January 11, 2025 - California wildfires news

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Paradise Mayor Steve Crowder stands for a portrait in Paradise, California, on May 26, 2021.

A day after the devastating fire began sweeping through Altadena, California, Steve Crowder reached out to the town council chairperson.

Crowder knows what the city is facing.

He is Mayor of Paradise, California, where 95% of the town was destroyed in the Camp Fire six years ago and more than 80 people were killed.

Crowder lost his house, his business and his cars but not his hope.

He called Victoria Knapp to let her know she is not alone. He offered support and guidance to get through the myriad of problems he knows the community will face.

Homes leveled by the Camp Fire line a development on Edgewood Lane in Paradise, California, on November 12, 2018.

Elected to the Paradise city council two days before the Camp Fire, Crowder recalled surveying the town and thinking “It looked like a nuclear bomb went off. How the hell do you ever come back from this?”

He told Knapp, “Trust me, there will be light at the end of the tunnel, you will get there and if you keep that in mind it will make a whole lot of difference.”

Paradise’s population was about 26,000 the day of the fire. Today it is 11,000 and growing.

“We are by no means rebuilt, but we are way ahead of where everyone predicted. We knew it would be a 20-year rebuild.”

The Altadena fire is also personal for Crowder. His stepdaughter and her husband lost their home in the fire.

“She’s a strong girl,” he said, noting when his neighbors in Paradise heard about her house, 175 people reached out, with many offering help.

Giorgi and Leonardo Antinori speak with CNN on January 11, 2025.

For Giorgi and Leonardo Antinori, the most devastating part of losing their home to the Palisades fire wasn’t just the displacement and material damage — it was losing the cremains of their late daughter, who had died as a baby more than a decade ago.

The couple and their second daughter, aged 2, had lived in the Palisades Bowl, a mobile home community that housed “a lot of singles, young families and older residents who were priced out of Santa Monica and Venice, or who have just lived there since the ‘70s,” Giorgi said. “It was very, very modest.”

They evacuated on the first morning of the fires, and “by 5 o’clock, everything was up in flames,” she said. By the next morning, “our park was gone.”

Making things worse, they didn’t have home insurance — though fires are common in Los Angeles, they had never reached that far into the Palisades before, typically staying contained in the canyons, the couple said.

Thankfully, many friends and loved ones have reached out offering the family a place to stay — but it’ll still be a long road to rebuilding. “I never realized how loved we were by our community, and it’s just been overwhelming to see people help us,” Giorgi said.

A "no looters" sign is placed on a road after residents fled from the Eaton Fire, in Altadena, California, on January 11.

Los Angeles police are cracking down on looters in mandatory evacuation areas, with seven arrests made in just the last two days, according to Capt. Mike Lorenz of the Los Angeles Police Department.

“Looting is an issue, the number of arrests is continuously growing,” he said, speaking Saturday evening at a Palisades community meeting.

Some residents who had to flee had hired private security guards to protect whatever was left of their homes against looting, even if they were mostly burned down, Lorenz said. Those guards are now being vetted and closely watched by the LAPD.

A curfew remains in place in all mandatory evacuation zones, meant to protect property and prevent burglaries or looting, authorities say. Curfew violators will be subject to arrest for a misdemeanor offense under LA County code and conviction may result in a fine up to $1,000 or jail time.

Malibu has lost a third of its eastern edge to the Palisades fire, said Mayor Doug Stewart — a devastating blow to a city still reeling from other recent fires.

“This is the third fire in three months for us … the Franklin Fire, Broad Fire, and now the Palisades Fire,” Stewart said on Saturday night, speaking at a Palisades community meeting. “This is the most destructive, and it has hit us hard.”

“Big Rock, a community of many wonderful people, is gone,” he added.

Malibu had a long road of recovery and rebuilding to go, he said — but “we’re not out of the fire front fight yet … we still have an active fire and we have high winds tonight.”

This post has been updated with additional information.

Winds could pick back up in the coming days after a brief reprieve — posing a potential threat as firefighters work to contain four major fires still burning across Los Angeles — but it could also offer an unexpected boon by changing the direction of the blaze, said Cal Fire Battalion Chief Brent Pascua.

Speaking to CNN Saturday night, Pascua said fire crews had worked “24/7, all night” to reinforce the firelines they’d created — which are boundaries created by clearing away fuels like vegetation, and digging down to the soil level, to help prevent fires and embers from spreading.

There is a risk the next few days bring Santa Ana winds, which are hot, dry gusts that flow down the sides of mountains toward the California coast — and could jeopardize those firelines.

However, Pascua said, it could also change the direction of the fires. The Palisades fire has been moving east in the past day, pushing toward Interstate 405 — but Santa Ana winds can blow to the west. So if the winds do arrive, “it’s actually going to move (the fire) away from the freeway and head back towards the coast … it will blow this fire pretty much back onto itself,” he said.

That’s what happened in the Encino area on Saturday — shifting wind directions pushed the fire back “where there’s already (land) burned and there’s no fuel to burn,” helping crews contain the fire edge, he said.

Firefighters monitor the advance of the Palisades Fire in Mandeville Canyon on January 11.

Firefighters are making promising progress on the Palisades fire, with operations chief Kristian Litz describing “minimal activity” in some parts as crews stop the spread of the fire’s boundary and cool off hotspots.

In the Topanga Canyon and Silvia Park area, “that edge of that fire has not moved, it looks really good,” he said, speaking at a Palisades community meeting Saturday evening.

The fire moved further east on Friday, and “we did have some activity there,” he said — but “we’ve built a robust plan … as the situation changes for us, as it cools throughout the night, as the activity goes down, they’re going to attack it from both sides.”

Crews are using aircraft including helicopters and airplanes, with engines and crews on the ground that have been working nonstop — to the point their vehicles are coated in the bright pink of retardant being sprayed everywhere.

Toward Mandeville Canyon — where the blaze shifted on Friday, forcing expanded evacuation orders and warnings — “the fire is down,” said Litz. “Winds in our favor in that area, so it looks really good. We have to continue to work hard in that area to secure it.”

In Pacific Palisades, the boundary of the fire hasn’t moved in several days, but crews are still hard at work going through damaged structures and making sure there aren’t lingering hotspots or further fire damage.

A fire fighting helicopter drops water on the Palisades fire on January 11.

The death toll from the Eaton and Palisades fires has climbed to 16, the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner said Saturday.

Five of the deaths appear to be from the Palisades Fire and 11 deaths in the Eaton Fire, according to the office’s records.

Of the 16 cases reported by the medical examiner, 10 involve confirmed human remains.

The FBI said it is seeking the public’s help in identifying a suspect after a civilian drone collided with a Canadian “Super Scooper” aircraft fighting the Palisades Fire on Thursday, forcing it to be grounded.

“These fire suppression efforts using aircraft is probably the most effective tool that our firefighters have against fighting these fires to help contain them,” Akil Davis, FBI assistant director in charge of the Los Angeles field office, told CNN on Saturday.

The aircraft in question, called Quebec 1, sustained a three-by-six-inch hole in its wing from a privately-owned drone, some pieces of which authorities were able to recover, said Davis.

It is a violation of federal law to fly drones in areas where the Federal Aviation Administration instituted a temporary flight restriction in Southern California due to the wildfires, Davis added.

Highlighting the dangers in flying drone flights around wildfires, Davis said a hole such as the one sustained by Quebec 1 could have spread across the wing and “take the entire aircraft down.”

“… And now we’re dealing with a plane crash in the middle of a historic wildfire for Southern California,” Davis continued. “These drones are nothing to be played with.”

While it is challenging to identify the operator of a privately-owned drone, Davis said the FBI field office in Los Angeles is working with local and state partners to identify “private citizens that are violating the temporary flight restriction by operating drones in these areas.”

The agency has drone mitigation capability, said Davis, who wouldn’t elaborate further on what type of technology is being employed.

The FBI is asking anyone with information leading to the operator of the drone in question to contact them. Potential penalties for the offense can range from significant fines to prison time, or a combination of both, Davis said.

A Los Angeles Fire Department firefighter opens up a hydrant in an effort to put out a burning apartment complex caused by the rapidly spreading Palisades Fire in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles on January 7.

All of the fire hydrants in the Pacific Palisades and in LA’s Westside communities were “fully operational” prior to the devastating wildfires, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power said in a Saturday news release.

“No power was lost to LADWP pump stations during the fire, and water supply remained strong to the area,” reads the release.

But water pressure in the system was lost “due to unprecedented and extreme water demand to fight the wildfire without aerial support,” causing around 20% of hydrants in the area to lose suction pressure, according to the release.

The utility says it deployed potable water tankers to help support the firefighting effort.

The release adds that the agency was “required to take the Santa Ynez Reservoir out of service to meet safe drinking water regulations.” LADWP didn’t specify if this may have affected the water supply.

“To commission the support and resources to implement repairs to Santa Ynez, LADWP is subject to the city charter’s competitive bidding process which requires time,” the utility added.

Some context: On Friday, Gov. Gavin Newsom called for an independent investigation into why the Santa Ynez Reservoir was out of service and what caused some hydrants to lose water pressure in the midst of multiple devastating wildfires.

“The ongoing reports of the loss of water pressure to some local fire hydrants during the fires and the reported unavailability of water supplies from the Santa Ynez Reservoir are deeply troubling to me and to the community,” Newsom wrote in a letter, which he posted on X on Friday.

Some Eaton Fire evacuation orders have been lifted for California residents in the cities of Bradbury and Duarte, as well as parts of La Cañada Flintridge, according to a news release from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

The community of Altadena, which was heavily impacted by the fire, remains off limits, according to the sheriff’s department.

Those returning home are being advised to be cautious of unstable structures, downed power lines and trees and other hazards on area roads. Residents should also avoid direct contact with ash, which may contain toxic substances, and are advised to wear sturdy shoes, gloves and masks, the sheriff’s department said.

“The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department have a strong presence in the repopulated and evacuated areas for the next several days to ensure the protection of our residents and their property,” the agency said.

A firefighter sets up a hose while fighting the Palisades Fire in Mandeville Canyon in Los Angeles on January 11.

Firefighters battling the Palisades Fire are contending with treacherous terrain, thick brush and hot and dry conditions as they work to contain the blaze before winds pick up, Cal Fire Deputy Chief Brice Bennett told CNN’s Jessica Dean Saturday.

With winds capable of carrying embers miles away from the fire expected, “we need to have everyone ready to be able to evacuate if necessary, depending on where the winds blow the fire,” he added.

The Palisades Fire is now estimated to be at 23,654 acres in size and is 11% contained, according to Cal Fire.

This post has been updated with additional information.

Horses are sheltered at the Los Angeles Equestrian Center on January 11.

Humans weren’t the only ones needed evacuating from wildfires in Southern California.

Hundreds of horses in the Eaton and Pacific Palisades fire zones in danger were taken to the Los Angeles Equestrian Center, built for the 1984 Olympics.

Along with 408 horses brought to the center, there are a couple of cows, a few pigs, some sheep and two donkeys, in addition to the 437 horses already stabled at the facility. All through the terrifying first night of the fires and into the next day, horse trailers flooded into the center until they ran out of stalls.

The center is also flooded with help. General Manager Leigh Ann Claywell held back tears, calling it overwhelming.

“There’s so much (donated food) you could eat here for a month – we’re talking about the horses – enormous bags of apples and carrots,” she explained.

Volunteers have swarmed the stables to feed, water, walk and groom the horses.

Bechir Sylvain volunteers at the Equestrian Center.

Bechir Sylvain from Encino had just been evacuated but showed up because “It relieves a lot of stress,” for both the animals and their human helpers.

“I hate the fact that we are all going through this thing right now but it’s great to see how Los Angeles is coming together.”

The donkeys are a fan favorite of the volunteers. The owner did not have enough time to get them to safety, but spray-painted information on the animals and let them run. Someone delivered them to the center. They were reunited Saturday morning.

Many of the horses were showing stress Friday night, just like the humans. Owners and trainers said the center has rolled out the red carpet. One told CNN a private barn in the area wanted to charge $100 a night.

At the Equestrian Center, the four-legged evacuees are being housed for free.

“Their owners lost everything, we can’t make a can’t make a profit off of that,” Claywell said.

Morris the donkey has information spray-painted on her sides.

A Mexican military and fire aid team sits on a plane bound for California to help fight wildfires on January 11,

Firefighters from Mexico joined more than 14,000 personnel already on the ground in California on Saturday to fight the Palisades Fire impacting the Los Angeles area.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom shared an X post on Saturday with a video showing an airplane with a Mexican flag on the tarmac of Los Angeles International Airport.

“California is immensely grateful to our neighbors’ support in the fight against the wildfires in Los Angeles,” Newsom said on X.

Seventy firefighters from Mexico, including three information officers, were slated to arrive in California around 1 p.m. PT Saturday, a Cal Fire spokesperson told CNN.

Upon arrival, the firefighters were expected to be sent to the Noble Creek Operations Base pending specific assignments to the fires, the spokesperson said.

Newsom plans to double the number of the state’s National Guardsmen deployed to the Los Angeles fires to 1,680 service members, he announced earlier Saturday.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom launched a website Saturday aimed at addressing the online spread of wildfire-related misinformation and disinformation, according to a news release.

The site, CaliforniaFireFacts.com, serves to combat false information spread on the internet and “and by political leaders around the Southern California wildfires,” the release states.

“There is an astonishing amount of mis- and dis-information being spread online – much of it by so-called leaders and partisan media outlets who seek to divide this country for their own political gain. It breaks my heart that families in Los Angeles don’t just have to worry about the fires but also this malicious disinformation as well,” Newsom said in the release.

The destructive Palisades Fire, which broke out Tuesday morning in Pacific Palisades near Malibu, has been pushing inland towards Brentwood and the Bel-Air area, with a second front moving toward the San Fernando Valley, Encino and Sherman Oaks areas of Los Angeles.

The eastern flank of the fire began creeping closer to the 405 Freeway Friday, making a run toward the Mandeville Canyon area and Mulholland Drive and prompting expanded evacuation orders.

Neighborhoods just west of the 405 Freeway remain in the evacuation zone, which includes the Getty Center, a Los Angeles cultural institution.

Firefighters were attacking the flames with aircraft Saturday to stop the Palisades Fire from spreading into homes in Brentwood and Encino.

Fire weather conditions are expected to continue into next week in Southern California, as firefighters work to combat ongoing blazes, according to the National Weather Service.

“Very dangerous fire weather continues across portions of southern California where ongoing fires continue,” read a Saturday afternoon post on X from the Storm Prediction Center.

The agency said in an update the region will see forecast sustained winds of 20 mph, with gusts reaching more than 40 mph, with dry relative humidity.

“This may lead to the spread of ongoing fires as well as the development of new ones,” the update said.

CNN meteorologist Chad Myers said Saturday strong Santa Ana winds, combined with embers on the ground from the ongoing fires, may exacerbate the risk of fires.

Strong winds may require firefighting planes to temporarily be grounded, he explained.

Firefighters battle the Palisades Fire in Los Angeles on January 11.

Los Angeles County has extended a smoke advisory to January 12 at 10 p.m. local time due to the ongoing wildfires.

Smoke from the fires has caused “unhealthy air quality” across the county, according to a Saturday news release.

The smoke is expected to have the strongest effect in northwest coastal Los Angeles County, including the Pacific Palisades, Altadena, Pasadena and areas near the fires.

Anish Mahajan, chief deputy director of Los Angeles Public Health and chief medical officer of the Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, previously told CNN people should stay indoors as much as possible and wear an N-95 or P100 mask if they do go out to minimize the risks of wildfire smoke exposure.

CNN’s Stephanie Elam contributed reporting.

Carol Smith is pictured with her son, Randall "Randy" Miod.

Randall “Randy” Miod, 55, died in the place he loved most in the world: his home.

That’s according to his mother, Carol Smith, who explained that Miod lived in his Malibu beach house for decades before this week’s fires in Los Angeles.

Detectives found human remains in Miod’s home, Smith said, and Miod was the only roommate who didn’t evacuate from the fires.

“(His home) was his prized possession. That’s the one and only house he ever owned,” Smith said. “He just felt so blessed to be able to live in Malibu. That was his dream come true because he’d been surfing since he was a teenager.”

About 30 years ago, Miod rented a studio apartment attached to the Malibu house, a red barn-style home built in 1924. After 13 years, the owner offered to sell the house to Miod for a discounted price – an opportunity Miod jumped on.

Miod was determined to protect his beloved house and didn’t want to abandon the home when the fires started, Smith said.

When they talked on the phone Tuesday, Miod told Smith he had a garden hose ready to go. Smith believed he didn’t know how big the flames were going to get.

“He’d been through so many of these fires and made it through unscathed. I think he thought he could do it again,” she said.

Officials have confirmed at least 11 people have died in the fires.

Read more about what we know about the victims.

There will be additional public safety power shut-offs before “life-threatening” winds grip the Los Angeles County starting on Saturday night, said L.A. County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone at a Saturday news conference.

Weather conditions from moderate to “locally strong” Santa Ana winds will affect Los Angeles County starting from Saturday evening through Wednesday, Marrone said.

“The Los Angeles County Fire Department will be prepared,” Marrone said. “These winds, combined with low humidities and low fuel moisture, will keep the fire threat in Los Angeles County high.”