Irishman caught in LA wildfires says it was 'worse than being in a movie' after losing everything in 'just five hours'
The man returned to his home to find it "completely burned to the ground"
An Irishman caught in the Los Angeles wildfires described them "worse than being in a movie” after he "lost everything in just five hours".
Andrew Duggan, from Cork, has had a house and design studio in LA suburb Altadena for several years with his partner, Renata. Fatalities so far in the most destructive wildfires in the history of LA have reached 10 tragic deaths, with the LA County Sheriff saying that parts of the city look as if an “atomic bomb” had been dropped.
Andrew fled his home within an hour of an emergency evacuation notice being issued to residents in the early hours of Thursday morning. When he returned to his home just five hours later, everything had "completely burned to the ground".
READ MORE: Eurovision star Bambie Thug has 'lucky' escape after getting caught up in LA fires
He said: “It is absolutely levelled except for some hedges, a couple of fruit trees, broken walls and the chimney stack. Everything else was unrecognisable. The design studio is non-existent. It is insane how it just disintegrates to dust. Our entire neighbourhood and community is just gone. It is so sad; total devastation.
“It will be at least a year or two before we will be able to even rebuild our home and studio. But we have to stay working. People have been offering their studios for us to work. This will help us through whatever is about to come forth.”
Andrew added: "We're definitely moving forward because at the end of the day we’re alive and we’re healthy. Our dogs made it out and all of our neighbours made it out and we can work from there. The devastation is so vast, from the foot of the hills all the way into downtown.”
Flames that raged on a ridge that overlooks Hollywood Boulevard's Walk of Fame have been tackled by firefighters. After the wildfires erupted five days ago, Irish model Tiffany Stanley told the Irish Mirror from her LA home that the scenes have been “apocalyptic”.
The fires have since lit up five separate areas around Hollywood and wiped out 10,000 properties, with 60,000 more at risk. Famous celebrities like Paris Hilton, Billy Crystal and Anthony Hopkins are among those whose homes have been burned. American insurance companies said losses could exceed $8 billion (approximately €7.8 billion) because of the high value of properties in the paths of the blazes.
Experts believe that dry desert winds of 160km/h fanned the flames after the initial fires started on Tuesday in Pacific Palisades, near Malibu. Winds strengthened and spread the fires to over 15,000 acres by Wednesday, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. On Thursday, investigators arrested a man on suspicion of starting a new fire.
The out-of-control wildfires meant evacuation orders have led to 180,000 residents fleeing their homes with their belongings in their arms. Another 200,000 residents are under evacuation warnings across LA, which has a population of 3.8 million. Like Cork man Andrew Duggan’s home in Altadena, the home of Irishwoman Joelle Molloy and her wife Sophie Shekarchian in Altadena is also gone.
They fled in a panic and Joelle told RTÉ's Prime Time: "We started packing frantically in the dark and managed to grab the photos and my dad’s ashes, he died a couple of years ago. It was surreal.” She added: “A couple of hours later, we got confirmation that Sophie's brother and his fiancé, who lived 10 houses down, that their house was gone. They made it back a few hours later themselves to see if they could salvage anything.”
Official figures put the death toll at 10, but Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna stated that numbers could grow. He said: "It looks like an atomic bomb dropped in these areas. I don't expect good news, and we're not looking forward to those numbers.”
US president Joe Biden declared a major disaster on Tuesday and promised to reimburse 100 per cent of the recovery for the next 180 days.
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