What happened on Monday, Jan. 13 during the Eaton, Palisades firestorms in Southern California

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass issued an executive order Monday that seeks to expedite rebuilding efforts after fires leveled thousands of homes and businesses in the city last week, mostly within Pacific Palisades.

Executive Order 1 requires city departments to complete project reviews within 30 days from when a complete application is submitted and waives discretionary hearings under zoning rules, among other efforts.

Diego Wallraff was attending a retreat in India when his apartment building in Pacific Palisades burned down last week. A somatic therapist and actor, he lost most of his most treasured possessions, including the irreplaceable Tibetan singing bowls and gongs he’s collected over 15 years of world travels.

At first, Wallraff, 63, thought his home was spared. The fire-tracking app Watch Duty showed the blaze hadn’t spread to his part of the Palisades. But that turned out to be false hope — the app’s map was hours behind what was happening on the ground in real time.

The leaders of fire-damaged Palisades High School are looking for a temporary place to hold classes for about 3,000 students.

About 40% of the campus was damaged or destroyed, according to Principal Pamela Magee in a communication to the school community. Although the original main campus survived, the condition of the property as a whole makes it unsuitable for the immediate resumption of classes.

In a letter to the community, the school administration said it is seeking:

● Temporary classroom spaces or campuses available for lease or donation.

● Large indoor and outdoor spaces suitable for hosting students and teachers.

● Support from local organizations that can assist in logistics and operations.

● Volunteers to help with moving, setup and coordination.

● Access to athletic practice areas in the vicinity.

“Our primary goal is to keep our community united during this challenging time, enabling students to continue their education alongside their friends, teachers, and peers,” the school’s release states. “In-person learning is crucial for their emotional and social development; without it, students may experience increased feelings of isolation and anxiety, further complicating their recovery from the trauma of recent events.”

The spring semester was supposed to begin Monday. Instead, it will begin online Jan. 21.

The school is raising money at the following link: https://givebutter.com/RaisePali

Fire crews responded to a brush fire reported near the Santa Ana River bottom in Jurupa Valley on Monday afternoon.

The fire ignited around 4:30 p.m. near Clay Street and Van Buren Boulevard, according to a spokesperson for the Cal Fire/Riverside County Fire Department.

Crews from the Riverside city and county fire departments were able to halt forward movement on the blaze at 6:28 p.m., the spokesperson said. And by 7 p.m. the two-acre fire was contained, according to the Riverside Fire Department.

An evacuation warning was issued around 5:30 p.m. for residents in the area of the Santa Ana River bottom, west of Van Buren Boulevard. It was lifted later that evening.

A red flag warning is in effect in Riverside County valleys due to humidity levels as low as 10% and wind gusts of up to 50 mph, according to the National Weather Service.

As wildfires continue to scorch homes across Los Angeles County, thousands of residents are left to sift through the remains and answer a key question: what now?

A chance to rebuild, to start anew could be possible. Homeowners and renters who do not have insurance, or whose insurance policies don’t cover basic needs, may be eligible to receive assistance through the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Apocalyptic fires had been ravaging Los Angeles for more than 24 hours when Mayor Karen Bass stepped off a plane and into a now-viral encounter that may come to define her mayoralty.

As an Irish reporter who happened to be on her flight hurled questions at her, the mayor of the nation’s second-largest metropolis stood silent and seemingly paralyzed.

The operators of Amtrak’s Pacific Surfliner are offering one-way $10 fares between any two of the train’s 29 stops from San Diego north to San Luis Obispo. The rare offer is intended “to assist those impacted by the Southern California wildfires.”

The Los Angeles-San Diego-San Luis Obispo Rail Corridor Agency unveiled the coach-fare offer Monday afternoon as the region struggled with two large wildfires — the Palisades and Eaton fires — and braced for winds that might spread the flames.

Prosecutors charged nine people with looting Monday in areas wrecked by the devastating Palisades and Eaton fires, and accused another man of intentionally setting a blaze in an Azusa park during last week’s firestorms.

One trio of men is accused of stealing $200,000 worth of valuables from a home in Mandeville Canyon early Thursday, while another group is accused of stealing personal property, including an Emmy award, from an Altadena home during the Eaton Fire, said Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman.

The Altadena resident who won the largest Powerball jackpot and used some of his winnings to buy homes in exclusive Los Angeles County neighborhoods has lost at least one of those properties to the wildfires.

Edwin Castro won Powerball’s $2-billion jackpot in 2023, which equated to about $1 billion in winnings after taxes, and purchased homes in Malibu, another in Altadena and a third in the Hollywood hills, according to property records reviewed by The Times.

GLENDALE, Ariz. —  The NFL will break new ground Monday, a heart-wrenching kind of history the league never wanted to make.

The first-round playoff game between the Rams and Minnesota Vikings, originally planned for SoFi Stadium, has been relocated to Arizona because of the Los Angeles wildfires. It marks the first time a natural disaster has prompted the NFL to move a postseason game to a neutral site.

SACRAMENTO —  Gov. Gavin Newsom asked legislative leaders Monday to approve at least $2.5 billion in response to the wildfires that have ravaged Los Angeles County — a move that expands the focus of the special session in the California Capitol beyond strictly fighting President-elect Donald Trump.

The aid request comes as Democrats at the Capitol find themselves under mounting pressure to spend less time waging a national political battle against Trump as unprecedented blazes have left at least 25 dead and a trail of destruction in their own state.

The 46,000-student UCLA campus — adjacent to Palisades fire evacuation zones — is on edge and has all but emptied out amid poor air quality and a university decision to move classes online this week.

When the fire pushed toward Brentwood, the university sent out notices putting students on high alert, advising them to “to stay vigilant and ready to evacuate” if conditions changed.

Among the losses in the devastating Eaton fire was The Bunny Museum, husband-and-wife Steve Lubanski and Candace Frazee’s grand ode to the world’s hoppiest animal, the rabbit.

The Altadena museum, located on Lake Avenue, was one of Southern California’s quintessentially quirky institutions, a place that transported guests to a strange and magical world where the bunny permeates all aspects of life.

Los Angeles sports teams committed $8 million toward wildfire relief and announced three events to provide supplies to those affected by the fires, the teams said Monday.

The events — at Dodger Stadium, SoFi Stadium and BMO Stadium — all take place on Friday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Teams will be distributing items including apparel, hygiene kits, school supplies, and sneakers. The teams said “proof of residency in evacuated ZIP codes” would be required, with supplies provided to those who lost their homes or were evacuated from them.

• State Route 2 (Angeles Crest Highway): The highway is closed at the entrance to the Angeles National Forest (postmile 26.7) to south of Upper Big Tujunga Canyon Road (postmile 42.7).
  
• Interstate 210: Eastbound and westbound I-210 Arroyo Boulevard off-ramps are closed.
  
• State Route 39 (San Gabriel Canyon Road) is closed as a preventive measure north of Azusa; only residents are allowed to enter.

Note that as of Monday, Angeles National Forest is temporarily closed through midnight Wednesday, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

More information on Eaton fire: Evacuations, road closures, shelters

A coalition of more than 100 Orange County restaurants is donating 20% of Tuesday’s sales to the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank to help fire victims in the L.A. region.

OC Restaurants Give, an organization formed by three area public relations professionals, launched the project, which includes restaurants and cafes that span the county — from Brea to San Clemente. All Orange County locations of Philly’s Best are also participating.

For a full list of restaurants click here.

The idea came from Marco Criscuolo, chef of Trattoria Trullo in Aliso Viejo, an Italian restaurant that specializes in handmade pasta and cuisine from Puglia, according to a news release.

Organizing efforts started Wednesday, said Jill Cook, of Jill Cook Marketing + PR. As of 11:30 a.m., 109 restaurants had signed up to participate.

The organizers encouraged diners not only to share the social media map but also “to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner at participating restaurants. Every meal counts.”

Four lawsuits were filed Monday accusing Southern California Edison of sparking the Eaton fire — one of the deadly blazes that broke out last week amid a historic windstorm and destroyed hundreds of homes.

Lawyers for homeowners in the Altadena area announced the suits Monday, saying their clients either had to evacuate their houses or lost their homes entirely in the Eaton fire. Each of the suits blames the utility because the fire started under a Southern California Edison transmission tower. An official cause for the fire has not yet been determined.

The Recording Academy announced Monday that its marquee event — the Grammy Awards — “will proceed as planned” on Feb. 2 despite the fires devastating large swaths of Los Angeles County.

The music organization, in a letter to Recording Academy members obtained by The Times, said the 67th Grammy Awards ceremony, which is scheduled to air on CBS from the Crypto.com Arena in downtown L.A., will take place “in close coordination with local authorities to ensure public safety and responsible use of area resources.”

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has once again delayed the announcement of nominees for the 97th Academy Awards due to the ongoing Los Angeles wildfires, which have caused widespread devastation and claimed 25 lives. Originally set for Jan. 17 and previously pushed back to Jan. 19, the nominations will now be unveiled on Jan. 23.

The fires have already upended much of Hollywood’s awards calendar, at least in the short term. The Producers Guild of America has postponed its nominations announcement multiple times. The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Tea Party, a staple of the season, has been canceled. Both the AFI Awards luncheon and the Critics Choice Awards have been postponed indefinitely. On Monday, the Writers Guild of America said it will also be delaying the announcement of its nominees, originally scheduled for Jan. 9, until further notice.

Last year, Francis Bischetti said he learned that the annual cost of the homeowners policy he buys from Farmers Insurance for his Pacific Palisades home was going to soar from $4,500 to $18,000 — an amount he could not possibly afford.

Neither could he get onto the California FAIR Plan, which provides fewer benefits, because he said he would have to cut down 10 trees around his roof line to lower the fire risk — something else the 55-year-old personal assistant found too costly to manage.

Hikers and outdoor enthusiasts have long been drawn to Skull Rock north of Sunset Boulevard in Pacific Palisades.

A relatively short hike on the Temescal Ridge trail reveals the skeletal-shaped Skull Rock and dramatic Pacific Ocean views.

Firefighters continue to battle the fast-moving Palisades fire, which broke out the morning of Jan. 7 along Piedra Morada Drive in Pacific Palisades. As of Friday, 10 people have been confirmed to have died in the fire, according to the Los Angeles County medical examiner.

The blaze has burned 23,713 acres. It was 39% contained as of Friday afternoon.

The number of confirmed deaths from the devastating Palisades and Eaton fires climbed to 25 as of Tuesday night.

Nine of the victims died in the Palisades fire and 16 in the Eaton fire in Altadena, according to the Los Angeles County medical examiner and L.A. County Sheriff Robert Luna.

The allegations flew as fast as the flames. The Palisades fire raging through the coastal mountains of Los Angeles, rich and powerful critics said, wouldn’t have been quite so devastating had authorities done a better job of clearing hillside brush.

“We knew the winds were coming. We knew that there was brush that needed to be cleared 20 years ago,” Rick Caruso, the developer and former Los Angeles mayoral candidate, told The Times. “This fire could have been mitigated — maybe not prevented.”

Los Angeles awoke on the morning of Jan. 7 unaware that the city and the people within it were about to change forever.

The most destructive fires in the city’s history claimed thousands of homes and businesses and, as of Thursday, at least 27 lives.