UPDATE 4 p.m.
A fleet of helicopters and tanker planes waged what the Los Angeles Times described as an “epic aerial assault” on Saturday in a desperate battle against the Palisades fire, which was threatening to march east and north toward Brentwood and Encino.
The fire was moving through the Santa Monica Mountains as shifting winds forced evacuations of both communities overnight Friday and into Saturday. Choppers and fixed-wing planes were relentlessly dropping water not far from the 405 Freeway, which so far has stood as something of a bulwark to the east of the still-raging Palisades fire.
UPDATE 3:30 p.m.
Rory Sykes, who made several media appearances and motivational speeches as a boy challenged by blindness and cerebral palsy, died from carbon monoxide inhalation as his mother tried to save him from his Malibu cottage that was caught up in the early devastation of the Los Angeles wildfires, Shelley Sykes wrote on X. He was 32.
“I couldn’t put out the cinders on his roof with a hose because the water was switched off by Las Virgenes Municipal Water,” she wrote. “Even the 50 brave fire fighters had no water all day! He will be incredibly missed.”
It wasn’t immediately clear whether Sykes was among the 13 confirmed deaths in the still-raging fires.
UPDATE 1 p.m.
Add the Mammoth Film Festival to the growing list of Hollywood events canceled by the wildfires. Organizers say the February event, held in the snowy mountains 300 miles north of Los Angeles, posed too many challenges for potential festivalgoers and was postponed indefinitely.
UPDATE 11:15 a.m.
As the death toll in the Los Angeles fires climbed to 13, Jennifer Garner shared that one of her friends was among the victims in the Palisades. Garner revealed her loss when speaking with the press while handing out food and water in partnership with Chef Jose Andres’s World Central Kitchen.
Speaking later to MSNBC, Garner she said her own home has been spared so far, but that her friend “did not get out in time.” She did not identify who the friend was.
“I did lose a friend, and for our church it’s really tender, so I don’t feel like I should talk about her yet,” she said.
UPDATE 10:45 a.m.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta said state officials would be closely watching for price-gouging practices in the wake of the unfolding disaster, with eyes on everything from hotel rooms, rent, groceries, emergency supplies and charity requests.
“This is not who we are,” an emotional Bonta said during a Saturday morning press conference. “We should not be engaged in price-gouging. We are very serious about this,” he said, adding that the office is already seeing scammers trying to take advantage of the devastation.
He said people are already posing as contractors, insurance adjusters and government officials demanding up-front, place-holding payments that are not legitimate. Officials urged people to check licenses and credentials and avoid giving cash to people soliciting donations.
“Price gouging – it’s sick, it’s wrong, it’s illegal,” Bonta said. “So is looting. You will be held accountable.”
PREVIOUSLY:
Residents of Brentwood, on the eastern flank of the Palisades fire, and Encino to the north were ordered to evacuate overnight even as firefighting crews began to gain a partial grip on containing the multiple blazes that have so far claimed 13 lives and more than 12,000 structures in the Los Angeles area.
As of Saturday morning, nearly 180,000 people were under evacuation orders in the fires that have wreaked unprecedented destruction in greater Los Angeles. Evacuation warnings had spread east of the north-south 405 Freeway, a critical corridor which so far had been a bulwark between the Palisades blaze – which has consumed 22,660 acres – and the interior neighborhoods of West L.A.
The latest mandatory order covers an area that has been slowly encroaching eastward, from Sunset Boulevard north to Encino Reservoir, and from the 405 west to Mandeville Canyon. The area includes the Getty Center museum, which says it has complied and left only emergency personnel behind.
Evacuation warnings were also issued overnight for areas to the east of the 405, north of West Sunset and south of Mulholland Drive. Conditions were expected to improve somewhat over the weekend, with diminishing winds and breezes – though 30-50 mph wind gusts in Santa Ana-prone areas were expected to continue, and are forecast to come up again later this week.
The Palisades Fire, which has left virtually the entire neighborhood in ruin, was 11% contained as of Saturday morning. The Eaton Fire, which has ravaged 14,117 acres near Altadena and parts of Pasadena, was 15% contained, fire officials said. The smaller Kenneth fire was nearly 80% contained.
Thirteen deaths were confirmed – up from 11 on Friday – and more than 12,000 structures were damaged or destroyed altogether.
More to come …
