Los Angeles’ exclusive, upscale Bel Air neighborhood is increasingly threatened by the wildfire inferno as the death toll rises to 16.
The Getty Museum in California has stepped up defenses to protect its priceless works of art, while it has also been revealed that the Palisades Reservoir was empty when the fires started.
LA Mayor Karen Bass has been condemned for the Santa Ynez Reservoir being ‘out of order’ – amid anger over celebrity water use.
The prospect of more dry winds has raised new concerns about the ‘Palisades Fire’ as flames push toward affluent Bel Air and Brentwood neighborhoods.
The wildfires have already claimed the lives of around 16 people, while burning more than 37,000 hectares of land and destroying 12,000 structures in their aftermath. Officials say at least 13 people are still missing.
In total, an estimated 153,000 residents are under mandatory evacuation orders and approximately 57,000 buildings remain at risk.
The acclaimed Getty Center art museum, in the mountains above LA, is now within an evacuation warning zone as the fires rage on.
The collection includes 125,000 works of art, including paintings by Monet, Rembrandt, Turner and Van Gogh, as well as 1.4 million documents.
California’s Santa Ynez Reservoir, pictured here empty during a 2022 drought, is said to have been ‘out of order’ when the current LA wildfires began raging in recent days
At least 16 people have now died in the wildfires sweeping through California, officials have revealed – a helicopter is seen dropping water near the Mandeville Canyon neighborhood
LAFD’s highly exclusive Bel Air neighborhood is feared to face new threats – LAFD emergency vehicles are parked next to Bel Air Church as the Palisades Fire rages
There are also concerns about the risks to the 125,000 artificial worms stored at the Getty Center art museum in the LA mountains and seen here with clouds of smoke hanging above them.
The Palisades Fire is burning south of the Encino Reservoir in Los Angeles on Saturday
The museum said in statements: “Getty staff, art collections and buildings remain safe from the Palisades Fire. The threat is still there.”
Reported defenses that officials hope will help protect against any damage to artifacts include fire-resistant travertine stone, as well as cement and steel.
Galleries can be closed off with a vault-style double door, the museum says.
Meanwhile, the death toll from the bushfires rose to 16 as crews battled to cut off the spreading flames before potentially strong winds returned that could push the flames toward some of the city’s most famous landmarks.
Five of the deaths were attributed to the Palisades Fire and 11 resulted from the Eaton Fire, the Los Angeles County coroner’s office said in a statement Saturday evening.
The previous number of confirmed fatalities was 11, but officials said they expected that number to rise as cadaver dog teams conduct systematic grid searches in leveled neighborhoods.
Authorities have set up a center for people to report the missing.
There were also fears that winds could move the fires to the J. Paul Getty Museum and the University of California, Los Angeles, while new evacuation warnings put more homeowners on edge.
Flames cross a fire road above Mandeville Canyon yesterday during the Palisades Fire
An air tanker drops Phos-Chek flame retardant into Mandeville Canyon during the Palisades Fire
A firefighting helicopter collects water from the Encino Reservoir in Los Angeles – questions have been raised in recent days about the lack of availability of sufficient water
Crews from California and nine other states are part of the ongoing response, which includes 1,354 fire trucks, 84 aircraft and more than 14,000 personnel, including newly arrived firefighters from Mexico.
Meanwhile, California Governor Gavin Newsom has ordered state officials to determine why a 100 million gallon reservoir was out of service and some fire hydrants had dried up.
Los Angeles Fire Chief Kristin Crowley said the city government has failed her department by not providing enough money for firefighting.
She also criticized the lack of water, saying, “When a firefighter comes to a hydrant, we expect there to be water.”