Firefighters in Los Angeles are gearing up to combat another day of heightened wind gusts, as the death toll from the city's wildfires rose to 16 and entire communities were left in ruins.
The Palisades Fire continued to grow through Saturday local time, pushing east towards the collections of the Getty Center art museum and north to the densely populated San Fernando Valley.
The blaze, which has become the most destructive in the city's history, is still only 11 per cent contained and has burnt through 9,572 hectares of land.
Three other major fires are still burning across the city.
[MAP 12 JAN]The Eaton fire is 15 per cent contained and has burnt 5,712 hectares and the Hurst fire is 89 per cent contained after tearing through more than 323 hectares.
The Kenneth fire, which burnt through 425 hectares, was 90 per cent contained by firefighters early on Sunday morning local time.
Footage from the Mandeville Canyon area showed one home consumed, with a wall of flame licking up a hillside to menace others.
A brief lull in the wind overnight into Saturday has been rapidly giving way to gusts that forecasters warned could likely feed the blazes for days to come.
"Critical fire-weather conditions will unfortunately ramp up again today for southern California and last through at least early next week," the National Weather Service said.
"This may lead to the spread of ongoing fires as well as the development of new ones."
The forecast agency also said that it expects "a brief lull" in the winds on Sunday night local time, before they're tipped to pick back up against until at least Wednesday.
Residents frustrated in disaster zones
Official figures show more than 12,300 structures have been burned in the wildfires disaster, but Todd Hopkins from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection — known as CAL Fire — said not all of them were homes, and the number would also include outbuildings, recreational vehicles and sheds.
The sudden rush of people needing somewhere new to live in the months ahead looked set to make life hard for already-squeezed renters in the city.
"I'm back on the market with tens of thousands of people," a man who gave his name as Brian, whose rent-controlled apartment has burned, told AFP.
With reports of looting and a night-time curfew in place, local police and the US National Guard have established mounted checkpoints to prevent people getting into the disaster zones.
That has left residents frustrated as they queue for up to 10 hours to try to get back in and see what, if anything, is left of their homes.
One woman, who gave her name as Janelle, told local broadcaster KTLA she knew her house was gone, but she needed "closure."
"I see the photos, I see the videos, and I just want to see it with my own eyes," she said, her voice breaking.
The long queues also left some people fuming about poor management, the latest gripe from a population already angry over hydrants that ran dry in the initial firefight.
City officials put on a united front on Saturday after reports of a behind-the-scenes row and suggestions that Mayor Karen Bass had sacked her fire chief.
"As you see here, the chief and I are lock-step in our number one mission, and that mission is to get us past this emergency," Ms Bass told reporters.
The tense joint press conference came after Chief Kristin Crowley complained her fire department was short of cash.
Among those known to have died in the tragedy was former Australian child star Rory Sykes, who appeared in British TV show "Kiddy Kapers" in the 1990s.
"It is with great sadness that I have to announce the death of my beautiful son @Rorysykes to the Malibu fires yesterday. I'm totally heart broken," his mother Shelley Sykes wrote on social media.
Teams with cadaver dogs were combing through the rubble, with several people known to be missing and fears that the death toll will grow.
Investigation probes wildfires' cause
A huge investigation has been announced by local authorities to determine what caused the blazes, involving the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said.
"We are not going to leave any rock unturned," he said.
"If this is a criminal act — I'm not saying it's going to be — if it is, we need to hold whoever did this, or groups responsible," Luna added.
While the ignition of a wildfire can be deliberate, they are often natural, and a vital part of an environment's life cycle.
But urban sprawl puts people more frequently in harm's way, and the changing climate — supercharged by humanity's unchecked use of fossil fuels — is exacerbating the conditions that give rise to destructive blazes.
AFP/ABC
