quote:

Originally posted by medic451:

quote:

Originally posted by 9mmepiphany:

quote:

This development is not driven by wind. The direction of the fire movement is INTO the wind, a sign that it is fuel laden situation.

I thought Medic451 said the wind had shifted last night toward the North...in-land from the ocean

It was burning north, winds this am shifted back to SW. In my area its about 10-15 right now with gusts to 20+.

Makes me feel a bit better.

My son lives in Sherman Oaks which is North-East of the junction of the 405 and the 101. The Palisades fire headed his way last night and they were ready to leave again if it got much closer to the 101

quote:

Originally posted by Lineman101:
The area is probably 99% Blue.

"Ballots cast in the five voting precincts that largely constitute the Palisades (9005918A, 9005919A, 9005929A, 9001382A, 9007693D) overwhelmingly went to Harris compared with the now President-elect and independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (who threw his support behind the Republican nominee in late August.)"

"Of the 11,151 votes cast from those precincts, 71.17% went for Harris, while Trump and RFK Jr. received just 27.75% and 1.08% of the Palisadian vote, respectively."

From here: https://palisadesnews.com/here...24-general-election/

High winds, low humidity expected to fuel fires through Wednesday: ‘Not looking good’

https://www.latimes.com/califo...end-not-looking-good

Santa Ana gusts aren’t going anywhere, as meteorologists expect north-to-northeast winds to pick up Saturday night and continue into Wednesday evening for Southern California’s mountain and foothill communities.

Periods of elevated critical fire weather are expected to peak Saturday night into Sunday and then again Monday night through Tuesday as winds could gust up to more than 75 mph for the eastern part of the mountain ranges in Los Angeles County. Weather forecasters say the turbulent conditions may help push the Eaton fire in the Altadena area farther south.

Our concern is winds picking up tonight and then on Monday through Wednesday,” said National Weather Service meteorlogist Rose Schoenfield. “The general duration of this is not looking good.”

A red flag warning issued for this evening starting at 6 p.m. has been extended to Wednesday night, as well as a fire watch warning. Although Santa Ana wind events will affect the mountain and foothill communities of Ventura and Los Angeles counties, they will likely have a stronger impact for the Santa Susana Mountains and the San Gabriel Mountains.

Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone said his crews were gearing up for another dangerous increase in winds that will, no doubt, cause further challenges for ongoing firefights.

As of Saturday, the Palisades fire was 11% contained and the Eaton fire, which devastated much of Altadena and is now burning mostly in the San Gabriel Mountains, was 15% contained. On Friday, the Palisades fire was 8% contained and the Eaton fire was 3% contained.

Marrone warned that more power shutoffs, initiated to limited potential fire starts from electrical equipment, will likely occur over the next few days.

“Please understand the inevitable public safety power shutoffs that will be implemented prior to this life-threatening Santa Ana wind event are crucial to preventing new fire starts, and that they help save lives,” he said. “Yes they are challenging to deal with, but it’s certainly better than having another fire start.”

On Saturday, Southern California Edison reported that more than 300,000 customers across the region -- about 80,000 in L.A. County -- are under consideration for further power cuts “due to heightened wildfire risk.”

About 20,000 customers across L.A. County remain without power from the planned shutoffs.Don Fregulia, an operations section chief for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, said crews responding to the Eaton fire are still dealing with hot spots and flare-ups, including near some neighborhoods.

“We’re using all the tools in our tool box to put this fire out,” Fregulia said. But he admitted this is a long fight: “It’s many days, many weeks of work.”

While the dry weather is expected to last through the middle of the week, Schoenfeld said Thursday could potentially bring a respite, offering a small chance of rain and improving humidities.

“Ideally it would be a rainstorm, but we’ll take what we can get,” Schoenfeld said.

Mandeville Canyon is burning right now. You want to see a dangerous area to build a home? This is the place. Look it up on google maps. Winds were pretty bad up until about 30 minutes ago, but its almost dead calm now.

interesting...

I used to pass that LAFD yard regularly. It appeared to be a maintenance facility. Anyway, some of those vehicles may not be operated in CA due to TIER engine emissions? Again, only my opinion.

I’m asking myself a couple of questions here.

What kind of fire chief doesn’t know the reservoir for the hydrants is empty.

What kind of fire chief doesn’t know that the hydrants don’t have water.

What kind of fire chief has almost 15% of the equipment in maintenance.

Absolutely abysmal performance for a manager.

The personnel, equipment and apparatus issues facing LAFD are not new in the fire service, nor are they a California problem. This is across the nation.

Fire Departments, much like Police Departments, are funded by tax money. There is a finite amount of tax money to go around. The average person might say "The most important things for the city are Police, Fire & Public Works." Most would agree. Now enter the politician....

Politicians have agendas, they want tax money spent on showy things that get them re-elected. Planting trees, landscaping, bike lanes in the middle of the road, festivals, etc. Most politicians look at:
- public works as behind the scenes, ugly, and it's probably just fine
- police are a necessary evil that keep getting us sued.
- firefighters sit around all day playing chess and cards doing nothing and once in a while they go help someone.

Due to these attitudes they happily strip money from those budgets to push their agendas. The alternative is a millage. A lot of people won't vote for a raise in their taxes to support police and fire, especially if they haven't needed them yet.

Now... the true irony comes when something like this happens, or their house is on fire, or someone steals their shiny new BMW. They want 100 fire trucks and 1000 firemen in their driveway NOW, or they want 1000 cops looking in every street & alley, flying drones, helicopters, looking for their car 24/7 until found. If that doesn't happen, they DEMAND ANSWERS!!!!

Bottom line, government really doesn't want to spend money on fire departments.... until it hits the fan, then it's too late.

quote:

Originally posted by nhtagmember:
I’m asking myself a couple of questions here.

I'll answer for you...

What kind of fire chief doesn’t know the reservoir for the hydrants is empty.
A: In my old department, all of us new about any issues that could impact water supply and pressure. It was communicated by various means

What kind of fire chief doesn’t know that the hydrants don’t have water.
A: Every Engine had a list of hydrants out of service. It was always possible an incident could occur between discovery and updating the list but I never recall that happening. I did however find a few broken ones no one knew about at an incident.

What kind of fire chief has almost 15% of the equipment in maintenance.
A: Again, in my old department any out of service apparatus was noted in the morning, and afternoon radio test so everyone was aware.

Absolutely abysmal performance for a manager.
A: Agreed... granted, the Fire Chief might not be aware of specific hydrants out of service but darn well should be aware of empty reservoirs or low pressure/volume conditions

LA Mayor Bass rejects FDNY’s offer to help — despite not having enough firefighters to battle blazes still raging: sources

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass denied rebuffing an offer by the FDNY to help try to contain the area’s deadly fires — even though California officials have said they don’t have enough firefighters themselves.

New York City fire Commissioner Robert Tucker made the helpful overture to the embattled Bass in recent days, as five blazes rage around Los Angeles and its suburbs, killing at least 10 people and destroying thousands of homes and businesses, sources told The Post Friday.

JetBlue even offered to pay for the city smoke-eaters’ flights across the country from the Big Apple to Los Angeles, sources said.

But the offers apparently fell on deaf ears, as no orders have been issued to send New York City crews out West, sources said.

Meanwhile, California Gov. Gavin Newsom accepted help from Mexico, thanking its president, Claudia Sheinbaum, on Friday for the assist, while extra firefighters from Colorado, New Mexico and Utah flocked to the state to help Thursday.

A source speculated that Bass may have balked at taking Bravest help because fighting wildfires is “a whole different beast” that requires special training, as opposed to putting out blazes in buildings, which is typical fare for the FDNY.

But the apparent refusal still stunned some department observers — given how Los Angeles Fire Chief Anthony Marrone acknowledged Wednesday that his forces were fighting a losing battle when it came to enough staffing to thwart the blazes.

.
https://nypost.com/2025/01/10/...p-from-fdny-sources/

also here:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news...e-report/ar-BB1ri7Fa

The Civil suits that will be filed against the Mayor, the fire Boss and the the Governor will be staggering. Yet the same people would still vote for them all over again.
I was watching LA news broadcasts I have Elite Stream Media and only ABC News mentioned looters. They said 19 were arrested. NINETEEN! And given Cali's record of, who how and what, they prosecute, I am sure they will be sternly disciplined and released.

Here’s an interesting twist.

I saw part of a news story from Altadena that stated ALL the non recycled detritus (e.g., steel is easy to pull out to recycle, everything else not so much) will, because of California environmental regulations, need to be disposed of in HAZARDOUS WASTE LANDFILLS. Not solid waste, hazardous waste.

There are currently about 70 such facilities in all of California, none with permits extending beyond 2035, and easily half with permits expiring in the next three years.

And that does consider if the operating permit allows acceptance of these types of waste.

How many hazardous waste certified site workers and truckers are there? Not enough. Nowhere near.

If CalEPA doesn’t waive this requirement, this alone doubles the cost of rebuilding, and greatly slows progress of site clearance.

ETA:


I doubt these facilities have sufficient capacity for that much waste, meaning it’ll be shipped around the nation.

quote:

Originally posted by nhtagmember:
I’m asking myself a couple of questions here.

What kind of fire chief doesn’t know the reservoir for the hydrants is empty.

What kind of fire chief doesn’t know that the hydrants don’t have water.

What kind of fire chief has almost 15% of the equipment in maintenance.

Lesbians. In Los Angeles, the top leaders of the fire department are lesbians.


And L.A. turns to a controversial practice in fighting fires- utilizing inmates from the L.A. County Corrections system, a practice that has been banned in other states such as Oregon, Utah, Colorado, etc. I guess these guys will lead the fight.



https://www.breitbart.com/envi...t-ongoing-l-a-fires/

Things are changing and the horrific Los Angeles wildfires will be the catalyst for more positive change.

quote:

Originally posted by saigonsmuggler:
My understanding is that when State Farm dropped renewals last summer, homeowners had the choice to jump onto FAIR insurance, which is backed by the state. FAIR premiums are quite high and losses are capped at $3M per home. So probably in those areas, people are underinsured with FAIR.

Edit to add: homeowner insurance policies usually provide replacement cost instead of market value, so $3M is a lot of money for rebuilding, so many of those homes in the Palisades might not be underinsured.

But $3,000,000 coverage is more than ample. Most anyone with a home valued at more than $3,000,000 has the resources to add to the insurance payout to rebuild. Keep in mind most of the real-estate value is in the lot which remains. Many of those "$2,000,000 homes" out there were $350,000 structures on $1.6M lots.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: ridewv,

I haven't seen this anywhere but on YT - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2QHd6XbQ2I

According to my next-door neighbour - a clinical psychologist - a female arsonist is ultra-rare, to say the least.

quote:

Originally posted by Sig2340:
need to be disposed of in HAZARDOUS WASTE LANDFILLS. Not solid waste, hazardous waste.

Same rules in place during the aftermath of the Thomas Fire. We helped my older brother with cleanup of his house and barn. County Environmental Department folks came out, “inspected”, then approved everything to go (tarped) to a local landfill. Lead acid batteries that had burned up, transite pipe (asbestos concrete mix), burned up containers of fertilizer and pesticide, all of it was “fine to go to the dump”. I doubt this one will be any different.

My impression is that for many folks a lot of this “green” horsefeathers is only because it is politically popular. If you start throwing “green roadblocks” in the way of folks cleaning up and rebuilding, you may get a different response, even from a homeowner who considers themself an environmentalist.

Not sure about the coastal commission and folks being able to rebuild west of highway 1 / Pacific Coast Highway. I’m sure the coastal commision would like to stop them, but I wonder if the blowback would be enough to get the CC taken down a notch…

quote:

Originally posted by ridewv:
But $3,000,000 coverage is more than ample. Most anyone with a home valued at more than $3,000,000 has the resources to add to the insurance payout to rebuild. Keep in mind most of the real-estate value in in the lot which remains. Many of those "$2,000,000 homes" out there were $350,000 structures on $1.6M lots.

You’d be right in a rational place, but it is clear you have not built in CA. I would not be surprised in the least if many of these homeowners are not well past $350,000 in the cleanup and permitting process before anybody lifts a shovel or hammer to start construction.

A friend (retired sergeant with the local Sheriff’s Office) and his wife bought some property in Tennessee. Originally they thought they were going to stay in CA and enjoy the grand babies, but that changed after a visit to the building department there. “Oh, your the folks who bought the <whoever>’s place. What are looking to do? Let’s see how we can help you get that done.” He was shocked at the contrast to the typical attitude of planning and building in CA “Why the **** would we let you do that?!?”

Our previous home was in the heart of a resort town. Ski in, ski out. The cost of construction is stupid expensive due to state codes (earthquake, fire suppression, plumbing, electrical, etc), local restrictions (historic preservation, style, landscaping, materials, etc), and the realities of mountain terrain.

Dealing with the city to get all the approvals before starting construction can easily take years, and costs a lot of $.

What one might think of in the past as a typical middle class home cannot be built today. Easily triple the cost, then add inflation, to what something cost to build in a flat neighborhood last century. Throw in the local price increases because they can in higher value neighborhoods.

I expect many owners of 3 million dollar homes in the fire zone aren't all that wealthy aside from the equity in their home if they've lived there for a decade or more. Not to where they can rebuild without insurance. Lot values are likely to drop for a while and sit empty for years.

State Farm's position will be proven correct, that they will lose money on fire insurance in California. But they will be pilloried in the media as heartless for not renewing policies.

Who will do all the rebuilding? Given the labor shortage everywhere who will be swinging the hammers and would you want your new home built by unskilled labor?