How many people are affected?
More than 100,000 people have been evacuated, Pasadena Mayor Victor Gordo told reporters Wednesday in discussing the Eaton Fire, and 100,000 have been told they may need to evacuate because they live in a danger zone.
Roughly 37,000 people in the path of the Palisades Fire were ordered to leave their homes in the cities of Calabasas, Malibu and Los Angeles, law enforcement and fire officials said.
More than 3,000 people in the Sylmar area were also under emergency evacuation orders, Crowley said.
Have there been deaths and injuries?
There have been a significant number of injuries in the Eaton Fire, according to Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone.
Luna said five people have died in the blaze. He did not have additional details about their deaths.
Marrone said a significant number of people who did not heed evacuation orders have been injured in the Palisades Fire.
How much damage have the fires done?
“There is a lot of damage out there,” Luna told reporters.
Marrone estimated that 1,000 homes and businesses have burned in the Palisades Fire and that 100 more have been destroyed in the Eaton Fire. Video from NBC Los Angeles showed several businesses in a busy commercial area in Altadena in flames, and the Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center burned overnight, the station reported.
Video from Malibu showed beachfront homes reduced to rubble.
A preliminary review from J.P. Morgan’s insurance analysts estimated that losses from the fires could top $10 billion.
The deadliest wildfire in California history — 2018’s Camp Fire, which burned more than 13,000 buildings and killed 85 people — prompted losses of about $15 billion, the report’s authors said.
What led to the fires?
The combination of drought-like conditions — Southern California has had less than 10% of average rainfall since Oct. 1 — and powerful offshore winds that hit the region Tuesday prompted fire weather that was, in the words of the National Weather Service, “about as bad as it gets.”
The agency issued a red flag warning — indicating an increased risk for fire danger — to 19 million people. Wind gusts topping 70 mph were recorded at several locations across the region.
Swain pointed to the weather whiplash California has experienced in recent years — lurching between drought and heavy rainfall — and said such swings are a key element of the fire weather gripping the region.
