Firefighters battle devastating Los Angeles wildfires as winds ease a little
Ferocious winds that drove the flames have calmed somewhat and were not expected to be as powerful during the day on Thursday.
Firefighters in the US were continuing to try and control a series of major fires in the Los Angeles area that have killed five people, ravaged communities from the Pacific Coast to Pasadena and sent thousands of people frantically fleeing their homes.
Ferocious winds that drove the flames and led to chaotic evacuations have calmed somewhat and were not expected to be as powerful during the day.
That could provide an opportunity for firefighters to make progress reining in blazes that have jumped across the sprawling region, including massive ones in Pacific Palisades and Altadena.
But only about a mile away, the streets around the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the TCL Chinese Theatre and Madame Tussauds were bustling, and onlookers used their phones to record video of the flaming hills.
Within a few hours, firefighters had made major progress on the Sunset Fire. Los Angeles Fire Department Captain Erik Scott said they were able to keep the fire in check because “we hit it hard and fast and mother nature was a little nicer to us today than she was yesterday”.
Nearly 2,000 homes, businesses and other structures have been destroyed in those blazes — called the Palisades and Eaton fires — and the number is expected to increase. The five deaths recorded so far were from the Eaton fire.
Some 130,000 people have been put under evacuation orders, as fires have consumed a total of about 42 square miles (108 square kilometres) — nearly the size of the entire city of San Francisco. The Palisades fire is already the most destructive in Los Angeles history.
More than half-a-dozen schools in the area were either damaged or destroyed, including Palisades Charter High School, which has featured in many Hollywood productions, including the 1976 horror movie Carrie and the TV series Teen Wolf, officials said. University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) had cancelled lessons for the week.
“Those erratic wind gusts were throwing embers for multiple miles ahead of the fire,” he said.
As flames moved through his neighbourhood, Jose Velasquez sprayed down his family’s Altadena home with water as embers rained down on the roof.
He managed to save their home, which also houses their family business selling churros, a Mexican pastry. Others were not so lucky.
“So we had to call a few people and then we had people messaging, asking if their house was still standing,” he said. “We had to tell them that it’s not.”
In Pacific Palisades, a hillside area along the coast dotted with celebrity homes, the scope of the destruction was just becoming clear.
Block after block of California Mission-style homes and bungalows were reduced to charred remains. Ornate iron railings wrapped around the smouldering frame of one house. Swimming pools were blackened with soot, and sports cars slumped on melted tyres.
The main fires grew rapidly in distinctly different areas that had two things in common: densely packed streets of homes in places that are choked with vegetation and primed to burn in dry conditions.
Flames moved so quickly that many barely had time to escape. Police sought shelter inside their patrol cars, and residents at a senior living centre were pushed in wheelchairs and hospital beds down a street to safety.
In the race to get away in Pacific Palisades, roads became impassable when scores of people abandoned their vehicles and set out on foot.
The flames marched towards highly populated and affluent neighbourhoods, including Calabasas and Santa Monica, home to California’s rich and famous.
Mandy Moore, Cary Elwes and Paris Hilton were among the stars who lost homes. Billy Crystal and his wife Janice lost their home of 45 years in the Palisades fire.
“We raised our children and grandchildren here. Every inch of our house was filled with love. Beautiful memories that can’t be taken away,” the Crystals wrote in the statement.
“It’s just really weird coming back to somewhere that doesn’t really exist anymore,” said Dylan Vincent, who returned to the neighbourhood to retrieve some items and saw that his primary school had burned down and that whole blocks had been flattened.
California’s wildfire season is beginning earlier and ending later due to rising temperatures and decreased rainfall tied to climate change, according to recent data.
Rains that usually end fire season are often delayed, meaning fires can burn through the winter months, according to the Western Fire Chiefs Association.
The winds increased to 80mph (129kph) on Wednesday, according to reports received by the National Weather Service.
Fire conditions could last through to Friday, but wind speeds were expected to be lower on Thursday.
US president Joe Biden signed a federal emergency declaration after arriving at a Santa Monica fire station for a briefing with Governor Gavin Newsom, who dispatched National Guard troops to help.
As of early Thursday, around 250,000 people were without power in southern California, according to the tracking website PowerOutage.us.
Several Southern California landmarks were heavily damaged, including the Reel Inn in Malibu, a seafood restaurant. Owner Teddy Leonard and her husband hope to rebuild.
“When you look at the grand scheme of things, as long as your family is well and everyone’s alive, you’re still winning, right?” she said.
