Rain and dangerous winds offer comfort and concern to fire-ravaged California
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‘Critical fire conditions’ expected across region while much-needed rain raises fear of toxic ash runoff. Parched southern California was forecast to face more dangerous winds on Wednesday but could get some needed rain this weekend, easing fears for another round of deadly wildfires while raising the possibility of challenges like toxic ash runoff.
Los Angeles officials were preparing for that prospect even as some residents were allowed to return to the devastated Pacific Palisades and Altadena areas. Firefighters extinguished small blazes that broke out during gusty weather expected to last through Thursday.
“We’re going to see another round of critical fire conditions across southern California,” Todd Hall, a National Weather Service meteorologist, said on Wednesday morning. “At this point, it sounds like a broken record.”. The Los Angeles mayor, Karen Bass, issued an executive order on Tuesday to expedite cleanup efforts in burn areas and mitigate the environmental impacts of fire-related pollutants. She ordered crews to remove vegetation, shore up hillsides, install barriers and reinforce roads ahead of the possible weekend rain, which could create mud and debris flows.
Experts have warned that toxic threats may lurk within the disaster areas. The ashes of homes and cars may contain remnants of a multitude of potentially hazardous materials, including lead, battery acid, arsenic and carcinogens found in plastic, used in their construction. Meanwhile, wildfires increase the risk of mudslides by making a landscape vulnerable to swift erosion in the event of a rainstorm, Joshua West, a professor of earth sciences at the University of Southern California, told the Guardian last week. In January 2018, for example, heavy storms hitting an area in Montecito that had burned in the weeks before triggered a mudslide that killed 23.
