Los Angeles leaders describe multi-day wind-driven firestorm; evacuations, sheltering and investigations continue

Los Angeles County and City officials held a joint press conference on Jan. 9 to update the public on a multi-day, wind-driven wildfire emergency that has forced about 179,783 people to evacuate, damaged or destroyed large numbers of structures and disrupted utilities across the region.

The briefing brought county and city leaders together with fire and law enforcement chiefs to describe response efforts, sheltering arrangements and recovery steps. "We will begin the process of rebuilding," Los Angeles County Chair of the Board of Supervisors Kathryn Barger said, adding the county opened the Pomona Fairplex as an additional shelter and will accept large animals there.

Why it matters: The fires spread rapidly under historic wind conditions, taxing local firefighting and public-safety resources and producing large-scale evacuations, utility outages and extensive property damage across the county and city.

Chiefs and incident managers gave updated incident sizes and containment figures. Officials said the Eaton fire remained estimated at about 10,600 acres with 0% containment; the Palisades fire was reported at about 17,234 acres with 0% containment; the Hearst Fire was reported at 855 acres with 0% containment; the Lydia fire in Acton was limited to about 348 acres and reported 40% contained; Woodley was reported at about 30 acres and fully contained; and the Sunset (Runyon Canyon) incident was reported at 42.8 acres with forward progress stopped.…