Sawt Falasteen - Los Angeles fires rage on as US National Guard called in

Swaths of the United States' second-largest city lay in ruins, with smoke blanketing the sky and an acrid smell pervading almost every building.

A vast firefighting operation continued for a third day, bolstered by water-dropping helicopters thanks to a temporary lull in winds.

Amid the chaos, looting had broken out, with numerous arrests made, officials said, and hundreds of soldiers were set to be deployed.

"The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department has officially requested the support of the California National Guard for both fires," Sheriff Robert Luna told reporters.

"For the last 24 hours or so, we have had approximately 400 National Guard members throughout the state ready to support us.

"We expect that they may be on site as soon as tonight," he said, adding Governor Gavin Newsom had approved the request.

Luna said his officers were patrolling evacuation zones and would arrest anyone who was not supposed to be there.

With such a huge area scorched by the fires, which are ravaging the well-to-do Pacific Palisades and another area around Altadena, evacuees feared not enough was being done.

Some were taking matters into their own hands.

"We're so stressed about this looting happening all around that my neighbors were on watch all last night for several houses in the neighborhood," said one man whose house was one of just a handful left standing on a burned-out Altadena street.

"I'm supposed to take over for them tonight," said the man, who did not want to give his name.

A sunset-to-sunrise curfew has been declared in evacuated areas of the coastal city of Santa Monica, and Luna said more overnight curfews would be coming in the fire zones.

- 'Death and destruction' -

The biggest blaze had ripped through over 19,000 acres (7,700 hectares) of the upscale Pacific Palisades neighborhood, while another fire in Altadena had torched 13,000 acres.

Neither was contained on Thursday, though firefighters said spreading had slowed.

US President Joe Biden told a White House briefing he had pledged extra federal funds and resources to help the state cope.

"This is the most widespread, devastating fire in California's history," he said.

Some of those who had been forced out of their homes returned Thursday to a scene of devastation.

Kalen Astoor, a 36-year-old paralegal, said her mother's home had been spared by the inferno's seemingly random and chaotic destruction.

Some neighbors' houses, often side-by-side with those razed to the ground, had similarly survived.

Through the blackened remains of devastated homes, gloomy vistas of the surrounding fire-ravaged mountains could be glimpsed through the smoke.

"The view now is of death and destruction," she told AFP. "I don't know if anyone can come back for a while."

The same fire flared up again near the summit of Mount Wilson, home to a historic observatory and vital communication towers and equipment.

- 'Critical' -

Fast-moving flames fanned by powerful winds of up to 100 miles (160 kilometers) an hour since Tuesday have leveled more than 2,000 structures across the city, many of them multi-million dollar homes.

Los Angeles fire chief Kirstin Crowley said a preliminary estimate of destroyed structures in Pacific Palisades was "in the thousands."

Nearly 180,000 people across Los Angeles remain under evacuation orders.

Officials and meteorologists warn that "critical" windy and dry conditions, though abated, are not over.

"The winds continue to be of a historic nature... this is absolutely an unprecedented, historic firestorm," said Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass.

A National Weather Service bulletin said "significant fire growth" remained likely "with ongoing or new fires" throughout Thursday and into Friday.

- Ignored pleas -

Among those who died was 66-year-old Victor Shaw, whose sister said he had ignored pleas to leave as the fire swept through Altadena because he wanted to protect their home.

"When I went back in and yelled out his name, he didn't reply," Shari Shaw said.

"I had to get out because the embers were so big and flying like a firestorm that I had to save myself."

Shaw's body was found by a friend on the driveway of his razed home, a garden hose in his hand.

- Climate crisis -

Wildfires are part of life in the western United States and play a vital role in nature.

But scientists say human-caused climate change is causing more severe weather patterns.

Southern California had two decades of drought that were followed by two exceptionally wet years, sparking furious vegetative growth.

That has left the region, which has had no significant rain for eight months, packed with fuel and primed to burn.

T.Khatib--SF-PST