Los Angeles County officials summarized firefighting progress, technical fixes to an emergency-alert malfunction and early recovery steps at a press briefing, while urging residents to follow evacuation orders and use county resources.

Director of the Office of Emergency Management Kevin McGowan told reporters the county has made an initial determination that an erroneous alert originated from a software error that caused a message intended for a targeted group to be broadcast countywide. “We believe that the problem occurred in the software system that accidentally blasted this alert countywide, rather than to the targeted recipients,” McGowan said, and said the county is changing systems to partner with the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services to issue coordinated alerts through the state alert-and-warning center.

The malfunction also produced so-called “echo alerts” after cell towers came back online. “The outdated alerts were cached in the system, and as they came back online, started being released to the public,” McGowan said. He added the county is working with FEMA, the FCC, state officials and telecommunications providers to flush outdated messages from towers and reduce the chance of recurrence. McGowan urged residents to sign up for the county’s customizable Alert LA County notifications at alert.lacounty.gov and said the county is enhancing the 211 call network to help people without internet access.

Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony Maroney provided incident statistics: the Eaton fire was estimated at 14,117 acres with 15% containment, with “over 7,000 structures damaged or destroyed” and 2,832 personnel assigned. Maroney said weather conditions supporting critical fire behavior — including predicted Santa Ana winds and dry vegetation — would continue to elevate risk. “We will continue to battle these wildfires until they are fully contained,” he said.

Cal Fire Incident Management Team Unified Incident Commander Todd Hopkins gave figures for the Palisades incident: about 21,596 acres and 11% contained, with roughly 1,000 acres of growth overnight in the Mandeville Canyon area. Early reconnaissance estimated 5,316 structures destroyed in the Palisades footprint, but Hopkins cautioned that “structures does not mean homes. Structures can be homes, outbuildings, RVs, automobiles, or other types of things like sheds or outbuildings.” Damage inspections confirmed 426 homes destroyed as of the briefing, and Hopkins said more than 105,000 people remained evacuated.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna described public-safety operations and enforcement measures. He said roughly 153,000 residents were under evacuation orders and about 166,000 under evacuation warnings, and that approximately 57,000 structures remained at risk. The sheriff’s department instituted a curfew in mandatory evacuation zones for the Palisades and Eaton fire areas from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. “This curfew will be strictly enforced,” Luna said, and noted violations could result in arrest under the county code and possible fines. The sheriff said about 400 National Guard members were deployed to assist law enforcement partners, and that the department had made 22 arrests related to the fires (19 in the Eaton area and 3 in the Palisades area), including arrests for unauthorized entry and curfew violations.

Sheriff Luna also announced search-and-rescue operations and victim support: the department committed 40 members of its specialized search-and-rescue teams to grid searches with LA County Fire, FEMA and other partners; a joint family assistance center was opened at 300 East Green Street in Pasadena from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.; and county family-assistance teams include the coroner, Red Cross and the Department of Mental Health. He reported 11 confirmed deaths in the sheriff’s area of responsibility (8 in the Eaton fire and 3 in the Palisades area) and 13 missing people, and urged patience as counts are refined.

On recovery and administrative steps, Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Chair Kathryn Barger said the federal government had declared a public-health emergency and that Los Angeles County Public Health had made a matching declaration. Barger said she coauthored a motion with Supervisor Lindsey Horvath directing the county chief executive officer to develop oversight and draft parameters for a survivor relief fund to be managed by a third-party fiscal sponsor. “I was shocked to find out that to give $500, they were gonna charge me $95,” Barger said about GoFundMe fees and said she would contact the platform seeking lower fees for crisis donations. Barger also directed county departments to set up local assistance centers and said libraries would provide computers and a warm line with the assessor to help displaced residents complete FEMA and assessor claim forms; she said FEMA was working to fix a reported glitch that auto-denies claims when applicants check that they have insurance.

Supervisor Lindsey Horvath said the board planned to ratify the local emergency proclamation at the board meeting on Tuesday to unlock state and federal assistance, including access to the California Disaster Assistance Act through Cal OES. Horvath also urged residents to avoid ocean waters near Surfrider Beach to Dockweiler State Beach because of contamination concerns and thanked mutual-aid partners for resources from other states and countries.

On investigations into the fires, Sheriff Luna said detectives from multiple agencies were working with LA County Fire, the Los Angeles Police Department, the FBI and the ATF. “Everything is absolutely on the table,” he said, and asked the public to report suspicious posts or information to investigators.

Officials closed by repeating resources: the county emergency website (emergency.lacounty.gov), Alert LA County sign-up (alert.lacounty.gov), the family-assistance center address in Pasadena and a donation coordination site, the Emergency Network of Los Angeles (www.enla.org).

The press briefing transitioned to a question-and-answer session with reporters after the prepared remarks.