Transcript of California inferno rages out-of-control as arson investigation launched | BBC News

Massive wildfires continue to burn out of control around Los Angeles, with more high winds forecast into tomorrow. Almost 180,000 people have been ordered to leave their homes so far. And this is what the flames are leaving behind. Entire neighborhoods completely destroyed, everything gone. Only the charred remains of trees have been left standing. The first fire to erupt was on Tuesday in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood. It spread rapidly. Look at how fast it moved in just five hours. It now covers more than 17,000 acres of land. That blaze alone is now one of the most destructive natural disasters in the history of LA. There are still five fires alight around the city. Two of them, the Palisades and Hearst Fires, are still 0% contained. They're out of control. You can see from this time-lapse of the Palisades fire just how quickly it spread, fanned by hurricane force winds. This is another neighborhood, Altadena. This satellite imagery shows the homes and buildings, street after street, completely engulfed. Five people are known to have died, but the LA Sheriff says that number will rise. Well, let's go straight to our correspondent, Emma Vardy, who is in LA. Emma.

Well, fire crews are now into their third day of fighting fires on many fronts, and authorities are beginning to look into what started them. Arson investigators, we're told, are now part of this, but authorities haven't drawn any firm conclusions just yet. Today, the fire's growth has been slowed down, but still, many parts of this city will never look the same again. Still, they burn, the most catastrophic fires Los Angeles has ever seen. Overnight, the Hollywood Hills resembling a disaster movie, a huge crescent of flame engulfing an iconic community of California. More than 130,000 people have been told to evacuate their homes. Here, just one of many properties engulfed turned to a shell. At least five major fires have been burning across Los Angeles County. The scale and spread has stretched firefighting crews on the ground and in the air. 16,000 acres and counting consumed by the inferno. One street filmed by a local resident moments before he left.

I thought maybe I would be able to get some extra stuff that we didn't take and come to see that the whole street is just gone. It's like a war zone.

We had so many memories in here that cannot be replaced.

I had these great old pictures of my grandfather from World War II, both grandfathers, and I was going to get them framed, and now they're gone, and they're lost. And I had so many things that are just lost forever. I know we're safe, but I don't understand.

The scale of this disaster is clear to see. This is Pacific Palisades, block after block, a blanket of destruction. More than a thousand buildings burned in this community alone. Emergency services unable to save them.

We had everything, the sentimental things.

My mom passed away.

I had only a few things of hers left. My wedding dress, our wedding album. We loved everything, our albums. We have just whatever we're wearing. We're wearing the same thing for the last two days.

Copy that. Fuelled by hurricane force winds, these fires have struck at a vulnerable time. La hasn't seen any significant rainfall for months. Abandoned neighborhoods are now falling prey to crime.

In the midst of the emergency, we've all seen individuals who are targeting vulnerable communities by burglarizing and looting homes. This is simply unacceptable.

As dawn came in the Palisades, it revealed the grim reality of what the fire has left behind. There are miles and miles of streets like this, an utter shock at the devastation here. Communities just vanished, now ghost towns, and once dream homes turned to dust. No one is immune. Mansions now ash. The homes of Jennifer Anaston, Adam Sandler, and Paris Hilton, among those evacuated. And this was filmed by the wife of Take That Star, Mark Owen, as they escaped through the flames. Some are returning to the ruins to see what remains, a scene that will be repeated in this ravaged city over the coming days. Emma Vardy, BBC News, Los Angeles.

President Biden has just described the LA fires as the most devastating in California's history. Have a look at these before and after images of the destruction that the flames have left behind. This was someone's home in Altadena, and this is what it looks like now. North of there, the Pasadena Jewish temple and center has been completely gutted. And this business in the Pacific Palisades, where the largest fire is still burning, was not spared either. Our correspondent, John Sudworth, has been to the Palisades and spoken to some of those people who have been affected.

Late into the night, we watch one of America's wealthiest neighborhoods burn. The flames so intense, the fire crews are powerless to stop them. If I very quickly take my mask off, the air is absolutely thick with smoke. The fire crews here tell us they They have a shortage of water, and in many instances, they're having to stand and watch these properties burn. It is a losing battle. They're using what little they have sparingly, trying to contain the spread. Defying the evacuation orders, some residents are defending their own homes. With all the surrounding properties burning, I helped Tony and his neighbors scooping water out of the swimming people and dousing the flames at their boundary.

Since 1993, I've seen a couple of fires, but nothing like this. I wouldn't see this in my nightmare. I never thought it would come through yet.

David was hoping his home might have survived, but the whole neighborhood has gone, and with it, his house, too.

I would have thought I'd be seeing more planes flying over with water. I mean, there appears to be just two. I mean, in California, are they not like 20 or 30 of them?

If they got a got you already.

I would have thought the firemen would take a stand on a certain area.

Maybe they did, and I'm just not seeing it.

Wealth and privilege are no protection from this disaster, with the ordinary human defenses rendered futile in the face of its devastating force. John Sudworth, BBC News, Pacific Palisades.

Well, almost 180,000 people have been told to evacuate. A further 200,000 LA residents are under evacuation warnings, which means they may have to flee at a moment's notice. What happens to all those people who have lost their homes, lost everything? Where do they go? Well, many of them have made their way to evacuation centers like this one in Pasadena. John Sudworth is at another center in Westwood, near Beverly Hills. He joins us now, John.

Well, Sophie, this particular evacuation Center has taken more than 200 people sleeping in this building here last night, catering provided by the Salvation Army. Of course, for lots of those people, having seen their homes burned, there is nowhere else to turn. One of those people is Marina. Marina is from Ukraine. She only arrived in America four months ago as part of a program that has brought thousands of Ukrainians to America. Marina, tell me what happened to you yesterday.

Well, it was a windy morning. I left from my home to the work, and I saw the little smoke near my hood, but I don't think that it was something will be big. When I came trying to came home after five hours, I saw that the road were closed and too many fire departments and police car, and I started to worry. Then I just came back to Santa Monica pier just to watch what happened there because everything were in a smoke. I saw the fire flames, and they were so big. Then I just saw the place where my house built, where my build situation, it's burning, and there's burning everything, like cars and nature and houses and mind. I just lost everything because I just went to the work like that, and I don't have anything, documents, nothing. It's a very terrible story.

You've only been in America for four months. You came here escaping the disaster of the war in Ukraine. What will happen to you next now?

Actually, I don't know, but the only way I can say that I will not give up. So I just try to move on and start my life again. That's it.

Marina, thank you for talking to us. We wish you all the best in these very difficult circumstances. Sophie, we've seen all day today volunteers turning up here, bringing food and supplies. With a disaster like this, of course, everybody in this city knows somebody who's being affected.

John, thank you. Well, there have been some incredible stories of rescues and bravery as people fled their homes, and many neighborhoods now look like this, completely déserted for block after block. Houses is completely destroyed. Many of the people who have escaped have been talking about the speed with which the fires have been spreading, including Aaron Samson, who helped his father-in-law get out. Here is their story.

We've just been evacuated. We've just been evacuated from this good This is Samaritan's car. You got it, dad. We're having to walk. This is crazy. There's a fire right outside our car. We got it. No, not that way, dad, dad. My father-in-law has Parkinson's. He can barely move. This was a heroic effort on his part. It's very wobbly. Here, let me try to get you to go. Which way do I go? This way, dad, to the sidewalk. I went outside. I saw smoke and fire near my father-in-law's house and realized we need to go. The problem is we didn't have a car. By circumstance, we had no car in the house. I ran up and down the street where he was, Glenhaven, finally found a neighbor who was willing to swing by and pick us up. Most people had already gone at that point. At that point, I grabbed his medicine. That's the only thing I could think to grab. Turn around, we got this. At that point, we jumped in his car, this guy Jeff, a neighbor we'd never met before, but salt of the Earth, saved our lives. As we're driving down, there's fires on both sides of the car.

We're driving, we're suddenly seeing fires. You could feel the heat. Then the fires were getting closer and closer. At that point, just being stuck there, surrounded by fire, the policemen started running up the street, Get out of the car, get out of the car, and started screaming You don't really realize how serious it is. You don't think this is a life-threatening situation.

Aaron Samson's story there, escaping with his father. In the last few moments, President Biden has been speaking about the fires. This is what he's had to say.

To the firefighters, first responders, you really are. It's not hyperbole, since you're heroes. You're genuinely heroes.

This is the worst, this is the worst...

This is the most widespread, devastating fire in California's history. It's amazing.

Let's join Emma Vardy, who is in Pacific Palisades. And Emma, the President there is speaking about the worst fires in California's history. The fires are still burning, but thoughts are also turning to what happens now. How do you start rebuilding any of this?

People are gradually returning to scenes like this where there is absolutely nothing for them left. We've been witnessing the wreckage all around us. There's the melted metal of burnt cars just pieces of people's possessions that you can make out on the floor. Then every now and again, a house has been spared the flames, as miraculously is still standing. But in abandoned neighborhoods like this, looting has now become an issue. Police say they've made 20 police arrests for looting. They've stepped up patrols. They're warning people coming back into these areas that they will clamp down on looting very seriously. Now, there have been reported five deaths so far in these fires, but we know that investigators are currently examining other human remains that have been found in burnt-out properties, so that number may well rise. Of course, while this is all still going on on the ground, the questions for political leaders have begun. Questions over cuts to fire budgets, over whether California enough for a natural disaster like this, because it's clear that the road to recovery for LA is going to be a very long run.