Justine Goode / NBC News; Getty Images
A photo of flames on the horizon, taken outside a Pasadena home.
A frantic “Are u OK?” Instagram message from a concerned friend who’s watching the news from out of state.
A “This is so scary” refrain, sent from one friend to another across town.
As wildfires have erupted across Los Angeles in the last week and a half, phones have been buzzing nonstop with frantic messages — including the above — between loved ones, friends and acquaintances.
One 14-year-old girl’s effort to help those dealing with loss in the wake of the California wildfires led to an outpouring of support that no one could have imagined.
Avery Colvert launched Altadena Girls on Instagram and put out the call for clothes, makeup, skincare and shoes. The donations poured in.
“These girls don’t have anything, and I want them to feel confident in themselves again,” she said.
Marli Petrini, an Altadena resident, said she got new pants and a “super soft” jacket.
“One jacket means the absolute world when you have zero jackets,” she said.
The effort has also inspired a counterpart, Altadena Boys.
Billie Eilish, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Joni Mitchell are among a star-studded set of musicians performing at a benefit concert this month for wildfire recovery and relief, organizers announced Thursday.
“FireAid” will be held Jan. 30 at the Intuit Dome and Kia Forum in Inglewood in the Los Angeles area, featuring a number of artists with California ties.
Tickets will go on sale at noon Wednesday through Ticketmaster, AEG announced. The money will go to both short-term and long-term relief, it said.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom is extending protections against price-gouging on rental housing. Los Angeles Times political writer Seema Mehta joins Chris Jansing to explain more on what this means for people looking for housing in the wake of the deadly wildfires.
Nine people have been charged, mostly with arson, in connection with separate alleged crimes during the Los Angeles-area wildfires, prosecutors said today.
The charges including felony arson, felony looting, and misdemeanor impersonating a firefighter, according to a statement from Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan J. Hochman.
“To anyone who believes they can use this disaster as a cover for criminal activity, let this be your warning: you will be caught, and you will be held accountable,” Hochman said.
Six of the people charged with arson separately lit various items on fire, including a Christmas tree and a couch, prosecutors said.
In another case, a man lit trash on fire next to train tracks within an evacuation zone in Compton, prosecutors said.
In a separate case, a man was stopped on Jan. 10 while driving in an evacuation zone. Officers found .357 ammunition and an AR15 magazine, along with a drone, walkie talkies, burglary tools, gloves, and a window punch tool, prosecutors said.
That man is charged with unlawful possession of ammunition, prohibited by a prior conviction; possession of a firearm by a felon and possession of burglar’s tools, prosecutors said.
And another man is accused of wearing a yellow firefighter jacket and having a first responders’ radio in a mandatory evacuation area in Malibu. He is charged with receiving stolen property, impersonating a firefighter and unlawful use of a badge, prosecutors said.
Texas emergency management officials said today that a team from their division was sent to California to help with wildfire recovery.
Texas Division of Emergency Management said in a statement the personell would help with care and sheltering, navigating federal assistance, and managing volunteers.
They will join dozens of other Texans deployed by Gov. Greg Abbott to help California fight and recover from those blazes in Los Angeles County. The department said more than 135 firefighters from Texas have been assigned to the fires since they started last week.
The deployments are part of a mutual-aid agreement among states known as the Emergency Management Assistance Compact, the Texas division said. They’re made in coordination with federal officials and their response.
Reporting from Pasadena, Calif.
Musician John Legend, who said on social media he has returned home with his family after evacuating amid the L.A. County fires, sang to incarcerated firefighters in Pasadena today.
The former coach on NBC’s “The Voice” visited with inmate firefighters assigned to clear brush, cut fire lines, and save homes amid the Eaton Fire in neighboring Altadena.
At times incarcerated firefighters can compose nearly 1 in 3 firefighters during major fires like the ones that erupted in L.A. County last week, officials have said.
The incarcerated firefighters, who make as much as about $10 a day and can use the experience to reduce their sentences, have been on the front lines of the L.A. blazes since they started Jan. 7.
Legend had lunch with the crews, sang “Ordinary People,” to them, and autographed hats. He did not want to be interviewed.
Legend and wife Chrissy Teigen — the model and TV personality who is mother to the couple’s four children — have shared on social media news from their evacuation and return to an intact home amid the fires.
Gov. Gavin Newsom is banning evictions for tenants who add roommates displaced by the fires.
The governor’s office said in a statement that Newsom issued an executive order that prohibits using the unlawful detainer process, essentially eviction, to kick out tenants who, outside a lease’s terms, add roommates displaced by the fires.
The order will remain in effect through March 8, the office said.
The statement suggested legislators are working on legal updates that would include a similar, more permanent ban covering fire victims and their hosts.
Officials estimate 12,300 structures, including homes, have been destroyed in the wind-driven blazes in Southern California.
A major relief center has been set up at Dodger Stadium for families displaced by the California wildfires. Diapers, essential hygiene supplies and other items are being provided.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass announced that developer and philanthropist Steve Soboroff will serve as the city’s “chief recovery officer” as she updated Angelenos on the status of fire recovery.
He is the father of NBC News correspondent Jacob Soboroff.
Steve Soboroff today vowed to rebuild the mostly fire-destroyed community of Pacific Palisades, saying critics can get on board or get out of the way.
“There’s a bus to yes,” said Soboroff, a former Los Angeles Police Commission leader and board member. “If people want to help out, they can get on it.”
Bass said Soboroff is the right person to help Los Angeles recover and move forward as its role as host of the 2028 Summer Olympics looms.
“No one is better equipped to create our rebuilding plan,” she said, crediting the 76-year-old with helping to develop sports venue Staples Center, now Crypto.com Arena, and the Playa Vista community.
Stephen Edwards, a 63-year-old music composer, lost his Pacific Palisades home in the fire that has been burning through the neighborhood for the last week and a half.
Edwards thought he had a backup: a second house that he owns in the same area and ordinarily uses as a rental property.
Stephen Edwards’ home in Los Angeles yesterday. It survived the fire — only to be severely damaged by a landslide.Stephanie Fuerte / NBC News
That house had survived the blaze, which so far has burned more than 23,000 acres and destroyed an estimated 5,000 structures, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
But around a week ago, Edwards’ rental house split in two because of a landslide that caused his neighbor’s house to slam into it.
“It was a cool place to make music, to be super chill and relaxing,” Edwards said of the second home. “You could look at the water and listen to the waves. It was amazing.”
Mayor Karen Bass will make an announcement at 2 p.m. local time (5 p.m. ET) regarding the rebuilding effort in the wake of the L.A. wildfires.
It comes after the mayor on Monday issued an executive order to help residents rapidly rebuild homes lost in the fires.
Los Angeles Fire Department public information officer Erik Scott shared a symbol of hope emerging from the L.A. wildfires: animals returning to the hills.
At Will Rogers State Historic Park, near the Palisades Fire command post, several deer were seen making their way up a hill.
“A beautiful reminder of nature’s resilience. Moments like this warm our hearts during these challenging times,” Scott wrote on X.
The Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department released the names of 17 people who are at-risk and missing in the Los Angeles-area wildfires.
Of those, 15 are in connection with the Eaton Fire and two are in connection with the Palisades Fire.
The Palisades Fire remains at 23,713 acres and is up to 31% contained, up from 27% yesterday, according to this morning’s Cal Fire numbers.
The Eaton Fire remains at 14,117 acres with 65% containment.
The Auto Fire in Ventura County is 61 acres with 85% containment.
Totress Beasley had made her final payment on her Pasadena home just days before it was destroyed by the Eaton Fire.
It was her first home, and one she had worked hard to pay off early ahead of her retirement.
“The day before the fire took our home, the home was paid off the day before and it cleared Bank of America’s mortgage,” Aaron Miller, Beasley’s son, told NBC Los Angeles. “So we paid off the home in twelve and half years.”
“And on the eighth, my friend calls me on Facetime and says, ‘Your home is on the news, the fire has reached down to Glen and Montana and Pasadena,’” Miller said.
They raced to the home and found it in flames. Still, the family says they’re determined to stay and rebuild.
Restaurant reservation service Resy, and its sister company Tock, have committed a combined $200,000 to World Central Kitchen.
“Our hearts go out to everyone affected by the fires in Los Angeles. Especially all of our friends and partners in the restaurant industry as they navigate closures, displacements, grief and uncertainty,” Pablo Rivero, Resy CEO and head of American Express Global Dining, said in a letter yesterday. “January is already an extremely difficult month for restaurants. One in which many of them struggle simply to make ends meet.”
Rivero also shared that the American Express Foundation is donating $500,000 to myriad organizations including World Central Kitchen and American Red Cross.
Additionally, Resy is temporarily waiving monthly fees for restaurants in affected areas that use the platform, and invites its customers to purchase restaurant gift cards, order takeout, or dine out if it is safe to do so.
“Restaurants are not just places to grab a meal; they are cornerstones of our neighborhoods that employ countless members of our community,” Rivero said. “Together let’s be there for our restaurants and show them the same love they show us every single day.”
LAFD Capt. Al Hugo shared haunting videos of his Altadena home engulfed in flames during the Los Angeles wildfires.
“I couldn’t get anywhere near, we’re talking 300, 400 feet from here,” he recalled to NBC News last week from the rubble of his home.
“It was kind of surreal. I mean it’s something I’m used to, but at the same time it’s a little more personal now because you know your life is in there. The thing I’m grateful for is my wife and my pets, we made it out, and that you can’t replace. Everything else here I can replace.”
He was looking through the debris for mementos and his wife’s wedding band.
Reporting from Altadena, California
Jerry Puga comes from a family of firefighters — he, his son and his daughter’s boyfriend all serve with the Los Angeles Fire Department.
He was one of many who lost their homes in the Eaton Fire in last week’s firestorm.
“I was just overwhelmed,” he told NBC News’ Morgan Chesky.
Despite the devastating loss, he returned the next day to help neighbors protect their residences against the flames. Now he’s left to figure out how to rebuild his life.
“I’m just so used to being the one coming and asking, ‘How can I help you,’ and now being the one needing that service is just completely different.”
Officials continue to plead for patience as cleanup crews and search and rescue teams make their way through an incredibly massive burn zone. All the while, hillside residences that survived face future risks of debris flows and mudslides, especially if there’s rain.
Police are searching for 31 people who were declared missing since the start of the Palisades and Eaton fires in the Greater Los Angeles area more than a week ago.
The L.A. County Sheriff’s Department said in an update last night that it had received 43 reports of missing persons, of whom 12 have been found.
Of the still missing people, 24 are thought to be in the area of the Eaton Fire and seven are thought to be in the area of the Palisades Fire.
The sheriff’s department said it had recovered nine “decedents,” meaning bodies, from burnt buildings that are “associated to missing persons reports stemming from the Eaton Fire,” as well as four bodies related to the Palisades Fire.
Buildings associated with 16 of the missing persons cases have been searched and no human remains were found, the update said.
The department’s Homicide Bureau Missing Persons Unit is in the process of looking through missing person notices and contacting families.
“Any human remains recovered during these searches will be examined by the Medical-Examiner to determine positive identification and provide clarity to the families of the missing,” the sheriff’s department said, adding that it “understands the deep pain and uncertainty faced by families and loved ones during this time.”
Anyone with information on missing persons is urged to call the Homicide Bureau at (323) 890-5500.
Firefighters continue to make progress as winds die down in California, but the threat of landslides is now a growing risk in areas where vegetation was destroyed.
Shohei Ohtani, the Japanese baseball phenom who plays for the L.A. Dodgers, will donate half a million dollars to fire relief funds, the MLB said on X last night.
He joins a growing list of sports stars and musicians who have donated money or memorabilia for auction to raise money for the enormous aid operation and rebuilding projects to come.
A fire at Vistra Corp.’s power plant in Moss Landing, Calif., yesterday.@picklevisionz / Instagram via Reuters
MOSS LANDING, Calif. — Hundreds of people were ordered to evacuate and part of Highway 1 in Northern California was closed when a major fire erupted yesterday afternoon at one of the world’s largest battery storage plants.
As the fire sent up towering flames and black smoke and showed no sign of easing by last night, about 1,500 people were instructed to leave Moss Landing and the Elkhorn Slough area, The Mercury News reported.
More than 100,000 energy customers have power again, more than a week after wildfires broke out across the Greater Los Angeles area. But connecting the more than 20,000 people still in the dark remains a challenge, the main supplier for the city said yesterday.
Southern California Edison said in a statement that some homes were without power due to a public safety power shut-off, during which power supply is limited in some areas to help stop the spread of wildfires.
The company said it would be able to inspect power lines once strong winds had fully subsided, after which it will take up to eight hours to restore a power line, provided there is no damage.
“So far today, we have already restored power to approximately 100,000 customers. While we have made good progress, we have more to do. In some burn scar areas, we haven’t yet been granted access or it isn’t yet safe to restore power,” the company said.
Climate-related natural disasters are driving up insurance costs for homeowners in the most-affected regions, according to a Treasury Department report released today.
In a voluminous study covering 2018-22 and including some data beyond that, the department found that there were 84 disasters costing $1 billion or more, excluding floods, and that they caused a combined $609 billion in damages. Floods are not covered under homeowner policies.
During the period, costs for policies across all categories rose 8.7% faster than the rate of inflation. However, the burden went largely to those living in areas most hit by climate-related events.
For consumers living in the 20% of ZIP codes with the highest expected annual losses, premiums averaged $2,321, or 82% more than those living in the 20% of lowest-risk ZIP codes.
“Homeowners insurance is becoming more costly and less accessible for consumers as the costs of climate-related events pose growing challenges to both homeowners and insurers alike,” said Nellie Liang, undersecretary for domestic finance.
L.A. County has opened camps for kids affected by the wildfires. County of Los Angeles Department of Parks and Recreation Director Norma E. García-Gonzalez joins Chris Jansing to share more on the program, which includes mental health staff and more.
As winds die down in Southern California, firefighters have been able to get some of the most devastating wildfires under control. But as residents are allowed to return to the areas, the challenges of recovery are becoming painfully clear. Former FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate joins Stephanie Ruhle to discuss.
