While the fires ravaging Los Angeles and its suburbs continue to gain ground, this Sunday, January 12, Donald Trump launches a new attack on Californian leaders. “Incompetent politicians have no idea how to turn them off,” the US president-elect said in a post on his Truth Social platform. “This is one of the worst disasters in the history of our country. They can’t put out the fires. What is wrong with them?” he wrote.
Five days after the start of the fires, the infrastructure on site seems not to be enough to fight against the five fires which devour everything in their path. In the upscale Pacific Palisade neighborhood, fire hydrants quickly dried up, and water shortages largely hampered efforts in other areas, leading the governor of the nation’s most populous state, Gavin Newsom, to requesting “a comprehensive independent review” of the city’s water services.
This gave rise to a series of attacks from Donald Trump, soon to return to the White House. Already this week, he accused Democrats of diverting rainwater to protect a “useless fish” in the state, baselessly accusing environmental policies of being responsible for the shortages.
Avoiding smoke without being able to find new accommodation
The criticism does not only come from the president-elect. On Saturday, the mayor of the country’s second largest city, Karen Bass, defended herself by assuring that her services were “all on the same wavelength”. The day before, the city’s fire chief had pointed out the insufficient budget allocated by the municipality to fire fighters.
The same day, Los Angeles health authorities warned residents of the health risks posed by the fumes, asking them to stay inside buildings. The fires have so far destroyed more than 12,000 structures, according to the California Fire Agency, while the Los Angeles County medical examiner’s office reports 16 deaths – a provisional toll. Rescuers assisted by sniffer dogs continue to inspect the rubble for bodies.
More than 15,000 hectares went up in smoke, mainly in the Palisades Fire and the Eaton Fire, the second fire to hit Altadena, a suburb northeast of Los Angeles. The evacuees are facing a headache in finding new accommodation, while rental prices have just made a staggering jump. This prompted the state’s attorney general to recall, on Saturday, that artificially inflating prices is a “crime punishable by one year in prison and a $10,000 fine.”
Mexican and Canadian firefighters as reinforcements
Firefighters have benefited from a calm in the winds over the past three days. But the gusts should get stronger again this weekend. “These winds, combined with dry air and dry vegetation, will keep the fire threat in Los Angeles County high,” Anthony Marrone, the county’s fire chief, warned AFP. Despite the efforts of thousands of firefighters, the Palisades Fire spread to the northwest of Los Angeles on Saturday. It now threatens the densely populated San Fernando Valley to the north, pushing east toward the priceless collections of the Getty Center art museum.
Faced with the situation which is only getting worse, support is flowing from both borders of the United States. On Saturday morning, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum announced the departure of a “humanitarian aid group for Los Angeles, California.” “We are a generous and united country,” she added, publishing on X the photo of two cargo planes on the tarmac of an airport, ignoring the trade tensions initiated by the future Trump administration. “There are a lot of Mexicans in this part of the United States,” she emphasizes.
The Canadian government has also announced that it will work with its provinces to provide support in the coming days. Quebec and Ontario have notably deployed several CL-415 air tankers, as well as pilots, technicians and equipment. Alberta announced that it would provide 40 firefighters, as well as water bombers and night vision team helicopters. British Columbia has also sent a team of experienced technicians, and is preparing to deploy additional teams if necessary.
An investigation led by the FBI is still underway to determine the multiple causes of these fires. The hot, dry Santa Ana winds that fanned these fires are a classic of California autumns and winters. But this time they reached an intensity not seen since 2011, according to meteorologists, with gusts of up to 160 km/h this week. Enough to spread the embers very quickly, sometimes over kilometers. A nightmare scenario for firefighters, because California is coming out of two very rainy years which gave rise to lush vegetation, now dried up by a severe lack of rain for eight months.