Over the past 24 hours, the fires have burned another 1,000 acres and consumed more homes, officials said.
Fire department officials said the fires damaged or destroyed 12,000 buildings.
Estimates indicate that at least 13 are missing.
The death toll is expected to rise once the situation becomes safe enough for firefighters to conduct house-to-house searches.
California State Fire Department official Todd Hopkins said in a press conference yesterday that although 11 percent of the fires in the Palisades neighborhood were contained, the fires had burned more than 22,000 acres.
Hopkins added that the Palisades Fire has spread to the Mandeville Canyon neighborhood.
There are fears that the fire will reach the upscale Brentwood neighborhood, where celebrities live.
The authority expected the winds to intensify in the coming hours in Los Angeles and Ventura counties, reaching speeds of 30 miles per hour, with wind gusts of 70 miles per hour.
“We are in a continuous period of dangerous fire weather until Wednesday,” said Rose Schoenfeld, a meteorologist at the agency.
Weather conditions are expected to calm down by Thursday.
Los Angeles County Police Chief Robert Luna said that evacuation orders had been issued for about 153,000 people, meaning there were 57,000 buildings in danger.
He added that another 166,000 had received warnings that they might have to evacuate their homes.
Seven neighboring states, the federal government, Canada and Mexico rushed to send aid and firefighting teams to California, as air teams dropped water and fire suppressant materials on the burning hills and crews on the ground increased to put out the fires with hand tools and hoses.
Officials declared a public health emergency due to the thick, toxic smoke spreading in the area.
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