The number of fatalities from the forest fires near the American city of Los Angeles has risen to at least eleven. Local authorities reported this on Saturday. More than 12 thousand buildings have been damaged or destroyed. More than 150 thousand residents remain evacuated for the time being. Due to water scarcity and bad weather conditions, the fire is difficult to extinguish, the newspaper writes Los Angeles Times. This hinders the search for victims. Local authorities therefore fear that the death toll will rise in the coming days.
Two of the six fires are largely under control, it turns out from figures from the Californian government. A fire is under control if emergency services can prevent the fire from spreading further. A sixth fire started on Friday.
The largest fire flared up again on Friday evening, Saturday morning local time. The injured have again been called for evacuation. This Palisades fire has been burning near Santa Monica and Malibu since Tuesday and was only eight percent contained as of Saturday morning. The second largest blaze, the Eaton fire near Pasadena, was only three percent contained as of Saturday morning. The two largest fires claimed the lives of the eleven registered victims.
Water scarcity
The Los Angeles Fire Department is struggling with low water pressure and dry hydrants. A large water reservoir with a capacity of 440 million liters was also out of use. The US government is investigating how this could have happened.
Fire Chief Kristin Crowley says fighting the fire is being made more difficult by budget cuts made by the city government. Mayor Karen Bass cut more than 16.5 million euros from the Los Angeles Fire Department. According to Bass, this was necessary in “difficult budgetary times”, but this decision had no influence on the current firefighting efforts.
Speaking to the British broadcaster BBC, Daniel Swain, climate scientist at the California Institute for Water Resources, explains the influence of the cuts on the forest fires. “There is a limit to how effective forest firefighting can be under extreme conditions like we experienced this week.”
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Strong winds and extreme drought after wet winters: the devastating fires in Los Angeles have many causes – NRC