Fire-wrecked Los Angeles gets a break as winds drop

Fire-wrecked Los Angeles got a break late on Wednesday as dangerous winds dropped, giving hope to weary firefighters still battling to snuff out deadly blazes.

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 was in sight — at least for now.

Onshore breezes were set to bring much-needed moisture over the coming days, forecasters at the National Weather Service told AFP.

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, though he warned there was another possibly perilous drying system in the offing early next week.

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 are still affected by evacuation orders were welcomed into other institutions.

Stay-at-home mom Caroline Nick took Emery, 11, and Andrew, 7, to Nora Sterry 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.