By Brett Callwood
The devastation caused by, in particular, the Palisades and Eaton Fires in Los Angeles this week is immeasurable. At the time of writing, 13 deaths have been recorded, and thousands of homes have been lost. The battle against the flames in the face of challenging winds is ongoing, with firefighters putting themselves in harm’s way for hours on end, night after night.
The city of Gardena has obviously been a safe distance from the flames, though it was under a Red Flag Warning for the first couple of days, as the firefighters attempted to get some kind of control over the two major fires, and other smaller fires. That was later lifted, though the situation remains precarious, not least because of the air quality.
There was some panic at 4 p.m. on January 9, when an evacuation warning was erroneously sent out to all of L.A. County, and then another one at 4 a.m. the following morning. The mistake was quickly pointed out, with the Gardena Police Department stating, “At approximately 4 p.m. today, the LA County Fire Department sent an incorrect emergency alert message with an ‘Evacuation Warning.’ The alert is not specific to the City of Gardena, and there currently is no evacuation order in the city.”
“The Gardena Police Department sends heartfelt prayers and concerns to the communities that have been devastated by the recent fires,” wrote GPD Chief Mike Saffell. “To update our Gardena community on the fire events occurring to communities north of us, the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department has requested the assistance of the National Guard to provide critical infrastructure protection and traffic control to areas in and around the fires. There are plans to implement a curfew in those specific areas as well.”
“Announcements regarding the locations of the curfews and specific evacuation areas will be provided and updated by LASD,” he continued. “Currently, there are no evacuation orders for the City of Gardena. The evacuation warning that our Gardena community received earlier today was sent to the entire county. Again, there are no current evacuation orders for Gardena. The Gardena Police Department is fully staffed to deal with any eventualities and is prepared to assist any of our surrounding communities.”
All L.A. schools, including those in Gardena, were closed on Thursday and Friday last week, though most were open again on Monday morning (with the obvious exception of those in evacuation areas).
Anyone with questions or needing information should visit and/or subscribe to:
https://lafd.org/alerts; Alert SouthBay: https://alertsouthbay.com; https://lacounty.gov/emergency.
With many animals also displaced, the Carson/Gardena Animal Care Center posted that, “Due to the ongoing Palisades Fire and Eaton Fire in Los Angeles County, the following shelters are available for animals affected by the evacuation orders. Please note capacity details and staffing information. Large Animals: Lancaster Animal Care Center 5210 W Ave I, Lancaster, CA 93536; Antelope Valley Fair 2551 W Avenue H, Lancaster, CA 93536; Industry Hills Expo 16200 Temple Ave, City of Industry, CA 91744; Capacity for 200 horses; not staffed by DACC; Pomona Fairplex 1101 W Mckinley Ave, Pomona, CA 91768 (Receiving horses only).”
“Small Animals: Baldwin Park Animal Care Center 4275 Elton St, Baldwin Park, CA 91706; Carson Animal Care Center 216 W Victoria St, Gardena, CA 90248; Downey Animal Care Center 11258 Garfield Ave, Downey, CA 90242; Lancaster Animal Care Center 5210 W Ave I, Lancaster, CA 93536; Palmdale Animal Care Center 38550 Sierra Hwy, Palmdale, CA 93550.”
As of Sunday, approximately 105,000 people remained under evacuation orders in all the fire areas, with about 87,000 under evacuation warnings. Officials said the fire areas remain extremely unsafe, with downed power lines, unstable buildings and pockets of fire.
