Studio City House Engulfed by Wildfire Collapses on Live TV
The devastating wildfires raging in Southern California have now destroyed or damaged more than 2,000 homes, businesses, and other structures, leaving five people dead and more than 130,000 residents under evacuation orders. And the widespread destruction is playing out right in front of cameras, as one local news station filmed a four-story house collapse on Wednesday night.
According to Fox 11 News, the Los Angeles Fire Department was called about a fire at a home on the 3600 block of North Sunswept Drive in Studio City just before 9 p.m. The fire had reportedly started on some brush before spreading to the home and quickly engulfing it.
As the news anchors back in the studio watched, the enormous home suddenly crumbled to the ground as flames raged out-of-control.
"Oh my gosh ... that is absolutely devastating to watch, live on the air, that four story home literally crumbling on the hillside that it once stood," remarked one anchor. "Heartbreaking," the other anchor added. "And you think of what is presumably a family's memories ... just totally gone."
Fox 11 spoke with another Studio City couple who were caught completely off-guard by the blaze, moments before their own home caught on fire. They had apparently been sitting in their house watching television when they heard what sounded like gunshots. Because they were watching the news at the time, seeing the wildfires unfold in other parts of the city, they initially did not realize that their own neighborhood had been compromised.
"[We] looked outside, saw our next door neighbors—fire coming out of their home—took a second, went back out again to grab some things, and I said, 'Our house is on fire,'" said the woman, before being overcome with emotion. "We grabbed our phones and our computer and our dogs and ran out."
The wildfires have been particularly destructive and difficult to contain due to a perfect storm, so to speak, of especially dry conditions combined with unusually powerful Santa Ana winds, which have reached gusts of 100 miles per hour. The winds were expected to diminish on Thursday, but by this morning, wildfires in Palisades, Eaton, Sunset, and Hurst still raged on.