Fires in Los Angeles: Toxic waste has scattered everywhere – Dramatic appeal to displaced people not to return home a week ago

Tens of thousands of residents who rushed away from their homes because of their murder will need to be patient “for at least one more week” before they could return, authorities warned yesterday Thursday, as fears of landslides and exposure to toxic substances are expressed. Many residents “speak, get upset, wonder “why they keep us away from our homes,” Ronen Meaz said on the local television network KTLA, with images from “bombed” Los Angeles going around the world, in one of the worst fires in California history. CORVERSE The despair of many is intensifying, as authorities have given orders that prevent them from returning, even if there is a chance that their homes will not suffer any damage from the fires that destroyed suburbs of the Californian city, turning over 160,000 acres into excrement 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, sewerage networks is extensive. Toxic waste has been scattered everywhere. The risk of landslides is magnified. “It will take a moment,” warned Los Angeles County sheriff Robert Luna. “I will say at least a week extra, and that is just an estimate, I think it will take longer than that,” he completed. CORVERSE At least 27 dead In the most recent official account of the victims released yesterday Thursday (16.01.25), at least 27 people died in the fires that mainly hit the Altatina community, north of Los Angeles, and the affluent suburb of Pacific Palisades, northwest of the big city. The number of victims is not excluded from increasing even more over the next few days, as search teams continue to comb the debris. The fact that “we think we may have other victims” in some fire-fighting areas is one of the reasons why displaced people are forbidden to allow, explained the authorities. Fear of rainy Groups of the federal environmental protection agency (EPA), began yesterday inspections and collected pesticides, fuels, lithium batteries and other dangerous substances from the mountains of debris, before becoming dangerous, disintegrating or drifting. What concerns them is the possibility of rains occurring after the extremely dry period in Los Angeles. The streets through which there would be a hasty removal of residents in the two most affected areas “have been damaged”, noted County Public Works Director Mark Pestrella, adding “in the event of heavy rains, we expect that the entire district and roads may be hit by streams of water and mud that drag debris.” Hills in Greater Los Angeles have been destabilized by the fires and by the vast quantities of water used by firefighters to extinguish them. Even buildings that look intact can be hit by landslides, noted Mr. Pestrella. Powerful winds faded Photos from a point in Pacific Palisades depict a house, which was not burned, but was cut in two when it crashed, a hill slope collapsed after the fire was extinguished. The stormy winds in the Los Angeles area, which were breathing for over a week spreading the flames rapidly, weakened yesterday, helping firefighters — like 900 prisoners, who were taken to the area to help them — make progress in firefighting operations. “This is the first time in my life that I’ve done something I’m proud of,” Jacob Castro, a prisoner for 29 years, told the French Agency, as he was preparing at a training centre to extinguish fires managed by California’s prison authorities. “I am given a chance to be redeemed,” he added.