Good evening. I'm John Yang. The desperate battle between firefighters and wildfires in Los Angeles is now in its fifth day, with more evacuations and high winds threatening more lives and more homes.

Officials say there are 11 confirmed deaths from the fire so far, and at least 13 people are missing.

Stephanie Sy begins our coverage tonight from Malibu.

As the light of day dawned over Los Angeles, a thick wall of smoke fanned out over

hillside neighborhoods that so far have been spared by the flames.

But as those fires crept ever closer, helicopters scrambled to drench the wildfires

with water pulled from a nearby reservoir.

As you can see, the Palisades fire continuing to chew through the Santa Monica Mountains.

Overnight, the fire burning through Pacific Palisades spread northeast and tore through

vast tracks of the Santa Monica Mountains.

That flare up spurred additional evacuations in the Brentwood and Encino neighborhoods.

Los Angeles City Fire Chief Kristen Crowley gave an update this morning.

We immediately redeployed resources from the San Fernando Valley to begin evacuation and extinguishment efforts with a relentless air attack utilizing all available aircraft in the area.

Mayor Karen Bass stood by Crowley, responding to mounting criticism about inadequate firefighting

resources.

We have got to stay focus until this time passes.

When the fires are out, make no mistake, we will have a full accounting of what worked

and especially what did not.

A Los Angeles Times investigation found that a key area reservoir was empty in the lead

up to the fires when

firefighters confronted dry hydrants. Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony Moroni

defended the department's preparations and deflected criticism aimed at decision makers.

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