The death toll from wildfires in Los Angeles has risen to ten from seven, Los Angeles County’s medical examiner said late on Thursday.
More than 10,000 structures have been destroyed and at least 180,000 residents ordered to evacuate in California as fast-moving wildfires burned around Los Angeles, encircling the city.
Los Angeles county sheriff Robert Luna said a night-time curfew was planned, and the state’s National Guard was on hand to patrol affected areas. Governor Gavin Newsom said the service members were part of a thousands-strong deployment of state personnel.
At least 20 arrests have been made for looting, and the city of Santa Monica declared a curfew because of the lawlessness, officials said. National Guard troops arrived in Los Angeles on Thursday evening. The county sheriff said to protect properties they will be stationed near the areas ravaged by fire and a curfew was expected to go into effect from 6pm until 6am.
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Five deaths have been confirmed in the Eaton Canyon fire, north of Los Angeles, and two in the Palisades area. The Palisades fire, which had remained totally uncontained since it broke out Tuesday, was 6 per cent contained by 6pm Thursday.
A new fire, now called the Kenneth fire, sparked around 3.34pm on Thursday and quickly ballooned to 388 hectares (960 acres).
As of late on Thursday, five fires were still raging around Los Angeles, three of them uncontrolled.
The fast-moving Kenneth fire started in the late afternoon in the San Fernando Valley near the West Hills neighbourhood and close to Ventura County.
Only hours earlier officials expressed encouragement after firefighters aided by calmer winds and help from crews from outside the state saw the first signs of successfully beating back the region’s devastating wildfires.
“We are expecting this fire to rapidly spread due to high winds,” Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass said, echoing the forecast that called for winds to strengthen on Thursday evening through to Friday morning.
Los Angeles County officials announced the Eaton Fire near Pasadena that started on Tuesday night has burned more than 5,000 structures, a term that includes homes, apartment buildings, businesses, outbuildings and vehicles. To the west in Pacific Palisades, the largest of the fires burning in the LA area has destroyed more than 5,300 structures.
Between the Eaton and Palisades fires, more than 10,000 structures have burned.
All of the large fires that have broken out this week in the Los Angeles area are located in a roughly 40km band north of downtown.
“While we are still facing significant threats, I am hopeful that the tide is turning,” Los Angeles County supervisor Kathryn Barger said Thursday.
Water dropped from aircraft helped fire crews quickly seize control of the fires in the Hollywood Hills and Studio City, officials said. Much of the widespread destruction occurred on Tuesday after those aircraft were grounded due to high winds.
Fire officials said on Thursday that they do not yet know the cause of the fires but are actively investigating.
On Tuesday, hurricane-force winds blew embers through the air, igniting block after block and destroying an area of land about 117sq km (45 square miles) over the following days.
Satellite images showed the scale of the destruction from the Pacific Palisades fire, which left the coastline along the famous Malibu neighbourhood scorched black and buildings along the water burned to the ground.
Actor and director Mel Gibson said his home was lost in wildfires while he was away recording a podcast interview with Joe Rogan.
The Mad Max star (69) described the loss as “emotional” and “devastating”, but attempted to remain upbeat as he said his family were “happy and healthy and out of harm’s way”.
Reality TV star Paris Hilton said she is feeling “truly indescribable heartbreak” after her home burned down as wildfires spread across the US city.
The 43-year-old said she was in “complete shock” when she first saw the news, and expressed sympathy for others who had been affected.
More than 8,000 personnel and 600 members of the California National Guard were now battling the Los Angeles fires, according to Mr Newsom, the California governor. They were being assisted by 991 fire trucks and 40 helicopters.
President Joe Biden has announced that the federal government would pay for 100 per cent of the firefighting needs for the next 180 days.
Public utility Southern California Edison (SCE) said on Thursday it had received notices from insurance companies to preserve evidence related to the Eaton Fire but said no fire agencies have pointed the utility’s connection to the fire.
The group, a unit of US utility Edison International, said its filing to regulators was triggered by online publications that “seemingly suggest” the group’s equipment may have been associated with the fire’s ignition.
“To date, no fire agency has suggested that SCE’s electric facilities were involved in the ignition or requested the removal and retention of any SCE equipment,” it said.
The utility added that it did not find any interruptions or anomalies in its transmission lines until more than an hour after the reported start time of the fire, citing preliminary analysis done by the group. – Agencies