Sawt Falasteen - Milder winds help LA firefighters as Trump vows to visit

There is "virtually zero chance of rain" over the next week, which is also expected to see a return of the notoriously powerful Santa Ana winds, said meteorologist Daniel Swain.

As thousands of firefighters work around the clock to contain the fires that have claimed at least 27 lives, President-elect Donald Trump said he hoped to visit soon, "probably at the end of the week."

Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, had invited Trump last week to visit after the Republican president-elect blasted Newsom and other Democratic officials for what he said was poor water management that contributed to the fires.

Several fires have blackened vast areas of bone-dry vegetation and devastated urban neighborhoods.

The big Eaton and Palisades fires, which remain active, have roared through some 40,000 acres (16,200 hectares). They are, respectively, 73 percent and 43 percent contained, according to the official CalFire website.

With the firefighting effort making progress this weekend, thousands of evacuated residents were preparing to return home, while others still faced the stress of uncertainty.

"Hopefully, they call us soon to come back," said 53-year-old teacher Winston Ekpo, whose house survived the fire in Altadena but sustained smoke damage.

"We want to be able to get the smoke out and maybe get some (air) purifiers and check the attic," he told AFP. Ekpo, his wife and their children have been living in a shelter for the past 10 days.

Search and rescue teams aided by canine units have been scouring the smoldering ruins of neighborhoods for possible victims in Altadena, just north of Los Angeles, and Malibu, on the Pacific coast.

On Friday, mounted patrol units extended the search to some of the steeper and less accessible hillsides in the area.

- Record drought -

An extensive logistical effort is underway to contain the fires, prevent further outbreaks, and restore the elements of normal life for the thousands of Californians affected.

Every day, hundreds of trucks rumble up the roads of Altadena, Malibu and the hillside suburb of Pacific Palisades, carrying workers who come to clear vegetation, restore electricity and communication lines, and inspect the area for gas or water leaks.

The causes of the fires remain under investigation, though experts have pointed to a fatal combination: two years of heavy rains which caused rapid growth of vegetation, followed by near-record drought which turned the vegetation into fuel for fires, compounded by near hurricane-force winds that tore through the area, making fire containment nearly impossible.

Downtown Los Angeles, for example, has seen less than a tenth of an inch of rain (0.25 centimeter) in 255 days, surpassing a record set in 2008, the National Weather Service (NWS) reported.

The weather agency's Alex Tardy told AFP that when you combine the four recent Santa Ana wind events with the one expected in coming days, and add that to conditions on the ground, "we haven't seen such fire danger and dry vegetation in modern records."

That does not necessarily guarantee that there will be more fires in the near future, he said.

But if there are, there will be a "potential for more explosive, and rapid, rates of spread."

C.Hamad--SF-PST