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January 8, 2025

Apocalypse in Los Angeles

By Monica Showalter

It started with a tweet by conservative Hollywood actor James Woods, posting a video of a fire in a Pacific Palisades canyon threatening his neighbor's house, and saying, "Leaving":

Leaving pic.twitter.com/yJDQ8xIhbI

— James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) January 7, 2025

Given the wind seen, I had a bad feeling about it.

Within an hour or two, a flood of tweet videos followed, showing a full blown inferno, with stories about cars jammed in gridlock, and people abandoning their cars to flee on foot. Writer Naomi Wolf, who might have been one of them, or who may have been in a similar incident earlier (I couldn't tell from her tweet), said they fled because they literally couldn't breathe.

The orange smoke that nearly killed me…get far away from it everyone if you can… https://t.co/yzidqrtzd1

— Dr. Naomi Wolf. 8 NYT Bestsellers. DPhil, Poetry. (@naomirwolf) January 8, 2025

Landmarks went up, palm trees caught fire, cars burned, homes burned, streets and streets of homes burned, the Getty Villa containing a massive collection of art and artefacts from antiquity was on and off reported on fire with videos showing flames licking up its hillside, firefighting planes were coming in from Oregon and Canada, with some scooping water from the ocean to drop as fire hydrants ran dry, zero fire fighters anywhere as multi-million dollar mansions went up in flames, the fire jumped highways and other breaks, reports emerged of people trapped in their homes, windspeeds reached 99 miles per hour, and the inferno videos started looking like Lahaina. 

BREAKING: The wildfires in Pacific Palisades, CA are moving so quickly that these two men barely escaped from their home as the fire heads their way.

This is not looking good at all, 0% containment and all aircraft is currently grounded.

Pray for CA 🙏🏻
pic.twitter.com/rOhIHSDRkP

— Liberacrat™️ (@Liberacrat) January 8, 2025

🚨🇺🇸 “OMG OMG”

“That’s a million dollar house - more - OMG”

This is Malibu - one of the wealthiest affluent places on the entire planet, now it’s being burnt to ashes.

Have you ever seen anything like this ever before? pic.twitter.com/XxgzzZ524E

— Concerned Citizen (@BGatesIsaPyscho) January 8, 2025

2 men & a dog trapped in a home surrounded by the #Palisadesfire. Unknown if rescue was made pic.twitter.com/x9uiosv11h

— BreakinNewz (@BreakinNewz01) January 8, 2025

I’m in shock. This is Temescal Canyon, from Sunset right down to PCH. So many memories driving up here. Everything is on fire. There was a parked car on fire. #PalisadesFire pic.twitter.com/y8FvjFL0te

— Brianna Sacks (@bri_sacks) January 8, 2025

Just scooped up this lady trying to cross the gauntlet of fire! #palisadesfire #breakingnews pic.twitter.com/P1L5eP91j7

— FirePhotoGirl (@FirePhotoGirl) January 8, 2025

Devastation all around. I’ve lost count of the number of buildings we’ve seen on fire. This is Radcliffe Ave in Pacific Palisades, CA. #PalisadesFire #PacificPalisades #California pic.twitter.com/RKeuOQyMWG

— Matthew Seedorff (@MattSeedorff) January 8, 2025

Our neighbor’s friend sent this video evacuating our area… pic.twitter.com/n8zLWgi3gR

— James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) January 8, 2025

Why the hell are they still not activating the National Guard?????????

pic.twitter.com/ezOAoyR6uZ

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) January 8, 2025

Los Angeles, today pic.twitter.com/zPntEpizow

— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) January 8, 2025

Woods said he lost his home with this poignant tweet about smoke detectors going off.

All the smoke detectors are going off in our house and transmitting to our iPhones.

I couldn’t believe our lovely little home in the hills held on this long. It feels like losing a loved one.

— James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) January 8, 2025

What else could it have been?

I took this last night from our beautiful little home in the Palisades. Now all the fire alarms are going off at once remotely.

It tests your soul, losing everything at once, I must say. pic.twitter.com/nH0mLpxz5C

— James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) January 8, 2025

Others lost homes and businesses and landmarks and their places to go, too. Many of these were places I knew and went, too:

Here is my dad's burger place, The Beachside Cafe, down the street from our home in Pacific Palisades

Words cannot describe what I feel. How many times as a kid did I break a sandy tourist’s $100 for chili cheese fries and a hamburger?

This is our entire neighborhood just… pic.twitter.com/MhnyGbGpmf

— Jennifer Begakis (@jenbegakis) January 8, 2025

Then it was a matter of how far it was going to go. I called my college-student niece in Brentwood, which was named as its next target, (Kamala Harris's home is also there), who said she was safe, and so far not too worried, as they were located at the base of the other Getty Museum at the Sepulveda Pass which had to be an area firefighters would fight hard to protect. In the middle of the phone call, her roomate said they just got orders to evacuate, which probably means they should have left earlier, given the reports of late evacuation orders.

She said she and her roomates would drive two hours down to San Diego to stay at my sister's place in Penasquitos in the northern part of the county. I am awaiting word of how that went, particularly with photo reports of the 405, her escape route out, serving as firebreak with a wall of flames on one side. I doubt she could or would have been able to drive past that. Still waiting. Still going outside in the wee hours to check the dry windy air and look for floating embers in San Diego, which is also in the potential zone.

Meanwhile, another fire has exploded in Pasadena, site of many important art museums and beautiful old historic homes. And Altadena. And Sylmar. And now Woodley:

BREAKING: We now have a new fire burning in LA County. This is the Woodley Fire. Burning near the 101/405 intersection. There are now 4 major fires burning in Los Angeles this morning https://t.co/lmtUgp6XhB pic.twitter.com/BIBJBnbgxK

— Drew Tuma (@DrewTumaABC7) January 8, 2025

The reports keep coming of new ones, with a couple days to go of this weather forecast.

And morning still hasn't arrived yet, so don't know how bad it all was.

I've seen a post from someone in LA that the fire fighters have "given up" on anything north of I-10 and west of the 405.

I lived for 3 years not far from where those two freeways cross. I know those neighborhoods very well. There are a lot of working class neighborhoods…

— Shipwreckedcrew (@shipwreckedcrew) January 8, 2025

For those asking why they aren’t dropping water - it’s too windy for flights and fixed wing fighters don’t fly at night. There is quite literally almost nothing to be done here but save people. I don’t think people understand the magnitude of what is happening right now.

— Kira (@RealKiraDavis) January 8, 2025

The Getty Villa, though, made it, at least so far. I knew they had intense fire defenses and subterranean fireproof vaults to protect the art:

The #gettyvilla has survived the #PalisadesWildfire and was designed to protect the works of #art inside. See attached statement from @GettyMuseum.

#Palisades #LosAngelesWildfire #wildfire #california #malibu pic.twitter.com/u3mzGqx7DU

— Michael Cuffe (@MikeCuffe) January 8, 2025

The Getty Villa Museum grounds have caught fire. The museum is reportedly sealed and double-walled to protect the priceless art. pic.twitter.com/4yujXDy7zB

— Paul A. Szypula 🇺🇸 (@Bubblebathgirl) January 8, 2025

But signs of incompetence from the city abound:

According to Fox 11's Rick Caruso, Los Angeles fire hydrants are out of water because the county refused to refill the reservoirs. pic.twitter.com/2wgQJzdwXg

— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) January 8, 2025

From my inbox, from ppl who are part of the aviation and firefighting communities in LA:

"Apparently L.A. City didn’t want to pay for the larger, water-load Fire Hawks that L.A Co Fire operates at the outset of the Palisades fire and didn’t call for the heavy water droppers… pic.twitter.com/kyt9DtMHwS

— Jennifer Van Laar (@jenvanlaar) January 8, 2025

The situation in Pacific Palisades is devastating, heartbreaking, and is also the most “California” thing to happen in California.

The homes burning down are $5M+ homes in neighborhoods surrounded by 1000s of other $5M+ homes.

Owning a $5M house in CA means you pay about… pic.twitter.com/g8U1HAcG3W

— Chris Bakke (@ChrisJBakke) January 8, 2025

Wait until they realize they fired the best Los Angeles firefighters simply for not getting a COVID shot. https://t.co/Dh1x58kGkz

— Amy Reichert (@amyforsandiego) January 8, 2025

Wondering why @GavinNewsom has not mobilized the Cal National Guard. I led 1300+ troops in the San Diego fire in 2007. The Guard has enormous capabilities that LA could use right now.

— Kurt Schlichter (@KurtSchlichter) January 8, 2025

No fire insurance-No water pressure pic.twitter.com/TOlAlus3vx

— Karli Bonne’ 🇺🇸 (@KarluskaP) January 8, 2025

I took this video YESTERDAY.

A homeless person in North Hollywood lighting a fire in plain view. Unfortunately this is not an uncommon occurrence.

Makes you wonder about the current fires… pic.twitter.com/bHehMfRxhh

— Aldo 🌞 (@AldoButtazzoni) January 8, 2025

It's really disgusting what the left did to that great state, and how that absolute tool, aka @GavinNewsom, is held in such high regard by the Democrat Party for literally destroying paradise https://t.co/Q74HGLXZUf

— Charles Gasparino (@CGasparino) January 8, 2025

This fire is not from “climate change,” you ignorant asshole. It’s because liberal idiots like you elect liberal idiots like Gavin Newsom and Karen Bass. One doesn’t understand the first thing about fire management and the other can’t fill the water reservoirs. #INSTABLOCK https://t.co/u49lWSmKri

— James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) January 8, 2025

All of LA is a crime scene.

The crime is criminal negligence and professional malpractice by @GavinNewsom and @KarenBassLA

What they did (or didn’t do) while focusing on foreign trips & high speed rail etc is UNFORGIVABLE.

Time to remove them both by all legal means. https://t.co/F443sIucJZ

— Houman David Hemmati, MD, PhD (@houmanhemmati) January 8, 2025

The national media hasn’t even mentioned that Karen Bass is in Africa while our city is literally burning to the ground. @DrPatSoonShiong is trying to protect her.

He hired an east coast Republican to write for the OpEd page and he thinks this is enough to fix the @latimes.…

— Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) January 8, 2025

Priorities stated in her bio below.

Refilling the water reservoirs would have been a welcome priority, too, but I guess she had too much on her plate promoting diversity. pic.twitter.com/7GXgBR3RO2

— James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) January 8, 2025

Some things just didn't make sense:

On the east side of the Pacific Palisades fire, where you'll find the mother lode of LA's affluent (Brentwood, Bel Air) there is NO FIREFIGHTING going on, says TV news. Fire just free to go wherever. Hello? @GavinNewsom? @KarenBassLA?

— Mickey Kaus (@kausmickey) January 8, 2025

And there's the same kind of talk in Pacific Palisades as there was in Lahaina:

Which means a lot of problems to sort out in a blue city that should have treated itself like a red one, preparing, preparing, preparing for this kind of inferno, getting at least some plans into place in preparation of what could possibly and probably would happen, given the reality of the Southern California climate.

The reports of winds had been going on for a week and the area has not had significant rain since March. A few days ago, I heard a weather report on television, and recall, the weatherman said San Diego kicked off its driest rainy season in years. It was undoubtedly the same in L.A. Now it's as if the inevitable is happening, and the blue-city leftists have been caught flatfooted and incompetent on every front. Old voting habits die hard, but it's not hard to think there will be a reckoning after this level of incompetence.

Image: Screen shot from Twitter video

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