Given half a chance this could turn into an unfathomable disaster.. anyone that knows the area, and the Santa Ana Winds, and can imagine fire crossing Sunset Blvd and reaching into the flats of Santa Monica.. with zero containment..
There’s nothing so terrifying as a nightmare come to life. The Santa Ana winds have haunted the dreams of southern Angelinos for decades. Like the Chinooks of the Rockies and the Mistrals of the Rhone Valley, these winds play on the mind. They tell you they’re coming for you. They whisper the dangers they bring with them. Van Gogh believed the mistral inflamed his madness. Another kind of madness seems to be inflicting LA, the madness of boundless consumption.
Some listen to the warnings of the wind. Some don’t. Those who listen are driven mad by those who don’t. In the chaparrals of southern California, the warning of the Santa Anas has always been: fire. Fires that race down hillsides and canyons faster than any Tesla can drive. Fires that leap roads, highways, malls. Fires that ride on the wind.
This is not new. The Santa Ana winds come with the territory–that territory being the desert basins behind the coastal mountains and canyons. They are katabatic winds that rush downhill, dry and fierce, as they pour through the Cajon, San Gorgonio, and Soledad passes. Geography makes them. Climate change and a rapacious real estate industry that has remained deaf to their message have turned them into killers.
Historically, the Santa Anas (ponder the resonance of that name in our time of mass xenophobia) are autumn winds, warm winds that carry the dust of the Mojave. Now, Santa Anas can erupt any time of year. That’s climate change, for you. Yet a threat that is omnipresent often seems somehow less ominous, making it more likely to catch you off guard.
Even so, LA wasn’t entirely taken by surprise this week. They had two days to get ready. The Santa Anas create the conditions for catastrophic fires on their own. They are fire-making weather events that dry out already parched landscapes, lowering the humidity and raising the temperature as they blow through.
On November 13, 50-mile-per-hour Santa Ana winds whipped up a bonfire started by college students into an inferno that spread across neighborhoods in Montecito and Santa Barbara. The Tea Fire burned for three days, destroying 210 homes. Then-Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger described the charred landscape as “looking like Hell.”
The next day, the still-roaring winds, gusting to 80—mph, supercharged a fire in the Santa Clarita Valley that ravaged the town of Sylmar. The Sayre fire burned for a week and destroyed more than 600 buildings, including 480 mobile homes.
We don’t know how this week’s fires originated—cigarette, campfire, truck spark, downed power line, or arson. But the Hollywood Hills, Santa Monica, and San Gabriel Mountains were already primed to burn. Chapparal is born in fire and thrives in it. In their natural state, the chappal landscapes of southern California experience low-intensity fires once every 20 to 50 years.
After a couple of relatively wet years, the southern California coast has now flipped back into drought conditions. It hasn’t experienced any measurable rainfall in eight months. Climate change has made southern California drier, increasing the frequency and intensity of the region’s natural fire regime. Even fully functioning fire hydrants will never replace the amount of moisture climate change has stolen from the ecosystem.
They talk about the “urban-wildland” interface. In So Cal, that interface is under relentless siege as new luxury homes, condos, and “mixed-use” buildings creep inexorably up the hillsides and canyons, undeterred by the rugged geography, faultlines, or flammability. The boundaries between the natural and the manufactured have been shredded, both on the ground and in the atmosphere. The buffer zones are gone and now nothing is standing between you and the wind.
Yes, you were warned. But no number of red flags could really fortify you for what was coming; no amount of preparation at this late stage could save you from hundred-mile-per-hour winds from a hurricane of fire.
Date: January 13, 2025 at 10:48:47 From: Hannah, [DNS_Address] Subject: Re: SoCal Fires - Palisades Fire
Thank you for the courage to post this. I am sorry for the loss of innocece in all of this. I will never forget the two fires I survived but it is the developers and greed filled political entities that own this as well as those adults who chose to dwell. They took the risk. Beautifully written. Namaste
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Date: January 09, 2025 at 08:02:59 From: Redhart, [DNS_Address] Subject: Re: SoCal Fires - Palisades Fire
It's tragic, to be sure. Been following it. I have a friend that went to LA for medical appointment, and got trapped there as roads closed. We have been able to see the smoke from the southern sierras. She has made it home, but had to veer way to the east and go through the desert highways doubling her trip.
The VA hospital we're watching closely...they moved some evacuations south to Wilshire Blvd which borders the hospital on the north. Hubby has an appointment down there next week.
Our town sent engines and teams down. I know a couple people that have gone down to help rescue/care for evacuee pets.
The wind has been calm where I live. We seemed to miss the worst of that wind event. That being said, weather forecasters are warning the gusts down there in the fire area is expected to rise again this afternoon...and another santa ana event to start on Monday.
Our area, 50-75 mi to the north of the fires, has been put on a PSPS (public safety power shutoff) warning. Luckily, the worst winds have not materialized here yet.
Winds are expected to rise again this afternoon down there.
I believe the death toll so far is 5 civilians in the Eaton fire. Either people caught by surprise or attempting to fight the fire on their own.
Leaving a link to some live coverage from an L.A. news station.
Date: January 09, 2025 at 08:46:14 From: Redhart, [DNS_Address] Subject: Re: SoCal Fires - Palisades Fire
Just got a call from our power company..they may be shutting down our power in the next 4 hrs if the winds pick up as a preventative measure.
If I disappear for a day or two, I'm not on fire..just in the dark lol.
It's okay..we have the RV fridge we move the food to and alternate heating source during black outs.
What's crazy is that I'm not convinced shutting down power keeps fires from starting, it's just not power lines that start them (relieving power company of liability). They just get started by badly maintained generators and candles instead.
We'll so...so far, it's breezy outside but not the level of wind (45mph) that usually trigger a PSPS.