It was a typical sunny Sunday afternoon in Santa Monica, with scores of people enjoying the beach, having brunch and walking their dogs.
But just up Pacific Coast Highway in Pacific Palisades and eastern Malibu, authorities were preparing to wage a ground war on any conflagrations that might rise up as fast and excessively dry winds were expected to whip across the region in the coming days.
There are 5,677 fire and law enforcement personnel assigned to the blaze, including workers from Canada, Israel and South Africa, said Dan Collins, public information officer for the Palisades fire.
If the gusty winds lead to further flare-ups, as some fear, he said there is an additional Cal Fire “incident management team” stationed in Beaumont, ready to assist.
Hundreds of emergency response vehicles were lined up along miles of a prime stretch of coastline in the Palisades and Malibu, alongside the blackened skeletons and crumbling chimneys of beachfront homes and businesses.
Dozens of tan tents that marked a makeshift National Guard encampment just above the sandy beach were abuzz with activity ahead of the forecasted fire weather.
In one particularly surreal scene, a Guard Humvee sat framed by tall palm trees outside the stately entrance to the Bel-Air Bay Club in Pacific Palisades.
Fire trucks from as far afield as San Diego and Contra Costa counties were parked bumper-to-bumper along one stretch.
Law enforcement cars cruised up and down PCH, lights flashing.
And dozens of Southern California Edison trucks were lined up on the winding coastal highway. Other utility trucks were fanned out from Topanga Canyon to Sunset Boulevard, digging ditches to reach buried lines, mending damaged electrical equipment and otherwise attempting to fix as much damage as possible before wind speeds got too high.
Meanwhile, the National Weather Service on Sunday issued the most extreme version of its red flag fire weather warning for much of Southern California, including burn areas in Malibu and Altadena. The “particularly dangerous situation” alert will take effect at noon Monday and continue until 10 a.m. Tuesday. Gusts of 50 to 70 mph are forecast for the coasts and valleys and 60 to 80 mph in the foothills, with isolated gusts of 100 mph.
The warning comes as firefighters raced to increase containment of the Palisades and Eaton fires. As of Sunday, the Palisades fire, which has burned more than 23,700 acres and killed at least 10 people, was 52% contained, according to Cal Fire. The Eaton fire, which has charred more than 14,000 acres and killed at least 17 people, was 81% contained.
Michelle Harrison and her husband lost their home in an unincorporated area of L.A. County just outside the city limits of Malibu when the Palisades fire erupted Jan. 7.
Now, Harrison said Sunday, she feared for those who could face even more threatening weather in Malibu this week.
“It’s just tragic,” she said. “I hope they have enough firefighters here, which I think they do now, to stop” any fires that might break out in the coming days.
