“It does not look pleasant,” wrote Sean Roberts, an emergency services specialist at the Tulare County, California, health department in an email to colleagues in May.

Residents in an Australian region engulfed by bushfires were given two hours to return home to collect their belongings before Christmas on Tuesday, as emergency crews try to contain the blaze.

But when the Home Office decided it needed to supply mains electricity to three emergency telecommunication masts in the valley, an opportunity arose to connect many of the properties too.

Last month, the Chula Vista City Council issued a local state of emergency due to the crisis.

The hospital's medical director explains that the previous day, police clashed with gang members in the emergency ward among terrified patients.