A third fire has broken out in West Hills as authorities try to get the current fires under control.
Two wildfires in the Los Angeles area killed at least seven people and burned about 10,000 homes and buildings, while a third fire led to the evacuation of thousands more residents, local officials said.
The latest fire, the Kenneth Fire, broke out in West Hills, a neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley, Thursday afternoon while fire crews were still struggling to control the Palisades and Eaton fires.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said the third fire was expected to spread quickly due to strong winds.
The latest evacuation orders came as officials confirmed that the Palisades and Eaton fires had destroyed about 5,000 structures, which included homes as well as other property such as cars and sheds.
The two fires have scorched more than 30,000 acres (12,000 hectares) of land between them, according to state wildfire agency Cal Fire.
Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said at a news conference that he expected the number of confirmed deaths to rise.
“It looks like an atomic bomb was dropped on these areas. I don’t expect good news, and we are not looking at these numbers,” Luna said.
Nearly 180,000 people are under evacuation orders due to the fire, and another 200,000 are under evacuation warnings, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
Dozens of stone blocks were reduced to ash in the affluent communities of Malibu and Pacific Palisades.
Celebrities including James Woods, Paris Hilton and Billy Crystal are among those who lost their homes in the fires.
“There are areas where everything is gone, and there’s not even a stick of wood left, just dirt,” said Barbara Bruderlein, president of the Malibu Pacific Palisades Chamber of Commerce.
Reporting from Pacific Palisades, Al Jazeera’s Rob Reynolds said the extent of the devastation was “hard to fathom.”
“The hillsides were burned. There is a high school…that was badly damaged. You can see the houses with nothing left but the chimney.”
“It goes on – literally – kilometer after kilometre, block after block after block.”
US President Joe Biden, who is scheduled to be replaced by President-elect Donald Trump in the White House on January 20, appealed to Congress for assistance.
“I hope they’re ready to act because we can take this,” Biden said, adding that he hopes “lawmakers don’t make a political deal out of this.”
“I will be leaving this position very soon, but this is not about politics,” Biden said.
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