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
The U.S. Army is moving ahead with plans to build nuclear microreactors at five military installations, part of a $2.2 billion energy-security push aimed at keeping critical bases powered even if outside electric grids are disrupted.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday directing the federal government to rename Lake Ontario as “Lake America,” adding a symbolic but sharp new twist to a growing trade war between the United States and Canada.
Two people were killed Thursday in an apparent relationship-related attack at a school near the German capital Berlin, with authorities detaining a 19-year-old German man as the prime suspect, police and officials said.
Violence erupted around Indonesia’s parliament in the capital, Jakarta, on Thursday night as police fired tear gas and deployed water cannon against protesters, while authorities detained scores of people accused of seeking to exploit nationwide demonstrations to create unrest.Violence erupted around Indonesia’s parliament in the capital, Jakarta, on Thursday night as police fired tear gas and deployed water cannon against protesters, while authorities detained scores of people accused of seeking to exploit nationwide demonstrations to create unrest.
Board of Peace envoy Nickolay Mladenov told the U.N. Security Council that Hamas has not yet carried out its pledge to disarm, warning that continued weapons activity, tunnel operations, and obstruction inside Gaza are threatening to derail the U.S.-backed peace framework.
At least 47 people were killed and more than 50 others were kidnapped after armed gangs stormed the hilltop community of Kenscoff, near Haiti’s capital, in one of the latest brutal attacks to shake the country’s collapsing security landscape.
Iranian missile and drone strikes reportedly caused billions of dollars in damage to U.S. intelligence sites and surveillance systems across the Middle East, according to NBC News, which cited four people familiar with the matter.