Middlesbrough man caught up in LA wildfires: 'It's a very scary experience'

As the wildfires continue to ravage parts of Los Angeles, we have been speaking to a Middlesbrough man caught up in it.

Paul Barron, who teaches in Hollywood, and his partner are one of the 200,000 people who have been evacuated.

They had to escape their apartment in Hollywood Hills on foot with their cats as the roads were jammed. They stayed at hotels.

Paul said: "I looked out the window and the whole sky was covered in a black and orange blanket of smoke. It was apocalyptic. People were bumper to bumper, there was smoke in the air, there was ash falling down like snowflakes on fire. There were kind of burning embers in the air and lots of sirens, lots of fire engines and police cars.

"It was pretty scared because we didn't know how fast the fire was going to be descending the hill and we didn't know at that point where we were going to go. The noises of the helicopters, the very low helicopters, were incredible and fire engines, police officers giving directions on the street, it was like a movie set. It was kind of like a Hollywood disaster movie. It was a very surreal thing.

"We woke up on Wednesday morning expecting to see some smoke on the horizon but not expecting to see the whole sky covered in orange and black smoke. It was apocalyptic and very ominous and very surreal.

"I went out this morning, the day after we were evacuated, and smoke is everywhere. Our clothes smell of smoke, even the cats' fur smells of smoke and all of the buildings and the rooms we go into, they're all kind of suffering from this smoke.

"The evacuation order for our part of town, which is Hollywood, has been lifted. The fire in the Hollywood Hills seems to have been surpressed. There's still a very pervasive smell of smoke and there's still ash falling even this morning."

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