Wind-fueled fires force thousands to flee their homes in southern California

Strong winds and dry weather conditions are causing thousands of evacuations in Los Angeles County, where three fires are burning and expanding at great speed. The Palisades fire, located in an exclusive mountainous area located northwest of L.A., had burned more than 2,900 acres by the early hours of Wednesday and had forced at least 30,000 people to evacuate. Authorities in nearby Santa Monica also ordered residents in the northern part of the city to leave their homes. Meanwhile, the city of Los Angeles has declared an emergency as authorities warned that the blaze would in all likelihood continue to rage throughout Wednesday and that conditions could worsen due to “tornado-like winds.”

A separate fire was also burning in Altadena, near Pasadena in Eaton Canyon, where it had consumed an estimated 1,000 acres by late Tuesday, just six hours after it broke out, according to the Angeles National Forest service. A third blaze, the Hurst fire, erupted in the Sylmar neighborhood northwest of San Fernando, said CAL Fire, the state’s fire department.

Over 200,000 homes and buildings have been left without power in Los Angeles County.

Evacuations

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has asked everyone northeast of Topanga Canyon, the boulevard that connects the coast to the San Fernando Valley to the north, to leave their homes. Authorities have set up shelters at El Camino Real Charter High School, Pasadena Convention Center and Westwood Recreation Center.

The evacuation orders have created chaos in the area, which has few access routes. Authorities have found many cars abandoned in the middle of the road by their owners for fear of being overtaken by the flames. Firefighters have asked people to leave their keys inside their cars so that rescue teams can remove them and trucks can enter the burning neighborhoods.

Although wildfires have been a recurring problem in California, often exacerbated by the state’s climate and geography, recent years have seen devastation caused by increasingly large and difficult to control fires.

Factors that have contributed to the increased frequency and intensity of wildfires are prolonged droughts, high temperatures, dry vegetation, and high winds. In Los Angeles County, the Post Fire in June of last year was evidence of these effects and of what to expect in the future as climate change makes these fires more common.

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