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Los Angeles has been engulfed in a blazing inferno over the past week, especially in the Pacific Palisades, Eaton, and Hurst regions, with several historic landmarks having been destroyed in the fires.
Knewz.com has learned that the raging fires, which are expected to get worse in the upcoming week, resulted in the destruction of over 9,000 homes and businesses.
Among the destroyed properties were over 30 structures considered historically significant by preservationists, according to reports.
In fact, reports have mentioned that preservationists believe the Los Angeles fires caused "the single worst loss of such properties in the region’s history."
"It’s staggering and heartbreaking — I don’t know any other way to put it... This is widespread destruction of significant architecture and places that are cherished in our communities," Ken Bernstein, principal city planner at Los Angeles City Planning’s Office of Historic Resources, said in a statement.
"The quintessential historic preservation threat of the 20th century was symbolized by the bulldozer demolishing individual historic structures or communities for urban renewal," he added.
"Today, it’s the extreme climate event. Wildfire, sea-level rise and extreme winds pose not incremental threat but constant threat of widespread destruction of our most cherished historical and architectural landmarks."
According to reports, Will Rogers’ ranch home, Pasadena Waldorf School, Robert Bridges House, The Bunny Museum, Andrew McNally House, Theatre Palisades, and The Zane Grey Estate are among the 32 historic structures that have been destroyed in the Los Angeles fires.
It has been reported that Altadena’s Zane Grey Estate and Rogers’ western-style Palisades home held formal landmark status on the National Register of Historic Places.
Other destroyed properties, like Fox’s Restaurant in Altadena and Theatre Palisades, were significant because of "their status as beloved community spaces," it has been reported.
"It is a mass erasure of heritage... We haven’t seen anything like this before," Adrian Scott Fine, chief executive of the Conservancy, a nonprofit dedicated to historic preservation, said in a statement.
"We are losing these touchstones — physical places in the world that mark our intellectual history," said Richard Schave, a preservation advocate and co-founder of the cultural tour service Esotouric.
Schave, his wife Kim Cooper, and the other founders of Esotouric Tours are "particularly upset" over the destruction of the Theosophical Library Center, which "makes available to the public a large and unique reference collection with significant works on philosophy, science, and the world's religions."
According to a notice from the authorities, the library center has been "permanently closed" due to the damages it suffered in the Altadena-Eaton fire.
Cooper, Schave's wife, described the Theosophical Library Center as "a repository of esoteric knowledge."
Authorities of the Bunny Museum on Lake Avenue, a museum of "quirky but seemingly irreplaceable collections of porcelain figurines, artwork, clothing and other items depicting rabbits," have already vowed to rebuild the historic landmark.
It has been reported that the museum lost around 46,000 exhibits in the raging fires.
Reports have further mentioned that the tally of destroyed historic buildings could grow "dramatically," as an exact estimate of damages is calculated.
It is worth noting that several other structures were damaged but not completely obliterated in the fires, like Gladstones, the seaside fish restaurant formerly owned by the late Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan.
It has also been reported that the death toll from the raging wildfires has reached 24 over the weekend—eight of which have been attributed to the Palisades fire, and 16 to the Eaton fire, according to a statement from the Los Angeles County coroner’s office.
In addition, 16 people have been reported missing amidst the chaos, with authorities saying that the number is expected to increase.
On the other hand, firefighters have been scrambling to contain the raging fires wreaking havoc in Los Angeles before winds return later this week.