Fire Crews Make Progress, But LA Wildfires Still Blazing

Firefighters continued to battle raging wildfires in Southern California on Thursday as some business owners and residents, including Hollywood celebrities like comic actor Billy Crystal, returned to their burned neighborhoods to find that their shops and homes were destroyed. 

Strong Santa Ana winds boosted the first two wildfires into five. The winds blew at hurricane levels. Their speed was over 80 mph. The wreckage they've wrought across the vast urban region of 10 million people is already massive.     

Over 10,000 buildings have been destroyed. Roughly 180,000 people were also ordered to leave their homes and businesses. The fires were very quick to ignite and fast moving. They were so overwhelming that fire crews opened some water hydrants to find that they'd run dry. Electricity that powered main water pumps had been cut off, President Biden said. Experts said nine months with very little rainfall in the Los Angeles region is a factor for the fires. It primed the terrain to combust like a tinder box, experts explained.      

The fires have killed at least 10 people. They've destroyed places from the coastline westward to the city of Pasadena. Winds calmed on Thursday. It led officials to express some hope that the blazes could soon be tamed. Los Angeles Fire Department Captain Erik Scott told The Associated Press that firefighters were able to keep the fires in check Thursday. Scott said it was because “we hit it hard and fast and Mother Nature was a little nicer to us today than she was yesterday.” But there were no guarantees that the winds would continue to cooperate.

Still, west of LA, the Palisades fire kept moving. It spread to almost 18,000 acres by midday Thursday. Meanwhile, the Eaton fire was responsible for the deaths. It has burned over 10,000 acres and remained 0% contained.

Reflect: What challenges do you think firefighters and emergency workers face when responding to large wildfires?