By Corina Knoll, Soumya Karlamangla, Mike Ives and Juliet Macur
Officials in Los Angeles hoped that a drop in wind speeds Thursday would open a window for firefighters to take control of the fast-moving blazes that have raged unchecked this week and erased entire neighborhoods. But those officials added that there was still an extreme risk for current fires to spread and for other fires to break out, worsening a devastating situation that has displaced tens of thousands of people and traumatized countless more.
Almost 180,000 people are under mandatory evacuation orders, and at least five people have died in the fires that have burned about 29,000 acres, equivalent to roughly 22,000 football fields. Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said some areas “look like a bomb was dropped in them” and that “I think the death toll will rise.”
One of the fires — the Palisades fire, in one of the city’s most affluent neighborhoods — has damaged or destroyed thousands of buildings and has torched more than 17,200 acres, making it “one of the most destructive natural disasters in the history of Los Angeles,” said Kristin M. Crowley, Los Angeles Fire Department chief.
Despite the subsiding winds, the firestorms continued to consume buildings and turn them into barren swaths of rubble and ashes, even as helicopters and planes dropped water from an ominous orange sky and firefighters battled on the ground with a new supply of water after hydrants ran dry in previous days.
The break in the high winds will be short, forecasters said, with dangerous gusts expected to return late Thursday. They are not expected to be as strong as the gusts were Wednesday, but forecasters said critical fire weather conditions were likely to remain Thursday.
Here’s what else to know:
— Latest forecast: Forecasters warned that moderate to strong Santa Ana winds were expected to pick up Thursday night, with wind speeds of 20 to 30 mph and gusts up to 60 mph. Heavy winds could arrive again over the weekend and possibly next week.
— Psychological toll: Some mental health experts say that survivors of a wildfire, particularly those who have lost their homes, are at risk of deep, long-lasting mental health ramifications.
— On the ground: The fires have torn through communities of every socioeconomic status and stripe, affecting mansions as well as ’70s town houses, ranches and subdivisions. Residents are overwhelmed by the pervasiveness and see themselves as being stuck in the middle of a mega-catastrophe.
— More cancellations: The Los Angeles Lakers postponed their NBA game Thursday night against the Charlotte Hornets, saying in a statement that they would reschedule so people could “focus on what matters most today.” The team’s head coach, JJ Redick, was forced to flee his home in Pacific Palisades, a neighborhood razed by the wildfires.
— Damage estimates: The economic cost of the fires could exceed $50 billion, and California’s insurance industry could take a massive hit in an already unstable market. Insurers there are already struggling to find their footing after previous wildfires crushed their profits.
— Climate context: Santa Ana winds are notorious for spreading wildfire, and they often occur in colder months. By January, though, their impacts are usually less dramatic, as the landscape is typically less flammable after rains in the fall and early winter. But this year, the rains have not come, leaving most of Southern California extremely dry. Scientists have also found that fires across the region have become faster-moving in recent decades.
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