Los Angeles wildfires live: City braces for more destruction as blazes continue to burn in neighborhoods
Death toll continues to climb as more than 7,500 firefighting personnel are deployed across California, with two of the most ferocious fires at zero percent containment
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.At least five people have been killed and many others severely injured as several fast-moving wildfires have torn across the Los Angeles County area, leaving thousands of firefighters attempting to extinguish the blaze.
Officials said Thursday that while progress had been made on the Sunset, Woodley, Hurst, and Sunswept Fires, more “extreme fire behavior” and wind gusts up to 60mph are continuing to challenge firefighting efforts.
“Significant fire growth remains likely with ongoing or new fires,” forecasters warned.
The Palisades Fire, one of the most destructive natural disasters the city has seen, is still not contained. The fire has burned more than 17,200 acres, while the Altadena and Pasadena-based Eaton fire has scorched some 10,600 acres.
The causes of all of the wildfires are under active investigation, but thousands of buildings and businesses have been destroyed.
Nearly 180,000 residents of the cunty are under evacuation orders and nearly 200,000 are under evacuation warnings.
Even more California customers were left without power on Thursday, with nearly 420,000 outages reported by tracker PowerOutage.us.
Sheriff Robert Luna said that deputies were touring the affected areas.”
“Some of ‘em looked like a bomb was dropped in ‘em,” he said.
Is the Hollywood sign on fire?
The causes of the California wildfires are closer to home than you think
Los Angeles wildfire victim died holding hose while trying to defend home
‘All Gone’: Actor James Woods breaks down in tears recounting destruction of home in California fire
Haunting before-and-after images of LA buildings razed to the ground show extent of devastating fires
‘We raised our children here’: The Hollywood stars whose homes have burnt down in California wildfires
Los Angeles Lakers and Charlotte Hornets game is postponed
The NBA postponed the Los Angeles Lakers’ home game against the Charlotte Hornets on Thursday due to the wildfires burning across Los Angeles County.
It is the second consecutive day a game slated to be played in downtown Los Angeles has been postponed.
The NHL’s Los Angeles Kings were scheduled to host the Calgary Flames on Wednesday night.
With reporting from The Associated Press
Thousands of Los Angeles homeowners were dropped by their insurers before the Palisades Fire, report says
Thousands of Los Angeles area homeowners were dropped by their insurers last year before the devastating Palisades Fire, according to CBS News.
Approximately 1,600 policies in Pacific Palisades were dropped by State Farm in July, California Department of Insurance spokesman Michael Soller told CBS MoneyWatch in a Thursday email.
“Our No. 1 priority right now is the safety of our customers, agents and employees impacted by the fires and assisting our customers in the midst of this tragedy,” State Farm told the network.
Firefighter and lifeguard recalls seeing Palisades Fire grow: The fire ‘just kind of exploded’
“As the wind started picking up and kind of raging in a northwesterly direction, the fire just kind of exploded,” Fabian Herrera told CBS News.
He was on a beach in Malibu and watched the blaze move to the top of the Pacific Palisades neighborhood.
“Now you have areas like this .... These beachfront homes, all destroyed or affected in some sense,” said Herrera.
Firefighter and lifeguard recalls seeing Palisades Fire grow: The fire ‘just kind of exploded’
“As the wind started picking up and kind of raging in a northwesterly direction, the fire just kind of exploded,” Fabian Herrera told CBS News.
He was on a beach in Malibu and watched the blaze move to the top of the Pacific Palisades neighborhood.
“Now you have areas like this .... These beachfront homes, all destroyed or affected in some sense,” said Herrera.
Thousands of structures have been destroyed in California wildfires. Here’s what that means
Initial estimates on the number of structures destroyed by wildfires are based on heat signatures picked up by aircraft, Cal Fire told CNN.
“It doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s a residential structure or commercial structure. It could be a vehicle. It could be an outbuilding,” Todd Hopkins, an incident commander for the agency, explained Thursday.
However, teams are on the ground to make more detailed inspections. They will catalog whether a house is damaged or completely destroyed.
“The thousands of structures can mean many different things besides just a home, but it is thousands — plural — that have been destroyed, thousands of structures,” he said.
Fires still burn as residents begin to tour the damage
Pacific Palisades neighborhood ‘looked apocalyptic,’ LA County DA says
“Up and down each one of the blocks I traveled, those houses no longer exist. They are basically rubble,” Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman told reporters on Thursday.
“It looked apocalyptic. Not since the 1990s when Los Angeles was hit with the fires, the flood, the earthquake and the riots, have I seen such disaster occur here in our city.”
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments