Source : NEW INDIAN EXPRESS NEWS
Search for bodies
But Sheriff Robert Luna said escorts into these areas were being suspended Sunday because of the winds and dangerous conditions among the wreckage, as well as the need to retrieve victims’ bodies.
Teams with cadaver dogs were carrying out grid searches with the grim expectation that the confirmed death toll would rise.
Several more arrests of looters were made, including one burglar who had dressed as a firefighter to steal from homes.
Nighttime curfews in evacuated zones have been extended, and additional National Guard resources have been requested.
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.”
Fire tornado
The Palisades Fire has now consumed 23,700 acres (9,500 hectares) and was just 11 percent contained.
Video footage showed “fire tornadoes” — red-hot spirals that occur when a blaze is so intense it creates its own weather system.
The ferocious fire also left streaks of molten metal flowing from burnt-out cars.
But containment of the 14,000-acre Eaton Fire in Altadena had improved, figures showed, with 27 percent of its perimeter controlled.
The County of Los Angeles Medical Examiner published a list of fatalities without giving details of any identities. Eight of the dead were found in the Palisades Fire zone, and 16 in the Eaton Fire zone, the document said.
The total number of residents under evacuation orders dropped to around 100,000, from a peak of almost 180,000.
The sudden rush of people needing somewhere to live has posed a growing problem for the city, with reports of illegal price gouging from opportunistic landlords.
“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 had burned. “That doesn’t bode well.”
California Governor Gavin Newsom vowed the city would rebuild, saying there would be a “Marshall Plan” — a reference to the US support that put Europe back on its feet after World War II.
“We already have a team looking at reimagining L.A. 2.0,” he said.
SOURCE :- NEW INDIAN EXPRESS
