Good morning. It’s Thursday, Jan. 16.
- Frustration grows among displaced L.A. residents.
- Cherished architectural buildings fell to the fires.
- And Mark Zuckerberg plans to host inauguration party.
Los Angeles fires
1.
Red Flag warnings expired across the Los Angeles area Wednesday with no new significant growth of the two big wildfires that have terrorized the city over the previous eight days. Fully extinguishing the Palisades and Eaton fires is expected to take weeks. But the toll of the ongoing blazes has already put them among the ranks of the worst wildfires in state history. L.A. Times | Washington Post
Property loss
- The Eaton fire alone currently ranks second among the most destructive California wildfires, according to separate estimates by Cal Fire and researchers from CUNY and Oregon State University, which both put the number of damaged or destroyed structures at around 7,000.
- The Palisades fire ranks fourth, with more than 4,000 structures lost, according to the estimates. The 2018 Camp fire tops the list with 18,804 structures lost.
Death toll
- With 16 confirmed deaths, the Eaton fire is currently the fifth deadliest wildfire in the state’s recorded history, behind the Camp, Griffith Park, Tunnel, and Tubbs fires.
- The Palisades fire is among the top 15 deadliest blazes, with eight confirmed fatalities. The overall Los Angeles death toll is expected to rise.
2.
As firefighters have largely halted the growth of the Los Angeles fires in recent days, thousands of displaced residents have grown increasingly frustrated about being blocked from their neighborhoods. Officials say crews are working to clear hazardous debris, extinguish hot spots, and search for human remains. But they have offered no timeline for a return. “We have people literally looking for the remains of your neighbors,” Sheriff Robert Luna said this week. “Please be patient with us.” N.Y. Times | L.A. Times
- On the other side of the evacuation barricades, some residents who defied orders to leave are running low on supplies. “I am feisty. I am not leaving. This is my house,” said Becky James in Altadena. ABC7 | Washington Post
3.
A large part of the cost of the Los Angeles wildfires will likely be shifted to homeowners across the state because of a little-noticed rule change last year by California’s insurance regulator, the Wall Street Journal reported: “Pushed by insurers, the change puts California homeowners on the hook to pay directly toward the cost of rebuilding from very large disasters through even fatter insurance bills — whether they were exposed to the L.A. fire or not.”
- State Farm, California’s largest home insurer, announced Wednesday that it would offer renewals to all Los Angeles County policyholders affected by the fires. L.A. Times
4.
Some California Republicans have downplayed or rejected calls by their party colleagues to set conditions for California relief aid. Then there’s Carl DeMaio, a San Diego assemblyman who is among the most fervent pro-Trump legislators in the state. With wildfires still burning, DeMaio sent a letter to congressional leaders on Wednesday urging “strict conditions” on assistance. He suggested a requirement to “improve forest management” and another to eliminate “woke” firefighting programs. @EytanWallace | Politico
- Several national Republicans spoke out against adding strings to fire assistance. Sen. Rick Scott of Florida said Congress should treat California “the way we do everybody else.” Washington Post | Politico
5.
The devastation to Southern California’s architectural legacy came into clearer focus as the Los Angeles Conservancy recorded the loss of more than 30 significant structures. Adrian Scott Fine, the group’s president, said the fires have destroyed more of the county’s built heritage than any other single event, including Modernist, Beaux-Arts, Spanish Revival, Craftsman, Art Deco, Victorian, and postmodern buildings. “That’s what made both the Palisades and Altadena so special,” Fine said. “They were a hodgepodge. It’s what made them so interesting and quirky, and why people loved them.” N.Y. Times
6.
Los Angeles was already one of the least affordable markets to rent a home. As thousands of fire victims have flooded into the short-term rental market, instances of landlords hiking their prices have become commonplace. A crowd-sourcing effort to identify price-gouging, which is illegal, has collected more than 1,200 potential violations. “What’s going on in the real estate market is disgusting,” said Patrick Michael, the owner of LA Estate Rentals. “It’s become like the eBay of homes, a bidding war.” Bloomberg | S.F. Chronicle
7.
“I was unable to look away. The scale was so far beyond the human, the forces at play so potent, that I wondered whether I was witnessing something mythical, whether all of California would burn.”
— Gregory Halpern, Magnum photographer
A few years ago, the venerated photo agency Magnum published a photo essay that included reflections from photographers who lived in California and had trained their lenses on wildfires. “To contemplate the fires in the bigger picture, is to contemplate the fact that, despite being idealised as a liberal land of plenty where many have found peace and tranquility, California remains a naturally inhospitable environment,” Magnum wrote.
8.
Other wildfire developments:
- The head of Southern California Edison defended the utility’s decision not to de-energize a transmission line that is now being investigated as the possible ignition point for the Eaton fire. He said winds were not strong enough. L.A. Times
- People who lost their homes in Altadena say they are already being deluged by real estate vultures looking to purchase ruins in the middle-class community at a steep discount. “It feels like a version of looting,” Danielle Neal said of the speculators. Bloomberg
- The Eaton fire inexplicably skipped over rows of homes along Santa Rosa Avenue, known as Christmas Tree Lane for the December tradition of lighting up the deodar cedars that line the street. Locals think the trees protected their homes. S.F. Chronicle
- Some have called for the Oscars to be canceled. That would be a mistake, wrote critic Mary McNamara:”We must always celebrate the work that unites and defines us, makes us laugh, cry, think and aspire. Especially in the midst of tragedy.” L.A. Times
Statewide
9.
Rumors of immigration raids have been spreading across the state as Donald Trump prepares to take office on pledges to undertake the “largest deportation operation in American history.” Posts warning of ongoing raids began to ricochet across social media after the Border Patrol made dozens of arrests in Kern County last week and have since set off false panics in Los Angeles, the Bay Area, Fresno, Sacramento, and Humboldt County. The California Latino Legislative Caucus accused the Border Patrol of “sowing chaos and discord.” Oaklandside | Lost Coast Outpost
10.
Mark Zuckerberg is planning to co-host a black-tie reception “celebrating the inauguration of President Donald J. Trump and Vice President JD Vance” on Jan. 20, according to an invitation obtained by reporters. The Bay Area executive, who has spent the last several weeks sprinting to remake Meta’s policies for the Trump era, is also expected to take a prominent spot on the dais during the swearing-in ceremony, NBC News reported. N.Y. Times
11.
The Silicon Valley investor Marc Andreessen felt largely shut out of Washington during the Biden administration. Then, last summer, he had a meeting with Donald Trump at his New Jersey golf club, during which Trump said he wanted U.S. tech companies to win a global race against China. That sparked a new alliance between the fellow billionaires, the Washington Post reported: “In the two months since Trump’s election, Andreessen has been leveraging the hiring skills he honed scaling start-ups to help build the Trump administration during frequent visits to the president-elect’s Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida.”
12.
The cultural critic Doreen St. Félix wrote about the “collapse of the #MeToo era” through the prism of the Blake Lively vs. Justin Baldoni saga:
“Lively’s allegations against Baldoni were never going to be seen as brave, but, rather, as the kindling for a culture war. … Information is misinformation and vice versa. Victims are offenders and offenders are victims. The word that comes up again and again in all the Internet litigation of Lively v. Baldoni is ‘narrative.’ Abuse seems to be far from anyone’s mind. What matters is which side’s story is better suited to the politics of our time.” New Yorker
Thanks for reading!
The California Sun is written by Mike McPhate, a former California correspondent for the New York Times.
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