California fires live: Los Angeles prepared for severe winds expected in coming days, mayor says | California wildfires
About 35,000 homes and businesses without electricity in Los Angeles – data
34,646 homes and businesses in Los Angeles are now without electricity, according to Poweroutage.us, an outage monitor that tracks blackouts across the US.
Roughly 18,400 Southern California Edison customers remain without power, as well as about 16,100 Los Angeles Department of Water & Power customers, and about 100 with Pasadena Water and Power, according to the latest data.
Here is the latest data showing the number of people without power in some of the other areas of California:
-
San Bernardino: 8,333
-
Riverside: 7, 152
-
Santa Barbara: 2,081
In an update posted to X a few hours ago, the LA Department of Water & Power said since the fires started on Tuesday they have restored power to over 355,000 customers.
Key events
The Los Angeles wildfires could test the Getty Center’s claim of being the safest place to store artwork.
The Guardian’s Richard Luscombe reports:
It houses some of the richest treasures of the art world, such as Vincent van Gogh’s Irises, a popular Rembrandt and a priceless collection of paintings, portraits and other works spanning more than seven centuries.
To protect them, the Getty Center in Los Angeles was built in 1997 as “a marvel of anti-fire engineering”, complete with fire-resistant stone and concrete, protected steel, and set in well-irrigated landscaping.
Now, with an evacuation order in place for the Brentwood area of the city in which the museum is housed, and as flames from the deadly Palisades wildfire rage nearby, the Getty’s claim of being the safest place for art during a fire could soon be put to the test.
Outwardly, at least, there is little concern. “Our galleries are safe and protected,” Katherine Fleming, president and chief executive of the J Paul Getty Trust asserted in a statement on Saturday.
For the full story, click here:
Newsom signs executive order suspending landmark environmental laws to allow for rebuilding
Governor Gavin Newsom will suspend various landmark environmental laws to allow for rebuilding across southern California in areas that have been destroyed by the wildfires.
In an announcement on Sunday, Newsom said that as part of his executive order, he will waive the California Environmental Quality Act and the California Coastal Act.
Newsom said:
When the fires are extinguished, victims who have lost their homes and businesses must be able to rebuild quickly and without roadblocks. The executive order I signed today will help cut permitting delays, an important first step in allowing our communities to recover faster and stronger. I’ve also ordered our state agencies to identify additional ways to streamline the rebuilding and recovery process.”
In addition to the suspension of CEQA review and California Coastal Act, the executive order will direct state agencies to identify additional permitting requirements that can be safely be suspended or streamlined to accelerate the rebuilding process.
It will also extend protections against price gouging on building materials, storage services, construction and other essential goods and services to 7 January 2026 across Los Angeles county.
CEQA, signed into law by California’s then governor Ronald Reagan in 1970, requires state and local agencies to disclose the environmental impacts of proposed projects. Meanwhile, the California Coastal Act, approved in 1972, offers guidance on how coastal land across California is developed or protected from development.
As Los Angeles burns, politicians are beefing over the politics of fire.
The Guardian’s Edward Helmore reports:
Gavin Newsom, California’s Democratic governor, appeared briefly to put his long-running feud with Donald Trump to one side on Friday, when he invited the president-elect to Los Angeles to survey devastation from the wildfires and meet with first responders, firefighters and the “Americans” affected.
“In the spirit of this great country, we must not politicize human tragedy or spread disinformation from the sidelines,” Newsom wrote in a letter to Trump on Friday. “Hundreds of thousands of Americans – displaced from their homes and fearful for the future – deserve to see all of us working in their best interests to ensure a fast recovery and rebuild.”
The detente lasted less than 24 hours. By Saturday, Newsom, who is in contention to become the Democratic party leader in time for 2028, had returned to a more familiar, oppositional stance.
In an interview with Pod Save America, he rejected Trump’s claim that water is being withheld from southern California to save an endangered fish, the delta smelt, calling the president-elect’s messaging on the issue “delusional” and part of a “consistent mantra from Trump going back years and years, and it’s reinforced over and over within the right wing … and it’s profoundly ignorant”.
For the full story, click here:
The animal resource centre Pasadena Humane has taken in and assisted dogs, horses, donkeys, goats, sheep and hundreds of other creatures that have been displaced by the wildfires in southern California:
At 4pm PT today, Eaton fire officials will host a community meeting to provide the current fire situation, address questions and discuss recovery, the Los Angeles county fire department said.
The meeting will be held in-person and streamed live on YouTube. Viewers are able to submit their questions at [email protected].
In an operational update earlier today, fire officials said that containment of the Eaton fire has risen to 11% and the fire remains burning at 14,117 acres.
Here are some images coming through the newswires from Los Angeles where multiple wildfires are still burning:
Speaking at the press conference, Anish Mahajan, chief deputy director of LA county public health, said that the “air quality is improving as we have seen the smoke lessen with the better containment of the fires at this time”.
He went on to add:
County residents should continue to monitor the air quality index, the AQI levels, wherever they are, but we are seeing improved AQI numbers, and so we encourage residents who are closest to the fire, who are smelling smoke or seeing it, who have the AQI levels in the unhealthy zones, to be using masks when they’re outside.”
In response to a question on whether there is concern about the animosity coming from Donald Trump towards California and its efforts to fight the wildfires, Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass said:
Actually, I’m not worried about that. I mean, I joined in the invitation to the incoming president to come to Los Angeles. I joined with the supervisor and the governor, spoke directly with the incoming administration yesterday. It was a fine call so I’m not concerned about that. There are also, as I mentioned before, a number of my former colleagues who are up for confirmation. I feel like I will have good relations.”
Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass said that she believes the city is prepared for the severe gusts of wind that are to be expected in the coming days.
In response to a question on whether the city is prepared in regards to fire hydrants and water pressure, Bass said that she will be recieiving reports in a few hours from other city departments and maintained confidence in the city’s preparedness.
More than 13,000 people have donated over $6m to the California Community Foundation to help wildfire relief efforts, Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass said.
“People are coming from everywhere to help us and make sure that we are ready for the days ahead. So to them, I want to say thank you,” Bass said.
Richard Luscombe
The Los Angeles fire chief, Kristin Crowley, told the press conference that city officials were unified and focused on tackling the tragedy.
Last week, Crowley was vocal about how water supply issues and budget cuts “failed” her firefighters, allowing Donald Trump and other Republicans to seize on her comments as evidence that the Democratic Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass and other officials were guilty of mismanagement, before and during the fires.
She did not address the controversy directly but said her focus would be the forecast uptick in winds that threatens to expand the deadly Palisades fire:
I want to be very, very clear here. It’s very important that the community understands that these wind events are coming into Los Angeles. I want to reassure you that Mayor Bass, [police chief James] McDonnell, and I, are united and focused on exactly what we need to do to prepare the city with these next strong winds that are coming.
Kathryn Barger, chair of the LA county board of supervisors, said she had written to invite Trump to the city so he can see “the desperate needs, but also the incredible opportunity, hope and perseverance of our impacted neighbors”.
Los Angeles police chief Jim McDonnell said that a curfew is still being enforced in the Los Angeles city areas where mandatory evacuations are still in place.
“The order will remain in place tonight, curfew order from 6pm to 6am and unless you are a public safety personnel or some other disaster worker, you have no reason to be at these locations,” he said.
Los Angeles sheriff Robert Luna also warned against those who are “thinking about scamming, using this incident to take advantage of residents that have already been victimized”.
Luna said that state and federal authorities are all “eager to prosecute anybody who is taking advantage of our residents during this very difficult time, whether it is a burglary or it is some kind of white collar crime in a scam or anything that you may be thinking about doing”.
