In the skies above Los Angeles, air tankers and helicopters silhouetted by the setting California sun dart in and out of giant wildfire plumes, dropping much-needed flame retardant and precious water onto the angry fires below.Looking in almost any direction from a chopper above the city, AFP reporters witnessed half a dozen blazes — eruptions of smoldering smoke emerging from the mountainous landscape like newly active volcanoes, and filling up the horizon.Within minutes, a previously quiet airspace above the nascent Kenneth Fire had become a hotbed of frenzied activity, as firefighting officials quickly refocused their significant air resources on this latest blaze.Around half a dozen helicopters buzzed at low altitude, tipping water onto the edge of the inferno.Higher up, small aircraft periodically guided giant tankers that dumped bright-red retardant onto the flames.”There’s never been so many at the same time, just ripping” through the skies, said helicopter pilot Albert Azouz.Flying for a private aviation company since 2016, he has seen plenty of fires including the deadly Malibu blazes of six years ago.”That was insane,” he recalled. But this, he repeatedly says while hovering his helicopter above the chaos, is “crazy town.”The new Kenneth Fire burst into life late Thursday afternoon near Calabasas, a swanky  enclave outside Los Angeles made famous by its celebrity residents such as reality television’s Kardashian clan.Aircraft including Boeing Chinook helitankers fitted with 3,000-gallon tanks have been brought in from as far afield as Canada.Unable to fly during the first few hours of the Los Angeles fires on Tuesday due to gusts of up to 100 miles (160 kilometers) per hour, these have become an invaluable tool in the battle to contain blazes and reduce any further devastation.Helicopters performed several hundred drops on Thursday, while conditions permitted.Those helicopters equipped to operate at night continued to buzz around the smoke-filled region, working frantically to tackle the flames, before stronger gusts are forecast to sweep back in to the Los Angeles basin overnight.

Months of dry weather and recent strong winds created optimal conditions for the deadly wildfires engulfing Los Angeles, but narratives on social media falsely single out “liberal” policies — including those to increase diversity in the city’s fire force — as the culprit.Los Angeles Fire Chief Kristin Crowley, who was appointed in 2022 after two decades of service, was singled out in a series of X posts blaming her department’s diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) strategy.”She boasts about being the first female and LGBTQ fire chief in the LA Fire Department. Promoting a culture of DEI is her priority. Does this make you feel safer?” the anti-LGBTQ account Libs of TikTok posted on January 8 on X.”They prioritized DEI over saving lives and homes,” X’s billionaire owner Elon Musk, a close ally of US President-elect Donald Trump, chimed in.But experts say such scapegoating is hardly unexpected.From the Maui fires in 2023 and hurricanes Milton and Helene in 2024, every recent major natural disaster in the United States has systematically triggered social media narratives questioning the effort and legitimacy of first responders.”This rhetoric is expected — and has become increasingly mainstreamed — following extreme weather phenomena and disasters,” added Sara Aniano, a disinformation analyst at the Anti-Defamation League Center on Extremism.- Trump effect -Social media users also attacked California Governor Gavin Newsom, echoing misleading complaints from Trump about how the state handles its water supply.”Governor Gavin Newscum should immediately go to Northern California and open up the water main, and let the water flow into his dry, starving, burning State,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, using his preferred nickname for the leader.But most Los Angeles water comes from the city’s aqueduct, not Northern California.At a White House briefing, US President Joe Biden pushed back against Trump’s accusations that California authorities have wasted water and said there was no room for politics in the situation. He called for officials to be “honest” and “straightforward” with the public about the available capacity.Trump also tried to blame a lack of water on environmentalists’ efforts to protect the smelt — a small fish that lives hundreds of miles away from the fires. Such comments are a distraction from known impacts on the fires, such as the Santa Ana winds, and the fact that fire events in the state have been enhanced by a changing climate. Scientists say human-caused climate change is altering weather patterns and changing how wildfires impact the US West.Southern California had two decades of drought that were followed by two exceptionally wet years that sparked furious vegetative growth. Then the region had no significant rain for eight months. Altogether, the weather left the area packed with fuel and primed to burn.Nearly 180,000 people across Los Angeles remain under evacuation orders, and at least five people have died, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.Authorities continue to investigate the causes of the two main fires –- Palisades and Eaton –- with no evidence to support social media claims pinning blame on the homeless population or “ecoterrorists.” Such false narratives “undercut the people and organizations trying to help” and “sow division within the community,” said Sarah Labowitz, a climate and geopolitics expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.”It’s the exact opposite of what keeps people safe and ready to recover.”

A blackened swimming pool and a chimney were all that remained when Oren Waters returned home Thursday to assess what remained of his home of 50 years on the outskirts of Los Angeles. “This looks like the apocalypse, to be honest with you, it just doesn’t feel like the normal things that happen in your life,” the 74-year-old singer, whose voice appears in Michael Jackson’s album “Thriller,” told AFP.”It’s unimaginable,” he said through a protective mask, as a few embers burned on the ground. Waters returned to where his house once stood after the fierce winds that have been spreading fires across the Los Angeles area since Tuesday calmed. The blazes remained totally uncontained on Thursday, and the mountain overlooking Altadena, a suburban community of 42,000 people, was still in flames. The blaze dubbed the “Eaton Fire” has killed several people in the Altadena area. One man was found dead in front of his house with a hose in his hand. Waters said he also tried to fight the fire with a hose and buckets of water, working desperately to salvage items from his house until the last possible minute on Tuesday evening, as “fireballs” soared overhead. He said he didn’t know the man who died, but can understand the urge to fight back, despite the risks. “When you have the fighting spirit in you, you don’t think about what you can’t do, you think about what you need to do, what you can do,” Waters said. – ‘Extremely underprepared’ -Under the ashes of his house, the carcass of a vintage car was visible. Waters said it was a 1935 Chevrolet Standard, which has cost him upwards of $150,000. “I’m going to miss it,” added Waters, whose voice also appears in the Disney film “The Lion King.”In this neighborhood, there were homes that remained randomly intact next to those that were torched.Kalen Astoor, a 36-year-old paralegal, said her mother’s home was among those spared. A neighbor saved it by shovelling dirt on flames once the city cut off the water. The panorama in the area now “looks wrong,” she said, surveying what she described as a view “of death and of destruction and of black.”The biggest blaze ripped through nearly 20,000 acres (8,100 hectares) of the upscale Pacific Palisades neighborhood, while the fire in Altadena torched 13,000 acres (5,300 hectares). Astoor said it feels like the authorities were “extremely underprepared.””California is a state that burns, we should not be overwhelmed when it comes to firefighters. That’s like the thing we need to put money into: earthquake and fire.”- ‘Glad to be alive’ -A few hundred yards (meters) away, standing in front of the house where he lived with his parents, 41-year-old Adam Clingmon admitted to feeling “numb.””I don’t hold any grudges, there’s nothing that no one could do,” said the special education teacher, whose firefighter brother has been battling the Pacific Palisades blaze. “They were just stretched too thin, by the time firefighters from different counties got here, it was just too late for us,” he told AFP. “I’m just glad to be alive,” he said, recounting his narrow escape with his parents, which involved clearing a tree trunk that was obstructing the only road out. His concern was also focused on Altadena’s future, especially after insurance companies cancelled coverage for some in the area, citing the risk of extreme weather disasters linked to climate change. “I hope the insurance companies don’t screw us,” he said. “We definitely want to rebuild and bring this community back.”

As chaotic wildfires razed homes around Los Angeles forcing thousands to flee, one evacuation shelter was being overwhelmed Thursday with donations.The center at Pan Pacific Park, just south of Hollywood in the heart of Los Angeles, was having to turn away donations after kind-hearted locals brought cars full of food, clothing and toiletries.”We appreciate the support, donations and volunteers, however do not need anything additional at this time,” read a handwritten sign posted outside the shelter.The Sunset Fire, which erupted Wednesday night in the affluent Hollywood Hills, just a few hundred meters (yards) from the storied theaters of Hollywood Boulevard, sparked an evacuation order for thousands of people living in the heart of America’s entertainment capital.Some of those told to leave their homes — a mixture of multi-million dollar mansions and small, rent-controlled apartments — made their way to the city-run center.”It exploded so quickly, I’ve never seen fire move that fast,” Eric Calhoun, a city recreation director overseeing the site, told AFP.But almost as soon as the evacuees started arriving, so did the donations, and the center was soon full to bursting with goods.”I had to direct truckloads and truckloads to go to other sites,” Calhoun said.Evacuation orders for the Sunset Fire were lifted by Thursday, and by the afternoon the evacuation center had cleared out — for now.Other wildfires, including the Eaton Fire burning inland in the San Gabriel Valley and the Palisades Fire closer to the coast, have torched more than 30,000 acres (12,000 hectares) combined, destroyed more than 6,000 buildings and killed at least five people.Despite the fire activity winding down from decreasing Santa Ana winds, Calhoun said emergency assistance was in a bit of a “holding pattern,” as more wind activity was forecast for next week.