Tens of thousands of residents who were forced from their homes by wildfires in the Los Angeles area will have to wait "at least another week" before they can return, authorities warned on Thursday, amid fears of landslides and exposure to toxic substances.
Many residents are "complaining, getting angry, asking 'why are they continuing to keep us out of our homes,'" Ronen Mize told local television network KTLA.
The desperation of many is intensifying, as authorities have issued orders preventing them from returning, even though there is a possibility that their homes have not suffered any damage from the fires that have ravaged the suburbs of the Californian metropolis, turning more than 160.000 acres into ashes in the last ten days or so.
There are reasons: the situation is still dangerous, officials explained during a press conference. Damage to electricity, gas, and sewage networks is extensive. Toxic waste has been scattered everywhere. The risk of landslides is increasing.
"It's going to take a while," Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna warned. "I would say at least another week, and that's just an estimate, I think it's going to take longer than that," he added.
According to the latest official death toll released on Thursday, at least 27 people have died in the fires that mainly affected the community of Altadina, north of Los Angeles, and the affluent suburb of Pacific Palisades, northwest of the city.
The number of victims is likely to rise even further in the coming days, as search teams continue to comb the debris.
The fact that "we think we may have more victims" in some fire-stricken areas is one of the reasons that displaced people are prohibited from leaving, the authorities explained.
Teams from the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) began inspections yesterday and collected pesticides, fuels, lithium batteries and other hazardous substances from the mountains of debris before they become dangerous, decompose or drift away.
What worries them is the possibility of rain after the extremely dry period that Los Angeles has experienced.
The roads through which residents would be evacuated in the two hardest-hit areas “have been damaged,” said county Public Works Director Mark Pestrella, adding, “In the event of heavy rains, we expect that the entire neighborhood and the roads could be hit by torrents of water and mud carrying debris.”
Hills in greater Los Angeles have been destabilized by the fires and the vast amounts of water firefighters used to extinguish them.
Even buildings that appear to be intact can be hit by landslides, Mr. Pestrela noted.
Photos from a location in Pacific Palisades show a house that did not burn, but was cut in two when a landslide hit it, a hillside collapsed after the fire was extinguished.
Gusty winds in the Los Angeles area, which had been blowing for more than a week, rapidly spreading the flames, weakened yesterday, helping firefighters — as well as 900 prisoners who were brought to the area to help them — make progress in extinguishing the fire.
"This is the first time in my life that I'm doing something that I'm proud of," Jacob Castro, a 29-year inmate, told AFP as he prepared for a firefighting training course run by the California Department of Corrections. "It's a chance to redeem myself," he added.
Source: protothema.gr