Hell comes to the City of Angels
TENS of thousands of people have been forced to leave their homes as firefighters battle a wildfire raging on the outskirts of Los Angeles.
The blaze erupted late on Thursday along the northern tier of the San Fernando Valley as powerful Santa Ana winds swept Southern California, fanning several destructive blazes.
The Los Angeles Fire Department said the fire has spread to cover more than 11 square kilometres and 100,000 people in more than 20,000 homes are subject to mandatory evacuation orders.
Fire chief Ralph Terrazas said at least 25 homes had been damaged. A middle-aged man who was near the fire suffered a heart attack and died, while a death was also confirmed at an earlier wildfire east of Los Angeles.
Mr Terrazas said there are sustained winds of 32-40kph with gusts over 80kph, and relative humidity levels have fallen as low as 3%.
‘As you can imagine the embers from the wind have been travelling a significant distance, which causes another fire to start,’ he said.
Helicopters and planes are making repeated drops of water and fire retardant as about 1,000 firefighters on the ground attack the flames in and around homes. A number of properties have been destroyed.
Evacuations are still in effect in the inland region east of Los Angeles where a fire raged through a mobile home park in Calimesa.
Fire danger is high throughout Southern California after the typically dry summer and early autumn, and the notorious Santa Ana winds - linked to the spread of many wildfires - bring a dangerous mix of witheringly low humidity levels and powerful gusts.
100k The number of people told to evacuate houses