Firefighters are hoping for a break Friday from the fierce winds that have fueled massive blazes in the Los Angeles area, killing 10 people, obliterating whole neighborhoods and setting the nation’s second-largest city on edge.
On Thursday afternoon, the Kenneth Fire started in the San Fernando Valley. It moved into neighboring Ventura County, but a large and aggressive response by firefighters stopped the flames from spreading.
The fires have burned more than 10,000 homes and other structures since Tuesday, when they first began popping up around a densely populated, 25-mile (40-kilometer) expanse north of downtown Los Angeles. No cause has been identified yet for the largest fires.
Here’s the latest:
Drone collision grounds firefighting plane
A firefighting plane had to be grounded Thursday after it was struck by a drone flown by a civilian, the Los Angeles County Fire Department said. Nobody was injured.
It’s a federal crime to fly a drone during firefighting.
Some journalists covering the fires have lost their homes to them
NBC News reporter Jacob Soboroff didn’t know what to expect when he turned his SUV onto the Pacific Palisades street where he grew up.
What he found on Wednesday were smoldering ruins where his childhood home had stood. Only the remnants of a chimney and brick wall remained. It was among the countless number of buildings destroyed by the wildfires in the Los Angeles area, where Soboroff is one of many journalists covering the story — and living it.
His own tale, told across several NBC News platforms Wednesday and Thursday, broke the so-called “fourth wall” and gave viewers an intimate experience of what the tragedy felt like.
▶ Read more on how the wildfires have impacted Soboroff and other
National Guard troops on the ground in Altadena
National Guard troops were patrolling the streets of Altadena before dawn on Friday after being called in to help protect property in the fire evacuation zone.
Troops in camouflage were posted at intersections in the city hard-hit by the Eaton Fire near Jeeps, Humvees and other military vehicles.
At least 20 arrests have been made for looting and other thefts in areas where the fire raged.
Los Angeles County officials say they plan to put an overnight curfew in place that would make it easier to make arrests.
Australia ‘stands ready to provide support’ to help battle Los Angeles blazes
“We haven’t had any requests for further support. But Australia always stands ready to provide support to our friends in times of need,” Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese Albanese told Australian Broadcasting Corp. in the west coast city of Perth on Friday.
“One of the issues that we have, of course, is we do need to be cognizant of the fact that this is our fire season as well,” he added.
The California fires come at the peak of Australia’s fire season.
Earth records its hottest year ever in 2024
Earth recorded its hottest year ever in 2024, with such a big jump that the planet temporarily passed a major climate threshold, several weather monitoring agencies announced on Friday.
Last year’s global average temperature easily passed 2023’s record heat and kept pushing even higher. It surpassed the long-term warming limit of 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit ) since the late 1800s that was called for by the 2015 Paris climate pact, according to the European Commission’s Copernicus Climate Service, the United Kingdom’s Meteorology Office and Japan’s weather agency.
The European team calculated 1.6 degrees Celsius (2.89 degrees Fahrenheit) of warming. Japan found 1.57 degrees Celsius (2.83 degrees Fahrenheit) and the British 1.53 degrees Celsius (2.75 degrees Fahrenheit) in releases of data coordinated to early Friday morning European time.
▶ Read more about what this could mean for the climate in the future
What ignited the deadly California wildfires? Investigators consider an array of possibilities
Investigators are considering an array of possible ignition sources for the huge fires that have killed at least 10 people and destroyed thousands of homes and businesses in the Los Angeles area.
While lightning is the most common source of fires in the U.S., according to the National Fire Protection Association, investigators were able to rule that out quickly. There were no reports of lightning in the Palisades area or the terrain around the Eaton fire, which started in east Los Angeles County and has also destroyed hundreds of homes.
The next two most common causes: fires intentionally set, and those sparked by utility lines.
▶ Read more about what may have caused the fires
