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California is on Fire From Monterey to San Diego

California is on Fire From Monterey to San Diego

Another big blaze ignites just north of LA, San Diego firefighters beat back 5 wildfires in a day, the Moss Landing lithium battery plant fire is compared to Three Mile Island, and battle to contain Palisades and Eaton Fires continue.

Since my last update on the Greater Los Angeles Fires, a massive new wildfire has been burning out of control in an area a little north of Los Angeles.

That blaze is now called the Hughes Fire, and although it has not reached urban areas, authorities have issued an evacuation order for nearby communities, including roughly 18,000 people in the town of Castaic.

At about 10:45 a.m. on Wednesday, a huge column of smoke was spotted in the wilderness near Santa Clarita, California, prompting first responders to request four aircraft and 50 fire engines, according to the fire monitoring organization Watch Duty.

That initial request indicated a fire that was already nearly out of control, said Jacob Weigley, Wildfire Coordinator for Central Pierce County, Washington, who has been in contact with colleagues near the scene and monitoring the fire’s spread.

“That one’s gonna go nuclear. It’s big,” Weigley told The Post.“You know what the fuels are capable of doing in that area right now, and what the wind does is going to be a big deal for this,” he added, referring to the recent high winds and dry conditions that sparked the deadly and ongoing LA wildfires earlier this month.

Presently, the Hughes Fire has burned over 9,000 acres, is uncontained, and has forced the evacuation of over 31,000 in the area. Parts of the I-5 were closed as part of the response efforts.

To the south of LA, in my hometown of San Diego, firefighters spent yesterday and today battling five separate wildfires. While most have been contained and evacuation orders lifted, San Diegans are nervous after watching the horror in Los Angeles. One of the brush fires was by a densely populated area next to the iconic Fashion Valley Mall.



The Moss Landing Lithium Battery Fire Described as a “Three Mile Island” Event; Newsom Initiates Investigation.

Let’s look a little further north now. I reported that the world’s largest lithium battery plant at Moss Landing near Monterey, California. After several days of burning, the blaze has currently been extinguished.

However, some officials describe it as a “Three Mile Island” event because of the potential chemical contamination and environmental concerns.

Officials said the fire was largely out as of late Friday morning during a press conference, but it flared up significantly for a few hours that afternoon before dying down again.

At the press conference, Monterey County Supervisor Glenn Church called the incident a “Three-Mile Island event” for the industry, referencing the 1979 partial meltdown at a Pennsylvania nuclear power plant, the worst nuclear accident in U.S. history.

“I think that this is, uh, can best be described as a worst-case scenario of a disaster that’s happened here. Nobody really predicted anything on this line,” said Church. “This is really a lot more than just a fire, it’s a wake-up call for this industry. And if we’re going to be moving ahead with sustainable energy we need to have safe battery systems in place.”

Meanwhile, California Governor Gavin Newsom is calling for an investigation into the origin of the fire. I will have another report on the aftermath of this fire in a separate report later this week. The Monterey County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a resolution to proclaim a local state of emergency to address the various concerns surrounding the Vistra Energy battery power storage facility fire.

I feel Dr. Wielicki’s pain:

Palisades Fire

The Palisades are currently 70% contained and have burned over 23,000 acres. Officials indicate that 6,662 structures have been destroyed and 890 damaged and that 11 people are dead from the blaze.

In news related to this fire, two people from Oregon were arrested for reportedly impersonating firefighters and using an illegitimate fire truck in an evacuation zone. According to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, police officers patrolling the area on Saturday noticed a fire truck that “did not appear to be legitimate.”

Eaton Fire

The Eaton Fire is 95% contained and has burned over 14,000 acres. Officials have so far tallied 9,418 structures destroyed and 1,073 damaged, and have indicated 17 are dead. Additionally, nine firefighter injuries have been recorded.

Personal Observation

I am currently going through my house, setting aside some of the artwork and books I would take with me if we have an evacuation overnight. While not likely at the present time, I am taking no chances.

It is heartening to see my Californians beginning to see the fallacy of “climate change” and how it has been used as an excuse by politicians not to do the hard work related to urban planning, forest management, and infrastructure development and maintenance.

President Donald Trump is truly going to get a warm reception in California this week…just not the good kind.

Sadly, Sacramento retains its toxic set of priorities.

#Resistance theater >>> wildfire aftermath.

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Comments

The timing of these fires, coming right at the end of the vile “Biden-Harris” Administration’s wretched, corrosive and destructive tenure, couldn’t be more apt. A stunning and unmistakable demonstration of California Dhimmi-crat apparatchiks’ appalling incompetence, dereliction of duty, narcissism and indefensible focus on assorted coastal, leftist elitist policy distractions/obsessions (e.g., “green” energy/”climate change;” trannies; illegal aliens), instead of on the nuts and bolts of local problems and proactive prescriptions (e.g., crime; prescriptive burns and brush-clearing; etc.).

Actually, this is probably the first fire that does have anything to do with ‘climate change’…or, at least the scam that is climate change. This isn’t really a lithium-ion ‘plant.’ It’s a lithium ion grid battery. CA, in its insane quest to ‘green-up’ it’s power production, has constructed a number of these gigantic lithium-ion grid banks where it takes electricity generated by solar or natural gas (I think it’s both at this plant, but am not certain) and then attempts to ‘store’ excess production to meet peak demand during other parts of other parts of the day. Li-Io batteries are, of course, always at risk of fire. When you put millions of these batteries in a location and then pump them with Megawatts of production every day, it’s a ticking time bomb. It’s not a question of ‘if’ it’s going to catch fire, but rather, when is it going to catch fire.

I believe this plant is operated by LG Energy Solution, a gigantic Korean battery manufacturer and battery solutions company.

    George S in reply to TargaGTS. | January 23, 2025 at 8:01 am

    I kinda disagree… If it wasn’t for bowing to the “climate change” gods there would not be a need for these batteries.

    Eddie Baby in reply to TargaGTS. | January 23, 2025 at 9:33 am

    There used to be a natural gas powerplant at that location. I never heard of any fires during that time. There have been two battery fires in the last three years.

      TargaGTS in reply to Eddie Baby. | January 23, 2025 at 11:11 am

      There will continue to be fires there so long as there’s a grid of batteries at the facility. There’s a reason the FAA doesn’t allow passengers to carry any electrical device onboard that has a batter larger than 99 mH…and this is the reason: they predictably catch fire and are practically impossible to extinguish.

      Eddie Baby in reply to Eddie Baby. | January 24, 2025 at 11:43 am

      I was wrong. There have been four fires in the last three years. So much for reducing that carbon footprint.

    JohnSmith100 in reply to TargaGTS. | January 23, 2025 at 11:18 am

    If these are actually Lithium Ion, that chemistry is more prone to catch fire. I had a lithium ion 40 Ah catch fir in ny living room, at least 20 years ago. Because I understood the risk all my end tables were Oak with slate inlays, and all shelves we charged on were metal with ceramic tile covers.

    As a result of this I did not lose my house.

    Today I am using mostly LiFePo4 batteries. About the only way to make them burn is by puncture them with a metal bar, even then they only burn briefly.

    My point is that there are many battery chemistries, some much safer than others, and there are many more close to commercialization.

The feckless, incompetence of CA leaders on full public display. ‘Trump Admin and his supporters/surrogates are bad people/Nazis who mist be stopped from governing …oh and Trump Admin please give us federal taxpayer $ and please try and clean up the disaster we.created’.

E Howard Hunt | January 23, 2025 at 7:57 am

Baby, it’s time for a Jose Feliciano concert.

California has the largest percent of illegal aliens of any state.

How many houses have to burn in California before the state realizes they don’t have enough facilities or funds to take care of millions of people who shouldn’t be there? Will they ever reach the point where they say, “We have to take care of our citizens first.”?

    Paula in reply to Paula. | January 23, 2025 at 8:50 am

    Perhaps Bishop Budde, the nation’s greatest illegal advocate, will volunteer to come and help.

    Lucifer Morningstar in reply to Paula. | January 23, 2025 at 10:38 am

    They are depending on the federal government to provide the funds to take care of the illegals in their state. And now Newsom will also go begging hat in hand to Congress for the billions it will take to rebuild Los Angeles and the surrounding areas affected by the fires. Of course, it will be rebuilding on California’s terms and the majority of those people who lost their homes and businesses will be mired in red tape for years if not decades preventing them from ever rebuilding.

      Newsome is already giddy about “LA 2.0”. How much you want to bet it will devolve into no rebuilding of houses near the ocean, forced multi family dwellings to include low income housing, bus and rail transport to all the areas so the low income and friends can get around, more regulation of what type of yard you can have, building standards etc.

    ThePrimordialOrderedPair in reply to Paula. | January 23, 2025 at 11:01 am

    Silly question. The leftists in the California government hate American citizens. They have been bringing the illegal invaders in in order to help drive the Americans out.

    JohnSmith100 in reply to Paula. | January 23, 2025 at 11:26 am

    Think about how much money they can save by deporting their illegals.

Perhaps DJT could help CA fight his administration by not burdening CA with any money in response to these fires?

Re the firefighter imposters, it sounds like the police are profiling fire trucks. That’s probably illegal in California.

JackinSilverSpring | January 23, 2025 at 10:17 am

Billions for (un)sustainable energy and EVs, and a pittance for forest fire prevention. My understanding is that the current forest fires have released more emissions into the atmosphere than CA eliminated in its march to reduce fossil fuel usage.

StillNeedToDrainTheSwamp | January 23, 2025 at 10:21 am

The San Diego area fires are definitely deliberately being started by one or more individuals. Thankfully our county responds immediately rather than the 45 minute or longer delay in the Palisades fire.

I hate all the new laws the state legislature passes each year, but we need a law that any and all fires deliberately set be prosecuted as attempted murder.

    In California? Fat chance.

    Texas considers arson (possibly only “arson in the night”) to be deadly force due to the legal supposition that people might be present and sleeping in the structure; therefore such arsonists can legally be addressed with deadly force. It is often cited by self-defense instructors as an example of one of the FEW instances in which lethal force is legally justified for a property crime, and it is an outlier among states. This won’t be coming to California soon.

ThePrimordialOrderedPair | January 23, 2025 at 10:58 am

However, some officials describe it as a “Three Mile Island” event because of the potential chemical contamination and environmental concerns.

There was no contamination (chemical or other) or environmental damage from Three Mile Island.

The leftists are still on their same anti-nuclear jihad from the 1970s … digging up the old propaganda.

Go ahead and convince me the fires are because of climate change and not arsonists and poor management. Go ahead.

    henrybowman in reply to diver64. | January 23, 2025 at 12:07 pm

    Not because of actual climate change, but very definitely because of California’s mania about the climate change issue and their religious beliefs about what causes it.

Its the homeless junkies with mental issues living outdoors. January brings the coldest temps and the strongest winds. This happens every year. It is known issue. They light the fires for heat and it blows up with the wind gusts. Leftists made CA the promise land for homeless junkies. This is the unintended consequences of bad policy decisions under one party rule.

The Laird of Hilltucky | January 23, 2025 at 2:47 pm

I have read that the California economy is the sixth biggest in the world. Why can’t they afford to deal with these disasters on their own? Find that $24 billion that was squandered on homelessness.

    Retired firefighters in LA, who are no longer under employment contract, and are able to speak freely, are saying that if firefighter resources had been properly pre-positioned, that damage could have been mitigated to 20%.

    Most of malibu, and pacific palisades would still be there.

Vote it in, then take what you get. Oh, yeah, that “climate change” thing. Ever heard of planning for what you expect? Happens down here in the Gulf Coast with every annual hurricane season. Y’all might try it in Cali.