The extent of the damage from is horrific however it's tallied: Neighborhoods have been erased, and lives lost. But officials have prompted some confusion by suggesting their count of 鈥渟tructures鈥� damaged 鈥� more than 12,000 鈥� includes not just homes, apartments and businesses, but also vehicles.
Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone is among the leaders who have said the estimate includes vehicles 鈥� a caveat not typically made when authorities estimate fire damage. As California's wildfire agency quickly listed the 91原创 Palisades and Eaton fires , that led to questions about whether the count was comparing apples and oranges.
Chris Thomas, a spokesman for the unified incident command at the Palisades fire, said Friday that the initial estimate is based on infrared imaging taken during overhead flight, and it's not always easy to tell from that altitude whether a burned-out shape was a pickup truck, say, or a shed.
Officials examined the images and excluded any that appeared to be vehicles, Thomas said 鈥� for example, if it was clearly in a driveway, or along the side of a road where there were no homes. Sixteen teams are examining the damage from the ground and will conclusively determine how many structures were destroyed before reaching a final count, which will not include vehicles.
鈥淲e have a lot of things in it that aren鈥檛 really structures,鈥� Thomas said. 鈥淚f there鈥檚 any question, they err on the side of caution鈥� by including it.
Thus, the final tally of destroyed structures could be lower than the 12,000 estimate officials have given.
鈥淲e're trying to be transparent and say, 'This is what we're doing,' but then we have to go back and explain, 'Well, here's why cars might be counted,'鈥� Thomas said.
Structures that can be counted include freestanding outbuildings, such as a garage, shed or pool house.
Gene Johnson, The Associated Press
