Some mandatory evacuation zones for Palisades and Eaton fires were lifted on Friday, allowing access only to residents, according to local authorities, cited by local media outlets.
More than 11,000 Los Angeles residents were able to return to their homes on Friday following two devastating fires, still active, that killed at least 27 people and devastated more urban areas since at least the mid-1980s.
Some mandatory evacuation zones for Palisades and Eaton fires were lifted on Friday, allowing access only to residents, according to local authorities, cited by local media outlets.
The number of deaths recorded so far by the Los Angeles coroner is 27 people, 10 in the Palisades fire and 17 in the Eaton fire. The devastation caused by the fires destroyed more than 12,000 structures and placed more than 80,000 under evacuation orders.
Os two wildfires still raging in Los Angeles have devastated more urban areas than any other fire in the state since at least the mid-1980s, according to an analysis by the Associated Press (AP).
Firefighters have made progress in containing the fires in recent hours. THE Palisades is 31% dominated and shows signs of gradual stabilization, detailed the California Department of Fire (Cal Fire). Already the The Eaton Fire is 65% contained.
Rescue teams continue to search for at least 31 people missing since the fires startedon January 7, and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD) Homicide Bureau released the identities of at least 17 of theseto request community support in identification.
Authorities have indicated that they do not expect no fires spread over the weekend.
O announced in its latest forecast that “Critical weather conditions are expected from January 24th to January 30th due to a new wave of Santa Ana winds.”
Phenomenon may happen more frequently
Experts say several factors could cause wildfires to hit cities more frequently. Urban areas continue to spread into wild areas. To the climate change global temperatures are increasing, which leads to more severe weather conditions, including droughts, especially in the western United States.
“If these conditions worsen or become more frequent in the future, it would not be surprising, in my opinion, if there were more events that threaten densely populated places,” warned Franz Schug, a researcher who studies the boundaries between wild and urban areas at the University of Wisconsin. -Madison.
O ‘big fire’ Chicago of 1871 burned about 3.3 square miles (one mile is about 1.6 kilometers) of the city center, according to the Chicago Architecture Center. San Francisco’s ‘Great Fire’ of 1906 destroyed 4 square miles of the city, according to the San Francisco City Museum.
In addition to having set fire to most of the urban area, the Eaton and Palisades fires are the highest ever recorded in California in January.
Alexandra Syphard, senior research scientist at the Institute of Conservation Biology, said the timing and path they took through the city “may be unprecedented in history.”
Authorities have not determined the cause of the massive fires in California. But experts noticed extreme weather that created more favorable conditions: heavy rains that boosted vegetation growth, then extreme droughts that turned much of that vegetation into good fuel for fires.
Scientists say these extreme weather events are a feature of climate change.
