Los Angeles fires: 10 dead, 10,000 buildings destroyed, 180,000 evacuated in 'fire hurricane'

Des scènes de désolation dans des paysages ravagés. MAXPPP

À Los Angeles, 150 milliards de dollars de dégâts et l’équivalent de la surface de Paris brûlée dans les incendies, un couvre-feu nocturne décrété.

Progress against the wildfires ravaging the Los Angeles area was reported Friday by firefighters, but new high winds expected later today could make the situation worse again.

The toll from the fires that have been devastating the hills east and west of the Californian metropolis since Tuesday is currently ten dead and nearly 10,000 buildings destroyed. About 180,000 residents were evacuated.

“Like an atomic bomb”

At a press conference Thursday night, Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said he expected the death toll to rise.

“It's like an atomic bomb dropped on some areas. I don't expect good news,” he said. Five fires were still burning Friday.

The most destructive wildfires in city history

The Palisades Fire, between Santa Monica and Malibu on the western edge of Los Angeles, and the Eaton Fire to the east near Pasadena have consumed 33,000 acres of land, reducing entire neighborhoods to ashes. They already rank as the most destructive wildfires in Los Angeles history.

The Palisades Fire was only 6 percent contained Friday at midday, according to fire officials, and the Eaton Fire remained completely out of control.

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Winds less intense

Aircraft are constantly circling the sky, dropping water and fire retardant on the burning hillsides. Near Calabasas, one of the wealthiest cities in the United States and home to many celebrities in gated communities, the Kenneth Fire, a wildfire that broke out Thursday, was 35 percent contained Friday. It has burned 840 acres.

The Hurst Fire was 37 percent contained, and the Lidia Fire, the smallest of the five blazes burning, was three-quarters contained. As for the Sunset Fire, which broke out Wednesday night on Hollywood Hill, it is now under control.

The wind gusts, which reached up to 160 km/h at the beginning of the week, have lost intensity in recent hours, allowing air resources to deploy more to help teams on the ground.

Major Disaster Status

But winds picked up again overnight, and weather services issued red alerts for the afternoon.

President Joe Biden, who declared a major disaster on Tuesday, pledged Thursday that the federal government would reimburse 100% of the costs of the fires — cleaning up debris, funding temporary shelters, paying salaries for first responders — for the next six months.

The private weather forecasting company AccuWeather has estimated damages at $135 billion to $150 billion.

Apocalyptic landscape

Authorities say the Eaton Fire damaged or destroyed 4,000 to 5,000 buildings, and the Palisades Fire another 5,300. Some Pacific Palisades residents have ventured back to the affluent Pacific Ocean neighborhood that has been transformed into an apocalyptic landscape.

“We're alive, that's all that matters,” said Bilal Tukhi, a security guard, standing in front of his employer's partially destroyed home. The sight reminds him of his home country, war-torn Afghanistan. Other witnesses frequently spoke of a “hurricane of fire.”

First looting

And while the homes of many movie stars and other celebrities were consumed by the flames, in Altadena, a working-class neighborhood in Los Angeles County far from the glitz of Hollywood, many residents feared Friday that federal resources and insurance company payouts would be directed primarily to the most affluent areas.

Furthermore, the Los Angeles County sheriff announced that a nighttime curfew would be put in place and that the National Guard had been sent to patrol the affected areas, in order to ensure road control and protect strategic infrastructure. And to prevent the looting that was beginning to develop. Twenty people have already been arrested for such acts.