Spectacular fires have affected California since Tuesday. At least 30,000 people living in the hills overlooking Los Angeles, on the American west coast, are affected by an evacuation order. The flames, spread by a violent wind, pose a “mortal danger”, according to the authorities.
The main fire broke out late Tuesday morning in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood, populated with multimillion-dollar villas in the mountains northwest of the city. It has already devastated nearly 1,200 hectares. It is almost the equivalent of the 12th arrondissement of Paris including the Bois de Vincennes.
The authorities identify “many structures already destroyed,” explained Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, the equivalent of a president.
Many residents evacuated in panic, with just a few belongings and their pets. Many have found themselves stuck in traffic, like Kelsey Trainor. “There was nowhere to go and people were abandoning their cars,” she said. “Everyone was honking, there were flames all around us, left, right (…) It was terrifying. » Firefighters had to clear the roadway with a bulldozer to access the neighborhood.
Hot winds are expected to continue to blow up to 160 km/h. “We expect this to be the strongest wind event since 2011,” warned Daniel Swain, a specialist in extreme events at UCLA University. But the risk of fire is, according to him, “much higher” than at the time. After two very rainy years which reinvigorated the vegetation, southern California suffered “the driest start to winter on record”. Everything that has grown back now acts as fuel. A second fire also emerged during the night, in Pasadena, north of Los Angeles.
