Dry weather, strong winds and gusts test the limits of the 4,000 firefighters fighting forest fires in Los Angeles on Thursday. The most recent fires, Hughes and Sepulveda, forced the evacuation of tens of thousands of people.
Sepulveda is the latest: it broke out near the boulevard of the same name and the 405 freeway in Los Angeles.
This brush fire, which has so far ravaged around fifteen hectares, forced the evacuation of residents late Wednesday evening. This evacuation order has since been lifted. But the fire’s proximity to busy Highway 405 briefly caused traffic congestion.
This new fire started a few hours after firefighters managed to contain — by only 14% — the fire named Hughes. The latter spread quickly on Wednesday morning in a suburb located northwest of the city of Los Angeles, devastating a little more than 4,000 hectares.
Open in full screen mode
A helicopter dumps its cargo of water over the Castaic Lake area, plagued by Hughes’s ravages. This is one of two recent fires to break out in southern California, which has been hit hard over the past two weeks.
Photo : Reuters / David Swanson
More than 30,000 evacuated
An alert of critical conditions for the spread of fires
has been in effect since Tuesday, and will remain in effect at least until Friday, according to the National Weather Prediction Center (National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center).
Hughes forced more than 30,000 people to evacuate Wednesday as powerful flames and smoke spread through a mountainous area around Castaic Lake near Santa Clarita, north of the city of Los Angeles. .
The authorities raised the red flag and informed the population that both existing fires and emerging fires can quickly grow in size. This extreme behavior of the fire is accompanied by winds oscillating between 48 and 80 km/h, and which can reach up to 104 km/h.
A call for vigilance has been launched to residents, who are asked to follow the instructions of the security services.
-Start of widget. Skip the widget?End of widget. Return to start of widget?
Devastation after Eaton and Palisades
And that’s without counting the Eaton and Palisades fires which, in the last two weeks, had razed entire neighborhoods on the east and west sides of Los Angeles. As a result of these fires, 28 people died and nearly 16,000 structures were destroyed.
As of Thursday morning, Eaton, which devastated approximately 5,670 hectares, was 95% contained. Palisades, responsible for the destruction of approximately 9,490 hectares, was 70% contained.
Southern California has been without rain for nine months. Hope on the horizon: rain is forecast for Saturday until Monday, enough to give firefighters and rescuers a little respite. It could nevertheless cause possible mudslides and landslides in areas devastated by the fire, filled with charred toxic waste.
In Los Angeles County, workers have prepared sandbags, gravel and concrete barriers that can be installed in the event of heavy rains.
Without vegetation to anchor the ground, heavy rainfall can lead to sudden, rapid debris flows that can destroy homes, block roads and pose serious risks to life and property
warned California Governor Gavin Newsom. This democrat assured that his services are working in close collaboration
with local partners to prevent toxic runoff from entering waterways
. Inaugural on Monday, Donald Trump must go to Los Angeles on Friday to see the damage. The Republican billionaire is to meet with firefighters and people affected by the fires, according to authorities.
This visit will be closely scrutinized by residents and local authorities, because the tribune threatened to cut federal aid received by California for firefighting.
With information from Agence France-Presse
With information from BBC, Reuters, CNN and Los Angeles Times
