Firefighters continued to battle the Palisades Fire into its eighth day on Wednesday, searching for hotspots amid the smoldering ruins that could reignite in strong winds.
On the eerily quiet streets of Marquez Knolls, a neighborhood within the Palisades, Engineer James Lyons of Medic Engine 332 from Apple Valley, California, patrolled with his crew.
They sprayed water on the remnants of homes that had burned to the ground — nearly every single home in the area — and doused burned-out cars on the side of the road and in driveways, which in some cases were still dangerously hot.
One car “exploded” in a cloud of steam when sprayed with water, Lyons said, explaining that magnesium was still burning inside the engine block.
Hundreds of fire trucks from all over the state, and even from neighboring states and countries, are patrolling the sprawling streets of Palisades.
There are also police cars on patrol, utility crews performing emergency maintenance, demolition companies knocking down dangerous structures, private firefighting trucks, search and rescue units, and a variety of other vehicles trying to restore public safety before residents can begin returning to salvage, or grieve, their homes.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
