Fighters at Los Angeles began to make progress against at least five separate fires burning Thursday as the Santa Ana winds fueling the inferno subsided slightly and the devastation across the region started to come into clearer focus with the smoke clearing.

Authorities say at least five churches, a synagogue, seven schools, two libraries and thousands of commercial and residential structures have been destroyed so far. Insurance industry analysts put the insured losses alone at between $6 billion and $13 billion, with overall economic losses estimated to be tens of billions of dollars more.

City leaders said firefighters slowed the spread of the two biggest fires, at Pacific Palisades and Altadena, and crews managed to partially suppress a blaze that flared up in the Hollywood Hills Wednesday night at the heart of the entertainment industry.

“While we are still facing significant threats, I am hopeful that the tide is turning,” Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger said Thursday.

Five deaths have been recorded so far, and dogs and search crews were still searching through rubble. Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said the death toll is expected to rise in the coming days.

Blame Game Starts

As fires engulfed the city, blame for the poor response has been hurled from all directions at public officials in California, up to and including Governor Newsom and the Los Angeles mayor, Karen Bass, who stands accused of recently cutting millions from the Fire Department’s budget.

“Fires in LA are sadly no surprise, yet the Mayor cut LA Fire Department’s budget by $23M. And reports of empty fire hydrants raise serious questions. Competence matters,” the owner of Los Angeles Times, Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, said in a post on X. The newspaper had endorsed Ms. Bass for the mayoral seat in October 2022.

“Sadly, the winds have been known for over a week, but staffing and budget cuts don’t allow us to plan and prepare and pre-deploy as we should have,” one LAFD firefighter said to Fox11 Los Angeles.

Last month, the Los Angeles Fire Department chief Kristin Crowley warned city hall in a letter that the budget reduction — which cut $7 million earmarked for training and other key functions – would hinder the department’s response to major emergencies, according to a report from NBC4 Los Angeles.

“The reduction… has severely limited the department’s capacity to prepare for, train for, and respond to large-scale emergencies, including wildfires,” Ms. Crowley wrote in her December 4 memo.

Ms. Bass was also roasted for being halfway across the globe as the fires broke out. She left Los Angeles to attend the inauguration of Ghana’s president, John Dramani Mahama, just as the National Weather Service warned about the incoming windstorm fueling the fires.

‘Like a Third World Country’

“This is like a third world country… there is no water coming out of the fire hydrants. LA Mayor Karen Bass is on a foreign trip to Ghana,” real estate developer Rick Caruso, who lost to Ms. Bass in the most recent mayoral election, said in an interview with local news.

“Obama made sure that Rick Caruso, who is extremely competent, lost to utterly incompetent Mayor Karen (her real name),” Elon Musk posted on X along with video from Mr. Caruso’s interview.

Mr. Newsom has also faced sharp criticism for the wildfire response. On Wednesday, he clapped back at President-elect Trump for placing the blame squarely on him. In an interview on CNN, the governor accused the incoming president of trying to “politicize” the chaos caused by the hellish inferno. “I hate to even ask this question, but the president-elect chose to attack you, blame you for this,” the news anchor said.

“[O]ne can’t even respond to it,” Mr. Newsom responded. “People are literally fleeing. People have lost their lives. Kids lost their schools, families completely torn asunder, churches burned down. This guy wanted to politicize it.

Trump Weighs In

Earlier in the day, Trump took to his social media platform, Truth Social, to call out the governor and his past policies on water distribution as reports surfaced throughout the day that firefighters are having trouble finding enough water to contain the life- and property-threatening flames.

“Governor Gavin Newscum [sic] refused to sign the water restoration declaration put before him that would have allowed millions of gallons of water, from excess rain and snow melt from the North, to flow daily into many parts of California, including the areas that are currently burning in a virtually apocalyptic way,” Trump wrote in one post. 

“He is the blame for this. On top of it all, no water for fire hydrants, not firefighting planes. A true disaster!” 

He then continued throughout the day to hurl written jabs at Mr. Newsom as the fires continued to rage.“One of the best and most beautiful parts of the United States of America is burning down to the ground,” he wrote in another post late Wednesday evening. “It’s ashes, and Gavin Newscum [sic] should resign. This is all his fault!!!”