The confirmed death toll from the Los Angeles wildfires doubled from five to 10 on Thursday night.
The Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office said it was investigating 10 fire-related deaths as of 9 p.m. Thursday. No information is available regarding the identity of the deceased or the place of death.
The coroner warned that in some cases it could take weeks to identify the dead due to the difficulty of accessing and identifying charred bodies under dangerous fire conditions.
“Please also note that traditional identification methods such as fingerprinting and visual identification may not be available, adding additional time to naming these deceased individuals,” the coroner said. .
Earlier in the day, authorities confirmed five deaths. Four of those deaths were in the 13,690-acre Eaton Fire in Altadena and one in the 19,978-acre Palisades Fire. Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell said the Palisades fire victims were reported in the 15300 block of Friends Street.
“We are deeply saddened to learn of the loss of a member of the Malibu community in the Palisades Fire,” Malibu Mayor Doug Stewart said in a statement. “Although he has not yet been identified, this tragic news weighs heavily on our hearts. On behalf of the City of Malibu, I would like to express our deepest condolences to the loved ones of this individual. Our community grieves with you at this moment of unimaginable loss.”
Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said it will take time to get an accurate and complete death toll.
“We are still operating in a very fluid and active environment, which means we still have ignitions occurring in the area and we still have gas leaks,” he said. “So when people ask us the death toll, we want to answer that, but we have to wait until it’s safe for our personnel to get in there and respond appropriately. No.”
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