LAST UPDATE | 11 Jan
THE LARGEST OF the Los Angeles’ fires is spreading towards previously untouched neighborhoods today, forcing new evacuations and dimming hopes that the disaster was coming under control.
Across the city, at least 11 people have died as multiple fires have ripped through residential areas since Tuesday, razing thousands of homes in destruction that US President Joe Biden likened to a “war scene”.
Despite huge firefighting efforts, the Palisades fire’s expansion prompted evacuation orders in affluent neighbourhoods along its eastern flank, which include the famous Getty Center art museum.
Winds are forecast to pick up again today after a brief lull, posing the risk of new fires as embers are blown into dry brush.
Los Angeles residents have increasingly demanded to know who is at fault for the disaster as they grapple with the ruin and local anger rises over officials’ preparedness and response.
Residents like Nicole Perri, whose home in the upscale Pacific Palisades burnt down, told AFP that officials “completely let us down”.
“I don’t think the officials were prepared at all,” James Brown, a 65-year-old retired lawyer in Altadena, said.
California Governor Gavin Newsom on Friday ordered a “full independent review”, describing the lack of water supplies during the initial fires as “deeply troubling”.
“We need answers to how that happened,” he wrote in an open letter.
As reports of looting grew, a sunset-to-sunrise curfew was imposed in evacuated areas.
Around two dozen arrests have already been made across Los Angeles, where some residents have organised street patrols and kept armed watch over their own houses.
The National Guard has been deployed to bolster law enforcement.
Five separate fires have so far burned more than 37,000 acres (15,000 hectares), destroying around 12,000 buildings, California’s fire agency reported.
The Los Angeles County medical examiner’s office confirmed an additional fatality on Friday, bringing the overall death toll so far to 11 – though the figure is expected to rise.
“It reminded me of more of a war scene, where you had certain targets that were bombarded,” Biden said, as he received a briefing at the White House.
Winds had calmed yesterday, providing a fleeting window of opportunity for firefighters battling blazes around the clock for a fourth consecutive day.
Braveheart actor Mel Gibson was the latest celebrity to reveal his Malibu home had burned down, telling NewsNation the loss was “devastating”.
Paris Hilton, Anthony Hopkins and Billy Crystal were among a long list of celebrities who lost houses, while Prince Harry and his wife Meghan — who quit royal life in 2020 and moved to California — were seen comforting survivors.
The Palisades fire was only eight percent contained on Saturday morning and spreading east after burning 21,600 acres.
Emergency chiefs warned the situation was still extremely dangerous.
The winds “are going to increase again in the coming days”, Deanne Criswell, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), said.
Authorities have said it was too early to know the cause of the blazes.
Biden on Friday took a veiled swipe at incoming president Donald Trump, who has spread misinformation over the fires that has then been amplified on social media.
“You’re going to have a lot of demagogues out there trying to take advantage,” the president said.
Newsom, who has been blamed for the disaster by the president-elect, invited Trump to visit Los Angeles and survey the devastation with him.
“We must not politicize human tragedy or spread disinformation from the sidelines,” said Newsom.
Los Angeles fire chief Kristin Crowley pointed to recent funding cuts of the service, saying her department was chronically under-resourced and short of staff.
Wildfires occur naturally, but scientists say human-caused climate change is altering weather and changing the dynamics of the blazes.
Emergency managers apologised Friday after false evacuation alerts were erroneously sent to millions of mobile phones, sparking panic.
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