‘Extreme red flag’
WARNINGS FOR 88,000 SQUARE KM, SOME 21 MILLION PEOPLE
REAGAN LIBRARY THREATENED
A long wall of orange flames and thick, grey smoke could be seen just down the slope from the hilltop Ronald Reagan Presidential Library outside Los Angeles on Wednesday. At least two helicopters dropped water on the flames visible from the window of the room showcasing a decommissioned Air Force One.
Ventura County fire officials ordered residents to evacuate the area around the library, which includes a number of sprawling ranch properties. Residents in face masks coaxed nervy horses into trailers to drive them to safety.
A few employees remained at the library, which has fire doors and sprinklers, spokeswoman Melissa Giller told ABC7 News. The library has trucked in goats in years past to eat away flammable scrub around the building’s perimeter.
NEW WARNING COINED
The National Weather Service issued an unprecedented “extreme red flag” warning for wildfires in Los Angeles and Ventura counties ahead of two days of intense dry wind gusts.
“I don’t know if I’ve ever seen us use this warning,” said forecaster Marc Chenard. “It’s pretty bad.”
Statewide, the weather service issued warnings of dangerous fire weather conditions covering more than 88,000 square kilometres, encompassing some 21 million people.
The Santa Ana winds, a regional weather phenomenon that sends gusts westward off the desert out to the Southern California coast, are forecast to reach sustained speeds of 80 to 110 km per hour on Wednesday and Thursday, raising the risk of sparks and embers being whipped into fresh wildfires in unburned areas.
CANADIANS EN ROUTE
A crew of 75 Canadian electrical technicians, mechanics and safety workers, along with all their gear, is on the way to the northern California city of Vallejo.
Crews from Rokstad Power, based in Coquitlam, B.C., set out Tuesday, a day after company owner and CEO Aaron Rokstad says his company was contacted by officials in California asking for help.
“Once the areas are deemed safe and the fires are out, we will come in behind and start rebuilding the — I guess for lack of a better word — the burnt down infrastructure, overhead power
lines, towers, poles ... so they can get these people’s power back on,” said Rokstad.
WIND-TOSSED BRANCH BLAMED FOR GETTY FIRE
Los Angeles arson investigators say the growing blaze that has been consuming the shrub-covered hills near the Getty Center museum was likely caused by a broken tree branch being blown into power lines during high winds on Monday morning. It continued to grow in size, consuming 300 hectares by Wednesday
morning, with about a quarter contained by firefighters. At least 12 homes have been destroyed.
BLACKOUTS IN WINE COUNTRY
In northern California, where firefighters struggled for a sixth day against the 30,760-hectare Kincade Fire in Sonoma County’s winemaking region, high-wind forecasts prompted Pacific Gas and Electric Co. to impose a new round of blackouts for nearly 600,000 homes and business.
That included about 400,000 customers blacked out in a power shutoff that PG&E instituted days earlier, the company said.
Early Wednesday, PG&E announced that it had restored about 73 per cent of the 970,000 or so customers affected in earlier shutoffs.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has accused utilities of failing to adequately modernize and safely maintain their power systems.
Citing progress made against the Kincade fire, Newsom said the number of evacuees in northern California had diminished from 190,000 at the peak of that blaze to 130,000 on Tuesday.