Los Angeles: Over 150 Billion Cost of Fire Disaster

Conditions of utter destruction create stormy winds combined with drought in , as the flames remain out of control and cause enormous damage to their passage. Disheartening is a first account, with the dead from the fires having reached ten and burned areas of the huge fires in Los Angeles exceeding 140,000 acres. CORVERSE The fire continues its destructive work on five fronts, on Palisades, Eaton, Lydia, Hurst, Kenneth. All fires are raging uncontrollable, winds are stormy and breathing at a speed of 160 km/h. At the same time, authorities warn that the death toll is expected to rise as no autopsies have yet been made in the neighborhoods… REUTERS Cinderella became 137,500 acres, an area twice that of Santorini. 10,000 buildings were destroyed completely or damaged and 180,000 people have abandoned their homes and about 100,000 live without electricity from Los Angeles. CORVERSE Two are the big fronts, that of Palisades and Eaton. The largest fire, in Palisades, rages between Santa Monica and the famous Malibu coast. Nothing now reminds of Malibu’s famous beaches: 81,000 acres became ash 5,300 buildings and infrastructure destroyed 30,000 residents abandoned their homes the fire has been reduced by 6% in relation to its original area Huge disasters in Eaton: 55,000 acres 4,000 buildings burned down 5 people died Regarding the estimated cost of the fires, within a mere 24-hour period it tripled. From $52 billion, it reached $150 billion. Confusion and panic from wrong evacuation messages Many evacuation orders accidentally sent to resident mobile phones have caused “panic” and “confusion” in the last two days in Los Angeles. “There is much confusion, anger, fear of the wrong messages sent through the Los Angeles County warning system. I cannot express how sorry I am,” said Kevin McGowan, the county crisis management agency director. “I want to express my deep dissatisfaction with the warning system that caused panic and confusion in our community during this period of crisis. No matter the cause, this is all unacceptable,” said Lindsay Horvath, the supervisor of a county district. Thursday afternoon a message was sent to city residents’ mobile phones that said “an evacuation order was issued for your district”. Shortly afterwards, they received a second “corrective” message that said “not to take into account the evacuation order” which concerned “Purkaya Kenneth”, in the northwest of the city. A new warning, however, came in the night, at 4 a.m. Friday morning (11/1/25). “All experts work to find the cause and solve the problem. Please, everyone, don’t turn off the messages on your phones. It is a matter of life or death,” McGowan said. With information from ERTnews and RES-AB