Vietnamese in the US and worries amid the great California fire

I have lived in the US for nearly 20 years but have never witnessed such a devastating fire. It was terrifying,' said Lucy Nguyen, a Vietnamese woman currently living in California.

 

Breaking out since the evening of January 7 (local time), serious forest fires in the state of California (USA) have been causing huge losses in human lives and property, as firefighters have yet to be able to extinguish all the fires.

The largest fires, such as the Palisades and Eaton fires, have burned tens of thousands of hectares of land, destroyed nearly 12,000 structures and killed at least 13 people, Reuters reported on January 12.

The death toll is expected to continue to rise as authorities gain access to homes.

The most destructive fire in Los Angeles history leveled entire neighborhoods, leaving behind only smoldering ruins of homes and people's possessions.

All was ashes overnight.

Unprecedented devastation

“I have lived in the US for nearly 20 years but have never witnessed a fire of such scale and devastation. It was terrifying,” said Lucy Nguyen, a Vietnamese citizen who lives and works in Northridge, about 30-50km from where the fires occurred.

Her life was turned upside down. During the five days the fire raged, she and her family were confined to their home, partly because of the flu epidemic that was raging in the United States, but mostly because of the fear of smoke from the fires.

“My kids’ school has been closed since January 8. My company even had a power outage and I was forced to take a few days off. Even though it was only for a short period of time, everything was chaotic,” said Lucy.

Luckily living 60-100km away from the fire area, Ms. Vy Hoang, a Vietnamese currently living in Orange County, Los Angeles, only learned about the news through the media. However, when asked about her feelings about the fire, she still could not hide her horror: "It was so scary. It burned so badly."

“Although I live far away, I am still greatly affected. When I wake up in the morning, my throat is dry because of the smoke, and a corner of the sky has turned orange due to the fire. I have never witnessed such a devastating fire,” Vy shared.

 

Currently, the US National Weather Service (NWS) has issued a red alert effective until 6:00 p.m. on January 15 for many areas in Los Angeles and Ventura, including the San Fernando Valley, where Northridge is located.

“The area where I live has also been issued a red alert and there is a possibility of evacuation. I have prepared my belongings, as soon as there is a schedule, the whole family will leave immediately,” Lucy worriedly said.

The Santa Ana storm, which has been linked to the spread and outbreak of fires, is expected to hit Los Angeles again on January 14 and 15 with winds stronger than the first, making it more difficult to control the fires.

Property damage is immeasurable.

Preliminary estimates from private weather forecasting company AccuWeather put damage and economic losses from the current wildfires in California at $135-150 billion.

"This will be the costliest wildfire in modern California history and very likely the costliest wildfire in modern U.S. history," said Jonathan Porter, AccuWeather's chief meteorologist.

 

Insurance brokerage Aon PLC also said on January 10 that the Los Angeles County wildfires are likely to become the costliest in U.S. history, as they occurred in densely populated areas with high-value real estate , although it did not give specific figures.

“To put that into perspective, the total economic damage and loss from this wildfire disaster could amount to nearly 4% of California’s annual GDP,” Porter said.

For Lucy, this fire is not so much about the number of casualties, but about the extent of the destruction to property.

“A lot of people lost their homes. It was terrible. Insurance didn’t cover the whole loss or didn’t cover it at all, so a lot of people lost everything overnight.

“People who buy houses on installments are the most pitiful because even though their house has been completely burned down, they will still have to pay off bank loans or debts while they have no assets to secure them,” Lucy mused.