The devastating Palisades Fire pushed to the northeast in the Hollywood Hills, prompting new evacuations in the ultra-affluent Southern California neighborhoods of Brentwood and Bel-Air as the threat of more dry winds raised risks after a brief respite.

The spreading flames brought “another night of unimaginable terror and heartbreak,” Los Angeles County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath said.

The expanded evacuation area covers some of Los Angeles’s most important cultural institutions, including the Getty Center, an architectural landmark and the campus of the University of California at Los Angeles.

The 2019 Getty Fire in the same area forced celebrities like LA Lakers star LeBron James and former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to flee their homes. This weekend’s evacuation orders also include Encino.

“We are hurting, we are grieving, we are angry. And I am too,” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass told reporters Saturday.

After a brief break from the winds that gave firefighters a chance to make even small progress, dry winds will fan the blazes and likely persist through the first half of the coming week, leaving millions in peril, according to the U.S. Storm Prediction Center.

So far, the devastation has killed 11 people, eight in the Eaton Fire and three in Pacific Palisades. Thirteen are missing, officials said. Another 19 have been arrested for curfew violations, burglary and looting. More than 16,000 people have applied for assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA Regional Administrator Bob Fenton said.

No rain is in the forecast, weather officials said. Winds and dry conditions “will keep fire threat in LA County high,” county Fire Chief Anthony Marrone said Saturday.

For almost a week, terror has spread across Los Angeles and its surrounding communities as thousands of homes and other buildings have been destroyed, and more than 180,000 have had to flee the spreading flames. The Palisades and Eaton fires have been so ferocious that they have already become the third- and fourth-most destructive in state history and neither is out yet, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, known as Cal Fire.

The fires also have put pressure on utilities that preemptively cut electricity to residents. Edison International’s Southern California power company has been asked by attorneys representing insurance companies to preserve evidence in connection with the Eaton Fire.

Edison has also said fire agencies are investigating whether the company’s equipment was involved in the ignition of the smaller Hurst Fire near San Fernando.

The U.S. Bureau of Acohol, Tobacco and Firearms is taking over as the lead agency in the investigation into the fires’ cause, Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell announced.

“They have tremendous resources and expertise and can bring in resources from across the country to do their investigation,” McDonnell said.

California has a history of devastating wildfires sparked by electric utility equipment during wind storms. The state’s largest utility, PG&E Corp., filed for bankruptcy in 2019 after a series of deadly blazes blamed on its wires.

The fires are the most devastating natural disaster to strike Los Angeles since the 1994 Northridge earthquake, which killed 57 people, and are likely to rank among the costliest natural disasters in modern U.S. history. Commercial-forecaster AccuWeather Inc. estimates direct and secondary losses, which account for uninsured destruction and indirect economic impact such as lost wages and supply-chain disruptions, may reach between $135 billion to $150 billion.

Early Saturday, the Palisades fire had burned at least 22,660 acres (9,170 hectares) and was only 11% contained, while the Eaton blaze close to Pasadena had consumed 14,117 acres and was 15% contained, officials said. Between the two, more than 10,000 structures have been destroyed. Crews are also battling three smaller incidents in the area.

A mandatory evacuation order was issued from Sunset Boulevard North to the Encino Reservoir and from the 405 Freeway west to Mandeville Canyon, a populated area. New shelters have been opened for evacuees.

While the crews are in the field, officials have begun to critique the region’s response.

Los Angeles Fire Chief Kristin Crowley pointed the finger at city leaders for cutting her department’s budget, saying it hindered the firefight and told local television station Fox 11 “it did impact our ability to provide service.”

Bass, who trimmed more than $17 million in funding to the fire department, defended her actions on Friday, saying the reductions came during “tough budgetary times” and didn’t affect the wildfire response.

She addressed them again on Saturday, saying “any differences that we might have will be worked out in private, but right now, our first and most important obligation to Angelenos is to get through this crisis.”

California Governor Gavin Newsom sent the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power a letter requesting a review of why hydrants in the fire zones repeatedly ran low on water. He pointed to a reservoir that the Los Angeles Times reported had been closed for repairs when the fires struck, calling the lack of water “deeply troubling to me and to the community.”

Gusts will likely reach 40 miles (64 kilometers) to 60 miles per hour by early next week, said Ryan Kittell, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Oxnard, California.

“It’s a step down from what we had earlier this week, but it is still quite significant,” he said.

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With assistance from David R. Baker, Eliyahu Kamisher, Hari Govind and Mark Chediak.

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