a new fire has broken out in the Hollywood Hills in Los Angeles threatening landmarks like the Dolby Theater where the Oscar ceremonies to be held in just a few weeks authorities have ordered evacuations for thousands of people firefighters are so far unable to contain several blazes raging across the Los Angeles area at least five people have died and more than a thousand buildings have been destroyed home after home conern Ed By Flames Fierce winds have been propelling The Inferno here in Altadena controlling the blazes has been near impossible I've lived in this area for over
20 years and we've seen fires on the mountains and the heels and that but never anything like this whole neighborhoods are being incinerated some residents have been returning to the charred ruins of their former homes here was our home with my sisters and we've lost practically everything the Flames have consumed years of Dreams here everything here has turned to ashes from the air a wider view of the scale of the disaster smoke stretching off for hundreds of kilometers and from space satellite imagery captured the two biggest blazes the Palisades and eaten fires neighboring states are
sending resources to help President Biden promised a strong Federal response as he met with California's governor and other top state officials you sir we're prepared to do anything and everything as long as it takes to contain these fires and help reconstruct and make sure we get back to normal it's going to be a hell of a long way the uh it's going to take time but we're in it federal government here to stay as long as you needs and everything you need more than 100,000 people are under evacuation orders forecasters say calmer winds could help
firefighting efforts in the coming days but as the blazes rage out of control the extreme risk to life and property will remain and we can now speak to DW reporter Stefan Simons who is in Los Angeles Stefan I understand that you're on the edge of what's being called the sunset fire near the Hollywood Hills describe the situation there for us well you're absolutely right this is where we are Sunset fire Hollywood Hills very Posh neighborhood very affluent area here of course Hollywood Hills and uh those folks here right behind me were the last ones who
were hit by evacuation orders and uh we asked law enforcement here uh pretty much everybody left here why because of the fire which is going on actually on the other side of the Hill it's growing and it's not under control it's 0% contained yet it's the latest Blaze popping up in and around Los Angeles the biggest still is the palisad fire uh the winds were picking up about an hour ago now died down a little bit here and that is a good sign why because you can't see it but maybe you can hear it there
are helicopters up in the air now those are spotters they are not the helicopters we dump a lot which dump a lot of water but is a good sign wind dying down air assets for the firefighters in the air and that means they can actually combat effectively fight fire uh which they couldn't in the last 24 to 48 hours at all well as we've been saying there are multiple fires burning simultaneously and earlier you sent us some footage from the eaten fire which is near Pasadena what was going on there well it's the scene of
Destruction really chaotic destruction it's I wouldn't describe it as a war zone or apocalyptic but the destruction is really uh uh immense very very very uh uh big and significant churches gone uh synagogues gone temples gone businesses gone homes gone a lot of people came back to destroyed neighborhoods entire neighborhoods gone wiped off the Earth basically burnt down to ashes and and that is hard for those people let this fire the the eaten fire was the second biggest is now starting to be contained 10 20% maybe but you know a long way to go for
the fire department here in La as well as Cal Fire the State firefighters here uh and anybody else who is uh fighting this fire that's why it's all hands- on decks the fire uh Chief here of La as well as the mayor of Los Angeles as well the governor of California said anybody who has firefighting experience please get your jelly jackets back on come here here help us um we're in trouble there's five big fires uh hassling us here in LA and this is as you know La so there's a lot of stuff going on
here a lot of sites movie production and a lot of people live here well you said it yourself uh some of the fires are 0% contained according to officials so how exactly are firefighters going to be able to bring them under control the only chance is when Nature helps and how is it helping by dying down those Santana winds just 24 hours ago those winds packed 100 m hour tornado strong gusts that is amazing now I would say we're at like 30 between 30 and 40 mph at times that is still not great but as
I said you hear sometimes helicopters in the air and now the fire departments here and the firefighters will start to use those air assets and they are critical to dump huge amounts of fire [ __ ] and water on Fires which pop up again and again and to really give them uh basically the death penalty to those fires and you can only do this if you have those air assets if you have fixed Wing airplanes and helicopters who can really really douse those Flames with just boots on the ground it doesn't matter how many firefighters
or Hot Shots uh groups you put on the ground uh you cannot win this fight if the center Anna wins blowing as they do now a little bit and have those fires jump from place to place uncontrollable you can only take a defensive measure there and step way back and let the fire do what the fire does burning things down that's what nobody wants here of course that's why the winds have to die down the planes have to and the helicopters have to go in the air and then La has a good chance here to
combat that fire soon and Stefan I want to ask you about the thousands of people who've been told to evacuate where are they taking shelter yeah that's a a growing problem because you know of course shelters are um organized for them in in in schools in safe places by the city government here by City officials and the state uh so there is effort to really have those people uh uh be provided with a safe place but um you know they those safe places those shelter places have to be built up they have to be uh
organized and that's what the city is actually doing right now so it's not all smooth and hunky dory year A lot of people are in a lot of hurt for that reason it's really cumbersome they don't have necessarily anywhere to go so they rely on friends and relatives you know to find a place for the night or maybe for two nights if they can't find an official shelter but those shelters are there and they will be increasing in numbers in the next few hours next few days until the situation is solved that was DW's Stefan
Simons in Los Angeles for us Stefan thanks for your reporting we appreciate it and please do stay safe well a short time ago we spoke to John hinen who lives in the Los Angeles suburb of ala and was forced to evacuate from those fires sure so last night uh when the fire started about dinner time my son and I went out to the fire line which was at a canyon very close to where we live and the fire burned through the evening and I went back to my home in the middle of the night but
in the morning when I woke up I had now seen the devastation through the neighborhood and this is a very historic neighborhood at the base of the San Gabriel mountains in Los Angeles these homes are well over a hundred years old and so uh now you're seeing these hundreds of homes that have been devastated in the immediate area but but the fires are continuing and so this is actually the problem is that many many fire homes are on fire and because of the big winds that are ongoing from the previous few days it's jumping from
house to house and so it's still very very dangerous and so the evening was really going through the mountains which are at the uh the front of the canyon but now all of the homes are threatened and so the wave is going from the West to the east because of the Winds and so I decided now that my home would be threatened and I uh came down to Orange County to stay with relatives well wildfires have become more frequent outside the regular Fire season in Southern California we asked meteorologist Matthew kuchi why these fires are
causing so much destruction in Southern California fires are part of the landscape fires are part of the ecosystem it happens every few years but when you start building bigger and bigger and bigger cities you're going to have more potential for damage loss and casualties in this case however you have very densely packed neighborhoods with no real brakes for a fire to stop at and so in situations like this it's easier for the fire to run all the way down the Foothills and potentially to the ocean until this is either contained or Burns to the ocean
I don't really see much of an end in sight given there aren't really many natural barriers here one other point you know you mentioned moments ago that January is not typically when we see these fires you're exactly right we ordinarily would see them until about maybe October or November by which point the winter rains would start to arrive and come December Fire season should be over that's not really the case we we just haven't really seen any arrival of the winter rains it's been so incredibly dry over the past few months we've seen less than
a quarter of the typical rainfall and so in the winter time when we get these strong wind events and the landscape's a Tinder Box you you get big time fires like this that are more typical of Peak fire season
