Fierce wildfires, fueled by severe windstorms and extremely dry conditions, rapidly spread across parts of north and northwest Los Angeles on Wednesday, resulting in five fatalities and the destruction of over 1,000 homes, businesses, and other structures.
The Palisades Fire, the largest of the blazes, first ignited on Tuesday morning around 10:30 a.m. local time (1830 GMT) and has since scorched nearly 16,000 acres. It continues to spread rapidly through the affluent Pacific Palisades neighborhood near the coast.
Firefighters are struggling to contain the wind-driven blaze near the coast while simultaneously battling two other significant fires in the Los Angeles area. The Eaton Fire, located northeast of downtown Los Angeles, has burned 10,600 acres, while the Hurst Fire, northwest of downtown, has grown to over 500 acres.
All three fires remain out of control.
AccuWeather estimates the damage from the fires to be between $52 and $57 billion. “This is a terrible disaster. We’re just beginning to grasp the scale of the destruction and loss,” said AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist Jonathan Porter.
Over 70,000 residents have been forced to evacuate their homes, and at least five people have died, according to reports citing the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office.
Approximately 1.5 million people across Southern California are without power, according to PowerOutage.us. Some of the outages may be due to intentional shut-offs, a precautionary measure taken by power companies to prevent live power lines from falling and igniting more fires.
President Joe Biden has ordered the deployment of four U.S. Forest Service Large Air Tankers, with another en route, along with 10 federal firefighting helicopters to combat the blazes, the White House announced. Additionally, dozens of Forest Service fire trucks have been pre-positioned to support firefighting efforts. Speaking at a briefing with state and local officials in Santa Monica, just south of the Palisades Fire, Biden assured that federal agencies are doing “everything possible” to control the fires.
“This will be a long and arduous process. It’s going to take time,” Biden stated. “The scale of this disaster is truly staggering.”
The White House later clarified that Biden’s visit did not interfere with the ongoing efforts to control the wildfires.
