From Malibu to Santa Monica, from Altadena to Calabasas and the San Fernando Valley, Los Angeles continues to burn as President Joe Biden attacked "demagogues" for exploiting a tragedy that has transformed the capital of the dream industry into a "war scenario" : more than ten thousand homes destroyed, 14 thousand hectares in smoke, while the death toll, now at 11, and damages - up to 150 billion dollars, according to AccuWeather estimates - continue to rise.
Search teams are working house-to-house to search for bodies, while the National Guard and more than 200 police officers have been deployed to evacuated neighborhoods to prevent looting.
I have imposed a night-time curfew to ensure that those who have to leave their homes (153,000, while 166,000 have been warned to be ready) can do so without fearing for their belongings.
IMAGES OF SARDINIAN VINCENZO PORCU:
Among the causes of what could be the most costly tragedy in US history, the electrical grid is in the crosshairs , where the fatal spark may have started. Despite the arrest of an arsonist in Woodland Hills, where the Kenneth outbreak is raging, the hypothesis of a malicious act does not seem to be confirmed.
Meanwhile, politics continues to divide. On Truth Social, President-elect Donald Trump called for the resignation of Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom, who in the last few hours invited him to go and see for himself, to verify first-hand the state of the disaster caused by the fires. In a letter to Trump, Newsom said that "in the spirit of this great country, we must not politicize a human tragedy or push disinformation."
Then other controversies began to mount: while Mel Gibson's villa in Palisades went up in flames , there was discussion about the private firefighters employed by the rich and famous to protect their properties.
Assisted by nearly 800 inmates trained in containing the flames, professional firefighters have meanwhile made small progress: the Palisades blaze, the largest, has been limited by 8%, while, further inland, the flames of the Easton Fire that yesterday attacked Mount Wilson spared the historic astronomical observatory on the summit and the TV repeaters.
While helicopters and tanker planes have returned to the air, there have been setbacks, such as when a drone struck a firefighting aircraft, forcing it to ground.
(Online Union)