LA residents on high alert as extreme weather conditions threaten to spark more flames – Jay Leno and celebs react: ‘An entire city wiped out’

The bruised and battered city of Los Angeles remains on high alert as the extreme weather conditions that caused apocalyptic infernos intensify again and officials “abolish” the term “fire season.”

Forecasters warn the most intense threat this week will occur Tuesday morning, with wind gusts of nearly 75 miles per hour fanning the flames of two ongoing fires and complicating ongoing searches for up to 20 missing people in evacuation zones.

The fire brigade is still working to get the major fires under control. They have destroyed more than 40,000 hectares of land, destroyed an estimated 12,300 structures and killed at least 24 people.

The death toll is expected to rise as cadaver dogs gain access to the smoldering wreckage of entire neighborhoods that, Jay Leno noted, simply “no longer exist.”

The winter infernos have forced authorities to rethink the way they have historically mapped “fire seasons” throughout the year.

Cal Fire Public Information Officer David Acuña said the agency has now “eliminated the term fire season” because it is simply no longer accurate.

“We call it the fire year now,” he said.

Looking to the week ahead, Acuña warned, “Anything that isn’t currently on fire or wasn’t on fire means it’s a potential start. There is so much fuel on the ground, and by that I mean grass and brush.”

Jay Leno compared Monday night’s disaster to the September 11 attacks, telling CNN, “Not that September 11 was a natural disaster, but it is literally of that magnitude.”

“It’s a whole town that’s been wiped out,” he said.

“Pacific Palisades – it doesn’t exist and probably won’t exist for the next five, six years.”

The scale of the destruction is unprecedented, with prime real estate stretching from Malibu to the Palisades and up to Santa Monica wiped off the map.

Miles Teller, Mel Gibson and Paris Hilton are among the A-list celebrities who lost their homes in the inferno.

The Palisades Fire is only 14 percent contained and has destroyed 23,713 acres.

Among the losses were an estimated 100,000 scores by 20th-century composer Arnold Schoenberg.

His 83-year-old son, Larry, said the entire inventory was kept in a building behind his Palisades home.

“It’s cruel,” he said. “We’ve lost everything.”

Inland at Pasadena and Altadena, the extent of the devastation is measured differently.

The Eaton Fire destroyed less land than the Pasadena Fire, but the human damage was much greater.

Sixteen bodies have already been found in the massacre. It is estimated that around 7,000 structures are gone, but the process of exploring what remains has been slow.

Mandy Moore’s home was among those charred beyond recognition by the 14,117-acre Eaton fire.

It is only 33 percent under control.

Los Angeles is already one of America’s affordable rental cities, and now there are 92,000 residents who have been displaced and barred from returning home, even if their homes survived the inferno.

It means there’s a lot of competition for the shelter beds, hotel rooms and temporary evacuation accommodations set up to house them all.

Authorities estimate they can start reopening evacuation zones on Thursday morning, after high-intensity “life-threatening” wind events forecast in coming days – and the risk of more firefighting – have subsided.

The National Weather Service warned that the wind forecast could lead to “explosive fire growth” between today and Wednesday evening, but by Thursday conditions will change and firefighters will gain the upper hand.

The fires continue to burn if:

Locals say the human toll in Altadena and Pasadena could have been much greater without the ruthless work of weather fanatic Edgar McGregor.

The 24-year-old Altadena resident shared updates on his community’s Facebook page on Jan. 7, hours before several megafires broke out across Southern California.

He warned his neighbors not to go to sleep, pack a bag and prepare for an immediate evacuation.

Speak with PeopleMcGregor said it dawned on him a week before the fires that the weather conditions could be “catastrophic” and he began the arduous task of convincing anyone who would listen.

“I knew on December 30 that when this storm hit, conditions would duplicate conditions on the ground in Lahaina, Hawaii and in Paradise, both of which were completely leveled and each lost about a hundred people,” said he.

The dry brush had been piling up for months, and without any rain to usher in winter, when McGregor saw the wind in the forecast around New Year’s Day, he knew the risk was enormous.

‘I told the people: if a forest fire breaks out, a thousand houses will burn down. This would be catastrophic.”

Now Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom is in danger of being out of office due to his ‘sad’ response to the LA wildfires.

Newsom, 57, has faced calls to resign over his devastating handling of the catastrophe, with everyone from Donald Trump to Hollywood stars decrying his and Mayor Karen Bass’s lack of leadership.

Saving California, a group that bills itself as a “nonpartisan coalition of working families, professionals and community activists,” has launched a new recall campaign against Newsom.

This is what a Newsom spokesperson said Newsweek that the governor is “100 percent focused on the fires, the ongoing rescue efforts and the recovery process – not on the politics.”

He sparked anger after claiming he doesn’t know how the Los Angeles wildfires happened – even though it seemed that way blaming other officials, including LA Mayor Karen Bass.