Amid the three devastating wildfires gripping Los Angeles County, LA Metro’s transit operations are scheduled to continue through the day free of cost, according to county Supervisor Janice Hahn on Wednesday, Jan. 8.
“Extraordinary demands on the power grid and sporadic outages” are making it difficult to buy and load TAP cards, said Hahn, the current Metro board chair.
The county is facing a swarm of fast moving fires powered by a rare and dangerous Santa Ana windstorm that features powerful gusts ranging from 40 to 80 mph.
The Palisades fire, a blaze that quickly swelled to more than 3,000 acres amid a strong windstorm in Pacific Palisades by Tuesday evening has burned multiple homes and forced 30,000 residents to evacuate, as wind-driven embers spread throughout the hillside community.
A destructive, fast-moving brush fire that broke out above Altadena Tuesday evening, doubled in size overnight as evacuation orders were added to include all of La Cañada Flintridge. At least 20 homes have been lost to the Eaton fire.
The Hurst fire burned more than 100 acres late Tuesday night in Sylmar, growing to 500 acres early Wednesday, forcing emergency evacuations in some neighborhoods.
City News Service contributed to this report