Where are the Fires in Los Angeles and Southern California
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December is typically our worst month for fires, and this year is obviously no exception. Los Angeles is surrounded by hills and mountains, in fact, the Santa Monica Mountain Range cuts our city in half. These hills remain extremely dry for the majority of the year, and December is when our notorious Santa Ana winds can really kick up. These are the strong devil winds that affect the Southern California Coastline, as they develop inland.
Fires Near Los Angeles
Like any disaster, when people see these fires on the news, it looks as though all of California is on fire. Glitterati Tours has been fielding calls and emails from visitors wondering about the status of our city. This is certainly the worse we native Angelenos can remember, and the current combined fires may certainly dwarf our last massive fire in September of 2009. The Station Fire burned for over a month, and engulfed over 160,000 acres in The Angeles National Forest, just north of L.A. and above Pasadena.
Station Fire of 2009
So how close to Los Angeles are the current fires? The closest we’ve had over the last few days, is called the Skirball Fire. This is the fire that has broke out along the 405 Freeway (already a disaster in its own way), and spread through the exclusive residential community of Bel Air which is just west of Beverly Hills. This is the same fire which came dangerously close to UCLA and The Getty Center of Brentwood.
We’ve also got the Creek Fire, which is over the hill from the L.A. Basin, in an area called Lake View Terrace, and The Rye Fire which is above Magic Mountain in Valencia.
The granddaddy of all fires is up north in Ventura County. Known as The Thomas Fire, this started in Santa Paula, and has burned down to the coast. As we write this, it could still threaten the quaint town of Ojai. This fire has burned over 95,000 acres so far, and nowhere near being contained. We’ve got about another 48 hours of intermittent winds predicted.
Things are getting back to normal around Hollywood and Beverly Hills. While these two areas haven’t been threatened thus far, we did see a lot of extra traffic on the roads with local freeway and road closures, and of course, the air quality was horrendous. This pales in comparison to those that have lost their homes, livelihoods, and pets.
As always, we thank our first responders, paramedics, police officers, and fire departments. There are thousands and thousands of men and women on the frontline of these wildfires protecting communities from even more devastation. We also see the best in humanity, with images of neighbors helping neighbors, and volunteers going the extra step to assist in helping get horses and other animals out of harm’s way.
