Since Tuesday, January 7, several fires have raged around Los Angeles, causing the death of at least five people and causing significant damage to residential neighborhoods in the Californian megalopolis. Satellite images bear witness to the scale of the natural disaster affecting the City of Angels.
At least five people have died and many others have been injured in the fires raging in the Los Angeles metropolitan area, and which have already destroyed more than 1,500 buildings, emergency services announced this Wednesday, January 8. More than 130,000 residents fled to escape this threat.
Fanned by violent winds, at least five fires out of control, namely Palisades, Eaton, Hurst, Lidia and Sunset, have ravaged the second city in the United States since Tuesday, January 7, sowing desolation in upscale neighborhoods of the megalopolis of the West Coast of the United States, notably threatening Hollywood where the evacuation order was given.
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. In total, they have already reduced an area of more than 112 km2 to ashes.
Published by Maxar Technologies, satellite images captured from space on Wednesday January 8 show the scale and violence of the destruction caused by the flames.
-These are real scenes of the end of the world, particularly in the north of Los Angeles in the districts of Altadena and Pacific Palisades where all that remains are charred houses, vehicles and palm trees devoured by fire wrapped in thick plumes of black smoke. In Pacific Palisades, a district which is home to the villas of many celebrities, some 6,500 hectares were charred and more than a thousand buildings destroyed.
In Malibu where thousands of people were evacuated, the fire continued to progress this Wednesday despite the efforts of firefighters deployed to fight the flames, fanned by the wind, to save threatened homes. About 1,600 hectares and at least seven properties, according to authorities, have gone up in smoke since the outbreak of the fire, called Franklin, on the heights of Malibu on Monday evening. Only 7% of the fire was contained by firefighters this Wednesday morning, California firefighters announced.
More than 1,500 firefighters are fighting the disaster, supported by a fleet of water bomber planes.
After two rainy winters which offered a relative respite, California is experiencing a very active fire season this year. In July-August, the state suffered the fourth largest fire in its history. Scientists consider that heatwaves and droughts of increasing intensity favor forest fires and are consequences of climate change.
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