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Firefighters are making an all-out plan to stop the largest fire threatening Los Angeles from spreading to just one area of the city.
Air crews have been dousing the volcano with water and fire extinguishers to contain the Palisades fire, which has grown another 1,000 acres and is now threatening Brentwood.
Officials have been on the defensive as they fret over how hydrants have dried up as firefighters struggle to contain the fast-moving blaze.
Winds are expected to pick up again tonight, adding to the flames that have already left at least 11 people dead.
Reuters“La County had another night of horror and heartbreak,” Los Angeles County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath said Saturday.
Firefighters have made slow progress against the worst of the infernos, the Palisades fire, which has burned nearly 23,000 acres and is 11% contained.
But the threat has spread to the Mandeville Canyon area, prompting the evacuation of Brentwood, a ski resort where Arnold Schwarzenegger, Disney executive Bob Iger and NBA star LeBron James have homes.
Also at the resort is the Getty Center, a hilltop museum that houses more than 125,000 works of art, including works by Van Gogh, Rembrandt, Rubens, Monet and Degas. The building has not been damaged so far.
The second largest fire, the Eaton fire, has burned more than 14,000 acres and is 15% contained. Firefighters usually have two small flames, Kenneth and Hurst.
But the National Weather Service warned that the Santa Ana storm that started the fire in the first place will intensify again on Saturday and Sunday.
Seven neighboring states, the federal government and Canada and Mexico rushed for resources to California.
No cause has been determined for the fire. The two giants combined have destroyed an area twice the size of Manhattan.
About 153,000 people are under evacuation orders and another 166,000 have been warned to evacuate.
The political consequences have begun.
On Friday, Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat with White House ambitions, ordered an investigation into why the water reservoir was missing and some fire hydrants ran dry.
Los Angeles Fire Chief Kristin Crowley complained about the lack of water.
“When a firefighter gets to the water, we expect there to be water,” he said.
Chief Crowley has also attacked the city administration for cutting his department’s budget and eliminating mechanic jobs, which he said left more than 100 firefighters redundant.
On Saturday, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass – who has been criticized for being in Ghana to attend the inauguration of the African country’s president when a fire broke out in LA on Tuesday – revealed her differences with Chief Crowley.
“Let me be clear about something,” Bass told a news conference, “the fire chief and I are focused on fighting this fire and saving lives, and any differences we may have will be resolved confidentially.”
More than 70,000 people have signed a change.org petition calling for the mayor’s immediate resignation.
As fears of theft grow, a sunset-to-sunrise curfew is being imposed in refugee camps, he said.
Newsom announced on Saturday that he would increase the number of National Guard troops on the ground to “protect communities”.
At least a dozen people have been arrested, including for theft, burglary and curfew violations.
Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said cadaver dogs are helping 40 search and rescue teams search the devastated areas.
The death toll is expected to rise as house-to-house searches continue.
The fire was so intense that the wheels of the cars melted into liquid metal.
Rick McGeagh, a real estate agent, told Reuters that in his Pacific Palisades neighborhood only six of the 60 houses survived.
All that remained in his house was a statue of the Virgin Mary.
“Everything else is ashes and rubbish,” said the 61-year-old father of three.
