LA crews race to halt wildfires ahead of high winds

They also warned that the death toll is expected to rise as urban search and rescue crews sweep the ruins using cadaver dogs.

At least 29 people have been arrested for looting mandatory evacuation zones. Two people were caught posing as firefighters in order to steal from evacuees.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said in a news conference on Sunday he has requested more National Guard troops to bolster the 400 already in the area.

“When I was out there in the Malibu area, I saw a gentleman that looked like a firefighter. And I asked him if he was okay because he was sitting down. I didn’t realise we had him in handcuffs,” Sheriff Luna told reporters.

“We are turning him over to LAPD because he was dressed like a fireman, and he was not. He just got caught burglarizing a home. So those are issues that our front line deputies and police officers are dealing with.”

Evacuation numbers have dropped, with around 105,000 residents still under mandatory evacuation orders and 87,000 under evacuation warnings.

Deanne Criswell, the administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema), told CNN on Sunday that a significant threat remained.

“I know that so many people probably want to get back into the area and check on their homes, but with winds picking back up, you never know which way they’re going to go,” she said.

There are now 14,000 firefighters in the region, being assisted by 84 aircrafts and 1,354 fire engines, said Luna.

New fires continued to flare up on Sunday, threatening communities in the San Fernando Valley and near Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).

On Sunday, firefighters were able to quickly stop the spread of new fires in the Angeles National Forest which surround the facility which is at the heart of the US space programme and contains top secret technology.