First deaths and looting arrests announced in Los Angeles fires: sheriff

Two people have been killed by wildfires raging out of control in the Los Angeles area, according to local authorities.

The Eaton Fire blazing through communities around Pasadena and Altadena, California, has forced 32,500 residents to leave their homes under evacuation orders Wednesday morning, down from 50,000 overnight, and Los Angeles County sheriff Robert Luna confirmed two fatalities already.

"Even as I was driving up here, even as I'm walking up to this podium, I'm getting messages about several of our employees who are have lost their homes in the last several hours," Luna said at a news conference. "I don't know how many because we are still gathering that information, but like all – we all live here in Los Angeles County, so we are impacted. So we're going to make sure that within our department, we're wrapping our arms around our employees, just like we do with community members."

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"Again, as I was coming up here, I did find out that we did have two fatalities in this area," the sheriff added. "I don't have any specifics. There is a lot of damage out there. We're still in the process of doing these assessments, trying to still save lives, so this information is going to change."

The Altadena sheriff's station was evacuated and suffered at least some fire damage, but Luna said all employees managed to evacuate to safety.

"Our deputies who were trying to evacuate the Altadena station, and then residents were running up from different locations around there asking them for assistance in getting them out of their structures," Luna said, "and from what I understand, they were barely able to get people out before these structures started burning. There's just heroic stories of what our deputies are doing out there from last night and this morning. I want to make sure people know that deputies are working to assist residents who are evacuating and continuing to make evacuation notices as we're speaking."

"They are securing areas that are evacuated, and it's always sad when I have to say this, but part of our responsibility is to make sure that no one loots or steals from our residents, our community members who are already being impacted," Luna added, "and I'm sad to report, we've made two arrests this morning for looting already. So if you are thinking about coming into any of these areas to steal from our residents, I'm going to tell you something. You're going to be caught, you're going to be arrested, and you're going to be prosecuted. Don't do that. Stay out of these areas. It's only for emergency workers and people who live there."

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