At least five dead in fires in Los Angeles, Hollywood evacuated

At least five people died in the fierce fires that raged around Los Angeles on Wednesday and now threaten the Hollywood district, whose residents have been ordered to evacuate.

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An evacuation of the area was ordered as flames began to devour the hills on Wednesday evening, a few hundred meters from Hollywood Boulevard and the famous Chinese Theater.

Another fire also broke out in the evening in the neighboring Studio City district, worrying the authorities.

Around 1,500 buildings were destroyed and more than 100,000 residents of the American megacity were forced to flee in the face of the flames. The authorities fear discovering new deaths.

“I’m very nervous, scared by everything that happened elsewhere,” Sharon Ibarra, 29, told AFP amid the traffic jams created by the Hollywood evacuation order.

Los Angeles is being swept by “hurricane-force winds combined with extreme drought conditions,” summarized Mayor Karen Bass during a press briefing Wednesday evening.

Amid huge plumes of black smoke, gusts blew up to 160 km/h on Wednesday, and sometimes carried embers for kilometers.

The fight promises to be long: the squalls are gradually weakening, but the weather services are maintaining their red alert for strong winds until Friday.

“Not enough firefighters”

A first fire broke out Tuesday morning in the hills of the upscale Pacific Palisades neighborhood, which is home to celebrities and many multi-million dollar villas.

Since then, outbreaks have multiplied in the suburbs to the north of the city and often explode very quickly, within a few minutes.

“We don’t have enough firefighters in Los Angeles County to deal with this situation,” Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone said Wednesday morning.

“More than 7,500” firefighters, sometimes from other American states, are leading the fight against these “unprecedented fires in Los Angeles,” the governor of California said Wednesday evening.

The town of Altadena looks like a recently bombed area, with buildings still burning and homes reduced to ashes. William Gonzales returned to see his home, evacuated the day before.

He told AFP “having lost almost everything”: “the flames have engulfed our dreams. There’s nothing left but ashes here.”

Empty fire hydrants

One of the five victims was Altadena resident Victor Shaw, who defended his home against the flames until the end.

“It seems like he was trying to save the house that his parents had for almost 55 years,” his friend Al Tanner, who found him lifeless, garden hose in hand, told KTLA.

Californians were urged by authorities to conserve water as three reservoirs supplying fire hydrants were emptied by battling blazes in Pacific Palisades.

President-elect Donald Trump spread false information on his Truth Social network, claiming that California is running out of water because of Democratic environmental policies that would divert rainwater to protect a “useless fish.”

In reality, most of the water used by Los Angeles comes from the Colorado River, and is primarily used by the agricultural industry.

His predecessor Joe Biden, still in power for a few days, is currently visiting California. After releasing federal aid to increase firefighting, he canceled his trip planned for Thursday to Italy, the White House announced.

Cinema disrupted

The fires are also disrupting the cinema industry: several film and series shoots have been stopped, and the Universal Studios Hollywood theme park has closed.

The Oscar nominations were pushed back to January 19 instead of the 17th. Just like the Critics Choice Awards ceremony, which was to be held on Sunday.

Several Hollywood celebrities are among the tens of thousands of people ordered to evacuate.

Known for his role as Luke Skywalker in the “Star Wars” saga, Mark Hamill announced on Instagram that he had to leave his house in Malibu, a city popular with stars, on Tuesday.

The Santa Ana winds currently blowing are a classic of California’s autumns and winters. But this week, they reached an intensity not seen since 2011, according to meteorologists.

A real nightmare for firefighters, because California is coming out of two very rainy years which created lush vegetation, now dried out by an abnormally dry winter.

Scientists regularly point out that climate change is increasing the frequency of extreme weather events. Warnings that now resonate in the flesh of the Angelines.

“It’s probably climate change that’s affecting everything. I’m sure it added to all that,” sighs Debbie Collins, in front of her store threatened by flames in Altadena. “The world is really bad and we need to do more.”