On Thursday, there are at least five active fires in Los Angeles and its surrounding areas, it is about Palisades, Eaton, Hurst, Lidia and Sunset.
The biggest fires are raging in the celebrity-dense neighborhood of Pacific Palisades, which is located on the ocean between Santa Monica and Malibu.
Fire engineer Johan Szymanski says that there are essentially two ways for the rescue service to deal with this type of forest fire.
– One is water bombing, then we have helicopters and airplanes. It is about a thousand liters of water up to a couple of cubic meters in these helicopters, he says Current.
“Better with vegetation in between”
The water can be collected from pools, lakes and seas – the main thing is that it goes quickly. But since the fires are close to buildings, the focus is primarily on evacuating, while the water bombs rather delay the spread.
– A better alternative would have been if we had had vegetation in between so that you could have made some kind of fire escapes where you do a protective burn, so that you can remove what can burn before the big fire reaches it.
The strong wind also makes it difficult to stop the progress of the fires. Szymanski compares the water bombings to pouring a teaspoon of water on a May bonfire.
– The only thing that I think can affect this is that it rains or that the wind subsides, he says.
Anna Anka has been forced to evacuate: “An atomic bomb”
At least six people have been confirmed dead, but the death toll is feared to be higher. The fires cover an area of roughly 117 square kilometers, authorities announced on Thursday afternoon.
More than 180,000 have been ordered to evacuate their homes. One of them is the TV personality Anna Anka.
– It feels like an atomic bomb has hit Los Angeles, it’s terrible how it’s burning. It feels like they have no control over the fire at all, it just blows up over everything, she says.
She and her husband are in a hotel about 20 minutes from their home. She says that people are sitting in the corridors and trying to reach relatives at the same time that the area lacks internet and is affected by power cuts.
– People are stressed, sad and have lost everything. They don’t know what to do, says Anna Anka.