LOS ANGELES (AP) — Firefighters raced Saturday to cut off spreading wildfires before potentially strong winds return that could push the flames toward the world famous J. Paul Getty Museum and the University of California, Los Angeles, while new evacuation warnings left more homeowners on edge.

A fierce battle against the flames was underway in Mandeville Canyon, home to Arnold Schwarzenegger and other celebrities not far from the Pacific coast, where swooping helicopters dumped water as the blaze charged downhill. Firefighters on the ground used hoses in an attempt to beat back leaping flames as thick smoke blanketed the chaparral-covered hillside.

At a briefing, CalFire Operations Chief Christian Litz said a main focus Saturday would be the Palisades Fire burning in the canyon area, not far from the UCLA campus.

“We need to be aggressive out there,” Litz said.

County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath said the LA area “had another night of unimaginable terror and heartbreak, and even more Angelenos evacuated due to the northeast expansion of the Palisades Fire.”

Only light breezes were fanning the flames, but the National Weather Service warned that locally strong Santa Ana winds — the nemesis of firefighters — could soon return. Those winds have been blamed for turning wildfires into infernos that leveled entire neighborhoods in the LA area, where there has been no significant rainfall in more than eight months.

The fire also was threatening to jump over Interstate 405, a main traffic artery through the area, which could become a gateway to densely populated areas in the Hollywood Hills and San Fernando Valley.

The hunt for bodies continues

Even as the fires spread, the grim work of sifting through the devastation continued Saturday, with teams conducting systematic grid searches with cadaver dogs, said Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna. A family assistance center also was being set up in Pasadena, said Luna, who urged residents to abide by curfews.

“We have people driving up and around trying to get in just to look. Stay away,” he said. “We understand that this is extremely stressful and absolutely challenging, but we appreciate the public’s cooperation as we work together to get through this crisis.”

The fires have consumed about 56 square miles (145 square kilometers) — an area larger than San Francisco. Tens of thousands of people remained under evacuation orders and new evacuations were ordered Friday evening in an area that includes part of Interstate 405 after a flare up on the eastern side of the Palisades Fire.

Since the fires first began popping up around a densely populated, 25-mile (40-kilometer) expanse north of downtown LA, they have burned more than 12,000 structures, a term that includes homes, apartment buildings, businesses, outbuildings and vehicles. No cause has been identified yet for the largest fires.

The fires are still burning but early estimates indicate the losses so far could make the wildfires the nation’s costliest ever. A preliminary estimate by AccuWeather put the damage and economic losses so far between $135 billion and $150 billion.

Survivors return to the wreckage of their homes

On Friday, many residents returned in a state of shock. For some, it was a first look at the stark reality of what was lost as the region of 13 million people grapples with the ominous challenge of overcoming the disaster and rebuilding.

Bridget Berg, who was at work when she watched television coverage of her house in Altadena erupt in flames, came back for the first time with her family two days later “just to make it real.”

Their feet crunched across the broken bits of what had been their home for 16 years.

Her kids sifted through debris on the sidewalk, finding a clay pot and a few keepsakes as they searched for Japanese wood prints they hoped to recover. Her husband pulled his hand out of rubble near the still-standing fireplace, holding up a piece of petrified wood handed down by his grandmother.

“It’s OK. It’s OK,” Berg said as much to herself as others as she took stock of the destruction, remembering the deck and pool from which her family watched fireworks. “It’s not like we just lost our house — everybody lost their house.”

City leadership accused of skimping on firefighting funds

Allegations of leadership failures and political blame have begun and so have investigations. Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday ordered state officials to determine why a 117 million-gallon (440 million-liter) reservoir was out of service and some hydrants had run dry. Meanwhile, Los Angeles Fire Chief Kristin Crowley said city leadership failed her department by not providing enough money for firefighting. She also criticized the lack of water.

“When a firefighter comes up to a hydrant, we expect there’s going to be water,” she said.

At least 11 people have been killed, five in the Palisades Fire and six in the Eaton Fire, according to the LA County medical examiner’s office. Officials said they expected that number to rise as cadaver dogs search leveled neighborhoods and crews assess the devastation, and on Friday authorities established a center where people could report the missing.

The disaster took homes from everyone — from waiters to movie stars. The government has not yet released figures on the cost of the damage, but private firms have estimated it will climb into the tens of billions. The Walt Disney Co. announced Friday it will donate $15 million to respond to the fires and help rebuild.

The flames hit schools, churches, a synagogue, libraries, boutiques, bars, restaurants, banks and local landmarks including the Will Rogers’ Western Ranch House and a Queen Anne-style mansion in Altadena that was commissioned by wealthy mapmaker Andrew McNally and had stood since 1887.

Progress made on fighting the Eaton fire

Firefighters for the first time made progress Friday afternoon on the Eaton Fire north of Pasadena, which has burned more than 7,000 structures. Officials said most evacuation orders for the area had been lifted.

LA Mayor Karen Bass, who faces a critical test of her leadership as her city endures its greatest crisis in decades, said several smaller fires also were stopped.

Crews earlier Friday had been gaining ground on the Palisades Fire, which burned 5,300 structures and is the most destructive in LA’s history.

California National Guard troops arrived on the streets of Altadena before dawn to help protect property in the fire evacuation zone, and evening curfews were in effect to prevent looting after several earlier arrests.

The level of devastation is jarring even in a state that regularly confronts massive wildfires.

Meghan and Harry visit

On Friday, Prince Harry and his wife Meghan visited the Pasadena Convention Center to help hand out food to evacuees.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, who live about 90 miles (145 km) north of the Los Angeles area, also listed organizations supporting fire victims on their website.

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Ramer reported from Concord, N.H.

Nineteen passengers, including four minors, who cruised on board Royal Caribbean’s Symphony of the Sea are suing the cruise line and a former company employee, who placed hidden cameras in their guest rooms. 

Arvin Joseph Mirasol, a citizen of the Philippines and former Royal Caribbean crew member named in the lawsuit filed on Tuesday, was sentenced in August in Florida to 30 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to producing child pornography.

The passengers, who were not named in the lawsuit and rather referred to by abbreviations, are mostly American citizens from all across the country, including New York, Georgia, Missouri, Arkansas and Texas, while several passengers are from Canada. 

The latest suit, obtained by Fox News Digital, comes months after a separate class-action lawsuit was filed against Mirasol and the Miami-based cruise line in October, alleging that as many as 960 people may have been victims of a hidden camera in a bathroom on board.

“This is an extraordinarily unusual case in that the pool of victims can be nearly 1,000 or more men, women and children,” Spencer Aronfeld with Aronfeld Trial Lawyers, who represent the 19 cruise ship passengers, told Fox News Digital. 

ROYAL CARIBBEAN CRUISE LINE SUED OVER HIDDEN CAMERA THAT MAY HAVE FILMED HUNDREDS OF PASSENGERS: LAWSUIT

The new lawsuit alleges that during his time working as a stateroom attendant on the cruise line from December 2023 through February 2024, Mirasol “taped a video camera containing a memory card in the Plaintiffs’ passenger cabin bathrooms and captured images of the Plaintiffs while undressed and engaging in private activities,” without their knowledge or consent, adding that he then uploaded these images “to third parties and/or to the world wide web, including, but not limited to, the dark web.”

“For those who had their images recorded, uploaded on the internet and potentially sold on the dark web – this has created deep emotional pain, sleepless nights and tearful days,” Aronfeld told Fox News Digital.

Lawyers for the alleged victims also argue in the suit that Royal Caribbean “should have known sexual assaults were reasonably foreseeable considering the prevalence of sexual assaults aboard [Royal Caribbean’s] cruise ships.” 

There were a total of 26 sexual assaults and rapes reported during Royal Caribbean cruises in 2023, and 22 sexual assaults reported during Royal Caribbean cruises in 2022, according to the Secretary of Transportation, the documents continue. 

Overall data shows that sexual assault allegations on cruise ships rose in 2023, with 131 sex crimes reported to the FBI on ships embarking and disembarking in the United States in 2023, up from 87 in 2022, lawyers wrote. 

MAN ON VACATION WITH FAMILY GOES OVERBOARD ON NORWEGIAN CRUISE SHIP IN BAHAMAS

Arvin Joseph Mirasol was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison on Aug. 28, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of Florida. (Broward County Jail)

In addition to the crimes committed on Royal Caribbean’s Symphony of the Seas, a hidden camera was installed in a public bathroom on the top deck of another Royal Caribbean cruise ship – Harmony of the Seas – during a cruise which left Miami on April 29, 2023, according to the lawsuit. 

The camera allegedly recorded more than 150 people, including at least 40 children, using the Royal Caribbean bathroom “in various stages of undress” until the hidden camera was discovered by a passenger on May 1, 2023, lawyers wrote. 

Royal Caribbean “failed to take adequate steps and/or provide adequate security and/or training and/or supervision to prevent such sexual assaults, including video voyeurism, to occur aboard its cruise ships,” the lawsuit states, adding that the cruise line also “failed to warn its passengers of sexual assaults, including video voyeurism, occurring aboard its cruise ships.”

Lawyers argue that the motive behind this was “financial in nature,” explaining that Royal Caribbean “willfully chooses not to warn its passengers about sexual assaults, including video voyeurism, aboard its cruise ships so as not to scare any prospective passengers away.”

ROYAL CARIBBEAN PASSENGER DIES SOON AFTER BEING DETAINED FOR CHAOTIC INCIDENT CAUGHT ON VIDEO

A partial view of the U.S. company Royal Caribbean Cruise Limited tourism cruise liner Symphony of the Seas. (LOIC VENANCE/AFP via Getty Images)

As a result of Mirasol’s crimes, his alleged victims “suffer from severe emotional distress, which manifests physically, causing [them] physical sickness, sweating, nausea, insomnia, dizziness, crying, and physical pain,” their attorneys wrote, adding that the former cruise travelers “live in constant fear, reasonably under the circumstances, that images of the Plaintiffs undressed while engaging in private activities are regularly viewed by others and used for illicit purposes.”

Aronfeld Trial Lawyers, on behalf of the alleged victims, are demanding trial by jury. 

“Our mission is to fully investigate this case on behalf of our clients and hold RCL accountable for failing to properly vet, hire, supervise and retain Mr. Mirasol,” Aronfeld told Fox News Digital. “We have confidence that the jury will have no problem returning a substantial verdict in favor of the victims.”

Royal Caribbean International did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment. 

Fox News Digital’s Christina Coulter contributed to this report.