The death toll from the wildfires surrounding the American city of Los Angeles has risen to five. “Five dead, but probably more,” California Governor Gavin Newsom said on Wednesday evening local time CNN. “Just complete and utter devastation, and I’ve been to a lot of fires like this.”
130,000 people have now been evacuated from the area or called upon to do so as quickly as possible. All schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District will remain closed this Thursday.
Firefighting efforts are difficult due to the extremely strong winds, which further fuel the fires. “Hurricane winds are usually accompanied by rain showers,” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said at a news conference. “But these are hurricane-force winds combined with extremely dry conditions.”
The fires in the northwest region of Pacific Palisades have now burned an area of about 40 square miles, and in the east, a wildfire on the edge of Pasadena and Altadena destroyed another six square miles.
Already more than 50 billion euros in damage
In total, at least a thousand houses and other buildings have been destroyed so far, but many more are feared. Weather forecast service AccuWeather estimates that damage and economic loss from the fires is already between $52 billion and $57 billion (between €50.4 billion and €55.2 billion), but could rise further .
The fires are also delaying the announcement of Oscar nominations by two days to give Academy members extra time to vote, Reuters reports.
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This photo series of the devastating fires