Filipinos in Los Angeles affected by the Eaton and Palisades fires are racing against time to prepare for incoming dangerous winds that authorities said could whip the blazes even further.
Death toll from Los Angeles fires rises, with dangerous winds incoming
Emmanuel Munda, a Filipino community leader in Los Angeles, California, said some Filipinos have lost their homes in the California wildfires but said there have been no fatalities reported.
Los Angeles Consul General Adelio Angelito Cruz said nearly 150 Filipinos have been affected by the wildfires wreaking havoc in Los Angeles.
Nearly 150 Filipinos affected by LA fires
Munda said 30 percent of the Eaton fire and another 11 percent of the Palisades fire has been contained. The latter fire, he said, is going into the San Fernando Valley.
“We are definitely contacting each other and comforting each other…The air is clear right now. The wind is coming from the ocean but we are preparing for what is going to happen tomorrow and the next 3 days because the fire is still less than 10 miles away from my house. If it blows in the other direction, we are probably going to evacuate again,” he said in a TeleRadyo Serbisyo interview.
“Everybody’s on pins and needles here in LA,” he added.
Munda said a lack of rain in Los Angeles last year caused vegetation to dry up, which set conditions for the wildfires.
“Hindi naman mainit dito. It’s cold. But we didn’t have a whole lot of rain last year and then the year before that we had a lot of rain, so everything grew and grew and then everything dried up. Even my grass right now is yellow,” he said.
“We do have these winds every year and it becomes really hard. First time we had dry weather and then the 100 mile winds that we don’t normally get. It was the perfect storm that any spark, any flame can cause it whether it is electrical or somebody with a yosi. It is most likely natural,” he added.
Los Angeles Consul General Adelio Angelito Cruz earlier said some Filipinos were sheltering in different evacuation centers, adding authorities were "trying to help them find long-term housing since most of them have been displaced by the fires."