Los Angeles (TDI): Firefighters were battling massive wildfires on Monday that have ravaged Los Angeles and killed at least 24 people, with officials warning of incoming dangerous winds that could whip up the flames further.
The fires ripped through the US second-largest city for the seventh day, reducing whole communities to scorched rubble and leaving thousands without homes.
Intense firefighting has halted the Palisades Fire’s advance toward upscale Brentwood and the densely populated San Fernando Valley.
However, conditions are expected to deteriorate significantly, with “extreme fire behavior and life-threatening risks” in the coming days.
Winds up to 110 kilometers per hour mean a “very dangerous situation” will occur on Tuesday, the National Weather Service meteorologist Rose Schoenfeld said.
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Those gusts could fan blaze and whip up embers from existing burn zones into new areas, firefighters warned.
There was frustration for evacuees who were informed they would not be returning home until Thursday when winds subside.
Some have queued for hours in the hope of getting back to homes they fled to pick up medicines or a change of clothes.
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But Sheriff Robert Luna said on Sunday escorts into those areas were being halted because due to winds and dangerous conditions among the wreckage, as well as the need to retrieve victims’ bodies.
Teams with cadaver dogs were busy in grid searches with the grim expectation that the confirmed death toll would rise.
A blaze in Palisades, an upscale neighbourhood, has consumed 23,700 acres and was just 13% contained.
