Los Angeles Palisades Fire

[Yazata]

This is new, it only broke out about 10 AM this morning. What makes it important is that it's in Pacific Palisades, one of Los Angeles' most high-end neighborhoods, with many multimillion dollar homes. And a substantial number of those homes are on fire as I write this.

All of Pacific Palisades is under a mandatory evacuation order. Reportedly some of that evacuation was difficult, with fire, smoke and traffic complicating things. There was widespread panic and there are videos of bulldozers pushing hundreds of abandoned cars off roads so that fire crews could get through. But apparently everyone got out, though some just barely. LA police and fire performed some heroic rescues, as did neighbors saving neighbors.

https://lafd.maps.arcgis.com/apps/Media/...b8300727a8

Cal Fire says that high winds are making the fire very difficult to control and the winds are expected to continue to Thursday. Currently 0% containment.

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(The yacht in the photo above is the Aquila, 280 ft long, 3,000 tons displacement. It belongs to billionaire Stan Kroenke, owner of the LA Rams (NFL), Arsenal F.C. (English Premier League), Denver Nuggets (NBA) and the Colorado Avalanche (NHL).

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nsNS

[Yazata]

The LA fire department has called in all off-duty firefighters. LA has declared a state of emergency. Things are chaotic in LA right now...

LA TV is reporting that parts of Santa Monica are now under evacuation orders.

A second fast moving fire has broken out in Altadena, just north of Pasadena. It's called the Eaton fire and it's being driven by the same 60 mph winds. Homes are burning in Altadena most of the city has been placed under evacuation orders. Altadena is much more middle class than Pacific Palisades, which is a rich person's enclave.

Biden says that he's been briefed and FEMA is on the case.

A true firestorm...

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[Yazata]

Reports coming in that several more fires have broken out, driven by 60 mph wind. Power is out for about 220,000 people. Reports of scattered looting. Pacific Palisades fire is still 0% contained. The Pacific Coast Highway is closed in both direction, but there are still cars moving on it, evacuees still coming out of Pacific Palisades. A number of injuries are reported, some serious, but still no confirmed fatalities.

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nsNS

[Yazata]

Reports that the wind blown Eaton fire has entered Pasadena. It's starting to rival the Palisades fire in destructiveness. Cal Tech is closed but says that it isn't under an evacuation order and is in no immediate danger.

https://www.caltech.edu/emergency

NASA JPL is up the mountain where the Eaton fire is, and is closed and under an evacuation order. JPL says that their facilities are "secured and protected". They say that deep space activities normally controlled by JPL have been handed off to backup sites. JPL says that they have made their facility available as a base for firefighting helicopters, but that hasn't happened yet because of the high winds.

https://emergency.jpl.nasa.gov/

All in all, the various fires have already destroyed well over 1,000 structures. Probably a lot more, since nobody is really counting yet.

The LA dept of water and power are telling people to conserve water and to boil it before drinking it. Approximately 400,000 customers are now without power.

Video is appearing showing a whole stretch of zillion dollar mansions along the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu is wiped out.

Photo of West LA with UCLA in the hills above. I get the impression that the wind might be blowing the fire towards the beach to the left, which would be a good thing I guess, especially if the fire is pushed back into areas it already burned over. UCLA says that it is in no immediate danger and is operating normally(ish).

https://bso.ucla.edu/

The wind appears to be lessening too, which is allowing fire fighting aircraft to get back up in the air. So the situation might be starting to improve.

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[Syne]

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Looks like a scene straight out of Constantine.

Is it true that the Palisades were extra dry from Newscum diverting water to the ocean to save the smelt (trash fish)?

[Magical Realist]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9Jo2rTxGdk

Is it true that the Palisades were extra dry from Newscum diverting water to the ocean to save the smelt (trash fish)?

Always ready to politically exploit any tragic disaster aren't you? Do you even know about the Santa Ana winds?

[Syne]

The Camp Fire (2018) was exacerbated by poor vegetation management.
How years of corruption and mismanagement led to LA running out of water in the middle of the Palisades wildfire

Adding insult, Democratic Mayor Karen Bass was 7,400 miles away in Africa, and months earlier she had approved an $18 million cut to the fire department.

Insanity is voting for the same people and expecting different results.

[Magical Realist]

"Years of mismanagment"..That's a sweeping generalization that could apply to just about anything. So what did Newsom have to do with it?

[Yazata]

A new fire has broken out in the Hollywood hills, called the Sunset fire. This is prime entertainment celebrity country and homes are burning as I write this.

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Looks like a scene straight out of Constantine.

It's Los Angeles, so the resemblance with that scene is more than skin deep. (Great movie, btw.)

Is it true that the Palisades were extra dry from Newscum diverting water to the ocean to save the smelt (trash fish)?

Sort of. California has had above average rain and mountain snowfall the last several years, so "climate change" is not really the problem. The problem is that most of the state's dams and large reservoirs date back to the 1960's, when California 'only' had about 20 million people, not the 40 million we have today. So population has simply outgrown the water infrastructure. (LA used to take whatever it wanted from the Colorado river too, but now it has to share with Phoenix and Las Vegas.) Why have few if any new dams and reservoirs been built in the last generation? Largely because environmental activists have been ascendant in Sacramento, aided and abetted by similar activists in Washington DC. The activists favor keeping wild rivers wild, and prioritizing the welfare of the endangered species that live in the rivers. (The activists aren't entirely wrong.)

Bottom line is that Southern California is naturally semi-arid. It's just not the best place for one of the world's largest metropolitan areas, no matter how desirable the climate and scenery are to move to and live in.

[Yazata]

I'm getting worried about NASA JPL

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