By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
LOS ANGELES, USA (Worthy News) – Massive wildfires raged through neighborhoods of Los Angeles, America’s second-largest city, and surrounding areas in the U.S. state of California late Wednesday, where tens of thousands of people were forced to leave their homes.
Authorities said four wildfires were burning in Los Angeles County, including the Pacific Palisades and Sylmar neighborhoods of Los Angeles and another near Pasadena.
Officials warned that the fires were ” zero percent contained ” as of Wednesday afternoon.
More than 70,000 residents were under evacuation orders as the Los Angelas area wildfires which threaten at least 28,000 structures, according to authorities.
Adding to the misery, more than 400,000 people were without power in Los Angeles County by Wednesday afternoon.
Santa Ana winds from the east are pushing the fires, and officials have warned that “the worst is yet to come.”
NAVY HELICOPTERS
With fires reaching apocalyptic proportions, the U.S. Department of Defense said it is deploying ten Navy helicopters with water delivery buckets to help suppress wildfires raging across southern California.
Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters that the 10 Navy helicopters come in addition to the California National Guard and the Nevada Nation Guard, each readying an additional two “modular air fighting system units.”
The Navy’s helicopters with watery delivery buckets will “immediately assist with aerial suppression,” Singh said, cautioning that high winds complicate efforts.
“We can search assets, and the president has directed this department to bolster whatever California needs. But we have to work with California, and right now, we can’t even get assets up in the air because the fires are so bad and because the winds are so bad,” she added.
At President Biden’s direction, the military “will provide additional firefighting personnel and capabilities,” Singh stressed. “The federal government is working closely with the National Guard, which is deployed under the governor’s state of emergency declaration.”
However, U.S. President-elect Donald J. Trump pinned the blame for the “apocalyptic” wildfires tearing through Los Angeles County on California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom.
PROTECTING FISH
He claimed the governor “refused to sign the water restoration declaration put before him that would have allowed millions of gallons of water, from excess rain and snow, melt from the North, to flow daily into many parts of California, including the areas that are currently burning in a virtually apocalyptic way.”
Trump alleged on his Truth Social media platform late Wednesday morning that the governor “wanted to protect an essentially worthless fish called a smelt, by giving it less water (it didn’t work!), but didn’t care about the people of California.”
Trump added, “Now the ultimate price is being paid.”
He made clear that soon after his January 20 inauguration as president he would “demand that this incompetent governor allow beautiful, clean, fresh water to FLOW INTO CALIFORNIA! He is the blame for this. On top of it all, no water for fire hydrants, not firefighting planes. A true disaster!”
In response, Newsom’s director of communications, Izzy Gardon, said: “We’re focused on protecting lives and battling these blazes—not playing politics.”
Copyright 1999-2026 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
More Worthy News
U.S. President Donald Trump announced Sunday that countries participating in his Gaza “Board of Peace” have pledged more than $5 billion toward humanitarian relief and reconstruction efforts in the Gaza Strip, along with committing thousands of personnel to support new security arrangements in the enclave.
An additional 27 members of Venezuelan transnational criminal organizations, Tren de Aragua and its splinter faction, anti-Tren, have been indicted in New York in an ongoing prosecution of groups the Trump administration has designated as foreign terrorist organizations.
Two pastors in eastern Uganda who were reportedly attacked by a group of Muslim extremists have been discharged from a hospital and are continuing to recover at home, Worthy News learned Sunday.
Western leaders sought to project unity at the 2026 Munich Security Conference despite tensions over U.S. interest in acquiring Greenland, differences on ending the war in Ukraine, and questions surrounding the future of transatlantic cooperation.
The Pentagon is deploying the Navy’s largest and most advanced aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, to the Middle East as the United States intensifies preparations for potential military action against Iran.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said over the weekend that Hungary should fear the European Union more than Russia, pledging to dismantle what he called Brussels’ “oppressive machinery” ahead of heated parliamentary elections in April.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has pledged to deepen cooperation with a group of four Central and Eastern European nations, including Hungary and Slovakia, despite concerns over their leaders’ perceived authoritarian style and refusal to provide military aid to war-torn Ukraine.