By Lisa Richwine and Mike Blake
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Firefighters held the line on Tuesday against two massive wildfires that ravaged parts of Los Angeles last week, even as desert winds and a parched landscape presented extremely dangerous conditions.
About 8,500 firefighters from at least seven states and two foreign countries kept the blaze from spreading for a second day in a row as they gained more control over the extent of the blaze, which still consumed an area the size of Washington, D.C.
A fleet of aircraft dropped water and retardant into the rugged hills as ground crews with hand tools and hoses worked around the clock since the fires broke out on January 7, with planes grounded at times due to high winds.
The Palisades Fire on the western edge of the city remained steady at 23,713 acres (96 square kilometers) burned, and containment increased 3 percentage points to 17% — a measure of how much of the perimeter was under control.
The Eaton (NYSE: ) The fire in the foothills east of the city has burned 14,117 acres (57 square kilometers) and is 2 points to 35% contained.
Southern California hasn’t had significant rain since April, turning brush to shreds as desert-driven Santa Ana winds whipped over hilltops and raced through canyons, sending embers flying up to 3 km (2 miles) ahead of the fire.
Red flag conditions are expected to last through Wednesday after winds peaked overnight with gusts in excess of 50 mph (80 km/h), the National Weather Service said.
Winds were lighter than expected during the day on Tuesday, but were forecast to peak around 3 a.m. (1100 GMT) on Wednesday, with gusts in the mountains that could reach 70 mph (112 km/h), the weather service said .
California Governor Gavin Newsom said 11 new fires broke out in Southern California overnight and were quickly extinguished as firefighters and equipment were positioned in advance. But three other fires are still burning, including one each in neighboring Ventura and Riverside counties that broke out Monday and Tuesday, Cal Fire said.
The death toll remained steady at 24 as did an estimate of 12,000 damaged or destroyed structures, still hinting at the Herculean effort of rebuilding.
Entire neighborhoods were flattened, leaving smoldering ashes and rubble. In many homes, only the chimney remains.
“It’s one thing to see it on television. It’s another thing to see it from the air. The massive, massive devastation is unimaginable until you actually see it,” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said at a press conference after the aerial tour.
A few thousand more people were allowed to return home, but 88,000 remained under evacuation orders and another 84,000 under evacuation warnings – a large-scale displacement unprecedented in the metropolitan area’s history.
John Adolph, 48, who lost his Altadena home to the Eaton fire, was thankful to be safe, but unsure of what lay ahead. Adolph said he went back to see what he could salvage as the fire raged.
“There were burning grocery stores, gas stations, exploding cars bursting with glass … Walls of flame two stories high, tornadoes of flame. I was stupid on the side of crazy to try,” Adolph said.
Urban search and rescue teams worked out of a grocery store parking lot in Altadena, tracking progress on whiteboards and handing out assignments from a trailer.
“We’re conducting a systematic search. The winds don’t really have much of an impact on our search and rescue operations,” said Jorge Villanueva, regional task force leader for the California Office of Emergency Services.
His team of 50 firefighters and sheriff’s deputies conducted a house-by-house search, looking for any existing fires and hazards like lithium-ion batteries connected to solar panels.
PRICELESS ART CONSIDERED SAFE
The Palisades Fire also approached the priceless art collection at the J. Paul Getty Museum, which includes paintings by Van Gogh, Rembrandt, Monet and Degas.
But the collection remained safe inside the Getty Center’s fortress of travertine, fireproof steel and reinforced concrete. “It would be extremely foolish to try to remove the art” from its safe harbor, said Getty Trust President Katherine E. Fleming. In Washington, a battle over emergency aid broke out between Republicans and Democrats over the already costliest wildfire in terms of insured losses.
Private forecaster AccuWeather estimates total damage and economic loss between $250 billion and $275 billion, which would make it the costliest natural disaster in US history, surpassing Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Democrats in Congress opposed a proposal by House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, to condition the aid. Johnson also said any funding for wildfire disaster relief would have to be “paid for,” meaning the costs would have to be covered to prevent the budget deficit from growing, possibly by cutting other programs.
That’s a departure from many previous natural disasters, and Democratic Rep. Ted Lieu of California called Johnson’s stance “outrageous.”
“We should not be exploiting the pain and suffering of our fellow Americans to try to force new policy changes,” Lieu said.
(Reporting by Lisa Richwine, Mike Blake, Chad Terhune, Jorge Garcia, Sandra Stojanovic, Alan Devall, Jackie Luna, Matt McKnight, Mario Anzuoni, Nathan Frandino, Omar Younis, Rollo Ross, David Ryder, Daniel Cole, David Swanson and Joe Brock in Los Angeles; Additional reporting by Brendan O’Brien, Rich McKay, Hannah Lang and Richard Cowan; Editing by Frank McGurty, Mark Porter and Lincoln Feast.)
