LA fires live updates: Death toll continues to rise; Santa Ana winds set to return as Palisades, Eaton blazes burn

Thank you for following today’s live coverage of the Los Angeles fires. We’re leaving coverage here for now as California braces for the return of strong winds and elevated fire risk, but will have continued extensive coverage of the Los Angeles fires in the coming hours and days.

Here’s a summary of the developments today:

• More powerful winds are expected to trigger new wildfires that could set back the recent progress made in containing the Palisades and Eaton fires, which have destroyed thousands of homes and killed at least 24 people.
• President-elect Donald Trump is in talks to visit California amid political manoeuvring over relief funds. He has said he is looking at the city with his “developer cap on”.
• The Los Angeles district attorney’s office has filed charges against 10 people for alleged crimes committed during the fires, nine for looting and one for arson.
• Oscars nominations have been postponed as some industry figures question whether awards season should go ahead at all, while the Grammys will be broadcast as planned.
• Electricity utility Southern California Edison has been hit with multiple lawsuits claiming its electrical equipment started one of the fires.
• The LA Department of Water and Power has also been issued with lawsuits following claims it failed to properly manage water supplies critical to fighting the Palisades Fire.

Thank you again for joining us.

With AP

Donald Trump, who we earlier reported is in talks to visit fire-affected Los Angeles, has said he is looking at the city with his “developer cap on”.

Speaking to conservative news outlet Newsmax, the president-elect didn’t elaborate on what his plan for the city would be, amid concerns his administration may withhold federal aid to the Democratic-controlled state.

“We’re going to do things with Los Angeles. I’m already putting my developer cap on,” he said.

Trump said he believes LA has sustained more damage than if it was hit with a nuclear weapon.

Trump also didn’t answer a question about whether he would accept California Governor Gavin Newsom’s invitation to tour the area.

With AP

A map released by the National Weather Service’s Los Angeles office shows the extent of dangerous winds expected to affect the city through Wednesday local time, as extreme critical fire weather again threatens the region.

As we’ve reported, the agency has issued a “Red Flag Warning” for a “particularly dangerous situation” from Tuesday morning onwards (Wednesday morning AEDT), with Tuesday into midday Wednesday local time expected to bear the worst of the weather. The highest level of warning is in place for the San Fernando and Simi valleys, Oxnard, Ventura and portions of the Interstate 5 corridor, and from north of Santa Barbara to east of San Diego.

Additional water tankers and scores of firefighters arrived in the Los Angeles area on Monday local time to replenish supplies after hydrants ran dry last week when the two largest fires, the Palisades and the Eaton fires, began. Firefighters have said they have made some progress ahead of the heightened risk of new blazes returning.

Peak gusts of 80 to 110 km/h are expected across a large area spanning the Palisades and Eaton fire grounds, although winds are not expected to be as strong as the 160 km/h recorded during last week’s “windstorm”.

With AP

One of the victims of the Palisades Fire has been identified as father and adventurist Arthur Simoneau.

Arthur Simoneau died in the Palisades Fire.

Simoneau was well known in the LA hang-gliding community, and was a member of the Sylmar Hang Gliding Association.

His son Andre, who has launched a Go Fund Me, said his father was trying to defend his home in Topanga when he perished in the blaze. He said he always knew his father would “die in spectacular Arthur fashion”.

“He made a tremendous impact on all of us and showed so many others how to live life with a childlike eagerness that few others have,” Andre said.

Amid the suburban carnage of the burnt-out Pacific Palisades, a solitary home still standing in the ruins turned the heads of passersby and caught the internet’s attention.

Architect Greg Chasen posted a photograph of the mini miracle to X last week. “Some of the design choices we made here helped,” he wrote. “But we were also very lucky.”

Many Australians seeing images of the devastating blazes in Los Angeles – entire streets and blocks flattened by fire – might wonder whether these homes are being built in a way that makes them especially susceptible to fire.

You can read the full analysis from Michael Koziol here.

President-elect Donald Trump is in talks to visit Los Angeles and review state recovery efforts as early as next week, CNN has reported, amid political moves over relief funding before he takes office for the second time at the end of the month.

“The president intends to go to California at some point,” a Trump adviser has told the US network, adding the specific timing is “yet to be determined. Nothing has been finalized”. CNN said Trump’s team was in discussions with Californian authorities, with advisers considering travelling to the state in the days after his inauguration on January 21.

Donald Trump has called on California Governor Gavin Newsom to resign over the Los Angeles wildfires. Credit: Getty Images

It comes as California Governor Gavin Newsom called on state lawmakers to approve $2.5 billion in funding to assist emergency response efforts in a special legislative session, to take pressure off a relief battle with Trump amid concerns that the incoming federal administration will try to withhold aid.

Trump has blamed Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass for the devastation in California and called on Newsom to resign. On Saturday, Newsom wrote a letter to Trump, shared on social media, inviting him to the state, and calling on him to stop “politicizing a human tragedy and spreading disinformation from the sidelines”.

Meanwhile, leading congressional Republicans say they want to place conditions on aid for those affected, with House Speaker Mike Johnson on Monday pointing to disagreements about California’s “resource management” and “forest management mistakes.”

Outgoing President Joe Biden’s administration has sought to emphasise support for wildfire victims, including pledging to cover all the response cost for the first 180 days. Estimates for total relief needed have ranged from $90 billion to $240 billion (US$150 billion).

with Bloomberg

Los Angeles firefighters are again bracing for high winds expected to fuel two huge wildfires that have already levelled entire neighbourhoods, killed at least two dozen people, and burnt an area the size of Washington, DC.

Santa Ana wind gusts of 72 to 112 km/h were forecast to resume on Monday local time and persist through Wednesday, according to the National Weather Service, which has issued a “particularly dangerous situation” red flag warning, their most serious advisory.

At least 12,000 structures have been destroyed, while more than 92,000 people in Los Angeles County were still under evacuation orders – down from a previous high of more than 150,000 – as another 89,000 faced evacuation warnings.

Read the graphic below, put together by our visual team, to learn how the Santa Ana winds have fanned the Los Angeles fires into what California Governor Gavin Newsom has said could rank as the most devastating natural disaster in US history.

With Reuters

The organisers of the Oscars and other awards shows are postponing nominations as some industry figures question whether ceremonies should go ahead at all, while it has been confirmed the Grammy Awards will be broadcast as planned.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said on Monday (Los Angeles time) the nominations for the 97th Oscars are being pushed back almost a week from their original date, amid the ongoing wildfires, and will now be announced on January 23.

Meanwhile, in a joint statement, Harvey Mason, the chief executive of the Recording Academy, which puts on music’s biggest awards show, and trustee board chair Tammy Hurt confirmed the 67th Grammy Awards would go ahead on February 2 (LA Time).

“This year’s show, however, will carry a renewed sense of purpose: raising additional funds to support wildfire relief efforts and honouring the bravery and dedication of first responders who risk their lives to protect ours,” the statement reads.

There have been calls from some parts of Hollywood to cancel all award shows this year, including from actor Jean Smart, who won the Golden Globe for Best Performance by a female actor in a musical or comedy TV series at a ceremony the week before the fires started. In a post on Instagram, Smart called on networks to consider donating revenue to fire victims and efforts instead.

The annual Oscar nominees lunch has already been cancelled, and Universal Music Group has cancelled its Grammy-related events, including its after-party, pledging to donate funds to wildfire relief instead.

The Writers Guild of America has also postponed the announcement of its nominees, originally scheduled for January 9, “until further notice”, ahead of its awards show on February 15.

The Los Angeles district attorney’s office has filed charges against 10 people for alleged crimes committed during the fires.

Nine of the charges are for looting and one is for arson, although this is not connected to any of the major fires, District Attorney Nathan Hochman said.

A sign reading ‘looters will be shot’ stands in a mandatory evacuation zone at the Eaton Fire.Credit: Getty Images

“These are the people who are seeking to exploit this tragedy for their own benefit,” he said.

His office is also cracking down on price gouging, especially for housing and essential goods.

Hochman, whose sister lost her home in the fires, said the looting incidents are related to areas impacted by the Palisades and Eaton fires. Among them are three people accused of stealing more than $200,000 in a burglary in Mandeville Canyon, which was under evacuation at the time.

Aircraft battling fires raging through the Los Angeles area are dropping more than water: Hundreds of thousands of litres of hot-pink fire suppressant ahead of the flames in a desperate effort to stop them before they destroy more neighbourhoods.

Besides fire protection agency Cal Fire, multiple agencies have dropped fire retardant and water, including the US Forest Service, the Los Angeles and Ventura County fire departments, the city and the National Guard.

An air tanker drops fire retardant in Altadena.Credit: AP

The Forest Service, which has used 13 aircraft to dump suppressants on the Los Angeles fires, says they help starve a fire of oxygen and slow the rate of burn by cooling and coating vegetation and other surfaces.

While fire suppressants can be very effective, they do have limitations, Cal Fire said. Strong winds can make it too dangerous to fly at the low altitudes needed for drops and can dissipate the retardant before it hits the ground.

The fire suppressants are generally considered safe for people, but many worry about their potential effects on wildlife.

The Forest Service bans use of aerial suppressants over waterways and endangered species habitats, “except when human life or public safety are threatened”, due to potential health effects on fish and other wildlife.

AP