Sudden fire destroys twenty luxury homes on the California coast

A fire, as sudden as it was violent, destroyed around twenty luxury homes on the California coast, where firefighters continued Thursday morning May 12 to fight to contain the flames.

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Called "

", the brush fire broke out on Wednesday afternoon in the town of Laguna Niguel, in the hills overlooking the Pacific, about 80 km south of Los Angeles.

Fanned by the wind blowing from the Pacific, it swept through around 80 hectares of vegetation and required the evacuation of nearly a thousand homes in a posh residential area where each house is worth several million dollars.

“We are getting used to this”

According to Orange County elected official Lisa Bartlett, the wind helped spread the disaster, but the size of the villas also played a role.

“

,” Lisa Bartlett, whose constituency includes Laguna Niguel, told the Los Angeles Times.

For Orange County Fire Chief Brian Fennessy, the disaster illustrates once again that the region, like much of the western United States, is now exposed to the risk of disasters year-round. fire, due in particular to a chronic drought.

“

” he said.

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The causes of the fire outbreak were not known at this stage, but the local electricity operator, Southern California Edison, reported to California authorities that it had recorded "

" in its circuits around the same time.

Fires are common in the western United States but have become increasingly intense due to global warming caused by human activities, including fossil fuels, which is worsening an already chronic drought.

In California, average temperatures during the summer are thus 1.6°C higher than their level at the end of the 19th century.