Par
Manon Reinhardt
Published on
Jan 15, 2025 at 12:30 p.m.
Gilles Marini is lost for words. For several days, the city of Los Angeles has been surrounded by deadly fires which have already left 24 dead, according to a latest report. The actor, originally from Grasse near Nice (Alpes-Maritimes), has lived there since 2002.
He tells actu Nice the atmosphere that reigns in the second largest city in the United States and how the population is organizing itself to try to cope with the tragedy.
“The residents are stunned”
Los Angeles devastated. This is how Gilles Marini, an actor from Grasse, now describes this city that he has lived in for 23 years and which he considers “home”. In just a few days, devastating and deadly fires completely destroyed several neighborhoods highly coveted.
Although his home was not impacted, he recounts the hell experienced by thousands of residents who lost their homes.
When you look and you don’t know what to say or do anymore… People are shocked and strangely when you come out, it’s calm. The residents are stunned. I can’t stay still so I go on my motorbike and try to help here and there, especially the elderly, to clear a little.
But what strikes Gilles Marini most of all is the incredible calm that has settled in the streets. “It’s shocking, it’s the first time I’ve seen that. People were calm, well organized. They did the right things,” he continues on the phone.
Apocalyptic scenes in the city
Of his memories of shooting for the film Sex and The Citythere is nothing left. “I filmed in Malibu, everything is burnt. It’s incomprehensible. The cleanup is going to be so important and the pollution it will cause is crazy. »
On his social networks, he shared several videos of the deadly flames and apocalyptic damage. In some streets, everything was burned. Only the structures of the houses, gutted by the fire, are still standing. The green grass has given way to a spectacular pile of black dust.
Gilles is particularly worried about what happens next: “When the dust stays on the ground… It’s charred, I’m heartbroken. It’s horrible, we see people who have lost everything, we have to collect dead animals.”
“It’s not possible to explain what we saw here”
But he won’t post any more photos for now. “I have the phone in my pocket, I just have tears in my eyes. » Disconcerted, the actor has difficulty finding his words. “It’s not yet possible to explain what we saw here, you can’t cry anymore because you have no more tears,” he sighs, his throat tight.
12,000 buildings disappeared in the fire, 100,000 people were evacuated. For now, the investigation is continuing to determine the causes. Several hypotheses are on the table.
For Grassois, those responsible are none other than political actors. “They never went on the field. » According to him, the city was not well prepared enough and security was neglected. “There are natural disasters that are helped by humans,” he rages.
Los Angeles not prepared enough?
“Our constructions were based on seismic risk. For years we have been pointing out the risks, saying that we need to clean up the forests. » But he explains that nothing was done to prevent tragedyyet predictable. “The fire was much too big and too fast,” concedes Gilles Marini, “but we could have been more prepared.”
He compares these deadly fires to a “nuclear bomb that has just exploded”. But the priority, he said, “is in the first necessities, people need to be housedfed, given things to them.”
The actor collaborates with local associations to try to help. If the fires “have moved away from the cities”, the disarray remains. “I wanted to thank all the firefighters for their bravery and selflessness in risking their lives to protect others,” he wrote on Instagram three days ago
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