Death toll continues to rise as fire crews try to corral Los Angeles blazes before winds return this week

CTV National News: Raging deadly wildfires Wildfires are still raging in California, causing mass devastation. Kathy Le has the latest on the death toll and destruction.

LOS ANGELES — After a weekend spent blocking the explosive growth of fires that destroyed thousands of homes and killed at least 24 people in the Los Angeles area, firefighters got a slight break with calmer weather but cast a wary eye on a forecast for yet more wind.

Should that happen, already burned homes and valleys could flare anew, sending embers to unburned territory miles downwind. New fires could add to the complication.

The death toll surged late Sunday with an update from the Los Angeles County medical examiner. At least 16 people were missing, a number authorities said was also likely to rise.

The relative calm Sunday allowed some people to return to previously evacuated areas, however.

The National Weather Service issued red flag warnings for severe fire conditions through Wednesday, with sustained winds of 50 m.p.h. (80 km/h) and gusts in the mountains reaching 70 m.p.h. (113 km/h). The most dangerous day will be Tuesday, said weather service meteorologist Rich Thompson.

“You’re going to have really strong gusty Santa Ana winds, a very dry atmosphere and still very dry brush, so we still have some very critical fire weather conditions out there,” Thompson said at a community meeting Saturday night.

Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony C. Marrone said 70 additional water trucks arrived to help firefighters fend off flames spread by renewed gusts. “We are prepared for the upcoming wind event,” Marrone said. Fire retardant dropped by aircraft Sunday will act as a barrier along hillsides, officials said.

Fierce Santa Anas have been largely blamed for turning the wildfires sparked last week into infernos that leveled entire neighborhoods around the city where there has been no significant rainfall in more than eight months.

Twelve people were missing within the Eaton Fire zone and four were missing from the Palisades Fire, Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said. Luna added that “dozens” more reports might have come in Sunday morning and investigators were reconciling whether some of the missing might be among the dead. There are no children among those reported missing, he said.

Meanwhile, the death toll rose to 16 over the weekend. Five of the deaths were attributed to the Palisades Fire and 11 resulted from the Eaton Fire, the Los Angeles County coroner’s office said in a statement Saturday evening.

Officials said they expected that figure to increase as teams with cadaver dogs conduct systematic grid searches in leveled neighborhoods. Authorities have established a center where people can report the missing.

Officials also were building an online database to allow evacuated residents to see if their homes were damaged or destroyed. In the meantime, LA city Fire Chief Kristin Crowley urged people to stay away from scorched neighborhoods.

“There are still active fires that are burning within the Palisades area, making it extremely, extremely dangerous for the public," Crowley said at a Sunday briefing. "There’s no power, there’s no water, there’s broken gas lines, and we have unstable structures. The first responders are working as quickly as possible to ensure that it is safe for you to return into your communities.”

Officials warned the ash can contain lead, arsenic, asbestos and other harmful materials.

About 150,000 people in Los Angeles County remained under evacuation orders, with more than 700 residents taking refuge in nine shelters, Luna said.

By Sunday morning, Cal Fire reported the Palisades, Eaton, Kenneth and Hurst fires had consumed more than 62 square miles (160 square kilometres), an area larger than San Francisco. The Palisades Fire was 11 per cent contained and containment on the Eaton Fire reached 27 per cent. Those two blazes accounted for 59 square miles (nearly 153 square kilometres).

Crews from California and nine other states are part of the ongoing response that includes 1,354 fire engines, 84 aircraft and more than 14,000 personnel, including newly arrived firefighters from Mexico.

Fighting to save public and private areas

Minimal growth was expected Sunday for the Eaton Fire “with continued smoldering and creeping” of flames, an LA County Fire Department incident report said. Most evacuation orders for the area have been lifted.

After a fierce battle Saturday, firefighters managed to fight back flames in Mandeville Canyon, home to Arnold Schwarzenegger and other celebrities near Pacific Palisades not far from the coast, where swooping helicopters dumped water as the blaze charged downhill.

The fire ran through chaparral-covered hillsides and also briefly threatened to jump over Interstate 405 and into densely populated areas in the Hollywood Hills and San Fernando Valley.

Arrests for looting

Looting continues to be a concern, with authorities reporting more arrests as the devastation grows. Michael Lorenz, a captain with the Los Angeles Police Department, said seven people have been arrested in the last two days.

“We even made arrests of two individuals that were actually posing as firefighters coming and in and out of houses, so we’re paying very, very close attention to everybody,” Lorenz said at Saturday evening's community meeting.

Asked exactly how many looters have been arrested, Lorenz said he couldn’t give a precise number but that officers were detaining about 10 people a day. California National Guard troops arrived Friday to help guard properties.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom posted on X Saturday that “California will NOT allow for looting.”

Historical cost

The fires that began Tuesday just north of downtown LA have burned more than 12,000 structures.

No cause has been determined for the largest fires and early estimates indicate the wildfires could be the nation's costliest ever. A preliminary estimate by AccuWeather put the damage and economic losses so far between US$135 billion and $150 billion.

In an interview that aired Sunday on NBC, Gov. Gavin Newsom said the fires could end up being the worst natural disaster in U.S. history.

“I think it will be in terms of just the costs associated with it, in terms of the scale and scope,” he said.

Inmate firefighters on the front lines

Along with crews from other states and Mexico, hundreds of inmates from California’s prison system were also helping firefighting efforts. Nearly 950 incarcerated firefighters were dispatched “to cut fire lines and remove fuel to slow fire spread,” according to an update from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

Though the state has long relied on prison labor to fight fires, the practice is controversial as the inmates are paid little for dangerous and difficult work. Inmates are paid up to roughly $10.24 each day, with additional money for 24-hour shifts, according to the corrections department.

Overflowing kindness

Volunteers overflowed donation centers and some had to be turned away at locations including the Santa Anita Park horse racing track, where people who lost their homes sifted through stacks of donated shirts, blankets and other household goods.

Altadena resident Jose Luis Godinez said three homes occupied by more than a dozen of his family members were destroyed.

“Everything is gone,” he said, speaking in Spanish. "All my family lived in those three houses and now we have nothing.”

Rebuilding will be a challenge

Newsom issued an executive order Sunday aimed at fast-tracking the rebuilding of destroyed property by suspending some environmental regulations and ensuring that property tax assessments are not increased.

“We’ve got to let people know that we have their back,” he said. “Don’t walk away because we want you to come back, rebuild, and rebuild with higher quality building standards, more modern standards. We want to make sure that the associated costs with that are not disproportionate, especially in a middle-class community like this.”

The White House said as of Sunday more than 24,000 people have registered for federal assistance made available by President Joe Biden's major disaster declaration last Wednesday.

L.A. Mayor Karen Bass said Sunday that she has spoken with members of the incoming presidential administration and said she expects Donald Trump will come visit the devastated region.

Leadership accused of skimping

Bass faces a critical test of her leadership during the city's greatest crisis in decades, but allegations of leadership failures, political blame and investigations have begun.

Newsom on Friday ordered state officials to determine why a 117 million-gallon (440 million-liter) reservoir was out of service and some hydrants had run dry.

Crowley, the LA fire chief, said city leadership failed her department by not providing enough money for firefighting. She also criticized the lack of water.

“When a firefighter comes up to a hydrant, we expect there’s going to be water,” Crowley said.

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Ramer reported from Concord, New Hampshire. Associated Press journalists Julie Walker in New York, Sophia Tareen in Chicago and Ben Finley in Norfolk, Virginia, contributed.