LA’s largest wildfire threatening ultra-rich neighbourhoods Bel Air, Brentwood
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A firefighting helicopter dropping water on the Palisades fire near the Mandeville Canyon neighbourhood and Encino on Jan 11.
PHOTO: AFP
Corina Knoll, Soumya Karlamangla, Juliet Macur, Yan Zhuang
LOS ANGELES – Firefighters on Jan 11 were desperately trying to keep Los Angeles’ largest wildfire from overtaking new neighbourhoods as more residents fled their homes and the region braced itself for another round of strong winds.
The mammoth Palisades fire, which decimated the community of Pacific Palisades and parts of Malibu
Flames threatened multimillion-dollar homes in the area as firefighters inundated the winding roads with engines, trucks and hose lines, even using home owners’ hillside balconies to douse the burning brush with water. Planes continuously dumped water and chemical fire retardant from above. At least one home there was destroyed by the afternoon of Jan 11.
The authorities late on Jan 10 had issued mandatory evacuation orders for an area including the canyon, parts of the Brentwood and Encino neighbourhoods, as well as the Getty Centre, one of Southern California’s cultural jewels.
After a brief drop in wind speeds, desert winds that had stoked the fires picked up again on Jan 11 and “moderate to locally strong” winds were expected to continue until Jan 15, the National Weather Service said. But even without high winds, the most destructive wildfires in Los Angeles’ history expanded on the night of Jan 10 and the next day across the region’s bone-dry terrain.
The Palisades fire, which has burned through 9,308ha, was 11 per cent contained on Jan 11, up from 8 per cent the day before, according to Cal Fire, the state’s main firefighting agency. To the east, firefighters had contained 15 per cent of the 5,666ha Eaton fire near Altadena and the city of Pasadena, up from 3 per cent. Several states have sent fire crews and equipment to help, as has Canada. Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum said her country would do so as well.
The two blazes, which have killed at least 11 people and destroyed thousands of structures, now rank among the five most damaging in California’s history, with losses estimated in the tens of billions of dollars.
At least 13 people were missing, Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said at a news conference on Jan 11 morning. He added that it was unclear if those missing people were connected to the fires. In total, about 153,000 residents are under mandatory evacuation orders and some 57,000 structures are still at risk, Mr Luna said. NYTIMES
