Photo: AFP / Etienne Laurent
Exhausted Los Angeles firefighters on Sunday local time braced for the return of yet more dangerously strong gusts, as California's governor slammed "hurricane-force winds of misinformation" surrounding blazes that have killed 27 people.
The two largest fires, which have obliterated almost 16,000 hectares and razed entire neighbourhoods of the second-biggest US city, were both now more than half contained, officials announced.
But the National Weather Service warned that powerful winds and very low humidity would again bring "dangerous high-end red flag fire weather conditions" from Monday, with potential gusts up to 130km/h.
"This is the last... we hope, of the extreme" wind events, said Governor Gavin Newsom.
It will be "the fourth major wind event just in the last three months - we only had two in the prior four years", he told MSNBC's Inside with Jen Psaki.
Officials were accused of being unprepared at the outbreak of fires this month. Now, 135 fire engines and their crews are prepositioned to tackle new flames, along with helicopters and bulldozers, said Newsom.
Firefighters said the largest conflagration, the Palisades Fire, was 52 percent contained. It has killed at least 10 people.
Evacuation orders were lifted this weekend for dozens of neighbourhoods in upscale western Los Angeles.
"Our focus is on repopulation this week, and we're moving quickly to finish urban search-and rescue-work so that utilities can safely be restored where possible," said Los Angeles County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath.
Photo: AFP / Getty Images / Mario Tama
With reports of looting rife, a man and woman were arrested Saturday while driving "a vehicle that looked like a fire engine, going through a checkpoint", said Los Angeles County sheriff department commander Minh Dinh.
The pair "purchased the vehicle through an auction" and "have been in the area for about a couple of days".
Further east, the Eaton Fire, which killed at least 17 in the Altadena suburbs, was 81 percent contained.
Several evacuees reunited with missing pets they had feared were dead.
Serena Null told AFP of her joy at finding her cat Domino, after having to leave him behind as flames devoured her family home in Altadena.
The pair were reunited at NGO Pasadena Humane, where Domino - suffering singed paws, a burnt nose and a high level of stress - was taken after being rescued.
"I just was so relieved and just so happy that he was here," a tearful Null told AFP.
Gavin Newsom. Photo: AFP
No 'magical spigot'
As Los Angeles learns the true scale of the devastation, political bickering has intensified.
Donald Trump, set to be sworn in as US president on Monday (Tuesday NZT), has sharply criticized California officials.
He falsely claimed that Newsom had blocked the diversion of "excess rain and snow melt from the North". Los Angeles's water supplies are mainly fed via aqueducts and canals originating from entirely separate river basins further east.
"What's not helpful or beneficial... is these wild-eyed fantasies... that somehow there's a magical spigot in northern California that just can be turned on, all of a sudden there will be rain or water flowing everywhere," said Newsom.
The governor blamed Elon Musk - the Tesla and SpaceX owner poised to play a key role advising the incoming administration - "and others" for "hurricane-force winds of mis- and dis-information that can divide a country."
Trump told a rally Sunday that he plans to visit the region on Friday.
Well into its typical rainy season, Los Angeles has had almost no rain since May.
Though rain is not expected imminently, Newsom warned of the need to prepare "for potential flooding in the next week or two" as rain, when it comes, pours down hillsides denuded by the fires.
"I pre-positioned 2500 National Guard. We're going to start some sandbagging operations," he said.
"We're dealing with extremes that we have never dealt with in the past" due to changing climate, said the governor.
- AFP
