At least 28 people have died as multiple wildfires, fueled by severe drought conditions and strong winds, rage across Southern California.Thousands of firefighters have been battling wildfires across 45 square miles of densely populated Los Angeles County.

Bryan Strehl, 26, drove up to Upper Hastings Ranch to survey the familiar area. He was born and raised in Pasadena and teaches at Altadena elementary school, where, he said, six of his students and a colleague lost their homes in the Eaton fire.

Los Angeles, Pasadena and others are putting in extra work to make sure wildfire areas full of green waste debris get cleaned up before this rain.

The Clay fire, which broke out Tuesday in a river bottom in Riverside County east of Los Angeles, quickly spread to nearly 40 acres. But by Tuesday night, crews had stopped its progress and were doing “extensive mop-up operations,” Riverside officials said. It was 40 percent contained as of 4 a.m. Wednesday, according to Cal Fire.

Homeowner, Totress Beasley, had just made her final payment on her Pasadena home days before it was destroyed in the Eaton fire.

From Albania to Zimbabwe, Altadena is now a dateline, plus a real place, everyone around the world recognizes, for the tragedy that is the Eaton fire that mostly burned down the town, and for the resilience of the townspeople.

More than 10,000 structures across Los Angeles County have been reduced to ashes as wildfires continue to blaze across parts of Southern California.

Thousands of sandbags are being loaded in anticipation of an upcoming storm that could lead to mudslides in Southern California’s recent burn zones. Cal Fire and California Conservation

In separate lawsuits, Benjamin Crump and the NAACP are going after Southern California Electric on behalf of Eaton fire victims.

At least 28 people are believed to be dead and more than a dozen others remain unaccounted for as multiple wildfires rage across Southern California.

Amara Barroeta has been trying to recover since the LA fires burned down her daughter's private school and hurt her business.

The official response to the fires seemed awkward, but we did what we could for one another, even as our neighbors said, “The home I loved is never coming back.”