Wildfires in Los Angeles are Most Destructive in City’s History; Whitley Is Safe After Santa Monica Neighborhoods Evacuated

Editor’s note: We are relieved to inform you that Whitley is safe with his family, following the evacuation of his neighborhood after the Palisades fire began to encroach on the northwest side of Santa Monica. Hopefully, authorities and fire crews can contain the fires before they can cause more damage; in the meantime, please send positive energy not only to Whitely, but also to all that might be in harm’s way during this crisis.

Persistent drought conditions and hurricane-force seasonal winds in Southern California have fueled a series of devastating fires in the Los Angeles area, described as the most destructive in the city’s history, destroying thousands of buildings and leaving at least five people dead. At least five separate fires—including the Palisades, Eaton, Hurst and Sunset Fires—surround the city, having burned nearly 30,000 acres at the time of this writing. Where the fires aren’t directly threatening people and property, smoke is hampering visibility and generating hazardous breathing conditions across the city, affecting at least 17 million residents.

Declared a “megadrought” in 2022, the 22-year-long drought plaguing the west coast of North America is the region’s most prolonged dry stretch in over 1,200 years; punctuated by intense rainstorms such as the atmospheric river-driven downpours that caused major flooding to SoCal this time last year, the sudden wet conditions prompted sudden plant growth, followed in short order by a return to record-dry conditions that tinder-dried the new foliage, providing fresh fuel for the current wildfires.

To make matters worse, the inevitable fires were driven by stronger than usual Santa Ana winds, reaching gusts of over 100 miles per hour (160 km/h)—equivalent to a category-2 hurricane—due to a stronger-than-usual jet stream. The winds, in addition to both providing fresh oxygen to the fires and spreading the conflagration, also prevented the deployment of firefighting aircraft, leaving ground teams on their own in battling the destructive blazes, with Los Angeles County’s 29 fire departments already lacking the manpower to address a situation of this magnitude, according to Chief Anthony Marrone.

The California National Guard was deployed by Governor Gavin Newsom on January 8 to assist in firefighting efforts; the Nevada National Guard and United States Forest Service provided fire engines from their fleets to help combat the blazes, and the Department of Defense has been ordered by the White House to dispatch firefighting equipment and personnel.

On a personal note, Whitley remarked that the conditions in Santa Monica were “bloody awful” before he evacuated, with the eastern edge of the Palisades fire having breached Sunset Boulevard, roughly a mile from Whitley’s neighborhood. Please send positive thoughts and energy to Whit and everyone affected by the fires, but especially to the first responders that are working to contain the fires and attend to imperiled Angeleños.