Devouring 5 football fields per minute, the "devil wind" in the US caused the forest fire to be almost the end of the world

On January 8 local time, six simultaneous wildfires broke out in Los Angeles County, California, United States, quickly spreading to the Hollywood Hills area, destroying the homes of American celebrities such as Paris Hilton, and causing property damage to escalate rapidly as wind-borne fires accelerated. Pushed by the "Santa Ana winds," the massive blaze, described as "the most destructive wildfire in Los Angeles history," has already killed at least five people, injured dozens of others, forced the evacuation of 150,000 people, and destroyed more than 1,000 structures.

'Devil Winds' Fan Flames as Fires Rapidly SpreadThe Los Angeles Fire Department said the Santa Ana winds, which gusted up to 140 miles per hour (225 kilometers per hour), were "hurricane-force" and "devastating."The blaze in Los Angeles has moved at a rate of "about five football fields every minute," with flames in the local Runyon Canyon "moving so fast that they were almost like lightning bolts in the sky," Los Angeles resident Ken Robinson said.

Compounding the fires' spread were malfunctioning hydrants, which contributed to a containment rate currently at zero percent. As crews tackled the wildfires, several firefighters radioed in that water was not flowing from hydrants and some were "dry."

In the Pacific Palisades neighborhoods of California, a water distribution system has collapsed. Los Angeles water officials said on January 8 that many hydrants are dry, impeding firefighters' ability to fight the ongoing wildfires.

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) said it was drawing more water from transmission pipelines and from groundwater basins to try to replenish the distribution system. The agency has sent 20 water tankers to help firefighting efforts, but the trucks must refill at remote locations.

Three storage tanks, each carrying millions of gallons of water, have run dry. The first tank went dry before 5 p.m. on January 7, and the third one ran dry by 3 a.m. on January 8. It all means that firefighters are facing dozens of "dry" hydrants.

"We were pumping water into the system as fast as we could, but it wasn't enough to keep up," said Janis Quinones, the LADWP's chief engineer.

Both Los Angeles City Councilwoman Tracy Peterson Parker and Rick Caruso, a real-estate magnate who ran against former Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti in the 2020 election, blamed the city's water infrastructure.

"I'm not surprised by the fact that we are experiencing water shortages," Parker said. "I think it speaks to decades of disinvestment in the city of Los Angeles, in our infrastructure, that is coming to a head with the wildfires, with the drought."

"You can't get to a solution unless you can identify the problem," said Caruso, who previously served on the LADWP board. "This is a systemic issue with the city. We don't have the infrastructure we need … We have old infrastructure and, unfortunately, we need new infrastructure."

As a result of the water shortage, containment rate of zero percent, firefighters have not been able to bring the fire under control. Fire helicopters were struggling to get close enough to the fire to drop water as strong winds pushed towering plumes of acrid smoke over a wide swath of Los Angeles County.

Because of the limited water supply, fire officials are urging residents to use water from their homes sparingly and not to water their lawns.

CNN reported: "Firefighters called for Angelenos to reduce their residential water usage, asking people to report leaks and use less water, in an effort to keep enough pressure in their hydrants to fight the fire. … The fire department asked people not to use their sprinklers, take shorter showers, and only run their washing machines and dishwashers if they had to."

US President Joe Biden issued a statement saying his administration would do everything it takes to support the response effort.

Meanwhile, US President-elect Donald Trump has pointed the finger at California Governor Gavin Newsom for the fire raging out of control. On his Truth Social website, Trump wrote that Newsom "refused to sign a water replenishment proclamation" to divert runoff in northern California to the south, despite northern California getting several inches of rain and snow over the holidays, saying "California can't use this much-needed water to fight the nearly end-of-the world fire."

"He cares more for an almost worthless fish called the 'humpback chub' and doesn't care much about Californians. He is letting this beautiful State burn! The people who vote for him should have to live there in Hell! The water is now gushing into the Pacific Ocean – where it helps nobody! It was a great year for water – get it now before it is too late!" Trump declared.

Newsom's office said, "What Mr. Trump said is pure fabrication. There is no such thing as a water replenishment proclamation. None exists. There is no authority to issue such an order."

Meanwhile, Tesla CEO Elon Musk also chimed in on the X platform by lashing out at the Los Angeles Fire Department's diversity recruitment policy.

Trump then piled on in a subsequent post to his Truth Social page. "So far Gavin Newsom and his Los Angeles team have contained zero fires. This is not how a government works," he wrote. "I can't wait for January 20th (to take office)! No water in the hydrants and no money in the FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency, part of the US Department of Homeland Security) pot. This is what Joe Biden is leaving me. Thank you, Joe!"

California Governor Newsom was spotted "directing the firefighting efforts" in Los Angeles. Newsom said he was "on the front lines to help coordinate the state's full emergency response." He took dozens of selfies with first responders. However, Newsom was panned and ridiculed for showing off, and many said that the governor was more concerned about his "image project" than the lives of his constituents.

In 2019, Newsom came to office on a promise to overhaul California's approach to wildfires. But an investigation by the Los Angeles Times found that Newsom has failed to honor that promise, and that his administration's efforts to reduce the risk of catastrophic fires are far less effective than officials have presented.

According to Newsom's 2020 State of the State address, the state has completed 33 miles of fuel breaks — areas devoid of flammable plants and other vegetation — along freeways, in parks, and on private properties and public lands as part of an "aggressive vegetation management." But reporters found the administration had actually finished less than a third of what it had proposed and only about a seventh of what Newsom claimed to have achieved.

According to the report, "Even as the amount of dry flammable vegetation — which fuels fires — has reached a record high, Newsom's administration has repeatedly cut the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection's (Cal Fire) budget for wildfire-prevention programs. Last spring, Newsom slashed $150 million from the agency's fire-prevention funding, 40% of the program's budget."

Meanwhile, Karen Bass, the first Black woman to lead Los Angeles as mayor, has also been criticized for slashing the LA Fire Department's budget.