Public anger over Biden administration's handling of Los Angeles fires

France 24 news channel quoted a resident of the Altadena area as saying: "When we were pouring buckets of water on the flames to save our houses, we didn't see a single firefighter."

Nicholas Norman, a 40-year-old teacher from the Altadena area, said: "The firefighters were busy saving the properties of the famous and rich in the Palisades area (a residential area in Los Angeles) and let ordinary people burn here. But fire does not discriminate."

The media added: However, in the upscale Pacific Palisades neighborhood, the first area to be hit by the fire last week, wealthy residents of the neighborhood are as angry with the authorities as those in Altadena.

Nicole Perry, a resident of the Palisades neighborhood, expressed anger at the dry and low pressure of the canisters used by firefighters, saying: "The situation in the city has completely disappointed us. We have lost everything and we feel that the mayor and governor have zero support for our city."

At least 11 people have died as a result of the ongoing fires, according to US officials. Over 100,000 locals have been forced to leave the area, and about 10,000 buildings have been destroyed.

The spread of the fire has been attributed by US officials to winds of 100 miles per hour and months of drought, but many Californians, thousands of whom have lost everything in the fires, are not persuaded by this explanation.

The reason Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has received the most criticism is that, despite weather warnings being issued days before the fires began, she was visiting Ghana, an African nation, when the fires began.

Public funding cuts to the fire service and a series of evacuation advisories that were mistakenly sent to millions of people last week have fueled public anger.

"I think the authorities were completely unprepared," James Brown, a 65-year-old retired attorney in Altadena, told AFP. "I think there's a real upheaval going on here because hundreds of thousands of people have been completely displaced. It's like a war zone."

Both Democratic California Governor Gavin Newsom and Mayor Bass have demanded an investigation. Donald Trump, the US president-elect, has criticized California's liberal leadership and called on all of his followers to do the same.

Many Altadena fire survivors were disappointed by Trump's assertion that fire hydrants were empty, one of his political attacks.

According to Ross Ramsey, a 37-year-old American, Trump is spreading misleading information in an attempt to spark a new debate.