24 dead in LA fires, dozens missing as winds pick up

At least 24 people had died in the two largest fires raging in Southern California, the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner reported Sunday. Officials have received dozens of missing persons reports, said Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna. All of the fatalities were connected to either the Palisades Fire or the Eaton Fire, which on Monday morning were just 13% and 27% contained, respectively.

Over the weekend, firefighters fully contained the smaller Lidia, Kenneth, and Sunset fires. The Hurst Fire on Monday was 89% contained. The massive blazes by Monday had burned more than 60 square miles, or just under the size of Washington, D.C. More than 12,000 structures had been destroyed by Monday, six days after the fires first broke out.

What does the weather forecast say? Fast, dry winds were expected to pick up in Southern California on Monday and Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service. The extreme fire conditions could extend into Wednesday and could make battling the remaining fires more challenging. Power company Southern California Edison on Sunday wrote that the unsafe conditions could make restoring power a longer process than usual as more than 25,000 power outages were due to safety-related de-energization. 

Dig deeper: Read Hunter Baker’s opinion piece about the devastating fires.