SOURCE :- THE AGE NEWS
Washington: New areas of Los Angeles and surrounds are being evacuated as fire crews battle to contain the most destructive blaze in the city’s history, which was spreading quickly despite a lull in the winds.
The Palisades fire, which had already burnt through more than 8500 hectares, was threatening hillside homes in Encino in the San Fernando Valley – the opposite side of the mountains from the Pacific Palisades, which was ravaged earlier in the week.
Evacuation orders were issued for parts of Encino, as well as Crestwood Hills and Brentwood. Further away from the hills, evacuation warnings were in place up to Ventura Boulevard to the north, Sunset Boulevard to the south and Bel Air in the east.
News networks broadcast footage of police controlling traffic on major roads out of the evacuation zones as a steady stream of vehicles headed towards shelters. “People are just completely freaked out,” the neighbourhood council president, Josh Sautter, told The New York Times. “There’s cars leaving everywhere on our block.”
Just 8 per cent of the Palisades fire was behind containment lines, and 3 per cent of the Eaton fire – the other deadly LA blaze. Between them, they have claimed at least 11 lives and destroyed more than 12,000 homes, offices, vehicles and other structures. At least six fires in total were affecting the county.
Authorities said it was still unsafe to thoroughly search many areas hit by the fires, leading them to assume the death toll would rise in coming days. “We don’t know the half of it,” said LA County Sheriff Robert Luna.
A home destroyed by the Palisades Fire is seen during sunset in Pacific Palisades.Credit: San Francisco Chronicle via AP
Among the victims identified so far were Anthony Mitchell, a 67-year-old amputee, and his son Justin, who had cerebral palsy. They were reportedly waiting for an ambulance to reach them. “He was not going to leave his son behind. No matter what,” a family member said.
As outrage grew over poor bushfire preparation and cuts to the fire department budget, embattled Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass was forced to deny reports she had sacked fire chief Kristin Crowley following a series of critical interviews Crowley gave on Friday.
The cuts “did not allow us to do what we needed to do” to fight the current fires, Crowley had told NBC, and she had eventually agreed with a FOX News interviewer who asked her whether the City of Los Angeles had failed.
“We took a $US17 million [$27.6 million] budget cut. Any budget cut would negatively impact our ability to carry out our mission,” Crowley told CNN, adding that the department did not have enough firefighters. But she acknowledged the scale of the disaster was unprecedented. “Even with an additional 100 [fire] engines … we were not gonna catch that fire,” she said of the Palisades blaze.
Los Angeles Fire Department chief Kristin Crowley addresses the media alongside Mayor Karen Bass (left).Credit:
A City of Los Angeles spokesperson confirmed that Bass and Crowley had met but said reports Crowley was fired were false. “The priority remains fighting these fires and protecting Angelenos.”
Amid a partisan political fight over whether to blame climate change or negligence and “woke” policies for the disaster, California Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, invited President-elect Donald Trump to visit fire-ravaged areas, writing in a letter to the Republican that “we must not politicise human tragedy or spread disinformation from the sidelines”.
“Let’s turn the page … we’d like [Trump] to have the spirit of the current president and have the backs of people so we can recover,” Newsom said. Trump has said Newsom, whom he calls “Newscum”, should resign.
Newsom also ordered an independent inquiry into why fire hydrants ran dry when they were needed most, a failure that has caused significant anger in the aftermath of the disaster. In a letter to relevant Los Angeles departments, he noted the hydrants were not designed to extinguish massive wildfires, but he said the failures “likely impaired the effort to protect some homes and evacuation corridors”, and answers were required.
Firefighters work a hydrant in front of the Bunny Museum in Altadena, which was burnt to the ground.Credit: AP
There was also speculation water pressure was too low to run the hydrants because the Santa Ynez reservoir in the Pacific Palisades was out of service during the fire.
Meanwhile, California residents Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, comforted residents affected by the infernos. Footage shared by the BBC showed Meghan hugging a crying woman and shaking her head as they spoke at the Pasadena Convention Centre, while Harry put his hand on the woman’s shoulder.
Mel Gibson joined the ranks of Hollywood stars to lose their homes in the fires. The actor’s Malibu property was destroyed by the Palisades blaze, and he joked to NewsNation that he would no longer have to deal with its “pesky plumbing problems”. Billy Crystal, Paris Hilton and Jeff Bridges have also lost homes.
An overnight curfew continued in evacuation zones, imposed to combat looting. While lighter winds have been favouring firefighting efforts in some locations, strong gusts are expected to return as soon as Sunday – though not as damaging as the famous Santa Ana winds that whipped up the fires earlier.
Other blazes in the area were brought under greater control. The Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said the Kenneth fire was 50 per cent contained, the Hurst fire 70 per cent and the Lidia fire 98 per cent.
