Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger today directed the state's Office of Emergency Services to prepare for potential flooding in Southern California burn areas that could receive heavy rainfall as early as this afternoon.
The governor's office said the state will work with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to help local agencies provide assistance. The areas most at risk include portions of Orange County, Sylmar and Santa Barbara County, which were affected by the Freeway Complex, Sayre and Tea fires, respectively, in recent weeks.
“The recent fires have left many communities, particularly those near and below steep canyons, very vulnerable to flooding, mud-flows and debris-flows,” Schwarzenegger said in a statement. “The state stands ready to help local governments protect lives and property. It’s also important that residents of those communities take steps to prepare now if they haven’t already done so and evacuate immediately when asked to do so by local authorities.”
Forecasters predict as much as half an inch of rain per hour this afternoon through Wednesday evening when the large storm will be at its strongest. Los Angeles, Orange, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties remain on flood watch from this afternoon through Wednesday evening.
Out in the burn zone of Granada Hills, where the Sayre and Marek fires roared through this month, there wasn't much action today in the area of sandbagging.
Seems as if some residents are taking a laissez-faire attitude when it comes to fear of mudslides, said the Times' Tami Abdollah, who went out there this morning to talk with folks.
She spoke with L.A. city Fire Department Battalion Chief Greg Raynar, who drove through O'Melveny Park in Granada Hills today, surveying burn areas from the recent fires. At least one of the blackened hillsides had no sandbags on it.
"You have to understand, this fire actually occurred in the last 10 days," Raynar said. "It's not like Griffith Park, where they had months and months to prepare." The fires in Griffith Park occurred last spring, well before fire season.
Raynar said a lot of the hillsides affected by the Marek and Sesnon fires were on private land, which meant homeowners were responsible for putting in sandbags. "There's an awful lot of neighborhood here on the periphery of the burn," he said. "The Marek, Sesnon, Sayre fires, all told, it's about 40,000 acres."
Gene Anderson, 72, has lived in the Knollwood area for about 25 years. Today, he chatted with friends at a local auto shop about preparations for the rain taking place in Yorba Linda and other burn sites. But in his neighbohood, all was quiet. "I'm not doing anything, but the hills, there's nothing there," he said. "There's no vegetation to hold it (mud) back. We could get mudslides, but I think we're safe." He said he had never experienced mudslides in the area or fires as severe as those that recently hit his neighborhood of 25 years. He said he believed the drainages in the hillsides and a creek would divert mud and debris away from homes. "The creek, it's dry now, but it will fill up when the rain hits and take it out."
In the middle of a wind-driven firestorm, it's easy to feel that this one is worse than anything before it. But longtime Angelenos -- and veteran firefighters -- remind us that the destruction and death of those autumn fires have always been a part of life in modern Southern California. Over at the LAFD blog, Brian Humphrey wrote a moving tribute to a group of firefighters who died protecting homes from fire more than four decades ago. They have a connection to the latest fires, and Humphrey laments that we don't know their story:
Though off-duty and unable to respond from afar, my personal cellphone rang through the night with calls from reporters seeking "the story". With the initial Incident Command Post for the Sayre Fire listed as El Cariso Park, I politely guided journalists to the site by instinct, asking them but one favor: "Please, tell the story behind the name of El Cariso Park" With the flames too tempting a focus, nary a reporter would ask the question. A question which when answered, would put both meaning and perspective into the Herculean effort of firefighters working the Sayre Wildland Fire.
Veronique de Turenne, who blogged the fires for L.A. Observed, has a view of the fire from Malibu.
Residents of Yorba Linda, where fire destroyed 118 homes, had complained for years of poor water pressure, a problem that may have made it more difficult for firefighters to beat back the weekend blaze that tore through the upscale community.
In Sylmar, where about 500 mobile homes burned to the ground, fire officials said they were investigating reports of lack of water pressure there. The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power supplies water to the Oakridge Mobile Home Park property line, but inside, the water system belongs to the park.
In both areas, residents and some officials were openly discussing whether the lack of water pressure complicated the already monumental task that firefighters faced.
Fire officials in Sylmar are checking to see if their department had inspected the mobile home park hydrants as required in the last year, said Craig Fry, assistant fire marshal for the Los Angeles Fire Department.
President Bush issued a major disaster declaration today for Southern California counties hit by the wildfires.
Quotes from the White House:
“Assistance can include grants for temporary housing and home repairs, low-cost loans to cover uninsured property losses and other programs to help individuals and business owners recover from the effects of the disaster,” White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said. “Federal funding also is available to state and eligible local governments and certain private nonprofit organizations on a cost-sharing basis for debris removal and emergency protective measures, including direct federal assistance, for Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and Santa Barbara counties.”
Meanwhile, The Times' Catherine Saillant is attending a 4 p.m. news conference in which a "significant development" is promised on the Montecito fire.
The expensive cost of fighting the wildfires over the last week could not have come at a worse time for the state, which is suffering from a major financial crisis. Consider: California has spent $305 million on emergency firefighting when only $236 million was allocated. You know what happens next (from AP):
That budget, which the governor signed in September, also projected a $1.7 billion reserve by the end of the fiscal year, some of which could have been used to help pay extraordinary firefighting costs. Since then, revenues have fallen so dramatically that the state is now projected to end the year with a double-digit deficit that is projected to grow to nearly $28 billion by June 2009. Schwarzenegger called the Legislature into a special session to address the deficit and has proposed filling the gap with $4.5 billion in spending cuts and a 1.5 percentage point increase in the state’s sales tax over three years. So far, Democrats and Republicans have failed to agree to a compromise. They must take action by the end of the month, when several members will be termed out of office.
Also: The Orange County Board of Supervisors declared a local emergency in the fire zones.
L.A. County Supervisors today approved the motion by Zev Yaroslavsky to consider new regulations to better protect mobile homes from wildfires.
The board ordered the Los Angeles County Fire Department to come back with "recommendations for changes in the building codes for mobile homes and mobile home parks in high fire hazard areas that would reduce their vulnerability."
The proposal came in the wake of the fire that destroyed more than 500 mobile homes in Sylmar.
"There were some heroic efforts," Supervisor Don Knabe said. "A lot of damage, a lot of tragedy out there."
The board also directed staff to return with a plan to restore the fire-damaged Olive View Medical Center, which was surrounded by flames Saturday morning and lost power.
In the wake of the Sylmar fire, which destroyed hundreds of mobile homes, L.A. County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky wants the county to consider ways to make such dwelling more safe, particularly ones in fire danger zones. He will be asking his colleagues Tuesday for two things:
That the Board of Supervisors instruct the county Fire Department to prepare recommendations for changes in the building codes for mobile homes and mobile home parks in high fire hazard areas that would reduce their vulnerability.
That the county Fire Department review water flow, fuel modification and brush clearance requirements that relate to mobile home parks and make recommendations on how these codes can be strengthened or better enforced in the interest of safety in these communities.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is seeking a federal disaster declaration from Washington, which could unlock more emergency recovery funds. He's already issued his own emergency declaration for Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties in the wake of the wildfires. From his letter:
I request that you declare a major disaster for the State of California as a result of extremely high winds and wildfires beginning November 13, 2008. At this time, impacted counties include Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Santa Barbara. Winds exceeding 70 miles per hour have worsened fire conditions by fanning the flames, causing them to spread with frightening speed. This wind and fire event has already consumed more than 40,000 acres; caused widespread human injury; destroyed and damaged homes, businesses, schools, hospitals and infrastructure throughout the region; and it continues to threaten the lives and safety of many Californians.
See the full text of Schwarzenegger's request after the jump.
Marion Thornton, 89, and her husband Austin, 91, are one of the original 15 families who moved into Oakridge Mobile Home Park 29 years ago.
Their mobile home is one of the roughly 140 that remained standing after the Sayre fire swept into the Sylmar Park and wiped out the majority of its 600 units.
The couple waited nearly seven hours Monday along with hundreds of others at Sylmar High School for a shuttle into the park about two miles away so they could look at their home. She knew the home was still standing because her neighbors told her so, but she wanted to see it for herself after leaving it around shortly before midnight Friday.
Shortly before 3 p.m. she finally got her chance.
"It's kind of grotesque, very grotesque, it's very awful," Thornton said. "Anything I could say to you, it would be awful. When I drove to this park, I didn't know I was there..there's not a grass, no lawn, nothing."
Her home, in the middle of the park, was untouched by fire.
"It looked beautiful, just like I left it, except for a few things -- my bed wasn't made," she laughed. "That was a shame," she joked. "Everything was exactly like I left it. I can't believe it."
The bus ride in was difficult.
"It took my breath away, a lot," she said. "I'm a pretty old lady, but I've got a good strong heart right now because I'm going to live through this for a while. I didn't feel like I was back home yet, I don't think I'm home yet."
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said that he spoke to President-elect Barack Obama about the wildfires Sunday evening and that today he received a follow-up call from Valerie Jarrett, an Obama senior advisor.
Villaraigosa said at a press conference today that Obama is "ready and willing to do anything he can." But the mayor also noted that Obama could not declare a federal disaster area until he took office.
The mayor added that his office would be updating Obama's transition team with fire-related information through the coming weeks.
Authorities said they are still trying to determine the cause of two fires that burned hundreds of homes in Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino and Orange counties over the weekend. Details from the Associated Press:
Investigators handling a fire that raged in four counties and destroyed more than 160 homes believe the blaze began north of the 91 Freeway near the base of a dam near Corona on Saturday. They say no causes have been ruled out. Fire officials also couldn’t say what started a blaze that destroyed nearly 500 homes in a mobile home park in the Sylmar area.
Ed Winter, spokesman for the Los Angeles County coroner’s office, said seven cadaver dogs, with the assistance of urban search and rescue teams, combed the Oakridge Mobile Home Park in Sylmar and did not find human remains. Coroner’s officials, with the help of the Los Angeles Police Department, have contacted residents of all but 200 units, Winter said at a news conference about noon today.
Here are some amazing photos from NASA showing the smoke from this weekend's fires. From NASA:
A pair of images from NASA's Aqua satellite show the Los Angeles metropolitan area on Nov. 16, 2008. The top image posted on NASA's Web site shows the Southern California area as a vast plume of smoke billows out over the Pacific Ocean. The bottom image provides a closer view of the area around Los Angeles and two large fires burning there: the Freeway Complex Fire and the Sayre Fire.
The people who helped Barack Obama get elected president are seeking help for fire victims. The organizers at mybarackobama.com have asked readers to focus their attention on fire relief, including asking them to work with the American Red Cross and Salvation Army. Details:
Over the past few days, wildfires in Southern California have destroyed nearly 900 homes and burned over 37,000 acres of land, forcing many more families to evacuate their communities. Our thoughts and prayers go out to those who have been affected by the fires. The Red Cross and Salvation Army are coordinating relief for the victims, and volunteers on the ground are being organized to help with long-term recovery efforts in the days and months to come. If you live in or near Southern California you can volunteer now, and no matter where you live you can help by donating to the relief efforts.
Some residents of the Oakridge Mobile Home Park, which was nearly flattened by fire, were allowed to return to their homes temporarily this morning to gather belongings and to view the damage.
Officials took four vans carrying about eight to 10 residents each back into the devastated mobile home park. Each resident carried a red plastic bag to fill with possessions -- mostly clothes, documents, IDs and medications.
One man in his 20s was choked up as he emerged with a bag from his house on Coyote Street, having borrowed a police flashlight to search for his belongings because the power was off.
"It's amazing," he said of his house. "It's a miracle."
His house was untouched. A basketball was laying in the yard and the landscaping was still green.
The vans drove past search dogs sniffing for remains at the 500 homes that were burned to the ground. About 400 to 500 people remain at the evacuation center at a nearby high school, and the Los Angeles Police Department was arranging to bring more residents into the trailer park this afternoon, said Mary Grady, a spokeswoman for the department.
Residents started registering for a seat on the vans at 9 last night at the high school, Grady said.
--Molly Hennessy-Fiske
Photo: Carl Cortez of Lake Arrowhead looks over the wall enclosing Oakridge
Mobile Home Park on Monday morning. His mother's and his sister's
mobile homes were destroyed when fire swept through the Sylmar mobile
home park. Photo credit: Al Seib / Los Angeles Times
The calming Santa Ana winds don't mean an end to our air-quality issues. With stronger ocean breezes expected, some of that smoke is expected to push back into the inland areas, including the Sylmar and Freeway Complex burn areas, according to the South Coast Air Quality Management District:
An afternoon sea breeze today could spread wildfire smoke across wide areas of the Southland, including portions of the Inland Empire, causing air quality in the Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups range or higher. In addition, areas directly impacted by smoke from the ongoing Sayre and Freeway/Triangle Complex fires will experience Unhealthy air quality.
The drop in winds is making a big difference. There was little fire news overnight as the blazes quieted down. For the first time in days, the National Weather Service has no weather warnings today. Forecasters said the weather still is far from ideal (and it's still going to be hot), but the winds simply are not as dangerous as they were over the weekend. Here's the Weather Service's bulletin:
FIRE WEATHER CONDITIONS WILL OCCUR THROUGH MONDAY AND POSSIBLY INTO
TUESDAY WITH LOCALLY GUSTY CANYON WINDS CONTINUING AND RELATIVE
HUMIDITIES IN THE SINGLE DIGITS ON MONDAY AFTERNOON. RELATIVE
HUMIDITIES WILL HIT THE SINGLE DIGITS FOR ABOUT 6 HOURS ON MONDAY
AND COULD TOUCH THE SINGLE DIGITS AGAIN ON TUESDAY.
The Sayre fire is continuing to burn into Placerita Canyon near Santa Clarita, but away from homes and into an old burn area. According to City News Service: "Sylmar-area residents will be escorted by police this morning through areas devastated by the Sayre fire so that they can check on the state of their homes. Those whose homes survived will be allowed to go through their property for about 10 minutes. Those whose homes were destroyed will not be allowed to step on the property."
The Sylmar fire has burned north into Placerita Canyon, causing some new concerns for residents. No homes are immediately threatened, and winds are moderate compared with Saturday. Also: the Los Angeles Fire Department said that smoke seen around Stevenson Ranch west of the 5 Freeway is from backfires and not a new brush fire.
A notice about L.A. schools and the fires from City News Service:
All schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District will hold classes as normal Monday, but all outdoor activities will be canceled, a spokeswoman said late today. Gayle Pollard-Terry, a district spokeswoman, said public schools near the fire zone will also be in session. Sylmar High School, the site of a relocation center for persons burned out of the Oakridge Mobile Home Park, will hold normal classes. All physical education activities, including any outdoor interscholastic sports, are canceled across the entire LAUSD on Monday, she said.
After a day of mostly good news, a bit of concern this afternoon as the National Weather Service extends Red Flag warnings for the mountains and valley areas through 10 p.m. Sunday. The warnings expired for most coastal areas at 4 p.m. The weather service says winds are weakening but still strong. Highlights from the advisory:
OFFSHORE FLOW IS STARTING TO WEAKEN ACROSS THE AREA. HOWEVER...LOCAL NORTHEAST WIND GUSTS UP TO 50 MPH ARE STILL POSSIBLE THROUGH THE EVENING HOURS BELOW PASSES AND CANYONS.
Danny Rios is a native Angeleno who, until late Saturday night, loved his hometown unconditionally.
That was before Rios, 73, and his wife Mary, 71, raced away from their well-tended home at the Oakridge Mobile Home Park in Sylmar even as a wildfire tore through the 608-unit complex.
By Sunday morning, the couple had gathered with dozens of other Oakridge residents who were outside the park's charred gates, hoping to be allowed back to their homes, or what was left.
Officials said Sunday that 124 only homes remained standing. The Rios' home - -with its Camellia' plants and Sago palms and lime trees -- was not among them.
Coughing from the smoke despite their white masks, the Rios tried to explain it was the people, as much as place, that made Oakridge special.
"Today we saw our next-door neighbor, it was so sad," said Mary Rios, softly crying. "We're going to be disconnected from everyone. It's hard."
Losing their home of 14 years was difficult too, but not unprecedented.
"I've owned three homes in Los Angeles," Rios said, leaning in and ticking each off the fingers of his right hand. "I lost the first one in the '71 earthquake. I lost the second one in the Northridge quake in 1994."
He paused, pointing up the charred hillside, "I lost the third one right here."
With a wry smile Rios added, "Looks like it's time to get outta Dodge."
The fire helped the couple finally make their decision to move to the midwest.
A team from the Los Angeles County coroner's office fanned out across the Oakridge Mobile Home Park today to look for possible remains in an area almost totally destroyed by the Sayre fire.
But coroner's officials said today that they won't have the use of their Sylmar office, which serves as a base of operations for their investigations in northern Los Angeles County.
Coroner's spokeswoman Lt. Cheryl MacWillie said the facility was a total loss, although employees were able to rescue computers and vehicles.
"Everything else was burned," MacWillie said. The three investigators that used to be housed there will now be redeployed, possibly to the San Fernando police station.
When it comes to bad fires, the series of blazes that hit Southern California in October 2003 are considered perhaps the worst. Those fires ate up 740,000 acres, burned more than 3,000 homes and killed more than 20 people. This weekend's fires were bad -- but not that bad. For a full list of major fires, check out Times librarian James Kim's rundown after the jump.
This weekend's fires will set some records. Paul Rogers of the San Jose Mercury News says that experts note that this year is shaping up to be a bizarre one for California wildfires:
Through last week, 1.24 million acres [had] burned in California, the most since 1970, when consistent, modern records were first kept. Yet in a rare turnabout, most of that land didn't burn in Southern California during autumn, a common pattern for the state. Even counting this weekend's fires in Montecito and Sylmar, nine out of 10 acres that have burned this year were in Northern California, from Monterey County to the Oregon border, and most burned early in the season, thanks to a freakish dry lightning storm. Given the lack of rain over the past two winters, things could have turned out much worse, experts say.
Of course, Santa Ana wildfire season is far from over.
Southern California has seen many devastating fires. Times librarian
James Kim researched the worst of the blazes to hit Los Angeles County
over the last 75 years:
November 2007 – A blaze broke out from an illegal late-night
campfire near a cave in Corral Canyon in Malibu, consuming 53 homes and
4,900 acres.
October 2007 – Sparking power lines ignited the Witch Fire, which
killed two people, burned nearly 200,000 acres and destroyed more than
1,000 homes in north San Diego.
We'll have another day of bad air because of the fires. The latest bulletin from the AQMD via City News Service:
The South Coast Air Quality Management District is predicting unhealthful air quality today across Orange County and many areas of Los Angeles County because of ongoing wildfires fanned by the Santa Ana winds. Despite the fact those winds are predicted to weaken today, air quality will still reach unhealthy levels in smoke-impacted areas that are likely to include all of Orange County, the San Fernando Valley, downtown Los Angeles, the South Bay including Long Beach, portions of the San Gabriel Mountains that are near the Sayre Fire and the northwest L.A. County coastal areas. In addition, L.A and Orange county areas may reach unhealthy levels for sensitive groups.
The Times' Ari B. Bloomekatz offered some other tips from Los Angeles County officials to help cope with bad air:
Avoid unnecessary outdoor activity.
Do not use fireplaces, candles and vacuums.
When indoors, keep windows and doors closed. Air conditioners can remove particles from the air, but if residents do not have an air-conditioning unit and are getting too hot, they should consider going somewhere with air conditioning. The county warns residents not to use air conditioners that draw in air only from the outside and do not have a recirculating option.
Don't smoke.
--Shelby Grad
A water dropping helicopter was at work over Anaheim Hills yesterday. Glenn Koenig/Los Angeles Times
The L.A. County coroner's office and its dogs will be back today looking for victims of the huge fire that swept through a Sylmar mobile home park. Ed Winter (misspelled as Winton in an earlier version of this post) of the coroner's office said at a press conference this morning that the search of Oakridge Mobile Home Park is precautionary and noted that no victims were found Saturday.
"We feel pretty comfortable that most people in this mobile home park were evacuated," Winter said, adding that the search process could take several days. They will focus on trailers with cars still in driveways.
Officials have received some calls from worried family members saying they had not heard from loved ones who lived at the park. Winter urged residents to check in with family and, if needed, to call the coroner's office.
There were 500 units destroyed, and about 130 residents went to evacuation centers.
If the fire situation feels calmer today, it's because of the winds. The 60-80 mph gusts that fueled the Sylmar fire aren't around today. The National Weather Service is lifting its wind warnings at around 9 a.m., though the red flag warning on fire danger remains in place. For some perspective, check out these numbers on winds clocked this morning. Significant but not as bad as Saturday:
There are a total of 632 homes and apartments confirmed destroyed since Thursday night. A total of 767 homes and apartments have been damaged or destroyed since the Santa Barbara fire began Thursday night.
A total of 10,500 acres have burned since Thursday night.
By the numbers:
In Sylmar, 501 homes destroyed, 40 homes damaged, containment 20%, acreage 8,000. ... 10,000 people were ordered evacuated from their homes.
In Corona, 16 homes damaged or destroyed.
In Yorba Linda, 30 homes damaged or destroyed. (8,000 to 10,000 people have been ordered evacuated , with 3,600 homes threatened.)
In Anaheim Hills, 20 apartments destroyed, 30 apartments are damaged or destroyed, and 10 homes are damaged or destroyed. (12,600 people have been ordered to evacuate, affecting 4,500 household.)
The Anaheim/Yorba Linda/Corona fire is 5% contained, and has burned 5,800 acres.
In Brea, no homes destroyed, but Brea Canyon High School, a continuation high school, was severely damaged.
In Santa Barbara, 111 homes are destroyed, and 9 homes are damaged, containment 40%, acreage 1,800.
This should come as no surprise to anyone. The National Weather Service reported record high temperatures throughout Southern California. Bob Hope Airport in Burbank hit a high of 90 degrees today, breaking the old record of 88 degrees set in 1977; downtown Los Angeles hit 93 degrees, breaking an old record of 90 set in 1936. Details after the jump.
It's hard to get perspective when an entire community gets wiped out. But that's what happened at the Oakridge Mobile Home Park in Sylmar, where more than 500 homes were lost during this morning's fire. Joel Sappell, a deputy to L.A. County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, took a tour of the site this afternoon with top fire officials and shot some striking photos of destruction.
Given the difficulty of staying on top of all the fire-related information on the Web, we’ve compiled a list of important links to help you stay informed of the various wildfires around Southern California. If you have additional websites you use to stay informed during an emergency like this, please share them in the comments section.
For all of Southern California:
Freeway closures onCaltrans’ website (click on the desired freeway).
There have been concerns all day that some residents of the Oakridge Mobile Home Park could not get out before the fire swept through.
Authorities spent the afternoon checking -- but so far have found no bodies, said Ed Winter, assistant director of the L.A. County coroner's office.
“We feel pretty comfortable that LAPD and fire were able to get everyone out,” he said. They have coroner's dogs and personnel standing by, but search and rescue started combing through the mobile home park and have not found anyone.
--Jason Song
Photo: Michael Robinson Chavez / Los Angeles Times
Could this be a sign of a turning point? The California Highway Patrol reports that the 5 and 210 freeways have reopened in both directions. The 14 Freeway remains closed.
Until now, many considered the 1961 Bel Air fire as L.A.'s worst. But today, with the Sylmar fire burning at least 600 mobile homes, that might be changing. Here's background on the Bel Air inferno from the L.A. Fire Department:
During the week of November 6, 1961, the City of Los Angeles was visited by the most disastrous brush fire in the history of Southern California. Lashing out from a point of origin high on the north slope of the Santa Monica Mountains, the fire raced through tinder-dry vegetation to the summit, leaped across Mulholland Drive and raged down the south slope into Stone Canyon on a rapidly widening front. Driven savagely before fifty-mile-per-hour winds, the flames sped on south and westward. The canyons and ridges of the coastal slope became engulfed in a veritable hurricane of fire. Thermal air currents, created by the intense heat, coupled with the high velocity winds swirled countless thousands of burning brands aloft to deposit them far in advance of the main fire front. Natural and manmade barriers were utterly incapable of interrupting the progress of the fire under such adverse conditions. Before the wild rush of this roaring destruction was finally subdued, 6,090 acres of valuable watershed had been c consumed. Infinitely more tragic was the incineration of 484 costly residences and 21 other buildings.
Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky made the comparison at a press conference. “Whether you live in a mobile home park or you live in an estate, when you lose your home it’s devastating,” Yaroslavsky said.
-- 14 Freeway closed at Newhall Pass. The 5, 210, 405 and 118 freeways in the Sylmar area have reopened, but numerous local roads remain closed.
-- 91 Freeway and 241 tollway in the Yorba Linda and Anaheim Hills area.
--57 Freeway in Brea.
Updated: More closures from Los Angeles Police Department Media Relations Officer Julianne Sohn via City News Service. Northbound from each of the following intersections:
Bledsoe Street and Foothill Boulevard; Filbert Street and Foothill Boulevard; Rinaldi Street and Woodley Avenue; Balboa Boulevard and San Fernando Street; Hubbard Street and Eldridge Avenue; Eldridge Avenue and Sayre Street; Shablow Avenue and Gavina Avenue; Gavina Avenue and Hubbard Street; Foothill Boulevard and Osborne Street; Rinaldi Street and Balboa Boulevard; Foothill (210) Freeway northbound off-ramp at Osborne Street; and Osborne Street north of Foothill Boulevard.
Firefighters can't lick those winds, which continue to fuel fires across the region. Here's the latest from the National Weather Service via City News Service:
Smoke from the Sylmar fire is so thick over the San Fernando and Conejo valleys that it is plainly visible to weather satellites orbiting the Earth, the National Weather Service said today. “Decent-size smoke plumes from wildfires are pushing southwest over portions of the coast, valley and foothill areas of Los Angeles and Ventura counties this morning,” the Weather Service said in a statement issued at 10:44 a.m. The Weather Service forecasters at the Oxnard office predicted that high wind warnings will be continued through 2 p.m. today, and will likely be downgraded to wind advisories after that time. Winds in excess of 60 miles an hour will drop to about 35 mph later today and Sunday, the forecast statement said. “Winds should finally start diminishing Sunday night,” the Weather Service said.
L.A. officials launched rolling blackouts across the city for about an hour this morning after deactivating some transmission lines in the Sylmar fire zone out of fear that winds could blow them down and cause more blazes.
Officials said that sections of the Mid-City, Crenshaw and Harbor Gateway areas that lost power this morning should have had it restored.
Several blackouts were reported in the San Fernando Valley, with entire neighborhoods losing power and traffic jammed because traffic signals were off. There were also reports of stalled elevators.
The Department of Water and Power said transmission lines along the Interstate 5 corridor north of Sylmar were taken out of service this morning. These lines are considered a major source of imported power to Los Angeles from power plants outside California.
Officials urged residents to conserve power. "Residents are urged to avoid using all major appliances, including air conditioners, as long as doing so does not compromise their or their family members health or safety," the DWP said in a statement.
City officials are urging Los Angeles residents to conserve power today after they took the rare step of deactivating some transmission lines in the Sylmar fire zone out of fear that winds could blow them down and cause more blazes.
The Department of Water and Power said transmission lines along the Interstate 5 corridor north of Sylmar were taken out of service this morning. These lines are considered a major source of imported power to Los Angeles from power plants outside California.
"These high-voltage power lines are critical to maintaining a steady supply of power to the city, especially as demand for energy rises throughout the day," the DWP said in a statement. "If they remain out and are unable to return to normal service as demand increases, the LADWP may need to initiate rotating power outages in parts of the city."
Several blackouts were reported in the San Fernando Valley, with entire neighborhoods losing power and traffic jammed because traffic signals were off. There were also reports of stalled elevators.
There has been growing concern about the danger posed by power lines during the fire-prone Santa Ana wind season. The Sesnon fire last month was sparked by a downed power line.
Power lines were the suspected culprit behind at least five of the fires that burned across Southern California in October 2007, including one in San Diego that consumed 200,000 acres, destroyed 1,041 homes and killed two people.
But placing lines underground is highly expensive -- with some cost estimates as high as $1 million a mile.
The California Public Utilities Commission investigated last year's Witch fire in San Diego and concluded in a report last month that San Diego Gas & Electric Co. failed to properly maintain power lines that were felled by the wind. The utility has strongly disputed the finding.
There have been discussion in San Diego of shutting off some utility lines during heavy Santa Ana winds.
The governor declared a state of emergency in Los Angeles, saying 165 homes had been damaged or destroyed in the Sylmar area.
A new brush fire has broken out off the 91 Freeway near Green River Road on the Orange-Riverside county border. Some lanes on the 91 Freeway are closed, and homes are threatened. Another fire is reported on the Palos Verdes Peninsula.
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has declared a local emergency. "We know that we've lost dozens of structures," he said at the fire command center in Sylmar this morning.
Westward that fire goes: The LAPD say the area under mandatory evacuation orders in the Sylmar and Granada Hills areas includes foothill areas in a broad arc from Pacoima Canyon west to Reseda Boulevard. That includes areas north and east of Foothill Boulevard in the Olive View area, and north of Sesnon Boulevard between Balboa and Reseda boulevards.
The fire is being pushed by winds past the 5 Freeway toward Porter Ranch, into an area burned by last month's Sesnon fire.
Evacuations now extend west to Reseda Boulevard. The L.A. Fire Department said 10,000 people in total had been ordered to evacuate. A mobile home park in Sylmar is on fire.
"The fire is ripping and tearing through everything," said the LAFD's Michael Bowman.
The path of the fire fits a common pattern for blazes driven by Santa Ana winds in the San Fernando Valley. The question: How far west will the fire go? The Sesnon blaze roared to Ventura County, and others have marched toward the 101 Freeway and even to Malibu. Others get stopped in their tracks.
Around midnight, tall walls of flames quickly surrounded Olive View Medical Center in Sylmar.
Embers blew down streets, catching trees and shrubs on fire around the hospital.
Before long, the hospital was surrounded on all sides by fire. Security guards and staff had to work quickly. Smoke began seeping into the ventilation system and into the lower floors of the hospital.
They needed to get the most critically ill patients to the safety of the upper floors. But there was a complicating factor: Fire had destroyed power lines that supplied the hospital. Then backup generators failed.
Flames were within a football field's length of the entrance. Homes on the west side of the hospital were burning.
Amid the chaos, four critically ill babies were loaded into ambulances as concerned hospital staffers saw them off in darkness.
About 200 people were at Olive View at the time the fire broke out. Nearly two dozen were suffering from serious injuries requiring them to be moved. Some, who needed help breathing, were attended to by staffers with manual breathing bags.
Inside, staffers and security guards used flashlights to move about in the pitch-dark halls.
Hospital management and fire officials set up a makeshift command center in a cramped second-floor room at the hospital. By the glow of several flashlights, they pored over patient lists, contacted other hospitals and made arrangements with ambulance companies. A piercing fire alarm continued to blare.
There was talk of evacuating the hospital. Others urged a wait-and-see approach.
An explosive brush fire driven by 60-mph gusts ripped through Sylmar late Friday night, burning uncounted homes before leaping both the 210 and 5 Freeways and tearing into dense neighborhoods.
The fast-moving and chaotic fire drove residents scrambling from their hillside homes, as a storm of embers ignited spot fires across a broad swath of the Sylmar area.
More than 1,500 acres had burned by 3 a.m. Saturday, with more than 1,000 structures threatened by uncontrolled flames and about 5,000 residents under mandatory evacuation.
At 1:30 a.m. the blaze surrounded Olive View Hospital, where 200 patients were sheltered in place with hospital staff as a phalanx of firefighters fought back flames.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger today directed the state's Office of Emergency Services to prepare for potential flooding in Southern California burn areas that could receive heavy rainfall as early as this afternoon.
