Home » In the calm before new fire warnings, SoCal emergency responders dig in for a ground war – Jobsmaa.com

In the calm before new fire warnings, SoCal emergency responders dig in for a ground war – Jobsmaa.com

0 comments

It was a typical sunny Sunday afternoon in Santa Monica, with lots of people enjoying the beach, eating brunch and walking their dogs.

But in the Pacific Palisades and along the Pacific Coast Highway in eastern Malibu, officials are preparing for a ground war on any sparks as faster and more dry winds are expected to sweep through the region in the coming days.

Dan Collins, public information officer for the Palisades Fire, said 5,677 fire and law enforcement personnel were assigned to the fire, including workers from Canada, Israel and South Africa.

He said an additional Calfire “incident management team” is stationed in Beaumont, ready to help, if strong winds lead to further expansion, as some fear.

Hundreds of emergency response vehicles lined miles of beachfront in the Palisades and Malibu, along with the blackened skeletons and crumpled chimneys of beachfront homes and businesses.

Dozens of brown tents, marking a makeshift National Guard camp just above the sandy beach, were in action ahead of predicted fire weather.

In one particularly surreal scene, a guard Humvee framed by towering palm trees sits outside the posh entrance of the tony Bel-Air Bay Club in Pacific Palisades.

Fire trucks from San Diego and Contra Costa counties lined up bumper-to-bumper on a stretch.

Law enforcement cars cruised up and down PCH, lights flashing.

Dozens of Southern California Edison trucks line the winding Coastal Highway. Other utility trucks were dispatched from Topanga Canyon to Sunset Boulevard, digging trenches to reach buried lines, repairing damaged electrical equipment and trying to repair as much damage as possible before the wind speed increased.

Meanwhile, the National Weather Service on Sunday issued the most severe version of its Red Flag fire weather warning for much of Southern California, which includes burns in Malibu and Altadena. An “extremely dangerous situation” warning came into effect from midday on Monday and will continue until 10am on Tuesday. Wind gusts of 50 to 70 mph are forecast along the coasts and valleys, 60 to 80 mph in the foothills, and gusts up to 100 mph.

The warning comes as firefighters rush to contain the Palisades and Eden fires. As of Sunday, the Palisades Fire, which has burned more than 23,700 acres and killed at least 10 people, was 52% contained, according to Cal Fire. The Eden Fire, which has burned more than 14,000 acres and killed at least 17 people, is 81% contained.

When the Palisades Fire broke out on January 7, Michelle Harrison and her husband lost their home in an unincorporated area of ​​LA County just outside the Malibu city limits.

Now, Harrison said Sunday, he fears for people facing even more threatening weather in Malibu this week.

“It's sad,” she said. “I'm sure they'll have enough firefighters here, which they're doing right now, to stop the fire that could explode in the coming days.”

You may also like

About Us

We’re a media company. We promise to tell you what’s new in the parts of modern life that matter. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo. Sed consequat, leo eget bibendum sodales, augue velit.

@2024 – All Right Reserved.