Los Angeles wildfires force thousands from their homes
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Our lives today can feel like miniature versions of this relentless churn of activity. We find we're rushing around more crazily than ever. Somewhere, when we weren't looking, it's like busyness became a way of life. Start listening to Oliver Berkman, Epidemics of Modern Life. Available to purchase wherever you get your audiobooks. You're listening to the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. Hello, I'm Oliver Conway. We're recording this at 14 hours GMT on Wednesday the 8th of January. Reinforcements are being brought into Los Angeles to fight fires that have forced thousands to flee. European nations warn that borders must not be altered by force after Donald Trump refuses to rule out military action to take Greenland. And China steps up relief efforts in the earthquake zone in Tibet.
Also in the podcast... This interaction is very new and very healthy and very positive. It's peaceful interaction. Even with people we don't agree with, it's amazing and it's never been experienced before.
Civil society activists in Damascus discuss the future of Syria. The wildfires currently burning in at least three parts of Los Angeles are so fierce that extra firefighters have been brought in from Northern California and Arizona. The worst of the fires is in the wealthy Pacific Palisades neighbourhood between Santa Monica and Malibu. At least 30,000 people have been forced to evacuate. Resident Lynn Levin-Guzman told a local TV station she went to her parents' neighbourhood to hose down their house.
They're 90 years old. They've lived in this house for 75 years. There's no words to even describe how heartbreaking, how heartbreaking. That's your entire life. You don't get that back. The memories are gone. I hope they're alive.
Mimi Teller from the American Red Cross is at an evacuation centre in the city where people have been arriving with very few belongings.
We have approximately 65 people in this shelter right now. We have another shelter which has about a dozen people. Everyone's pretty shaken up. You know, we've tried to embrace a few people as they've come in, find out how they're doing. And they're like, just let me be. I just need to sleep. A lot of people, unfortunately, weren't even able to get back to their homes to get their pets. So there's also a lot of grief and trauma right now associated with the people here. A few people had a few possessions. Some people literally just had to close on their backs.
The fires are being fuelled by gusts of up to 100 miles an hour, 160 kilometres an hour, caused by a seasonal weather pattern known as the Santa Ana winds and by the recent months of dry weather. Just before we recorded this podcast, I got an update from our correspondent in Los Angeles, Peter Bowes.
The latest is that there are now three major fires that seem to be burning out of control. And the problem for the firefighters is that overnight they haven't had the assistance of the fixed-wing aircraft and the helicopters that can douse the flames with fire retardants and water. That hasn't been possible in large part because of its night time and the winds. And also, actually, President Biden has been in town and there have been flight restrictions over Los Angeles because of that visit. It always happens on a president visit. But there have been multiple problems hindering firefighters during the night, making any sort of progress really difficult. Just firefighters, more than a thousand firefighters on the ground trying to battle these flames.
Things hopefully will improve soon. If the winds die down, they might die down a little bit in a couple of hours, and we'll see the situation when the sun rises. But really, at the moment, it's a very scary scenario with 30,000 people evacuated from their homes. Hundreds of buildings have been destroyed, businesses, homes, medical facilities, at least one school that I'm aware of and really this city just holding its breath to see what happens next. But it's a frightening situation for everyone concerned.
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Speakers
21 identified
Oliver Conway 8 min
Tom Bateman 3 min
Peter Bowes 2 min
Lina Sinjab 2 min
James Menendez 2 min
Linda Littler-Kalso-Orsa 1 min
Stefan 1 min
Suranjana Tiwari 1 min
Laura Bicker 1 min
Dr Liu Qi 1 min
Savannah Bakli 1 min
Professor Bishal Nath Upreti 1 min
Malik Hansen 1 min
John Morgan 1 min
Angie 1 min
Nula McGovern 1 min
Mimi Teller
Hege Ruudlund
Lynn Levin-Guzman
Javier Martinez-Acha
Sariya Knight
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