A New Zealander caught in the Los Angeles wildfires has revealed what it has been like, describing smoke surrounding the city. Video / Isabella Rolston
Wildfires around Los Angeles have killed five people and burned more than 1000 buildings.
A Kiwi on holiday in the burning city has described what she has seen.
Los Angeles correspondent Ira Spitzer spoke to Newstalk ZB about the “devastating 48 hours”.
A Kiwi caught in the Los Angeles inferno has revealed what the city has been like during the fire, describing the city as like a “ghost town”.
At least five people have been killed in wildfires rampaging around Los Angeles, officials said today, and firefighters have been overwhelmed by the speed and ferocity of multiple blazes, including in Hollywood.
Isabella Ralston, from Christchurch, has been in Los Angeles on holiday with her boyfriend, exploring the city before the fires broke out. She said since the fire started, the city has changed drastically.
“It just looks like a ghost town going through downtown LA, there’s no one out, everything’s shut because of the fire,” she said.
“It’s almost all the mountains surrounding the back of Los Angeles, I think most of them are all up in smoke, and then past that, Malibu, all those hills are covered in fire as well,” she said.
The smell of smoke is everywhere, and air quality is quite bad, Ralston revealed.
“The whole skyline is basically just filled with dark smoke,” she said.
Smoke from the Los Angeles wildfire fills the sky, as seen from the coast. Photo / Isabella Ralston
Former West Auckland musician and LA resident Lisa Crawley described in a social media post getting a notification to evacuate and taking off with her computer and cat.
“When I got the notification I knocked on my neighbour’s door and bolted in minutes with my cat and my computer and we went to Studio City where a dear friend set up a spare room.
“There are a few fires three mins drive from her place but they seemed to have died down for now. I doubt I’ll sleep tonight but extremely grateful for safety and everyone who has reached out.”
Lisa Crawley with her cat after evacuating her LA home.
Los Angeles correspondent Ira Spitzer spoke to Newstalk ZB about the latest on the wildfires.
“This has just been a devastating 48 hours for Los Angeles, and it’s hard to believe it’s only been that long because everything just seems dramatically different.
Spitzer described the images of the fires on both sides of the city as “apocalyptic”.
The Los Angeles County sheriff said he expected the death toll to rise, from the current confirmed 5, as the “extent of the damage becomes clear”.
“The Palisades fire, which is the largest fire burning, has destroyed more than 2000 structures making it the largest fire in LA history.
“It’s a very difficult time.”
Spitzer said firefighters are working “around the clock” but the conditions have been difficult, as the winds spreading the fires have continued.
Up to 1500 buildings have burned in fires that have broken out around America’s second-biggest city, forcing more than 100,000 people from their homes.
Hurricane-force winds whipped up fireballs that leaped from house to house in the upmarket Pacific Palisades area, incinerating a swathe of California’s most desirable real estate favoured by Hollywood celebrities.
