Death Toll From L.A. Fires Reaches 31 After Remains Are Found
Investigators with the office of the Los Angeles County medical examiner were called Monday to examine what appeared to be human remains at a home that had been destroyed by the fire. The medical examiner's office verified that the remains were from a victim of the Eaton fire and added to the death toll.
It was the first time since April that the medical examiner had determined that another person had died from the fires. The first 29 victims were confirmed in January.
Officials on Tuesday did not identify the remains, but in May, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department reported a missing 74-year-old man who lived on the same block as where the remains were discovered on Monday. He was last seen around 7 p.m. on the evening the Eaton fire broke out.
Officials have announced that 19 people died in the Eaton fire, and 12 in the Palisades fire in the Pacific Palisades section of Los Angeles. The Sheriff's Department did not immediately respond on Tuesday to a request for information on the remaining number of missing people or whether it was aware of additional reports of individuals who remained missing within the burn zones.
With a combined death toll of 31, the Los Angeles wildfires in January were the second deadliest wildfire disaster in California history, behind only the Camp fire, which killed 85 people and devastated the town of Paradise, Calif., in 2018.
Search and recovery efforts are often challenging for officials after natural disasters like wildfires. Little is left behind, making remains difficult to find and identify. After the Maui fire in August 2023, the death toll continued to rise almost a year later as officials discovered and identified additional remains.
More than six months after the Los Angeles firestorm, little construction has begun in Pacific Palisades and Altadena. The charred ruins of some businesses remain, but much of the debris has been removed from private residential lots.
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