MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Firefighters are battling a growing blaze in Los Angeles County. The Palisades fire is driven by unusually strong winds and fueled by extremely dry conditions. More than 30,000 people are under mandatory evacuation orders, and at a press conference Tuesday afternoon, Los Angeles Councilmember Traci Park urged residents to heed those orders.
(SOUNDBITE OF PRESS CONFERENCE)
TRACI PARK: Obviously, the scope and scale of today's fire here in the Palisades has been terrifying. We are so incredibly grateful for the swift response.
KELLY: Here with more is LAist reporter Jacob Margolis. Jacob, thanks for joining us. And just bring us up to speed. What is the situation?
JACOB MARGOLIS: The fire has grown to more than 1,200 acres. It started at about 10:30 this morning, and it really has blasted through the area. But it's not the size of the fire that has caught our - you know, is so concerning. It's primarily that it's entered into highly developed areas. So it's gone from this kind of part in the mountains here in Southern California around LA that run right up against the ocean - it's gone from the mountains, this kind of wild spot, down into these developed communities. We're seeing people have to evacuate on foot. They've abandoned cars because they couldn't, I guess, get out fast enough. The flames were too close.
And it's quite concerning 'cause we're now also seeing bulldozers have to push those cars out of the way so firefighters can get up to actually work on the fire. We do know that some structures have caught on fire, but we won't know how many have been destroyed or damaged for some time. But to give some, you know, idea of scope, you know, 30,000 people are under evacuation orders. More than 13,000 structures are threatened, and miraculously, no injuries have yet been reported. And I just saw a video from along the coast that shows that the fire has indeed reached the ocean.
KELLY: I was just watching video, too, and you can see how the wind is driving this, these extremely...
MARGOLIS: Yeah.
KELLY: ...Strong winds you're getting. How big a factor is that?
MARGOLIS: Huge - wind-driven fires are a major thing here, especially in Southern California. And the fact that we haven't had any rain for - any substantial rain for 260-plus days here, usually would come by November or December, means we're still quite dry. And so any spark that kicks off is, one, going to catch the vegetation on fire, and two, that wind can throw those embers a mile-plus ahead of the fire front, making actually containing the fire and drawing a solid fire line at times all but impossible. And by the way, the topography of this area, if you haven't been to Los Angeles, the mountains are quite steep. It is really hard for firefighters to get in there and hike up a lot of those hills. It's very difficult for them to establish those lines. And also, flames go crazy through a lot of those drainages, and again, it can be quite dangerous, especially when it runs into neighborhoods like the ones it has today.
KELLY: So it sounds like it's just so dry. How unusual is that for this time of year? And do we know if climate change is playing a role?
MARGOLIS: Yeah, Santa Ana Winds, which these are, are very strong easterly winds, are completely normal this time of year. California does have variable weather. The place where we definitely see climate change impacts is increased heat, which does, of course, dry out vegetation and makes the land even thirstier than it normally would be.
KELLY: And just quickly - overnight, what are conditions looking like?
MARGOLIS: Winds are going to worsen through the morning, and I'm hoping we don't wake up to entire neighborhoods destroyed.
KELLY: Jacob Margolis from LAist, thank you. Stay safe.
MARGOLIS: Yes. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.