Two massive wildfires that engulfed whole neighborhoods and displaced thousands in Los Angeles were totally uncontained on Thursday, authorities said, as shell-shocked residents began to pick through the charred wreckage of their homes. Swaths of the United States’ second-largest city lay eerily deserted due to the fires’ destruction and sweeping evacuation orders, with smoke blanketing the sky and its acrid smell pervading almost every building.A vast firefighting operation continued for a third day, bolstered by water-dropping helicopters thanks to a temporary lull in winds.Amid the chaos, looting broke out, with at least 20 arrests made so far, officials said.The biggest fire, which has ripped through 17,000 acres (6,900 hectares) of the upscale Pacific Palisades neighborhood, is “one of the most destructive natural disasters in the history of Los Angeles,” city fire chief Kristin Crowley told a press conference.Another 10,000-acre fire in Altadena in which at least five people died was also at “zero-percent containment,” although spreading had “significantly stopped” as wind gusts reduced, county fire chief Anthony Marrone said.Kalen Astoor, a 36-year-old paralegal, was among those returning to the scorched remains of residential streets Thursday morning.Her mother’s home had been spared by the inferno’s seemingly random and chaotic destruction. Some neighbors’ houses, often side-by-side with those razed to the ground, had similarly survived.Through the blackened remains of devastated homes, gloomy vistas of the surrounding fire-ravaged mountains could be glimpsed through the smoke.”The view now is of death and destruction,” she told AFP. “I don’t know if anyone can come back for a while.”The same fire flared up again near the summit of Mount Wilson, home to a historic observatory and vital communication towers and equipment.But there was some good news for Hollywood, the historic home of the US movie industry, after evacuation orders prompted by the nearby “Sunset Fire” on Wednesday were lifted.- ‘Critical’ -Fast-moving flames fanned by powerful winds of up to 100 miles (160 kilometers) an hour since Tuesday have leveled more than 2,000 structures across the city, many of them multi-million dollar homes.Aerial views on Thursday showed whole neighborhoods burnt to the ground, in scenes watched in horror by millions in Los Angeles and around the world.Crowley said a preliminary estimate of destroyed structures in Pacific Palisades was “in the thousands.”Nearly 180,000 people across Los Angeles remain under evacuation orders.Officials pledged to crack down on looters hitting areas deserted due to the fires and evacuations.A sunset-to-sunrise curfew has been declared in evacuated areas of the coastal city of Santa Monica.In Altadena, neighbors took turns to patrol and protect homes on their streets.Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said 20 arrests had been made so far, with that number expected to rise. Officials and meteorologists warn that “critical” windy and dry conditions, though abated, are not over.”The winds continue to be of a historic nature… this is absolutely an unprecedented, historic firestorm,” said Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass.A National Weather Service bulletin said “significant fire growth” remained likely “with ongoing or new fires” throughout Thursday and into Friday.- ‘Lost everything’ -Among those who died was 66-year-old Victor Shaw, whose sister said he had ignored pleas to leave as the fire swept through Altadena because he wanted to protect their home.”When I went back in and yelled out his name, he didn’t reply,” Shari Shaw said.”I had to get out because the embers were so big and flying like a firestorm that I had to save myself.”Shaw’s body was found by a friend on the driveway of his razed home, a garden hose in his hand.William Gonzales got out alive, but his Altadena home was gone.”We have lost practically everything; the flames have consumed all our dreams,” he told AFP.President Joe Biden, who canceled a trip to Italy this week over the crisis, is due to give public remarks about the fires later Thursday.His incoming successor Donald Trump blamed California governor Gavin Newsom for the devastation and called on the Democrat to resign. “This is all his fault,” Trump said on his Truth social platform. – Climate crisis -Wildfires are part of life in the western United States and play a vital role in nature.But scientists say human-caused climate change is causing more severe weather patterns.Southern California had two decades of drought that were followed by two exceptionally wet years, sparking furious vegetative growth.That has left the region, which has had no significant rain for eight months, packed with fuel and primed to burn.

Following in the footsteps of electric scooters on land and wakeboards at sea, young entrepreneurs are bringing electric power to snow travel with self-propelled skis and all-terrain skates.Already an experienced surfer and snowboarder, Edouard Aubert took up skateboarding during the pandemic, as he was drawn to the empty roads.”Since I’m an engineer, I quickly put a motor on it,” he said with a grin at the CES technology show in Las Vegas.”But we needed more. Roads weren’t enough for us, and neither was off-roading. We needed sand, snow.”While electric skateboards were abundant, “there was nothing for off-roading,” said Adrien Ladan, Aubert’s former schoolmate and business partner.The two Frenchmen launched SQ-Motors to develop the Sternboard, a three-wheeled board capable of reaching speeds over 60 km/h on a track.Initially focused on sand terrain, they developed a tracked model “for fun” and recently sold six units to a ski resort in the French Pyrenees.The basic configuration costs around 3,000 euros, with snow equipment adding another 1,000.”The snow version isn’t meant for hurtling down slopes or replacing snowboarding,” Aubert explained.”It’s more for walking and cross-country skiing.”The resort will test both winter and summer configurations, using tracks and mini-skis on the front wheels for winter, then removing them for year-round use.Qatari investors have approached the entrepreneurs about the sand version, and Aubert promises mass production this year.So far, they’ve hand-manufactured dozens of units to refine the product and ensure reliability.”The idea is to find new playgrounds,” he said.The classic wheeled version has found unexpected fans: “We’ve had quite a few requests from farmers who ride them on their farms,” Aubert noted. “We’re already on our fifth.”- Just enough exercise -Nicola Colombo brought his E-Skimo to Las Vegas, a ski touring system he likens to an electric bicycle.In ski touring, skiers climb slopes rather than using lifts before skiing down.With E-Skimo, as the skier moves, a motor drives a fabric strip beneath the ski, acting as a conveyor belt that reduces strain on legs and thighs.Using AI, the system gauges the slope and ski positions to calibrate assistance based on the user and pace. The motor stops once the skier completes their forward stride. At the summit, users can remove the fabric band, motor, and battery to descend on what amount to conventional skis.”The idea came after taking friends ski touring,” Colombo recalled.”They weren’t enjoying themselves because it was too physically demanding.”Ski touring typically requires more exertion than downhill skiing.”We want to make it accessible to people with lower fitness levels,” said Colombo, whose Swiss company E-Outdoor seeks partnerships with ski manufacturers.Though production hasn’t begun, he estimates a price of around 1,500 dollars, roughly double standard touring skis.While the e-skis can move on flat surfaces without leg power, as Colombo demonstrated on a Las Vegas ice rink, he emphasized that wasn’t their purpose: “We want to maintain exercise.”

Shell-shocked Los Angeles residents on Thursday surveyed the devastation from fast-moving fires that have claimed at least five lives, as officials warned the largest blazes remained totally uncontained.Swathes of the city lay eerily deserted due to the fires’ destruction and sweeping evacuation orders, with acrid smoke blanketing the sky.A vast firefighting operation continued for a third day, bolstered by extra water-dropping helicopters thanks to a temporary lull in winds.Amid the chaos, looting has broken out, with at least 20 arrests made so far, officials said.The biggest fire, which has ripped through 17,000 acres (6,900 hectares) of the upscale Pacific Palisades neighborhood, is “one of the most destructive natural disasters in the history of Los Angeles,” city fire chief Kristin Crowley told a press conference.Another 10,000-acre fire in Altadena was also at “zero percent containment,” although spreading had “significantly stopped” as wind gust reduced, county fire chief Anthony Marrone said.Judy Chu, the US congresswoman representing the region, visited an evacuation center where 1,000 displaced residents sought shelter, and said Altadena was “just devastated.””They are numb. They don’t know what they will return to once this fire is contained,” she told local news KTLA.Nearly 180,000 people were under evacuation orders, as officials and meteorologists warned that “critical” windy and dry conditions, though abated, were not over.”The winds continue to be of a historic nature… this is absolutely an unprecedented, historic firestorm,” said Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass.A National Weather Service bulletin said “significant fire growth” remained likely “with ongoing or new fires” throughout Thursday and into Friday.But there was some good news for Hollywood, the historic home of the movie industry, after evacuation orders prompted by the nearby “Sunset Fire” on Wednesday were lifted.- Multi-million dollar homes -Fast-moving flames fanned by powerful winds have leveled more than 2,000 structures, many of them multi-million dollar homes, with aerial views on Thursday showing whole neighborhoods burnt to the ground.Millions of Angelenos have watched in horror as blazes have erupted around America’s second biggest city, sparking panic and fear.Winds with gusts up to 100 miles (160 kilometers) an hour spread the fire around the ritzy Pacific Palisades neighborhood with lightning speed.Crowley said a preliminary estimate of destroyed structures was “in the thousands.”Around a thousand more buildings have been destroyed in Altadena, north of the city, where flames tore through suburban streets.Officials pledged to crack down on looters hitting areas deserted due to the fires and evacuations.A sunset-to-sunrise curfew has been declared in evacuated areas of the coastal city of Santa Monica.Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said 20 arrests had been made so far, with that number expected to rise. “It’s absolutely unacceptable,” he said.- Lost everything -Among those who died was 66-year-old Victor Shaw, whose sister said he had ignored pleas to leave as the fire swept through Altadena because he wanted to protect their home.”When I went back in and yelled out his name, he didn’t reply back,” Shari Shaw said.”I had to get out because the embers were so big and flying like a firestorm that I had to save myself.”Shaw’s body was found by a friend on the driveway of his razed home, a garden hose in his hand.William Gonzales got out alive, but his Altadena home was gone.”We have lost practically everything; the flames have consumed all our dreams,” he told AFP.President Joe Biden, who canceled a trip to Italy this week over the crisis, is due to give public remarks about the fires later Thursday.His incoming successor Donald Trump meanwhile blamed California governor Gavin Newsom for the devastation and calling on the Democrat to resign. “This is all his fault,” Trump said on his Truth social platform. – Climate crisis -Wildfires are part of life in the US West and play a vital role in nature.But scientists say human-caused climate change is causing more severe weather patterns.Southern California had two decades of drought that were followed by two exceptionally wet years, sparking furious vegetative growth.That has left the region, which has had no significant rain for eight months, packed with fuel and primed to burn.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday said Donald Trump’s return to the White House would open “a new chapter” and reiterated a call for Western allies to send troops to help “force Russia to peace”.Zelensky spoke at a meeting of about 50 allies at the US air base Ramstein in Germany, the last such gathering before Trump takes office on January 20, casting doubt on future American support for Kyiv.”It’s clear that a new chapter starts for Europe and the entire world — just 11 days from now, a time when we have to cooperate even more, rely on one another even more, and achieve even greater results together,” said Zelensky.”I see this as a time of opportunities,” he added at the 25th meeting of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group.As the grinding war nears the three-year mark, Zelensky repeated a call for Western allies to send troops to help Ukraine.”Our goal is to find as many instruments as possible to force Russia into peace,” he told the meeting. “I believe that such deployment of partners’ contingents is one of the best instruments.”The United States under President Joe Biden has been Ukraine’s biggest wartime backer, providing military aid worth more than $65 billion since February 2022.- ‘Success story’ -US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin — who launched the Ramstein format shortly after the war started — announced new military aid worth $500 million for Kyiv.”The coalition to support Ukraine must not flinch. It must not falter. And it must not fail,” Austin said. “Ukraine’s survival is on the line. But so is all of our security.”Austin looked back over recent years and how, since the days when “Ukrainian citizens were making Molotov cocktails to defend their homes,” the multinational group had supplied the country with an arsenal of high-tech weapons.This had helped “turn Ukraine’s struggle into one of the great military success stories of our times,” Austin said, adding that Russia had suffered more than 700,000 dead or wounded and had become “more isolated” on the world stage.Austin said “this coalition must continue to stand foursquare with Ukraine -— and to strengthen its hand for the negotiations that will someday bring Putin’s monstrous war to a close”.But, pressed on whether he wanted the Trump administration to push on with the effort, Austin said that “it’s up to the future administration to make their own decisions”.Trump, who has criticised the large amount of US military aid for Kyiv, has promised to bring a swift end to the war, but without making any concrete proposals for a ceasefire or peace deal.EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said she hoped the United States would keep supporting Ukraine but added that “the European Union is also ready to take over this leadership if the United States is not willing to do so”.German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius called for the continuation of the Ramstein format, saying its results so far “must now inspire us to make every effort for what is still to come”.- ‘World is watching’ -Russian and Ukrainian forces are now engaged in fierce fighting, looking to secure their battlefield positions before Trump’s inauguration.Trump has criticised NATO allies for spending too little on shared defence. This week, he sparked further alarm by refusing to rule out military action to take Greenland, an autonomous territory of EU and NATO member Denmark.Austin stressed that “the United States of America has always been a reliable partner. We will always be a reliable partner in the future”.NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said allies needed to help Ukraine reach a position of strength ahead of any eventual ceasefire or peace talks.”We have to bring Ukraine into the best possible position that one day, when talks would start at the initiative of Ukraine on how to solve this conflict, that they are in the best possible position to do that,” he said. “And then when these talks end, it will be looked at, in a sense, whether it is a good deal or not.”And if it is not a good deal, it will be watched by the Chinese, the North Koreans, Iran, obviously, Russia. The whole world is watching.”burs-wd/fz/sea/yad