Euthymios Lekkas for the Los Angeles fire: “We are experiencing the greatest destructive fire of the century”

On the effects of the huge fire burning for the 5th day in a row , he said . “The Los Angeles, in terms of economic impact, is the worst disaster that has been done in the category of fires and certainly one of the 5 worst disasters in general, for the present century,” said Euthymios Lekkas about the fiery nightmare that Californians live. ADVERSE “After the 9.1 Richter earthquake, the devastating tsunami and NaTech disaster that followed in Fukoshima in 2011 in Japan,— Whose financial consequences were of the order of trillion dollars—, after the great earthquake of 9.3 Richter and tsunami in 2004 in Indonesia, and Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the cost for each is estimated at around $250 billion, the fire that is evolving in California has already caused financial losses of $200 billion. And while one cannot avoid geodynamic phenomena (shocks, volcanoes, tsunami), the evolving fire is a complex disaster, whose individual dimensions we are not mature until now to investigate.” Apart from giving political responsibility for what might have gone wrong at management level, there are more basic parameters, which we should understand if we want to limit the likelihood of repetition of the events,” Euthymios Lekkas explained. ADVERSION “Undoubtedly, we find from the facts that a large urban fire cannot be easily addressed since in the areas of forest and urban tissue complexion (wildland urban interface – WUI), fuel mainly in modern urban areas are multiple than in the forest. The mixture becomes explosive, especially when reinforced by high temperatures (amid winter) and downhill (katabatic or flowing downhill wins) winds of unrealistic speed. These are strong, warm winds, also known as devil wins, bearing dust and descending to the Pacific coast around Los Angeles, and whose intensity, and frequency of appearance, are strengthened even further due to the evolving climate crisis. The treatment of fire under these conditions becomes an extremely difficult equation, with many parameters that are not yet known. The lack of early intervention, forces, means and available water are clearly weaknesses of the whole system, as if operational forces fail to control the fire at its start under these conditions, then everything is considered lost. Apart from the superficial political approach, what we urgently need for every disaster to achieve is an understanding of the evolution of natural phenomena, which are much more complex than we have so far considered and additionally much more complex, when escorting secondary risks to their evolution are involved,” Euthymios Lekkas explained.