The wildfires consuming Los Angeles continued to burn out-of-control Thursday, with dozens of square-miles still on fire, thousands of homes destroyed, and 180,000 residents under evacuation orders as the fires rage towards becoming most costly in American history.
Five separate fires burned across the City of Angels three days after flames first sparked Tuesday, with nearly 30,000 acres burning unchecked, according to CAL Fire.
“It was worse than any apocalypse movie you’ve ever seen,” said Gary Hall Jr., a former gold-medal Olympic swimmer who like thousands of Angelenos was forced to abandon his home forever ahead of a wall of fire.
“1,000 times worse,” he told the Sydney Morning Herald.
With at least 2,000 structures destroyed and critical infrastructure compromised, JP Morgan analysts have estimated the economic toll of the disaster will be at least $50 billion — twice their assessment from just a day earlier, while the final count is only expected to keep climbing as the fires continue to burn.
And it’s not just monetary costs that have been rising — the fires’ confirmed death toll rose to five on Thursday, and officials cautioned it will surely increase when crews can finally begin sifting through the ashes.
“At some point, we’ll be able to do a more thorough search of these impacted areas. Some of them look like a bomb was dropped in them,” Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said.
One victim, 66-year-old Victor Shaw, was found charred in the yard of his family home of 55 years with a hose in his hand.
The Palisades Fire — burning across LA’s glamourous north west coast — covered at least 17,234 acres with 0% containment as of Thursday afternoon, while to the north east the Eaton Fire raged across 10,600 acres also without any containment.
North of the city the Hurst Fire reached 671 acres with 10% containment, while two new fires also picked up — the Sunset Fire in the heart of Beverly Hills burned across 43 acres without containment, and to the north the Lidia fire burned 348 acres with 40% containment.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, however, has claimed the Sunset Fire is fully contained, but CAL FIRE continues to report otherwise.
And the chaos is only expected to continue as the winds which first kicked up the flames were expected to return after abating Thursday.
The Santa Ana winds — which gusted up to 100 mph this week — were forecast to begin blowing up to 30 mph Thursday evening and throughout Friday, according to the National Weather Service, and could continue through the weekend into next week.
“It’s like Armageddon,” Patrice Winter, who was forced to evacuate her bakery in Topanga Canyon as the Palisades fire closed in Tuesday.
“That’s all I can say. What they’re showing on the news is really real; they’re not sensationalizing any of this. It’s what I saw with my own eyes. It rocks your world,” she told the LA Times. “I mean, the sound of the wind is like you’re in a haunted house.”
Winter has no idea what’s become of her business, but was told by a ranger on Wednesday there was “no hope” for the area it’s in.
Many survivors have found themselves at a loss for words
“This feels like, bigger than I’ve ever been a part of,” said Aaron Samson, who had to fled his home with his ailing 83-year-old father-in-law just ahead of the advancing flames.
“I can’t put it into words how big it is and how much it affected my family and me personally,” he told CBS Morning. “You could feel the heat.”
“You don’t really realize how serious it is until you’re closer to those flames.”
Exactly what caused the fire still remains under investigation. Sixteen of the 20 specialists on the case are arson investigators, according to CNN, and a dog specially-trained to detect fire accelerants has been brought in.
Satellite imagery appears to indicate the Palisades Fire started around 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, with a single plume of smoke rising from a wooded area just east of an LA neighborhood called The Summit.
In parts of LA where the flames have passed, residents’ whose homes have been evacuated or reduced to ashes now have another danger to worry about: looters.
At least 20 people were arrested Wednesday night and Thursday morning after being caught trying to make off with property from affluent homes damaged or evacuated ahead of the flames, according to Los Sheriff Luna, who called the behavior “absolutely unacceptable.”
“Individuals who chose to go into our areas and deprive these poor people who have been through so much of their property,” Luna told reporters.
Private security teams hired out by wealthy Angelenos to guard their abandoned neighborhoods told the LA Times they’ve chased off numerous thieves, including some who rolled up on mopeds for quick getaways.