Despite a weekend reprieve from the dangerously high winds that have fanned wildfires in Los Angeles and surrounding California areas over the past week, officials say the winds are set to return this week and will jeopardize efforts to extinguish two massive fires that have already levelled entire neighbourhoods and killed at least two dozen people.
Dry Santa Ana winds of up to 80 to 112 km/h are forecast to resume on Monday and persist through Wednesday, according to the National Weather Service, which issued a “particularly dangerous situation” red flag warning, the agency’s most serious fire warning.
Drag the button to see before and after Maxar satellite imagery of destruction in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles.
Fortunately, fire crews were able to keep the fires at bay Sunday night into Monday, but officials say they are preparing for increased winds in the days ahead.
“We are not in the clear,” Los Angeles City Fire Chief Kristin Crowley said at a press conference Monday morning. “We must not let our guard down, as we have right now extreme fire behaviour.”
Kevin Marshall sifts through his mother’s fire-ravaged property in the Palisades Fire in the Pacific Palisades neighbourhood of Los Angeles, Saturday, Jan. 11, 2025.
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A general view of the burned residential areas as wildfires continue to wreak havoc, reaching their fifth day and leaving extensive damage in residential areas in Los Angeles on Jan. 12, 2025.
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Officials said the state was pre-positioning firefighting crews in vulnerable areas, including around the Palisades and Eaton fires, the two largest blazes burning on either side of Los Angeles. More than 8,500 firefighting personnel are assigned to those two fires.
Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone said firefighters were “absolutely better prepared” for extreme winds this week, after the fires grew rapidly last week following similar dire warnings from forecasters.
A firefighter works on a hillside during the aftermath of the Palisades Fire in the Pacific Palisades area of Los Angeles on Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. At least two rounds of vicious, dry Santa Ana winds are expected to blast through Southern California early this week, bringing powerful gusts that will challenge fire crews struggling to contain two destructive blazes and likely force thousands more residents to evacuate.
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Marquez Charter Elementary School was destroyed by fire in the Pacific Palisades on Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025 in Los Angeles.
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Officials say more personnel have been added to on-the-ground crews and more firefighting aircraft are taking flight this week if the winds don’t ground them first.
Drag the button to see before and after Maxar satellite imagery of La Costa Beach, Malibu, Los Angeles.
A car drives past homes and vehicles destroyed by the Palisades Fire at the Pacific Palisades Bowl Mobile Estates on Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025, in Los Angeles.
Noah Berger / The Associated Press
Retardant is dropped by air tanker on the Palisades Fire in Mandeville Canyon Saturday, Jan. 11, 2025, in Los Angeles.
Eric Thayer / The Associated Press
Marrone shared that nothing is guaranteed, given the unpredictable combination of fire and high winds.
“We’re never sure that we’re going to be able to catch the next fire and keep it small,” he said. “They said 70-mile-an-hour winds. It’s going to be very difficult to contain that fire.”
A view of abandoned and burned cars on Sunset Boulevard in Pacific Palisades during the Palisades Fire in Los Angeles on Jan. 12, 2025.
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Cars destroyed by the Eaton Fire remain parked in a lot at the Altadena Auto Center on Jan. 13, 2025 in Altadena, Calif.
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Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna called the situation in Altadena “grim,” where crews are finding human remains every day as they search through burned-out debris left in the wake of the devastating blaze, which has destroyed a large portion of the area.
“It is a very grim task,” Luna said, adding that he expected the confirmed death toll to rise in the days ahead.
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Drag the button to see before and after Maxar satellite imagery of destruction in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles.
A home stands among residences destroyed by the Palisades Fire in the Pacific Palisades neighbourhood of Los Angeles on Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025.
Noah Berger / The Associated Press
The blazes have reduced entire neighbourhoods to smouldering ruins, leaving an apocalyptic landscape. California Gov. Gavin Newsom has said the firestorm could rank as the most devastating natural disaster in U.S. history. Private forecaster AccuWeather has estimated the damage and economic loss at $135 billion to $150 billion.
A potential setback
Over the weekend, aerial and land-based firefighters managed to stop the Palisades Fire as it encroached on the upscale Brentwood section and advanced toward the populous San Fernando Valley in the north.
That fire on the western side of the metropolis has consumed 96 square kilometres and stood at 14 per cent contained, a figure representing the percentage of the fire’s perimeter that firefighters have under control.
A spiral staircase is seen among scorched structures on the Palisades section of Pacific Coast Highway after wildfires on Jan. 12, 2025 in Los Angeles.
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The Eaton Fire in the foothills east of Los Angeles has scorched 57 square kilometres, but firefighters increased the containment to 33 per cent.
Together, the Palisades and Eaton fires have burned an area nearly the size of Washington, D.C.
North of the city, the Hurst Fire was 89 per cent contained, and three other fires that had ravaged other parts of the county were now 100 per cent contained, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) reported, though areas within the containment lines may still be burning.
A view of the burned auditorium at the Eliot Arts Magnet Academy that was destroyed by the Eaton Fire on Jan. 10, 2025 in Altadena, Calif.
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A person walks down a street in the aftermath of the Palisades Fire in the Pacific Palisades neighbourhood of Los Angeles, on Saturday, Jan. 11, 2025.
John Locher / The Associated Perss
But officials say with the return of winds this week, all 10 million people who call Los Angeles County home should be ready to evacuate, if needed.
Drag the button to see before and after Maxar satellite imagery of destruction in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, Calif.
Dozens arrested
Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said they’re starting to see criminals emerge.
Nearly three dozen people have been arrested for looting since the fires began last week.
A sign reading ‘Looters will be shot’ stands in a mandatory evacuation zone at the Eaton Fire on Jan. 12, 2025 in Altadena, Calif.
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A burned mailbox on Jan. 10, 2025, after the Eaton Fire that started on Jan. 7 in Altadena, Calif.
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Hochman added that price gauging has been happening with hotels and short-term rentals and medical supplies. Scammers are also contacting people for fake GoFundMe efforts, though he said the official organization has done a good job of putting protections against this in place and recommended making such donations through that site.
“The criminals have decided that this is an opportunity and I’m here to tell you this is not an opportunity. You will be arrested,” Hochman said.
—With files from Reuters and The Associated Press
