The National Weather Service issued another severe fire warning for Los Angeles County on Monday as fires continue to burn in the area. The death toll from the fires rose to 24 and more than 12,000 structures have been damaged or destroyed since the fires began last week. 

The Details: AccuWeather on Monday raised its estimate of the total damage and economic loss from the wildfires to between $250 billion and $275 billion.  

California Gov. Gavin Newsom said the wildfires could be the worst natural disaster in U.S. history. 

"I think it will be in terms of just the costs associated with it, in terms of the scale and the scope," Newsom told CNN. 

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For context, the latest damage estimate of between $250 billion and $275 billion exceeds the damage and economic loss numbers for the entire 2020 wildfire season and is far higher than the estimated damage caused by the Maui wildfires in 2023 of $13 billion to $16 billion.  

"This is already one of the worst wildfires in California history. Should a large number of additional structures be burned in the coming days, it may become the worst wildfire in modern California history based on the number of structures burned and economic loss," AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist Jonathan Porter said.

AccuWeather forecasted another round of potentially devastating Santa Ana winds for the Los Angeles area starting Monday and lasting through early Wednesday. 

"Winds of the magnitude forecast can make firefighting efforts extremely challenging and cause ongoing blazes to spread hastily," an AccuWeather forecast stated. 

What Else: California fire agencies are investigating Southern California Edison, a subsidiary of Edison International ( EIX ) , on the possibility that downed utility equipment contributed to the Hurst fire, according to a report from the Los Angeles Times. 

Southern California Edison said in a statement on Sunday that it filed two Electric Safety Incident Reports, one related to the Eaton fire and one related to the Hurst fire "once SCE learned fire agencies are investigating whether SCE equipment was involved in the ignition." 

SCE said a downed power line was discovered at a time and location near the ignition, but it does not yet know whether the damage occurred before or after the start of the fire. 

In 2021, the company agreed to pay $550 million in fines and penalties related to fires that year which burned more than 380,000 acres and destroyed thousands of homes.

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