Death toll rises to 16 as firefighters continue to battle spreading wildfires in Los Angeles

Firefighting efforts continue to concentrate on building and improving containment lines with a focus on public safety and structure protection. For today, north to northeast winds will gradually increase, peaking in strength this evening and overnight,

said CAL FIRE in an update

There’s nothing left. I’ve been here about an hour and a half and I don’t want to leave,

Korn told the Associated Press

This house, my whole city is gone,

Williams said

It took a while to get out,

Sherriff wrote

Everything that we know and love is gone.”

Patrick Williams, an Altadena resident who lost his home, told the AP

We returned on Wednesday afternoon and were allowed to drive in because of my press credentials,

she continued

I grabbed my grandmother’s ring, passports, birth certificates, and left everything else to burn,

she wrote

My husband, he's not from out here, so he kind of was looking at it a little different than we were,

Navarro said

It looks like he was trying to save the home that his parents had had for almost 55 years,

Tanner said

I don’t know anywhere else other than here."

Kimiko told the station

If I’m out with her, you’re getting stopped like four or five times. Everyone knew her. Her generation, my parents’ generation, even all of my friends in high school, they’re all like, 'She was so sweet,

Navarro told NBC News on Thursday

My dad loved his family,

Anthony said

We walk outside, you could just see a red glow,

she recalled

His house is here and he was here too. He was in his bed when I found him. His whole body was there intact,

she told the station

He probably could have gotten himself out but he wasn’t going to leave my brother,

he told NBC News on Friday

My grandmother was really active. … I thought she would be 99, just walking around. We didn’t expect to lose her so tragically and that’s what hurts the most,

she said

My son tried to get him to leave, and my neighbors and myself and he said he'll be fine, I'll be here when you guys come back. And he said his house would be here,

she said

When I went back in and yelled out his name, he didn't reply back and I had to get out because the embers were so big and flying like a firestorm,

she said

I can't imagine what he might have been thinking, how he might have been so frightened,

his sister, Shari Shaw, said through tears

Once again, the temperature record has been shattered — 2024 was the hottest year since record-keeping began in 1880,

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a statement