The tide may finally be turning against the LA fires

“With these winds being very calm this morning, I believe we can actually make some progress, turn around and start building some containment on these fires,” Brent Pasqua, Cal Fire Battalion Chief, said the today show on thursday.

Until now, disaster response has been marred by misinformation and controversy. After some fire hydrants ran dry, President-elect Donald Trump falsely accused California Gov. Gavin Newsom of mismanaging the state’s water supply to save an endangered fish.

City officials have already been able to reach three water reservoirs on hills near the Palisades fire to increase pressure. This allows the tanks to fill more quickly so they can continue to power the hydrants, Stewart says. Each tank can hold 1 million gallons. “We have full-flow hydrants,” she says.

More firefighters began arriving from Utah, Oregon, Arizona, Washington and New Mexico. Several dozen task forces are on the way, according to Stewart, each with five fire engines plus a command vehicle.

Planes started flying again on Wednesday. Twelve helicopters fill huge buckets of water suspended from cables and suck up seawater through snorkels. Six aircraft are also battling the fires, including a pair of “super blades” that glide over the surface of the Pacific Ocean to collect water. Helicopters and shovels drop water on fires, allowing firefighters to get closer and put them out.

Meanwhile, other planes drop fire retardant in front of the inferno, coating the potential fuel with a layer of non-flammable chemicals and slowing its progress. A C-130 cargo plane that Cal Fire acquired from the Coast Guard and retrofitted this summer can drop 4,000 gallons of retardant. This buys firefighters time to dig and bulldoze firebreaks on bare soil.

As the ocean confines the Palisades Fire to the south, responders will try to prevent it from spreading to the east or west. “The real spread will be on the flank,” says Pimlott.

A red flag warning for increased fire risk will remain until Friday, with humidity at just 8-12 percent. California is suffering through an unusually dry winter, with 40 percent of the state in drought conditions.

“Fuels remain critically dry,” Cal Fire’s James Magana said at a Thursday morning briefing. “You can expect to see critical rates of spread, especially on those ridges or those drainages that are aligned with the wind.”

The winds are expected to reverse on Saturday. If firefighters are not ready, the heel of the fire can become front and run north.

Even after they manage to contain the fire in a circle of firebreaks and natural barriers, it will not be the end of the task. Firefighters will have to fight smaller fires within that footprint.

“This is a critical stage to clean up those hot spots or anything that could reignite if the winds pick up again,” says Upton.

Moving forward, the city will have to clean up the debris, restore utilities and analyze the environmental damage before allowing people to return. With canyons depleted of trees and soil-holding vegetation, mudslides can become a threat once the rains return.

Los Angeles will face the prospect of rebuilding destroyed communities. It’s an opportunity to make them less vulnerable to the next fire, says Max Moritz, a wildfire specialist with the University of California Cooperative Extension.

Although in many cases houses are required to be built with fire-resistant materials, California law says nothing about how they must be located. Techniques such as grouping homes together instead of scattering them among trees can make them easier to protect against fire and easier to evacuate, he says.

“That’s part of the hope here is that we can do some of this better, smarter and safer,” says Moritz.