An estimated 77 homes have been damaged—and 17 totally destroyed—by the wind-driven Saddleridge Fire, according to new estimates released this week by fire officials.
There has been no cause attributed to the wildfire, which sent tens of thousands of residents fleeing from their homes and charred 8,391 acres in the northern San Fernando Valley. But arson investigators have determined that it ignited at a 50-foot by 70-foot area beneath a high voltage transmission tower in Sylmar.
“We are aware of a story out there in the media from a witness who saw fire falling from a transmission tower,” Los Angeles Fire Chief Ralph Terrazas said last week. “We believe that witness, and someone else who said something similar.”
On Friday, Southern California Edison alerted the California Public Utilities Commission that its electrical equipment may be linked to the wildfire, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
According to the Chronicle, which reviewed radio transmissions, the first firefighters to spot the flames reported to dispatchers it was “a quarter-acre under the power lines.”
”Out of an abundance of caution we notified the CPUC on Friday, Oct. 11 that our system was impacted near the reported time of the fire,” spokesperson Susan Cox told City News Service.
In a statement, the Los Angeles Fire Department said investigators from Edison and private insurance companies were at the ignition site. It said its investigators “continue to work around the clock in steep terrain” to determine a cause.
The fire broke out around 9 p.m. Thursday near the 210 Freeway at Yarnell Street in Sylmar, amid 50 mph wind gusts and humidity as low as 3 percent.
The flames swept west and south after jumping the 5 Freeway, spreading into the “northernmost reaches” of Porter Ranch. One man died Friday of cardiac arrest while trying to protect his home with a garden hose in Porter Ranch.
It burned at a rate of 800 acres per hour, blackening hillsides and indiscriminately gutting homes, and TV news reporters on scene described the firefight as a game of “whack-a-mole.”
“You can imagine the embers thrown in the wind have been traveling a significant distance,” Terrazas said. “Embers at this fire have traveled downwind over one mile.”
For two days, an estimated 1,000 firefighters, aided by helicopters and a super scooper, battled gusty winds and bone-dry conditions, and an estimated 100,000 residents remained under mandatory evacuations, even where there were no active flames. All evacuation orders were lifted Sunday.
“I saw burns that came up to the backyards of hundreds, if not thousands of homes,” Terrazas said. “That took a lot of effort, and to not have any serious firefighter injuries is amazing.”
As Santa Ana winds eased Saturday afternoon and weather conditions grew more favorable, firefighters built containment lines around the blaze. As of Tuesday morning, containment stands at 45 percent.
Comments
Firefighters earn more than $150,000 in California.
When you look at live videos, they just stand and watch how one house burns after another.
Shouldn’t houses in SoCal be built of non-combustible bricks instead of wood and paper?
By Ivan III on 10.11.19 10:00am
You sound like you’re really old or really young.
By Cleavon Little on 10.11.19 10:14am
I’m just asking.
If your $1 million cardboard house was burnt down, you can sue your power company in California. Can you sue the firefighters who got your property taxes for protecting your house?
By Ivan III on 10.11.19 10:35am
Isn’t that like suing your doctor because you died of cancer?
By mrjim1 on 10.11.19 11:08am
Doesn’t malpractice insurance that each doctor must buy now increase your medical insurance twofold?
What will happen with your electricity bill?
By Ivan III on 10.11.19 11:18am
…or really stupid.
By LosFeliz$ean on 10.11.19 3:34pm
$ean, add something of value. I realize your bored and lacking creativity, so why no immerse yourself in experiments or learning a new skill?
By Mr Mazzi on 10.14.19 3:10pm
Thanks, but fuck off.
By LosFeliz$ean on 10.14.19 3:28pm
Curbed has the most boring boring trolls
By Danny Beta on 10.15.19 3:45pm
I mean, they also work through the night, like 50-60 hours a week and literally risk their lives on the job. What do you do for a living?
Besides, if there’s nobody inside the house, and it’s literally on fire inside, what would be the point in risking their lives… to save a few material possessions?
Presumably at a certain point the structural integrity (and smoke damage) just means the house is a teardown. Insurance should cover the financial loss.
By corner soul on 10.11.19 11:56am
Well said, I think a firefighter’s main job is containment, so the fire doesn’t spread. Once a house is engulfed there isn’t much they can do
By mrjim1 on 10.11.19 1:00pm
Maybe, they can lower the requirements and hire 2 firefighters for the price of 1 highly paid firefighter. Then, those 2 firefighters won’t have to work 60 hours.
https://www.cityofmontclair.org/home/showdocument?id=6874
Don’t they want too much from a person whose job is to extinguish fires?
By Ivan III on 10.11.19 2:06pm
Those all seem like pretty reasonable qualifications to me… they also respond to 911 calls. I think you’re underestimating the importance of the job. Agree to disagree I suppose.
By corner soul on 10.11.19 2:37pm
The point that all government employees in California receive absurdly high compensation and benefits is well taken. However, in terms of the priority of which government employees should have their compensation cut, first responders are at the bottom of the list. The first group for the cuts should be all of the useless bureaucracy positions like Garcetti’s "chief design officer". Second is all of the administrators and bureaucrats working in the public education system.
By LADude on 10.11.19 1:30pm
This is the stupidest comment of the week.
Thanks to all the brave firefighters that are putting their lives on the line to protect the lives and property of their fellow citizens, even those cowards that get on the internet in the middle of a crisis to complain about how much they make to do it!
By LosFeliz$ean on 10.11.19 2:39pm
You can say the same about the brave LA’s finest.
But, when, for example, a store in LA needs protection, it usually hires an armed security guard for $20 instead of relying on the brave.
By Ivan III on 10.11.19 3:04pm
STFU idiot.
By LosFeliz$ean on 10.11.19 3:31pm
Ivan, I think I understand what you’re trying to say, but even with fire and police protection a lot of the responsibility is with the individual. You lock your house and car when you leave them, don’t you? Stop expecting the government to take care of you, they can help, but it’s ultimately your responsibility
By mrjim1 on 10.12.19 4:54am
Yeah, and what’s even more ridiculous is that oftentimes it’s prisoners fighting California’s blazes, and not these overpaid firefighters.
By SC310 on 10.14.19 9:27am
"Build it up, Tear it down" in the perpetual, snake-eats-tail model that is Babylon.
Wars were good enough for the empire, but now it’s Nature as war, to desecrate and social-engineer America, then profit from it’s rebuilding, while bankrupting the insurance agencies.
This World Empire is being formed, and wants the tax-sIaves in the dense cities, while Bayer/Monsanto feeds the tax-cattle with genetically modified foods so they don’t live too long, and profit from their ills the whole way. Got it!
By Erin_Nirvana on 10.14.19 1:02pm
I saw a post showing the top 100 LA-Metro salaries are over $200,000, taxing all people that buy things (including the poor)….It’s a shame we pay our firefighters so much less than LA Metro folk. Makes no sense.
By Mr Mazzi on 10.14.19 3:11pm
That time-lapse image is stunningly beautiful and stunningly informative as to how fires can spread. Thank you.
By Cleavon Little on 10.11.19 10:15am
Cleavon, I ask you check out this time-lapse: https://youtu.be/V_M7IIxehJw
Very peculiar wild fires may not be natural.
By Mr Mazzi on 10.14.19 3:13pm
sadly this is probably the first of many fires yet to come this year. if you live out in the boondocks – after the winds die down and they give you the go ahead – clear your damn brush and trim the hell out of your trees.
By LAoneWay on 10.11.19 2:19pm
Endless foreshadowing articles going back to the winter claiming 2019’s fire season will be worse due to the rains….Same thing was said about the drought.
"Reign" is what they meant…
By Mr Mazzi on 10.14.19 3:14pm