Firefighters racing against the arrival of more desert winds made some progress against the two biggest fires raging in Los Angeles, which have killed at least 16 people and destroyed entire neighbourhoods from the inland hills to the Pacific Coast.
Crews managed to contain more of the Eaton fire, and they largely stopped the Palisades fire’s momentum towards a road of homes in Mandeville Canyon, a section of the Brentwood neighbourhood. But the fire risk remains high in the region, and winds began picking up again on Sunday morning.
A brief reprieve is expected on Sunday afternoon, according to forecasters, but the kind of gusty desert winds that have propelled the fires were expected to return on Monday. That could begin another stretch of potentially extreme fire conditions, keeping Southern Californians in a state of anxiety.
The Eaton fire, which has killed at least 11 people, now ranks among the 10 deadliest in California history.
Officials have warned that the death toll is likely to rise and the full scale of the destruction is still unknown, as search teams with cadaver dogs scour burned-out neighbourhoods.
As of Sunday morning, crews had contained 11 per cent of the 23,700-acre Palisades fire and 27 per cent of the 14,000-acre Eaton fire, in the San Gabriel Mountains northeast of downtown Los Angeles, according to Cal Fire. Tens of thousands of residents remained under evacuation orders or warnings on Sunday.
The National Weather Service said Santa Ana wind gusts early on Sunday could reach 96 to 113km per hour in mountain areas of Los Angeles and Ventura counties. They were expected to diminish in the afternoon before stronger offshore winds developed on Monday night and lasted through Wednesday.
The combined area burned by this week’s fires is larger than each of the city limits of San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Boston or Miami. Together, the Eaton and Palisades fires have damaged more than 12,000 “structures,” which can refer to houses, but also cars and outbuildings.
The identities of more people who died in the blazes have been released.
New York Times News Service