Thanks for the explanation, which calms me (somewhat) about the nightmare scenario of the urban heart of LA being engulfed. But oh, the devastation, the injuries (many being reported) the loss of life (human and animal), and of everything they owned for so many of the evacuees! What a tremendous tragedy even when the conflagrations are contained!
When wind is gusting to 80 mph, suburban homes and apartments spread fire just as readily as undeveloped land.
Current forecast is winds to lessen after today. While it’ll take a while to get things get contained, the danger will be less extreme when they do.
Yeah, the normal ‘rules’ of fire protection and isolation go out the window when the winds are strong enough to carry large embers or even large debris for miles over a suppress ion or burnback system zone.
Looking at Watch Duty now, it looks like all of Altadena and La Canada Flintridge (which includes the Jet Propulsion Laboratory campus) is under Level 3 Evacuation Order. Yikes!
Stranger
Another map resource is
One entry is the specific US and Canada fire maps.
These are interesting ref the smoke, if not the fire:
Before we get too wrapped around the axle about the evacuees and the loss of property, I’d recommend watching Bring Your Own Brigade (2021), a documentary about the California fires of 2017, one in Northern California, and one in Southern California (about where the Pacific Palisades fire is now). It covers the aftermath of the fires, in which both the red townspeople in Northern California and the blue townspeople in Southern California overwhelming veto any new fire prevention/mitigation regulations for their homes (put forward by the fire departments).
From a review:
Peoples’ inability to work together, or to listen to government and fire safety officials’ efforts at mitigation, usually due to some form of that age old American saw: don’t tell me what to do, and don’t take what’s mine.
Sometimes the old saw, “You reap what you sow” is true.
It is streaming on Amazon Prime, Paramount+, and other providers.
Although those are salient points about resistance to measures intended to prevent or reduce fire losses, what we are currently seeing with the Palisades and Eaton fires aren’t just ‘normal’ wildfires; they are literal firestorms, and there are no measures that would effectively protect existing wood-frame construction, and even fire-resistant construction—short of concrete buildings and steel roofing—would be vulnerable under these conditions. These aren’t shaker-roofed firetraps; the neighborhoods in the Altadena and Pasadena foothills have withstood mountain fires for decades previously (many of these houses are WWII era or older construction), most have tile or fire-resistant shingles, and the county maintains firebreaks and brush control around these neighborhoods. This fire jus swept in like a tidal wave and set every burnable material alight.
Stranger
You should watch the documentary. The statements in your reply could almost be word-for-word out of the resident’s mouths both before and after the Camp Fire (if that wasn’t a firestorm, California has never had one) and the Woolsey Fire, even as fire experts pointed out significant mitigation for residences to avoid areas where wind driven embers create residential fuel for the firestorm and in forestry to mitigate the “corridors” the firestorm builds in.
The “we’ve survived a lot of fires in the past” was a particular point of hubris in Paradise, CA.
Reports I’m seeing on TV are now saying there are six fires, and the water system is “strained”. Fire fighters not getting enough water pressure at hydrants to fight the flames. Air humidity is down around 1 to 2 percent in what’s supposed to be LA’s rainy season. More than 1.5 million without power. Now five dead and the toll is expected to rise.
The news reports keep calling it “apocalyptic”. It’s hard to say that’s hyperbole.
I have a relative in La Cañada and she’s been told to evacuate, which she did. Her partner, who is a fairly well known actor, refuses to leave. He’s older and had many health issues so I can understand.
I’ve visited them a couple times and it is odd to think of wildfires going through there. I hope they can get these fires under control. Everyone do rain dances.
I admit to a little bit of schadenfreude for this fire. I certainly do not want to see anyone hurt (which I know has already happened) but I can’t feel bad when James Woods is complaining the government didn’t do enough to prevent this and then his house burns down.
I get it is a bad thing. I really do.
Good thing we have an incoming president that will help out after this horrific event is finally over. His latest Truth should give California a warm and cozy feeling.
We have an old college friend who lives in L.A. and have been closely following this terrible event by watching live TV from L.A. online. Mostly KNBC-TV but popping into some others as well. It has been dramatic and at times truly frightening.
Are there any Dopers in the Los Angeles area? Have you evacuated? Can you share with us your on-the-ground insight? I realize communication on social media is probably the last thing on your mind. At last report on Facebook, our friend has not received an evacuation order but is within 5 to 10 miles of the fires. A shift in the wind could change that very quickly.
Existing thread:
I know people who have had to evacuate Altadena and La Cañada due to the Eaton Fire. They haven’t been resistant to fire prevention and abatement measures, they remove dead trees and foliage, and follow other recommended practices. They don‘t ignore officials and fire experts. They took recommended measures to screen eaves and remove any accelerants. But when 80+ mph winds blow a burning, disintegrating structure into your house, it is going to burn regardless of what you’ve done to prevent ‘embers’ from causing a blaze. This is getting to a borderline ‘blame the victim’ mentality in areas that have managed to control and live with scrub fires for decades because they are now facing gale-force winds and a prenaturally dry ‘rain season’ where literally everything that can burn is on fire. Please stop with this.
I wish I had the energy to express what a monumental fuckstick Trump is. A normal person—even a raging asshole—would pause a minute to express some modicum of empathy and make vague mouth-noises about ‘thoughts and prayers’, but not Trump who can only think of another way to stick it to someone who isn’t even challenging him because what is the point of winning if you can’t grind your opponent beneath your heel. What a truly abominable human being.
Stranger
The world today…(supposedly these people went to the fire to take selfies):
He leads the entire basket of deplorables. HRC’s comment was so entirely spot on. Except for the part where she said it was only half of them.
Definitely Golgafrincham ‘B’ ark material.
Stranger
I get that reference! 
My off-the-cuff estimate is 85%, and it grows every time I get raged at by some Trump supporter who doesn’t seem to realize that his guy won, or worse yet understands this and knows that there is now no one left to blame. “Deplorables” was too charitable of a term for these asshats.
Stranger