The Wire - Janaury 13, 2025

//The Wire//2300Z January 13, 2025//
//ROUTINE//
//BLUF: CALIFORNIA WILDFIRES PARTIALLY CONTAINED, HIGH RISKS REMAIN DUE TO WEATHER FORECAST INDICATING HIGH WINDS.//

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-HomeFront-

California: Red Flag fire warnings remain in effect as the potential for high winds remains a risk for the next few days. As of this morning, the Kenneth, Lidia, Woodley, Archer, Olivia, and Sunset fires have all been contained. The Palisades Fire continues to spread, and remains 13% contained. The Eaton Fire was reported as being 33% contained as of this morning. Evacuation zones remain in effect for both the Palisades and Eaton fires, which has led to conflict among locals looking to return to their homes. However, as the fire danger remains high, many evacuation zones will probably remain in effect for several more days.

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Analyst Comments: Throughout Los Angeles, looting and arson incidents remain frequent and largely random. Despite most roads and ingress routes into the evacuation zones being closed to through traffic, malign actors have largely not been discouraged from mass theft. The theft problems have compounded evacuation efforts in many areas, as many people do not want to evacuate their homes if they know looters will move in immediately after they leave. Of note, the LA County Sheriffs Office has confirmed that so far at least 30x people have been arrested for looting, including an unknown number of looters that disguised themselves as firefighters in order to gain entry to evacuation zones.

Regarding recovery operations, some aid groups are beginning to organize disaster relief efforts. As Los Angeles is a regional hub for many social welfare programs, most of these programs continue in the unaffected areas. However, real-world, disaster-specific aid is also beginning to form, largely by private companies. For instance, Elon Musk has pledged to deploy a small fleet of Cybertrucks with free wifi access throughout the city. The LA Regional Food Bank is also seeking volunteers and donations as their resources likely will be depleted by the increased demand for services.
As the fires are still burning, and likely to flare up if the weather forecast is accurate in the assessment of high winds this week, actual boots-on-ground professional disaster relief operations are largely only being carried out by Team Rubicon at the moment, who are already deployed to Malibu and seeking volunteers to help with food and supply distribution (details on how to help in the links below).

Analyst: S2A1
Research: https://publish.obsidian.md/s2underground
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