Firefighters continued battling two massive wildfires in Los Angeles on Tuesday, struggling to contain the blazes amid strong desert winds and dangerously dry conditions.
About 8,500 firefighters from at least seven states and two foreign countries managed to prevent the blazes from growing for a second consecutive day. However, the fires have already consumed an area the size of Washington, D.C.
A fleet of aircraft dropped water and retardant into the rugged hills while ground crews with hand tools and hoses worked around the clock since the fires broke out on Jan. 7. High winds occasionally grounded the aircraft.
The Palisades Fire on the western edge of town remained steady at 23,713 acres (96 square kilometers), with containment rising to 18%. The Eaton Fire in the foothills east of the city reached 14,117 acres, with containment at 35%.
Southern California has seen little rain since April, turning brush into tinder as Santa Ana winds from the deserts whipped over hilltops and rushed through canyons, sending embers flying up to 3 kilometers (2 miles) ahead of the fires.
Winds were weaker than expected on Tuesday but are forecast to peak around 3 a.m. on Wednesday, with gusts in the mountains possibly reaching 112 kph (70 mph), the National Weather Service said, keeping a red flag warning in place.
The death toll from the fires rose by one on Tuesday to 25, according to the Los Angeles medical examiner's office. The estimate of structures damaged or destroyed remained over 12,000, signaling a massive rebuilding effort ahead.
Entire neighborhoods have been leveled, leaving smoldering ash and rubble. In many homes, only the chimney remains standing.
In hard-hit Pacific Palisades, Karina Maher and her husband Michael Kovac experienced "survivor guilt" as their home survived the fire while many neighbors lost theirs.
"Designing the house so close to nature and knowing the history of Southern California, we were acutely aware that at some point, there would be a serious fire," said Kovac, an architect who designed the building. "So we designed the house to be both fire resilient and sustainable. And happily, those two systems are often the same."
A few thousand more people were allowed back home, but 88,000 remained under evacuation orders, with another 84,000 under evacuation warnings – unprecedented large-scale displacements in the metropolitan area's history.
"It's one thing to see it on television. It's another thing to see it from the air. The massive destruction is unimaginable until you see it," Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said after an aerial tour.
John Adolph, 48, who lost his home in Altadena to the Eaton Fire, was grateful to be safe but uncertain of the future. Adolph said he returned to see what he could salvage as the fire raged.
"There were burning grocery stores, gas stations, exploding cars, walls of flames two stories tall, tornadoes of flame. I was stupid with a side of crazy to try," Adolph said.
Urban search and rescue teams worked from a parking lot at an Altadena grocery store, tracking progress on whiteboards and handing out assignments from inside a trailer.
A team of 50 firefighters and sheriff’s deputies conducted house-by-house searches for lingering fires and hazards like lithium-ion batteries connected to solar panels.
The Palisades Fire also approached the priceless art collection at the J. Paul Getty Museum, which houses paintings by Van Gogh, Rembrandt, Monet and Degas.
However, the collection remained safe inside the Getty Center's fortress of travertine stone, fire-protected steel, and reinforced concrete. "It would be extremely foolish to try and remove artwork" from its safe harbor, said Getty Trust President Katherine E. Fleming.
In Washington, a debate erupted over emergency aid, with Republicans and Democrats clashing over what is already the costliest wildfire in terms of insured losses.
Private forecaster AccuWeather estimates total damage and economic loss between $250 billion and $275 billion, making it the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history, surpassing Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Democrats in Congress opposed the suggestion by House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, that conditions be placed on aid. Johnson also said any wildfire disaster assistance funding should be "paid for" to prevent adding to the budget deficit, possibly by cutting other programs.
That stance marks a departure from many previous natural disasters, with Democratic Representative Ted Lieu of California calling Johnson's position "outrageous."
"We should not be leveraging the pain and suffering of our fellow Americans to try to force new policy changes," Lieu said.