Firefighters are launching an all-out assault to prevent the largest of the deadly wildfires to threaten Los Angeles from spreading to one of the city's most prestigious neighborhoods.
Air crews bombarded the flaming hills with water and fire retardant to contain the Palisades Fire, which has grown an additional 1,000 acres and is now threatening Brentwood.
Officials are on the defensive amid growing anger at how hydrants ran dry as firefighters struggled to contain the fast-moving blazes.
Winds are expected to pick up again overnight, fanning further the flames that have already killed at least 11 people.
Reuters“Los Angeles County had another night of unimaginable terror and heartbreak,” Los Angeles County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath said Saturday.
Firefighters have made modest progress against the worst of the inferno, the Palisades Fire, which has burned nearly 23,000 acres and is 11 percent contained.
But the fire spread to the Mandeville Canyon neighborhood, prompting evacuation orders for parts of Brentwood, a posh enclave where Arnold Schwarzenegger, Disney CEO Bob Iger and NBA star LeBron James have homes.
Also in the evacuation zone is the Getty Center, a hilltop museum that houses more than 125,000 works of art, including masterpieces by Van Gogh, Rembrandt, Rubens, Monet and Degas. The building is currently undamaged.
The second largest fire, the Eaton fire, destroyed more than 14,000 acres and was 15% contained. Firefighters have primarily contained two smaller fires, the Kennett and Hurst fires.
But the National Weather Service warned that the gusty Santa Ana winds that fueled the fires early will pick up again Saturday and Sunday.
Seven neighboring states, the federal government, and Canada and Mexico sent resources to California.
The cause of the fires has not yet been determined. The two largest combined have destroyed an area more than twice the size of Manhattan.
About 153,000 residents are under mandatory evacuation orders, and another 166,000 have been warned they may also need to flee.
The political fallout has begun.
On Friday, Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat rumored to be running for the White House, ordered an investigation into why a key reservoir was down and some fire hydrants had run dry.
Los Angeles Fire Chief Christine Crowley complained about the lack of water.
“When a firefighter comes to a hydrant, we expect there to be water,” she said.
Chief Crowley also attacked city management for cutting her department's budget and eliminating mechanic positions, which she says has left more than 100 fire extinguishers out of service.
On Saturday, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, who was criticized for being in Ghana to attend the inauguration of the African nation's president when fires broke out in Los Angeles on Tuesday, hinted at her tension with Chief Crowley.
“Let me be clear,” Bass said at a press conference, “the fire chief and I are focused on fighting these fires and saving lives, and any differences we may have will be resolved privately.”
More than 70,000 people have signed a change.org petition demanding the mayor's immediate resignation.
As fears of looting mount, a dusk-to-dawn curfew is being strictly enforced in the evacuated areas, an official said.
Newsom announced Saturday that he would double the number of National Guardsmen on the ground to “keep communities safe.”
About two dozen arrests were made, including for burglaries, robberies and curfew violations.
Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said cadaver dogs were helping 40 search and rescue teams scour the devastated neighborhoods.
The death toll is expected to rise as house-to-house searches are carried out.
The fires were so intense that the alloys on the car's rims were melted into puddles of liquid metal.
Rick McGee, a real estate agent, told Reuters that in his Pacific Palisades neighborhood, only six of 60 houses survived.
All that was left standing in his house was a statue of the Virgin Mary.
“All that's left is ash and rubble,” said the 61-year-old father of three.