Thousands flee LA wildfires
Newshour
BBC
4.2 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 8 January 2025
⏱️ 47 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Firefighters are working through the night in Los Angeles to contain wildfires that have forced thousands of people to flee their homes. Also in the programme, European governments continue to react to President-elect Trump's latest threats about Greenland; and, could HMPV spark the next pandemic?
(Photo: A firefighter battles the Palisades Fire as it burns during a windstorm on the west side of Los Angeles, California, U.S. January 7, 2025. REUTERS/Ringo Chiu)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to News Hour from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:07.3 | We're coming to you live from London. |
| 0:08.9 | I'm James Menendez. |
| 0:10.5 | And we're going to begin today in Los Angeles |
| 0:12.5 | and what is now a series of wildfires raging in and around the city |
| 0:16.4 | fanned by powerful winds. |
| 0:18.9 | So much so that firefighters say the blazes are impossible to contain at the moment, |
| 0:24.0 | with red-hot embers being scattered over a larger and larger area. |
| 0:28.2 | The worst fire is ripping through the affluent Pacific Palisades neighbourhood, |
| 0:32.4 | west of downtown and between the hills and the sea. |
| 0:35.7 | More than 30,000 people have had to leave their homes, |
| 0:39.4 | many of which have been swallowed up by the flames. |
| 0:41.9 | Jonathan Villiotis, correspondent with our partners at CBS News, is there. |
| 0:47.9 | We're here at the heart of the Pacific Palisades, |
| 0:50.7 | in a neighborhood that is a total loss. |
| 0:52.8 | You've got a home here. |
| 0:53.7 | I'm going to flip over here. |
| 0:55.6 | Another home lost. |
| 0:56.9 | When we go over this way, homes down this street gone. |
| 1:00.7 | This one completely leveled. |
| 1:03.1 | Such was the scale of the fire, and in particular the speed at which it spread, |
| 1:07.8 | the people struggle to leave the neighborhood as everyone tried to flee. |
... |
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