{"id":53985,"date":"2017-12-07T05:09:58","date_gmt":"2017-12-07T05:09:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/?p=53985"},"modified":"2017-12-07T05:09:58","modified_gmt":"2017-12-07T05:09:58","slug":"california-fires-enter-the-heart-of-los-angeles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/news\/california-fires-enter-the-heart-of-los-angeles.html","title":{"rendered":"California Fires Enter the Heart of Los Angeles"},"content":{"rendered":"

California Fires Enter the Heart of Los Angeles<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

California Fires Enter the Heart of Los Angeles:- With thick plumes of smoke, towering flames and mass evacuations, a fast-moving wildfire struck one of America\u2019s major cities on Wednesday.<\/span><\/p>\n

As fires raged out of control across Southern California, a new blaze erupted in the Bel-Air neighborhood of Los Angeles, near iconic landmarks like the U.C.L.A. campus and the Getty Museum, home to old masters paintings and ancient Roman statues.<\/span><\/p>\n

It burned up to the edges of the 405 freeway, the nation\u2019s busiest highway carrying about 400,000 vehicles a day, where the northbound lanes were closed for much of the day and commuters drove through a shower of ash with flames rising in the horizon.<\/span><\/p>\n

Forty miles to the northwest, the largest of several fires underway had consumed 90,000 acres by Wednesday night and at least 150 structures \u2014 probably many more, fire officials said \u2014 and threatened 12,000 others in the city of Ventura and neighboring communities, and was 5 percent contained. Other major fires were burning in the northern San Fernando Valley and the rugged region north of Los Angeles.<\/span><\/p>\n

The fires compounded the suffering of what has already been one of the state\u2019s worst fire seasons on record, including the blazes that ravaged the wine country north of San Francisco in October. The new outbreaks have forced nearly 200,000 people in the Los Angeles and Ventura areas to evacuate, officials said, and extremely high winds are likely to make matters worse on Wednesday night and Thursday.<\/span><\/p>\n

Fire season usually peaks in October in California, but officials suggested that with climate change, more fires are occurring later in the year.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThese are days that break your heart,\u201d Mayor Eric Garcetti of Los Angeles said at a news conference. \u201cThese are also days that show the resilience of our city.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

It was a day in which smoke from the fires ringing the region could be spotted from the Santa Monica Pier, the streets of downtown and the beaches of Santa Catalina Island. And in a city where residents live outdoors, many stayed home to avoid the foul air.<\/span><\/p>\n

By Wednesday evening, the fire in Bel-Air consumed at least 475 acres and a handful of structures, small figures compared with some of the other blazes. But in such a densely populated area, the prospect of warm, dry Santa Ana winds whipping the flames into other neighborhoods had many residents of Los Angeles\u2019 west side preparing for possible evacuation. Officials ordered 700 homes in Bel-Air evacuated.<\/span><\/p>\n

A gray-brown pall, tinted orange in places, hung across a region that is home to millions of people, and the regional air quality agency warned that the air posed a health hazard in places.<\/span><\/p>\n

At least four houses burned in hilly Bel-Air, where sprawling villas costing tens of millions of dollars are home to celebrities and other wealthy Angelenos.<\/span><\/p>\n

Winds could still reach 80 miles per hour, said Chief Ken Pimlott of Cal Fire, the state firefighting agency. \u201cThese will be winds where there will be no ability to fight fires,\u201d he said. Wind blowing from the northeast raised fears that the fire could jump the freeway, into the area around the Brentwood neighborhood and where the sprawling Getty sits on a hilltop overlooking the 405.<\/span><\/p>\n

Major developments:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 The fires in total destroyed more than 300 homes, businesses and other buildings.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 Fire and smoke forced the closing of the 101 freeway \u2014 the main coastal route north from Los Angeles. More than 1,700 firefighters were working on the blaze there.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 Hundreds of schools were ordered closed for the rest of the week because of the thick blanket of smoke filling the skies.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 At the University of California at Los Angeles, officials said an electrical failure in the area left the campus without power. The student health center was distributing masks to students to help protect them from the smoke wafting over the campus.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 Mr. Garcetti declared a local state of emergency because of the Skirball Fire, as the blaze in Bel-Air is called. Gov. Jerry Brown issued a similar call for the Ventura fire on Tuesday. The declarations asked for rapid aid from state and federal officials.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018We stay calm, do what they tell us, and pray.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

Sam Grosslight, 24, of Bel-Air, was woken up by her mother, Carolyn, early Wednesday morning telling her to grab her phone and her computer. The family piled as much as they could, from Ms. Grosslight\u2019s newly purchased makeup to her father\u2019s ashes, into her Jeep.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPeople say you\u2019ll know what you need when you get to the moment, but really you have no idea and you just start grabbing stuff and you\u2019re all over the place,\u201d Ms. Grosslight said.<\/span><\/p>\n

She stood at a highway overpass in her dad\u2019s old red sweatshirt \u2014 Hell Freezes Over, it read \u2014 as plumes of smoke churned above her neighborhood.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the weirdest feeling to not know when you can go back home again. That\u2019s supposed to be the one place you can always go, and right now it\u2019s just not,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 1961, a fire ripped through Bel-Air and destroyed almost 500 homes, including many belonging to celebrities, and prompted the adoption of new fire codes, including rules about clearing brush around buildings.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve all been through this before,\u201d said Abe Hagigat, 61, on Wednesday, as he packed up his car outside his home in Bel-Air and watered his roof. \u201cWe stay calm, do what they tell us, and pray.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

His wife and daughter had filled the car with photographs. \u201cThat\u2019s really all that really matters,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Strong winds are normal, but it\u2019s not usually this dry.<\/span><\/p>\n

The strong winds that are driving the fires are a normal feature of late fall and winter in Southern California. What is different this year \u2014 and what is making the fires particularly large and destructive \u2014 is the amount of bone-dry vegetation that is ready to burn.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s unusual is the fact that fuels are so dry,\u201d said Thomas Rolinski, a senior meteorologist with the United States Forest Service. \u201cNormally by this time of year we would have had enough rainfall to where this wouldn\u2019t be an issue.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The situation in Southern California is similar to what occurred in Northern California in October, when high, hot winds fueled fires that killed 40 people and destroyed thousands of homes. But while Northern California has since had a lot of rain that has essentially eliminated the fire threat, the south has remained dry.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe haven\u2019t had any meaningful precipitation since March,\u201d Mr. Rolinski said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Helping to spread the fires are the Santa Ana winds, which occur as cold, high-pressure air over Nevada and Utah descend into Southern California, accelerating and warming. Typically, Santa Ana conditions occur on roughly one-third of the days in December and January, Mr. Rolinski said.<\/span><\/p>\n

When the high winds last for just a day or two, Mr. Rolinski said, the region can often get by without a major fire starting and spreading. \u201cBut it\u2019s hard to get through six days of this,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

The fire nears an iconic museum.<\/span><\/p>\n

To the west of the 405 freeway, the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles was closed to the public for a second day on Wednesday because of the wildfires, museum officials said.<\/span><\/p>\n

No artwork has been evacuated from the museum or its grounds, said Ron Hartwig, the museum\u2019s vice president of communications, who added that the museum was designed to protect against natural disasters like wildfires.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe safest place for the art collection is right here in the Getty,\u201d Mr. Hartwig said. He said he could see heavy smoke outside the museum coming from the fire area, and he was concerned about the homes across the freeway. \u201cIt is just very sad to see the fire across the street and realize so many of our neighbors are suffering,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jeff Hyland, the president of Hilton & Hyland in Beverly Hills and a 40-year veteran of the real estate market in Los Angeles, said he had a clear vantage point of the fire from his home on a hilltop in the Trousdale Estates neighborhood, and was watching helicopters drop water onto several properties in Bel-Air.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Bel-Air homes engulfed by the fires, he said, are mostly older homes on smaller, hillside lots. Some of the houses were built more than 30 years ago and likely would not have fire-resistant ceramic-shingle roofs that are up to modern fire codes, he said. Still, even the smallest vacant lot in the area would fetch over $1 million.<\/span><\/p>\n

The evacuation zone includes some extremely pricey areas, however, including one of Mr. Hyland\u2019s listings currently on the market for $17 million.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

After years of his family renting in the area where they long dreamed of owning a home, Bryan Gonzales was finally able to buy his wife and seven children a house in Ventura in April. \u201cMy grandfather was born here,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

His house \u2014 a cream-colored, single-story building with blue trim \u2014 had three bedrooms and an addition where Mr. Gonzales kept his surfboards.<\/span><\/p>\n

By Wednesday, it was clear that the home had been completely destroyed, burned to the foundation, even though the houses on either side of the property remained standing. Mr. Gonzales described a smoke-filled sky with solitary chimneys rising among the ashes. \u201cEverything is gone. There\u2019s nothing left there,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere are about eight other houses along the street, though, that are also total losses,\u201d he said. \u201cWe were able to grab important stuff, like pictures and things, but even at the time you\u2019re thinking: \u2018This isn\u2019t real. It\u2019s not actually happening.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

His parents live in a mobile home park in Casitas Springs, a small community northwest of Ventura. They recently purchased the mobile home next to them. \u201cSo, we\u2019ll have a place to stay when this all settles down,\u201d Mr. Gonzales said. \u201cWe\u2019re all together and all O.K. We will rebuild. I plan to die in Ventura. I\u2019m not leaving.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Source:-\u00a0https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2017\/12\/06\/us\/california-fires.html?mtrref=news.google.com&gwh=048C39CD6EC9BE5C1AA075466DB106BE&gwt=pay<\/span><\/p>\n

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