Packers bar in LA is right outside fire evacuation area
LOS ANGELES (CBS 58) -- For now, a collection of Packers fans across the Los Angeles area still plans to come together Sunday for a playoff watch party. However, their usual gathering place is right outside of an evacuation warning area as the Palisades Fire rages to the west. It was one of six wildfires burning across Los Angeles County Wednesday night.
Dan Port, a New Berlin native who's lived in Los Angeles for the past 15 years, organizes the parties. The "Southern California Packer Backers" Facebook page has 4,000 followers.
For Packers games, the group gets together at Mom's Bar on Santa Monica Boulevard. Speaking from outside the bar Wednesday, Port told CBS 58 about 200 fans will pack the bar on game days.
During the virtual interview, Port noted a line of thick, dark smoke over the horizon. Mom's Bar is a few blocks east from an area currently under an evacuation warning, where there is a potential threat to life and property.
Further west is an area where evacuations have been mandated because of an immediate threat to life and property. As of Wednesday night, the Palisades Fire had burned more than 15,000 acres.
"You can tell there's smoke in the air. You can smell it," Port said. "And I discovered on my car this morning a layer of ash, and I'm in a carport. I'm in the air, open, but I'm not way out in the open, so there's definitely a lot of that going on, but it's been scary."
Port said he lives and workers closer to the city's core, so he currently is not considered to be at risk. However, others he knows are in danger, and he said he'd reached out to members of the Packers group to see how they're holding up.
"I've had friends and coworkers who've had to evacuate their homes," he said. "But thankfully, I'm far enough inland where I haven't had to move yet."
In October, CBS 58 talked to Port and profiled Mom's Bar ahead of the Packers game in Los Angeles against the Rams. Port noted Mom's Bar has been the unofficial Packers bar of Los Angeles for the past 10 or so years.
Port said while the situation is fluid with the wildfires not contained, the plan as of Wednesday was to go ahead with the Packers watch party Sunday afternoon when the Green and Gold takes on the Philadelphia Eagles in the wild card round.
"We just hope, obviously, that everyone's safe and taking care of themselves and their families," Port said. "But yeah, we still plan to go off and have shots and brats Sunday at 1:30 [Pacific time]."
According to PackersEverywhere.com, a database of Packers bars across the U.S. and Canada, there are also four Packers-themed bars near Pasadena, where the Eaton Fire has burned more than 10,000 acres.