‘Red flag’ warning issued as more dangerous winds are forecast for LA

Members of an inmate firefighting team battle the Palisades fire near Mandeville Canyon Road in Los Angeles on Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. (Mark Abramson/The New York Times)

By Amy Graff, Jonathan Wolfe and Claire Moses

Strong winds forecast for late Monday threatened to reverse some of the hard-fought gains firefighters have made in recent days, as they battle the sprawling fires that have devastated Southern California.

Officials issued a rare fire danger alert for Tuesday until Wednesday afternoon. That same kind of alert was issued a week ago before the Eaton fire, which has burned parts of Altadena and Pasadena, and the Palisades fire on the west side of Los Angeles. They are now partly under control, but only after growing into two of the most destructive wildfires in California history.

Firefighters fight the burning Pacific Palisades fire in Los Angeles, Jan. 8, 2025. Days after a devastating wildfire, residents of Pacific Palisades have started sifting through the ruins, and their memories. (Mark Abramson/The New York Times)

In anticipation of the new threat, fire crews and resources are being deployed to at-risk areas, including around the Palisades fire, officials said. While winds in the coming days may not be as strong as those last week, their duration could increase the fire risk.

“We are not in the clear as of yet,” Kristin M. Crowley, the Los Angeles fire chief, said at a news conference Monday. “We must not let our guard down.”

Here’s what we’re covering:

— Containment updates: Firefighters slowed the progress of the Eaton fire, near Altadena and Pasadena, over the weekend. The 14,000-acre blaze did not grow Sunday and was 33% contained by Monday morning, according to Cal Fire, while the 23,700-acre Palisades fire on the west side of Los Angeles was 14% contained.

— Death toll: The Eaton fire has killed 16 people, making it one of the deadliest in California’s history, and at least eight people have died in the Palisades blaze. Another 16 people have been reported missing in the areas of the two fires, and officials have warned the number of fatalities is likely to rise.

— Scale of destruction: The total area burned by the past week’s fires — nearly 40,000 acres — is larger than the city limits of San Francisco. And while the number of people under evacuation orders has dropped slightly to 92,000, from more than 100,000 Sunday, many more have been warned they may have to evacuate. The largest fires have damaged more than 12,000 structures, a category that includes houses, cars and outbuildings.

— Early moments: While it remained unclear what started the fires, power lines near the Eaton and Palisades fires were live when those blazes started and may have played a role. “We are looking at every angle,” Dominic Choi, the assistant chief of the Los Angeles Police Department, said Monday, adding that arson had not been ruled out as a cause.