THE FIVE fires that on January 9th were still blazing in and around Los Angeles were already among the most destructive in California’s history. The scale is staggering, even for a state accustomed to natural disasters. Roughly 130,000 people were told to leave their homes; 2,000 buildings have been destroyed. Because wildfires have come to seem more like a certainty than a risk here, a lot will not be insured. State Farm, an insurer, decided not to renew 70% of its policies in Pacific Palisades, one of the worst-hit areas. ABC Los Angeles reckons this has left 1,600 homes there uninsured. Fire crews faced an uneven fight: in the small hours of the morning the neighbourhood fire hydrants ran dry.
By January 9th, two large fires were burning at opposite ends of LA County, home to 10m people. One razed the Pacific Palisades, a wealthy neighbourhood on the coast, and swept into Malibu. Another was burning in the foothills above Pasadena, north-east of LA. Ash fell like snowflakes over the city’s downtown. Flames glowed crimson on the peaks when they were not obscured by black smoke, southern California’s own Mount Doom.
Leave a Reply