Los Angeles wildfires: Death toll unknown, thousands of structures destroyed and tens of thousands flee

Death toll continues to climb as more than 7,500 firefighting personnel are deployed across California, with two of the most ferocious fires at zero percent containment.

Los Angeles wildfires: Death toll unknown, thousands of structures destroyed and tens of thousands flee

At least five people have been killed and many others severely injured as several fast-moving wildfires have torn across the Los Angeles County area, leaving thousands of firefighters attempting to extinguish the blaze.

Officials said Thursday that while progress had been made on the Sunset, Woodley, Hurst, and Sunswept Fires, more “extreme fire behavior” and wind gusts up to 60mph are continuing to challenge firefighting efforts.

“Significant fire growth remains likely with ongoing or new fires,” forecasters warned.

The Palisades Fire, one of the most destructive natural disasters the city has seen, is still not contained. The fire has burned more than 17,200 acres, while the Altadena and Pasadena-based Eaton fire has scorched some 10,600 acres.

The causes of all of the wildfires are under active investigation, but thousands of buildings and businesses have been destroyed.

Nearly 180,000 residents of the cunty are under evacuation orders and nearly 200,000 are under evacuation warnings.

Even more California customers were left without power on Thursday, with nearly 420,000 outages reported by tracker PowerOutage.us

Sheriff Robert Luna said that deputies were touring the affected areas.”

“Some of ‘em looked like a bomb was dropped in ‘em,” he said.