Preventive action can’t avert wildfires but can save lives, meteorologists say
Voice of America
A police officer directs traffic so people can evacuate as a wildfire breaks out near Pacific Palisades on the west side of Los Angeles on Jan. 7, 2025. The World Meteorological Organization says evacuation plans are important in saving lives in natural disasters. A National Guardsman talks with a driver near damaged structures burned from a wildfire in Altadena, California, on Jan. 10, 2025. The devastation from the Palisades Fire is seen from the air in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, Jan. 9, 2025. A person wears a mask because of hazardous air quality due to wildfires as she rides her bike by the beach in Santa Monica, California, on Jan. 8, 2025.
The World Meteorlogical Organization says that preventive action cannot avert natural disasters such as the wildfires raging across Los Angeles, but that it can help save lives and mitigate loss of property.
FILE - Sacks of ammonium perchlorate, a chemical commonly used to make missile fuel, are found on a fishing vessel intercepted by US naval forces in the Gulf of Oman in November 2022.
This file comes from the website of the President of the Russian Federation and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. (www.kremlin.ru)
In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, Chinese President Xi Jinping poses for photos with military personnel of the Chinese People's Liberation Army garrison stationed in the Macao Special Administrative Region in southern China, Dec. 20, 2024. (Li Gang/Xinhua via AP)
Germany's Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, right, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, center, and Canada's Foreign Minister Melanie Joly attend the G7 foreign ministers meeting in Charlevoix, Quebec, March 13, 2025. Ministers representing, from left, Japan, Britain, France, Canada, U.S. Germany and Italy post for a photo during the G7 foreign ministers meeting in Charlevoix, Quebec, March 13, 2025.
FILE - Orphans and children separated from their parents in Kadugli gather to eat boiled leaves at an internally displaced persons camp in South Kordofan, Sudan, June 22, 2024.
Syria's interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa signs the country's constitutional declaration, which will be enforced throughout a five-year transitional period, at the presidential palace in Damascus, March 13, 2025.
Rohingya refugees gather to collect relief materials from a distribution point in the Kutupalong Refugee Camp in Ukhia in Bangladesh's Cox's Bazar district on March 6, 2025. FILE - United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres speaks with the media in Brussels, March 21, 2024. FILE - A Rohingya boy carries a relief supply package with the USAID logo on it, at a refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, Feb. 11, 2025.
Bottles Champagne are for sale at a wine dealer shop in Ville d'Avray, outside Paris, France, as President Donald Trump threatened a 200% tariff on European wine, Champagne and spirits if the European Union goes forward with a planned tariff on American whiskey, March 13, 2025.
Steve Witkoff, White House special envoy, center, speaks with reporters at the White House in Washington, March 6, 2025. The White House said Witkoff will head to Moscow to discuss a U.S. proposal for a 30-day ceasefire in Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Iranian athlete Elnaz Rekabi competes during the women's Boulder & Lead final during the IFSC Climbing Asian Championships in Seoul, South Korea, Oct. 16, 2022. (Rhea Khang/International Federation of Sport Climbing via AP)
This handout photo from Taiwan Presidential office taken and released March 13, 2025, shows Taiwan President Lai Ching-te speaking in Taipei.
A woman places a candle at the statue of late Pope John Paul II at the Gemelli Hospital, where Pope Francis is being treated for pneumonia, in Rome, March 12, 2025.