At least five people have been killed and many others severely injured as several fast-moving wildfires have torn across the Los Angeles County area, leaving thousands of firefighters attempting to extinguish the blaze.
Officials said Thursday that while progress had been made on the Sunset, Woodley, Hurst, and Sunswept Fires, more “extreme fire behavior” and wind gusts up to 60mph are continuing to challenge firefighting efforts.
Los Angeles Sheriff Robert Luna said fire-ravaged neighborhoods in west L.A. “look like a bomb was dropped in them.”
The Palisades Fire, one of the most destructive natural disasters the city has seen, is still not contained. The fire has burned at least 17,234 acres, while the Altadena and Pasadena-based Eaton fire has scorched some 10,600 acres.
The causes of all of the wildfires are under active investigation.
Nearly 180,000 residents of the county are under evacuation orders and nearly 200,000 are under evacuation warnings.
Even more California customers were left without power on Thursday, with nearly 420,000 outages reported by tracker
Elon Musk, surveying the damage from afar, attempted to blame the fires on everything from budget cuts under the administration of L.A. mayor Karen Bass to diversity trainings. He also suggested climate change was progressing “much slower than alarmists claim.”
