LOS ANGELES – Exhausted Los Angeles firefighters on Sunday braced for the return of yet more dangerously strong gusts, as California’s governor slammed “hurricane-force winds of misinformation” surrounding blazes that have killed 27 people.
The two largest fires, which have obliterated almost 40,000 acres (16,000 hectares) and razed entire neighborhoods of the second biggest US city, were both now more than half contained, officials announced.
But the National Weather Service warned that powerful winds and very low humidity would again bring “dangerous high-end red flag fire weather conditions” from Monday, with potential gusts up to 130 kms per hour.
“This is the last… we hope, of the extreme” wind events, said Governor Gavin Newsom.
It will be “the fourth major wind event just in the last three months — we only had two in the prior four years,” he told MSNBC’s “Inside with Jen Psaki.”
Officials were accused of being unprepared at the outbreak of fires this month. Now, 135 fire engines and their crews are prepositioned to tackle new flames, along with helicopters and bulldozers, said Newsom.
Firefighters said the largest conflagration, the Palisades Fire, was 52 percent contained. It has killed at least 10 people.
Evacuation orders were lifted this weekend for dozens of neighborhoods in upscale western Los Angeles.
