ALTADENA, United States: After being largely reduced to ashes by wildfire, Altadena was being patrolled by National Guard soldiers on Friday.
\nFor residents of this devastated Los Angeles suburb, the arrival of these men in uniform is too little, too late.
\n\u201cWe didn\u2019t see a single firefighter while we were throwing buckets of water to defend our house against the flames\u201d on Tuesday night, said Nicholas Norman, 40.
\n\u201cThey were too busy over in the Palisades saving the rich and famous\u2019s properties, and they let us common folks burn,\u201d said the teacher.
\nBut the fire did not discriminate.
\nIn the upscale Pacific Palisades neighborhood, the first to be hit by the flames this week, wealthy residents share the same resentment toward the authorities.
\n\u201cOur city has completely let us down,\u201d said Nicole Perri, outraged by the fact that hydrants being used by firefighters ran dry or lost pressure.
\nHer lavish Palisades home was burnt to cinders. In a state of shock, the 32-year-old stylist wants to see accountability.
\n\u201cThings should have been in place that could have prevented this,\u201d she said.
\n\u201cWe\u2019ve lost everything, and I just feel zero support from our city, our horrible mayor and our governor.\u201d
\nMultiple fires that continue to ravage Los Angeles have killed at least 11 people, authorities say.
\nAround 10,000 buildings have been destroyed, and well over 100,000 residents have been forced to evacuate.
\nSo far authorities have largely blamed the intense 160 kilometer per hour winds that raged earlier this week, and recent months of drought, for the disaster.
\nBut this explanation alone falls short for many Californians, thousands of whom have lost everything.
\nKaren Bass, the city\u2019s mayor, has come in for heavy criticism because she was visiting the African nation of Ghana when the fire started, despite dire weather warnings in the preceding days.
\nBudget cuts to the fire department, and a series of evacuation warnings erroneously sent to millions of people this week, have only stoked the anger further.
\n\u201cI don\u2019t think the officials were prepared at all,\u201d said James Brown, a 65-year-old retired lawyer in Altadena.
\n\u201cThere\u2019s going to have to be a real evaluation here, because hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people have just been completely displaced,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s like you\u2019re in a war zone.\u201d
\nMayor Bass and California Governor Gavin Newsom, both Democrats, have separately called for investigations.
\nRepublican president-elect Donald Trump has fanned the flames of controversy, blaming California\u2019s liberal leadership and encouraging his followers to do the same.
\nBut the highly politicized attacks by Trump \u2014 who made false claims about why fire hydrants ran dry \u2014 have also frustrated some survivors in Altadena.
\n\u201cThat\u2019s textbook Trump: he\u2019s trying to start a polemic with false information,\u201d said architect Ross Ramsey, 37.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s too early to point fingers or blame anybody for anything,\u201d he said, while clearing ashes from the remains of his mother\u2019s house.
\n\u201cWe should be focusing on the people who are trying to pick up their lives and how to help them… Then we can point fingers and figure this all out, with real facts and real data.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ALTADENA, United States: After being largely reduced to ashes by wildfire, Altadena was being patrolled by National Guard soldiers on Friday. For residents of this devastated Los Angeles suburb, the arrival of these men in uniform is too little, too late. \u201cWe didn\u2019t see a single firefighter while we were throwing buckets of water to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":454749,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-454740","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n