The wildfires that are burning across Southern California leaving a path of charred ruin have killed at least 10 people and left more than 10,000 buildings destroyed.
The names or where the dead were found was not released, The Los Angeles Times reported.
Two of the fires — the Palisades and Eaton fires — were listed among the five most destructive fires in the state’s history, CNN reported.
Palisades fire has so far destroyed more than 5,300 structures while the Eaton fire has destroyed more than 4,000, ranking the blazes the third and fourth most destructive in California’s history. The numbers are expected to climb.
CNN reported the Palisades fire is 8% contained, “due to the favorable overnight weather conditions and diligent... work and effort and commitment of our first responders,” Los Angeles Fire Department Chief Kristen Crowley said on Friday.
The Hurst fire burned 771 acres and was 37% contained as of Thursday night with evacuation orders lifted, The Los Angeles Times reported.
The Lidia fire burned 394 acres in Action, California, and was 75% contained.
The Sunset fire burned only 60 acres and evacuation orders were lifted on Thursday.
Another fire has been sparked, called the Kenneth fire which has burned 960 acres near Calabasas, California. As of Friday morning, it was about 35% contained and evacuation warnings for the area affected were lifted, the Times reported.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said that the Federal Emergency Management Agency and President Joe Biden’s administration have promised to reimburse disaster relief expenses.
“Yesterday, President Biden pledged his full support for response efforts including FEMA reimbursement 100% of our disaster response costs,” Bass said, according to CNN. She is encouraging those affected to go to disasterassistance.gov to apply.
She said she wants to “aggressively rebuild,” adding that the “red tape, bureaucracy, all must go.”
“We will not rely on old ways of doing things. We shake up the system and move forward with new strategies and policies,” she said.
In all 153,000 people are still under mandatory evacuation orders, The New York Times reported. Another 166,000 people may have to evacuate.
Areas affected by the Palisades and Eaton fires have curfews in effect between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. The curfew also applies to all mandatory evacuation zones.
The National Guard is being called up and deployed to areas to “free up our firefighters and police officers and play a key role in securing our evacuation zones to keep people safe, to protect against anyone thinking of taking advantage of this tragedy,” Bass said, according to The New York Times.
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