Fanned by violent winds, at least five out of control fires have raged around Los Angeles since Tuesday and caused significant damage in upscale neighborhoods of the megacity on the west coast of the United States, threatening Hollywood in particular. Here’s what we know about these fires.
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The two main outbreaks, Palisades and Eaton, with 1,000 buildings destroyed each, are already the two most destructive in the history of Los Angeles County, according to data from the California Fire Department.
Heat, drought and wind: an flammable cocktail
“We are seeing fires that spread when it is 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.
Five deaths, 2,000 destructions, 100,000 evacuations
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So far, the fires have killed five people, but the authorities fear finding other bodies in the charred rubble.
Compared to other fires that have marked California in recent years, which sometimes extended over several thousand km2, the current outbreaks are small (nearly 120 km2 in total). Their particularity is their very destructive appearance, due to their location in residential areas.
-Since Tuesday, around 2,000 houses or buildings have been destroyed and more than 100,000 residents of the megacity have been called to evacuate their homes, particularly in the historic Hollywood district, whose famous Hollywood Boulevard is threatened by flames.
With the destruction of luxury homes, the Palisades fire could be the costliest on record: damage was estimated at $57 billion by AccuWeather.
The current episode nevertheless remains far from the damage caused in November 2018 by the series of most destructive fires in California’s history. More than 20,000 buildings were devoured by flames, mainly in the “Camp” fire, which raged north of Sacramento.
Political reactions
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“November, December, January… There is no more fire season. It takes place all year round,” lamented the Democratic Governor of California, Gavin Newsom.
President Joe Biden traveled to Los Angeles on Wednesday to meet with emergency services, and approved federal aid for the second-largest city in the United States. He canceled his trip planned for Thursday to Italy.
President-elect Donald Trump claimed on his Truth Social network that California was running out of water because of Democratic environmental policies, pointing to Gavin Newsom as “responsible” for this “real disaster.” He repeated his fanciful thesis that rainwater was being diverted to protect a “useless fish.”
Consequences in Hollywood
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In the cinema industry, several film and series shoots have been stopped, and the Universal Studios Hollywood theme park has closed.
The announcement of Oscar nominations has been pushed back two days, to January 19. The Critics Choice Awards ceremony, which was to be held on Sunday, was also postponed, and the nominations for the SAG Awards (SAG), the awards of the American actors’ union, were revealed by simple press release.
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