Los Angeles Wildfires Close Roads, Threaten Crops, Force Evacuations

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Wildfires raging across Southern California have shut a major commuter artery in Los Angeles, suspended filming, wiped out more than $3 billion of market value for regional utility Edison International and are threatening some of the state’s lucrative crops.

Stretches of Interstate 405, which feeds major Los Angeles job centers, were shut as flames engulfed nearby mountainsides. Neighborhoods near the freeway and the famed Mulholland Drive, including parts of upscale Bel-Air, were evacuated. Snap Inc. shut operations, and a major conference on microcap stocks that was scheduled to be held in Los Angeles through Thursday was canceled. Ventura County, home to a third of California’s avocado acreage, has seen tens of thousands of acres consumed, and citrus growers have been affected.

The five wildfires come two months after the deadliest set of blazes in the state’s history broke out in Northern California’s wine country, racking up insured losses that top $9.4 billion. They’re striking as the House and Senate are working on a final version of sweeping tax legislation that currently would phase out the deduction for personal casualty losses, including those from wildfires and earthquakes.

Edison plunged the most in 15 years on speculation that its power lines may be blamed, saddling the utility with the costs of damages. Energy explorer California Resources Corp. has halted production at several small oil fields in Ventura County and northwest Los Angeles County. The stock slid 9.2 percent Wednesday.

One fire’s blazing near the Jewish museum Skirball Cultural Center, and the prominent Getty Center is just south. All filming activity in Los Angeles’s mountain fire zone areas was suspended for the week.

Rupert Murdoch’s Moraga Estate, where the media mogul operates a winery and lives with wife Jerry Hall in a 7,500-square-foot house, is in the evacuation zone. Murdoch said in an emailed statement that some buildings in the upper vineyard area may have been damaged but he believed the winery and house remain intact. Murdoch acquired the property in 2013 for $28.8 million.

Lemon grower Limoneira Co. said it was still assessing crop damage but that it didn’t look “too bad at this point.”

In Ventura County, 90,000 acres were burned as of 9:06 p.m. local time Wednesday, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. More than 150 structures were reported destroyed near Ventura. Dozens of schools in Los Angeles and Ventura counties were closed. The University of California at Los Angeles, adjacent to an evacuated area, canceled classes and is monitoring the situation.

As of 9.15 p.m., more than 11,000 customers were without power due to the wildfires, according to Edison’s Southern California Edison utility. A local transmission emergency was declared by the state’s grid operator after the loss of high-voltage power lines serving the Ventura and Santa Barbara areas. Fire officials said Wednesday that they’re looking at all possible causes for the blazes.

President Donald Trump, who owns a home in Beverly Hills, tweeted that his thoughts and prayers were with Californians affected by the fires and thanked emergency personnel for their work.

The threat of more wildfires isn’t over. Santa Ana winds will continue to whip through Southern California through the rest of this week, threatening to spread these blazes and ignite new ones, according to Accuweather.

As of 10 p.m. New York time, the biggest fire as wreaking havoc across Ventura County and slowly surrounding the the town Ojai, forcing several thousand more people to evacuate, according to the Associated Press. More than 30,000 people are now under evacuation orders because of the fires.