Home » How many people are still missing in the Los Angeles fires? – Jobsmaa.com

How many people are still missing in the Los Angeles fires? – Jobsmaa.com

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The last time Kevin Devine's mother asked him was on January 7th.

She was on the phone with her mother, Margaret Devine, at her apartment on Boston Street in Altadena. The next day, she can pick it up at her local market in Michigan. But as the evening wore on, Margaret watched updates on the fires in Los Angeles and asked her son if he was safe.

“I said, 'Kevin, you have to leave.' He said, 'I'm fine, Mom,'” she recalled.

What happened next is that Kevin Devin occupies a strange place in the Los Angeles fire — missing but not confirmed dead.

A man owns a dog.

Kevin Devin went missing after the Eaton fire in Altadena.

(Margaret Devine)

His landlord saw him in his car outside the apartment complex shortly after 9 p.m., but no one had heard from him. His car wasn't in the apartment building, so there was no way he was coming back. His family doesn't know where he went, or where he got caught in the fast-moving Eaton fire.

They checked hospitals and convention centers, but they couldn't get any information. His mother is already speaking in the past tense.

He was an actor. He was a substitute teacher.

Margaret Devine was not alone.

The fire destroyed homes in Pacific Palisades, Malibu and Altadena, where a reported number of residents were unable to evacuate in time. Firefighters and law enforcement personnel have begun digging through the wreckage to find their remains.

Most of the people first reported missing in the fire have been found safe, but with each passing day, hopes fade. Margaret and her other children knew that Kevin Devin would reach out to them if he could.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department told The Times Thursday that 31 people were missing — 24 from the Eden fire and seven from the Palisades fire.

The Los Angeles Police Department's number of people missing from the Palisades fire is slightly different, with five people still missing instead of seven, the department said. Initially, the LAPD said 38 people were missing from the fire, but 30 people were found safe and three people were found dead.

Officials warn that the number of people still missing could continue to rise, even if the death toll from the fire is not as high. As of Thursday, officials have confirmed 17 people died in the Eaton fire and 10 in the Palisades fire.

LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell said Wednesday that the search for human remains is ongoing.

“They … go with cadaver dogs and try to find remains and recover them so that we can hold the families of missing relatives accountable and do that very respectfully. “Possible way,” he said. “There will probably be people … who haven't been reported missing.”

McDonnell said he expects the death toll to rise.

A Cal fire official inspects the fire damage.

Cal Fire Deputy State Fire Marshal Michelle Knight inspects the damage to a home damaged by the Eaton fire in Altadena on Wednesday.

(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)

On Tuesday morning, search and rescue teams assembled at the Rose Bowl incident command center with a map of Altadena and began another phase of the search across a wide area of ​​Altadena. Crews have been going to the area daily to search for bodies in the rubble, said Sgt. Bob Bose with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

Across the county, others got the news they feared.

Miwa Friedley's house was destroyed in the fire, but no one knows what happened to her, said Ruth Brown, her daughter-in-law.

The family said the 86-year-old had gone missing and was distressed over his fate. They shared a hashtag

But on Thursday – which would have been Friedli's 87th birthday – the family confirmed that search and rescue teams had found his remains in the rubble of his home.

“It's a blessing because we found her,” Brown said. “If we can get some closure, that allows us to move.”

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