Palisades Fire: Los Angeles Wildfires Leave at Least Five People Dead as Blazes Intensify – WSJ

LOS ANGELES Portions of the heavily populated Hollywood neighborhood were ordered to evacuate Wednesday evening as a new fire broke out in the hills above the center of this city battling numerous deadly blazes.

At least five people were dead and tens of thousands were forced to evacuate as six wildfires simultaneously hit the most populated county in America. More than 2,000 structures were damaged or destroyed, 123,000 people lost power, and the region s firefighting resources were stretched to their limits.

A wind-fueled fire devastated the affluent oceanside Pacific Palisades neighborhood while another, responsible for all five deaths, burned in and around Pasadena to the east of Los Angeles.

Officials said the disaster in this county of 10 million people was unprecedented and the result of a combination of deadly weather conditions.

This firestorm is the big one in magnitude, L.A. Mayor Karen Bass said Wednesday evening. Hurricane-force winds are usually accompanied by rain storms. But these are hurricane-force winds that are combined with extremely dry drought conditions.

via www.wsj.com

WSJ seems to have good coverage of this disaster so far . . .