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Firefighters are taking massive action to prevent the largest of the deadly wildfires to threaten Los Angeles from spreading to one of the city’s most exclusive neighborhoods.
Air crews bombarded the burning hills with water and fire retardant to contain the Palisades fire, which has spread to another 1,000 acres and is now threatening Brentwood.
Officials defended themselves amid growing anger that hydrants ran dry as firefighters struggled to contain the fast-moving blaze.
Winds are expected to pick up again overnight, further fanning the flames, which have already killed at least 11 people.
Reuters“Los Angeles County has had another night of unimaginable terror and grief,” Los Angeles County Executive Lindsey Horvath said Saturday.
Firefighters have made modest progress on the worst of the inferno, the Palisades Fire, which has burned nearly 23,000 acres and is 11% contained.
But the fire spread to the Mandeville Canyon neighborhood, prompting an evacuation order for parts of Brentwood, a posh enclave home to Arnold Schwarzenegger, Disney chief executive Bob Iger and NBA star LeBron James.
Also in the evacuation zone is the Getty Center, a hilltop museum that houses more than 125,000 works of art, including masterpieces by Van Gogh, Rembrandt, Rubens, Monet and Degas. The building is not damaged yet.
The second largest fire, the Eaton Fire, has destroyed more than 14,000 acres and is 15% contained. Firefighters mainly contained two smaller fires, the Kennett and Hurst fires.
But the National Weather Service warned that the gusty Santa Ana winds that fueled the fires early on would pick up again Saturday and Sunday.
Seven neighboring states, the federal government, Canada and Mexico have sent resources to California.
The causes of the fires have not yet been established. The two largest together destroyed an area more than twice the size of Manhattan.
About 153,000 residents are under mandatory evacuation orders, and another 166,000 have been warned they may also have to flee.
The political consequences began.
On Friday, Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat with rumored White House aspirations, ordered an investigation into why a key tank was not working and some fire hydrants ran dry.
Los Angeles Fire Chief Christine Crowley complained about the shortage.
“When a firefighter walks up to a hydrant, we expect water to be there,” she said.
Chief Crowley also attacked city officials for cutting her department’s budget and eliminating mechanic jobs, which she said has left more than 100 fire engines out of service.
On Saturday, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, who was criticized for attending the inauguration of the African country’s president in Ghana when fires broke out in Los Angeles on Tuesday, hinted at her tension with Chief Crowley.
“Let me make something clear,” Bass said at the news conference, “the fire chief and I are focused on fighting these fires and saving lives, and any differences we may have will be resolved privately.”
More than 70,000 people signed the change.org petition demanding the mayor’s immediate resignation.
A curfew from sunset to sunrise is being strictly enforced in the evacuated areas due to growing fears of looting, the official said.
Newsom announced Saturday that he would double the number of National Guardsmen in the field to “keep communities safe,” deploying 1,680 troops.
About two dozen arrests were made, including for burglary, looting and curfew violation.
Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said cadaver dogs are helping 40 search and rescue teams scour the devastated neighborhood.
It is expected that the number of victims will increase after the apartment searches.
The fires were so intense that the disc alloys on the cars melted into puddles of liquid metal.
Rick McGee, a real estate agent, told Reuters that only six of the 60 homes in his Pacific Palisades neighborhood survived.
Only the statue of the Virgin Mary remained standing in his house.
“Everything else is ash and rubble,” said the 61-year-old father of three.
