The historic fires in Southern California continue to spread, out of control. Austin Turner reports at KTLA:
LOS ANGELES (KTLA) – The Palisades Fire, the most destructive wildfire in Los Angeles history, continued to spread with limited containment on Friday.
According to a Cal Fire update issued at 1:57 a.m., the blaze had scorched 19,978 acres in the Pacific Palisades, Malibu and elsewhere in the Santa Monica Mountains. The fire erupted Tuesday morning and, fanned by hurricane-force Santa Ana winds, quickly ripped through residential and commercial areas.
More than 5,000 structures have been lost, many of them homes and businesses.
Damage is believed to be in the tens of billions of dollars.
Tens of thousand of people remain under evacuation orders or warnings. The evacuation order extended throughout the Pacific Palisades to the Pacific Ocean and included areas of Santa Monica, Malibu and Topanga. Residents and businesses in Calabasas remained under an evacuation warning on Friday.
It is my understanding that California Gov. Newsom has called out firefighting units of the state’s National Guard to assist in fighting the fires. I hope that governors of other states have offered similar resources and Gov. Newsome accepts since I see no way that the fire will not continue to spread without additional resources.
I note that partisans and ideologues continue to attempt to frame the fires in ways favorable to their points-of-view. I consider such moves ghoulish while the fires rage. There will be plenty of time for that later. I did, however, want to take note of a piece at American Prospect from Harold Meyerson asserting that the fires were completely predictable:
Mike Davis told us what would happen to those homes and, when the winds reached their apogee, as predictably they would, to the shops and homes and apartments on the flatlands, too. The Chumash and early-19th-century seagoers knew what would happen. Only we denied it.
Hubris
It’s very similar to building homes right on the beach in Hurricane zones. It’s not if a disaster will happen but when. it’s not truly preventable as much as people want to believe its possible. Yes, if we spent some huge amount of money and had 2 fire trucks on every street and 20 million gallon tanks every other street we could probably stop the fires but we just arent going to pay for that. If it’s dry enough and you get 80 mph winds and if you have homes in that area stuff is going to burn.
Heart goes out to the first responders. It’s tough work. When people gut hurt burns are god awful to treat as is smoke inhalation.
Steve
Or building in the flood plain of the Mississippi. We shouldn’t forbid it but we shouldn’t encourage it, either.
I’m not familiar Mike Davis, but before him John McPhee wrote about the unique ecology of the San Gabriel Mountains in “The Control of Nature” (1989) He described the ecology of the area as in an almost symbiotic relationship. The vegetation wants/needs fire to reproduce itself, the surface has little if any soil to maintain moisture, the valleys and canyons focus and trap heat and air, and the winds coming across the Mojave Desert are so dry that the humidity drops to zero. Humans have to keep blinking to protect their eyeballs. Plants sense the changing winds and drastically reduce their moisture level.
They want to burn because their seeds lie dormant in the ground; the nutrition locked in the dead plantlife is released by fire. The structure of living Chapparal plants make them one of the most flammable vegetation complexes on the planet. The resins and oils that seal in moisture respond explosively to flame. The plants burn like they’ve been soaked with gasoline.
All of this is very unique. The only other place that might compare in flammability in the U.S. are the New Jersey Pine Barrens, which are mostly rural. Also doesn’t have what happens next:
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2009-oct-04-oe-murphy4-story.html
Cliff Mass has good posts on the meteorology surrounding the fire.
The fires were predicted (like 2 days before they occurred), were predictable from climate studies, yet were unprecedented in its strength and timing (at least since we started modern weather data collection in Southern California).
Thanks in large part to California’s insurance regulators, many of the lost buildings were uninsured. Many people will have lost their main economic asset.
Of course, the area will be rebuilt. Its location is prime. And a generation from now it will burn again.
PS. John McPhee has a series of books detailing the geology and ecology along US I-80 and other routes. All are superb reading and highly informative.
I have really been struck by how close a lot of those homes look in the overhead photos. If the PP fire started in someone’s backyard (which seems to be the prevailing theory right now), given the 80 mph winds I dont see how you could stop a fire easily once started. Controlled burns wouldn’t be possible in such tight areas. Would think you would need to ban the growth of nearly everything to have any hope of stoping fire spread.
Steve
Zero lot lines are commonplace there.