Thursday morning was the worst nightmare for Los Angeles with fires blazing up the Hollywood Hills as the most destructive wildfires in its history accelerated.
The scale and density of the fires that surrounded Los Angeles in an almost lovers’ clinch could be seen from satellite images.
Fire and police forced over 110,000 people to flee as bone-dry, hurricane force winds fanned the flames across parched land that had not experienced any rain in weeks. Residents across the state are still on guard after fires killed five people since fires started burning Tuesday.
It engulfed the homes of many a celebrity and film star and burned some of the most costly bits of real estate on the planet perched above internationally known entertainment landmarks.
“These are the fires, this is the firestorm,” said Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass who rushed back from an official trip to Ghana in response to the fires.
The six different fires that this Los Angeles County had to fight were the recentbrush fires. Three were entirely out of control, two of which could be described as great fires raging on either side of Bakersfield, towards the eastern and western rims of the dying metropolis, plus what could be referred to as Sunset Fire, burning through the rich terrains of the Hollywood mountains, above the brilliant lights of the Hollywood Boulevard and Milky Way.
“We are of course devastated but with children and a few friends we will survive,” Billy Crystal and his wife Janice said they lost their home in Pacific Palisades, the house they had occupied since 1979.
Paris Hilton also spoke out her experiences and woe moments through her Twitter account where she said she is ‘heartbroken beyond words’ after her Malibu beachfront property ‘burn to the ground on live TV’.
In an emotional television interview, actor James Woods recounted his escape from the advancing flames: ‘You get up in the morning and you’re swimming in the pool and the next morning, it is all gone.’
He was in tears when he named his niece who visited him with her little Yeti piggy bank to help rebuild his home.
Residents returning to fire-ravaged areas found haunting scenes of destruction: single actual chimneys and small houses scattered and blackened with cars and (destroyed) buildings. There was still a badly frayed and charred Stars and Strip in the wind.
It has only been recently that I had come from my family home where my mother lives and which was put to ashes…. And then I came up to my home and – the same thing.
It’s completely dust,” said Oliver Allnatt, 36, while filming the consequences while he had the ski goggles and a filtered mask on. Quite literally it was just a tall flue and a heap of charcoal. I mean, it comes out like one that you would see in the movies.”
Hence, thousands of people flocked to emergency shelters all over the Los Angeles. When Foad Farid first got to Westwood Recreation Center he came with just his car and his cell phone However, other community members brought necessities such as blankets, clothes, water, pizzas, and food for pets.
Jeff Harris came to help the evacuees by bringing his Feisty Fish Poke food truck with him as he only said, “I came here to help.”
Kevin Williams narrated when he knew it was time to evacuate his house, while at a Pasadena evacuation center he said the neighboring gas canisters exploded due to the heat. The wind started to blow, the flames were up about 30 or 40 feet high, and then it started ‘popping’. It sounded like a war zone.”
