Friday, 10 January 2025
Friday, 10 January 2025
A new wildfire that raced across the Hollywood Hills early Thursday, threatening an area indelibly tied to the American film industry, put additional strain on millions of Los Angeles area residents already stressed by catastrophic blazes that have erased entire neighborhoods and streaked the sky with smoke and embers.
The fires have killed at least five people, put tens of thousands under mandatory evacuation orders or warnings and burned more than 27,000 acres, equivalent to nearly 20,000 football fields. The largest ones, the Palisades and Eaton fires, have destroyed at least 2,000 structures and are already the two most destructive ever to hit Los Angeles.
As firefighting helicopters swept across a dark sky where orange embers floated like lightning bugs, the dry, windy conditions fanned more blazes. One broke out late Wednesday in the Hollywood Hills near streets — Mulholland Drive, Sunset Boulevard — whose names evoke the grandeur of American cinema, and was burning unchecked, although an evacuation order for that area was mostly lifted just before midnight.
A fire also reared up in the nearby Studio City neighborhood, burning several homes and prompting warnings of a potential evacuation. But it was quickly extinguished and no injuries were reported.
Residents feel especially vulnerable partly because strong desert winds and dangerously dry conditions — it hasn’t rained much in Los Angeles for months — are making it easier for more fires to start and spread. And a shortage of water in local reservoirs makes it harder for crews to put fires out.
Here’s what else to know:
— Latest forecast: More than 16 million people in Southern California, from Malibu down to San Diego County, were under a red flag warning early Thursday morning. Forecasters warned that moderate to strong Santa Ana winds — which fan the fires — would develop between Thursday night and Friday, and that critical fire conditions would persist across the region into Friday evening.
— Local politics: Mayor Karen Bass of Los Angeles was in Ghana when devastating fires broke out Tuesday. She returned Wednesday afternoon, but her absence has drawn criticism from some residents, who say they received insufficient warning.
— Threatened landmarks: The Sunset fire burned uncomfortably close to the Dolby Theater, where the Academy Awards are held, and other well-known cultural institutions.
— Canceled trip: President Joe Biden canceled a trip to Italy to remain in the United States and coordinate the federal response to the wildfires.
— On the ground: The fires have torn through communities of every socioeconomic status and stripe. Psychically if not physically, residents see them as a mega-catastrophe.
(New York Times News service)
