Friday, January 10, at 4 a.m., residents of Los Angeles were awakened by the shrill sound of a new alert from the authorities on their phones: « Evacuation warning » (“be prepared to evacuate”). A mistake, as already happened Thursday evening. Sent to the 10 million residents of Los Angeles County, the message should have only reached residents of one of the affected neighborhoods.
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-Los Angeles is, this Friday evening (Saturday morning in France), still on edge. The fires have hardly diminished: the largest, the Palisades Fire (86 square kilometers), is only 8% contained, the second, the Eaton Fire (55 square kilometers), is 3% contained. We can see its gigantic cloud of black smoke which veils the sun and seems to extend endlessly to the horizon. Four other outbreaks remain active, and a new one has broken out in the north. Other perils mark this new day in hell. Drinking water is contaminated in the most affected neighborhoods. The sheriff reported around twenty acts of vandalism and looting overnight, and declared a curfew. Some residents barricaded themselves in their homes, with the still vivid memory of the bloody riots of 1992, when the city was sacked by rioters, after the acquittal of the police officers involved in the beating of African-American Rodney King by police officers the previous year. Images of ruined buildings circulate among relatives. President Biden, at a press conference, discusses a “war zone, with bombing”.
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