By Dan Ross
Wildfires propelled by unusually strong Santa Ana winds swept across Los Angeles Tuesday and into the night, breaking out near several densely populated neighborhoods including Altadena, Pasadena and portions of the San Gabriel Mountains that serve as a backdrop to Santa Anita Park.
According to Cal Fire, that particular fire–coined the Eaton Fire–had spread to more than 10,600 acres by Noon Wednesday.
Los Angeles woke Wednesday morning to apocalyptic images. Thousands have fled their homes. Large swaths have lost power. At least five people have reportedly died thus far. Winds that have gusted up to 100 mph continue to sweep across the region.
On Wednesday morning, the track itself was immediately unaffected by the fires. But severe smoke in the area meant that training was curtailed. The winds have also caused some damage to the backstretch property.
Track management told the horsemen and women Wednesday that, if anyone chose to, it would pay for the cost of evacuating horses from the backstretch, and that it was offering food and beverages to those impacted in the racing community.
View of Eoin Harty's home in North Sierra Madre | Eoin Harty
Santa Anita's backstretch community comprises many who live in or near the neighborhoods threatened by the fires, including those where mandatory evacuation notices have been issued.
California Thoroughbred Trainers president, Eoin Harty, is one of those. He was evacuated from his home in North Sierra Madre late Tuesday night. Sierra Madre is one of the foothill neighborhoods threatened by the fire and which underwent mandatory evacuations.
Harty returned to his house midway Wednesday morning. “I couldn't believe my house survived. I'm driving by and I can see carnage all around me,” said Harty, of his first impressions as he saw his home still standing amid the burning embers of neighboring homes.
“And then I turned around and was stunned for a second–there's a tree down by the garage, and it's in flames. I was like, 'f*&# me!' So, I grabbed a hose, put that out,” said Harty. “I've been here all morning just keeping an eye on things. I'm looking at fires burning within 100 yards of me.
“For whatever reason, the winds have dropped down here the last ten minutes. Prior to this you couldn't tell what was going on, just smoke on smoke and high winds. But there's still fires popping up all over the place. I'm looking at one right now,” said Harty.
“There's no telling with the wind changing so much. Five minutes from now, it could look like another layer of hell. Right now, the sun's out. But ten minutes ago, it was black as night. It's hard to predict where it's coming from because it seems to be burning everywhere,” said Harty.
Santa Ana wind damage to barn area | Leonard Powell
“The air is extremely smoky and we've got ashes coming down,” said trainer Leonard Powell, from Santa Anita on Wednesday morning. “The wind has done some damage. It took the roof off my barn.”
Powell lives in Sierra Madre, he said that while his family evacuated, he stayed behind Tuesday night.
Trainer Jay Nehf was also evacuated from his home in Sierra Madre late Tuesday night.
“The horses are out of risk. There's no talk of evacuating them, but it's dramatic,” Nehf added. “We got [to the barn] last night about 11 p.m. last night. We're on the side of the mountain, so you really couldn't see anything but once we got down here, we looked back and it was like `wow.'”
“We're okay. We spent the night in a tack room and we have no news. Our house is right in the middle of where the fire was. As far as the track goes, the horses are safe. The winds have died way down right now, and there haven't been any gusts since 4-5 this morning, but it kind of feels like it might be picking up now,” said Nehf.
Trainer Bob Baffert lives in the fire impacted community of La Canada. In a text to the TDN Wednesday morning, Baffert wrote: “Track and horses fine. We evacuated from my house but hopefully winds don't change direction or else we are in trouble.”
John Sadler lives in the community of Monrovia in the foothills north of Santa Anita. “If I say I'm okay now, who knows in three or four hours what way the winds shift,” he said, highlighting the gusty winds that remained uncommonly strong Wednesday, creating nightmarish conditions for firefighters to try to contain the wildfires.
Sadler's 95-year-old stepmother was evacuated from her residential home in Northern Pasadena late Tuesday, he said, and was doing “okay.”
The potent Santa Ana winds have arrived at a particularly combustible nexus in Los Angeles, thanks to two prior years of unseasonally wet winters have created acres of dry fuels coupled with this winter's low humidity. As such, the speed with which the wildfires first erupted and then swept across huge portions of Los Angeles caught the region and emergency services on the back foot.
Some stretched-thin firefighting crews have reportedly struggled to find adequate water supplies, with hydrants in the coastal community of Pacific Palisades coming up dry. In that community alone, some 13,000 structures were reportedly at risk.
“I kind of went to bed last night like a horse trainer-the fire was at the Pacific Palisades side,” said Sadler, highlighting a community that proved ground zero for the wildfires Tuesday. “But in the middle of the night you woke up, you could smell the smoke.”
Monrovia-based veterinarian Ryan Carpenter said that he pre-empted a forced evacuation in his community.
“Family's out and they're safe, which is most important,” said Carpenter. “If the winds cooperate here in the next 24-hours, the firefighters can get a handle on it, we'll be okay. I'm just surprised at how quickly it moved east.”
Reached Wednesday afternoon, Amy Zimmerman, Santa Anita senior vice president and executive producer, said that any assessment on what training could go ahead for the rest of the week, as well as any scheduled racing over the weekend, would heavily depend on the Air Quality Index (AQI) for the region.
The AQI is a numerical standard developed by the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). At 3:00 pm PT Wednesday afternoon, the AQI for Arcadia was 148, which is considered unhealthy for sensitive groups. Indeed, track management is distributing masks and protective eyewear to backstretch personnel.
The California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) has developed a protocol for what equine-related activities are permitted at its facilities when the air quality is compromised, an ultimate decision on which is determined by the track's general manager and the state's equine medical director.
When the AQI is between 100 and 150, they may “begin to monitor the facility daily if the AQI consistently reaches 100 and there is cause for concern in the local environment, including the presence of a wildfire in the area,” the protocol states.
As such, the potential for training and racing activities this week will be “very much” wind determined, said Zimmerman.
“The last report that we got from the fire marshal is that the red flag warning, which is the high wind warning, is due to expire at [4:00 pm PT],” said Zimmerman.
“Looking out right now, there's very little wind. It's a little smoky because there is no wind, which is both good news and bad news,” Zimmerman said.
“If we get winds going south to north, it's going to blow the smoke out of here in a minute. We'd hate to make the decision too early to do things without the proper foundation,” she added.
“Our thoughts are with the community,” said Zimmerman, who lives in the fire-hit community of North Sierra Madre. “There's a lot of folks affected, including myself. There's a bunch of us who have been evacuated. And first and foremost, we want to make sure that everybody's safe.”
Statement from Santa Anita pic.twitter.com/OvYutQmVR6
— Santa Anita Park (@santaanitapark) January 8, 2025
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