Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna told members of his community on Monday that amid the 40,000 or so acres that have burned, searching for bodies has been "grim" work, The Hill reported.
"We are still, for the Altadena area, we are in the third day of grid searching," Luna told attendees of a press conference. "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."
During the press conference, Luna also suggested that some burned areas could be potential crime scenes.
"There is a lot of hazards in the area, still," he stated. "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."
The sheriff added that as of Monday, roughly 92,000 people are under evacuation orders, and 89,000 people are under evacuation warnings. He noted that those figures have come down in recent days.
This weekend, the death toll from the fires was reported at 24.
Nick Koutsobinas ✉
Nick Koutsobinas, a Newsmax writer, has years of news reporting experience. A graduate from Missouri State University’s philosophy program, he focuses on exposing corruption and censorship.
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