MALIBU, Calif. (AP) — Two people were found dead and scores of houses from the celebrity mansions of Malibu to the mobile homes of seniors in the suburbs burned in a pair of wildfires that stretched across more than 100 square miles of Southern California, authorities said Saturday. The two bodies were found in a sparsely populated stretch of Mulholland Highway in Malibu, but Los Angeles County sheriff’s Chief John Benedict offered no further details. It brings to 11 the number of people killed in the state’s wildfires in the past few days, with nine found dead in a Northern California wildfire. Firefighters have saved thousands of homes despite working in “extreme, tough fire conditions that they said they have never seen in their life,” Los Angeles County Fire Chief Daryl Osby said. Those vicious conditions on Friday night gave way to calm Saturday, with winds reduce to breezes. Firefighters used the lull to try to rein in the powerful blaze that had grown to 109 square miles (282 square kilometers) and get a grasp of how much damage it did in its first two days. Osby said losses to homes were “significant” but did not say how many had burned. Officials said earlier that 150 houses had been destroyed and the number would rise. Some 250,000 homes are under evacuation orders across the region. Fire burned in famously ritzy coastal spots like Malibu , where Lady Gaga, Kim Kardashian West, Guillermo del Toro and Martin Sheen were among those… [Read full story]
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