Pacific Palisades Fire Threatening Santa Monica, California

[Ivan Seeking]

This is looking like a potential catastrophe. Right now the fire is only about five miles from Santa Monica (a major city) and wind gusts as high as 80 mph are expected. This is being driven by the Santa Ana Winds, which are notorious for creating extremely dangerous fire conditions with hot, dry winds that often reach as much as 100 mph.

Parts of Santa Monica are now being evacuated.

https://www.latimes.com/california/live/pacific-palisades-fire-updates-los-angeles

 

[mcastillo356]

God, please, please

 

[Ivan Seeking]

God, please, please

Are you close to the fire? Are you okay?

 

[berkeman]

Are you close to the fire? Are you okay?

His Profile, About info lists his country as Spain, so unless he is very unlucky and on vacation in SoCal, he should be okay.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

His Profile, About info lists his country as Spain, so unless he is very unlucky and on vacation in SoCal, he should be okay.

I don't think it will spread all the way to Spain unless the winds REALLY pick up.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

It is into the cities and 155,000 evacuations are ordered so far.

Many people including celebrities have been forced to evacuate on foot.

Some fire hydrant systems have run dry.

 

[fresh_42]

I don't think it will spread all the way to Spain unless the winds REALLY pick up.

It's not as if Spain wouldn't know the situation!

 

[mcastillo356]

I went to California in my childhood, I personally feel very close to the wildfire. And I pray for the family that gave me shelter. I pray for the firefighters, I pray for...For an end to this living wild nightmare

 

[berkeman]

My local Alameda County Fire Department along with several neighboring fire departments is sending a task force south to help out. Stay safe FFs.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Earlier they had four major fires burning. Now there are five. Four still have zero containment.

 

[DaveE]

In addition, the Eaton fire is active in the vicinity of JPL and east through Altadena to Sierra Madre. 10K acres, 0% containment.
https://app.watchduty.org/i/40388

 

[Ivan Seeking]

In addition, the Eaton fire is active in the vicinity of JPL and east through Altadena to Sierra Madre. 10K acres, 0% containment.
https://app.watchduty.org/i/40388

JPL and Cal Tech.

 

[DaveE]

JPL and Cal Tech.

Caltech is OK, it's far enough south for now. Approximately south of Washington Blvd, or so, is OK.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Caltech is OK, it's far enough south for now. Approximately south of Washington Blvd, or so, is OK.

The winds are expected to get back up to 60 mph later tonight. I don't know which way the Santa Anas blow through Pasadena.

Last night the winds reached 100 mph. A strange fact that they get the highest winds during the late hours of the night in these conditions.

 

[DaveE]

I don't know which way the Santa Anas blow through Pasadena.

From the desert towards the ocean, in general. But it's weird near the San Gabriel mountain front.
60mph is maybe only gusts near fire activity. The forecast is currently 10-20mph, gusting to 30mph and is expected to drop by 10mph or so tomorrow.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I went to California in my childhood, I personally feel very close to the wildfire. And I pray for the family that gave me shelter. I pray for the firefighters, I pray for...For an end to this living wild nightmare

Yes, this is horrific. I have lived all over the LA area and know these areas well. It is surreal to imagine the cities are burning.

Last night I was thinking about someone I knew who was wiped out by a major storm - the one that wiped out the Jersey shore some years ago. He was heartbroken and couldn't stand the thought of the years of rebuilding it would take to get back to normal. So he decided to move to start a new life.

He moved to Santa Monica.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

In fact many of my favorite areas of California have burned to the ground. I used to drive that road every day to Paradise, California, where back in 2018 many people died in their cars trying to get down the mountain. A couple of years later, Berry Creek and Upper Bidwell Park burned. These were areas I where I spent a lot of time. It was all dramatically beautiful. Now it is all gone and will take decades to recover, if it recovers.

The Governor mentioned that California doesn't have a fire season anymore. It is year round. Note this is all happening in the dead of winter.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Now there is a sixth fire.

 

[DaveE]

In addition to the dramatically increased threat to forested areas, like Paradise, urban areas are now threatened with wildfire. This is new. People that owned homes in the Coffey Park area of Santa Rosa, or now, in Altadena, never really had to worry too much about massive fires.