Multiple wildfires raging in Los Angeles
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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 are recording this at 14 hours GMT on Thursday the 9th of January. The fires around Los Angeles are visible from space as they continue to burn, but firefighters have managed to control the blaze threatening Hollywood. The Ukrainian president says a new chapter in the war with Russia will open when Donald Trump returns to the White House. And what happens when Swedish women earn more than their husbands? Also in the podcast, crossing the Darien Gap jungle.
The Darien is a completely horrible experience. There are dead people everywhere. Women who have been separated from their children too. It is horrible.
Multiple wildfires continue to burn in Los Angeles, with at least three completely uncontained. The two largest, Eton and Palisades, now cover more than 110 square kilometres. Five people have died and more than 1,000 structures have been destroyed, including the homes of celebrities like Billy Crystal, James Woods and Paris Hilton. We got an update from David Acuna, Battalion Chief at the California Fire Service.
Unfortunately, the progress is literally zero because the wind has been blowing consistently at 60 to 100 miles an hour since yesterday morning. It actually blew harder last night. It's still consistent right now. It's in its 20s and 30s. So it is going down slightly, but it's still significant. And because there's a lot of open areas, a lot of open line, it's extremely dangerous.
Some reports now say firefighters have made progress against one blaze, the Sunset Fire that was threatening to engulf the Hollywood Hills, though some buildings along Sunset Boulevard are in ruins. In the Pacific Palisades to the west, fire crews are facing a shortage of water and have only been able to watch as one of the city's most expensive neighbourhoods burns. Our reporter John Sudworth is there.
Late into the night, in one of LA's wealthiest areas, the eerie sound of home after home burning and collapsing. The sky filled with orange smoke and embers. A short way away, fire crews watch on helplessly. They're short of water. they tell us and in many cases they're just having to watch properties burn using their hose pipes sparingly on the houses across the street here in the hope that they can stop the fire spreading but it seems like a losing battle that was part of a fire right there right there those bushes will catch on fire and it'll be the end of this house in this house We've met Tony, who's here helping a neighbour try to protect his property. It's one of the only ones left standing here, houses on both sides still burning, a real threat to this home, and they're doing all they can to save it. Tell us what you're trying to do here now with the buckets of water.
Well, we had some fire starting there that we'll put out because that would have cut all these bushes on fire and that probably would have put this house on fire. So we're trying to get rid of all the ambers. There were a bunch of ambers in the back as well that we just put out.
So you're scooping up buckets of water from the swimming pool?
There's no water here. They shut off the water.
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