Winds fueling wildfires in the US city of Los Angeles are expected to resume early Wednesday – after a week-long outbreak confirmed the 25th death.
Forecasters have once again identified the area northwest of the city center as an “extreme fire risk” area, emphasizing the level of danger.
An expected increase in wind speeds threatens to further fuel the remaining four blazes, which firefighters have made further progress during a few days of calmer conditions.
There are hopes of another drop in wind speeds later Wednesday – but officials have highlighted the need for rain to help fire crews in their battle.
The 25th death was confirmed by the LA County Medical Examiner’s Office. Thirteen more people are missing.
Most of the victims have died in the Eaton fire, which has burned more than 14,000 acres north of the city, but is now 35 percent contained by firefighters.
Further west, the massive Palisades Fire has burned more than 23,000 acres, and is now at 18 percent containment. Two small fires also keep burning.
Some of the victims of the Eaton fire have now been allowed to return to their homes, although officials say they have no solid record of repopulating the Palisades area, an upscale area. which was destroyed by fire to which it gave its name.
So tens of thousands of people are still under evacuation orders — with nighttime curfews in effect — and thousands of homes have been destroyed in one of the costliest natural disasters in American history.
On Tuesday, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass called the scenes “unimaginable,” vowing to use her executive powers to speed up rebuilding efforts.
Outlining other measures to help local residents, another official, the L.A. County Supervisor, said that L.A.’s landlords issued an emergency declaration during the crisis to curb alleged price gouging. will go
BBC weather forecaster Sarah Keith Lucas said Wednesday’s critical conditions were due to moderate to locally strong Santa Ana winds, as well as very low humidity.
Winds will pick up again at 03:00 local time (11:00 GMT) for a twelve-hour period, according to the local office of the National Weather Service (NWS). Gusts can reach 50mph (80km/h).
Compared to last week’s conditions, winds are “weaker but still strong,” the NWS warned.
For this reason, areas northwest of Los Angeles — including Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks — are considered particularly dangerous.
But conditions are predicted to improve after Thursday and Friday. BBC forecaster Sarah Keith Lucas added that despite the change in winds, no rain is in the forecast for at least next week. And the Santa Ana winds that have been blamed for fueling the fires could develop again starting Sunday.
Pasadena’s city fire chief echoed the need for rain.
Chad Augustin told BBC Radio 4’s Today program that there had been “no real rain in Southern California” for more than 250 days.
Mr Augustin added that on Wednesday, his firefighters would “stand by to make sure we maintain our containment lines and we don’t burn any more structures”.
