UPDATE 10:45 a.m.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta said state officials would be closely watching for price-gouging practices in the wake of the unfolding disaster, with eyes on everything from hotel rooms, rent, groceries, emergency supplies and charity requests.
“This is not who we are,” an emotional Bonta said during a Saturday morning press conference. “We should not be engaged in price-gouging. We are very serious about this,” he said, adding that the office is already seeing scammers trying to take advantage of the devastation.
He said people are already posing as contractors, insurance adjusters and government officials demanding up-front, place-holding payments that are not legitimate. Officials urged people to check licenses and credentials and avoid giving cash to people soliciting donations.
“Price gouging – it’s sick, it’s wrong, it’s illegal,” Bonta said. “So is looting. You will be held accountable.”
LOS ANGELES, CA – JANUARY 11: Helicopter aerial view of a firefighting Chinook making a water drop on the Palisades fire burning in Brentwood on Saturday, Jan. 11, 2025. (Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
PREVIOUSLY:
Residents of Brentwood, on the eastern flank of the Palisades fire, and Encino to the north were ordered to evacuate overnight even as firefighting crews began to gain a partial grip on containing the multiple blazes that have so far claimed 13 lives and more than 12,000 structures in the Los Angeles area.
As of Saturday morning, nearly 180,000 people were under evacuation orders in the fires that have wreaked unprecedented destruction in greater Los Angeles. Evacuation warnings had spread east of the north-south 405 Freeway, a critical corridor which so far had been a bulwark between the Palisades blaze – which has consumed 22,660 acres – and the interior neighborhoods of West L.A.
The latest mandatory order covers an area that has been slowly encroaching eastward, from Sunset Boulevard north to Encino Reservoir, and from the 405 west to Mandeville Canyon. The area includes the Getty Center museum, which says it has complied and left only emergency personnel behind.
Evacuation warnings were also issued overnight for areas to the east of the 405, north of West Sunset and south of Mulholland Drive. Conditions were expected to improve somewhat over the weekend, with diminishing winds and breezes – though 30-50 mph wind gusts in Santa Ana-prone areas were expected to continue, and are forecast to come up again later this week.
The Palisades Fire, which has left virtually the entire neighborhood in ruin, was 11% contained as of Saturday morning. The Eaton Fire, which has ravaged 14,117 acres near Altadena and parts of Pasadena, was 15% contained, fire officials said. The smaller Kenneth fire was nearly 80% contained.
Thirteen deaths were confirmed – up from 11 on Friday – and more than 12,000 structures were damaged or destroyed altogether.
More to come …
The post LA Fires: Brentwood, Encino Evacuated Overnight as Death Toll Climbs to 13 appeared first on TheWrap.
