What happened on Wednesday, Jan. 15 during a red flag warning for more Southern California fire weather

A man has been arrested in connection with a fire that erupted in San Bernardino County on Wednesday afternoon as multiple wildfires continued to burn in Southern California and the region was under a red flag warning.

Crews responded to a quickly spreading brush fire on Little Mountain Drive and West Edgehill Road around 2 p.m., according to the San Bernardino County Fire Protection District. They were able to halt forward progress shortly before 4 p.m., at which point the fire had grown to 34 acres.

Kira Weibel was in eighth grade when the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the student’s Altadena charter school, cutting off critical community connections. As the weeks and months of online learning and isolation dragged on, Weibel spiraled into a deep depression.

That changed when the school, Aveson Global Leadership Academy, reopened a year later and brought back the social interaction. But now Weibel and thousands of other students who weathered the pandemic are struggling with another historic calamity: the Eaton and Palisades fires. The ferocious flames that tore through the foothill community of Altadena and the coastal enclave of Pacific Palisades have upended their lives, with homes lost, schooling disrupted, extracurricular activities canceled and close-knit school communities scattered.

Parking enforcement has temporarily been lifted in many parts of Los Angeles County as crews continue to fight the region’s devastating wildfires.

But don’t expect to park your car anywhere you want without consequences.

In the wake of the Palisades fire, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power employees have alerted police to a pair of incidents that have raised alarm inside the utility.

Shortly after noon Wednesday, officers responded to Mulholland Drive in Beverly Crest after a person threatened a DWP employee who was working on a downed electrical pole, L.A. Police Department officials said.

The search is on for a temporary home for fire-damaged Palisades Charter High School as school leaders grapple with ramping up an interim — and dreaded — online program and the families of about 2,900 students confront dislocation, loss and anxiety about their children’s education and future.

About 40% of the campus was damaged or destroyed, Principal Pamela Magee said. Although the original main campus survived, the overall condition makes it unusable, Magee said.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass toured a Disaster Recovery Center in West Los Angeles on Wednesday, meeting with people who lost their homes to the wildfires and pledging to help expedite the rebuilding process in the months ahead.

“People are ready to get started now,” she told reporters outside the center, which is being run by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and was set up in the former Westside Pavilion shopping mall. “If your property burned down and you want to rebuild it exactly as it was before, then you shouldn’t have to go through an elaborate, time-consuming permitting process.”

The Disaster Recovery Center is on the ground floor, with 60 tables fanned out in the atrium representing dozens of government agencies and nonprofits: FEMA, the L.A. Department of Water and Power, the L.A Unified School District, the Salvation Army and the Small Business Administration among them.

California

FEMA centers open amid anxiety over recovery from the Eaton, Palisades fires

Victims of the Los Angeles County firestorms looking to rebuild their lives arrived at the FEMA disaster recovery center in Pasadena.

Jan. 14, 2025

Bass arrived around 3:30 p.m. and spent half an hour walking around and talking to people who had been affected by the fires. She was accompanied by actor Sean Penn, who runs a nonprofit that helps communities recover after disasters. Penn said getting word out about available support was essential.

“I know PhDs who don’t know the first step of how to get themselves help for their losses,” he said. “We have a long recovery here.”

A second FEMA disaster recovery center is set up at the Pasadena City College Community Education Center. Both are open daily from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.

“We are here to support you,” said Nilda Albizu, a Disaster Recovery Center manager. “Don’t disqualify yourself [by] believing or receiving false information in the community.”

The Los Angeles city attorney’s office is prosecuting two men for violating fire-related curfews while also asking the public for help identifying potential price gougers.

City Atty. Hydee Feldstein Soto is charging two men in their mid-40s with breaking the 6 p.m.-to-6 a.m. curfew established on Jan. 9 in the aftermath of the devastating Eaton and Palisades fires.

The head of Southern California Edison said Wednesday that winds blowing in Eaton Canyon on Jan. 7 were not strong enough to merit de-energizing a powerful electrical transmission line that is now being investigated as a possible ignition point for a fire that devastated a large swath of Altadena.

Residents who live near Eaton Canyon reported seeing flames erupt at the bottom of the tower as the fire got underway and took photos and videos of the scene. Over the weekend, investigators with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection were at the tower and said the area was off-limits because it was part of the investigation into what sparked the Eaton fire.

Warnings of extreme red flag fire weather have largely expired in Los Angeles and Ventura counties, giving fire crews a break as they continue their work to contain the devastating Southern California firestorms.

Red flag warnings in Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura counties, as well as the mountains of Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties, are set to end by 6 p.m. Wednesday.

A red flag warning will remain in effect for a smaller portion of L.A. and Ventura counties through 3 p.m. Thursday, including the Grapevine section of Interstate 5, the western San Gabriel Mountains and the Santa Susana Mountains.

Gusts of more than 30 mph were recorded early Wednesday afternoon along a traditional Santa Ana wind corridor stretching southwest through places including Palmdale, Santa Clarita, Ventura, Oxnard, Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks.

There will be lingering dry air through Thursday, with relative humidity between 8% and 20% in and around Los Angeles and Ventura counties. Temperatures will remain much cooler than normal.

With increasing humidity Friday and Saturday, there should be minimal fire weather concerns, although there could be localized gusts of 25 to 40 mph from the northwest.

“On the good side for our weather concerns, humidities will continue to climb, especially after [Thursday], with lowering fire weather concerns,” said Ryan Kittell, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Oxnard.

Felipe Ortega has spent 38 years — more than half of his life — working at Gladstones in Pacific Palisades. He started as a busboy and worked his way to bartender and maintenance worker. But for the foreseeable future, the 64-year-old is out of a job.

A week after flames damaged the restaurant and destroyed huge swaths of the oceanside area, Gladstones remained shuttered and inaccessible to the public as the Palisades fire continued to rage.

As the rest of us crane our necks skyward, or click on jaw-dropping YouTube videos to watch what one Cal Fire official called the most intense, complicated airborne firefight in U.S. history, interviews with the pilots paint a graphic picture of the struggle to maintain control of their ships in extraordinarily treacherous conditions.

All that while circling over burning hillsides, watching people on the ground arm themselves with overmatched garden hoses as the flames “blow-torch” their homes.

State Farm said Thursday it was expanding an offer to renew residential policies it had intended to drop last year to all Los Angeles County customers.

The people who tend Altadena’s venerable deodar cedars have suffered incomprehensible community losses this week, but Santa Rosa Avenue, a.k.a. Christmas Tree Lane, is a tiny bright spot among the wreckage wrought by the Eaton fire.

Despite what residents described as a fiery rain of embers propelled by hurricane force winds, the street’s 135 cedars seemed unfazed by the fire. The raging Santa Ana winds have broken a few branches, but overall, the massive trees with their graceful drapey limbs seem fine, which means the community’s 104-year holiday light tradition can continue.

As multiple fires continue to burn in Southern California, crews quickly got a handle on a blaze that erupted Wednesday in San Bernardino County.

The Little Mountain fire had burned about 30 acres by around 3 p.m. It broke out near Little Mountain Drive and West Edgehill Road in San Bernardino, according to Eric Sherwin of the San Bernardino County Fire Protection District.

Fire officials posted shortly before 4 p.m. on X that the forward rate of progress of the fire had been stopped. It burned 34 acres and did not destroy or damage structures. There were no reports of injuries, officials said, and the cause is under investigation.

The fire ignited amid a red flag warning that is expected to expire Wednesday night. Sherwin said wind gusts were coming from the northeast at around 20 mph.

Some of L.A.’s biggest arts institutions including the J. Paul Getty Trust, LACMA, MOCA and the Hammer Museum are among those backing an emergency reserve for artists and arts workers that stands at $12 million — and is growing.

The L.A. Arts Community Fire Relief Fund is meant to provide immediate support to artists who have lost homes or studios, and arts workers whose livelihoods are affected by the L.A. wildfires. The fund, which organizers say is growing by the day, will be managed and administered by the Center for Cultural Innovation, a nonprofit that since 2001 has helped artists secure financial stability.

As firefighters continue to battle the Palisades and Eaton fires, many residents have been denied entry to their fire-ravaged neighborhoods to see the condition of their homes, partly due to safety and security concerns.

In the meantime, residents can check Los Angeles County portals to see inspection reports and images of many of the damaged homes. Inspections of both fire zones are underway but are less than halfway finished and it is not clear when the job will be completed, according to California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection data.

Since the fires started last week, a Zuma Beach parking lot has been a Los Angeles Fire Department Incident Command Center. It has become a 24-7 hub of activity, filled with fire trucks and off-duty first responders recovering from grueling 12- to 24-hour shifts fighting the nearby flames.

But there’s a surprisingly calm oasis in one corner of the lot: a pop-up massage studio.

In the past several days, crews have stopped the growth of last week’s devastating Palisades and Eaton fires and have rushed to boost containment ahead of more anticipated winds.

Firefighters continue to focus on hot spots to reduce the risk that winds will pick up smoldering embers and firebrands and carry them into new areas.

People and businesses affected by the devastating wildfires in Los Angeles will qualify for state disaster tax relief.

“California is taking action to provide relief to state taxpayers affected by these devastating fires,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a news statement Sunday. “The people in Los Angeles County have experienced unimaginable tragedy, and the state will continue to do everything possible to help these communities.”

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 31% contained as of Friday afternoon.

The city of Los Angeles has established a dedicated hotline for fire evacuees who need assistance retrieving pets in evacuated areas.

According to the mayor’s office, residents can call (213) 270-8155 to answer questions about their pets, their possible location and the pets’ needs. Police and animal services will notify pet owners after they’ve visited the property, Mayor Karen Bass’ team said.

Los Angeles has Frank Gehry’s glorious Walt Disney Concert Hall, the space-age wonder of the LAX Theme Building and the stack-of-vinyl needle drop that is the Capitol Records building. For some design geeks, however, the heart and soul of L.A.’s architecture resides not just in its museums and office towers but also in its exalted, often otherworldly houses.

Those homes — especially those designed by Midcentury greats such as John Lautner, Richard Neutra, Ray Kappe, and Charles and Ray Eames — have been the obsession of those tracking the threats posed by firestorms laying waste to the wooded canyons and grassy hillsides that are the scenic backdrops for these residences.

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Let’s talk about why you should be wearing N95 masks instead of cloth or surgical masks if you want to protect yourself from harmful particulates released by the Southern California wildfires.

Tom Carroll explains how N95 can filter very small, harmful particles. Karen Garcia helped report this story.

In the Beverly Grove neighborhood of Los Angeles, the asking rent for a two-bedroom condo jumped from $5,000 to $8,000 in the wake of the fires that started last week and have left thousands homeless.

In Venice, a single-family house saw a jump of nearly 60%. In Santa Monica, an owner listed a five-bedroom house for $15,000 above what they were asking last year — a gain of more than 100%.

As wildfires continue to burn around Southern California, thousands of business owners, homeowners and renters are confronting the daunting challenge of rebuilding from the ashes. For some number of them, the road ahead will be all the more difficult because they didn’t have any or enough insurance to cover their losses. For them, the U.S. Small Business Administration is a possible lifeline.

The SBA, which offers emergency loans to businesses, homeowners, renters and nonprofits, is among the few relief options for those who don’t have insurance or are underinsured. Uninsured residents can also apply for disaster assistance through the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The wind and flames that continue to plague Southern California — and the long, costly recovery that lies ahead — have raised new concerns about hosting three major sporting events over the next three years.

World Cup matches are scheduled for SoFi Stadium in the summer of 2026. Then comes the 2027 Super Bowl, followed by the 2028 Summer Olympics.

Weeks of dry weather in California is starting to raise concerns about the health of the snowpack in the Sierra Nevada — critical to the state’s water supply during the dry summer months.

Across all three regions of the Sierra Nevada, California’s mightiest mountain range, the snowpack was 87% of average for this time in the season. But that figure could fall as the weeks go by, hampered by a lack of rain in in the forecast across California.

“We don’t want to see this number slip really anymore,” said Alex Tardy, meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s San Diego office. “Unfortunately ... unlike December, [where it was] snowing like crazy in Lake Tahoe, this pattern right now is not doing that. So we are losing ground pretty rapidly, because January is a typical wet month in our snow pack.”

Officials would rather be at 100% of the seasonal average for the snowpack, or greater.

But each day or week there’s no snow, “we’re going to drop below” average, Tardy said.

Northern California had a wet start to its autumn-and-winter rainy season, but Southern California is facing one of its driest starts to winter on record.

But now, a dry weather pattern “is now affecting the entire state, all the way into Oregon,” Tardy said. “We just can’t break out of it.”

Santa Ana winds are normal and common for this time of year in Southern California, but “it’s not normal to be this dry,” Tardy said.

Normally, “in between a Santa Ana [wind event], you’ll at least get a rain and a Pacific storm, you know, in an average year. And we’re not even seeing that,” Tardy said.

Los Angeles police have arrested two more arson suspects, alleging they ignited small fires across the city while the Los Angeles County District Attorney charged two others with deliberately setting fires in the San Gabriel Valley.

During a news conference this morning, LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell said his officers made two arrests Tuesday just outside the fire zone. Officers responded to a radio call near the intersection of Glen Oaks and Van Nuys Boulevard at about 5:15 p.m. and detained a possible arson suspect.

“During the investigation, the suspect admitted to starting the fire because he liked the smell of burning leaves. The suspect was subsequently booked for arson,” McDonnell said.

Later that evening, at about 9:30 p.m. in the area of Santa Monica and Vermont boulevards, the fire department “responded to reports of a suspect setting multiple piles of rubbish and trash on fire,” McDonnell said.

Firefighters “quickly extinguished the fires and officers took the suspect into custody,” McDonnell said. The “suspect admitted to setting multiple fires that day and stated that she enjoyed causing chaos and destruction. She was also booked for arson.”

L.A. County Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman said his office charged two more people with arson for incidents unrelated to the major fires. One is accused of setting a fire in the City of Industry, ignited a pallet and bush, and the second allegedly set a fire under the 605 Freeway in Irwindale. Both fires were put out quickly, Hochman said.

Premiums were already expected to rise due to sweeping new regulations that went into effect just days before the fires started.

But the catastrophic loss and historic insurance payouts expected in the coming months and years from these fires will probably raise rates even further, Dave Jones, director of UC Berkeley’s Climate Risk Initiative, explained.

Firefighters made substantial progress containing the Eaton fire overnight, bringing the containment to 45%.

The winds are expected to gradually ease, but the dry conditions on the ground remain a concern and will be an issue for the next 24 hours, fire officials announced Wednesday morning.

The fire is expected to remain within its current footprint as ground crews reinforce containment lines and aircraft continue to drop retardant in hard-to-reach terrain, officials said.

Forecasts show that calmer and more humid weather is expected by the weekend.

Ventura County is expected to be at particular risk if a fire sparks during Wednesday’s period of extreme fire weather.

Santa Ana winds are expected to come from an eastern direction, the National Weather Service said, putting a focus on Ventura County. The northern Ventura County mountains may get stronger winds than typically seen in a Santa Ana wind event, according to Ryan Kittell, meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Oxnard.

Last week’s windstorms — which rapidly spread the Palisades and Eaton fires — came out of the north, hammering Los Angeles County.

That windstorm was very rare, because the winds were extraordinarily widespread and hit hard the foothills of Altadena and other areas of the San Gabriel Valley, which are typically minimally affected by Santa Ana wind events, according to weather service meteorologist Kristan Lund.

Wednesday’s windstorms are expected to be significantly weaker than last week’s windstorms. But the danger is expected to be significant.

A significant factor explaining the rapid spread of wildfires this winter is how painfully dry the skies have been, which has crashed into the peak of Santa Ana wind season.

“Santa Anas are very common in December, January, and that’s usually when we see our strongest and biggest and most damaging ones. But we don’t have conditions this dry normally,” said Alex Tardy, meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in San Diego.

January is the peak season for Santa Ana winds — powerful winds that develop when high pressure over Nevada and Utah sends cold air screaming toward lower pressure areas along the California coast. The air dries out and compresses and heats up as it flows downslope from the high deserts — from the northeast — over California’s mountains and through canyons, drying out vegetation as the wind gusts through.

Santa Ana season generally starts in October and lasts through March, but the magnitude of Santa Ana winds is typically strongest in January, said Tardy, citing research by the U.S. Forest Service and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. January is in the heart of a typical California rainy season.

For many areas of Southern California, “this is the driest start to any water year,” Tardy said, “and you can see extreme fire behavior with the ignitions.”

The only way Southern California will see lasting relief from this punishing fire season is rain. And unfortunately, there are still no significant chances of rain through Jan. 25, forecasters say.

Downtown Los Angeles has received barely a drop of water for months — just 0.16 of an inch since Oct. 1, or just 3% of the seasonal average. Typically, at this point in the water year, downtown Los Angeles has received an average of 5.45 inches of rain. The annual average is 14.25 inches.

“As long as we go without seeing rain, it just doesn’t take much. The vegetation is just starving for moisture, and then when you get the wind on top of it, there’s definitely potential for fire behavior” after an ignition, Tardy said.

Fire weather conditions are expected to improve starting Wednesday night through Saturday. But starting around Monday, there is a moderate risk for another round of red flag warnings.

Six years ago, Pacific Gas & Electric filed for bankruptcy after it was found liable for sparking a succession of devastating wildfires, including the blaze that destroyed the town of Paradise and led to more than 100 deaths.

Wall Street investors lost confidence and ratings agencies threatened to downgrade California’s investor-owned utilities, prompting legislators to come up with an innovative solution: the establishment of a $21-billion wildfire fund, split equally between shareholders and utility customers.

The “particularly dangerous situation” red flag fire weather warning went back into effect for swaths of Los Angeles and Ventura counties Wednesday morning.

“We are not out of the woods yet, and people need to stay on guard for a fast-moving fire,” said Ryan Kittell, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service office in Oxnard.

The windiest gusts are expected Wednesday from just before sunrise until noon or so, the National Weather Service office in Oxnard said. Gusts could reach up to 65 mph in the windiest locations, and there could be widespread gusts of 40 mph to 55 mph across the Malibu coast, Los Angeles County’s northern and western valleys, L.A. County’s mountains, and across much of Ventura County.

The “particularly dangerous situation” returned at 3 a.m. for portions of the San Fernando Valley and Ventura County, including Northridge, Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley, Camarillo and Fillmore. A “particularly dangerous situation” signifies the most extreme level of a red flag fire warning, although officials note that Wednesday’s winds will not be as severe as the historic windstorms that fueled the devastating Palisades and Eaton fires a week ago.

The “particularly dangerous situation” is expected to last through 3 p.m.

Overnight gusts reached as high as 54 mph Wednesday morning. The winds are forecast to come out of the east, and Ventura County is expected to be at particular risk if a fire sparks. The northern Ventura County mountains may get stronger winds than typically seen in a Santa Ana wind event.

A conventional red flag warning — which warns of severe wildfire behavior if ignition occurs — remains in effect large portions of L.A., San Diego, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura counties, as well as some mountainous areas of Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties.

Red flag fire weather warnings will largely expire by 6 p.m. Wednesday but will extend through 3 p.m. Thursday in a few spots in Los Angeles and Ventura counties, including the Grapevine section of Interstate 5, the western San Gabriel Mountains and the Santa Susana Mountains.

Late Monday, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass issued an executive order that aims to speed up the rebuilding of homes and businesses after wildfires tore through Pacific Palisades.

Academics, builders, consultants and other analysts who reviewed the order at The Times’ request said Bass’ move was an essential beginning to what will be an inevitably complicated process.

As the Los Angeles Fire Department faced extraordinary warnings of life-threatening winds, top commanders decided not to assign for emergency deployment roughly 1,000 available firefighters and dozens of water-carrying engines in advance of the fire that destroyed much of the Pacific Palisades and continues to burn, interviews and internal LAFD records show.

Fire officials chose not to order the firefighters to remain on duty for a second shift last Tuesday as the winds were building — which would have doubled the personnel on hand — and staffed just five of more than 40 engines that are available to aid in battling wildfires, according to the records obtained by The Times, as well as interviews with LAFD officials and former chiefs with knowledge of city operations.

The night the Eaton fire started, Edgar McGregor stood on a darkened Altadena street, held up his cellphone and started recording as the sky glowed orange behind him.

His voice calm, the 24-year-old amateur climate scientist urged people living between the Eaton Wash and Allen Avenue to immediately pack their bags and get ready to evacuate.

As the Palisades fire exploded in Los Angeles on Jan. 7, Mayor Karen Bass was posing for photos at an embassy cocktail party in Ghana, pictures posted on social media show.

By the time she departed the gathering for her flight home, massive plumes of smoke were visible across a wide swath of the city.

The Los Angeles City Council member representing the Westside, including much of the area decimated by the Palisades fire, called on the city’s water utility Tuesday to explain why firefighters ran out of water early in last week’s epic firefight and why a key reservoir was offline.

Councilmember Traci Park proposed that the L.A. Department of Water and Power present “its root cause analysis of the water pressure challenges that resulted in lower water pressure and dry hydrants” in some areas of Pacific Palisades, as well as recommendations for addressing the issues. In the same motion, Park urged the council to ask the utility to explain why the Santa Ynez Reservoir in Pacific Palisades has been out of commission for months.