One figure is striking and shows the violence of what are perceived as thousands of fires by firefighters and the extent of the damage. Indeed, more than 2,000 homes, businesses and other buildings have been damaged or destroyed in wildfires ravaging communities across Los Angeles County, making it one of the most destructive firestorms to hit the memory region.
Celebrity villas ravaged by Los Angeles fires
Celebrity villas, such as those of Laeticia Hallyday, widow of singer Johnny Hallyday, Oscar-winning actor Anthony Hopkins and billionaire Paris Hilton, were reduced to ashes by the violent fires ravaging Los Angeles, prompting the evacuation of Hollywood on Thursday .
“We lost everything… There’s nothing left. I saw our house go to ashes, helpless in the face of the flames which took everything away,” Laeticia Hallyday wrote on Thursday on the social network Instagram, in a publication showing the Flames devour the residential neighborhood of Pacific Palisades.
A posh hideaway, Pacific Palisades is known for its multi-million dollar luxury residences, now completely ravaged by wildfires raging out of control around Los Angeles, causing scenes of chaos in the second largest city in the United States.
Ben Affleck, Patrick Bruel, Adam Brody, Mark Hamill…: these Hollywood stars affected by the Los Angeles fires
The actor couple Adam Brody and Leighton Meester, as well as the actress Anna Faris (“Scary movie”), the actor and director Billy Crystal and Fergie, the singer ex-member of Black Eyed Peas, saw their villas destroyed by the flames, according to the American media TMZ.
With the destruction of these villas, the fire could be the costliest ever recorded: damage was estimated at $57 billion (55 billion euros) by AccuWeather.
Fires in Los Angles: Heat, drought and wind represent an flammable cocktail
“We’re seeing fires that spread when it’s hot and dry and windy: all of these conditions are present in Southern California right now,” summarizes Kristina Dahl, vice president of the fire organization. scientific research Climate Central.
California was subjected in 2024 to the El Niño phenomenon, with heavy rains making vegetation abundant, and in the second half of the year to a drought in the south, with only 4 mm of precipitation in central Los Angeles over the period.
Very low humidity was coupled with strong, dry winds (up to 160 km/h in recent days) which swept the land and fanned the five outbreaks ravaging Los Angeles. The squalls are gradually weakening, but the weather services have maintained their red alert for strong winds until Friday.
The last element of this flammable cocktail is temperature. It’s around 20 degrees Celsius in the Californian megacity in the middle of the day, a high temperature at the start of winter.
The flames are out of control
The two main fires ravaging Los Angeles remained out of control Thursday despite the efforts of firefighters, local authorities said.
The outbreak in the upscale Pacific Palisades neighborhood is “one of the most destructive natural disasters in the history” of the second largest city in the United States, said Los Angeles fire chief Kristin Crowley.
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