Massive wildfires spreading very rapidly by strong wind is burning through Los Angeles County in California, with the Hollywood Hills and Palisades majorly affected. The uncontrollable fire which is still wreaking havoc across the county has killed 5 people, displaced thousands, and left hundreds of homes, businesses, and structures destroyed
The spontaneous fires in Southern California started on Tuesday and are broadly grouped into 3. In all, it has forced over 130,000 people, including Kamala Harris‘ family home, to forcefully evacuate after burning up thousands of acres.
The first fire was reported in Palisades on Tuesday morning around the beach towns of Santa Monica and Malibu. Second was the Eaton fire that started in Altadena near Pasadena in the evening and by nightfall, the Hurst fire started in Sylmar, in the San Fernando Valley northwest of downtown Los Angeles.
On Wednesday morning, the Woodley Fire started close to a Angeles nature reserve. Though the fire did not call for evacuation, it was under watch due to strong winds to the South.
Another breaking fire started recently at Studio City that is located about 4 miles from Hollywood Hills – the fires starting at different unconnected parts of the town leaves the general safety unease.
The root cause of the fire is not yet known as at this time. The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said it was under investigation, calling it an “extreme fire behaviour”. The fire department gave locations of evacuation shelters for people and animals pending when the raging inferno is extinguished.
The California fires have indeed brought untold loss to many house owners and businesses, with many reports of insurance companies canceling fire policies weeks before the wildfire started. An ABC 7 News coverage had a woman defending her parents home with water using a garden hose.
She said the home belonged to her 90 -year-old parents and they had lived their for 75 years using the same Insurance company. Sadly, their fire insurance was cancelled shortly before the inferno started.
The lady opted to go to jail when the reporter reminded her of the compulsory evacuation order issued by the state. Video below:
California Fires: Who Is To Blame?
The affected areas have been without rain for 8 months and the forests and bushes are surely littered with dry leaves waiting for a single spark to get burning – but what/who created that spark is the question.
Despite a random man blaming “all the gay people in LA” for the fire, the fact remains that nobody currently knows how it started. However, President-elect Donald Trump has his fingers pointed at the Governor – Gavin Newsom.
On Truth Social, Trump claimed that the Governor, whom he called “Newscum” refusal to sign the water restoration declaration which would allow water flow into California, especially into the arid parts, because he wanted to protect the Smelt fish, had resulted in his state burning in an “apocalyptic way”.
Trump referred to his administration as a “true disaster” claiming there were no water for fire hydrants nor firefighting planes.
However, Krassencast debunked Trump’s claims as false. It reported that it was the Federal Endangered Species Act, not California’s law, that mandated the protection of endangered species and their habitats.
Berating Trump and Elon Musk for spreading fake news on X where it quickly goes viral, the reporter said that the state water reservoirs where full but that the sudden surge for water for the firefighting at 4 times the normal rate, which also lasted for 15 hours, reduced the water pressure.
It continued that the fire fighting on the hills were poor because the high demand for water at lower ground levels slowed the refilling of tanks on higher grounds.
Governor Newsom’s office also revealed that over 7,500 firefighting personnel, 1,162 fire engines, 31 helicopter and 6 water tank aircraft, 23 intermediary water support vehicles and 53 bulldozers (to clear the road of debris and abandoned cars), were at work to keep the fire under control.
While Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass was heavilly trolled for her absence when she embarked on a trip to Ghana as while her jurisdiction burnt, news had it that the fires had a field day because she had cut the fire department budget by $17.6m.
It was reported that her decision to cut the budget despite knowing that the area had a very high risk to wildfires left the LA fire service underfunded, understaffed, and unprepared. Many firefighters were reportedly fired because they refused to get the Covid vaccination.
A trending video shows a reporter questioning her on her return, asking her if she owed her citizens an apology for choosing to leave while the fire was inevitable, cutting the budget of the fire department and if she was considering resigning because Elon Musk deemed her incompetent – but she remained sillent. Video below:
However, the reduced budget for the fire department was a cost-cuttinng across board and also affected every department. The fire department got the least deduction of 2%
The Weather Channel Shows A Burnt Human Body While Covering The Palisades Fires – Video
While the Weather Channel was covering the Southern California Palisades fire, it showed a dead body that was burnt out – except the skull and other bones among the wreckage. It is unclear if the footage was intentional or a mistake, or if it was a real human skeleton.
