As the Los Angeles wildfires rage on, millions of residents are preparing for more days of anxiety, packing go-bags with vital documents and irreplaceable mementos as they brace for evacuation orders.
From Pasadena to Malibu, fears of water contamination are prompting advisories to boil drinking water or turn to bottled supplies.
All the while, anxious eyes are glued to the Watch Duty app that tracks fires, waiting to see if high winds predicted for this week will send roaring flames hurtling toward their neighborhoods.
Los Angeles is reeling from fear and uncertainty as the devastating wildfires enter their seventh day on Monday. Neighborhoods near the fires’ path are eerily quiet, with police and the California National Guard staffing roadblocks and directing traffic away from danger zones. Busy thoroughfares including Interstate 405, a major north-south freeway, are nearly deserted.
“This is the worst I’ve ever seen around here,” said Marie Wang, 67, a native Angeleno who retreated to an evacuation shelter one night last week as fire threatened her neighborhood.
Two major fires are still largely uncontained, and more than 100,000 people are still under existing evacuation orders. Hotels in neighboring Orange County, more than 30 miles south, are packed with displaced evacuees. The death count stands at 16, and the Los Angeles Police Department said it’s searching for additional victims, including with dogs trained to detect the scent of human remains.
Chaos and confusion are rampant. An evacuation order meant for residents near the Kenneth Fire was erroneously sent last week to Los Angeles County’s almost 10 million residents, sparking anger and frustration.
Pasadena schools are closed through Jan. 17. Los Angeles Unified School District, the second largest in the US with 400,000 students, shuttered all campuses last week because of air quality and fire-safety concerns. The district said Sunday that schools will reopen Monday.
In the San Fernando Valley, which initially appeared relatively safe, residents got a jolt when the Palisades fire pushed north late on Jan. 10 and prompted evacuation orders and warnings in the Encino area. National Guard checkpoints sprang up over the weekend on Ventura Boulevard as smoke billowed over Encino and Tarzana.
People who have lost everything have also had to navigate a stream of false information about resources, including from scammers posing as first responders and officials with the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
At a virtual community meeting on the Eaton Fire on Saturday, people asked whether particulates in the air were a cancer risk. Officials sought to address confusion on whether fire victims could return to their homes to clean up and see what’s left. Some residents had showed up only to be turned away by National Guard troops.
It’s hard not to draw parallels with the early days of the Covid pandemic. Late last week, all the businesses on Colorado Boulevard, Pasadena’s main commercial drag and the site of the annual Rose Parade, were shuttered. A sign posted on the double doors of the Apple store read, “CLOSED DUE TO SEVERE WEATHER.” The few pedestrians walking down the usually busy street were masked.
Everyone in LA seems to know someone touched by the fire. In one example, a KCAL news anchor choked back tears after noticing on live television that a house being shown in flames belonged to two of his best friends. But the fires’ locations mean that some neighborhoods have been devastated while others are untouched.
“Depending on where you are in the city, you’re getting a radically different experience,” said Katherine Fleming, chief executive officer of the J. Paul Getty Trust, saying her Brentwood home was in an evacuation area so she has been sleeping in her office. “If you’re not experiencing it, there’s a version of normal life going on.”
The Getty Villa in Pacific Palisades, which was modeled on Roman ruins buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, is “stable,” with hot spots being put out immediately, she said. Its indoor galleries are “totally pristine.”
Community mobilization
Throughout the Los Angeles area, communities have mobilized to help. Gyms are offering showers, wi-fi and charging stations, with free workouts available to fire victims, no questions asked. Bike shops have refashioned themselves into donation delivery and collection centers. A woman turned her downtown vintage-clothing shop into a free boutique to help people rebuild their lost wardrobes.
At the Santa Anita Park horse-racing track on Sunday, hundreds stood under the bright blue sky to volunteer distributing goods donated for evacuees. Piles of water, clothing and sanitary items stood stacked as high as 10 feet (3.05 meters) in the parking lot while people in masks dug through them.
Gerardo Romero was overseeing the grilling of what he estimated would be 2,000 hot dogs on Sunday alone. Jimmy Medina had been there all day, helping lead the organically formed aid project while dozens of gloved workers sorted clothing and handed out water to evacuees and loved ones.
“A lot of us are doing the right thing,” says Medina, whose son was evacuated from his home because of the fires in Altadena. “Some people are doing the wrong thing. They’re taking advantage of the situation.”
California Attorney General Rob Bonta issued a consumer alert last week, warning residents about price gouging. Already, some Zillow listings on LA’s Westside have skyrocketed in rental price between 15% and 64% since Tuesday, according to the New York Times.
Affordability crisis
Angelenos are starting to grapple with the long-term consequences of the disaster as well. One big fear: That a previously existing affordability crisis will intensify.
The effects won’t hit everyone the same. The median sale price of homes in Pacific Palisades was $3.8 million in the third quarter. Victims of the Palisades Fire include the coach of the Los Angeles Lakers, JJ Redick, and actor Milo Ventimiglia.
“We got good friends and we got good people we’re working with and we’ll make do,” Ventimiglia told CBS News while standing on the rubble of what used to be his home.
It’s a different story in Altadena and for many for the victims of the Eaton fire. Of the 16 fatalities confirmed in the fires through Saturday, 11 were found in Altadena.
Altadena is known as California’s first middle-class Black community, where many families fleeing the Jim Crow South found a place to settle down. Today, it’s a diverse place with a homeownership rate of 78%, according to the US Census Bureau.
Emerson Sharpe and his family have lived in Altadena for 47 years. The 75-year-old retiree didn’t leave until he saw embers licking the frame of his house last week.
He lost everything.
“I love the neighborhood, and I love every time I went up the street looking at the view of the mountains,” he said in front of the Pasadena Convention Center, which has turned into an evacuation shelter.
He says he’s already called his insurance, State Farm, to begin the claims process, but he has no idea what comes next and if he’ll be able to rebuild.
“I don’t know, you know,” he said, “I really don’t know.”
