The National Weather Service issued a red flag warning for most of California’s Los Angeles and Ventura counties on Tuesday for the area’s “period of extremely low relative humidity and strong offshore winds.”
The weather service said its “particularly hazardous conditions red flag warning has expired, but hazardous fire weather conditions will remain in place through Thursday or Friday.” North-easterly winds will remain “strong” in the hills and mountains, the service said in a statement. Low humidity will continue.
According to the weather service, some areas will experience a decrease in winds Tuesday night into Wednesday, but extremely dry conditions will continue and winds will pick up again late Wednesday night. The red flag warning covers much of Los Angeles and Ventura counties until 8 p.m. Thursday.
Earlier on Tuesday, the weather service had said that there is an extremely high risk of fire in some parts of Southern California. The service said winds reaching 32 to 64 kilometers per hour, along with “high winds, low relative humidity and dry fuel in the area, contributed to hazardous conditions.”
Fire broke out at some places in Los Angeles on Tuesday due to strong winds, but alert firefighters quickly brought the fire under control.
at least 27 A series of wildfires have killed people in the Los Angeles area over the past two weeks as Santa Ana winds combined with dry conditions on the ground are causing the fires to spread rapidly.
Los Angeles County Supervisor Katherine Barger has called for an outside investigation into the evacuation notification process for residents of western Altadena, near the Eaton Fire, one of several blazes that have raged in Los Angeles. A report from the Los Angeles Times said evacuation orders for western Altadena were delayed by hours.
“From what I’ve been told, it was a night of complete chaos for both the fire and first responders,” Barger told The Times. The county supervisor said he is “deeply concerned” about what happened. Residents told the Times that by the time they received evacuation orders, many homes in the area were on fire.
Seventeen people are reported to have died in the Eaton fire.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said the executive order she signed Tuesday is designed to stem the flow of toxic debris from area fires and protect the region’s beaches and oceans.
“This is to prevent additional damage to areas already devastated by fires and to protect our wetlands, beaches and oceans from toxic runoff,” the mayor said. City workers will remove the toxic materials and install barriers to direct the flow of debris into the sewer system.
Meteorologists say rain in the area will start late Friday night and continue till Saturday morning. “In terms of ending the fire season, it probably won’t be enough for that,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Brian Lewis. But this will definitely help a little.
