It is possible that there are other explanations of why the car had so much gasoline in the trunk. Maybe the owner was running from the law and did not want to risk stopping at gas stations and getting caught on their security cameras. With so many gas stations out of commission throughout a very large area, maybe the owner was thinking about selling those gas cans at a huge premium to folks desperately looking for fuel for their cars. Whatever the car owner was planning or doing, it is despicable.
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Nope, really not likely since incendiary devices were found in the back seat of the car which had been used to start the car fire. (Per the sheriffs dept which towed the car once the gasoline had been removed.)
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That’s domestic terrorism then, plain and simple. 
The car most likely was stolen.
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One thing that will be interesting is what is going to happen with the lawsuits by environmental groups that have by all reports hindered the ability to trim brush and cut down trees, that have been cited as one of the contributors to this fire. There is a competing interest here, between protecting human life and property vs trying to protect wildlife, and how will this play out? As someone who is very pro conservation generally, I also think that in pratical reality there is no ideal solution, and that when it involves protecting human life and yes property there needs to be awareness of consequences. There aren’t easy answers to this, it has to be tradeoffs and doing the best you can.
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Nope, it’s only for rebuilding pursuant to this emergency.
And we are going to have to wait and see what happens with regard to new building code regulations, like sprinkler requirements.
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I found Dr. Daniel Swain’s live “office hours” Youtube helpful during the past couple of days. He is not going live tonight, but did post this today:
Following historic wildfire disasters in Southern California, a statewide dry spell intensifies and extreme fire weather conditions persist in the south - Weather West and was interviewed for “The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper” re: LA Burning that will air tonight Jan 12, 2025 at 8PM ET/5PM PT.
I believe the map portrays intended comparisons to the entirety of Los Angeles County, not just to the city of Los Angeles. However, even with this as the case, doesn’t North Carolina, for example, claim more residents than Los Angeles County?
The red area is LA County, but the Los Angeles Metro Area is in four different counties and has almost 19 million people.
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The map is misleading because it looks like we are comparing LA County to these states and while close, several of those states have a higher population than LA County. The Los Angeles Metro area encompasses a great deal of Southen California.
The Palidades fire was partly in LA County and spilled over into the city. The Eaton fire is entirely in LA County.
I posted up thread about my D22 who goes to UCLA and who was staying in Venice. Update: she’s home! UCLA went remote this week and we flew her home tonight. Very happy she’s back. All of her friends are either home or elsewhere. I think the school is fairly cleared out. On UCLA’s Parent Facebook page, so many parents who live in Orange County, San Diego, the Bay Area offered to take in OOS or international kids—it was lovely to see the community take care of each other like that. Fingers crossed the fires get put out soon.
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@Wjs1107 - so happy to hear your D is home! And love that the UCLA Parents are stepping up.
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I think it is remarkable that in an extremely densely populated county, with some of the worst traffic in nation, so many people were able to evacuate safely.
I know that the emergency alert system has gotten some flack for alerts being sent to too many people, but I would rather receive too much information than not enough. We received notifications in the days before the fires, warning us that the winds would be bad. After the fires started, if we drove from one municipality to the next, we received alerts as we entered into the next region. Most importantly, residents heeded the warnings and when told to leave, they did.
It is easy to point fingers at what went wrong. As a lifelong Angeleno, I am grateful for all the work that was done to put the emergency alert system in place and that, as a result, so many lives were saved.
For those that know people in the fire regions and want to check on the status of a home, this site might be helpful. https://ktla.com/news/california/wildfires/palisades-eaton-wildfire-damage-maps/
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Two questions for LA people: I plan to donate to World Central Kitchen and I also would like to donate to an animal/wildlife organization. Any suggestions?
Second question is more selfish, we are flying to Hawaii on Sunday with a stop in LAX. Any thoughts on if there will be a problem?
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Here’s a fairly recent article about LAX. It talks about flights to LA and surrounding areas, some options, as well as places accepting donations that may be of interest.
Is It Safe to Travel to LA Now? How the Fires Are Impacting Flights, Air Quality, and More | Condé Nast Traveler(LAX,status%20directly%20with%20their%20airline.%E2%80%9D
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Thank you!
I thought people might be interested in this WSJ article (gift link): The Extraordinary Defense of the Getty Museum Against the LA Fires.
https://www.wsj.com/arts-culture/fine-art/getty-museum-los-angeles-fires-villa-center-1f600dae?st=Hfp6bZ&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
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The survival of the Getty Villa and its Greek and Roman art is extraordinary. The walls are double thickness and every room can become a fireproof vault. They have their own water supply. Everything around the villa burned.
The Getty Center has survived close fires before. It was built with fireproofing in mind. Large stone patios. Same fireproof vault structure and their own water supply. Got to be the safest museum anywhere.
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I have donated to WCK also and to the Pasadena Humane Society since the fires in LA.
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I may try to get to the Getty when we are spending a month in LA later this year.
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