Southern California under ‘extreme fire’ warnings as dry, windy conditions spread 2 wildfires
Etienne Laurent/AFP via Getty Images
(MALIBU, Calif.) — Several Southern California counties are under “extremely critical” wildfire warnings as warm, dry temperatures and strong winds create volatile fire conditions.
On Wednesday, the National Weather Service issued a rare red flag warning for Los Angeles and Ventura Counties alerting of an “extreme fire risk” from Malibu into the San Gabriel Mountains, north of Los Angeles, where winds could gust near 100 mph.
“A very strong, widespread, and long-duration Santa Ana wind event will bring widespread extremely critical fire weather conditions to many areas of Los Angeles and Ventura counties Wednesday into Thursday,” according to the NWS warning.
Named after Southern California’s Santa Ana Canyon, the region’s Santa Ana winds bring blustery, dry and warm wind that blows out of the desert, drying out vegetation and increasing wildfire danger.
As of Wednesday, at least two wind-driven fires have already broken out in Southern California.
Mountain Fire
The fast-moving Mountain Fire in Ventura County has spread over 1,000 acres, prompting evacuation orders, threatening structures and leaving several people injured, according to local fire officials.
Due to extreme wind conditions, fixed-wing aircraft are unable to assist in firefighting efforts, according to the Ventura Fire Department, which said ground crews, helicopters and mutual aid resources are “actively working to protect lives and property.”
Evacuation orders are in effect for Walnut Ave to Balcom Canyon Road and North Highway 118 to the ridgeline and west to Saticoy County Club in Ventura County, according to CAL Fire.
Broad Fire
A second wildfire erupted in Los Angeles County’s Malibu area Wednesday — named the Broad Fire — and has burned at least 50 acres southwest of South Malibu Canyon Road and the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) in Malibu, according to CAL Fire.
Local fire officials have warned residents to prepare for potential evacuations and the PCH has been closed in both directions between Webb Way and Corral Canyon.
Santa Ana wind conditions
The long-duration Santa Ana wind event will reach its peak on Wednesday, becoming moderate on Thursday, then tailing off to light offshore winds on Friday.
Northeast winds moving 20 to 40 mph with gusts up to 60 mph are expected across the canyons and passes of Southern California through Wednesday, with higher winds in the more wind-prone areas.
Another surge of wind is expected to peak late Wednesday night through Thursday morning with widespread northeast winds of 20 to 30 mph with gusts to 50 mph before weakening considerably by Thursday afternoon.
(LOS ANGELES) — The man accused of hijacking a Los Angeles Metro bus, fatally shooting a passenger and leading police on an hourlong chase last week is now facing a slew of charges, including murder and kidnapping, prosecutors announced Monday.
Los Angeles County DA George Gascon announced 12 counts against the suspect, 51-year-old Lamont Campbell.
The charges include murder, carjacking, kidnapping during carjacking, assault with a semiautomatic weapon, attempted murder, robbery, kidnapping, felony evading and felon in possession of a firearm, according to the DA’s office.
Campbell faces a maximum sentence of 90 years in prison.
The incident began at approximately 12:46 a.m. on Sept. 25 when the Los Angeles Police Department received radio calls about a disturbance on a bus in the area of Manchester Street and Figueroa Street in southern Los Angeles, Deputy Chief Donald Graham said in a briefing last week.
“The officers quickly learned from the passengers that there was an armed suspect on the Metro bus. They attempted to stop the bus but were unsuccessful, later discovering that the armed suspect had instructed the driver not to stop,” Graham said.
Multiple spike strips were deployed by officers during the pursuit, deflating several tires on the bus and ultimately causing it to stop, according to LAPD.
“SWAT personnel quickly observed that a victim was down inside the bus, formulated a tactical plan, and made entry without delay. The suspect was taken into custody without further incident,” authorities said.
Officers immediately began to render medical aid to the victim who was suffering from gunshot wounds. The male victim was taken to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Campbell is being held at a local jail in lieu of $2 million bail.
(NEW YORK) — A former OceanGate employee got emotional while remembering the people killed in the catastrophic implosion of the company’s Titan submersible during a hearing on the incident Tuesday.
“I had the privilege of knowing the explorers whose lives were lost,” Amber Bay, former OceanGate director of administration, said during the U.S. Coast Guard hearing. “There’s not a day that passes that I don’t think of them, their families and their loss. It’s been a difficult year for them, for all of us.”
OceanGate co-founder and CEO Stockton Rush, French explorer Paul Henri Nargeolet, British businessman Hamish Harding, Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son, Suleman, were killed when the Titan imploded during a deep-sea voyage to the Titanic wreckage in June 2023.
Bay said she believes the teenager was the youngest person to ever dive on the Titan, and that there were “no true misgivings” about his age ahead of the dive.
“Stockton had spoke to the family directly on a few occasions and met with them personally,” she said. “So there was no concerns once they had been spoken with and understood. Everyone understood and was ready and excited to dive.”
Bay started working for OceanGate in December 2018. She said part of her duties included the care of the “mission specialists” — what the company called those who paid to go on dives — during expeditions.
She described a mission specialist, who paid $250,000 for the Titan dive, as someone who was “curious about deep-sea exploration” and understood that “this wasn’t a luxury trip.”
“As Stockton put it, there was no chocolate on the pillow,” she said. “They were invited to be involved and take an active role as much as possible as they wanted to.”
Towing concerns
Bay said she was present for all Titan missions in 2021 and 2022, as well as the first three in 2023 — missing the fourth and fifth, which would turn out to be the last, due to a family obligation.
OceanGate utilized the Horizon Arctic as its support ship in 2021 and 2022, though the vessel was no longer available in 2023 so they started utilizing the Polar Prince, she said. The 2023 missions started earlier in the year than previous missions due to the Polar Prince’s availability, she said.
Asked if she had any concerns about towing the Titan the 370 nautical miles to the Titanic wreck site, she said, “Certainly.”
“I think anybody would have, you know, concerns that this was going to be more challenging and more difficult in some aspects,” she said. “Stockton assured us that he was up for the challenge and the team was up for the challenge.”
She noted differences in the weather and water conditions on the 2023 missions compared to previous years.
“The seas were much higher than earlier on, than I remember being on the Horizon Arctic,” she said. “It was much colder. There’s a lot of rain.”
Asked if the Titan was ever damaged during the towing that year, she said she believed the vessel lost or damaged a fairing — a plastic cover that goes over the sub, “just like a car bumper.” She said on one or two occasions the platform also took on water and started to list.
Bay refutes prior witness testimony
A former OceanGate contractor who testified during the hearing last week, Antonella Wilby, told investigators about a conversation she had with Bay about a 2022 dive, during which passengers heard a loud bang as the Titan was ascending.
Wilby testified that when she brought up a customer’s concerns about the loud bang to Bay, Bay told her, “You have a bad attitude. You don’t have an explorer mindset. You know, we’re innovative and we’re cowboys, and a lot of people can’t handle that.”
Asked to explain those remarks on Tuesday, Bay refuted the testimony.
“I don’t believe that either of those statements is exactly what I had said,” she said.
She said Wilby’s concerns were “looked into and notated,” though she had no knowledge of what she was specifically referencing.
Bay said she did not deal with safety concerns and would refer people to the head of engineering, the director of operations and Rush.
“I did ask her if she did have concerns, to bring those up to those particular people,” Bay said.
She said she believed OceanGate staff felt comfortable raising safety concerns with Rush.
“I wasn’t witness to those types of meetings, but I was witness to people saying, ‘Oh yeah, I talked to Stockton about that today,'” she said.
OceanGate’s financial problems
At the beginning of 2023, OceanGate’s finances were “getting very tight,” and employees were asked to have their paychecks deferred once, Bay said.
“We were looking to make ends meet, and if we were able to defer our paychecks, there was an offer that Stockton had derived — I believe with an attorney or whomever — that we could delay our paychecks and be paid a small amount of interest and recaptured at a specific time,” she said.
She said she and Rush delayed their paychecks once.
Phil Brooks, the former engineering director of OceanGate, testified on Monday that he left the company in February 2023 in part due to the financial issues.
“It was clear that the company was economically very stressed,” he said.
OceanGate suspended all exploration and commercial operations after the deadly implosion.
The two-week hearing on the incident is scheduled to run through Friday.
(NEW YORK) — Snow and rain are in the forecast for some parts of the U.S. as travelers hit the road and head to the airport for Thanksgiving.
Here’s your weather forecast for the holiday week:
Wednesday
Heavy snow is hitting the Colorado Rocky Mountains on Wednesday.
Avalanche danger is high due to the combination of heavy snow and strong winds gusting up to 55 mph.
Rain is targeting the Interstate 70 corridor in Kansas and Missouri on Wednesday.
The rain will move into Illinois and Indiana in the afternoon. By the evening, the rain will push into Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee.
This storm will be expanding overnight as it heads east for Thanksgiving.
Meanwhile, the entire South is enjoying well above average temperatures in the 70s and 80s. Houston could near its daily record high of 84 degrees.
Thanksgiving
Spectators heading to the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City should bring umbrellas and raincoats, as the parade will be rainy with temperatures in the 40s. The breeze could reach 15 mph.
The rain will stop in Washington, D.C., by noon and in New York City by 4 p.m. The rain will continue in Boston until about 9 p.m.
Meanwhile, snow will be falling Thursday morning in Ohio, Pennsylvania and upstate New York.
By the afternoon and evening, the heavy snow will reach Maine and the Green and White mountains in Vermont and New Hampshire.
The rain and snow from this storm will be done by Friday morning.
Friday
Friday will be dry and tranquil across the country.
But temperatures will fall below average across the Northeast, the Midwest and the South — and it’ll stay chilly through the weekend and into next week.
Saturday and Sunday
Weekend snow is possible in Missouri and Kentucky, while lake effect snow is forecast for the Great Lakes.
Some parts of upstate New York could see 1 to 3 feet of snow through Monday morning.
About 6 to 12 inches of snow is possible at the Buffalo Bills’ Orchard Park, New York, stadium by the time the Bills host the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday.
