its budget for the new budget year, due to expenditures such as overtime pay.