LOS ANGELES: The largest of the raging wildfires that have devastated parts of Los Angeles was reported to have shifted direction on Saturday, triggering more evacuation orders and posing a new challenge to exhausted firefighters.

Six simultaneous blazes that have ripped across Los Angeles County neighborhoods since Tuesday have killed at least 11 people and damaged or destroyed 10,000 structures. The toll is expected to mount when firefighters are able to conduct house-to-house searches, as official recriminations began over responsibility for the disaster.

Though the fierce Santa Ana winds that fanned the infernos eased on Friday night, the Palisades Fire on the city’s western edge was heading in a new direction, prompting another evacuation order as it edged towards the Brentwood neighborhood and the San Fernando Valley foothills, the Los Angeles Times reported.

“The Palisades fire has got a new significant flare-up on the eastern portion and continues to northeast,” LA Fire Department Captain Erik Scott told local station KTLA, according to a report on the LA Times website.

Los Angeles fire chief says his department still understaffed, underfunded

The fire, the most destructive in the history of Los Angeles, has razed whole neighborhoods to the ground, leaving just the smouldering ruins of what had been people’s homes and possessions.

Before the latest flare-up, firefighters had reported progress in subduing the Palisades Fire and the Eaton Fire in the foothills east of the metropolis after it burned out of control for days. On Friday night, the Palisades Fire was 8pc contained and the Eaton Fire 3pc, state agency Cal Fire said.

The two big fires combined had consumed 35,000 acres.

Some 153,000 people remained under evacuation orders and another 166,800 faced evacuation warnings with a curfew in place for all evacuation zones, Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said.

Seven neighboring states, the federal government and Canada have rushed aid to California, bolstering aerial teams dropping water and fire retardant on the flaming hills and crews on the ground attacking fire lines with hand tools and hoses.

Los Angeles fire chief Kristin Crowley blamed funding cuts to her department, telling Fox News affiliate KTTV: “We are still understaffed, we’re still under-resourced, and we’re still underfunded.”

Meanwhile, emergency managers apologised after false evacuation alerts were erroneously sent to millions of mobile phones, sparking panic. “I can’t express enough how sorry I am,” said Kevin McGowan, the director of the Los Angeles County Office of Emergency Management.

And aviation authorities were investigating who had piloted an illegal drone that struck a water-dropping aircraft, punching a fist-sized hole in the plane and taking it out of action.

President Biden also took a veiled swipe at president-elect Donald Trump, who has spread misinformation over the flames that has then been amplified on social media. “You’re going to have a lot of demagogues out there trying to take advantage of it,” Biden said of the fires.

While Angelenos grapple with the heart-rending ruin, anger has risen over officials’ preparedness and response, particularly for a series of false evacuation alarms and after hydrants ran dry as firefighters battled the initial blazes.

Governor Gavin Newsom ordered a “full independent review” of the city’s utilities, describing the lack of water supplies during the initial fires as “deeply troubling”. “We need answers to how that happened,” he wrote in an open letter.

President Joe Biden who declared the fires a major disaster said the US government would reimburse 100pc of the recovery for the next six months.

Published in Dawn, January 12th, 2025