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Families who are trying to get back to their homes and have lost their key documents are encouraged to go to the family assistance center for help, Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said.
“Please go there, engage our employees and I can assure you we will do everything we can to assist them in their critical needs,” Luna said in a Saturday morning news conference.
He urged residents to wait to go back to their homes until the areas are deemed safe.
“Any of us would be frustrated if you want to get back to your own home,” Luna said. “When we say you can’t do this, it is based on their safety and the safety of others trying to get in and out.”
“So be patient with us. As soon as we can safely get people back in, it will be a top priority for us,” Luna said.
While firefighters are making improvements in wildfire containment thanks to the lower wind speeds, that will change by tonight.
The area will start to see the single-digit wind speed numbers jump up to the 20 or 30 mph range through the overnight hours, and even continuing into Sunday.
The next round of strong winds will pick up Monday through Wednesday, peaking on Tuesday, where the area could see wind gusts back up around 50 to 60 miles per hour.
As the Palisades Fire began intensifying Tuesday evening, Los Angeles real estate executive Keith Wasserman sent out a plea on social media: “Does anyone have access to private firefighters to protect our home in Pacific Palisades? Need to act fast here. All neighbors houses burning. Will pay any amount.”
The now-deleted post sparked an intense blowback by social media users who felt the wealthy shouldn’t be given special attention during an emergency.
“Whose home gets saved shouldn’t depend on their bank account,” one TikTok user commented.
As multiple wildfires, powered by high-speed winds, have destroyed thousands of homes in the Los Angeles area, some residents have gone to great lengths — and often great expense — to try to shield their homes from destruction. Some have paid thousands of dollars to get their properties sprayed with fire-retardant gels to stem the damage, while others have invested in personal fire hydrants to help fight fires near their property.
Despite the intense reaction to Wasserman’s social media post, most private firefighters aren’t hired by wealthy individuals, Mike Stutts, a firefighter in Somerset, California, told CNN. Instead, most work with home insurance companies that are trying to save expensive homes to avoid costly insurance payouts.
Tim Bauer, a senior vice president at fire damage restoration service Allied Disaster Defense, said after the first three days of fire in Pacific Palisades, he had a waiting list of at least 200 people, all desperate for the company’s services. Bauer said the company is spraying properties with the same fire retardant dropped by firefighting air tankers.
Read more about the Californians getting extra fire protection — for a price.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex on Friday made a surprise visit to a meal distribution center set up for people affected by the wildfires that have devastated Los Angeles.
Prince Harry and Meghan were spotted by a local news crew Fox 11 at the Pasadena Convention Center, which has been repurposed as a evacuation site.
The couple spoke to World Central Kitchen founder José Andrés and volunteers from the organization, as well as first responders and victims. WCK, which has been a longstanding partner of their Archewell Foundation, has been distributing free meals to emergency crews and people affected by the massive blazes.
The pair were also seen hugging Pasadena Mayor Victor Gordo, who later described the couple to Fox 11 as “great people” who had “really buoyed the spirits.”
Gordo said they had been at the center earlier in the day, when they quietly served food and were not recognized because they wore face masks.
Prince Harry and Meghan relocated to the United States in 2020, where they have since settled in Montecito, roughly 90 miles from Los Angeles, with their children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet.
Read more about their efforts here.
The Palisades Fire that devastated coastal communities in Los Angeles this week is moving east, with students at University of California, Los Angeles, and staff at the renowned Getty Center among those awaiting updates from officials.
At last update, the Palisades Fire — which destroyed thousands of homes and other structures when it broke out in the Pacific Palisades community near Malibu — was 21,596 acres and 11% contained. Flames are now spreading east in the Mandeville Canyon area, approaching Interstate 405, one of LA’s busiest freeways.
Firefighters are racing to make progress and protect new communities from the blaze, ahead of more wind and dry conditions later this weekend and early next week.
Here are some key areas near the developing firefight:
UCLA: The school in LA’s Westwood neighborhood is one of the state’s largest universities with its more than 46,000 undergraduate and graduate students. New evacuation warnings have extended to an area close to the school, and a campus alert warned students that — while it is not under an evacuation order — they should be ready to go if called upon. The university has ordered all classes Monday to be conducted remotely.
Brentwood: Another tony area reaching into the hills inland from Pacific Palisades and extending to I-405, Brentwood is home to the Getty Center, a cultural institution in the city. The center has evacuated all of its staff except for a small team of emergency personnel, after the museum was included in an expanded evacuation order on Friday evening. Some residents in the nearby Bel Air community also face evacuation warnings.
West LA: The US Department of Veterans Affairs evacuated veteran residents at its West Los Angeles Medical Center on Friday night, as evacuation warnings grew closer to that area, as well.
Encino: The San Fernando Valley community of Encino borders the expanding firefight to the north, with a new evacuation order issued Friday night extending to the Encino Reservoir.
Travel around other valley communities will also be impacted, as multiple off-ramps on the I-405 freeway have been closed, according to the California Department of Transportation.
Correction: A previous version of this post incorrectly described the neighborhood where UCLA is located. The school is located in Westwood.
Containment of the Palisades and Eaton fires has increased Saturday morning, as the Palisades Fire is now 11% contained (previously 8%), while the Eaton Fire is now at 15% containment (previously 3%).
Some of the smaller wildfires also improved containment, with the Lidia Fire reaching full containment:
- Lidia Fire now 100% (previously 98%)
- Kenneth Fire now 80% (previously 50%)
- Hurst Fire now 76% (previously 70%)
The Archer Fire remains at 0% containment.
The post has been updated for the Lidia Fire.
The Getty Center, a cultural institution in the city, is evacuating except for a small team of emergency personnel, after the museum was included in an expanded evacuation order on Friday evening.
“Getty is complying with the current evacuation order and is closed with only emergency staff on site,” the museum said in a statement to CNN.
The evacuation order, issued for the Palisades Fire, extends to Interstate 405 and the Encino Reservoir, bordering one of Los Angeles’ busiest freeways, as well as the museum.
The Palisades Fire began moving east late Friday, where fire crews are now fighting the blaze in the Mandeville Canyon area, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department.
The museum holds masterpieces from Vincent Van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, Édouard Manet and other famous artists.
It previously announced it was closing until at least Sunday.
The museum’s sister location, the Getty Villa, also came under threat from the Palisades Fire this week. The Getty Villa, housing Greek and Roman artifacts, is located near Pacific Palisades — the affluent coastal neighborhood that has been mostly razed by the fire.
Years of prioritizing fire mitigation efforts, clearing nearby brush as well as installing an on-site water tank, proved crucial in keeping the $10 billion collection safe from harm.
“While trees and vegetation on the property have burned, Getty structures have been unaffected, and thankfully, both staff and the collections are safe,” president and CEO of the J. Paul Getty Trust Katherine E. Fleming said in a statement Wednesday.
Many of the firefighters working around the clock on the raging wildfires in Los Angeles are incarcerated. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation told CNN that as of Friday, nearly 1,000 inmates have been working to stop the fires.
Depending on skill, these inmates earn between $5.80 and $10.24 per day during an emergency. Cal Fire also pays the crew members an additional $1 per hour. They work a 24-hour shift, and the least skilled crew member earns at least $26.90 per day.
Royal Ramey, worked as a firefighter while incarcerated and was pardoned by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2022, spoke with CNN’s Victor Blackwell about the program.
“Pretty much it is the same work,” Ramey said when asked whether the inmates perform the same work as regular firefighters. “We’re out there. We’re in the front lines. We’re utilizing tools. We’re going out and we’re out there cutting line and doing our thing.”
The state estimates the program saves about $100 million a year.
Ginger Black and her son Ali Pringle, who lost their home in Altadena, California, to the ongoing wildfire, talked to CNN’s Amara Walker about their regrets when it came time to evacuate.
Black said her son forced them to leave the home shortly after they began seeing flames but they weren’t prepared. “I know where our documents are, so I grabbed that … It’s total chaos in our house. But at the time, we just didn’t know where to start, so we just grabbed whatever we could,” she told CNN.
The family was able to return home a second time and “just grabbed a few things.” They got a call from a neighbor on Wednesday, telling them she had witnessed their house go up in flames.
Black said the family is discussing whether to return and rebuild. “We’re still kind of, like, numb of it all and taking things day by day,” she said.
Early Saturday morning, the containment of the Palisades Fire remains at 8 percent, Cal Fire Battalion Chief Brent Pascua told CNN This Morning. “Hopefully, we’ll see that number change this morning when the sun comes up and we get to see … the total amount of line that was put in overnight and the work that was done yesterday,” Pascua said.
Winds remain calm, good news for firefighters who now can use aircraft in the firefight. “Super scoopers are a great example of that, and they can get water right out of the ocean … Also, our aircraft that we are using, thanks to the winds being nice and calm, have a reservoir right next to the fire that they’ve been using. So, again, a very quick turnaround,” Pascua said.
Pascua said he expects progress to “keep moving in the right direction” as firefighters continue building containment, while staying “cautiously optimistic” about wind in the next couple of days. “We’re going to keep getting a handle on this fire, keeping it within its perimeter,” he said.
The US Department of Veterans Affairs evacuated veteran residents at its West Los Angeles Medical Center on Friday night, as evacuation warnings grew closer due to the Palisades fire moving east.
The fire began moving into the Mandeville Canyon area on Friday afternoon, prompting expanded evacuation orders that reached parts of the Interstate 405 and the Encino Reservoir — just blocks away from the VA center.
While the center is not yet under any evacuation warning or order, “out of an abundance of caution, the (VA) Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System has initiated the relocation of Veterans from the Community Living Center on the North Campus of our West Los Angeles Medical Center,” it said in a statement to CNN.
“This proactive measure is being taken to ensure the continued safety and well-being of our Veterans, staff, and visitors,” it said.
It added that it was working with healthcare partners to deploy necessary resources for all affected veterans. The statement did not say how many veterans were relocated or where to.
Pope Francis has said he is “saddened” by the loss of life and the widespread destruction caused by the Los Angeles wildfires, and sent his “heartfelt condolences” to those affected.
“His holiness Pope Francis assures you and the communities affected by this tragedy of his spiritual closeness,” Cardinal Parolin (Secretary of State) to the Archbishop of Los Angeles said in a statement published on Saturday on behalf of the Pope.
“Entrusting the souls of the deceased to the loving mercy of almighty God, his holiness sends heartfelt condolences to those who mourn their loss,” the statement said.
The pope added that he prays for the relief efforts of the emergency services, and “imparts his blessing to all as a pledge of consolation and strength in the Lord.”
The University of California, Los Angeles asked students late Friday to be ready for a potential evacuation, as evacuation warnings for the Palisades fire were extended closer to the campus.
“This is NOT an evacuation alert. An evacuation warning has been issued to a zone adjacent to UCLA due to the Palisades fire. We are asking Bruins on campus to remain vigilant and be ready to evacuate, should the alert be extended to our campus,” the university said in a statement on its website.
The latest evacuation order Friday night extended to parts of Interstate 405 and the Encino Reservoir, bordering the I-405 freeway and the Getty Center — just a few minutes’ drive from the UCLA campus. An evacuation warning remains in place for the strip of land on the other side of the freeway, ending just above the university.
The university has more than 46,000 undergraduate and graduate students, and had ordered all classes Monday to be conducted remotely.
While fire departments have reported progress in combating a number of blazes in Los Angeles County, new evacuation orders and road closures late Friday demonstrated risks remain for residents and first responders.
The Palisades fire stretched further east Friday, with fire crews and aircraft focusing additional effort in the Mandeville Canyon area.
Here are the latest updates on the fires:
- Palisades fire: 21,596 acres, 8% contained
- Eaton fire: 14,117 acres, 3% contained
- Kenneth fire: 1,052 acres, 50% contained
- Hurst fire: 771 acres, 70% contained
- Lidia fire: 395 acres, 98% contained
- Archer fire: 19 acres, 0% contained
The damage: More than 10,000 structures were likely damaged or destroyed by just the Eaton and Palisades fires, according to Cal Fire. Those are preliminary figures that could rise, and include anything from a home to a shed; damage inspectors are still on the ground tallying the damage.
The forecast: The area remains under a red flag warning, though firefighters hope winds may ease Friday night allowing them to gain ground on some of the biggest fires.
However, Cal Fire warned, winds are expected to pick back up over the weekend, and there could be a Santa Ana wind event early next week — bringing hot, dry, powerful gusts that could fan the flames of any ongoing fires.
The Palisades Fire began moving east late Friday, where fire departments are now fighting the blaze in the Mandeville Canyon area, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department.
“The fire is in the Mandeville Canyon area, so it’s moving closer to the 405 freeway,” Capt. Adam VanGerpen told CNN.
“We just finished getting over our red flag conditions around 6 o’clock, but that just goes to show people that even though we’re not in these red flag extreme wind conditions, the fire can still change direction quickly. And right now it is moving fast towards the east.”
This shift east means crews are now pivoting in that direction, too. Ten aircraft have been diverted toward the Mandeville Canyon, and two additional strike teams have been sent there, said VanGerpen.
The Red Flag Warning for high winds expired earlier this evening, raising hopes that firefighters could make progress on some of the biggest fires. In the Mandeville Canyon, so far “there’s not very much wind up there,” VanGerpen said, adding that the fire in that area was being driven by topography instead of extreme winds.
The FBI Los Angeles Field Office responsible for multiple counties in Southern California has entered a so-called “Continuity of Operations” emergency contingency phase amid wildfires and heavy smoke in the area, a source familiar with the matter told CNN.
US government agencies plan for protocols to ensure their continued operations in response to natural or manmade disasters.
The FBI’s 24-hour operations center has been relocated from the Westwood area of Los Angeles to Orange County amid heavy smoke as the bureau continues its round-the-clock pulse on criminal and national security threats in the region, the source said.
As flames continue to carve a destructive path in Southern California and fire officials work to determine how the fires began, a larger question looms: Could this level of devastation somehow have been minimized, or is this simply the new normal in an era of climate-related calamities?
A CNN review of government reports and interviews with more than a dozen experts suggests the ultimate answer is a mix of both. But, humans could have taken some steps to potentially lessen the impact of Mother Nature’s wrath, experts add.
Low water pressure, one major issue firefighters faced this week, is now being scrutinized by state and city officials.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom is calling for an independent investigation into what caused some hydrants to lose water pressure in the midst of multiple devastating wildfires in Los Angeles this week.
Some other issues are at play, according to experts:
- A lack of funding: Budget cuts have affected fire department training and fire prevention efforts in Los Angeles, according to Los Angeles City Fire Chief Kristin Crowley. Last year, Mayor Bass approved over $17 million in cuts to the annual fire budget, limiting the department’s ability to complete required brush clearance inspections, Crowley has said.
- Not all homes are to code: California has “some of the strongest wildfire building codes in North America,” according to Judson Boomhower, a University of California San Diego professor. But, only a fraction of homes in the areas threatened by this week’s fires were built after those standards were enacted, according to a CNN analysis of state data. A Los Angeles County report issued in 2021 noted how a high percentage of homes in areas vulnerable to wildfire damage were built before the adoption of building codes with higher safety standards.
- Large-scaled changes are needed: Regions vulnerable to wildfires can take steps to better prepare, such as changing neighborhood designs and enacting policies that require residents to clear brush and debris, experts tell CNN. Water lines could also be upgraded to handle increased demand in the event of a drastic fire and better guarantee pressure to fire hydrants.
Read more about how these fires could have been prevented.
After millions of Los Angeles County residents received evacuation alerts by mistake, countless Angelenos received more erroneous warnings while the county tries to improve its alert system.
“There is a technical glitch, and we apologize for the confusion and anxiety that any of this has for anybody in the public,” said Bryan LaSota, emergency management coordinator for Los Angeles County’s Office of Emergency Management.
The errant warnings fueled panic and frustration in the nation’s most populous county, where several wildfires still rage out of control. But authorities say the county’s emergency alerts have also saved countless lives, giving residents time to flee before flames engulf their homes.
While authorities cite unspecified technical flaws for this week’s messaging problems, a larger issue remains.
Some residents get emergency alerts on their phones based on their proximity to cell phone towers in those affected areas – not based on where they live. In other words: If your home is at risk of burning down, but you’re at work on the other side of town, you might not get a cell phone alert saying your home is under an evacuation warning.
The two-day messaging debacle started Thursday, shortly after the Kenneth Fire broke out. Emergency officials tried to send an alert only to people in the Calabasas and Agoura Hills areas, LaSota told CNN.
“The first technical glitch is that it went out county-wide, instead of to the affected area,” he said.
So, residents throughout the county of almost 10 million people received an urgent message on their cell phones.
After the error was discovered “We had to cancel that one,” LaSota said.
But the problems continued Friday when residents were startled by pre-dawn alerts.
No one should have received such warnings before dawn Friday, LaSota said.
“Due to an error in the technology … people are receiving them today, even though they were sent yesterday,” he said.
LaSota and other emergency officials said a detailed investigation is underway to try to determine the cause.
Friday evening, Los Angeles County said it was temporarily moving to the state’s emergency notification system.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass had a meeting Friday afternoon with Fire Chief Kristin Crowley, a source familiar with the meeting said.
It comes after Crowley said earlier today that city officials failed her department by slashing its budget by $17 million — a decision that she said is now negatively affecting the agency’s ability to battle the raging wildfires in the county.
Over 100 fire apparatus are out of service, the fire chief said. The budget cuts eliminated civilian positions such as mechanics which has and “will continue to severely impact our ability to repair apparatus,” Crowley told CNN’s Jake Tapper.
“We can no longer sustain where we are. We do not have enough firefighters,” Crowley said.
Both Bass and Crowley were absent this evening from a news conference about the wildfires. The city had said that Bass along with city and county officials would be speaking at the event that was ultimately only addressed by police department officials.
The mayor’s office however did send a brief statement denying a published report that she’d fired Crowley. “This is false,” it said.
