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 Massive Wildfires Devastate Los Angeles: A City in Crisis

Massive wildfires continue to burn out of control around Los Angeles with more high winds forecast into tomorrow. Almost 180,000 people have been ordered to leave their homes so far, and this is what the flames are leaving behind: entire neighborhoods completely destroyed, everything gone, only the charred remains of trees have been left standing.

The first fire to erupt was on Tuesday in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood. It spread rapidly—look at how fast it moved in just 5 hours. It now covers more than 177,000 acres of land. That blaze alone is now one of the most destructive natural disasters in the history of LA. There are still five fires alight around the city, two of them—the Palisades and Heurst fires—are still 0% contained. They're out of control. You can see from this time-lapse of the Palisades fire just how quickly it spread, fanned by hurricane-force winds.

This is another neighborhood, Al TOA. This satellite imagery shows the homes and buildings—street after street—completely engulfed. Five people are known to have died, but the LA Sheriff says that number will rise.

Well, let's go straight to our correspondent Emma Vardy, who is in LA. Emma?

Well, fire crews are now into their third day of fighting fires on many fronts, and authorities are beginning to look into what started them. Arson investigators, we're told, are now part of this, but authorities haven't drawn any firm conclusions just yet. Today, the fire's growth has been slowed down, but still, many parts of this city will never look the same again. Still, they burn—the most catastrophic fires Los Angeles has ever seen.

Overnight, the Hollywood Hills resembled a disaster movie, a huge crescent of flame engulfing an iconic community of California. More than 130,000 people have been told to evacuate their homes here, just one of many properties engulfed, turned to a shell. At least five major fires have been burning across Los Angeles County. The scale and spread have stretched firefighting crews on the ground and in the air. 16,000 acres and counting consumed by the inferno. One street filmed by a local resident moments before he left:

"I thought maybe I would be able to get some extra stuff that we didn’t take, and come to see that the whole street is just gone. It’s like a war zone, and we had so many memories in here that cannot be replaced. I had these great old pictures of my grandfather from World War II—both grandfathers—and I was going to get them framed, and now they’re gone and they’re lost. I had so, so many things that are just lost forever. I just, I know we’re safe, but I don’t—I don’t understand the scale of this disaster.”

It’s clear to see. This is Pacific Palisades, block after block, a blanket of destruction. More than a thousand buildings burned in this community alone. Emergency services were unable to save them.

"We had everything, like the sentimental things—like my mom passed away. I had only a few things of hers left, my wedding dress, our wedding album. We left everything, our albums. We have just whatever we’re wearing. We’re wearing the same thing for the last two days."

Fueled by hurricane-force winds, these fires have struck at a vulnerable time. LA hasn’t seen any significant rainfall for months. Abandoned neighborhoods are now falling prey to crime in the midst of the emergency.

"We’ve all seen individuals who are targeting vulnerable communities by burglarizing and looting homes. This is simply unacceptable."

As dawn came in the Palisades, it revealed the grim reality of what the fire has left behind. There are miles and miles of streets like this—an utter shock at the devastation here. Communities just vanished, now ghost towns, and once dream homes turned to dust. No one is immune. Mansions are now ash. The homes of Jennifer Aniston, Adam Sandler, and Paris Hilton are among those evacuated.

This was filmed by the wife of Take That star Mar Owen as they escaped through the flames. Some are returning to the ruins to see what remains—a scene that will be repeated in this ravaged city over the coming days.

Emma Vardy, BBC News, Los Angeles.

President Biden has just described the LA fires as the most devastating in California’s history. Have a look at these before-and-after images of the destruction that the flames have left behind. This was someone’s home in Altera, and this is what it looks like now. North of there, the Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center has been completely gutted, and this business in the Pacific Palisades, where the largest fire is still burning, was not spared either.

Our correspondent John Sudworth has been into the Palisades and spoken to some of those people who have been affected.

Late into the night, we watched one of America’s wealthiest neighborhoods burn. The flames were so intense, the fire crews were powerless to stop them.

"So if I very quickly take my mask off, the air is absolutely thick with smoke. The fire crews here tell us they have a shortage of water, and in many instances, they’re having to stand and watch these properties burn. It’s a losing battle. They’re using what little they have sparingly, trying to contain the spread. Defying the evacuation orders, some residents are defending their own homes with all the surrounding properties burning. I helped Tony and his neighbors scoop water out of the swimming pool and douse the flames at their boundary."

Since 1993, I’ve seen a couple of fires, but nothing like this. I never thought I would come through this. David was hoping his home might have survived, but the whole neighborhood is gone, and with it, his house too.

"I would have thought I’d be seeing more planes flying over with water. I mean, there appear to be just two. I mean, in California, are there not like 20 or 30 of them that they could have gotten you already? I would have thought the firemen would take a stand in a certain area, but maybe they did, and I’m just not seeing it."

Wealth and privilege are no protection from this disaster, with the ordinary human defenses rendered futile in the face of its devastating force.

John Sudworth, BBC News, Pacific Palisades.

Well, almost 180,000 people have been told to evacuate. A further 200,000 LA residents are under evacuation warnings, which means they may have to flee at a moment’s notice.

What happens to all those people who have lost their homes, lost everything? Where do they go? Well, many of them have made their way to evacuation centers like this one in Pasadena. John Sudworth is at another center in Westwood, near Beverly Hills. He joins us now. John?

Well, Sophie, this particular evacuation center has taken more than 200 people, sleeping in this building here last night, catering provided by the Salvation Army. Of course, for lots of those people who have seen their homes burned, there is nowhere else to turn.

One of those people is Marina. Marina is from Ukraine. She only arrived in America four months ago as part of a program that has brought thousands of Ukrainians to America. Marina, tell me what happened to you yesterday?

“Well, it was a windy morning. I left my home to go to work, and I saw a little smoke near my hood, but I didn’t think it was something that would be big. So when I came—tried to come home after 5 hours, I saw that the roads were closed, and there were too many fire departments and police cars. I started to worry, and then I just came back to Santa Monica Pier just to watch what happened there, because everything was in smoke. I saw the flames, and now it was so big, and then I just saw the place where my house was built. Where’s my wheel situation? It’s burning, and there’s burning everything—cars, nature, and houses—and mine. So I just lost everything. I went to work like that, and I don’t have anything—documents, no, nothing. It’s a very terrible story.”

You’ve only been in America for four months, you came here escaping the disaster of the war in Ukraine. What will happen to you next?

"Actually, I don’t know, but the only thing I can say is I will not give up. I just try to move on and start my life again. That’s it."

Marina, thank you for talking to us. We wish you all the best in these very difficult circumstances. Sophie, we’ve seen all day today volunteers turning up here, bringing food and supplies. With a disaster like this, of course, everybody in this knows somebody who’s been affected.

John, thank you.

Well, there have been some incredible stories of rescues and bravery as people fled their homes, and many neighborhoods now look like this—completely deserted. For block after block, houses completely destroyed. Many of the people who have escaped have been talking about the speed with which the fires have been spreading, including Aaron Samson, who helped his father-in-law get out. Here’s their story.

“We’ve just been evacuated. We’ve just been evacuated from this good Samaritan’s car. You got it, Dad? We’re having to walk. This is crazy. There’s a fire right outside our car. We got it. No, not that way, Dad.”

My father-in-law has Parkinson’s. He can barely move.

“Very wobbly here. Let me try to get home. Which way do I go?”

We ran up and down the street where he was—Glenn Haven—and finally found a neighbor who was willing to swing by and pick us up. Most people had already gone by that point. At that point, I grabbed his medicine. That’s the only thing I could think to grab, and we jumped in his car. This guy Jeff—a neighbor we’d never met before—saved our lives. As we’re driving down, there are fires on both sides of the car. We’re suddenly seeing fires. You could feel the heat. Then the fires were getting closer and closer. At that point, just being stuck there surrounded by fire, the policemen started running up the street, screaming, ‘Get out of the car!’ You don’t really realize how serious it is. You don’t think this is a life-threatening situation.”

Aaron Samson’s story there, escaping with his father-in-law in the last few moments.

President Biden has been speaking about the fires. This is what he had to say:

"Say to the firefighters, first responders, you really are... it’s not hyperbole. You’re heroes. You’re genuinely heroes. And the worst—you know this is the most widespread, devastating fire in California’s history."

Let’s join Emma Vardy, who is in Pacific Palisades, and Emma, the president there speaking about the worst fires in California’s history. The fires are still burning, but thoughts are also turning to what happens now—how do you start rebuilding any of this?

People are gradually returning to scenes like this, where there is absolutely nothing left. We’ve been witnessing the wreckage all around us: the melted metal of burnt cars, just pieces of people’s possessions that you can make out on the floor, and then every now and again, a house has been spared the flames. As miraculously as still standing, but in abandoned neighborhoods like this, looting has now become an issue. Police say they’ve made 20 arrests for looting, stepped up patrols, and they’re warning people coming back into these areas that they will clamp down on looting very seriously.

There have been reported five deaths so far in these fires, but we know that investigators are currently examining other human remains that have been found in burnt-out properties, so that number may well rise. And of course, while this is all still going on on the ground, the questions for political leaders have begun—questions over cuts to fire budgets, over whether California was prepared enough for a natural disaster like this. Because it’s clear that the road to recovery for LA is going to be a very long one.