Biden Admin Orders Pentagon to Provide Firefighting Personnel as LA Fires

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The DOD said in a statement it would ‘provide additional firefighting personnel’ to the fire-raved parts of Southern California.

A slew of wildfires circling the Los Angeles area on multiple fronts got closer to the heart of the U.S. movie industry on Thursday as a new fire erupted in the hills near Hollywood, prompting the Biden administration to direct the Pentagon to act.

In a statement, the Department of Defense (DOD) said it would “provide additional firefighting personnel and capabilities to California as that state’s Los Angeles County region continues to be ravaged by a series of out-of-control wildfires.”

“The federal government is working closely with the National Guard, which is deployed under [California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s] state of emergency declaration,” DOD spokeswoman Sabrina Singh told reporters.

Meanwhile, the California National Guard will deploy “two Modular Airborne Fire Fighting System units, and two more are being readied by the Nevada National Guard,” she said.

Two ground firefighting teams operated by the California National Guard and four military police companies will also be sent to Los Angeles to assist local law enforcement officials and emergency responders, officials said in a statement.

“We can surge assets, and the president has directed this department to bolster whatever California needs; but we have to work with California, and right now we can’t even get assets up in the air because the fires are so bad and the winds are so bad,” Singh said.

The latest flames broke out on Wednesday evening in the Hollywood Hills, striking closer to the heart of the city and the roots of its entertainment industry and putting densely populated neighborhoods on edge during exceptionally windy and dry conditions. But only about a mile away, the streets around the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the TCL Chinese Theatre, and Madame Tussauds were bustling, and onlookers used their phones to record video of the blazing hills.

Some 130,000 people have been put under evacuation orders, as fires have consumed a total of about 42 square miles. The Palisades Fire is already the most destructive in Los Angeles history, officials say.

In Pasadena, Fire Chief Chad Augustin said the city’s water system was stretched and was further hampered by power outages but that even without those issues, firefighters would not have been able to stop the fire due to the intense winds fanning the flames.

“Those erratic wind gusts were throwing embers for multiple miles ahead of the fire,” he said.

A number of celebrities, actors, and musicians were forced to evacuate their homes due to the wildfires. Some have begun to turn their ire against Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, who returned to the United States from a trip to Ghana in the midst of the wildfires.

As she returned to the United States, she was questioned by a Sky News reporter on her administration’s response to the fires. She did not reply and was silent for several moments.

The reporter asked her: “Have you absolutely nothing to say to the citizens today who are dealing with this disaster?” She did not respond, according to the footage, which garnered millions of views on social media platform X in just a day.

But in a social media update, Bass wrote on Thursday morning: “For the second night in a row, firefighters will be working through the night battling blazes in Los Angeles. On behalf of a grateful city, we thank you.”

She also visited the Pacific Palisades area with Gov. Gavin Newsom, who had declared an emergency over the fires earlier this week, noting the scale of the disaster.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.