The LA fires
The Holywood Reporter reports:
“Hell, it must be like Los Angeles,” reads the poem “Contemplating Hell,” by Bertolt Brecht. The Marxist German playwright was largely critiquing the city’s culture. Yet in recent days, many images of wildfire devastation coming over the newswires made the City of Angels look every bit like Hades: raging infernos, charred skeletal remains of homes, a smoke-filled amaranthine sky, weeping residents. It was both shocking and all too familiar — haven’t we seen this episode before? During the Malibu wildfires of 1993, actor Mark Hamill told The Associated Press that the celebrity enclave “looks like a war zone.” Thirty-two years later, Hamill is again one of many stars being evacuated, this time calling the Pacific Palisades destruction “horrific” on Instagram.
Yet some aspects have changed. Fire hydrants running out of water — that certainly feels like a late-season writers room twist (aging infrastructure, dry reservoirs and too much simultaneous demand are cited as possible reasons for this). The frequency and intensity of fires statewide likewise feels new — seven of the eight largest California wildfires of all time have occurred in just the past four years.
The death toll is luckily low (so far) but over 1,000 buildings have been destroyed and the economic damage is estimated to be over $50 billion. Its the most destructive fire in LA history and over 4000 hectares has been burnt.
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