Firefighters battling the disastrous wildfires around Los Angeles are prepared for a return of dangerous winds that could again stoke the flames as the death toll in the tragedy has hit at least 24.
Fierce gusts known as Santa Ana winds have been largely blamed for turning the wildfires into devastating infernos that leveled huge tranches of neighborhoods around America’s second-largest city, which has also been hit by drought.
The National Weather Service has issued a rare warning of a “particularly dangerous situation”, beginning overnight on Monday into Tuesday with severe fire conditions through Wednesday. There could be sustained winds of up to 40mph (64km/h) and gusts in the mountains reaching 70mph.
“We are not in the clear as of yet. We must not let our guard down,” the LA fire department chief, Kristin Crowley, said during a Monday morning news briefing.
Officials urged residents to pre-emptively make evacuation plans – and said in order to avoid gridlock people should leave when they receive evacuation warnings, rather than waiting for an order.
The Los Angeles county fire chief, Anthony C Marrone, said 70 additional water trucks had arrived to help firefighters fend off flames spread by any renewed gusts. “We are prepared for the upcoming wind event,” Marrone said.
Hundreds of national guard troops are also aiding in the response to the disaster. Crews are stationed in strategic locations around the county in preparation for the hurricane-force winds, Karen Bass, LA’s mayor, said on Monday.
In all, four fires have consumed more than 62 sq miles (160 sq km), an area larger than San Francisco. The Eaton fire near Pasadena and the Palisades fire, in a wealthy enclave along the Pacific coast, alone accounted for 59 sq miles. Early estimates suggest they could be the nation’s costliest ever, as much as $150bn, according to an AccuWeather estimate.
But in a sign of some progress, firefighters battling the blazes had established some form of containment around each fire, which increased over the weekend.
The relative calm in the winds on Sunday also allowed some people to return to previously evacuated areas.
But even as containment increased in the worst of the fires, more bad news emerged from the ashes: the death toll surged to 24 late on Sunday after an update from the Los Angeles county medical examiner. Sixteen of the 24 deaths were attributed to the Eaton fire and eight to the Palisades fire, according to the Los Angeles county coroner’s office. The toll is expected to rise as search dogs conduct systematic searches in leveled neighborhoods.
At least 23 people were also missing, a number authorities said was also likely to rise. Robert Luna, the Los Angeles county sheriff, described the recovery effort as a “grim task” and said remains were being discovered daily.
“I believe we will continue to find remains,” Luna said. Many people are saying: “I just want to go look at my house and I want to see what’s left,” Luna said. “We know that but we have people literally looking for the remains of your neighbors.”
Some residents have been able to return to their homes to survey the damage.
Jim Orlandini, who lost his hardware store in Altadena, a hard-hit neighborhood next to Pasadena, said his home of 40 years survived.
“Tuesday night we didn’t sleep at all because we figured the house was gone,” he told the Associated Press. “The whole time I was thinking, I don’t know what I’m going to find when I get back here and after 40 years, you know, you got a lot of stuff you forget about that would disappear if the house burned down. So we’re thankful that it didn’t.”
Crews from California and nine other states are part of the ongoing response that includes nearly 1,400 fire engines, 84 aircraft and more than 14,000 personnel, including newly arrived firefighters from Mexico.
Looting continued to be a concern, with authorities reporting more arrests as the devastation grew. Those arrested included two people who posed as firefighters going into houses, Michael Lorenz, the Los Angeles police department captain, said.
With California national guard troops on hand to guard properties, Governor Gavin Newsom posted on X: “California will NOT allow for looting.”
Mayor Bass said on Sunday that she had spoken with Donald Trump’s incoming administration and expected that the president-elect would visit the city.
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.
In response to a question about whether she owed the city an apology, Bass said her focus was on Los Angeles being prepared for the upcoming wind event.
“We could face another difficult situation for thousands of Angelenos,” she said. “When we are past this period, there will be an evaluation of everything that went on.”
Newsom on Friday ordered state officials to determine why a 117m-gallon (440m-liter) reservoir was out of service and some hydrants had run dry.