Hong Kong Movies: You Hongxingzi, what the hell is the charity king?

Chapter 912 "24" The Joyful Stories of the Los Angeles Fire: No Water, Zero Yuan Purchase, Guan Zu: The Opportunity Has Arrived!
Just as flames were burning in the mountains of Los Angeles.

at this time,

A seasonally strong Santa Ana wind is blowing from the inland desert toward the coast. After being blocked by the Sierra Nevada Mountains, it sinks and warms up, forming a dry and hot "Foehn wind".

This strong wind is arguably the strongest in history, with gusts reaching 160 kilometers per hour in the core area, far exceeding normal levels.

The fire was fueled by the wind.
Add to that California, which has been dry for half a year
Whoosh~~~~
A massive fire quickly spread through the California mountains.

Three minutes later, at 2:17, the Los Angeles Fire Department arrived at the foot of the mountain.
at this time,

The fire has already spread to an area of ​​more than ten square kilometers.

"Pull the water hoses! Control the foot of the mountain first!"

The fire chief yelled and pulled out the water hose, only to find that the nearest fire hydrant was only spouting water as weakly as a fountain.

"Oh shit!"

Captain Reyes looked at the water, which was less than a dribble, and cursed in anguish.

At that moment, Lisa, a resident of the residential area, was hanging out her laundry when she looked up and saw the western horizon shrouded in an orange-red mist.

Ring ring ring~~~~
"Lisa, the canyon is on fire! The wind is blowing this way! Run!"

When Lisa rushed out of the house in a panic
Large numbers of residents could be seen rushing out of their houses, some staring in shock at the wildfires and billowing smoke in the distance.
At this moment, a strong northeasterly wind swept in, carrying the enormous flames down the canyon slope towards the residential area.

Some citizens got scared and quickly ran away.

Some residents rushed home, gathered their valuables, put them in their cars, and drove away.

Some citizens, however, were not afraid and continued to watch.

at this time,

Los Angeles Fire Department officer Reyes, watching the ever-expanding ring of fire, kept yelling into his walkie-talkie:
"Requesting reinforcements! We need at least ten water tankers!"

"Damn it, there's not a drop of water here!"

The dispatch center's response was accompanied by background noise:

"Vehicles from Ventura County are stuck on the highway, the equipment maintenance team is unavailable, and three vehicles have broken down..."

Reyes: "Where's the helicopter?"

Fire department: "You forgot, the helicopter broke down and hasn't been repaired in a long time."

Reyes looked up, closed his eyes in despair.

Destroy it!
By this time, the Los Angeles Emergency Management Agency had received hundreds of emergency calls, and the operators' voices were already hoarse as they repeatedly told, "Do not carry valuables, move to an open area immediately."

quickly,

Reporters from Liberty Media Group, as well as CNN and other media outlets, quickly arrived at the highway below the canyon with their cameramen.

Reporters are holding microphones and shouting into the camera:
"As you can see, the thick smoke has already obscured the sun..."

"The local government has not yet issued a formal evacuation order, but residents have already begun to evacuate on their own..."

The camera panned across the traffic jam.

quickly,

The massive Santa Ana winds blew countless flames and embers several kilometers away, igniting numerous fires.

Each fire spread extremely quickly, at a rate equivalent to five football fields per minute, and within hours 50%-75% of the Palisades community was burned down.

In the evening,

The Palisades neighborhood is now completely engulfed in flames.

The sky gradually darkened.

But the sky was ablaze with red light from the massive fires in Los Angeles.

They even discovered a fire tornado that connected to the sky.

At 6:20 a.m., the first batch of reinforcements from Ventura County finally arrived, but brought even worse news: some fire trucks had broken down on the mountain road due to a lack of mechanics to maintain them.

“We only have 19 fire trucks that are still in use, but we have no water.”

"We don't have enough gas masks, so we can only use older models from several years ago."

“This area hasn’t had its firebreak cleared in three years. Last year’s heavy rains caused the shrubs to grow taller than a person, and now they’ve all become fuel.”

Why is there no water?

"No water, no water, absolutely no water!"

"........."

The firefighters were all dumbfounded.

What's the point of playing without water?
Should I just rush in and put out the fire with my own body?
Finally, firefighters used their helmets to scoop water to extinguish the fire.

You have to prove you've done something, right?

at this time,

Major television stations have been continuously reporting on the wildfire.

"According to the latest report from the Los Angeles Fire Department, the wildfire has burned 138 square kilometers, equivalent to 19300 football fields. Even more worrying is that 50%-75% of the Palisades community has been destroyed, with at least 5300 buildings reduced to rubble. Our reporter just filmed firefighters using their helmets to scoop up water from the roadside to extinguish the remaining fires—this is not a publicity stunt, but because the fire hydrants have completely stopped supplying water."

"This isn't a natural disaster, it's a system malfunction; a $1700 million budget cut to the Los Angeles Fire Department has rendered 100 fire trucks unusable, and all mechanic positions have been eliminated..."

"This is Chatsworth High School shelter, where more than 2000 residents have already poured in. Mr. Wolf, 64, told us that he and his wife held on to their home until the very last moment, only being forced to evacuate when the fire tornado approached. The government's evacuation order was two hours late, and by the time they wanted to leave, the highway was already blocked..."

"The weather service warns that the Santa Ana winds will continue to intensify tonight, with gusts potentially exceeding 180 kilometers per hour..."

“Mr. Li Fu, Chairman of Umbrella Property, stated that Umbrella Property will mobilize all resources, exceeding US$1 million, as soon as possible to provide material support to the affected citizens…”

Then, scene after scene showed Umbrella Corporation distributing bottled water and bread at the shelter, with safety reminders repeatedly broadcast over loudspeakers.

And Xiao Fu said on TV that he would donate 1 million yuan for aid.

This news report moved many Americans.

……

At this time,
Guan Zu also saw the California wildfires on television.

At first, he thought it was just an ordinary wildfire, but after hearing about the Santa Ana winds and the fact that there hadn't been any heavy rains for more than six months, he realized that this fire would be an opportunity for Umbrella Property.

After much back and forth, he gave Franklin a direct order: investigate the water bank and the Resnick family, based on the fire department's water shortage, and incidentally, sow discord among the squid-man.

After receiving Guan Zu's order, Xiao Fu suddenly realized what was going on.

Brother Zu is awesome!
Without saying a word, he started having Brother Leopard (Zeng Zhiwei) collect information.

Now that they're waging a war of words with the squid, how could Guan Zu possibly let such an opportunity pass?
……

Midnight
The temporary shelters were packed with evacuated residents.

A group of residents sat on the ground, exhausted and thirsty. Just then, people from Umbrella Property Management arrived, wearing Umbrella's yellow uniforms (similar to Meituan), and all of them were Chinese (deliberately). They pushed a cart and brought sandwiches and water.

"The Umbrella Corporation is still the best..."

"That's right, Chinese people are great."

"My opinion of Chinese people has changed; I used to dislike them quite a bit."

"What I hate now is the squid man."

……

In the following days,
The wildfires in Los Angeles are spreading at a speed that no one in the United States could have imagined.

The Santa Ana winds, exceeding 180 km/h, hurtled toward the foothills of Hollywood with fiery speed.

Hollywood was burned to the ground!

Although the fire department urgently dispatched 12 water tankers to provide assistance, they were unable to access water due to a lack of water from the main water supply line on Sunset Boulevard.

The mansions of Paris Hilton, Ben Affleck, and Batman were burned to the ground.

Subsequently,

Fueled by Santa Ana winds, the wildfire spread to the east and west. In the eastern Altadena community, where there was a lack of firebreaks, more than 800 houses were destroyed within 3 hours.

Highway 10 became a long line of evacuees, with traffic jams stretching 17 kilometers. The fire was even more intense in the low-rent housing area near Venice Beach on the west side, with large sections of wooden houses collapsing and many elderly people perishing in the flames due to their slow movement.

More than 3 disaster victims have flocked to temporary shelters...

At this point, the property management company, acting as a protector, stood up and gained more public support.

At this time, California mobilized prison firefighters, a force of 2000 people who cleared firebreaks by hand without heavy equipment. Two prisoners died after being surrounded by fire.

Prisoner: "Isn't my life my life too?"

On the fifth day, the wildfire had spread to 11 areas in Los Angeles County, with a total burned area of ​​218 square kilometers.

No water!

No water!

Still no water!

The citizens were furious and hurling insults.

The government launched a fierce attack.

In his televised address, President Bush seized on the Democrats' Achilles' heel (the governor of California and the mayor of Los Angeles are Democrats): "This disaster has exposed fatal flaws in the emergency response system, and the mayor of Los Angeles should resign!"

Of course, if he were a Republican, he would definitely say, "The head of the fire department should resign."

The art of language.

……

Meanwhile, on the other side...

Altadena, Los Angeles.

Since the 20th century, this area has been a well-known African American neighborhood, with very few people of other races living here.

street,

A group of African Americans are gathering together.

Thirty-year-old Marcus crumpled the beer can, foam spilling from the opening and dripping through his fingers, a snarling expression on his face.

"As you can see, Palicedes is in complete chaos, and the firefighters can't even take care of themselves."

"They live in multi-million dollar houses, and we're here drinking expired beer. Now the fire is here, it's God's opportunity."

Terry, leaning against the wall on the street, chimed in, "The fire hydrants are dry. All the police are out protecting those celebrities. I heard Ruby went there last night, searched a mansion, and succeeded. They supposedly made tens of thousands of dollars, including Rolex watches and diamonds."

All the African Americans were immediately intrigued.

My heart is pounding!
The African American neighborhood is too poor.

As for theft?

That's a traditional art form.

Marcus pulled out a crumpled map, on which the weak points of the Hollywood Hills villa area were circled in red.
"The people in this area have already evacuated. They can get around through the firebreak on the back mountain in ten minutes."

"What if we get caught?" Seventeen-year-old Jimmy gripped the baseball bat, a little worried.

"You're actually scared?"

"Don't worry, all of Los Angeles is in chaos right now. Those mansions about to burn down—the owners, the police, the firefighters…everyone's run away. There's nobody here. We can just drive over and get our supplies!"

"When the fire broke out in our neighborhood, we waited four hours before the fire truck arrived, and the hose even broke! Their dogs are insured, but our homes were burned down and all we got were bottled water!"

"Jimmy, you don't want your mom to continue being so poor that she has to sleep on the floor, do you?"

quickly,

A group of people were persuaded.

It's just too tempting.

Terry had already driven the stolen pickup truck to the garage door, with a crowbar and several large hiking backpacks hidden in the truck bed.

Two hours later, it got dark.

The pickup truck drove along the smoke-shrouded highway toward the upscale neighborhood.

Soon, they began to take action...

Then they also saw their fellow African Americans.

There are also Latinos.

Everyone looked across the street and smiled happily. The new tactic was kept secret; they simply entered the house and went straight to stock up…

If you steal, I'll steal too.

Everyone has a bright future.

Some elves even had a sudden inspiration—they felt the fire wasn't big enough, so why don't I light it?
then,

In many parts of Los Angeles, new fire spots have started appearing inexplicably.

Los Angeles government: "…………"

Fire Department: "…………"

I #￥@）*&…%……

(End of this chapter)