A young-looking weather forecaster has been commended for his quick action in warning the public about the upcoming wildfires in Los Angeles and advising people to evacuate before the fire spread.
Edgar McGregor, a 24-year-old resident of Altadena, took to his local community’s Facebook page on January 7 to provide real-time updates, just hours before multiple large fires broke out across southern California.
He warned his neighbors not to go to sleep, to pack a bag and to be prepared to evacuate in an instant.
In an interview with People magazine, McGregor shared that about a week before the fires broke out, he had a realization that the weather conditions could lead to a catastrophic event. He then took it upon himself to try to persuade as many people as possible to take the situation seriously and evacuate.
‘I knew on Dec. 30th that when this windstorm hit, the conditions would be carbon copies of the conditions that were on the ground in Lahaina, Hawaii, and in Paradise, which both were completely leveled and lost around a hundred people each,’ he said.
The dry brush had been piling up for months, and without any rain leading into winter, when McGregor saw the winds in the forecast around New Years Day, he knew the risk was enormous.
‘I told people, if a wildfire breaks out, there’ll be a thousand homes burned down. This would be cataclysmic.’
McGregor feared his warnings may have been a little ‘excessive’, but he has since been proven right.
The Eaton fire which tore through his neighborhood and Pasadena at the foot of the mountains has already burned through 14,117 acres, destroyed at least 7,000 structures and cost 16 people their lives.
Mandy Moore’s home was among those charred beyond recognition in the Eaton fire.
And a larger fire which was the first to break out in the ritzy celebrity enclave of Pacific Palisades has destroyed 24,707 acres of land stretching from Santa Monica to Malibu.
Miles Teller, Mel Gibson and Paris Hilton are among A-list celebrities who lost their homes in the inferno.
McGregor watched as the fire tore through his community, destroying his neighbor’s homes along with hundreds in the blocks surrounding his house.
Miraculously, his own home survived the inferno.
McGregor is an avid hiker and has been watching with dismay as his local canyons fill with brush and dead leaves, which serve as ignition for a fire.
‘For years I’ve been telling people this canyon, it’s been decades since we last had a wildfire, and the fuels are abundant,’ he said.
‘I see dead trees that have accumulated everywhere. So I knew this was coming. I certainly didn’t think January was the month it would occur, but I hope that I did my job in warning everybody.’
The 24-year-old climate scientist does not anticipate the red flag winds predicted in the coming days will pose any further threat.
But he said if the persistent dry spell continues and there isn’t rainfall soon, Hollywood and Santa Barbara could ‘face disaster’ within weeks.
‘In the next couple of weeks, if we get another major windstorm, it could be Hollywood that faces disaster next. Santa Barbara. Any of these foothill towns. And then when it rains, we have the mudslides to get through.’
‘This is not over yet.’
In the Facebook group where McGregor initially posted his warnings, he has been inundated with comments from grateful locals who credit him with saving their lives.
‘Your warnings saved so many lives and allowed us to prepare for evacuating well ahead of time. Glad you’re finally getting the widespread recognition that you deserve,’ one local said.
‘Your update was the first notification I got for the fire and we acted immediately. We cannot thank you enough. you are a HERO,’ another added.
At 8am on January 7, McGregor shared a lengthy forecast urging his neighbors to ‘please take today to prepare.’
‘This first round, which is currently causing low-end class-3 conditions in Altadena, is peanuts to what could be coming,’ he wrote.
The fire hit at 6pm that evening.
Both the Eaton fire and Palisades fire continue to burn as:
While the fires have been rapidly spread by Santa Ana winds, new lawsuits from homeowners who lost everything blamed utility company Southern California Edison for the blaze itself.
The lawsuits claim SoCal Edison’s electrical equipment started the Eaton blaze -which has razed the mountainous neighborhoods of Pasadena and Altadena and is one of the major wildfires, according to court filings.
A spokesperson said in a statement its electrical equipment was unlikely to have caused the Eaton fire, but extraordinary timestamped footage appears to show the blaze first taking off from a set of power lines.
The suits cited eyewitness accounts and images that appeared to show a fire at the base of a transmission tower owned by Southern California Edison (SCE) before powerful Santa Ana wind gusts quickly spread the flames.
Witnesses shared videos on social media of a fire at the base of a transmission tower allegedly taken shortly after the start of the Eaton Fire.
Altadena resident Marcus Errico had earlier told CNN he saw the very first flames of the Eaton fire at the base of a transmission tower.
‘I could see right across from us on the hillside in Eaton Canyon, there are a series of transformer towers with power lines stretching up into the mountains. And at the base of one, there was just a small ring of flames around the whole base.’ he said.
‘I can’t say definitively that it was the power lines that caused it, but I can say definitively that the first fire in Pasadena and Altadena – Eaton Canyon is right on the edge of Altadena and Pasadena – that’s where the fire began.
‘It was under that tower on Tuesday night. It was – it began as a small little blaze underneath and within 10 minutes, the whole hillside was engulfed in the fire.’
