Los Angeles braces for strong winds as deadly wildfires continue to rage

Los Angeles faces critical wildfire threats as dry, dangerous Santa Ana winds were expected to exacerbate blazes that have destroyed neighbourhoods and claimed more than two dozen lives. A red flag warning was in effect as firefighters try to prevent conflagrations from spreading in the city as well as other Southern California counties.

Los Angeles firefighters braced for high winds overnight into Tuesday, gusts that could fuel two monstrous wildfires that have already leveled entire neighborhoods, killed at least two dozen people, and burned an area the size of Washington, D.C.

Dry, dangerous Santa Ana wind gusts reached 30 to 50 mph (48 to 80 kph) later on Monday, but the red flag warning was not due to start until 10 p.m. PST (0600 GMT) with the peak winds that could hit 75 mph (120 kph) starting around 4 a.m. Tuesday (1200 GMT), said David Roth, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service's Weather Prediction Center.

More than 8,500 firefighters attacked the fires from the air and on the ground, preventing the conflagrations at either end of Los Angeles from spreading overnight.

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"This setup is about as bad as it gets," and Los Angeles City Fire Chief Kristin Crowley told Angelenos, "We are not in the clear."

Officials said the state was pre-positioning firefighting crews in vulnerable areas, not just in Los Angeles but also in other Southern California counties that were also under elevated fire danger.

(Reuters)


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