The fire ravaged Los Angeles on Thursday and devoured homes and vehicles, leading to the evacuation of tens of thousands of people.
“The flames have consumed all our dreams, after years spent here,” breathes William Gonzales behind a black mask, in front of his house reduced to ashes in the town of Altadena, north of Los Angeles.
“We lost practically everything. »
More than 130,000 people have fled multiple fires raging amid strong winds in the second largest city in the United States.
At least five people have lost their lives as flames threaten Hollywood, the famous home of American cinema.
These winds have “the force of a hurricane” and fuel the fires because of “extreme drought conditions,” explained Mayor Karen Bass during a press briefing Wednesday evening.
The gusts, blowing up to 160 km/h, decrease in intensity Thursday morning but are expected to pick up again in the evening, warned the American weather services (NWS).
The flames which have spread since Tuesday at lightning speed are devouring the upscale district of Pacific Palisades, which is home to the villas of many celebrities, and where 6,500 hectares have been charred and more than a thousand buildings destroyed.
On Wednesday evening, they began to devour the Hollywood Hills, a few hundred meters from the famous Hollywood Boulevard and Chinese Theater.
Biden on site
The outbreaks have multiplied in the suburbs north of Los Angeles, often exploding within a few minutes and raising fears of other deaths.
“We don’t have enough firefighters in Los Angeles County to deal with this situation,” Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone said Wednesday.
“More than 7,500” firefighters, sometimes from other American states, are leading the fight against these “unprecedented fires in Los Angeles,” declared California Governor Gavin Newsom.
One of the five victims was Altadena resident Victor Shaw, who defended his home against the flames until the end.
-“It seems like he was trying to save the house that his parents had for almost 55 years,” his friend Al Tanner, who found him lifeless, garden hose in hand, told KTLA.
Californians were urged by authorities to conserve water as three reservoirs supplying fire hydrants were emptied by battling blazes in Pacific Palisades.
President-elect Donald Trump spread false information on his Truth Social network, claiming that California is running out of water because of Democratic environmental policies that would divert rainwater to protect “useless fish.”
In reality, most of the water used by Los Angeles comes from the Colorado River, and is primarily used by the agricultural industry.
President Joe Biden, still in power for a few days, is traveling to California. After releasing federal aid to increase firefighting, he canceled a trip planned for Thursday to Italy, the White House announced.
Hollywood touched
In the city of entertainment, the fires are disrupting the cinema industry: several film and series shoots have been stopped, and the Universal Studios Hollywood theme park has closed.
The Oscar nominations have been postponed by two days to January 19.
Several Hollywood celebrities are among the tens of thousands of people ordered to evacuate.
The Santa Ana winds currently blowing are a classic of California’s autumns and winters. But this week, they reached an intensity not seen since 2011, according to meteorologists.
A real nightmare for firefighters, because California is coming out of two very rainy years which created lush vegetation, now dried out by an abnormally dry winter.
Scientists regularly point out that climate change is increasing the frequency of extreme weather events.
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