The head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) warned Sunday that winds in Southern California could make devastating wildfires around Los Angeles pick up again despite recent efforts to control those blazes.
“I believe the red flag warnings have been put back in place, and so I think the biggest thing that people need to know is that this is still dangerous, and they still need to make sure they’re listening to their local officials so they can keep themselves safe.”
By Sunday morning, CalFire said fires that started in four different neighborhoods of Los Angeles had consumed more than 62 square miles, an area larger than San Francisco. One fire in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood was 11 percent contained and another that started in Eaton Canyon in the San Gabriel Mountains has reached 27 percent containment. Those two blazes accounted for 59 square miles.
The most dangerous day will be Tuesday, said weather service meteorologist Rich Thompson.
“You’re going to have really strong gusty Santa Ana winds, a very dry atmosphere and still very dry brush, so we still have some very critical fire weather conditions out there,” Thompson said at a community meeting Saturday night.
Criswell on Sunday warned that fires will become unpredictable as the winds start up again this week, cautioning people who want to return to check on their homes. “With the winds picking back up, it’s just, you never know which way they’re going to go,” Criswell said.
“So they really need to pay attention, listen to what’s going on, so they don’t get in harm’s way, and our firefighters can continue to do the great work that they’ve been doing to try to contain this fire,” she added.
When asked what about she expects to happen in the next several days, Criswell said that “it all depends on the weather,” noting that firefighters in Los Angeles “working day in and day out” to deal with the fires.
“There are resources that are out there, but if the weather changes, it creates different conditions,“ the FEMA director said. ”It’s going to change the environment with which they’re operating under. Again, the most important piece is keeping them safe as they try to protect all the homes that are in the path of the fire.”
About 150,000 people in Los Angeles County remain under evacuation orders, with more than 700 residents taking refuge in nine shelters, Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said Sunday morning.
Aside from the fires, looting continues to be a concern as authorities have reported more arrests in recent days. Michael Lorenz, a captain with the Los Angeles Police Department, said seven people have been arrested over the past weekend.
“We even made arrests of two individuals that were actually posing as firefighters coming and in and out of houses, so we’re paying very, very close attention to everybody,” Lorenz said at a community meeting on Saturday.
“CA did NOT cut our firefighting budget. We have nearly doubled the size of our firefighting army and built the world’s largest aerial firefighting fleet,” he wrote, adding the state “has INCREASED forest management ten-fold since we took office.”
