Biden calls on Congress to 'step up' funding
Hours after House speaker Mike Johnson said he believed there should be conditions on disaster aid to California, has said Congress “needs to step up” and provide funding.
Holding a briefing with federal officials at the White House on Monday, Biden said the federal government is covering most costs associated with the fires for the next 180 days, but that Congress will need to cover additional costs to rebuild Los Angeles.
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Newsom proposes $2.5bn in aid from state legislature
California governor Gavin Newsom has called on the state’s legislature to approve $2.5bn in additional funding to aid “response and initial recovery efforts for Los Angeles”. To do so, the governor expanded the special legislative session he’d called for the state in November, designed to prepare for president-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration.
The assistance “will support recovery and cleanup, additional wildfire preparedness, and reopening schools shuttered by the fires”, according to a press release.
Canada will send 60 firefighters to help battle the blazes in southern California, the office of Canada’s emergency preparedness minister told CNN Monday.
The contingent will consist of 40 experienced wildland firefighters from Alberta and a team of wildfire specialists already en route from British Columbia.
The province of Quebec – which had already loaned California two “Super Scoopers” months earlier that began aiding in firefighting efforts last week – announced it would send an additional two planes.
The non-profit Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS has awarded $500,000 in emergency grants to help residents and first responders recover from the Los Angeles wildfires.
“These wildfires have left deep scars, but they’ve also ignited a powerful wave of support from Broadway to the west coast,” said Robert E Wankel, Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS board of trustees president and chairman and CEO of The Shubert Organization.
As wildfires have raged across Hollywood, the film industry has postponed awards shows and premieres, as entertainment companies and unions raise funds for impacted employees and members. Today, the Academy Awards further postponed nominations while the Sundance film festival announced it would go ahead with its Utah event.
Here’s the Guardian’s Benjamin Lee with more:
The ongoing wildfires in California have added a further delay to this year’s Oscar nominations as the industry continues to feel the impact.
With 92,000 residents under evacuation orders and the death toll up to 24, Hollywood has seen a number of events postponed and rescheduled.
This year’s Oscar nominations were scheduled to be announced on 17 January before the wildfires delayed them by two days. This morning, the Academy announced they would now be revealed on 23 January and cancelled February’s nominees luncheon.
DA's office charges 10 in wildfire crimes
Ten people have been charged in relation to crimes committed during the Los Angeles wildfires, the district attorney’s office announced on Monday.
Nathan Hochman, the district attorney, said nine of the charges are for looting, while a 10th is for arson “not connected with the origination of the major fires”.
Abené Clayton
As fire crews try to get the upper hand on the fires that are burning across parts of Los Angeles, more stories of people who lost their lives in the infernos are emerging. On Sunday, the county coroner told the family of the actor Dalyce Curry, affectionately known as “Mama” that the 95-year-old grandmother’s remains were found in her Altadena home, ABC 7 news reports.
Curry was an actor who appeared in films including the Blues Brother and Ten Commandments and according to her granddaughter Loree Beamer-Wilkinson her grandmother “was very active, you would not think she was 95”.
Another granddaughter and Curry’s part-time caretaker Dallyce Kelley told the news outlet that she dropped her grandmother off at home late last Tuesday night. The next morning she awoke to the news that the power in Curry’s home went out. On Friday she was escorted to the charred remains of her grandmother’s home.
“It was total devastation,” Kelley told ABC 7. “Everything was gone except her blue Cadillac.”
The Duchess of Sussex has pushed back the release of her new Netflix series due to the wildfires that have ravaged the LA-area.
“With Love, Meghan” was set to debut Wednesday, but the streaming service said Sunday that it supports her request to push the premiere to focus on helping those affected by the fires.
The Duchess was born and raised in Los Angeles and now lives in Montecito, California, with Harry, the Duke of Sussex and their two children.
On Saturday, the royal couple visited Pasadena to hand out food and water to fire victims and thank first responders.
“With Love, Meghan” is a lifestyle program featuring the Duchess chatting with celebrity pals and demonstrating tasks like floral arrangements and baking. “I’ve always loved taking something pretty ordinary and elevating it,” Meghan says in the trailer. The show will now drop March 4.
Wildfires could be costliest disaster in US history
Although government agencies have not yet provided preliminary estimates of the damage caused by the Los Angeles wildfires, AccuWeather – a company that provides data on weather and its impact – approximates the damage and economic losses fall somewhere between $250bn and $275bn.
That far exceeds the cost of the damage caused by the Camp fire, California’s most destructive in 2018 ($30bn) or the Maui fires ($5.7bn) in 2023. It’s also greater than the damage caused by Hurricane Helene, which devastated six southern states last fall ($225bn to $250bn).
The fires have killed at least 24 people and wrecked more than 12,000 structures according to initial estimates.
Mayor Karen Bass has directed city officials to distribute hundreds of thousands of N95 face masks to local libraries, recreation centers and senior centers.
“We’re working protect everyone from the impact of poor air quality caused by the fires,” she shared on social media Monday afternoon. “Pick up a mask now and protect yourselves and your loved ones.”
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