SOURCE :- THE AGE NEWS
Washington: Los Angeles was braced for the return of the strong Santa Ana winds that fanned last week’s record-breaking wildfires, as gusty conditions were set to challenge firefighting efforts just when progress was being made to contain the blazes.
Authorities spent the early part of the weekend unleashing a “relentless air attack” on the Palisades fire after changes in wind direction set it burning eastward toward homes in Mandeville Canyon and the communities of Encino and Brentwood.
The Palisades fire in Los Angeles on Saturday.Credit: Anadolu via Getty Images
Helicopters and firefighting aircraft kept dropping water on the blaze into the night as the disaster entered its sixth day on Sunday, while DC-10 air tankers, each carrying 35,000 litres of red fire retardant, tried to fortify nearby homes and contain the fire’s spread.
The National Weather Service warned that sustained offshore winds would increase on Saturday night (LA time), with gusts peaking into Sunday morning and reaching up to 104km/h in some areas. Another Santa Ana wind event, likely even stronger, was forecast to develop between Monday night and Wednesday.
“This may lead to the spread of ongoing fires as well as the development of new ones,” the service said.
A so-called “red flag” warning, indicating high fire danger fuelled by strong winds and low humidity, is to remain in place until 6pm Wednesday.
“We’re in a continued period of critical fire weather through Wednesday,” NWS meteorologist Rose Schoenfeld said. Conditions were expected to moderate by Thursday.
But significant progress was made on Saturday to get ahead of the worsening weather. Crews were able to protect hundreds of homes in the deep Mandeville Canyon – a narrow, leafy strip running through the eastern edge of the Santa Monica Mountains – though at least one building was engulfed.
Evacuation orders and overnight curfews remained in place for the canyon and parts of Encino, to the north of the fire front, and Brentwood to the south – a celebrity hotspot home to basketball star LeBron James and Vice President Kamala Harris, among others, and the renowned Getty Centre art museum. Australian singer Delta Goodrem was also among those affected, posting on Instagram that she had had to evacuate temporarily.
Despite a good 24 hours for firefighters, only 11 per cent of the Palisades fire was contained, while the Eaton blaze was 15 per cent contained, meaning they were still susceptible to changes in weather conditions.
But David Ortiz, a firefighter and LA Fire Department spokesman, told NBC News the numbers did not always tell the full story. He said crews were optimistic they had prevented further spread through the aerial bombardment and had sufficient resources to keep the blaze at bay. Los Angeles fire chief Kristin Crowley described it as a “relentless air attack utilising all available aircraft in the area”, and more than 3700 personnel.
In the suburbs ravaged by the fires last week, dogs were searching for human remains and the local medical examiner’s office said it was now investigating 16 deaths, with human remains confirmed in 10 cases. Eleven deaths were attributed to the Eaton fire, which tore through the neighbourhood of Altadena, and five to the Palisades fire. The death toll is expected to mount when firefighters are able to conduct house-to-house searches.
Authorities also drew attention to a range of wrongdoers taking advantage of vulnerable residents and fire victims. Police said two looters who posed as firefighters were arrested, while people were warned to be on the lookout for scam artists and price gougers – particularly in the rental market.
“In some cases, right here in my district, listing agents are raising rents on the spot, preying on families who have been displaced,” said Lindsey Graham of the LA County Board of Supervisors. “This is price gouging, and it is absolutely unacceptable.”
California law forbids businesses raising the price of essential goods in an emergency by more than 10 per cent, and state Attorney-General Rob Bonta said automatic surge or demand-pricing models were not exempt.
“If that means departing from your algorithm, depart from your algorithm,” he said. “Ignorance is not an excuse.”
California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara called on insurers to suspend pending non-renewals and cancellations that home owners received before the fires began and to extend the grace period for payments.
Meanwhile, California Governor Gavin Newsom pushed back against attacks by President-elect Donald Trump, billionaire Elon Musk and right-wing media outlets amid a broader political brawl over whether mismanagement by Democratic officials was to blame for the extent of the fire damage.
Newsom said he feared Trump, who will be inaugurated on January 20, would again threaten to withhold relief funding, as he had in the aftermath of other natural disasters, according to aides. “The rhetoric is very familiar and it’s increasingly acute, and obviously we all have reason to be concerned about it,” he told the progressive podcast Pod Save America.
Newsom said Trump’s claims about Californian conservation policies undercutting the fire response were “delusional”. “It’s a consistent mantra from Trump going back years and years and years, and it’s reinforced over and over and over within the right-wing, and so it has become gospel.”
The Californian governor has invited Trump to view the fires in an attempt at a bipartisan response to the disaster.
“We must not politicise human tragedy or spread disinformation from the sidelines,” Newsom wrote in a letter to the president-elect.
“I invite you to come to California again … to meet with the Americans affected by these fires, see the devastation first-hand, and join me and others in thanking the heroic firefighters and first responders who are putting their lives on the line.”
Trump – who last week blamed Newsom for the fires and calls him “Newscum”, did not comment on the disaster on Saturday, instead making a number of appointments for his incoming administration and posting Fox News videos about his conviction in the Stormy Daniels hush money case.
But tensions between Los Angeles officials over funding cuts and policy decisions were on full display as the embattled mayor and her fire chief attempted to put on a united front at a news conference at the weekend.
Crowley, the fire chief, had earlier given interviews in which she agreed the City of Los Angeles had failed by cutting $US17 million ($27.6 million) from her “understaffed and under-resourced” department, saying the cut had hampered current firefighting efforts.
The mayor, Karen Bass, insisted the cuts related to future salaries and did not undermine current operations. On Saturday, she appeared at a daily media briefing with Crowley after being forced to deny reports she had sacked the fire chief.
“The fire chief and I are focused on fighting these fires and saving lives. Any differences that we might have will be worked out in private, but right now, our first and most important obligation to Angelenos is to get through this crisis” Bass said, promising a full review of what had and had not worked. Crowley also said the pair were in “lock step”.
With Bianca Hall and Josefine Ganko
