< The Latest 2025-01-22T05:20:59+0000
The Pasadena Star-News | Tue 01/21 07:31am PST | Nathaniel Percy
With heavy winds contributing to small blazes elsewhere in Southern California, fire crews battling the Palisades and Eaton fires were able to make small gains in containment overnight into Tuesday, Jan. 21.
The Palisades fire — which has invaded Pacific Palisades, Malibu and Topanga and Mandeville canyons — was 65% contained as of Tuesday evening. Firefighters inched further on the Eaton fire — which has caused destruction in Altadena, Pasadena and Sierra Madre — achieving 89% containment, according to Cal Fire.
Thousands of structures sit in ruins in Altadena, CA, on Sunday, Jan. 19, 2025. The Eaton Fire, fueled by intense Santa Ana Winds, ripped through beginning on the evening of Jan. 7. Fires across Los Angeles County have left at east 27 dead and over 180,000 people under evacuation orders. Over 12,000 structures, many of them homes and businesses, burned in the Palisades and Eaton Fires. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Thousands of structures sit in ruins in Altadena, CA, on Sunday, Jan. 19, 2025. The Eaton Fire, fueled by intense Santa Ana Winds, ripped through beginning on the evening of Jan. 7. Fires across Los Angeles County have left at east 27 dead and over 180,000 people under evacuation orders. Over 12,000 structures, many of them homes and businesses, burned in the Palisades and Eaton Fires. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Thousands of structures sit in ruins in Altadena, CA, on Sunday, Jan. 19, 2025. The Eaton Fire, fueled by intense Santa Ana Winds, ripped through beginning on the evening of Jan. 7. Fires across Los Angeles County have left at east 27 dead and over 180,000 people under evacuation orders. Over 12,000 structures, many of them homes and businesses, burned in the Palisades and Eaton Fires. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Thousands of structures sit in ruins in Altadena, CA, on Sunday, Jan. 19, 2025. The Eaton Fire, fueled by intense Santa Ana Winds, ripped through beginning on the evening of Jan. 7. Fires across Los Angeles County have left at east 27 dead and over 180,000 people under evacuation orders. Over 12,000 structures, many of them homes and businesses, burned in the Palisades and Eaton Fires. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Thousands of structures sit in ruins in Altadena, CA, on Sunday, Jan. 19, 2025. The Eaton Fire, fueled by intense Santa Ana Winds, ripped through beginning on the evening of Jan. 7. Fires across Los Angeles County have left at east 27 dead and over 180,000 people under evacuation orders. Over 12,000 structures, many of them homes and businesses, burned in the Palisades and Eaton Fires. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Homes along Pacific Coast Highway sit in ruins after being burned by the Palisades Fire in Malibu, CA, on Friday, Jan. 17, 2025. The Palisades Fire, burning in the Santa Monica Mountains, has burned an estimated 5,300 structures. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Thousands of homes are destroyed by the Palisades Fire in Pacific Palisades, CA, on Friday, Jan. 17, 2025. The Palisades Fire, burning in the Santa Monica Mountains, has burned an estimated 5,300 structures. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Homes in the hills above Pacific Coast Highway sit in ruins after being burned by the Palisades Fire in Malibu, CA, on Friday, Jan. 17, 2025.. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Homes in the hills above Pacific Coast Highway sit in ruins after being burned by the Palisades Fire in Malibu, CA, on Friday, Jan. 17, 2025. The Palisades Fire, burning in the Santa Monica Mountains, has burned an estimated 5,300 structures. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Homes in the hills above Pacific Coast Highway sit in ruins after being burned by the Palisades Fire in Malibu, CA, on Friday, Jan. 17, 2025. The Palisades Fire, burning in the Santa Monica Mountains, has burned an estimated 5,300 structures. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Thousands of structures sit in ruins in Altadena, CA, on Sunday, Jan. 19, 2025. The Eaton Fire, fueled by intense Santa Ana Winds, ripped through beginning on the evening of Jan. 7. Fires across Los Angeles County have left at east 27 dead and over 180,000 people under evacuation orders. Over 12,000 structures, many of them homes and businesses, burned in the Palisades and Eaton Fires. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Thousands of structures sit in ruins in Altadena, CA, on Sunday, Jan. 19, 2025. The Eaton Fire, fueled by intense Santa Ana Winds, ripped through beginning on the evening of Jan. 7. Fires across Los Angeles County have left at east 27 dead and over 180,000 people under evacuation orders. Over 12,000 structures, many of them homes and businesses, burned in the Palisades and Eaton Fires. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Thousands of structures sit in ruins in Altadena, CA, on Sunday, Jan. 19, 2025. The Eaton Fire, fueled by intense Santa Ana Winds, ripped through beginning on the evening of Jan. 7. Fires across Los Angeles County have left at east 27 dead and over 180,000 people under evacuation orders. Over 12,000 structures, many of them homes and businesses, burned in the Palisades and Eaton Fires. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
The most dangerous winds, which triggered a rare “particularly dangerous situation red flag warning” by the National Weather Service, signaling especially perilous fire-weather conditions, were to subside by Tuesday morning, Jan. 21. But dry conditions and Santa Ana winds were forecast through Thursday.
“Firefighters are making steady progress and officials are reassessing evacuation orders to ensure safe returns,” Cal Fire officials said of the Palisades fire. “Crews are working with utility providers to repair infrastructure and address hazards like fallen trees and downed power lines.”
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass issued an executive order for that fire on Tuesday, Jan. 21, to speed up fire-debris removal and install reinforcement barriers and sandbags with rain in the forecast for burn areas as early as this weekend.
The upcoming rainfall in the Los Angeles area beginning on Saturday morning is expected to be light, and probably will not cause debris flows or mudslides, according to meteorologists.
President Trump will visit Asheville, North Carolina and Southern California on Friday, the Associated Press reported. Asheville is still recovering from September’s historic flooding caused by Hurricane Helene.
He has criticized the federal response in both areas.
Kyle McNicol, 25, of the California Conservation Corps and part of Tahoe-Myers Cal Fire strike team, stacks sand bags in Pasadena in preparation for possible rain and flooding in the Eaton fire burn area on Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
Members of the California Conservation Corps with theTahoe-Myers Cal Fire strike team stack sand bags in Pasadena in preparation for possible rain and flooding in the Eaton fire burn area on Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
Members of the California Conservation Corps with theTahoe-Myers Cal Fire strike team fill and stack sand bags in Pasadena in preparation for possible rain and flooding in the Eaton fire burn area on Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
People receive donations from the National Day Laborer Organizing Network and Pasadena Community Job Center’s distribution site for those impacted by the Eaton fire on Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025 in Pasadena. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
People receive donations from the National Day Laborer Organizing Network and Pasadena Community Job Center’s distribution site for those impacted by the Eaton fire on Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025 in Pasadena. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
Wes White with Southern California Gas digs to cut off a gas line where businesses were burned down in the Eaton fire on Lake Avenue in Altadena on Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
Angel Macardo, 2, and his family receive food from the National Day Laborer Organizing Network and Pasadena Community Job Center’s distribution drive through for those impacted by the Eaton fire on Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. Macardo’s father lost his gardening job in the Eaton fire. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
People receive donations from the National Day Laborer Organizing Network and Pasadena Community Job Center’s distribution site for those impacted by the Eaton fire on Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025 in Pasadena. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
Kyle McNicol, 25, of the California Conservation Corps and part of Tahoe-Myers Cal Fire strike team, stacks sand bags in Pasadena in preparation for possible rain and flooding in the Eaton fire burn area on Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
The two-week-old fires have combined to damage or destroy more than 17,000 structures, according to estimates from Cal Fire and the Angeles National Forest. Their causes were under investigation.
Los Angeles County sheriff’s officials said that 11 deaths have been tied to the Palisades fire, with the known combined death toll at 28 for the two blazes.
For evacuation warnings and orders, shelters and road closures: fire.ca.gov/incidents
City News Service contributed to this report.