As more wild winds to hit Southern California, firefighters gear up by the thousands
As another round of wild Santa Ana winds threatens Southern California this week, fire officials across the region say they are pre-deploying strike teams and asking for the public’s help — especially when it comes to heeding evacuation orders.
The National Weather Service has again issued a red flag warning, saying powerful winds will blow from the Great Basin in Nevada through mountain and canyon passes, across inland valleys, and onto the coast beginning at midday on Monday, Jan. 20.
Fire agencies from Los Angeles to the Inland Empire say they won’t be waiting for emergencies to develop.
Staff are prepared, gear and equipment are ready, and thousands of firefighters are still boots on the ground in the Eaton and Palisades fire footprints, officials said, ready to pivot to any new eruptions.
In the wake of the two deadly blazes, questions have been raised about whether Los Angeles city and county officials were lax in anticipating the widespread disasters in Pacific Palisades and Altadena. Some firefighters told reporters it’s not clear anything would have made much of a difference in saving lives or homes, especially given the intensity of the winds, which forced grounding aircraft for many hours.
With investigations into what sparked both fires underway, weary and nervous residents throughout the region are bracing for what’s ahead.
In Altadena, where the Eaton fire consumed 14,117 acres, firefighters from the Los Angeles County Fire Department and mutual aid fire agencies remain on the ground, said Jonathan Torres, an engineer and department spokesperson.
“What makes it (preparations) different is that there is ash, under ash and ash,” Torres said. “With winds, that ash gets blown off, and there’s embers underneath. So, there’s always that heightened risk. We still have units out there. They’re at ground zero right now. At the Palisades fire and the Eaton fire. Not just L.A. County, L.A.City, Orange County, but engines from out of state.”
Additionally, Torres said, strike teams will be pre-positioned for the upcoming week — as he said they were during wind events that resulted in the Eaton and Palisades fires — in places where they typically stage when wind events are predicted. As an example, he pointed to areas along the 101 Freeway and in Santa Clarita, where the Santa Ana winds traditionally blow.
“Those strike teams are in addition to local jurisdictional units,” he said, numbering off fire stations in more fire-prone areas along Pacific Coast Highway, up in the hills, Calabasas and Topanga and Station 89, the largest one.
In all, thousands of firefighters could be available.
One little spark
With the winds this week will come extremely dry air, bringing humidity levels down to single digits. The strongest gusts could reach 80 mph in remote spots, but sustained 40 to 50 mph winds will likely be in inland communities and higher elevations, forecasters say.
“It will be much drier than what we’re used to,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Paul Steward, adding that such dry air can be more dangerous than wind, as with no rain since April, the ground is very susceptible to fires spreading.
“Even if it’s not super windy, one little spark and the fire can take off,” he said.
Steward said the winds may be noticed along coastal areas first on Monday, and then switch to the valleys and the higher regions by midafternoon. The wind will increase that night and gusts are expected to be strongest until around 2 a.m. on Tuesday, with winds dying down slightly in the higher-lying areas after that but still possibly gusty in the coastal areas.
They will increase again on Tuesday with a similar pattern for coastal and inland areas — including in the Inland Empire — and continue through the day into the early evening.
In Riverside County, Steward said, the mountain and valleys should see northeast and east winds of 25 to 40 mph, with gusts up to 60 mph expected. The wind could gust up 80 mph on the coastal slopes and canyons in the San Bernardino and Santa Ana Mountains.
By Tuesday night, the winds across the region should be calmer until Thursday, when another Santa Ana weather pattern forms, bringing gusts and steady winds again. Steward said it is not expected to be as strong as at the start of the week.
As a precaution, Southern California Edison has also alerted almost 173,000 customers that the power could be preemptively shut off under emergency conditions across the region, said Gabriela Ornelas, spokeswoman for the utility.
“We know conditions can change and expand through the week,” she said. “We’ve notified customers that they’re under consideration.”
She said the utility also has extra crews ready should the need arise. In all, she said there are 3,500 people ready to respond.
A ‘premonition’
Torres said the county fire department staffed up and added extra engines for the Eaton fire. Fire Chief Anthony Marrone went “above and beyond” to prepare for the monster winds predicted well ahead of Jan. 7 by holding over “the entire shift” the morning before the fire started, he said.
“Why? Because he had a premonition,” he said. “We went from 900 to nearly 2,000 firemen and women ready to work that morning.
“Those were 100 mph winds and sustained,” he added. “Those were hurricane-type winds. If we had a million firefighters, it wouldn’t have made a difference. You’re taxing water systems; you’re fighting Mother Nature. The firefighters were running here and there to get a hold of it. Obviously, with 100 mph winds, no one is stopping that short of a deluge coming from the sky.”
Though there was criticism in some published news reports and on social media that despite the first sign of fire at 6:10 p.m., the first evacuation order on the Eaton fire in Altadena didn’t go out until 7:26 p.m. — after residents began leaving on their own — Torres said that the chief issued an evacuation warning ahead of that.
“That’s the moment in time to start preparing to leave and to leave if you can,” Torres said. “Because if the order comes, there’s a rush to get out and in specific areas of the county, there’s one way in and one way out. He (Marrone) has always said, ‘Don’t wait for an order; if you get a warning, it means you’re in the immediate area, and it’s better to be safe than sorry.’”
Orange County Fire Authority Chief Brian Fennessey agreed that the firefighters did all they could. He said he sent 300 firefighters and 10 strike teams and flew over the destruction to observe the battlegrounds himself.
“The Southern California fire service was absolutely staffed in a manner appropriate for a Santa Ana wind event,” he said. “The challenge was the velocity of the wind and low relative humidity. Once the fire left the wildland environment, it became ‘urban conflagration,’ with the fuel now being structures themselves.
“The environment limited anything but the preservation of life. The fire was unstoppable until the winds diminished to a point where fire suppression resources could be successful.”
Despite preparations that OCFA is making in Orange County — strike teams, 24-hour hand crews, dozers, helicopter, extra dispatchers and covering reserve stations — Fennessy said there is only so much firefighters can do.
“Firefighters should not be expected to stop severe, Mother Nature-driven wildfires when conditions are as extreme as we recently experienced,” he said.
But he also said the public has to play its part.
“If our communities heed our evacuation warnings, this will lend itself to improved response to these wind-driven fires without our having to put more citizens and firefighters in harm’s way,” Fennessy said.
“We will continue to fight fire aggressively.”