As huge plume of smoke rose over the mountains, firefighters relied mostly on air drops to battle the blaze \u2013 which started late Friday night and was zero contained by 10:30 a.m. Sunday \u2013 because of the difficulty in reaching the steep, rugged terrain.<\/p>\n
\u201cDozers are working to improve access for firefighters on the ground, but much of the area remains inaccessible,\u2019\u2019 Stewart said. \u201cThis is primarily an air-based operation with both fixed-wing and rotary (helicopters) working together.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
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Wildfires like this one in December 2020 in Orange County, California, are starting earlier and happening until later in the year. (Photo: Noah Berger\/AP)<\/span><\/p>\n By late morning, the fire had stretched to 835 acres, according to a tweet by the Los Angeles County Fire Department, which added that, \u201cCrews are working flare-ups toward the leading edge of the fire.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n Air quality officials issued a smoke advisory through at least Sunday afternoon because of the smoke billowing near homes in the area and advised those exposed to stay indoors.<\/p>\n Regardless of what caused the Palisades Fire, California officials and residents are bracing for a harsh 2021 fire season after a second consecutive winter of below-average precipitation left most of the state in drought conditions and millions of acres of terrain ready to burn.<\/p>\n \u201cThe fire season in California and across the West is starting earlier and ending later each year,\u2019\u2019 Cal Fire, the state\u2019s wildfire prevention and fighting agency, says on its website, pointing to climate change as a major reason. \u201cThe length of fire season is estimated to have increased by 75 days across the Sierra\u00a0and seems to correspond with an increase in the extent of the forest fires across the state.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n The 2020 fire season set records with nearly 10,000 blazes and 4.25 million acres burned \u2013 more than 4% of the state\u2019s territory \u2013 damaging or destroying almost 10,500 structures.<\/p>\n