A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
The fires have scorched through parts of Los Angeles that, combined, are a little bit bigger than the size of St. Louis, Missouri. And everyone in Los Angeles is bracing for possibly more extreme fire weather because high winds are in the forecast for today and tomorrow. Lori Moore-Merrell is the U.S. fire administrator for the Federal Emergency Management Agency. She oversees efforts to fight fires like these and was recently in Los Angeles. Lori, how can FEMA prepare for the winds that are expected to arrive this morning? Has enough been done to maybe keep things somewhat under control?
LORI MOORE-MERRELL: You know, I think that the local departments and all of the mutual aid partners are ready for this. They are continuously fighting these fires. We've got large numbers - thousands - of firefighters that have descended - not just from U.S. firefighters, but now Mexico and Canada are on the ground, as well. And so the numbers of firefighters are allowing them to have a little bit of respite in shifts. And so our firefighters are exhausted, as you might imagine, but they are prepared. They know what's coming. And they're using the window they have even now to get these fires contained so that when the winds come up, that they can hopefully suppress any new ignitions.
MARTÍNEZ: So when that wind comes up - because it likely is going to come up and start - what's the biggest challenge for them?
MOORE-MERRELL: The biggest challenge will be any new ignition and holding down the containment that they have. They've got good, strong fire lines, good retardant lines around these fires. They continue to work on that, particularly on the Palisades fire, which has been particularly difficult due to heavy, heavy brush just in the interface area. And so they will continue to work these fires. Hopefully, no new ignitions. But you can see that we've had over eight fires, and so these were all separate ignitions. If there is a new ignition, they will be prepared to get on it quickly, contain it quickly, while they continue to fight the fires that are ongoing.
MARTÍNEZ: And you mentioned Palisades is the more trickier fire that's out there. Why? I mean, you mentioned the brush, but is it that much more difficult to contain than the others?
MOORE-MERRELL: This one has been particularly difficult because of the heavy, heavy brush that is just right on the edge of that particular mountain there. And so it has burned into the community. It went up and through a valley and started back up a mountain. It got to a ridge line. They were able to hold it at one of the ridge lines, but the brush there has been so heavy, so the smoke has been particularly heavy.
And so ongoing, these are some of the things that we are going to have to discuss, is the thinning of this - having prescribed fire on the ground so that we can reduce the fuel load. The fuel load in these fires is astronomical. And it's not just the brush, though. It is heavy-structure fuel load because this has been an urban conflagration, not an interface fire in particular. Even though it may have started in the interface, it is in the suburban communities, the urban communities. And so this is a full-board conflagration with structure-to-structure fire spread, which - that's why this is so difficult. When you have that heavy a fuel load and structures burning, now the fires are much more intense. And that, coupled with wind, is how we get that blowtorch effect that the firefighters struggled to get in front of in the early hours. They are now working, obviously, to contain it.
MARTÍNEZ: I know FEMA has hazard mitigation planning for earthquakes, floods and hurricanes. But how much might FEMA now have to be just as involved in fire damage prevention?
MOORE-MERRELL: That is continuing to scale. Obviously, FEMA is very good at, as you said, major storms, hurricanes, floods, wind. Fire is coming along because we realize that this is the threat. And with the fuel load across the nation, we have not focused properly with putting fire back on the lands. We stopped that years ago. And if we don't get some beneficial fire on the lands to reduce some of the fuel load, this is going to continue.
This literally could happen in any community across the nation. We saw it in the Marshall fire in 2021 in Colorado. We saw it in the Paradise fire in 2018. And we saw it in Lahaina in 2023. So these are conflagrations. These are not wildland fires with trees burning. These are structure-to-structure fire spread - heavy, heavy fuel load and heavy, toxic smoke and fumes that come out of these fires. So we're much better to get ahead of this and prepare, build to code, make sure we're retrofitting structures to code. And so this is how we're going to get in front of this, and we have to be able to prepare ahead of ignitions.
MARTÍNEZ: Lori Moore-Merrell is the U.S. fire administrator for FEMA. Lori, thank you.
MOORE-MERRELL: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
