Another day of ferocious winds forecast for Southern California
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A second day of ferocious winds were forecast for Tuesday in Southern California where firefighters remained on alert and extreme fire weather raised the risk of new wildfires two weeks after two major blazes still burning in the Los Angeles area sparked.
Gusts could peak at 70 mph (113 kph) along the coast and 100 mph (160 kph) in the mountains and foothills during extreme fire weather that is expected to last through Tuesday morning. The National Weather Service issued a warning of a “ particularly dangerous situation ” for parts of Los Angeles, Ventura and San Diego counties from Monday afternoon through Tuesday morning due to low humidity and damaging Santa Ana winds.
“The conditions are ripe for explosive fire growth should a fire start,” said Andrew Rorke, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard. On Monday, Los Angeles fire crews quickly put out a small brush fire that broke out south of the iconic triple-domed Griffith Observatory. A man suspected of starting the fire was taken into custody, said David Cuellar, a Los Angeles Police Department spokesman. Firefighters also quickly extinguished a brush fire along Interstate 405 in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Granada Hills that temporarily closed the northbound lanes.
Farther south, fire crews aggressively fought a blaze that also sparked Monday afternoon in the city of Poway, in San Diego County, and stopped its forward progress. Former Vice President Kamala Harris, and her husband Doug Emhoff, flew to Los Angeles after attending President Donald Trump's inauguration and met with firefighters, volunteers and victims of the Eaton Fire in Altadena.
