Sheriff calls on wildfire evacuees to be patient amid 'grim' search for bodies

Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna asked community members to be patient with local officials, as residents eagerly await permission to return to their homes in Southern California, where tens of thousands of acres have been decimated by wildfires in the past week.

At a press conference on Monday, Luna said officials are still searching for remains, which he said is a “grim” task that takes time.

“We are still, for the Altadena area, we are in the third day of grid searching,” Luna said. “It is a very grim task, and we, unfortunately, every day we're doing this, we're running across the remains of individual community members.”

“That is not easy work. Very sad to report. And I believe that work is not only going to continue, but I believe we'll continue to find remains. So please be patient with us,” he added.

Luna said staff has been attending community meetings throughout the county and, he added, “We are hearing our community loud and clear, and we want to get you in there as soon as possible.”

“People are saying, 'I just want to go look at my house, and I want to see what's left.' We know that, but we have people literally looking for the remains of your neighbors,” Luna said. “Please be patient with us.”

“There is a lot of hazards in the area, still,” he continued. “The area has not been rendered safe. Please be patient with us. And then we have the potential of crime scenes, and I have, I'm not saying that's what it is. I'm just saying we have to think ahead because we can't go back from that. So please be patient with us.”

Luna said more than 92,000 people remain under evacuation orders and 89,000 people remain under evacuation warnings. He said these numbers are lower than they were in recent days.

The death toll from the wildfires rose to 24 this weekend, the coroner's office said Sunday night.

As of Monday afternoon, the Palisades Fire was 14 percent contained, the Eaton Fire was 33 percent contained, and the Hurst Fire was 95 percent contained. Together, nearly 40,000 acres have been burned, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection incident report.

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