Irish writer Colm Tóibín, who is currently living in Los Angeles, has said he thought the wildfires currently devastating the city were like "the end of the world".
He said that the sunset on Wednesday, when the city was filled with smoke, was like nothing he had ever seen.
"It seemed to me to stay longer in the sky just to mock us. With a fog all around it, but it itself was shining red, and god, I thought it was the end of the world."
Mr Tóibín said that he has not been outside since last Tuesday as the "extraordinary fires" have created "stuff in the air that no one understands".
"The reason is you don't know what’s in the air, you keep getting told don’t go out," he said.
He said that there was a possibility that fires could easily spread after a lot of scrub grew following heavy rain in the spring.
"Now it would be very unlikely... but it is just possible that the winds will start up very badly again," he added.
The writer is in Highland Park but said he had many friends in Altadena, where many of the big fires have taken place.
Altadena, he said, is a mixed area where writers, artists and journalists could afford to buy around a decade ago.
"I could name you about ten friends who have lost everything, and it is really hard because when does the insurance kick in? When does anything happen?" said Mr Tóibín.
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He said that some people had very little notice and were forced to throw things into bags and "almost literally run".
"It effects everyone here, especially in my sort of world where Altadena was ... it was an area where you could still buy a house, which in LA like every other city almost, houses have gone out of everyone's reach, but Altadena was different.
"The difference between last week and this week for them is that they have no house to go to," he added.
'Never felt wind like it'
Mr Tóibín said he had never felt a wind like the wind last Tuesday in Los Angeles.
"I mean, you thought the house was going to lift. It was literally the force of the wind, and that was all over the area," he said.
"Once it began, the embers would blow so fast, and the fire would spread so fast. We were just lucky that it didn’t start here."
He said while he felt safe, he had two bags packed near the door.
Speaking on RTÉ’s News at One, he said his emergency bags contained his notebooks as he was working on a book longhand.
Fear a big issue going forward
Mr Tóibín said fear was the big issue moving forward.
"Pacific Palisades is a very rich place, people often buy a very beautiful big house there, and they knock it down to build their own house, ... a tremendous amount of it has been destroyed, but you can just imagine that over a period of two or three years being recreated," he said.
The writer said the next time people hear that wind, they will know they are vulnerable.
"That wind is becoming, I suppose stronger in the sense that the rains are coming harder, that the drought is coming stronger.
"But that idea that you can just hear the wind in the night, hear a door banging, hear a sound and just think, oh god, I better get up... what you better get up and do is have your stuff ready, and that is no way to live," he added.
Read more:
Winds pick up in California, threatening fire-ravaged LA
'We need water': On the frontline with volunteers in LA
'The right thing to do': Dublin man aids in LA fire response
