evacuated residents will not be able to return home for “at least a week”

Tens of thousands of residents evacuated because of the fires that engulfed Los Angeles will have to wait “at least one more week” before returning home, the authorities announced on Thursday, January 16. The situation remains too dangerous at the moment, they explained at a press conference. Electricity, gas and sewer networks suffered considerable damage. Toxic waste is found everywhere. And the risk of landslides or mudslides is growing.

“It’s going to take a whilewarned Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna. I would say at least another week, and that’s an estimate, but I think it’s going to take longer than that. »

According to a latest report on Thursday, at least twenty-seven people died in the fires which engulfed the city of Altadena, north of Los Angeles, and the upscale district of Pacific Palisades, in the northwest of the megalopolis.

Destabilized hills

The number of victims is likely to rise further in the days to come as search teams continue to sift through the rubble. It is also “because we think there may be other victims” in certain disaster areas that evacuated residents are prevented from returning there, local authorities further explain.

Teams from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) began inspections Thursday to collect pesticides, gasoline and lithium batteries from among the mountains of rubble, before the debris could begin to be cleared.

In contrast to the recent ultra-dry climatic conditions, it is now possible rain which represents a potential threat. “The evacuation networks of the two sectors (the most affected) were damagedexplains Los Angeles County Public Works Director Mark Pestrella. In the event of heavy rain, we expect the entire neighborhood and streets to be affected by water flows carrying debris. »

The hills of Los Angeles have been destabilized by the fires and the considerable volumes of water used by firefighters to fight them. Apparently intact buildings could also be affected by landslides, adds Mark Pestrella. Photos from Pacific Palisades show a house, which was not affected by the fire, appears to have split in two from a collapsing hillside after the flames were extinguished .

The violent winds that swept the Los Angeles area for more than a week and fanned the flames calmed on Thursday, helping firefighters to progress in their operations.