LA fires live updates: some areas ravaged by blazes will reopen to residents, officials say

In a press conference on Thursday, residents affected by the ongoing deadly Los Angeles wildfires lamented losing their homes and communities.

The oil and gas industry, which is the leading contributor to the climate crisis, should be held responsible for the disaster, they said.

Danielle Havanas, whose home burned to the ground amid the Palisades fire last week, spoke about her experience.

“It is hard to properly express how much was lost,” she said. “How do you communicate the value of your deceased mom’s journal from 1981 when she was pregnant with you?”

Sam James, a native of the Altadena neighborhood, which was ravaged by this month’s Eaton fire, said big oil should be forced to pay “reparations to the affected communities”.

“Their reckless pollution and disregard for the environmental impact have directly contributed to climate change and the intensification of natural disasters like these wildfires,” she said.

Research shows that climate crisis creates the conditions for worse and more frequent wildfires. And mountains of evidence indicate that big oil knew for decades that their products fuel the climate crisis, yet continued to peddle them to the public anyway and sow doubt about global warming.

In recent years, cities and states – including California – have filed a slew of lawsuits aiming to hold the sector accountable for this alleged disinformation campaign. Vermont and New York also recently passed “climate superfund” bills, which will require oil majors to help fund climate action.

California lawmakers will introduce a similar bill in the coming days, said Clara Vondrich, senior policy counsel at the consumer advocacy non-profit Public Citizen, which convened Thursday’s call.

Dani Anguiano

My colleague Dani Anguiano brings us this dispatch from her visit to the Pasadena Humane Society on Thursday:

The inside of the Pasadena Humane Society feels like some version of Noah’s ark. More than a week since the Eaton fire broke out, the non-profit is housing 500 animals, including dogs, cats, rabbits and reptiles. They are in kennels and dedicated cat rooms, but also in offices that have been repurposed in response to one of the worst wildfires in California history.

For a time there was a giant tortoise and even a pony, whose owner walked it at least seven miles from burning Altadena to the doors of the humane society where it stayed overnight.

The facility serves as an emergency boarding center for disasters in the region and has taken on a crucial role as wildfires besieged the nearby community of Altadena, housing pets whose owners have been displaced and working to rescue those still in the fire zone. It has suspended all of its normal operations, including adoptions and puppy training classes, in order to respond to the disaster.

At least 200 animals have been reunited with their families, said Kevin McManus, a spokesperson for the humane society, over the sound of many barking dogs. The facility will house all displaced animals for as long as their owners need, he said.

The non-profit has been aided by huge community support in the form of donations and volunteers. People have brought so much food, litter and animal supplies that the humane society has had to find warehouse space and use several Uhaul trucks to store it all.

“It’s been so uplifting. It gave everyone who worked here a huge boost.”

The Los Angeles county sheriff’s department has announced the repopulation of communities affected by the Palisades fire, effective at 12.00pm on Thursday 16 January 2025.

These zones will be reopened to residents:

• The areas north of Topanga Canyon Boulevard and south of Mulholland Drive.

• Encompassing areas north of Old Topanga Canyon Road and south of the Summit to Summit Motorway.

• Areas north of Mulholland Highway and south of Stokes Canyon Road.

• Sectors north of Red Rock Road and south of Calabasas Peak Motorway.

All other road closures and evacuated areas for the Palisades fire remain in effect.

‘A flood of disinformation’: rumors and lies abound amid Los Angeles wildfires

Rachel Leingang

The Hollywood sign was not on fire. Firefighters weren’t using women’s purses to put out fires. A fish is not responsible for the blazes. The Los Angeles fire department didn’t see big budget cuts. The fires were not started deliberately as some kind of mass plot related to high-speed rail or the 2028 Olympics. Firefighting efforts did not include spraying a mood stabilizer into the air to put locals into a trance. Diversity measures are not to blame.

“Misinformation can kind of rush into that void and give people explanations for why this is happening, and typically those explanations fit into kind of their existing beliefs or narratives that they want to perpetuate,” said Lisa Fazio, a professor of psychology and human development at Vanderbilt University.

After Hurricane Helene devastated North Carolina just before the election last November, misinformation similar to the claims circulating about Los Angeles emerged. Donald Trump, Elon Musk and others used the disaster to attack the Biden administration and spread unfounded claims.

Read the full story by The Guardian’s democracy reporter focused on misinformation, Rachel Leingang:

My colleague Katharine Gammon brings us this story of California residents who lost their fire insurance before the blazes erupted last week:

When James Borow realized last Tuesday that his Palisades house was on fire, he was 300 miles away in Las Vegas at the Consumer Electronics Show. The power was out at his house but a friend suggested he remotely turn on his Tesla and see if the cameras showed anything.

From the car camera, he watched in a panic as his house burned. As he drove home from Vegas to LA, he called his parents and told them: “You’ll see it on the news tomorrow, but the house is totally gone. I just watched it.”

Borow’s first concern was securing a place for his family to live. His second was insurance. Three months ago, he had received a letter from his insurer, State Farm, that his fire policy wasn’t being renewed. The letter advised him to get fire insurance through California’s Fair plan, created by lawmakers 50 years ago to help people who had no other options for insurance. “The end result was that my insurance increased 400%,” says Borow. “It was expensive, but it wasn’t complicated.”

Borow was one of 1,626 State Farm customers in the Palisades neighborhood whose fire insurance was not renewed at the end of 2024, according to California’s insurance office. They represented about 70% of State Farm’s market share in Pacific Palisades, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

Some of the people dropped by insurance, like Borow, found insurance with Fair. For others, the steep prices, or certain fireproofing requirements issued by new insurers, were prohibitively expensive.

Francis Bischetti told the Los Angeles Times that Farmers Insurance, another major provider, had told him last year that his homeowners insurance for his house in the Pacific Palisades was going to increase from $4,500 to $18,000, which was out of reach for his budget. He was unable to get a Fair plan because he would have to cut down 10 trees around his house, another huge cost, he said. His house burned down, and he had no insurance.

Finding fire insurance for homes in areas with high fire risk is a challenge that will only increase for Californians, experts predict. Michael Coffey, an insurance defense litigator who works on large, global insurance cases, says he expects more insurance companies to leave the state – forcing prices up for everyone.

Read the full story here:

Governor Gavin Newsom issued an executive order today to provide temporary housing for those displaced by the Los Angeles firestorms.

“We are expediting the creation of new temporary housing by removing roadblocks and strengthening protections against exploitation,” said Newsom in a statement.

The order directs state departments to support local governments in creating temporary housing plans for fire victims, fast-tracks the construction of accessory dwelling units on affected properties by extending California Environmental Quality Act and Coastal Act exemptions, and allows temporary trailers and housing on properties during rebuilding efforts.

It waives mobile home park fees for three years, opens fairgrounds to provide emergency shelter, and extends protections against price gouging for hotels, motels, and rentals in Los Angeles county through 8 March 2025.

Lauren Aratani

The extreme winds behind the disastrous fires in Los Angeles are forecast to calm the rest of the week into the weekend, making it easier for firefighters to further efforts to put out the massive Palisades and Eaton fires that have been ablaze for over a week.

The National Weather Service said on Thursday that the “nine-day wind siege has finally ended” and the weekend will bring a “significant cooling trend” with higher humidity in the region. But it warned that high winds could pick up again early next week.