Evacuated residents are waiting in their cars for hours to get permission to return to Los Angeles neighborhoods devastated by the Palisades Fire, which has been burning for three weeks and destroyed thousands of homes and other structures.

Some Pacific Palisades residents said they waited on line for more than two hours Tuesday to get approval to go back to their homes.

Palisades Fire initially started 10:30 a.m. Jan. 7 in Los Angeles County. It has burned 23,448 acres after being active for 19 days. A crew of 1,859 firefighters has been working on site and they managed to contain 87% of the fire by Sunday morning. The blaze's cause remains under investigation.

At least 29 people are believed to be dead and more than a dozen others remain unaccounted for as multiple wildfires rage across Southern California.

The Jan. 25 death is the 12th fatality connected to the Palisades Fire, while another 17 are attributed to the Eaton Fire, officials said