As the Los Angeles wildfires rage on, millions of residents are preparing for another week of uncertainty, packing go-bags with vital documents and irreplaceable mementos while keeping watch for evacuation orders.
Anxious eyes are glued to live television and 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.
Two major wildfires remain largely uncontained, with about 100,000 residents still under evacuation orders as the flames have scorched roughly 40,000 acres. The death count has risen to at least 24 people, and the Los Angeles Police Department said it’s searching for additional victims, including with dogs trained to detect the scent of human remains.
Fear and uncertainty are rampant as the devastating wildfires enter their seventh day. Neighborhoods near the fires’ path are eerily quiet, with police and the California National Guard staffing roadblocks and directing traffic away from danger zones.
“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.
From Pasadena to Malibu, fears of water contamination are prompting advisories to boil drinking water or turn to bottled supplies. And Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman — sounding an alarm on everything from price gouging to burglary to insurance scams — said he would soon announce the first charges in a looting case.
“We’re starting to see the criminals emerge who are going to go after the recovery efforts,” he said at a briefing Monday.
At times, chaos and confusion have reigned. 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, while most Los Angeles Unified, Santa Monica and Malibu schools will reopen Monday after fire-related closures, except those damaged or in evacuation zones. Students at Palisades High School, which was 40% damaged, will resume online learning next week as administrators work to secure temporary relocation space.
University of California at Los Angeles has moved to online learning for the week and is urging students at its Westwood campus to be prepared for potential evacuation orders.
Residents have witnessed how quickly conditions can change. In the San Fernando Valley, which initially appeared relatively safe, residents got a jolt when the Palisades fire pushed north over the weekend and prompted evacuation orders in the Encino area. Elsewhere, parts of Bel Air were under an evacuation warning.
People who have lost everything have also had to navigate a stream of false information about resources, including from looters posing as first responders and impersonators 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 or faced long waits for a police escort to briefly visit the charred remains of their homes.
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 in flames belonged to 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. 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 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 spontaneously 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 will vary across communities. In Pacific Palisades, where many homes have been passed down through generations, the median sale price reached $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, which has claimed at least 18 lives.
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 almost half a century. 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’s already called his insurance company, 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.”
