Firefighters race to beat LA blazes as winds grow and death toll hits 16

The downtown Los Angeles skyline is seen in the distance as firefighters monitor the Palisades fire near the Mandeville Canyon neighborhood and Encino, California, on January 11, 2025. [AFP]

Firefighters battled Sunday to get on top of massive wildfires around Los Angeles as winds ramped up, pushing the blazes toward previously untouched neighborhoods.

At least 16 people were confirmed dead from fires that have ripped through the city, leaving communities in ruins and testing the mettle of thousands of firefighters -- and millions of California residents.

Despite heroic efforts, including precision sorties from aerial crews, the Palisades Fire continued to grow, pushing east towards the priceless collections of the Getty Center art museum and north to the densely populated San Fernando Valley.

In some areas, the fire had turned houses to ashes and left streaks of molten metal flowing from burnt-out cars.

Footage from the Mandeville Canyon area showed one home consumed, with a wall of flame licking up a hillside to menace others.

A brief lull in the wind was rapidly giving way to gusts that forecasters warned would feed the blazes for days to come.

"Critical fire-weather conditions will unfortunately ramp up again today for southern California and last through at least early next week," the National Weather Service said.
"This may lead to the spread of ongoing fires as well as the development of new ones."

The Palisades Fire was 11 percent contained Saturday but had grown to 23,600 acres (9,500 hectares), while the Eaton Fire was at 14,000 acres and 15 percent contained.

Official figures show more than 12,000 structures burned, but Cal Fire's Todd Hopkins said not all were homes, and the number would also include outbuildings, recreational vehicles and sheds.

The sudden rush of people needing somewhere new to live in the months ahead looked set to make life hard for already-squeezed renters in the city.

"I'm back on the market with tens of thousands of people," said a man who gave his name as Brian, whose rent-controlled apartment has burned. "That doesn't bode well."

With reports of looting and a nighttime curfew in place, police and National Guard have mounted checkpoints to prevent people getting into the disaster zones.

Two people were arrested near Vice President Kamala Harris's Brentwood house for violating the curfew order after police recieved reports of burglary, local media reported citing police.

A handwritten sign with "looters will be shot" was hung on a tree, next to the US flag outside a house in Pacific Palisades.

But the security checkpoints have left residents frustrated as they queue for up to 10 hours to try to get back in and see what, if anything, is left of their homes or check on family.

Prevented from entering an evacuation zone, Altadena resident Bobby Salman, 42, said: "I have to be there to protect my family, my wife, my kids, my mom and I cannot even go and see them."

The long queues left some people fuming about poor management, the latest gripe from a population already angry over hydrants that ran dry in the initial firefight.

City officials put on a united front Saturday after reports of a behind-the-scenes row and suggestions that Mayor Karen Bass had sacked her fire chief.

An at-times tense joint press conference came after Chief Kristin Crowley complained her fire department was short of cash.

President-elect Donald Trump accused California officials of incompetence over their handling of the fires.

"The fires are still raging in L.A. The incompetent pols (politicians) have no idea how to put them out," Trump said on his Truth Social platform.

"This is one of the worst catastrophes in the history of our Country. They just can't put out the fires. What's wrong with them?" he wrote.

Among those known to have died in the tragedy was former Australian child star Rory Sykes, who appeared in British TV show "Kiddy Kapers" in the 1990s.

"It is with great sadness that I have to announce the death of my beautiful son @Rorysykes to the Malibu fires yesterday. I'm totally heart broken," his mother Shelley Sykes wrote on social media.

Teams with cadaver dogs were combing through the rubble, with several people known to be missing and fears that the death toll will grow.

A huge investigation was underway to determine what caused the blazes, involving the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), along with local authorities, Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said.

"We are not going to leave any rock unturned," he said.

While the ignition of a wildfire can be deliberate, they are often natural, and a vital part of an environment's life cycle.

But urban sprawl puts people more frequently in harm's way, and the changing climate -- supercharged by humanity's unchecked use of fossil fuels -- is exacerbating the conditions that give rise to destructive blazes.