SCOTTISH music legend Annie Lennox has been volunteering with a charity in Los Angeles as the US city looks to recover from devastating wildfires.
At least 24 people have been killed as wildfires hit the city with severe conditions expected to last until Wednesday.
There are fears that more severe wind gusts could lead to new wildfires and set back the recent progress made in containing blazes.
Lennox (below, centre), who is known for achieving international success with Eurythmics, was pictured volunteering with Project Angel Food which helps to deliver meals to people amid ongoing relief efforts.
Fierce Santa Ana winds have been largely blamed for turning the wildfires sparked last week into infernos that levelled entire neighbourhoods around the US's second-largest city where there has been no significant rainfall in more than eight months.
In less than a week, four fires have ignited more than 62 square miles.
Most of that destruction has been from the Eaton Fire near Pasadena, and the Palisades Fire, in a wealthy enclave along the Pacific Coast.
Firefighters have made progress on both fronts in recent days, and the Eaton Fire is roughly one-third contained.
The returning high winds could trigger explosive growth of the existing fires and new outbreaks in areas untouched so far, creating new challenges for firefighting crews already stretched thin.
Los Angeles County fire chief Anthony C Marrone said 70 additional water lorries arrived to help firefighters fend off flames spread by renewed gusts. “We are prepared for the upcoming wind event,” Marrone said.
Fire retardant dropped by aircraft will act as a barrier along hillsides, officials said.
A group of artists, musicians and friends in Topanga Canyon banded together to stop fires breaking out in new areas by turning off gas lines and propane tanks.
“We helped hopefully save a couple of houses and we put out a couple of spot fires,” Derek Mabra said, as he drove along the coast looking at the destruction. “It’s complete and total devastation.”
Some residents have been able to return to their homes to survey the damage.
Jim Orlandini, who lost his hardware store in Altadena, a hard-hit neighbourhood next to Pasadena, said his home of 40 years survived.
“Tuesday night we didn’t sleep at all because we figured the house was gone,” he said on Sunday as he recalled the moment the fires spread to his neighbourhood.
“The whole time I was thinking, I don’t know what I’m going to find when I get back here and after 40 years, you know, you got a lot of stuff you forget about that would disappear if the house burned down. So we’re thankful that it didn’t.”
Sixteen of the 24 deaths were attributed to the Eaton Fire and eight to the Palisades Fire, according to the Los Angeles County coroner’s office.
Twelve people were listed as missing within the Eaton Fire zone and four were missing from the Palisades Fire, Los Angeles County sheriff Robert Luna said.
