Firefighters were hoping for a break on Friday as they battled fierce winds fueling massive wildfires in the Los Angeles area, which have already claimed 10 lives, destroyed entire neighborhoods, and left the city on edge.
Since Tuesday, the fires have scorched more than 10,000 homes and structures, with no clear cause identified for the largest blazes. The level of destruction is staggering, even in a state used to wildfires. Entire blocks of the picturesque Pacific Palisades have been reduced to smoldering rubble, and in Malibu, all that’s left of some oceanfront homes are charred palm trees standing over piles of debris.
The sprawling Los Angeles area, home to 13 million people, woke up Friday to another day of fire-stoking winds and the constant threat of new flare-ups. While the gusts were expected to die down by evening, they had already been calmer than earlier in the week when hurricane-force winds sent embers flying, sparking fires across the hillsides.
New fires continued to pop up. On Thursday afternoon, the Kenneth Fire broke out in the San Fernando Valley, just 2 miles from a school that was serving as a shelter for evacuees from another blaze. The fire spread into neighboring Ventura County, but firefighters launched a strong response that managed to keep it from getting worse.
Just hours before the Kenneth Fire started, officials had felt hopeful, as firefighters—helped by calmer winds and support from out-of-state crews—began to make some progress in battling the region’s two largest wildfires.
Unfortunately, things took an unexpected turn when a firefighting plane was grounded Thursday after being hit by a drone flown by a civilian. Fortunately, no one was injured, but flying drones during firefighting operations is a federal crime.
While firefighters managed to slow the spread of the major fires on Thursday, full containment is still a long way off.
