Already 24 dead from flames in Los Angeles! Concern about wind escalation

By Andrei Sokolov

Los Angeles - Race against time in Los Angeles: Firefighters are trying tocontain the fierce fires before increasing winds cause them to escalate again. The number of confirmed deaths has risen to 24, with more people still missing! More than 100,000 residents had to leave their homes and were still not allowed to return.

The fire, which had devastated entire streets in the Pacific Palisades district, was still only eleven percent extinguished on Sunday. The US weather service predicted stronger winds again on Monday and Tuesday. It was feared that they could drive the flames towards other districts such as Brentwood.

"We need a break from Mother Nature," Brice Bennett from California's Cal Fire agency told news channel CNN. "We have the firefighters, we have the water, we need more time." The firefighting brigades continued to work in shifts of 24 and 36 hours at a time.

A major problem is that with winds over 30 miles per hour (around 50 km/h), extinguishing the fire from the air no longer works, said Bennett. This is because the wind blows the water away before it can reach the ground in a load. Meanwhile, the winds drove sparks through the area, starting new fires.

In the beginning, gusts of up to 100 miles per hour (160 km/h) had the fire quickly engulfing one house after another.

People had to flee - a few stayed behind to save their homes, some of which they had lived in for decades. Some of them were successful, others are now among the dead. According to the new information, 16 people died in the "Eaton" fire near Altadena and Pasadena - and 8 more in western Pacific Palisades.