The China Mail - Fire-wrecked Los Angeles waits for winds to drop

More than a week after fires fanned by hurricane-force gusts began a destructive march that has left two dozen people dead and large areas of the city in ruins, forecasters said the end may be in sight.

There will be "a big improvement for tonight and tomorrow, though there'll still be some lingering areas of concern," Ryan Kittell of the National Weather Service told AFP.

Part of Los Angeles County and much of neighboring Ventura County remained in a "Particularly Dangerous Situation," a designation that was in effect before last week's deadly blazes.

The Eaton Fire and the Palisades fire, which together have scorched more than 40,000 acres (16,000 hectares) were still smoldering Wednesday.

Battalions of firefighters from across the United States, as well as from Mexico, were working to tamp down hotspots that could still flare, Los Angeles City fire chief Kristin Crowley told reporters.

"Infrared flights last night indicated there are still numerous hot spots burning within the fire footprint, and very close attention was paid to address any flare ups swiftly as to prevent any fire spread outside of the perimeter," she said.

With tens of thousands of people still displaced by the fires, life was far from normal in America's second biggest city.

But children whose schools were damaged or still affected by evacuation orders were welcomed into other institutions.

Stay-at-home mom Caroline Nick took Emery, 11, and Andrew, 7, to Nora Stery Elementary on Wednesday after their own school was lost to the blaze.

Nick, whose home was destroyed in the Palisades fire, said the children needed whatever semblance of normality they could get.

"They don't need to be listening to the adult conversations that my husband and I are having to have. It's not good for them," she told AFP.

"They need to be here doing this: drawing and coloring, playing and running and laughing."

The confirmed death toll from the fires stood at 24, down from 25 after the Los Angeles County Coroner said one apparent body was not human.

But the number of fatalities could still rise, with hundreds of buildings still to be searched.

More than 12,000 structures have been razed, including multi-million dollar homes in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood.

Estimates of the eventual cost of the tragedy have now risen to as high as $275 billion, a figure that would make it one of the most expensive in US history.

Federal authorities have launched a probe into the causes of the fires, as theories swirl over who was responsible.

"We know everyone wants answers, and the community deserves answers," said Jose Medina of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), which is taking the lead.

"ATF will give you those answers, but it will be once we complete a thorough investigation."

California Governor Gavin Newsom on Tuesday ordered debris removal teams to be on standby, as emergency managers look ahead to possible winter rainstorms that could provoke mudslides.

But some Palisades locals are not waiting, working to remove scorched debris from roads and sidewalks themselves.

Contractor Chuck Hart and his crew were at a construction site in the neighborhood when the fire broke out.

After they saved his mother's house from encroaching flames, Hart said they began making rounds to clean debris from the streets.

"We just rock-and-rolled," he said. "We've just been doing that non-stop ever since."

"We're going to do everything we can to get this place back up and running as quickly as possible."

E.Lau--ThChM