California wildfires: Highest-level fire alert as Santa Ana winds gather pace

For more than half a century, Altadena has been a beacon of light on a hill.

One of the first places in the '60s to welcome Black and brown families, today Black homeownership in the unincorporated community of Los Angeles County exceeds 80%.

Walt Butler, 83, spent his life giving away money, only to lose everything he had as flames destroyed his home.

But Butler’s community has come together to aid him in his time of need, raising funds to help him rebuilt. The first thing he wants to purchase with the money, though, is a food truck so he can give right back.

“The people of Altadena are just like one giant family,” Butler said.

Susan Toler Carr and her husband, Darrell, had to see for themselves. They had gotten the devastating news from a neighbor that their home of 25 years had burned down.

The couple fled their neighborhood in Altadena on Tuesday night of last week for a friend’s guest house in Toluca Lake. The next day, they bypassed police roadblocks by maneuvering through a back street, passing a burning elementary school, downed power lines and trees and smoldering debris.

When they pulled up to what had been their home, most of it was gone. A part of their Spanish-style house built in 1924 was still on fire. Some of the structure stood, including a wrought iron gate commemorating the life of their son, Justin, who died in 2013 at 16 during swimming practice from idiopathic hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, an undetected heart ailment.

The profound grief the couple experienced nearly 12 years ago suddenly resurfaced.

“It was like losing Justin all over again, because that house was where he grew up and we kept it as a shrine to Justin,” Susan Toler Carr said. “It was a family home where Justin’s presence was everywhere. There’s nothing like the pain of losing him. But our home was an extension of Justin.”

Read the full story here.

Among the thousands of buildings destroyed in the Palisades Fire is a branch of the Los Angeles Public Library that opened in its current form more than 20 years ago, the library system said.

Library service to Pacific Palisades goes much further back than 2003, when the library was opened, it said.

Limited library service to the coastal community began in 1929, the first branch library opened in 1952, and a larger one replaced it in 1963, the library system said.

The library that burned down, with 11,500 square feet of books and other materials, opened in 2003.

“It is with great sadness that we report the loss of our beloved Palisades Branch Library. We are eternally grateful to the amazing staff, volunteers and community members who have contributed to the growth of the Palisades Branch Library,” the library system said in a statement.

Santa Ana winds that have been persistent since the Palisades Fire erupted will continue tomorrow, causing another day of critical fire weather, but this weekend could bring cooler conditions, a National Weather Service meteorologist said today.

The winds will not be as bad as they were on Jan. 7 when the Palisades and other fires broke out, Rich Thompson, incident meteorologist for the weather service, said at a news briefing. But the winds tonight and tomorrow are “going to maintain the critical fire weather conditions across the area,” he said.

Red flag warnings will remain in effect until 6 p.m. tomorrow, but starting Thursday and into the weekend, the conditions are expected to be more normal, Thompson said.

“Kind of a nice onshore sea breeze during the day bringing cooler temperatures, higher humidity, which will all help,” he said.

Next week, however, another round of Santa Ana winds is expected, potentially affecting the area, Thompson said.

Technology is changing the way victims cope with the aftermath of a wildfire, with maps hosted by the Los Angeles County government allowing residents to determine whether their homes are still standing.

The maps include information from Cal Fire crews on the ground at the Palisades and Eaton fires. They're conducting damage assessments of every building possible, and their information will end up on the maps, which are updated daily, according to Cal Fire and the county.

The maps aren't complete, as only a fraction of homes and other structures have been assessed in person by the Cal Fire teams so far, according to the agency and the county.

Utility and other workers have begun restoring wrecked infrastructure and trying to make Pacific Coast Highway safe again after the Palisades Fire, but residents must still wait to return, a fire commander said tonight.

“We will not allow people into their homes until it is safe to do so, but we want to make it safe again,” Los Angeles County Fire Battalion Chief Kristian Litz, who is an operations sections chief on the fire, said at a community meeting.

The Palisades Fire, which has burned around 23,713 acres, is 18% contained. It broke out Jan. 7.

Litz said he toured the fire by helicopter today and saw no active flames on the edges.

“But I’m telling you now: That doesn’t mean we’re out of the woods,” he said. “We still have a lot of work to do.”

There is a lot of heat that firefighters are working to address, like in and around stumps, to prevent more fires from starting, fire officials said.

The deaths from the devastating Palisades and Eaton fires in the Los Angeles area is 25, the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office said today in an update, but the reported numbers of deaths in each changed slightly.

A new death was reported in the Palisades Fire today, bringing the number attributed to that blaze to nine, the office said.

The office earlier said an additional death had been discovered in the Eaton Fire today, but those remains turned out to not be human.

The number of known deaths in the Eaton Fire is 16.

Search and damage assessment teams have been going into the fire footprints of both blazes to look for victims and to document the number of homes and other structures destroyed, which is estimated to be in the thousands, officials said.

From the air, the scope of the devastation is staggering.

The wildfires burning in Southern California have burned around 40,000 acres and leveled entire neighborhoods, making once-vibrant areas appear more like war zones. 

The strong winds that fanned the flames when the fires broke out last week also initially grounded aircraft, taking away a vital tool to beat back the blazes. But now those aircraft are back in the air, dropping water and retardant, transporting firefighters and equipment and helping spot flare-ups.

Cal Fire Operations Chief Kristian Litz has been leading the coordinated effort to tame the flames. His oldest son, himself a new firefighter, is part of a handcrew. As Litz fights the fires from the sky, his son is fighting them on the ground.

Litz, who has three other children, has been home just once since the fires broke out, as he and his colleagues work round-the-clock to halt the flames.

“The only reason why firefighters can do what they do is because of the family that we have back at home,” he said.

After he wn another term last fall, President-elect Donald Trump began rapidly revealing the names of those he will nominate for top jobs in his next administration.

But days away from his inauguration — with wildfires ravaging the Los Angeles area in what California Gov. Gavin Newsom predicts will be one of the worst natural disasters in history — a key position remains unaddressed: administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

It’s a substantial unanswered question in such a crisis. And while Trump, given his social media habits and unpredictable impulses, could announce his FEMA pick at any minute, he instead is responding to the fires by hurling unsubstantiated blame at Newsom and other Democrats.

Trump, though, has identified a front-runner for the FEMA job. Kevin Guthrie, executive director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, is at the top of the list of potential nominees, three sources told NBC News.

Read the full story here.

The leader of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' Los Angeles office today pledged a thorough and systematic investigation into the cause of the deadly and destructive Palisades Fire.

“All of this is going to take time. We know everyone wants answers, and the community deserves answers,” Jose Medina, acting special agent in charge of the ATF’s Los Angeles field division, said at a news conference today.

“ATF will give you those answers,” he said. “But it will be once we complete a thorough investigation.”

The Los Angeles Department of Water & Power (LADWP) said claims that fire hydrants were broken before the Palisades Fire started are misinformation.

"LADWP’s fire hydrant repair list was current and updated, and all reported fire hydrants were fully operational in the Pacific Palisades and in L.A.’s Westside communities prior to the fire," the utility company said in an update this morning.

It also said water supply to the fire hydrants was affected because of "extreme water demand to fight the wildfire without aerial support," which affected the refilling of three water tanks supplying Pacific Palisades.

"This impacted a low percentage of hydrants in the area, mostly in the higher elevations," the company said. "As soon as LADWP identified the risk of losing water in the tanks and water pressure in the system, we immediately deployed potable water tankers to sustain support for firefighting efforts."

LADWP said its water system "meets all federal and state fire codes for urban development and housing," and it welcomed a review of those codes "if city water systems will be used to fight extreme wildfires."

"LADWP is initiating our own investigation about water resiliency and how we can enhance our posture to respond to the impacts of climate change," it said.

Unhoused people in Los Angeles are being asked not to light warming fires as the region remains under Santa Ana winds and dry conditions in which flames can get out of control.

Los Angeles County Deputy Fire Chief Robert Harris said anyone experiencing homelessness should seek help from the county or the city “so that we can ensure that you have housing during this period.”

The causes of the recent major fires burning in the Los Angeles area remain undetermined.

The Los Angeles metropolitan area will be under red-flag warnings through 6 p.m. tomorrow, which means there is an elevated risk of wildfires and fire growth.

There is an “extreme fire danger” for the area, the National Weather Service warns.

The weather is forecast to be cold tonight and during the night all week, with overnight lows in the low 40s and even the high 30s, according to the weather service.

 

Two of Southern California's top prosecutors want looting to be elevated from a misdemeanor to a felony with longer sentences and three-strikes designation.

L.A. County District Attorney Nathan Hochman and Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer announced the proposal today, asking Gov. Gavin Newsom to include the proposal in his special session.

Newsom has already expanded the session to include consideration of a proposal for $2.5 billion in state funding for the L.A.-area fires' emergency response recovery. Last year, Newsom backed successful legislation that cracks down on property crime, including shoplifting, smash-and-grab robbery and auto burglary.

His press office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

At least 25 people have died in the Southern California fires.

The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed a 25th death in an update today. That person was killed in the Eaton Fire, which broke out Jan. 7 and burned into the Altadena and Pasadena areas, destroying thousands of structures.

Search teams and damage assessment teams have been going into the footprints of both fires.

Most of the deaths, 17, were in the Eaton Fire, according to the medical examiner’s office list.

Altadena resident Carl Sinclair was looking at a Los Angeles County recovery website with NBC News correspondent Dana Griffin today when he learned his home was still standing.

The relief he felt learning his home appeared to be untouched by the fires was also met with guilt that he was one of the lucky ones.

"All I know is that God protected us. ... Those people who were protected have a duty and responsibility, in my mind, to continue to protect each other," Sinclair said.

There are individual sites for both the Palisades Fire and the Eaton Fire that show whether homes have been destroyed or damaged or are safe, as well as photos of the exteriors. That will help many who aren’t allowed back to the area to start the process of receiving insurance claims or relief.

"Let's work together; let's talk to one another," Sinclair said. "Let's support each other in whatever way we can to keep things going."

Wind gusts in Southern California have already reached a threshold for hurricane-force status today as forecasters and fire officials expect them to grow stronger overnight.

A reading of 74 mph was recorded at Magic Mountain Truck Trail in Angeles National Forest northeast of the L.A. city community of Sylmar at 7:20 a.m., according to National Weather Service data.

The entry level for hurricane status includes sustained winds of 74 mph, which would earn such a storm a Category 1 designation. The peak measurements today were not sustained.

Another reading of 74 mph was recorded at Sill Hill south of the town of Julian in the Laguna Mountains of San Diego County at 8 a.m., according to weather service data.

There was a welcome break from fire activity along the edges of destructive Palisades Fire today, a fire official said, but there was still a lot of heat and numerous hot spots.

“I’m happy to say that there’s very little activity around the fire’s perimeter when it comes to visible flames,” Los Angeles County Fire Battalion Chief Kristian Litz, an operations sections chief on the fire, said at an afternoon news conference.

“However, we do have a lot of heat along the edges, so we’re working very hard to mitigate any of those sources,” he said.

The northeast edge of the 23,713-acre fire, near the communities of Encino, Mandeville Canyon and Brentwood, has remained in the same footprint for 24 hours, Litz said.

President Joe Biden addressed the deadly wildfires while speaking about the creation of two national monuments in California, a speech he was scheduled to give while in the state last week but was forced to postpone after the fires broke out.

Biden said he has been working closely with California leadership, including Gov. Gavin Newsom, Sen. Alex Padilla, Sen. Adam Schiff and the state’s congressional delegation. 

He called for people to “fight back” against misinformation about the fires. In an apparent dig at President-elect Donald Trump, who has in the past tried to halt federal disaster aid from states with leaders he feuded with, Biden said natural disasters like these should be not about political party but about the nation.

“Tragedy like this is not about blue states and red states, not about conservatives and liberals; it’s about the United States of America,” he said.

A pair of Western senators today announced the reintroduction of the Western Wildfire Support Act, which died in the Senate last year.

The bipartisan legislation would unlock funding for firefighting equipment, firefighter and civilian training, and wildfire recovery, the office of Sen. Cortez Masto, D-Nev., said in a statement.

It's co-authored by Sen. Tim Sheehy, R-Mont.: who said in today's statement: "The scenes from the fires in Southern California are a tragic symbol of modern wildfire dysfunction. In the coming weeks, it is critical that we cut through bureaucratic red tape."

Among other things, the bill would help provide $100 million for the "long-term rehabilitation" of communities affected by wildfires, according to a summary provided by Masto's office.

The legislation, which was first introduced in 2021, has been pitched multiple times, including in 2023, to the Senate.

A brush fire that broke out in Ventura County last night was 25% contained by this afternoon and its forward has been stopped, the county fire department said.

The Auto Fire was a little under 58 acres in size, and firefighters stopped its forward progress around 12:30 a.m., the Ventura County Fire Department said in an update.

No structures were damaged, and none were threatened in the fire. The entire Southern California area is on alert for fires amid dry conditions and large, devastating fires that broke out in the Los Angeles area.

“The fire has not grown outside established control features,” the fire department said on X. “Firefighters worked through the night and morning mopping up hot spots and patrolling the area to ensure the fire remained within the perimeter.”

As searches in the Eaton Fire zone and assessments continued today, 2,722 homes and other structures have been confirmed destroyed, the U.S. Forest Service said.

The estimate of structures destroyed in the fire, which was 14,117 acres and 35% contained, is 7,000.

The confirmed structures destroyed are only those that have been verified by on-the-ground teams.

The teams have completed inspections for around 30% of structures within the fire footprint, an interagency information center about the Eaton Fire said in a daily update.

The estimate of 7,000 structures destroyed was from remote sensing technologies, the center said.

Winds in the Los Angeles area are on the lighter side right now, but they are expected to pick up tonight, according to the National Weather Service field office in the city.

Southern California is bracing for "dangerous fire weather conditions" caused by Santa Ana winds today through tomorrow.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass told reporters she has spoken to officials in the incoming Trump administration and is open to the president-elect's making a trip to the city after his inauguration next week.

"I’m saying I have an open mind to him coming to Los Angeles, to his administration and to working with his administration," Bass said today. "This is a crisis that impacts the nation. The nation’s second-largest city has got to succeed."

Gov. Gavin Newsom invited Trump to make the trip in a letter last week. He also criticized Trump on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” over the weekend for spreading baseless claims online about the wildfire response.

Mayor Karen Bass addressed accusations that she hasn't been present during the Los Angeles firestorms at a news conference at a city recovery center today.

"Let me just tell you, I don't always bring cameras with me where I go, but I have met with evacuees, I have been in the fire zones," Bass said. "But I've also been trying to do everything that the city needs to respond to this, as well."

Bass said she has spoken to families who are angry and experiencing grief amid the devastation. She added that she isn't surprised that misinformation would spread across the internet in the midst of all that emotion.

"It’s really important to me personally to not get stuck in that and to be a person who is telling what is actually going on," she said.

Firefighting crews are working to soak smoldering homes and debris ahead of the return of intense Santa Ana winds with the hope that they’ll be able to prevent the spread of new fires.

While the Eaton Fire, which has heavily affected the community of Altadena, has not grown in the last two days, firefighters are not taking any chances.

Cleaning up hot spots and dumping water onto burned homes that are still smoldering to prevent fires from spreading are two of the methods the firefighters are using.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order today to help speed up aid to assist Los Angeles-area schools and students affected by the wildfires.

The executive order will make it easier for schools affected by the fires to use temporary facilities, allow them to avoid penalties for not meeting minimum school year requirements and direct state agencies to work with them to come up with plans to serve displaced students, as well as rebuild. It will also allow students who have been displaced to attend schools outside of their districts.

"We are using the full force of the state government to respond to the Los Angeles firestorms and ensure recovery for the thousands of residents who have been impacted by this unimaginable loss, including school-aged children," Newsom said in a statement.

"The executive order I signed today will help bring back some sense of normalcy for our youth by eliminating barriers to getting them back learning in school," he added.

Robert Fenton Jr., regional administrator for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said at this morning's fire briefing that the agency is on the ground and that residents affected by the fires can apply for financial assistance.

“We’ve already had over 40,000 applications and provided over $8 million. The serious needs assistance is a one-time payment program to help survivors cover costs such as water, food, infant formula, gas, etc., that you may have had since having to be evacuated for the fire,” he said. 

Other forms of FEMA assistance include help with transportation costs, medical bills, personal property and some funeral costs.

“FEMA will also help with temporary housing, which includes rental assistance, hotel rooms and other resources, home repairs and displacement assistance. I encourage every head of household to apply to FEMA assistance,” Fenton said.

He said evacuees who have suffered damage from fires can register at disasterassistance.gov or use the FEMA app to register. FEMA personnel can also help in person at recovery centers.

Those affected by fires who have insurance should file claims first before going to FEMA. Fenton said that FEMA's role is to help those who are underinsured and that it "can't duplicate benefits from those that are insured."

California Democratic lawmakers called out House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., for floating the idea of conditioning California disaster relief money on raising the debt limit today.

Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove, who represents parts of Los Angeles County, said, “It makes me question what kind of Christian Speaker Johnson is.”

Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar and Vice Chair Ted Lieu, who both represent districts in Southern California, also criticized House Republicans for considering attaching disaster aid for California to raising the debt limit.

“We should not be leveraging the pain and suffering of our fellow Americans to try to force through policy changes,” Lieu said. “And when Mother Nature strikes, she doesn’t care about party affiliation.”

As the Los Angeles-area fires continue to burn, almost 100,000 utility customers are without power in California this afternoon, according to PowerOutage.us.

Southern California Edison had the most customers without power, reporting that 75,500 were blacked out as of 7 a.m. PT.

Almost 57,000 utility customers were without power in California yesterday morning, and 41,700 were without power in Southern California Edison's jurisdiction.

Southern California is braced for “extremely critical fire conditions” caused by a new period of Santa Ana winds today through tomorrow across parts of Los Angeles and Ventura counties.

A Los Angeles County emergency proclamation will be ratified at a board meeting later today, a move that "cuts red tape for the county to provide resources as well as to receive state and federal assistance," L.A. County 3rd District Supervisor Lindsay P. Horvath said at this morning’s fire briefing.

She also highlighted Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proclamation yesterday expanding the state Legislature’s special session to provide $1 billion to augment the FEMA response, help rebuild schools and aid in cleanup and recovery, as well as $1.5 billion to bolster state preparedness efforts after the firestorm.

Today, 88,000 residents are still under evacuation orders and 84,800 residents continue to be under warnings across Los Angeles County, Sheriff Robert Luna said at this morning's fire briefing, a decrease from previous days.

Twenty-one fire-related deaths have been reported in the county's jurisdiction, and three deaths were reported under the city police department's jurisdiction, for a total death toll of 24.

The Sheriff's Department has 24 active missing person cases — 18 in the Eaton Fire area and six in the Malibu area. All are adults. Meanwhile, the LAPD says 11 people are unaccounted for and two others who "have most likely been found deceased but have yet to be positively identified," Police Chief Jim McDonnell said.

Thus far, 3,654 properties in the Altadena area have been grid-searched. Teams are also starting to search for remains in the Pacific Palisades area, Luna said.

"This operation continues. Not easy work. The good news was that no other remains were found yesterday. Hopefully that doesn’t happen today," he said.

He urged people to be on guard, saying, "It is still very dangerous for the next 24 hours, so we’re keeping a very close eye."

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department has arrested 39 people thus far and the Los Angeles Police Department has arrested 14 on various charges following the breakout of last week's fires.

Of those arrests by the sheriff's department, 33 were in the Eaton Fire area and six were in the Palisades, over allegedly breaking curfew, flying drones, burglary, and carrying a loaded gun, Sheriff Robert Luna said at this morning's fire briefing.

The LAPD's 14 arrests in its jurisdiction were over alleged failure to obey curfew, DUI, vandalism, possession of ammunition and burglary tools, and burglary. 

LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell said there were three noteworthy arrests outside the fire zones this week on charges of arson.

L.A. City Fire Chief Kristin M. Crowley warned residents to heed evacuation orders and be cautious as "life-threatening and destructive and widespread winds are already here."

The region is under a particularly dangerous situation with red flag warnings issued through tomorrow.

"For this significant wind event we are taking an aggressive, lean forward posture. The LAFD staffed all available resources, strategically placing fire patrols and engines in the unimpacted high fire risk areas in the city.”

She said that she's visited firefighters and first responders in the field and they're "standing strong."

"They hold their heads up high and they will continue to work hard for you. Thank you for your care and concern and I tell you our thoughts and prayers are holistically with everyone affected by these fires," she said.

She noted the Palisades Fire remains at 17% containment with over 5,000 personnel assigned to incident.

“Firefighters will continue to work tirelessly throughout the day to increase containment lines, prevent further spread and address any flare-ups,” she said.

The Super Scooper water-dropping plane that was damaged last week after a collision with a drone has been repaired and is expected to return to duty in a matter of hours.

Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone told reporters that the plane will be operational as of 11 a.m. local time (2 p.m. ET). It's a positive update as the plane, loaned out by Canada, has a high capacity for water and can be refilled quickly.

"The good news is that for the last two days, we’ve had no increase in acreage at the Eaton Fire, and it remains estimated at 14,117 acres," L.A. County Fire Chief Anthony C. Marrone said in a fire briefing this morning.

It is at 35% containment. He said over 7,000 structures are damaged or destroyed and there are 3,235 firefighting personnel assigned to the incident. Marrone also stressed that the water system in the Eaton Fire is operational, “meaning that we have water and we have pressure.”

Thus far, 30% of damage inspections have been completed. Affected residents may visit recovery.lacounty.gov to view maps showing damage assessments to their homes.

The Palisades Fire remains at 23,713 acres and is 17% contained, according to updated Cal Fire numbers this morning. 

The Eaton Fire is at 14,117 acres and is 35% contained. 

The Hurst Fire spans 799 acres and is 97% contained. 

The newest addition, the Auto Fire, has burned through 56 acres and is zero percent contained.

The mural is by Sergei Statsenko, who uses the pseudonym Steeke for his art.

Some 13 million people are under a "particularly dangerous situation" red flag warning today, meaning conditions are extremely high-risk for rapid fire spread. The warning is in effect through tomorrow. 

This Santa Ana wind event will peak this morning with gusts of 50 to 75 mph possible with relative humidity around 10% to 25%. 

Locations at highest risk today include: Ventura, Oxnard, Camarillo, Westlake Village, Simi Valley, San Fernando, Fillmore and Pyramid Lake.

Winds are forecast to weaken slightly this afternoon, with gusts of 40 to 55 mph, but the relative humidity will plummet 8% to 15%. Tonight into early tomorrow, winds will ramp back up to gusting 45 to 65 mph, with humidity of 10% to 25%. 

The winds will lose strength late tomorrow morning into midafternoon. Though the winds are forecast to decrease tomorrow, a critical fire risk will remain in place. 

Palisades Charter High School said its campus suffered “catastrophic damage on all sides” in the Palisades Fire that erupted last week. 

While many of the facilities are intact, it's estimated that more than 40% has been either damaged or destroyed. Access to campus has been limited due to damage and potential hazards such as asbestos, black carbon and toxins.

Yesterday, the school asked for assistance from the Los Angeles community “to help secure a temporary campus or shared space, ensuring that our students can maintain a sense of normalcy and stability in their lives.”

The school is seeking temporary classrooms or a campus for lease or donation, access to athlete practice areas in the vicinity and volunteers to help with moving, setup and coordination. 

The Auto Fire ignited overnight in Ventura County in the river bottom off North Ventura Boulevard, fire officials said.

Just after midnight, Ventura County Fire said forward progress was stopped. The cause of the blaze is under investigation and no structures were threatened. 

The Auto Fire stretches 56 acres and is zero percent contained as of this morning, according to Cal Fire. 

Erin Alexander, a firefighter of Newport Beach Fire Department, called the fires burning in Los Angeles “some like I’ve never seen.”

“We put one fire out and another right down the way starting again. You have these houses that catch fire, that send off embers that catch other houses on fire. And we didn’t have enough water to put the fires out and it was ... you know there is only so much you can do,” she told BBC News yesterday. 

“Sometimes fast-moving fires even. If a house catches on fire, we can get in there and put it out at some point and then they have something to get home to. But this fire burns so hot and so fast that it burned everything to ground and they have absolutely nothing to go back to,” she added on seeing homes ablaze.

Thousands of students remain displaced without a school to go to in the Los Angeles-area fires. 

In the Pacific Palisades, the charred remains of an elementary school that burned down leaves eerie reminders of what once was: a burned-out cubby with children’s lunch boxes still inside, covered in soot. 

Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Alberto Carvalho told NBC News’ Liz Kreutz regarding students going back to school: “They’re going to be back in the classroom the latest Wednesday of this week. They will begin with necessary conversations about what these kids witnessed, and then the reassurances they need to hear that tomorrow is going to be OK.”

The superintendent said generally it takes a few years to build a school but officials will try to expedite that process, and the biggest challenge right now is removing hazardous debris.

With thousands of homes burned in the Palisades and Eaton fires, so many families have lost so much. But with help from a few firefighters, one Altadena family was reunited with one of their most prized possessions. NBC Los Angeles’ Alex Rozier reports.

Southern California is braced for “extremely critical fire conditions” caused by a new period of Santa Ana winds today through Wednesday across parts of Los Angeles and Ventura counties, as the battle to contain rampant blazes goes on. NBC News’ Jay Gray reports.

Oregon's state fire marshal said none of its engines was turned away and that they all passed their safety checks, after some social media posts claimed they had to be turned away from California due to not passing emissions tests.

“TO BE CLEAR: THIS IS FALSE,” it said in a statement on X. “No engine was turned away.”

The state has sent a total of 21 strike teams, 15 of which arrived in Southern California on Thursday and the fire marshal said they began operating Friday morning for their 24-hour shift with "no delay in the process or travel."

The fire marshal said the equipment had gone through routine safety checks at Sacramento with Cal Fire to "make sure the engines are mechanically sound."

“The equipment also does not regularly travel hundreds of miles at a time. Firefighter safety is our number one priority,” it added.

Animal rescuers are now responding to the devastating fires in Southern California, helping out animal shelters in the fire zones as they prepare for an influx of animals. KSBW reporter Felix Cortez spoke to two Monterey County agencies getting involved.

An air tanker drops a large payload of flame retardant on the Eaton Fire in Altadena yesterday. A sign closing a trail at Mandeville Canyon is covered in the bright chemical substance as fire crews continue to battle raging fires across the city.

Vehicles and homes are left coated in retardant as many neighborhoods remain cut off to residents in Mandeville Canyon.

While many connections have been restored, there are still more than 80,000 energy customers without power following the wildfires of the last week, according to PowerOutage.us.

More than half of these are in Los Angeles County, while 20,000 are in neighboring Ventura County.

The National Weather Service said a rare "Particularly Dangerous Situation" red flag warning for fire will begin in the next several hours, which is issued "only for most extreme events."

The warning was issued for "extremely rare and dangerous" fire weather conditions that have previously resulted in large and deadly fires, with extremely low humidity and damaging winds expected.

Risks include "extreme fire behavior and very rapid growth," downed trees and power outages.

Joe Thompson’s desperate post-wildfire scramble to find a new place for his family to live led him Saturday to a five-bedroom home in Santa Monica, California, that had been put on the market the day before for $28,000 a month — more than double the rent posted a year ago. The agent was asking for three months’ rent up front and already had applications from multiple people.

Thompson and his partner turned away, appalled.

“We’re not going to do that,” Thompson, 44, a trader and investor, said later. “We’ll just keep looking.”

The couple and their two young children were displaced last week. Although their house was left standing, they don’t know the extent of the damage or when they will be allowed back. So they have joined thousands searching for housing in a city that had a dire shortage before the disaster.

The stampede has resulted in some homeowners and property managers jacking up prices on short-term rentals, including dozens that appear to violate a California law against increasing prices by more than 10% during a state of emergency, according to a review of Zillow listings and interviews with real estate agents, housing advocates and home-seekers.

Authorities have asked residents to report gouging to the state Attorney General’s Office.

Read the full story here.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass issued an executive order yesterday to help residents rebuild homes lost in the fires, saying it would clear away the bureaucracy involved.

"This order is the first step in clearing away red tape and bureaucracy to organize around urgency, common sense and compassion," she said in a statement.

The order includes creating a task force for debris removal, as well as a "one-stop-shop" to issue permits, waive certain review processes and expedite building inspections.

Yet another period of strong downslope offshore Santa Ana winds is ramping up this morning, the same phenomenon that caused the wildfires that have devastated communities across the Greater Los Angeles area.

The National Weather Service said in an update yesterday that winds could gust anything up to 75 mph today in Los Angeles and Ventura counties, possibly bringing down trees and power lines.

"The greater concern however will be the strength of the winds when combined with very dry relative humidities and dry fuels. This combination will result in extremely critical fire weather conditions, as forecast by the Storm Prediction Center," the NWS said.

"Not only will these extreme and dangerous conditions make fighting ongoing fires much more difficult, but these will make new ignitions much more likely. New fires that do develop will have the potential to grow and spread rapidly, adding to the danger of the situation."

ALTADENA, Calif. — Dennis “Buzz” Chatman said that, when he bought his house in Altadena in 2020, the original property title in 1950 indicated that the only nonwhite people allowed in the neighborhood were servants. 

“So being able to plant my flag there meant a lot,” Chatman, a film and TV producer, said. 

Now, he’s grappling with having lost not only his house, but what he says was a haven for Black families to the devastating fires in Los Angeles last week.

Read the full story here.

Video provided by the Ventura County Fire Department showed firefighters battling a brush fire in Ventura County, California. According to their social media post, they are actively working to stop the fire’s forward spread amid strong winds.

Deadly wildfires continue to ravage the Los Angeles area, as firefighters battle windy conditions to contain the out-of-control blazes.

But what does it mean to “contain” a wildfire?

Containment does not mean that a blaze has been completely extinguished. Rather, it refers to how much of a perimeter has been established around an active fire, preventing it from growing and engulfing more land.

Read the full story here.

• Displaced Los Angeles-area residents face spiking rents as authorities warn of price gouging
• Southern California Edison accused in lawsuits of failing to prevent Eaton Fire
• L.A. wildfires leave diverse and historic Altadena in ashes and rubble
• California prisoner firefighter program draws harsh criticism amid L.A. wildfires
• Firefighters battle to contain L.A. fires as Santa Ana winds are forecast to pick back up
• Trump’s team discussing trip to survey L.A. wildfire devastation
• How wildfire containment works: What it means to contain the L.A. fires