Fierce winds that have supercharged wildfires sweeping parts of Los Angeles finally eased on Friday night, bringing some relief to weary firefighters, but the largest blaze was reported to have shifted direction, triggering new evacuation orders.
Six simultaneous wildfires have devastated Los Angeles County neighbourhoods since Tuesday, killing at least 11 people and damaging or destroying 10,000 structures. Those tolls were expected to grow once it was safe enough for firefighters to conduct house-to-house searches.
On Friday night, The Los Angeles Times reported that the Palisades fire on the city’s western edge was heading in a new direction, prompting an evacuation order that included much of the Brentwood neighbourhood and the foothills of the San Fernando Valley.
“The Palisades fire has got a new significant flareup on the eastern portion and continues to move northeast,” LA Fire Department Captain Erik Scott told local station KTLA, according to a report on The LA Times website.
Before the latest flareup, firefighters had reported progress in arresting the Palisades fire and the Eaton fire in the foothills east of the metropolis.
After burning out of control for days, despite the efforts of hundreds of firefighters attacking the blazes from the air and on the ground, the Palisades fire was 8 percent contained and the Eaton fire, 3 percent.
The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, known as Cal Fire, had listed containment levels of both fires at 0 percent until Friday.
Even so, the two big fires combined had consumed 35,000 acres (14,100 hectares), or 54 square miles – two and a half times the land area of Manhattan.
With thousands of people made homeless amid thickening smoke, US officials have declared a public health emergency.
Some 153,000 people remained under evacuation orders and another 166,800 faced evacuation warnings, with a curfew in place for all evacuation zones.
The Palisades and Eaton fires already rank as the most destructive in Los Angeles history.
“We are doing everything we can to bring the situation under control, and success has been reported,” the city’s mayor, Karen Bass, said during a news conference earlier on Friday.
“We know that we’re going to have a possible increase in the force of the winds at the beginning of next week, and getting Los Angeles prepared – doing everything we can to save lives – that is our number one job.”
National Weather Service meteorologist Allison Santorelli said of the forecast: “It’s not as gusty, so that should help firefighters hopefully,” adding that fire conditions were still critical with low humidity and dry vegetation.
But any ease-up in the wind patterns is expected to allow firefighters on the ground to get crucial support, with aircraft able to drop water and fire retardant on the flaming hills. “There’s a bit of good news, if there can be,” Santorelli said.
Thousands of Los Angeles residents have been forced to flee their homes after the fast-moving fires broke out earlier this week.
“The scope, the scale and the erratic movements of these fires is truly unprecedented,” US President Joe Biden told reporters on Friday in advance of a briefing with federal and state officials about the wildfires.
Amid fears of looting and crime, California Governor Gavin Newsom deployed the National Guard to bolster law enforcement and soldiers on the streets. Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna also imposed a nighttime curfew in some areas.
“This curfew will be strictly enforced and is being taken to enhance public safety, protect property and prevent any burglaries or looting in the area that the residents have evacuated,” Luna said.
About 20 people have been arrested for looting so far, the Sheriff’s Department said.
Reporting from the Pacific Palisades on Friday morning, Al Jazeera’s Rob Reynolds said air quality in the area remains extremely poor as the fires continue to burn.
“There’s ash and dust dropping around us like a light snowfall,” he said.
But Reynolds said the good news is that firefighting crews have been reinforced with more manpower and supplies to help push back the flames amid the improved wind conditions.
“The troops have arrived. There’s a lot more firefighting personnel on the scene right now,” he said.
Meanwhile, as the scale of the damage has begun to come into focus, residents have been grappling with scenes of devastation.
In the Pacific Palisades, brick chimneys loomed over charred waste and burned-out vehicles.
“I can’t describe it,” Kelly Foster, a 44-year-old psychiatrist, said as she combed through the ashy rubble where her home once stood while smoke rose from neighbouring homes and planes dropped water nearby. “I have no words.”
Hester Callul, who reached a shelter after fleeing her Altadena home, also said her home burned down. “I lost everything,” she told the AFP news agency.
