The largest of the Los Angeles fires spread toward previously untouched neighbourhoods Saturday, forcing new evacuations and dimming hopes that the disaster was coming under control.

Across the city, at least 11 people have died as multiple fires have ripped through residential areas since Tuesday, razing thousands of homes in destruction that US President Joe Biden likened to a “war scene.”

Despite huge firefighting efforts, the Palisades fire’s expansion prompted evacuation orders in ritzy neighbourhoods along its eastern flank, which include the famous Getty Center art museum.

Winds were forecast to pick up again on Saturday after a brief lull, posing the risk of new fires as embers are blown into dry brush.

Los Angeles residents have increasingly demanded to know who is at fault for the disaster as they grapple with the ruin and local anger rises over officials’ preparedness and response.

Residents like Nicole Perri, whose home in the upscale Pacific Palisades burnt down, told AFP that officials “completely let us down.”

“I don’t think the officials were prepared at all,” said James Brown, a 65-year-old retired lawyer across the city in Altadena.

California Governor Gavin Newsom ordered a “full independent review” on Friday, describing the lack of water supplies during the initial fires as “deeply troubling.”

“We need answers to how that happened,” he wrote in an open letter.

As reports of looting grew, a sunset-to-sunrise curfew was imposed in evacuated areas.

Around two dozen arrests have already been made across Los Angeles, where some residents have organized street patrols and kept armed watch over their own houses.

The National Guard has been deployed to bolster law enforcement.