Locator: 44642FIRES.
Gold Rush
Think Big, Go Big
January 16, 2025:
Pacific Palisades: "Big Real Estate" will move in. This will be the "gold rush" of real estate.
- my hunch: at least three or for major projects are already being considered
- four major projects -- Trump will love this -- the projects will be the nucleus that rebuilds the Palisades
- analogy:
think of the biggest, best mall in America -- any mall, it doesn't
matter -- they're all anchored by four Big Box stores; now expand that
concept / that analogy to a full city.
- state-of-the-art medical-surgical facility with ObamaCare eligibility for all residents for ten years
- mortgage
/ home insurance at 50% average California rates for ten years; the
other 50% subsidized by the state / federal government
- make the Pacific Palisades / Altadena an economic-free zone
- Altadena is particularly important
- bring in Newsom / Bass / Musk / Trump family
- incentives similar to the Homestead Act:
- residential property: no property taxes for ten year; then Prop 13-qualified; interest-free loans for ten years;
- commercial property: financing, property, and sales tax incentives.
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Original Post, early morning, January 8, 2025.
For the most part, the disaster had just begun.
Updates
Will post times/dates when updated (if I remember).
January 15, 2025: Los Angeles Times update. Not behind a paywall at the moment.
January 13, 2025: I now have a pretty good idea of what happened in Pacific Palisades. It now makes complete sense. A few i's to dot and a few t's
to cross but the dots are now all connected. Now that I have it figured
out, my blogging on this disaster will pretty much come to an end. I
may update periodically, but I'm pretty much done with this story. As mentioned earlier, I no longer listen to the updates; they're all lying. One gets the feeling, "we all hang together, or we'll all hang separately."
January 15, 2025: Bloomberg has it all figured out.
January 11, 2025: The New York Times is reporting:
January 11, 2025: "anger and resentment rise." Link here. But the Bullet Train is on track. Same week as Pacific Palisades fires blaze / rage, Governor Newsom is breaking ground on a new railyard for the Bullet Train.
January 11, 2025, 3:13 p.m. PST:
- Anger: https://www.foxnews.com/video/6366937197112.
- Brentwood, January 11, 2025. Politicos talking about “re-building,” link here.
- Victor Davis Hanson: link here.
January 11, 2025: winds have decreased; water drops from air making huge difference; winds will return on Monday/Tuesday -- about two days from now. I remain fascinated with the news reporting, video from the ground, from the air. But I turn off the video / audio when the "official briefings" are held and when local reporters interview Governor Newsom, others. It's all platitudes, political posturing and doing what they can to shift blame.
January 9, 2025, 4:45 p.m. PT: a groundswell of anger is building against city, regional, and state leadership.
January 9, 2025: President Biden and VP Harris being briefed at the White House. This is the day of "national mourning for President Carter." Most of the government is shut down. Following the church services, this was supposed to be a day of rest / reflection (euphemism for vacation) for President Biden.
It turns out that the most important resource to fight these fires -- water drops from the air -- fully unprepared and the most important assets still won't be ready for another 48 hours. In addition, "they" are just now asking Canada for more "super scooper" water-dropping aircraft. Completely unprepared. Spokesperson even said that this is not the typical season for these fires to occur and thus not fully prepared, despite the fact this was so well forecast, the state of California pre-positioned fire-fighting equipment days ahead of time. I've never seen VP Harris look so ... presidential.
6:21 p.m. PT, January 8, 2025. No one is asking this question yet, but how long can these fires last? The Malibu Fire in 2018 started November 8, 2018, and was not fully contained until November 21, 2018. That fire burned just shy of 100,000 acres. Link here. The current Palisades Fire has burned about 16,000 acres. Another night of severe fires is still ahead of us.
6:11 p.m. PT, January 8, 2025. Literally breaking now: a fifth fire break outs. Near the Hollywood sign.
- in the Hollywood Hills being dubbed the Sunset Fire.
- Runyon Canyon: right in the center of the Hollywood Hills
- West Hollywood, north side
- one of the more densely populated areas of Los Angeles
- an iconic spot; huge tourist destination
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Original Post With Updates
No Longer Being Updated -- January 10, 2025
Fires began overnight, January 7, 2025 — January 8, 2025. Wind gusts to nearly 100 mph set all-time records. Officials had planned / pre-positioned for one or two fires, never expected four fires. Did not have resources to fight four fires.
California fires:
- 0% controlled: first three fires at time of original post.
- three more hours until daylight (at time of original post, 3:36 a.m. PT, January 8, 2025)
- high winds won't begin to die down for several more hours
- peak wind hours right now (posted 3:36 a.m. PT, January 8, 2025)
- Starlink absolutely critical for emergency services, news outlets, residents
- Starlink, wholly owned by SpaceX. Is it time for an EMX (Elon Musk ETF)?
- lack of brush clearance probably number one factor for loss of property once fires in California start
- something that's been known for decades; was mentioned this morning by reporters noting which neighborhoods took biggest hits
- question
whether there is adequate water; Fire Department spokesmen say there is
no shortage, but on the ground, some homeowners suggesting something
else
- later: official Palisades fire department stated that
hydrants at the. higher level did fail / run out of water, but it was
for various causes, all of which could have been mitigated had the
agencies taken appropriate action since the last major fire, lessons
learned in 2011
- mayor of Palisades has not yet returned from her
trip to Ghana; at 10:59 a.m. CT, January 8, 2025, it was stated she was
on her last leg home, having departed DFW this morning.
- many, many big stories coming out of the Palisades fire
- one
of the biggest fire breaks breached: the fire jumped the Pacific Coast
Highway (PCH); reached the beach; took out historic sites, including the
Reel Inn
- cars and at least one structure on the sand / on the beach were set on fire!
- major fires now, the first three occurred within hours of each other, late January 7, 2025:
- Eaton Canyon:
- north of Los Angeles, north of Pasadena; Altadena.
- Hearst fire:
- "the 210" and "the 5":
- Sylmar to Santa Clara; northwest of Lost Angeles
- Sylmar fire: has been burning about six hours; began 10:00 p.m. local time, January 7, 2025
- lots of livestock, particularly horses
- broke out where "the 5" meets "the 410" and the"the 210"
- Palisades:
- the one we're hearing the most about; west of Los Angeles;
- Woodley:
- fire, added 9:31 a.m. PST, January 8, 2025
- Sepulveda Valley, small fire; northwest corner of where "the 101" meets "the 405."
- apparently contained
- Sunset fire:
- added January 8, 2025, 6: 11 p.m. PT
- Kenneth fire (West Hills fire):
- fire added, afternoon, January 9, 2025
- in Calabasa area; Mountain View Estates area;
- looks like fire fighters have it in control before it reached any structures;
- Foothills fire
- posted 8:11 p.m. PT, January 9, 2024
- 210 and 118
- a spot fire
- San Fernando Valley, just south of Sylmar
- looks like fire under the freeway set by homeless
- copy-cat fire started by homeless
