Details are starting to emerge of the victims of the Los Angeles fires – and at least two died trying to protect the homes where they raised families for decades.

The number of people killed by the wildfires has increased from 11 to 13, according to officials.

The Eaton fire has killed eight people and the Palisades fire has killed five.

LA fires latest: New evacuation order as 13 confirmed dead

Here is what we know so far about the victims:

Anthony and Justin Mitchell

The 67-year-old great-grandfather of 10 died in his Altadena home. His son Justin Mitchell also died.

Justin’s older brother – also called Anthony – told Sky News’s US partner network NBC News: “He probably could have gotten himself out but he wasn’t going to leave my brother.

“He really loved his kids.”

Erliene Louise Kelley

Briana Navarro, 33, lived with her grandmother at the family’s Altadena home – along with her husband and two daughters.

Mrs Navarro told NBC News that her husband wanted to leave.

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However Mrs Kelly told them she was fine and decided to stay at the property.

Police confirmed to Mrs Navarro on Thursday night that her grandmother died when the fire engulfed the home.

She said she thinks her grandmother was “at peace” staying in the home she “tended to every day” for more than four decades.

Victor Shaw

Victor Shaw, 66, was trying to protect his home that had been in the family for over five decades when he was killed Tuesday night in the Eaton Fire.

His sister, Shari Shaw, told ABC News that they lived together in the home, and as the flames started to engulf the property she tried to get him to leave.

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She described how he died in a “heroic attempt” to protect his home in Altadena and that his body was found in front of the home with a garden hose still in his hand.

“I can’t imagine what he might have been thinking, how he might have been so frightened,” Ms Shaw said.

“And I couldn’t be here, I couldn’t be here to save him. I couldn’t be here, that’s what hurts the most.”

Rodney Kent Nickerson

Rodney Kent Nickerson, 83, had reassured loved ones that he would be fine as his family and neighbours tried to get him to evacuate his Altadena home.

His daughter Kimiko Nickerson told KCAL News: “My son tried to get him to leave, and my neighbours and myself and he said he’ll be fine, I’ll be here when you guys come back.

“And he said his house would be here.”

Mr Nickerson was outside trying to hose down his property at around 7pm on Tuesday and the last time Ms Nickerson talked to him was on FaceTime just over two hours later.

“His house is here and he was here too. He was in his bed when I found him. His whole body was there intact,” she added.

Rory Sykes

The former Australian child star, who was born blind and had cerebral palsy, died on Wednesday after his mother said she was unable to save him from his burning cottage.

Shelley Sykes said it burned down in the Palisades Fire when she “couldn’t put out the cinders on his roof with a hose” because of a lack of water.

She told Australia’s 10 News First that she has a broken arm and could not lift or move her son.

Mrs Sykes drove to the local fire department for help and when the fire department brought her back, Rory’s “cottage was burnt to the ground”.

They are the displaced and there are tens of thousands of them, 600 in an evacuation centre we visited.

From elderly people who fled without their medication, to pregnant mothers desperate to escape the smoke, they had nowhere else to go.

Jim Mayfield, who has lived in the northern suburb of Altadena for 50 years, wept as he told me his dogs, Monkey and Coca, were all he had left.

He said: “The fire was coming down, a ball of fire, it hadn’t made it to my house, but then I woke up and I seen it so I had to start evacuating.

“I had to grab my dogs, I didn’t have enough water and my house is burned down to the ground.”

Sheila Kraetzel, another elderly resident, relived the sense of terror as homes were engulfed by the flames.

She said: “I smelt smoke, I was sleeping, and my dog alerted me that there was trouble.

“When I looked outside, there were embers floating across my yard.

“My whole neighbourhood is gone.”

“It was a beautiful, unique place,” she added, smiling.

Asked how she could smile, she fought back tears and replied: “Well, there’s tomorrow you know.”

How anyone could find hope amid the destruction we have witnessed here is beyond me.

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There are people handing out food and water, medical staff doing what they can. Volunteers have rallied from far and near.

One of them, Stephanie Porter, told me it felt “heavy” inside the centre.

“You walk through and see the despair on people’s faces, not knowing what their next step is, not knowing if their house is still standing,” she said.

“I had to take a few moments… and kind of cry, and then you go back to serve.

“It just breaks your heart.”

Three miles up the road, Altadena resembles a war zone, but residents have not been allowed to return.

When they finally do, they’ll discover there’s nothing left of the material lives they left behind.

Sam Moore, who sang Soul Man and other 1960s hits in the legendary Sam & Dave duo, has died aged 89.

Moore, who influenced musicians including Michael Jackson, Al Green and Bruce Springsteen, died on Friday in Coral Gables, Florida, due to complications while recovering from surgery, his publicist Jeremy Westby said.

No additional details were immediately available.

Moore was inducted with Dave Prater, who had died in a 1988 car crash, into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992.

The duo, at the Memphis, Tennessee-based Stax Records, transformed the “call and response” of gospel music into a frenzied stage show and recorded some of soul music’s most enduring hits, including Hold On, I’m Comin’.

Many of their records were written and produced by the team of Isaac Hayes and David Porter and featured the record label’s house band Booker T & the MGs.

Sam & Dave faded after their 1960s heyday but Soul Man hit the charts again in the late 1970s when the Blues Brothers, John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd, recorded it with many of the same musicians.

Moore had mixed feelings about the hit becoming associated with the Saturday Night Live stars, remembering how young people believed it originated with the Blues Brothers.

Sam & Dave broke up in 1970 and neither had another major hit.

Moore later said his drug habit played a part in the band’s troubles and made record executives wary of giving him a fresh start.

He married his wife Joyce in 1982, and she helped him get treatment for his addiction that he credited with saving his life.

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Moore spent years suing Prater after his former partner hired a substitute and toured as the New Sam & Dave.

He also lost a lawsuit claiming the pair of aging, estranged singers in the 2008 movie Soul Men was too close to the duo.

In another legal case, he and other artists sued multiple record companies and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists in 1993, claiming he had been cheated out of retirement benefits.

Despite his million-selling records, he said in 1994 his pension amounted to just 2,285 US dollars (£1,872), which he could take as a lump sum or in monthly payments of 73 US dollars (£60).

“Two thousand dollars for my lifetime?” Moore said at the time. “If you’re making a profit off of me, give me some too. Don’t give me cornbread and tell me it’s biscuits.”

Moore wrote Dole Man, based on Soul Man, for Republican Bob Dole’s 1996 presidential campaign and was one of the few entertainers who performed at President Donald Trump’s inaugural festivities in 2017.

Eight years earlier, he objected to Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s use of the song Hold On, I’m Comin’ during his campaign.