The tide could finally be turning against the LA fires
The disaster response is marred by controversy and disinformation. Donald Trump falsely accused California Governor Gavin Newsom, after some fire hydrants went dry, of mismanaging water supplies in the state to save an endangered species. Stewart says that this allows for the tanks to be filled more quickly, so they can continue to supply the hydrants. “We have full flowing hydrants,” she says. She says that more firefighters are arriving from Utah, Oregon Arizona Washington and New Mexico. Several dozen task forces are on their way, according to Stewart, each with five fire engines plus a command vehicle.
Aircraft began flying again on Wednesday. Twelve helicopters fill huge buckets of water hanging from cables, and then sucking up seawater through snorkels. Six planes also work the fires. This includes a pair “super scoop” aircraft which have been skimming the surface of Pacific Ocean to collect water. The helicopters and scoop planes dump water on spot fires, letting firefighters close in and extinguish them.
Meanwhile, other airplanes are dropping fire retardant out ahead of the inferno, coating potential fuel with a layer of nonflammable chemicals and slowing its advance. Cal Fire’s C-130 cargo aircraft, which it acquired from the Coast Guard this summer and retrofitted with retardant, can drop 4,000 gallons. Responders will attempt to stop the Palisades Fire from spreading to the east and west, as the ocean is preventing it from spreading to the south. Pimlott believes that the real spread will be on the flank. California has been suffering an abnormally dry winter, with 40 percent of the state under drought conditions.
“Fuels remain critically dry,” James Magana of Cal Fire said at a Thursday morning briefing. You can expect critical spread rates, especially in drainages and ridgetops aligned with the wind. Firefighters will have to put out smaller fires within that footprint. Firefighters will have to stamp out smaller fires within that footprint.
“That’s a critical stage, to mop up these hot spots or anything that could rekindle if the winds were to increase again,” Upton says.
Moving forward, the city will need to clean up debris, restore utilities, and analyze damage to the environment before allowing people to move back. Mudslides may be a problem when rains come back, as canyons are devoid of trees and vegetation which hold soil. That’s an opportunity to make them less vulnerable to the next fire, says Max Moritz, a wildfire specialist with the University of California Cooperative Extension.
Although houses are in many cases required to be built with fire-resistant materials, California law doesn’t say anything about how they should be laid out. He says that clustering houses rather than spreading them among trees makes them easier to defend against fire and to evacuate.
