Rapidly spreading forest fires, influenced by wind, have destroyed 2,000 homes, forced nearly 180,000 people to evacuate and killed at least 5 people in the past two days in Los Angeles, USA.

The Los Angeles police chief warned that the death toll would likely rise as rescuers searched the burned area.

On January 7, tornadoes blew fire embers into the air, burning every house and destroying an area of ​​about 108 square kilometers.

By the night of January 8, six fires had broken out from the Pacific Coast inland to Pasadena, most of which were uncontrollable.

Satellite images taken before and after the disaster show the scale of devastation of the Pacific Palisades fire, which burned more than 60 square kilometers and left the beach along the popular Malibu neighborhood and buildings along the coast in flames.

In Pacific Palisades alone, dozens of schools were damaged or destroyed.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said firefighters from across California and elsewhere were dispatched, providing support and aerial operations to extinguish the fire.

Mayor Bass warned that they still face “erratic winds”, although not as strong as the wind on the evening of January 7.

In Altadena, behind the mountains north of Los Angeles, where the Eaton fire broke out, satellite images showed dozens of residential neighborhoods burned to the ground.

Smoke from nearby fires billowed into the air. On January 8, the streets were filled with ash and ash, while buildings everywhere were engulfed in flames.

Pasadena Fire Chief Chad Augustin said between 200 and 500 structures were damaged or destroyed by the Eaton fire.

He said the city’s water system was stretched and further hampered by the power outage. But even without those problems, firefighters could not extinguish the fire because embers were blown by strong winds through each row of buildings.

The forest fire was likened to “the end of the world” and caused many houses of famous Hollywood stars to burn down. With an average home price of about 4.5 million USD, Pacific Palisades is the residence of famous people in the US.

A day after actor James Woods evacuated his Pacific Palisades home, he said “every house around us was on fire.”

“We were literally right at the epicenter of the fire when it started,” said Woods, known for his roles in “Ghosts of Mississippi” and “Any Given Sunday.”

“There was so much chaos. It was like hell,” the actor shared.

The National Weather Service said gusty winds and dry weather will continue to fuel fires in the Los Angeles area. However, the winds had subsided enough for aircraft to assist in extinguishing the fire.

“The winds were very light tonight, we were able to bring in aircraft and a lot of additional resources to extinguish this fire. That’s what makes me believe that we will control this fire,” said Augustin. .

The fires come at a particularly dire time for Southern California, which has yet to see significant rainfall since last October.

Then came the strong Santa Ana winds, which carried dry desert air from the east toward the coastal mountains, fanning wildfires while sweeping over hilltops and down canyons.

The fires breaking out outside the normal bushfire season show that the latest extreme weather phenomenon is likely to escalate further, scientists say, as global temperatures continue to rise in the coming decades.