LA Palisades Wildfire: The Palisades Fire on the Los Angeles coast has now spread across 15,800 hectares between Malibu and Santa Monica. There have been at least five people killed while more than 150,000 people remain under evacuation orders. According to Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone, the Palisades Fire is the largest fire in the county today, destroying at least 1,000 structures to date.
Billionaire Elon Musk took to X (formerly Twitter) to share video footage of the devastation caused by the wildfire that has yet to be contained. One of the clips shared by Musk showed beachfront homes in Malibu completely destroyed by the fire, as city officials urged everyone to leave, even those not under evacuation orders.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 8, 2025
Another video shared by the Tesla boss showed the aftermath of the fire in one of the LA suburbs, where cars, houses and trees were completely charred.
A friend in LA just made this video pic.twitter.com/WJBWCHmCUs
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 8, 2025
As firefighters worked to bring the blaze under control, President Joe Biden officially approved a major disaster declaration in the state on Wednesday, according to a White House statement — freeing up federal resources for affected survivors.
“Today, President Biden approved a Major Disaster Declaration for California, providing survivors with immediate access to funds and resources to jump-start their recovery,” the White House said in a fact sheet outlining the federal response to the wildfires.
“In addition, last night FEMA approved a Fire Management Assistance Grant to reimburse California for firefighting costs.”
Also read | Los Angeles Palisades Wildfire: How High Winds Caused Devastation
Trump blames Newsom for the fires
Meanwhile, President-elect Donald Trump has blamed California Governor Gavin Newsom for the fires, accusing him of rejecting a plan to send more water to the state’s agricultural Central Valley.
“He wanted to protect an essentially worthless fish called smelt by giving it less water (it didn’t work!), but didn’t care about the people of California,” Trump wrote in his Truth Social post. “Now the ultimate price is being paid.”
The Republican leader’s comments came against the backdrop of reports of several fire hydrants in Los Angeles County running out of water during firefighting efforts. According to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works, the problem stems from overwhelming demand on the city’s water system, which is not designed to handle such heavy firefighting use.