Firefighters continue to make progress against two major wildfires as winds died down in the LA area.

On Thursday, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) informed that the fierce wildfires across the Los Angeles area have killed at least 27 people and destroyed more than 12,300 structures in more than a week.

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Firefighters continued to make progress against two major wildfires in Los Angeles as winds died down in the area. The Palisades Fire, one of the largest active wildfires has scorched 23,713 acres (95.96 sq km) so far. The fire, which broke out on Jan. 7, is 22 percent contained, up from 17 percent a day earlier.

“Weather conditions return to seasonally normal, and fire is expected to remain within the current perimeter with no additional growth anticipated,” Cal Fire said.

“Crews continue to establish and improve the fire line, seek out and extinguish hot spots and construct containment lines to limit further structural damage within the areas still at risk,” it added.

Another major active fire, the Eaton Fire, has scorched 14,117 acres (57.1 sq km) near Altadena and Pasadena. The fire’s containment jumped to 55 percent, up from 45 percent a day earlier.

Calmer overnight and early morning winds reduced the fire’s activity, allowing firefighters to make good progress in securing containment lines. But Cal Fire pointed out that with the returning Santa Ana winds Monday, widespread critical fire weather conditions remain present in parts of Southern California.

“We are expecting a much-needed break from the fire weather concerns to close this week,” noted the U.S. National Weather Service, which had issued a rare “particularly dangerous situation” warning earlier this week. “Next week is a concern. While confident that we will not see a repeat of last week, dangerous fire weather conditions are expected,” said the agency.

teleSUR/ JF Source: Xinhua

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