Los Angeles fires cause widespread closures, heavy damage to area’s schools

John Yang:

Good evening. I'm John Yang. There's been some progress in containing the fires ravaging the Los Angeles area. The Hearst Fire is nearly 90 percent contained, while firefighters battling the much larger Palisades and Eaton fires are racing to contain those blazes during a lull in the winds, which are set to strengthen again later tonight. This morning, Los Angeles Fire Chief Kristin Crowley spoke to reporters.

Chief Kristin Crowley:

Strong Santa Ana winds are also expected to last through Wednesday, with the strongest winds occurring on Tuesday. Every available LAFD firefighter is on hand and will remain in place through this wind event. Additionally, firefighters continue to pour into Southern California region to bolster our firefighting capabilities.

John Yang:

Sixteen people are now reported to have died in the fires, with another 16 missing. Officials say those numbers will undoubtedly go higher as search and rescue teams go door to door. Aerial footage of the Palisades fire today, still only 11 percent contained, shows widespread devastation.

Charred remains are all that are left of thousands of structures. Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna says that's one reason residents aren't being allowed back into their neighborhoods to check on their homes.

Robert Luna, Sheriff, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department:

In driving around some of these areas, they literally look like war zones. There are downed power poles, electric wires. There are still some smoldering fires. We want to get you back into your homes, but we can't allow that until it is safe for you to do so.

John Yang:

Safety is also a factor in deciding when schools may reopen. The 500,000 student Los Angeles Unified School District is the second largest in the nation. All of its campuses have been closed since Thursday. Alberto Carvalho is the superintendent of the district. Mr. Carvalho, do you have any idea or any sense yet when you may be able to reopen?

Alberto Carvalho, Superintendent, Los Angeles Unified School District:

Good afternoon, John. We are looking at all of the factors. Key to us is the containment of the fire's wind speed and direction. And the most important element is the quality of air index across the 720 square miles of our jurisdiction.

Conditions have improved, but we know over the past three, four days they have been dynamic and unstable. So we're buying a little bit more time getting more information in. Meanwhile, we have inspected, assessed all 1,000 campuses. We are engaged indoor and outdoor cleaning, removal of dust and replacement of air conditioning filters based on need. That will all be completed by tonight to ensure we are ready to reopen. But health and the safety and protection of our workforce and students are our highest priorities.

John Yang:

How many of those 1,000 campuses have either been burned down or damaged?

Alberto Carvalho:

So at this point, we had impacts to three schools. The two elementary schools that provide services to the Palisades community we're speaking about, Marquez elementary and Palisades elementary have been either totally or near completely destroyed by the fires.

I was on site as the fires were raging and unfortunately, those schools will require a complete replacement. Palisades High School, a school with over 2,000 students, was partially damaged. About 30 percent of the campus sustained heavy fire damage. The bungalows, the athletic facilities, we're talking about close to 3,000 students impacted by the fires.

But look, in addition to those schools, we have seven schools currently in areas that are under mandatory evacuation order. We do not anticipate those schools coming online in the foreseeable future.

John Yang:

You've got students, staff, faculty, all displaced, many of them displaced because of these fires, the evacuations. How big a challenge does that present in getting students to school, getting staff and faculty, being able to get to the schools?

Alberto Carvalho:

You're absolutely right. Based on our assessment, and we are surveying our workforce to really determine the actual impact to our workforce, specific to individuals who lost their homes, but also those who were evacuated. We believe that number of individuals, members of our workforce who were evacuated is around 700 or so, maybe a little bit less as evacuation orders continue to be lifted.

But that is definitely a concern. That's why constant communication is important. Deeper level of serving of staffs is important. We've made some arrangements to provide impacted members of our workforce with free days for them to resume normalcy in their lives, recognizing the challenges they're facing. We're working with entities to provide also direct assistance in connecting them with housing opportunities.

Many challenges, but considering the size of our workforce, the areas of impact have really narrowed significantly, those who have been deeply impacted. But it's still a challenge.

John Yang:

Schools are not just places of education. You get students who rely on them for meals. Parents rely on after school activities for child care. How have you been dealing with that?

Alberto Carvalho:

So during the first two days of closure, Thursday and Friday, we stood up on Thursday eight feeding centers for grab and go food distribution at no cost to the parents. Obviously critically important considering that 85 percent of our students live at or below the poverty level, and they absolutely depend on those meals.

John Yang:

Superintendent Alberto Carvalho, Our thoughts are with all of you out in the Los Angeles area. Thank you very much.

Alberto Carvalho:

Thank you. I appreciate it.