Topline:
Containment of the massive Palisades Fire increased to 63% Tuesday as red flag conditions are expected to return.
Where things stand: The fire continues to spread across the Santa Monica Mountains, growing to more than 23,700 acres, according to CalFire.
This is a developing story and will be updated. For the most up-to-date information about the fire you can check:
Containment of the massive Palisades Fire increased to 63% Tuesday as red flag conditions are expected to return.
The death toll in the fire that devastated whole neighborhoods rose Tuesday to 11 people. Authorities continue to search the ruins with cadaver dogs.
As of Wednesday morning, sheriff's officials said in areas they patrol they are still investigating six missing people reports in the Palisades Fire.
LAPD officials said they've investigated 38 reports of missing people in the Palisades Fire, and 30 have been found safe. Authorities said they believe that of the eight still missing, three are "most likely" among the dead who have not yet been positively identified and five remain missing.
Roughly 5,000 structures are estimated to have been destroyed, about 700 damaged.
The Sheriff's Department said Thursday afternoon that some evacuation zones will be reopened to residents effective noon on Thursday, Jan. 16.
The following zones will be reopened to residents:
"Resident access will be through the intersections of Mulholland Highway/Old Topanga Canyon Road, Civic Center Way/Malibu Canyon Road, and Mulholland Drive/Topanga Canyon Road," according to the LASD update.
On Friday, some areas under evacuation orders were open for residents.
Orders reduced to warnings:
Areas reopened to only residents:
The sheriff's department said evacuees should have proof of residency when they try to re-enter and that only residents are currently allowed back in.
Here's what to know about returning home after a fire evacuation.
We have some respite from fire weather conditions through Saturday.
This week, L.A. Councilmember Traci Park, who represents the area, told LAist 89.3's AirTalk program that officials will be asking "some very hard questions about what happens and what we are going to do to ensure that something like this never happens again."
"Because frankly," she added, "much of what occurred — even though this was an unusual weather event — what's predictable? The Pacific Palisades is in the very high fire severity zone."
Firefighters have been injured, as have a significant number of residents who didn't evacuate in time, according to authorities. That's in addition to at least 11 reported deaths.
After days of 0% containment, that number moved to 6% a week ago. Last Friday, it was at 22%.
We should note that the estimate of more than 5,000 structures damaged or destroyed is still preliminary and could change. The case is the same for the number of deaths — it takes time to identify remains and L.A. County Fire Department noted there have been more than a dozen missing person reports in their jurisdictions in both the Eaton and Palisades fires.
CalFire also cautioned against believing inaccurate social media posts. One claimed that people can come to California to join clean up efforts, but authorities warned this is false.
L.A. County's medical examiner has confirmed 11 deaths in the Palisades Fire. One victim, Charles Mortimer, 84, died at a hospital.
Officials are mapping where homes and businesses have been lost.
Curfews are now in place for fire areas from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. until further notice.
The L.A. County Sheriff's department said they have made at least 22 arrests for people violating those curfews in the Palisades and Eaton fire areas, mostly on suspicion of looting.
Authorities warn that anyone who violates the curfew is subject to arrest for a misdemeanor offense, and may face jail time, fines, or both, officials said.
" All these individuals were not supposed to be there, meaning they had no business being there ," said LA County Sheriff Robert Luna at a press conference Saturday morning. "You go out there and you violate this curfew, you are going to spend time in jail. You're not going to get cited and released."
L.A. Mayor Karen Bass declared a state of emergency Tuesday night. Newsom also proclaimed a state of emergency in Los Angeles and Ventura counties on Tuesday after meeting with fire officials in Pacific Palisades.
President Joe Biden approved a Presidential Major Emergency Declaration on Wednesday to support the response to the wildfires. He said on social media that he’s directed the Department of Defense to provide additional personnel, and ten Navy helicopters with water buckets are on the way.
Driven by strong winds, it turned into a nightmare scenario that many hoped would never come to pass: an unstoppable fire tearing through densely packed coastal neighborhoods positioned between steep mountains and the Pacific Ocean, with few ways in and out.
While the full extent of the damage is not yet known, it's clear that the storied coastal stretch of Pacific Coast Highway between Santa Monica and Malibu will never be the same. Long standing businesses, including the Reel Inn, a seafood restaurant located across the street from Topanga State Beach, have been destroyed.
The fire was reported around 10:20 a.m. on Tuesday and immediately began heading toward the community of Pacific Palisades, driven by 70 mph wind gusts. The fire grew from 10 acres to 200 acres in just minutes.
During the early hours of evacuations, some residents fleeing the fire were told by officers to abandon their cars and walk to safety.
Many were seen holding bags and pets as they made their way towards the ocean. Abandoned vehicles were then bulldozed to make room for emergency vehicles.
Total destruction in Malibu. These were beachfront homes on Pacific Coast Highway. #palisadesfire pic.twitter.com/DhQnJMmoUW
— Liz Kreutz (@LizKreutzNews) January 8, 2025
Evacuation zones are changing fast, so check out the most up to date, interactive map here.
Authorities on Tuesday announced certain areas would open for repopulation:
LA County Sheriff's Eaton Fire Update for Tuesday, January 21st, 2025: Repopulation and Safety Guidelines
— LA County Sheriffs (@LASDHQ) January 21, 2025
LASD announced evacuation warnings have been lifted for the following evacuation zone communities impacted by the Eaton Fire, effective 12:00 P.M. on Tuesday, January 21st,… pic.twitter.com/ArKB0lIkfh
Officials are pleading with people to avoid the wildfire areas, especially if you don’t live there.
Van Nuys Sherman Oaks Rec Center, 14201 Huston St., Sherman Oaks
Lanark Recreation Center, 21816 Lanark St, Canoga Park
Westwood Recreation Center: 1350 S. Sepulveda Blvd. (accepts small animals)
Pasadena Convention Center: 300 E Green St, Pasadena, CA 91101
El Camino Real Charter High School: 5440 Valley Circle Blvd., Woodland Hills, CA 91367
Pierce College: 6201 Winnetka Ave. Woodland Hills, CA 91371 (accepts large animals)
Los Angeles Equestrian Center: 480 Riverside Dr, Burbank, CA 91506 (accepts large animals)
Agoura Animal Shelter: 29525 Agoura Rd, Agoura Hills, CA 91301 (accepts small animals)
Santa Monica-Malibu USD has been closed since Thursday.
"We watch with all of you in disbelief the devastation and displacement caused by the Palisades fire, which continues to grow and evade containment," Superintendent Antonio Shelton wrote in a statement.
Nearly two dozen school districts are totally closed due to the wildfires — you can find a full list here.
The Los Angeles Unified School District also closed Thursday.
Palisades Charter Elementary School and Marquez Charter Elementary School were destroyed by the fire, an LAUSD spokesperson confirmed Wednesday afternoon.
LAUSD Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said that Palisades High suffered significant damage due to the fire.
Many roads in the area are closed or restricted, including long stretched of Pacific Coast Highway and Topanga Canyon Road. For the most recent information, check out Sigalert.com or this Los Angeles County Public Works map.
The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power replaced its boil water notice with a "Do Not Drink Notice" for the Palisades-area 90272 ZIP code and the area north of San Vicente Blvd. That means people in those areas should not drink or cook with tap water until the notice is lifted. Residents are still advised to limit water use to assist with firefighting efforts.
L.A. County Water Works District 29 has also issued a boil water advisory, according to L.A. County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath. This includes the Sunset Mesa community from Topanga Beach and Coastline Drive, to Shore Heights Drive, and from Topanga Canyon Road to Carbon Canyon Road in Malibu. You can call (800) 475-4357 for more information.
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If you have to evacuate
If you have more time:
Things to consider
Navigating fire conditions
How to help yourself and others
Understanding how it got this bad
Topline:
The Long Beach Unified School District is looking for a new operator to handle a major after-school program following the city of Long Beach’s decision not to participate in an attempt to save money.
Backstory: Since 2002, the city’s Parks Department has helped anchor the initiative, known to families as WRAP. It provides free programming for hundreds of transitional-kindergarten through eighth-grade students across seven local campuses.
What's next: District officials emphasized that the state funding remains fully intact and that student services will continue without interruption.
Read on ... for more on what the school district plans to do to keep the program running.
The Long Beach Unified School District is looking for a new operator to handle a major after-school program following the city of Long Beach’s decision not to participate in an attempt to save money.
Since 2002, the city’s Parks Department has helped anchor the initiative, known to families as WRAP. It provides free programming for hundreds of transitional-kindergarten through eighth-grade students across seven local campuses: Garfield, Edison, King, Grant, Lafayette, Burbank and Herrera.
Long Beach Unified officials stress that the vital student services will continue under a new operator this fall. It’s not clear yet who it will be and what, if any, changes they’ll make.
The city’s quiet retreat from the program has sparked deep anxiety among three full-time and 80 part-time municipal workers who now face potential layoffs.
Workers say they were first notified of the decision during a June 15 staff meeting with a city superintendent, where they were told their employment with the program would conclude on Aug. 15.
“Everybody was kind of caught off guard,” said one 13-year city employee based at an elementary school, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect her position. “I mean, again, I’ve been doing this for 13 years; we had people there that had been doing it over 20 years that had never moved sites.”
Today, the before- and after-school services are paid for primarily through the state-funded Expanded Learning Opportunities Program (ELOP), a combination of California’s After School Education and Safety (ASES) grant and specific ELOP apportionments.
Historically, the city was granted this funding by the school district without a formal bidding process, typically receiving roughly $15 per student plus administrative fees, which it supplemented with allocations from its own general fund.
This year, however, the school district was forced to overhaul its grant-funding process and consider bids to meet tightening state mandates for the program’s ELOP funding.
Shortly after, the city informed the school district it would not bid on the program.
City spokesperson Jennifer De Prez said the decision “was made so that the department can focus its limited financial resources” on other programs it runs.
The city is facing an estimated $61 million budget shortfall in the upcoming fiscal year — a deficit that top administrators warn makes citywide reductions inevitable.
The city could not immediately provide numbers on how much money it expected to save by ending its participation in the WRAP program. Last year, the city provided $193,254 of in-kind-services at its own expense on top of the program’s grant-funded budget, according to documents provided by De Prez.
Meanwhile, the school district went ahead with a bid application for a replacement operator on May 22. Proposals were due June 12 and are scheduled to go before the Board of Education for consideration at its July 15 meeting.
District officials emphasized that the state funding remains fully intact and that student services will continue without interruption.
The district and the city are also working on a joint letter to families detailing the transition, which is scheduled to be sent out soon.
But for the frontline staff, the transition has been destabilizing and abrupt.
These part-time employees, who work between 20 and 30 hours per week depending on the season, rotate through campuses where individual site enrollment ranges from 85 to 160 students.
The employee who spoke with the Post said that despite directives from supervisors to keep the changes quiet until future plans solidified, she chose to notify parents so they would have time to prepare.
“As a parent, I would want to know if it’s not the same people that I’ve trusted my kids with for years,” she said.
The long-term fate of the workforce remains unresolved, forcing many to look for employment elsewhere.
“As far as employment opportunities, they didn’t lay us off, they didn’t fire us, they just basically told us the contract with the schools will be done August 15,” the anonymous employee said. “Past that, we have no idea what’s going to happen.”
City officials say they will soon meet with representatives of the International Association of Machinists (IAM) union to discuss the workers’ future.
“We are committed to ensuring this process is transparent, informed by complete information, and focused on protecting both employees and the quality and continuity of the vital services the WRAP program provides to the Long Beach community,” said Sashi Muralidharan, a spokesperson with IAM 947.
Editor’s note: This story was updated with more information about the program’s cost to the city.
Topline:
A community organization in Los Angeles is criticizing how the FBI enforced a strict no-drone policy around World Cup venues after federal agents disrupted a community gardening event in South L.A.
What happened: The incident took place the first Sunday of the tournament, while crowds were watching matches at the FIFA Fan Festival at the Los Angeles Coliseum. Nearby, the Los Angeles Neighborhood Land Trust was hosting a celebration for teenagers who had created a native plant garden. Then someone flew a drone to photograph the moment.
How were agents involved: Moments later, the Department of Homeland Security agents, Los Angeles police officers and the FBI were on the scene, according to an organizer. They confiscated the drone and fined the person operating it.
Background: The drone had violated temporary flight restrictions implemented for the World Cup.
Read on … for what organizers and the federal government had to say about the incident.
A community organization in Los Angeles is criticizing how the FBI enforced a strict no-drone policy around World Cup venues after federal agents disrupted a community gardening event in South L.A.
The incident took place the first Sunday of the tournament, while crowds were watching matches at the FIFA Fan Festival at the Los Angeles Coliseum. Nearby, the Los Angeles Neighborhood Land Trust was hosting a celebration for teenagers who had created a native plant garden on a patch of land that used to be an oil drilling site.
Then someone flew a drone to photograph the moment. Minutes later, Department of Homeland Security agents and Los Angeles police officers were on the scene, according to Bz Zhang, a project manager who was helping run the event. Soon the FBI arrived. They confiscated the drone and fined the person operating it.
" We were unknowingly in violation of federal airspace, and we were told that we were a threat to national security," said Zhang, who witnessed the encounter.
The drone had violated temporary flight restrictions implemented for the World Cup. The Federal Aviation Authority has banned unauthorized drones within "3-nautical-mile radius and up to 3,000 feet above ground level" around stadiums on match days and also prohibited them around certain fan events, like the one at the Coliseum.
Since the tournament started in L.A., federal authorities have seized dozens of drones near SoFi Stadium and the Coliseum, according to the FBI. In total, more than 600 drones have been confiscated across the country.
The crackdown is part of an effort across all 11 U.S. host cities to identify and remove unauthorized drones from the skies around World Cup venues and fan events. Ahead of the tournament, FEMA awarded host cities $250 million specifically to combat drone usage.
"We knew we needed to act quickly to keep the World Cup safe from the rising threat of unmanned aircraft systems and that’s exactly what we did,” said Karen Evans, FEMA's acting cdministrator, in a statement announcing those funds.
But Zhang said that the incident at the garden represented the unintended consequences of hosting mega-events like the World Cup for ordinary community members.
" It's one thing to be aware of construction. … It's another to be expected as residents to know, to the 10th of a mile, that I'm in a particular zone and that, to the hour, I need to be in compliance," Zhang said.
Laura Eimiller, FBI spokesperson, disagreed. She said drone operators are responsible for knowing the rules and that every person in L.A. who had a drone confiscated during the World Cup also received a fine.
"There's been a zero-tolerance approach," Eimiller said.
Topline:
Hiding out among the luxury beachfront condos in the Newport Beach neighborhood of Corona Del Mar is Caltech’s Kerckhoff Marine Laboratory.
A ‘magical’ marine station: The place is one of the oldest running marine labs on the West Coast. Scientists that have conducted research there include Wheeler North, who studied the ecology of kelp forest.
Keep reading ... to find out how you can visit ...
Hiding out among the luxury beachfront condos in the Newport Beach neighborhood of Corona Del Mar is an outpost where scientists have been conducting important marine research for nearly a century.
And you can go check the place out for yourself.
With its Spanish style architecture that includes a central tower and red-tiled roof, Caltech’s Kerckhoff Marine Laboratory looks like it’s been teleported in from another time and place.
Originally built as a boat and club house, it was purchased by Caltech in 1929 for use as a beachfront science outpost.
Victoria Orphan, James Irvine Professor of Environmental Science at Caltech and director of the Kerckhoff Marine Lab, said the place is one of the oldest running marine labs on the West Coast.
“There’s something just really magical about marine stations. They’re rustic, so it’s not like you’re going into a fully polished clean room. But that’s part of the charm and you really feel the history,” Orphan said.
One of her favorite spots? The tower. That’s where Orphan said some famous papers were written.
“Sometimes when I have writer’s block, I’ll go and sit in the tower and try to channel the scientists of old,” she told LAist.
That would include the work of Wheeler North, one of Orphan’s heroes. From 1962 to 2002, he conducted pioneering research on the ecology of kelp forests. Orphan said North’s work was instrumental for learning how an imbalance in the sea urchin population can decimate kelp forests.
These days that important research continues, with scientists at the lab looking at how microbes can capture carbon dioxide, mitigating global warming. They even have a 4-foot, bright yellow autonomous vehicle that scans the seafloor so scientists can learn more about seagrasses, which are important for oxygen creation and carbon capture, serve as fish nurseries and help protect the coastline from storm surge.
“In areas where you have seagrass, you get less sediment erosion [and] a little more protection of the property on land, which people who live on the coast care about,” Orphan explained.
Engineers from Jet Propulsion Laboratory are also interested in using autonomous vehicles in cooperation with the lab to see how they can help study the deep ocean right outside the harbor.
You can visit the lab to learn about all of the science going on there, with free open houses on Tuesdays and monthly ‘Science and Sunsets’ events that include dinner and cocktails at the historic outpost.
Kerckhoff Marine Laboratory
101 Dahlia Ave., Newport Beach
Topline:
A pop-up book that’s seeking to break the world record for size has unfolded at the Central Library in downtown Los Angeles.
The backstory: Luceros y Penumbras, which roughly translates to “starlight and shadows,” is part of the Central Library’s centennial celebration. The towering tome is rooted in L.A. artist Daniel González’s experience visiting the library and his family in Mexico as a child. “It's a knowledge tree that's been shaped by all these different things that I've learned at the library, about myself, about the city I grew up in [and] about the town where my family's from,” González said.
How it was made: González sketched the images, carved them into linoleum, printed them with ink and then digitized them to add color and other details. Matthew Reinhart, a paper engineer, author and illustrator, designed the three-dimensional build. “ My job is really making mistakes,” Reinhart said. “Making mistakes, figuring out where they are and solving them and— of course— making them look good.”
The stats: Luceros y Penumbras is four pages that open to create two scenes— one of the Central Library building and another of a sprawling tree. The book is 31 feet wide, more than 11 feet tall, and weighs 1,800 pounds.
How to visit: The pop-up book is on display in the rotunda from Saturday through mid-November during the Central Library’s regular hours.
Read on ... to learn more about what it took to create this 1,800-pound pop-up book.
A pop-up book that’s seeking to break the world record for size has unfolded at the Central Library in downtown Los Angeles.
The art piece is 31 feet wide, more than 11 feet tall, and weighs in at 1,800 pounds.
Luceros y Penumbras, which roughly translates to “starlight and shadows,” is rooted in L.A. artist Daniel González’s experience visiting the library and his family in Mexico as a child.
“It's a knowledge tree that's been shaped by all these different things that I've learned at the library, about myself, about the city I grew up in, [and] about the town where my family's from,” González said.
The nonprofit Library Foundation of Los Angeles collaborated with the library to commission the piece as part of the Central Library’s centennial celebration.
The project is inspired, in part, by the library’s Toy Movable collection, an archive of more than 2,000 pop-up books.
“Normal pop-up books … they seem so simple, but something amazing pops out when you open the page,” said Todd Lerew, the foundation’s director of special projects. “That sort of childlike wonder that you feel that's persistent, even as an adult, is something that was really important to capture and dial up to 11 with this project.”
The foundation asked González in June 2025 to create a book that told the story of his personal relationship with the library. As González pondered questions including ”What did the library do for me as a young person?" and "Why was I so attracted to it?" he thought about how knowledge was passed down in his family through the generations.
His grandmother told him stories about the stars above her farm near Teúl, Zacatecas, in Mexico. She said those that emerged at dawn — luceros — were among the most special because they signaled the start of a new day.
“ I looked at those stars … and the histories that my grandparents were sharing with me as these guiding lights,” González said. “Just like the library is a guiding light for many people.”
González grew up blocks away from the Benjamin Franklin Library in Boyle Heights.
“ I spent summers there because it was literally the coolest place to be,” González said. “It just gave me the opportunity to explore anything that I had an interest in.”
Later, he’d visit the Central Library during a middle school field trip and return on the bus to wander the stacks and ask the staff questions.
“ I'm really lucky that I met the people that nurtured that curiosity,” González said.
First, González sketched the images, carved them into linoleum, printed them with ink and digitized them to add color and other details.
Matthew Reinhart, children’s book author, illustrator and “paper engineer,” was tasked with translating the images into three dimensions.
“ My job is really making mistakes,” Reinhart said. “Making mistakes, figuring out where they are and solving them and — of course — making them look good.”
The construction and the fabrication of the book took the work of more than 30 people over a series of months. At least a dozen people using giant poles capped with cushions turn the pages.
Dimensions: 31 feet wide, more than 11 feet tall, and
Weight: More than 1,800 pounds
Materials: paper, corrugated cardboard and fabric
Artist: Daniel González
Paper engineer: Matthew Reinhart
Fabricated by: Goodnight & Co.
Luceros y Penumbras is four pages that open to create two scenes — one of the Central Library building and another of a sprawling tree with an I Spy-like collection of creatures and images throughout. The featured pages will change throughout the exhibition, which is open until mid-November.
The sea turtle at the base of the tree is a reference both to the creatures that live in the San Gabriel River and to the original inhabitants of the L.A. basin. The Gabrielino-Tongva Tribe tells a story that connects the region’s earthquakes to the turtles.
“When we think of sea turtles, we think of these faraway places where they live, like tropical places,” González said. “But they exist here and they've had to adapt to a changing climate, a changing environment, and find places to call home, just as people do.”
Other images include:
González said the goal is for viewers to create their own narrative about what they see.
“ I just hope that people carry with them a sense of curiosity to further explore the things that I present, but also maybe something within them,” González said.
See Luceros y Penumbras — and visit LAist — at the celebration of the library’s 100th birthday.
When: Saturday, 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m.
Cost: Free
Address: 630 W. Fifth St., Los Angeles
More information, including parking, here.
When: Saturday through mid-November
Address: Central Library, 630 W. Fifth St. Los Angeles
Hours:
10 a.m.-8 p.m. Monday-Wednesday
9:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday
1 p.m.-5 p.m. Sunday
Parking: Validated rate available during library hours at 524 S. Flower St., more information
