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by IANS |
Los Angeles, Jan 17 (IANS) The fierce wildfires across the Los Angeles area in Southern California of the US have killed at least 27 people and destroyed more than 12,300 structures in more than a week, local authorities confirmed.
Firefighters continued to make progress on Thursday against two major wildfires in Los Angeles as winds died down in the area, Xinhua news agency reported.
The Palisades Fire, one of the largest active wildfires in the Los Angeles region, has scorched 23,713 acres (95.96 sq km) so far. The fire, which broke out on January 7, is 22 per cent contained, up from 17 per cent a day earlier.
"Weather conditions return to seasonally normal, and fire is expected to remain within the current perimeter with no additional growth anticipated," said the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) in an update Thursday.
"Crews continue to establish and improve the fire line, seek out and extinguish hot spots and construct containment lines to limit further structural damage within the areas still at risk," said Cal Fire.
Another major active fire, the Eaton Fire, has scorched 14,117 acres (57.1 sq km) near Altadena and Pasadena. The fire's containment jumped to 55 per cent, up from 45 per cent a day earlier.
Calmer overnight and early morning winds reduced the fire's activity, allowing firefighters to make good progress in securing containment lines, according to Cal Fire.
But the agency pointed out that with the returning Santa Ana winds Monday, widespread critical fire weather conditions remain present in parts of Southern California.
"We are expecting a much-needed break from the fire weather concerns to close this week," noted the US National Weather Service, which had issued a rare "particularly dangerous situation" warning earlier this week.
"Next week is a concern. While confident that we will not see a repeat of last week, dangerous fire weather conditions are expected," said the agency.
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