BATTLE ON | Firemen fear return of Santa Ana winds, more destruction, deaths; attempts on to save UCLA campus

Agencies LOS ANGELES

The  toll from the raging wildfires has risen to 16, according to Los Angeles County medical examiner's office. Officials expect that figure to rise as the search goes on.

Five of the deaths were attributed to the Palisades Fire, and 11 resulted from the Eaton Fire, the coroner's office said in a statement. Authorities have established a centre where people can report the missing.

Firefighters continued to race against  time to cut off spreading wildfires before potentially strong winds return that could push the flames toward the world famous J. Paul Getty Museum and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), while new evacuation warnings left more homeowners on the edge.

A fierce battle against the flames was underway in Mandeville Canyon, home to Arnold Schwarzenegger and other celebrities not far from the Pacific coast, where swooping helicopters dumped water as the blaze charged downhill.

Firefighters on the ground used hoses in an attempt to beat back leaping flames as thick smoke blanketed the chaparral-covered hillside. At a briefing, CalFire Operations Chief Christian Litz said the  main focus would be the Palisades Fire burning in the canyon area, not far from the UCLA campus.

Another night of terror

County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath said the LA area "had another night of unimaginable terror and heartbreak, and even more Angelenos evacuated due to the northeast expansion of the Palisades Fire." 

Light breezes were fanning the flames, but the National Weather Service warned that strong Santa Ana winds - the nemesis of firefighters - could soon return. Those winds have been largely blamed for turning the wildfires into infernos that levelled entire neighbourhoods around to city where there has been no significant rainfall in more than eight months.

The fire also was threatening to jump over Interstate 405 and into densely populated areas in the Hollywood Hills and San Fernando Valley.

Hunt for bodies

The grim work of sifting through the devastation continued on Saturday, with teams conducting systematic grid searches with cadaver dogs, said Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna.

The fires have consumed about 145 sq km, an area larger than San Francisco. Tens of thousands of people remained under evacuation orders and new evacuations were ordered Friday evening after a flare up on the eastern side of the Palisades Fire.

Since the fires first began on Tuesday, just north of downtown LA, more than 12,000 structures, a term that includes homes, apartment buildings, businesses, outbuildings and vehicles, have burnt down.

As many as 34,646 homes and businesses in Los Angeles remained  without electricity, according to Poweroutage.us, an outage monitor that tracks blackouts across the US. At many places, there was no water supply, the Guardian reported.

Every hydrant repaired before fire

Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) termed  as  “misleading and false” claims that fire hydrants in Pacific Palisades were broken before the fires . The BBC quoted a statement by the department as saying it "repaired every hydrant needing repairs as reported by LA Fire Department inspectors".

It added that about 20% of fire hydrants in the Palisades area - and mostly in the higher elevations - lost water pressure "due to unprecedented and extreme demand to fight the wildfire without aerial support". In those cases, water tankers were dispatched to help firefighters.