The devastation caused by, in particular, the Palisades and Eaton Fires in Los Angeles this week is immeasurable. At the time of writing, 13 deaths have been recorded, and thousands of homes have been lost. The battle against the flames in the face of challenging winds is ongoing, with firefighters putting themselves in harm’s way for hours on end, night after night.
The city of Culver City has been a safe distance from the flames, though it was under a Red Flag Warning for the first couple of days, as the firefighters attempted to get some kind of control over the two major fires, and other smaller fires. That was later lifted, though the situation remains precarious, not least because of the air quality.
There was some panic at 4 p.m. on January 9, when an evacuation warning was erroneously sent out to all of L.A. County, and then another one at 4 a.m. the following morning. The mistake was quickly rectified with a follow-up alert.
New Mayor Dan O’Brien posted the following message: “Thank you to our first responders, staff, and community for the support during this devastating time. We know there are members of the Culver City community who have experienced unimaginable loss. Our hearts go out to them. Let’s continue to take care of one another and stay prepared during these fire conditions. You can find a list of donations and resources on the Culver City website, as well as the latest updates.”
The Culver City Police Department posted that, “In light of the ongoing wildfire response efforts in neighboring areas, we want to assure the residents of Culver City that our staffing levels remain strong and fully capable of maintaining public safety.”
All L.A. schools, including those in Culver City, were closed on Thursday and Friday last week, though most were open again on Monday morning (with the obvious exception of those in evacuation areas).
Anyone with questions or needing information should visit and/or subscribe to:
https://lafd.org/alerts; Alert SouthBay: https://alertsouthbay.com; https://lacounty.gov/emergency.
As of Sunday, approximately 105,000 people remained under evacuation orders in all the fire areas, with about 87,000 under evacuation warnings. Officials said the fire areas remain extremely unsafe, with downed power lines, unstable buildings and pockets of fire.