Los Angeles fires: Governor orders probe of water problems

Firefighters raced to contain the Palisades blaze on Saturday after it changed direction and again threatened the J. Paul Getty Museum.

The museum is comprised of two campuses. The Getty Villa, in Pacific Palisades itself, was already part of the evacuation zone.

The modernist campus known as the Getty Center in Brentwood was later threatened on Saturday as fires moved northeast toward the canyon area.

"Getty staff, the art collections and buildings remain safe from the Palisades Fire," the museum said Friday.

The museum's unique collection comprises 125,000 artworks — including paintings by Rembrandt, Turner, Van Gogh and Monet.

When the Getty Museum was last threatened by fires in 2019, a spokesperson told the AFP news agency that the center was "constructed to house valuable art and keep it very safe from fires, from earthquakes, from any type of damage."

"We are really built like a beautiful fortress, and everything inside is quite safe," she told AFP at the time.

CalFire Operations Chief Christian Litz said containing the Palisades Fires in the canyon area, which is also threatening the nearby UCLA campus, was the main priority.

"We need to be aggressive out there," she said.

The wildfires are on track to be among the costliest natural disasters in US history, with expected losses between $135 billion (€131 billion) and $150 billion.

Wildfires in Los Angeles County have killed at least 11 people and destroyed more than 12,000 buildings since Tuesday.

"This will be the costliest wildfire in California modern history and also very likely the costliest wildfire in US modern history, because of the fires occurring in the densely populated areas around Los Angeles with some of the highest-valued real estate in the country," private forecaster AccuWeather chief meteorologist Jonathan Porter said.

AccuWeather factors in a multitude of variables in its estimates, including damage to homes, businesses, infrastructure and vehicles,
as well as immediate and long-term health care costs, lost wages, and supply chain interruptions.

In comparison, Hurricane Helene caused damages of about $225 billion to $250 billion.

Hollywood actor James Woods says his house in the Pacific Palisades area of Los Angeles has survived the wildfires that could become one of the costliest natural disasters in US history.

"A miracle has happened," Woods posted on X.

He added: "We managed to get to our property and our home, that we were told is gone forever, is still standing."

Woods was among hundreds of thousands of people around Los Angeles who were ordered to evacuate their homes earlier this week. 

Numerous celebrities, including Paris Hilton and Billy Crystal, have lost their homes to the fires.

At least 22 people have been arrested for curfew violations, trespassing and looting during the wildfires, according to LA County Sheriff Robert Luna.

A curfew from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. took effect in evacuated areas.

Officials say about 153,000 people are under evacuation orders with another 166,000 under evacuation warnings.

The Palisades Fire on the western edge of Los Angeles was headed in a new direction, The Los Angeles Times reported on Friday night.

This prompted fresh evacuation orders that covered much of the Brentwood neighborhood, as well as the foothills of the San Fernando Valley.

"The Palisades fire has got a new significant flare-up on the eastern portion and continues to move northeast," LA Fire Department Captain Erik Scott told local TV station KTLA.

Pope Francis was "saddened" by the destruction caused by wildfires in Los Angeles, according to a Vatican statement.

"Saddened by the loss of life and the widespread destruction caused by the fires near Los Angeles, [Pope Francis] assures you and the communities affected by this tragedy of his spiritual closeness," the Vatican's secretary of state, Pietro Parolin, said in a statement.

The pope also sent his "heartfelt condolences to those who mourn their loss" and prayed for the success of relief efforts, Parolin said.

Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) Chief Kristin Crowley on Friday said budget cuts by the city's administration had hindered the service's response as major wildfires continued to ravage the city.

Crowley said a $17 million (€16.6 million) cut in the budget for the fire department was having a negative impact on her agency's ability to fight fires.

"We can no longer sustain where we are," Crowley said in comments to broadcaster CNN. "We do not have enough firefighters."

Crowley said she repeatedly tried to show city officials "how understaffed, under-resourced and underfunded the LAFD is." 

The department has seen a 55% increase in call volume since 2010, Crowley said, but the number of firefighters has been decreasing.

"I rang the bell that these additional cuts could be very, very devastating to our ability to provide public safety," Crowley said.

"Right now we need to be fully, fully funded so that our firefighters can do their job," Crowley added when asked what her message would be to Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, California Governor Gavin Newsom, US President Joe Biden and President-elect Donald Trump.

A new mandatory evacuation order was issued on Friday night for the Pacific Palisades area due to rapidly moving wildfire. 

The order is in effect from Sunset Boulevard north to Encino Reservoir.

 It also extended to Interstate 405 — one of the busiest freeways in Los Angeles — and  Mandeville Canyon.

As evening set in, the Los Angeles Police Department chief Jim McDonnell said at a conference on Friday that the city was enforcing a dusk-to-dawn curfew for the Palisades and Eaton fire areas under mandatory evacuations. 

A curfew order to be in effect from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. was issued Thursday amid concerns of looting.

Only disaster workers can access the affected areas during curfew hours. 

 "If we see you in these areas, you will be subject to arrest," McDonnell said. Violators face up to six months in prison or $1,000 fines, he added.

The California National Guard was also deployed to bolster law enforcement.

Emergency managers in fire-ravaged Los Angeles have apologized for false evacuation alarms that caused panic in the city. 

On Thursday and Friday, millions of mobile phones resounded with automated warnings calling on people to be ready to evacuate. 

A correction issued 20 minutes after the alert said that the warning applied only to the new Kenneth Fire that was burning in the city’s north. 

But a similar erroneous alert was again sent out in the early hours of Friday. 

Kevin McGowan, the director of the Los Angeles County Office of Emergency Management, said the automated errors had led to "frustration, anger (and) fear."

 "I can't express enough how sorry I am," he told the media. 

McGowan added that he was looking into what went wrong with the alert system. 

While government officials have not yet given a financial estimate of the devastation caused by the wildfires in Los Angeles, independent reports indicate it could be the costliest natural disaster ever in the United States.

The fires are consuming some of the most expensive neighborhoods in the country, which are home to several Hollywood A-Listers and multimillion dollar villas. 

Analysts from financial services firm JPMorgan have said that the losses from the wildfires would breach the tens of billions of dollars' mark.

"Expectations of economic losses stemming from the fires have more than doubled since yesterday [January 9] to closer to $50 billion [€48.55 billion], and we estimate that insured losses from the event could exceed $20 billion (and even more if the fires are not controlled)," JPMorgan told its clients in a note on Friday.

Ratings agency Moody's expects insured losses to "run in the billions of dollars given the high value of homes and businesses in the impacted areas."

Read the full report here. 

Firefighters from Mexico were on their way to join over 10,000 personnel fighting the Eaton fire, one of the major wildfires that have ravaged Los Angeles, California Governor Gavin Newsom said in a statement he posted on X.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum had announced at a press briefing on Friday that she was sending a support team of firefighters and military personnel to Los Angeles to assist in the battle against the catastrophic blazes.

"California is deeply grateful for President Claudia Shein's support as we work to suppress the Los Angeles wildfires," Newsom said on Friday. 

California Governor Gavin Newsom on Friday asked for an independent investigation at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power over the loss of water pressure as firefighters battled multiple blazes. 

In a letter to the head of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, Newsom called reports of loss of water pressure and lack of water supply at a crucial reservoir "deeply troubling." 

Newsom said that although water supplies to local hydrants were "not designed" to extinguish large wildfires, the loss of water supply to hydrants "likely impaired the effort to protect some homes and evacuation corridors." 

A 117-million gallon reservoir that supplies Pacific Palisades — which is a part of LA's water supply system — was out of commission when the infernos began in the area, the Los Angeles Times reported on Friday.

Trump invited to California 

Newsom also asked President-elect Donald Trump, who has blamed the governor for water shortages on social media, to "not politicize" the catastrophe and "spread disinformation from the sidelines." 

The democratic governor, with whom Trump has clashed in the past, invited the incoming president to California to "see the devastation first hand." 

 

The death toll from the wildfires in Los Angeles has risen to at least 11, the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner reported on Friday.

Five deaths have been linked to the Palisades fire, while six deaths have occurred from the Eaton Fire, according to records from the LA County medical examiner’s office.

With both fires still burning, authorities have been unable to give a complete estimate of the number of deaths. 

The number is expected to increase as cadaver dogs search charred neighborhoods to assess the destruction. 

The Eaton fire near Pasadena has burned more than 5,000 structures, including houses, apartment buildings, businesses, outbuildings and vehicles. Firefighters managed to start to containing the fire on Thursday.

The Palisades blazes were burning in an area of 20,438 acres, according to Los Angeles Fire Chief Kristin Crowley. 

A pause in the fierce winds that have fueled wildfires in Los Angeles for several days  has enabled firefighters to gain some control over two massive wildfires on the west and east flanks of the city. 

The "Palisades Fire" and the "Eaton Fire" were 8% and 3% contained on Friday, respectively. The two fires are the largest of six separate blazes that started in the Los Angeles area, powered by gusts from the Santa Ana
winds. 

Los Angeles Fire Chief Kristin Crowley reported that there had been "favorable weather conditions overnight." 

Palisades and Eaton combined have burned through 35,000 acres (14,100 hectares), or 54 square miles, of land. 

Pacific Palisades is a wealthy, residential, coastal district near Santa Monica in LA, home to more than 20,000 people. 

In total, 13,000 structures are estimated to have been destroyed. 

According to the National Weather Service (NWS), wind conditions were to improve on Friday to nearly 20 mph with gusts between 35 mph to 50 mph, compared with powerful wind gusts upwards of 80 mph recorded days ago. 

But forecasters warn strong gusts are set to return by Monday. 

dvv/wmr (AP, AFP, dpa, Reuters)