Elon Musk has a history of involving himself, often controversially, in crises. In recent years, the billionaire has promised to fund fixes to contaminated water at homes in Flint, Michigan; developed a submarine to rescue trapped children from a submerged cave in Thailand (it wasn’t used); and experimented with building ventilators for Covid patients during … Read more
John Ward and his wife, Dawn Holder, were already packed and ready to go on Tuesday afternoon. The fire was then a 30-minute drive away, in the Pacific Palisades, and there were no evacuation orders. But the winds were fierce, and their mobile home park in the suburb of Sylmar had burned to the ground … Read more
Monument Street, which cuts through the center of Pacific Palisades, tells two starkly different stories of the fire that has engulfed the community. On one side, lots where multimillion-dollar houses once stood are now ash and rubble. On the other, an outdoor shopping mall whose tenants include Chanel, the men’s clothier Buck Mason and an … Read more
Governor Gavin Newsom has signed a broad executive order that aims to make it easier to rebuild after the fires by suspending California’s costly and time-consuming environmental review process for homeowners and businesses whose property was damaged or destroyed. The order is likely to be the first of several permit streamlining measures issued by state, … Read more
The Palisades fire continues to challenge firefighters. The fire’s northern edge is the area of biggest concern, from Mandeville Canyon on the northeastern side to Monte Nido on the northwestern edge and the Topanga area and Sylvia Park that fall between, said Robert Clark, a fire behavior analyst for Cal Fire on Incident Management Team … Read more
After the first rally in her campaign for mayor of Los Angeles in 2021, Karen Bass spoke candidly about what she saw as a potential drawback to the job — a lack of world travel and involvement in global affairs. Ms. Bass was accustomed to circling the globe as a Democratic member of Congress and … Read more
Monument Street, which cuts through the center of Pacific Palisades, tells two starkly different stories of the fire that has engulfed the community. On one side, lots where multimillion-dollar houses once stood are now ash and rubble. On the other, an outdoor shopping mall whose tenants include Chanel, the men’s clothier Buck Mason and an … Read more
The wildfires that began in and around Los Angeles last week spread with terrifying speed, forcing many people to flee the flames with little warning. As firefighters work to contain the blazes, the disaster serves as a reminder of the dangers of climate change, which has been found to increase both the severity and frequency … Read more
Winds picked up again early on Sunday across Southern California, reaching close to 70 miles an hour near the western and eastern San Gabriel Mountains and the Highway 14 corridor. By the afternoon the winds are forecast to ease for a while, giving firefighters a reprieve to battle devastating wildfires. But that reprieve might not … Read more
The Palisades fire has decimated Malibu, destroying around a third of the coastal city’s eastern flank and much of a picturesque stretch of Pacific Coast Highway, officials said late Saturday. “What you see is extraordinary,” Jacqui Irwin, a member of the California State Assembly representing the Malibu district, told a community meeting. “It is nothing … Read more