The imposing plume of smoke is visible to millions of Los Angeles residents.
A fire devours the outskirts of an upscale neighborhood in Santa Monica.
Santa Ana winds are causing fears of rapid intensification, and evacuations have been ordered.
An impressive fire caused the evacuation of thousands of people on Tuesday January 7 from the hills overlooking Los Angeles. The region is experiencing violent winds capable of quickly spreading the flames and posing a “mortal danger”announced local authorities. The fire broke out late in the morning in the upscale Pacific Palisades neighborhood, which borders the Santa Monica Mountains to the north of the city. According to witnesses, some homes have already burned in this area where more than 24,000 people live, and which concentrates many multi-million dollar villas, built on the side of steep canyons.
At midday, the “Palisades fire” already covered more than 300 hectares on the outskirts of Los Angeles, according to the fire monitoring agency in the state of California, CalFire. “Evacuate the Palisades area now.”recommended the city on Twitter, while dozens of firefighters fought against the flames. The fire caused a huge column of smoke, visible from the entire megacity. The neighboring town of Malibu, which already suffered a large fire in December, has closed its schools.
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The fire broke out while Los Angeles is being swept by particularly violent gusts: the hot winds from Santa Ana, typical of the Californian winter, must blow up to 160 km/h, according to the American meteorological services – a record for at least a decade. Enough to spread the flames very quickly and greatly complicate the task of the firefighters. The weather alert is expected to remain in place until Thursday evening. Many firefighters had been deployed in advance and are fighting “aggressively” against the fire, assured the mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass, on social networks.
