An Australian television correspondent was forced to take shelter during a live crossing in the Los Angeles bushfires after a store suddenly exploded.
Sunrise’s Isabelle Mullen was on the ground in Altadena, about 14 miles from Los Angeles’ financial district, when her cameraman came within feet of the flames.
‘Cam, watch out,’ he shouted during the segment.
‘We’re going down a little bit, guys. “The window of a store that Cam was standing in front of just burst into flames,” he said.
‘It looks like there are some gas bottles or something inside that is exploding. It has already come out of the glass a little.
Mullen, wearing a smoke mask, was speaking to Channel Seven presenters Monique Wright and Michael Usher about the conditions.
But amid the visible and horrific devastation in Los Angeles, the Australian correspondent did not expect to become part of the story herself.
Fortunately, Mullen and her cameraman were not injured in the terrifying encounter and she was able to continue with her report.
Sunrise’s Isabelle Mullen (pictured) was on the ground in Altadena, about 14 miles from Los Angeles’ financial district, when she and her cameraman were involved in a very close call.
Mullen (pictured in Canberra) explained that a shop just meters from where she and her crew were filming had started burning furiously, forcing them to move away.
Mullen said the fires were “out of control” because there were not enough firefighters to safely contain them.
“There’s no way the authorities right now can handle this,” he said.
‘You can see the number of people who are leaving the trailer right now. The police chase them. There is another fire emergency right in front of us here. But at the end of the street, as you said, there is that gas station.
“They have cordoned off a large exclusion zone.”
Mullen said he had noticed a key difference in the way emergency services dealt with the wildfires in the United States and the wildfires in Australia.
‘In reality, it is up to each person to take control of their safety. That’s the only thing I’ve noticed. “It’s very different here to Australia,” he said.
‘There is so much damage, so much destruction. They say that if you want to go home and pick up your things, you come in at your own risk. Here the responsibility lies with the owner.
He said the tragedy was compounded by the fact that some of the destroyed homes could have survived the inferno if better resources had been available.
The tragedy has been compounded by the fact that some of the destroyed houses (pictured) could have survived the inferno if better resources had been available.
“Several homes probably could have been saved if there had been enough fire crews to deal with the ongoing emergency,” Mullen said.
“We saw a property right next to another one that wasn’t touched by the flames and then a small fire started on it and the crews (were) flying as fast as they could past (to) the next fire and the next street, and so on. this region.”
So far, two people have died in the Los Angeles fires, around 70,000 people have fled their homes and a growing number of multimillion-dollar mansions have been destroyed.
Strong winds have fueled the fires and hampered firefighters’ efforts to control them.
“I was surprised and a little scared by the intensity of the wind gusts,” one Los Angeles local told Daily Mail Australia.
‘I never remember the winds being so strong before. A couple of times I wondered if we would be blown away.
Los Angeles City Fire Chief Kristen Crowley said the strong winds that continue to hit the city and county meant residents were still in danger.
The city’s water systems are also under enormous pressure.
“The fire department needs water to fight fires and we’re fighting a wildfire with urban water systems, and that’s really a challenge,” said Janisse Quiñones, executive director of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.