More than a year after much of Pacific Palisades was leveled by fire, the Los Angeles City Council on Friday approved a motion calling on various departments to enhance red flag warning declarations to improve preparedness.
In a unanimous vote, the council instructed the Los Angeles Police Department, city administrative officer and the city attorney to report on options to increase fines, allocate revenue to wildfire preparedness and expand patrol and towing capacity during red flag or pre-disaster events.
Additionally, the Department of Building and Safety is expected to work with the city attorney on the creation of an ordinance to temporarily pause construction in very high fire hazard severity zones during pre-disaster and red flag warning days.
The council also wants to expand open-flame restrictions such as outdoor barbecuing and use of fire pits during red flag warnings.
City Council members Nithya Raman and Katy Yaroslavsky introduced a motion on Jan. 14, 2025, with the aim of improving the city’s response to red flag warnings and red flag days. The motion states that ongoing extreme wildfires and windstorm events in the city and county of Los Angeles are unprecedented in scope and scale for the region.
“Yet the frequency of such extreme weather events is likely to increase as the impacts of climate change intensify,” the motion reads. “It is critically important for future public safety that the city formalize, operationalize and expand its response to National Weather Service Red Flag Warnings and Particularly Dangerous Situations.”
A red flag warning indicates that weather and fuel conditions are expected to meet the threshold for a particular fire weather zone within 48 hours. The National Weather Service issues red flag warnings when specific regional criteria are met, and the agency can issue a fire weather watch up to 96 hours in advance when hazardous conditions are expected to develop.
In 2020, the NWS introduced the “particularly dangerous situations” designation for red flag warnings of extreme severity. The designation was typically reserved for extremely severe weather events such as tornadoes and floods, according to a report from the city’s Emergency Management Department.
While the NWS issues red flag warnings, the Los Angeles Fire Department declares a “Red Flag Day,” based on specific microclimates within the city in coordination with the federal agency and other weather data calculations.
A Red Flag Day is normally declared when the following conditions are met: wind speeds reach 25 mph or greater with humidity levels at 15% or less and the NWS declares a red flag warning impacting the city. The Red Flag Day declaration imposes street-parking restrictions in select areas to ensure access for first responders if a fire should erupt.
Under the city’s current red flag restrictions, however, officials can only limit street parking on specific streets located in very high fire severity zones.
The council members said January 2025’s wildfires impacted areas, which were left to coordinate with multiple departments and agencies in seeking park closures. While parking restrictions are meant to be implemented by LAFD and the Department of Transportation during red flag warnings, they were “unfortunately not adequately monitored,” according to the motion.
“This experience highlights the need for more proactive work from the city to secure high fire risk areas and implement restrictions in advance of major fires,” the motion reads.