Key Points
- Firefighters are facing winds of up to 112km/h in their week-long battle against deadly Los Angeles blazes.
- Firefighters are “absolutely better prepared” for extreme winds, LA County fire chief Anthony Marrone says.
- At least 24 people have died, and with dozens still missing the death toll is expected to rise.
Dangerously high winds are continuing to jeopardise efforts to extinguish two massive wildfires in Los Angeles.
Dry Santa Ana winds of up to 80 to 112km/h were forecast to resume on Monday and persist through Wednesday, according to the National Weather Service, which issued a “particularly dangerous situation” red flag warning, the agency’s most serious fire warning.
Fire crews were able to keep the fires from spreading overnight and are preparing for increased winds in the days ahead, officials said.
“We are not in the clear,” Los Angeles City fire chief Kristin Crowley said.
“We must not let our guard down, as we have, right now, extreme fire behaviour.”
Firefighters ‘better prepared’
Officials said the state was pre-positioning firefighting crews in vulnerable areas, including around the Palisades and Eaton fires, the two largest blazes burning on either side of Los Angeles.
More than 8,500 firefighting personnel are assigned to those two fires.
However, the return of high winds is threatening the hard-won progress that crews have made in containing the fires so far.
Over the weekend, aerial and land-based firefighters managed to stop the Palisades Fire as it encroached on the upscale Brentwood section and advanced toward the populous San Fernando Valley in the north.
That fire on the western side of the metropolis has consumed more than 9500 hectares and stands at 14 per cent contained, according to Cal Fire.
Together, the Palisades and Eaton fires have burned an area nearly the size of Washington, DC.
North of the city, the Hurst Fire is 95 per cent contained, and three other fires that had ravaged other parts of the county are now 100 per cent contained.
Los Angeles County fire chief Anthony Marrone said firefighters were “absolutely better prepared” for extreme winds this week, after the fires grew rapidly last week following similar dire warnings from forecasters.
There are more personnel on the ground and additional firefighting aircraft in the air now, he said, though he acknowledged that nothing was guaranteed.
“We’re never sure that we’re going to be able to catch the next fire and keep it small,” he said.
“They said 112km/h winds. It’s going to be very difficult to contain that fire.”
Since 7 January, several fires have ravaged residential areas across Los Angeles. Source: AAP / Middle East Images/ABACA/PA
Death toll predicted to rise
At least 24 people have died in the fires that began last Tuesday, and more than 150,000 residents have been forced to flee their homes.
More than two dozen people are reported missing, authorities said.
Deputies are finding human remains every day as they search through the burned-out parts of Altadena, where the Eaton fire first ignited, Los Angeles County sheriff Robert Luna said.
“It is a very grim task,” Luna said, adding that he expected the confirmed death toll to rise in the days ahead.
The blazes have reduced entire neighbourhoods to smouldering ruins, leaving an apocalyptic landscape.
California governor Gavin Newsom has said the firestorm could rank as the most devastating natural disaster in US history.
