LOS ANGELES — More than 1,100 homes, businesses and other buildings have burned and at least five people are dead in wildfires scorching communities across Los Angeles County, making this one of the most destructive firestorms to hit the region in memory.

The five bodies were found in three structures in Altadena, where the Eaton fire exploded Tuesday night, giving residents little time to flee.

Causes of death have not been determined, L.A. County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone said at a Wednesday evening news conference. The agency has requested K-9s that specialize in human-remains detection, which will be used to ensure no other people are unaccounted for in the blaze, Marrone said.

In Pacific Palisades, the Palisades fire had charred more than 15,800 acres as of Wednesday afternoon, burning down to Pacific Coast Highway, where it engulfed multimillion-dollar homes along the iconic stretch.

Earlier in the day, Marrone said that although there had been no fatalities in the Palisades fire, officials had seen “a high number of significant injuries to residents who did not evacuate, in addition to first responders who were on the fire line.”

The Eaton fire, which broke out Tuesday night, had burned 10,600 acres as of Wednesday evening near Altadena and Pasadena, whipped by wind gusts of up to 99 mph, Angeles National Forest staff wrote on X. More than 1,000 structures have been destroyed in that fire, Marrone said.

Then, at around 5:45 p.m., a new blaze, dubbed the Sunset fire, exploded in the Hollywood Hills, prompting evacuations around the Runyon Canyon area.

The Hurst fire, which spread quickly amid high winds overnight in Sylmar, had burned 700 acres as of Wednesday evening.

The causes of the fires are under investigation, and all remained 0% contained.

“What we saw here in the last 24 hours is unprecedented,” LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell said Wednesday afternoon. “I’ve never seen anything like this.”

On Wednesday, the roughly 2,500 firefighters assigned to the Eaton and Palisades blazes endured another challenging day of fire fueled by extreme winds, bone-dry brush and low humidity. As the large fires raged, crews across the region rushed to contain small blazes that popped up in Fontana, Sun Valley and Brentwood.

L.A. County Sheriff Robert Luna that said 70,000 residents were under evacuation orders or warnings in the Eaton fire area and that 60,000 residents were under evacuation orders or warnings in the Palisades fire region. Three people had been arrested on suspicion of looting in the evacuation zones, he said.

“That is 100% unacceptable,” he said. “These people have gone through so much. Don’t put them through more than they have to go through.”

Red flag warnings remained in effect for Los Angeles County and much of Ventura County through Thursday, with officials warning of a “life-threatening, destructive and widespread windstorm.” Winds, which were expected to ease through the day Wednesday, will linger and become more widespread in the coming days, forecasters said.

“We are absolutely not out of danger yet,” Los Angeles Fire Department Chief Kristin Crowley said, adding that “these fires are stretching the capacity of emergency services to the maximum limits.”

Fire officials acknowledged that they were overwhelmed by the power and size of the three major fires and that crews and resources were taxed to the extreme.

Firefighters were heard on emergency radios requesting additional support and crews, Marrone said Wednesday, acknowledging that there was simply not enough staffing for an emergency of this size.

In Altadena, fire engines were scarce as dozens of homes continued to burn on Wednesday. Residents were told that resources were limited and, in some instances, watched as trucks passed one house to try to salvage another. Some neighbors tried to fight the flames with hoses while others watched in disbelief.

Plumes of smoke dotted the sky as fires engulfed homes at random. A stretch of New York Drive, a main thoroughfare, was left untouched while homes burned less than two blocks away.

“We tried to get them the help they needed,” Marrone said. “We’re doing the very best we can. But no, we don’t have enough fire personnel in L.A. County between all the departments to handle this.”

Firefighters also faced a lack of water in some hydrants at higher elevations in Pacific Palisades. The Department of Water and Power said the issue arose due to unprecedented strain on the system.

In Pacific Palisades, wind gusts approaching 100 mph and terrain primed to burn bedeviled firefighters’ efforts to control the blaze, which was burning into the Santa Monica Mountains and west toward the ocean, Los Angeles Fire Capt. Erik Scott said.

“The fire is being fueled by strong Santa Ana winds and surrounding topography, which makes it extremely challenging for us firefighters to really get a handle on it,” Scott said. “Our priority is life and structure defense.”

Early Wednesday, firefighting aircraft resumed work on the Palisades and Eaton fires, the latter burning in the hills above Altadena near Eaton Canyon, after being grounded Tuesday night during high winds.

“Having air support is huge,” said Carlos Herrera, a spokesperson for the county Fire Department. “We can see the fire in real time — where it’s moving, how it’s acting — and if we see it’s moving in a direction that may affect structures, then we can get ahead of it.”

During a briefing in Santa Monica, President Biden pledged that the federal government would throw every available resource at the blazes. Two Modular Airborne Fire Fighting System units were being deployed from the California and Nevada national guards, and 10 Navy helicopters with water buckets were en route from San Diego, according to the White House.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom also called on the National Guard to assist with the fire and evacuations, and 200 personnel have been deployed, said Col. Brian Hill.

“It’s astounding what’s happened,” Biden said. “We’re prepared to do anything and everything for as long as it takes to contain these fires.”

Firefighters are traveling to L.A. County from all across Southern California as well as Northern California, Phoenix and Oregon.

The additional resources come as residents wait and wonder whether their homes are standing.

At sunrise Wednesday, much of Pacific Coast Highway remained in near-total darkness, enveloped by thick smoke. Entire structures were burning, with tree limbs and power lines down between Will Rogers State Beach and Carbon Beach. In many areas, the fire had jumped the highway straight to the beach.

Palisades resident Bill Stange spent the morning at Malibu Bluffs Park, as close as he could get to the fire he had fled with just a few belongings the night before. Dozens of others were stationed in their cars, desperate to get back in and see the damage.

A friend had initially texted that it looked like Stange’s home was standing, but Stange saw reports that his whole hillside neighborhood was gone. The property — built in 1950 and rebuilt after the 1993 fire that hit the area — has been in his family for decades. His parents had left the property to him after their deaths, and he had planned to leave it to his own children. Now, he’s unsure of what to do.

“A lot of people can’t compete with the rising cost of rebuilding a house, and so they went on to other places,” he said. “We’ve been hanging on. I don’t think the fire department is ready for a thing like this. It’s too big.”

The lack of rain this winter has extended the fire season in Southern California. Since Oct. 1, the beginning of the water year, downtown Los Angeles has received 0.16 of an inch of rain — a tiny fraction of the average 4.64 inches that the area gets by this point in the season. The dry brush paired with extreme winds created a catastrophic scenario.

The National Weather Service has warned of a “particularly dangerous situation” continuing across the San Gabriel Mountains, Beverly Hills and Hollywood Hills, coastal areas adjacent to the Sepulveda Pass, the Santa Monica Mountains, Malibu and eastern Ventura County. The weather service issued the same warning about a month ago when the Franklin fire ignited and spread rapidly in Malibu. It went on to burn more than 4,037 acres, destroy 20 structures and damage 28 more.

This type of red flag warning is expected to occur, on average, once every three to five years. But the National Weather Service office in Oxnard has issued three such warnings this fire season.

Ariel Cohen, the meteorologist in charge of the NOAA/National Weather Service in Oxnard, said the winds that swept through the Los Angeles region were more powerful than the 2011 winds that caused serious damage in Pasadena, Altadena and other San Gabriel Valley neighborhoods.

“The winds far surpass 2011 in magnitude, in coverage, in destruction,” Cohen said. “They’ve also been accompanied by a wildfire outbreak, a complete apocalyptic scene across the greater Los Angeles area. It’s a catastrophic situation. This is an extraordinarily rare, once-in-every-couple-decades kind of windstorm.”

McDonnell, the Los Angeles Police Department chief, cautioned residents to remain vigilant even if they’re not currently in an area besieged by fire.

“These are unprecedented conditions, but also unpredictable,” he said. “As the fires continue to spread and pop up in different locations, none of us know where the next one is going to be.”

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(Los Angeles Times staff writers Keri Blakinger, Brittny Mejia, Liam Dillon, Rong-Gong Lin II, Jenny Jarvie, Colleen Shalby and Laura J. Nelson contributed to this report.)

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