Southern California Still In Grave Danger As Fires Continue, As Do Arid, Strong Winds. Also, Please Stop Abusing Victims

The huge wildfire that originated near Pacific Palisades,
California Tuesday was spreading into fairly distant
Brentwood Saturday, as this image from the
Los Angeles TV affiliate shows. 

There's still much to talk about regarding the ongoing Southern California wildfire tragedy,  more than we can fit in a single post. 

But, as always, we have some thoughts. 

At last report, at least 13 people have died in the fires. Unfortunately, I still expect that toll to rise. This was a quick ferocious and incredibly fast moving firestorm.  With that many people living there, I can't imagine just 13 people were not able to get out of the way in time. 

I hope I'm wrong about this. 

At least 180,000 people have evacuated. At least 12,000 homes and businesses have been destroyed, and I think that's a conservative figure. 

And the crisis is far from over. 

At last report, there were six active blazes. There's no reason why more can't break out, though again, I hope not.

The weather is not going to cooperate. The normal winter rains that should be in California are still nowhere to be found, and not in any forecasts I've seen. Even worse, the strong, dry desert winds are forecast to keep blowing at least until next Wednesday. 

Those winds might not once again get extreme as the 60 to 100 mph gusts we saw during the worst of the firestorms. But with tinder dry conditions, the winds will be more than strong enough to fan the flames.  

We're going to see even more destruction, even if it won't be at the same fast past we saw Wednesday. More houses, perhaps maybe more neighborhoods are seriously at risk of burning down over the next week. 

The wind is forecast to pick up for a time late tonight and Sunday. Then, a lull in the wind is anticipated Monday. But then, very strong winds, possibly in the 45 to 60 mph range in some areas near L.A. are anticipated Tuesday and Wednesday. 

That could easily just make a catastrophic situation that much worse.  

The largest, the Palisades fire, with more than 20,000 acres burned, was only 11 percent contained as of late Friday. Last night, the Palisades fire shifted and flared up, threatening new heavily populated neighborhoods, this time in Brentwood and parts of Encino, Bel Aire and Sherman Oaks, forcing new evacuations. 

At least one home in Brentwood has burned, though firefighters have been able to protect many other homes because winds are lighter than they were Tuesday and Wednesday.

News video this afternoon showed a pitched battle between intense flames at the edge of a dense Brentwood subdivision versus an army of fire trucks and helicopters trying to dump water on the flames. 

 Meanwhile, the so-called Eaton Fire around Altadena and Pasadena is only 15 percent contained. 

Another fire erupted the other day around Calabasas and Hidden Hills was largely contained and hasn't damaged many homes. That fire might have been an arson. 

Another fire broke out in the Granada Hills Friday. Two other fires, one in the Antelope Valley and the other near San Fernando, are largely contained at last report, thank goodness. 

 GOOD PEOPLE, HORRIBLE PEOPLE

As in every past national tragedy, I'm gratified to see so many people reaching out to Californians. They all need our support

That said, there's more 

There's so much hate in right wing MAGA circles for the "elite" - whatever that is - that they're ecstatic that their houses burned down.  Some of the homes destroyed belonged to millionaires and celebrities, and somehow, that fact makes them deserve the wildfires' destruction. 

"The Hollywood Hills are on fire....It's almost poetic," one far right poster hideously wrote on X

Just because you're rich, doesn't mean you deserve to have your house burned down. Sure, people with money have more resources to recover, but they still have lost a lifetime of memories, not to mention their sense of security. 

By the way, if you still don't care about the rich people who lost their homes, maybe you should care about their landscapers, personal assistants, housekeepers, nannies and others who just lost their jobs because the multi-million dollar mansions where they worked just burned down.

Also, lost in this "rich people suck" narrative is that most of the people who lost homes and businesses in California were not particularly loaded with cash. Lots of lower and middle class families lost their homes..

Me being of the somewhat liberal persuasion, as anybody who reads this blog knows, I still winced back in September when a few people started making fun of people in deep red GOP counties in North Carolina and Tennessee and Florida who lost everything in Hurricanes Helene and Milton. 

This following should be obvious to everyone: You, or I, might hate somebody's politics, we might think some of them are terrible people that we can never respect, never mind be friends with. 

OK, fine. But they still do NOT deserve to have their lives lost or at the very least completely upended by a tragedy like a wildfire in California, or a hurricane in Florida, a flood in North Carolina or a tornado in Oklahoma. 

I can't believe I have to lecture y'all on this, but I have to say it. 

Most people who are reacting to the California firestorm have been very kind, and there's been a wonderful outpouring of support. But the jerks making snide comments really just need to shut up at this point. 

 Videos:

The massive Palisades fire spread into Brentwood Saturday. While firefighters managed to save scores of houses in threatened Brentwood neighborhoods, this house succumbed. Click on this link to view, or if  you see the image below, click on that:

In the next video, firefighters take a stand against massive flames on the attack in Brentwood, California, Saturday (Notice the many fire engines parked ion the streets).   Again click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that. 

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