The death toll in the California fires has reached seven

The number of people killed in fires in California has increased to seven people. This was reported by CBS News on Thursday, January 9.

"Two people died in the Palisades fire, Los Angeles Fire Chief Christine Crowley said at a news conference Thursday. The death toll from the wildfires has risen to seven," the publication said.

Five more had earlier died in a fire in Eaton, in northern Los Angeles County.

According to The New York Times (NYT), the Palisades and Eaton fires are not even a few percent contained. The former has already covered more than 8,000 hectares, the latter 5,500 hectares.

"This is a set of unprecedented circumstances. Never in the history of our community or perhaps the country have we had a fire occurring at the same time - not one or more at the same time - surrounded by hurricane force winds," said Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Alberto Carvalho.

Several firefighters were injured in the Eaton fire, the NYT reported. One of them was hospitalized.

Meanwhile, the cause of the fire remains unknown and the investigation is ongoing.

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The rampant elements in the Golden State are beyond normal proportions

According to the latest data, the fire in Palisades destroyed about 5.3 thousand structures. It is specified that this makes it the third most destructive fire in terms of the number of destroyed structures in the history of California

Numerous wildfires in Los Angeles were reported the day before. Extinguishing continues, strong winds are fueling the fire, rescue crews are short of water. In connection with the fires, the current US President Joe Biden declared a major disaster regime in the state of California.

Emergency services have urged residents to prepare to evacuate. Los Angeles resident Don Reiman told Izvestia that in the neighborhood where he lives, managed to defend only his house, and the rest of the buildings burned to the ground.

In addition, the fire destroyed the luxury mansions of Hollywood actors and celebrities, including Anthony Hopkins, Adam Brody, Anna Faris, Eugene Levy, John Goodman, Billy Crystal and Paris Hilton. Many of these homes were worth millions of dollars.