Wildfires in Los Angeles have killed at least ten people, and forecasters warn more high winds may fan the flames further
Los Angeles's medical examiner confirmed ten fire-related deaths on Thursday evening
Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna says it hasn't been safe to reach many hard-hit areas and the death toll is "absolutely going to change"
A man has been detained on suspicion of lighting the latest fire, which broke out on the border of Los Angeles and Ventura counties on Thursday
Arson investigators are looking into the start of another fire, in the Palisades, which has gone on to destroy more than 5,300 structures
The Eaton fire is estimated to have destroyed 4,000 to 5,000 structures
A curfew is planned for some areas after police arrest 20 people for looting abandoned homes
Crews dealing with the blaze tell our reporter they are desperately short of water - and fear they are fighting a losing battle.
We're expecting a media briefing with Los Angeles officials in the next 10 minutes.
You will be able to click watch live at the top of this page to follow along.
Stick with us, we'll bring you text updates as well.
New evacuation orders have just been issued for parts of Santa Monica, a neighbourhood bordering the Pacific Palisades.
"A new expanded evacuation ORDER has been issued for all areas north of Montana Avenue from the beach to 11th Street," the city posted on X moments ago.
"Residents in this area must leave IMMEDIATELY and the area is closed to public access."
People in the area are asked to travel south to evacuate the fire zone.
The population of Santa Monica is relatively dense compared to the hillier regions where the fires have been ongoing. The new evacuation zone is near Will Rogers State Beach, which caught on fire after officials held a news conference there yesterday, and near the famous Santa Monica pier.
Free buses are being provided to evacuees.
Isabella Bull
BBC World Service
The landmark Reel Inn restaurant on the Pacific Coast Highway is one of the sites that’s been destroyed by these enormous wildfires.
Teddy Leonard, owner of the popular fish shack, told the BBC World Service’s OS programme how she and her husband found out their business had been destroyed when they saw videos of it burning on social media.
"The restaurant was there for 36 years. A lot of our employees had been with us for over 30 years, started as bus boys and ended up as head cooks. Those are the people that I am just devastated for, because we were their livelihood and trying to put that back is going to be difficult."
Teddy and her husband Andy also had to evacuate their Topanga home as flames encroached on the property.
“Having lost the restaurant, we were both in a state of shock – wandering around grabbing things, making sure we had our dog.
"Looking up this morning at the sky – it feels a little like Armageddon. This is the worst we’ve ever seen and we’ve both lived here for many, many years.”
She says she’s been touched by the outpouring of support from the community.
Quote MessagePeople come to the Reel Inn – they get engaged there, they bring their kids years later. Its become such a staple in the city of LA that everywhere you go if you mention the restaurant people know it. And they feel like they own it. It’s a great loss for all of us.”
Teddy Leonard
Image source, Getty ImagesA night view of the Reel Inn taken in 2015
Emma Vardy
BBC News in Los Angeles
We’ve been driving along the Malibu seafront where luxury homes have been reduced to shells.
A world-famous part of California renowned for its surfing, celebrity homes and glamorous beach lifestyle is now utterly destroyed.
This is already being called "the most expensive fire in LA history", and it’s obvious why.
There are also warnings about people looting, as some try to take advantage of the homes of the rich and famous that have been abandoned.
Price gouging can also become an issue in a crisis, and there are local warnings that California has laws in place to try to deter this.
People in LA are in a state of shock at the extent of the damage to some of its most iconic spots, and there is real sorrow as the realisation spreads.
Image source, Getty ImagesThe Los Angeles Sheriff's Office has confirmed that another three people have been confirmed killed by the wildfires ravaging the region.
Two other deaths reported by officials earlier today were from the Eaton fire, which broke out in the Altadena region last night.
LA County Sheriff Robert Luna just confirmed five people have now been killed in the Eaton Fire.
We've reported today that tens of thousands of people with homes in the Los Angeles area have been told to evacuate due to these fires - and someone who's affected by this is Vice-President Kamala Harris.
The neighbourhood of the city where she has a house - Brentwood - is under an evacuation order, her press secretary Ernie Apreza wrote earlier on X.
"No-one was in her home at the time," Apreza says. "She and the second gentleman are praying for the safety of their fellow Californians, the heroic first responders, and Secret Service personnel."
Writing on her own X account, Harris sent a personal message to the people of California - saying she too is "a proud daughter" of the state who understands "the damage that wildfires have on our neighbours and communities".
Harris, who was in Washington yesterday delivering a eulogy for former US President Jimmy Carter, has had to evacuate her LA home twice before.
Gabriela Pomeroy
Live reporter
Image source, BBC / Susan KorwinSusan Korwin, whose home in Los Angeles has burnt down, tells me she had lived there for 29 years.
"Everything we know is gone. Our city is decimated," she says when we talk on the phone - adding that a neighbour went back to their street today and filmed what's left.
"When I saw the video of our street I cried," she says, describing it as looking like something out of a "war zone".
Susan says it's not so much the house that she is upset about, but the things inside it - "the things we did not take which are not replaceable, like the children’s artwork and family heirlooms".
The only part of her home that remains is a garage wall, she tells me, explaining how she and her husband left in a rush when they saw flames coming towards the area.
"We have lost a whole community," she says, "but I am grateful we are safe.”
It's been confirmed that the US Department of Defense is mobilising military aircraft to help firefighters in Los Angeles tackle the large Palisades fire to the west of the city.
Both the California and Nevada Air National Guards have C-130 Hercules transport planes which can be fitted with equipment that spreads 3,000 US gallons (11,000 litres) of fire retardant on wildfires.
These aircraft are not like waterbombers which take water from the sea or lakes and drop them on fires and are intended to be used in addition to civilian firefighting aircraft.
According to the US Air Force it takes about two hours to fit a C-130 with the firefighting system. Once it has discharged its fire retardant it needs to return to base to be refilled and can be back in the air in 20 minutes.
Air National Guard C-130s have been used as recently as last July to tackle wildfires in California.
Image source, US Department of Defense
Image source, Getty ImagesThe wildfires have caused massive issues for power supply in the region, and more than 1.5 million customers are without power in California.
In Los Angeles County, nearly one million are without power, and in nearby Orange County 162,428 customers have lost electricity, according to PowerOutage.us.
The four biggest fires, all within the Los Angeles area, have burned more than 26,000 acres since igniting on Tuesday night, and so far have shown no signs of slowing down. All of the fires are 0% contained.
The Palisades wildfire, to the west of Los Angeles between Santa Monica and Malibu, is now covering 15,000 acres - that's approximately 23 square miles. For context, one acre is about the same size as an NFL field.
Previously, CalFire had reported the size of the fire at 11,800 acres.
Christal Hayes
Reporting from Los Angeles
As firefighters were battling infernos ravaging the city, their hoses ran dry.
LA Fire Department captain Erik Scott said three separate 1 million gallon tanks had been filled before the Pacific Palisades fire started. But some fire hydrants were located in high elevation areas, where the fire was growing. And Scott says that elevation impacted how fast the water could move through the system.
"The extreme demand caused a slower refill rate for these tanks which created a challenge for our firefighting effort," Scott said.
Janisse Quiñones, the head of the city's water and power department, noted the water systems in Los Angeles are for urban use - not for large firefighting efforts. The city and county doesn't typically see wildfires of this magnitude.
She noted in the Palisades area, which is now the most destructive fire in LA's history, the system was pushed to "the extreme" - and was running four times the normal demand for 15 hours straight, which impacted water pressure and hydrants.
Officials outlined that the area was not without water, but the heavy usage to fight these fires was making it difficult to replenish tanks.
"The consumption of water was faster than we can provide water," Quiñones explained. She noted more water was being sent to the area.
Image source, Getty ImagesGovernor Newsom and President Biden were briefed by LA officials earlier today
The Pentagon is continuing to closely monitor the wildfires in southern California and has briefed its governor on the latest developments.
"At the President's direction, the Department of Defense will provide additional firefighting personnel and capabilities," Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh says in a recent statement.
The National Guard, which has been deployed in California since Governor Gavin Newsom issued a state of emergency last night, is working closely with the federal government.
Singh adds in the Pentagon statement that California will receive two "modular air firefighting System Units" and two more are being readied by the Nevada National Guard.
"Additionally, the department is sending 10 Navy helicopters with water delivery buckets to immediately assist with aerial suppression," the statement says..
It's only been a few hours since Los Angeles area officials finished a media briefing where they warned that the wildfires in the area are proving to be unpredictable and could change "rapidly".
Here's the latest on just how big those blazes are:
Separately, Cal Fire - the state's fire authority - has reported a new blaze in Ventura County that currently covers 11 acres of land. The Olivas fire as its known is located about 64 miles (103km) west of Los Angeles, on the other side of the Santa Monica mountains.
The Hurst fire has now grown to more than 700 acres, according to the Angeles National Forest, threatening the northern side of the San Fernando Valley.
The fire is in the hills above the suburban neighbourhood of Sylmar, which has a population of about 80,000 people.
Like all the other fires burning in the area, it is 0% contained.
The fire in the Pacific Palisades has become the most destructive in the history of the city of Los Angeles, and could potentially become the most destructive in the history of the state of California.
Officials say that at least 1,000 buildings have been destroyed so far.
According to the Los Angeles Regional Fire Safe Council, the most destructive fire in California's history was the Woolsey fire in 2018, which burned 1,121 structures.
Other fires in California have caused more deaths, and have burned greater areas. But the destruction of buildings happening right now is historic.
Images are continuing to come in of the absolute destruction caused by the wildfires in Los Angeles.
Firefighters are continuing to battle with the four ongoing fires in the region, as residents in evacuation zones leave their homes.
Image source, ReutersA woman reacts as she evacuates Altadena, which is being impacted by the Eaton fire
Image source, Getty ImagesBurned cars sit parked in front of a burning home as the Eaton Fire moves through the area
Image source, Getty ImagesA firefighter from Costa Mesa works to extinguish a fire burning a home on Valleylights Drive in the Hastings Ranch community of Pasadena
Image source, ReutersA burnt washing machine stands amid rubble in the Pacific Palisades neighbourhood on the west side of Los Angeles
As the fire rips through Los Angeles, it's becoming clear that many parts of the city will never be the same again.
One place which has been destroyed beyond recognition is the Wylie's Bait & Tackle store in Pacific Palisades, one of the worst affected areas.
Matt Taylor
BBC Weather
The chart below from the National Weather Service in Sacramento shows one of the reasons the wildfires have been unusually bad.
This part of the year should be Southern California’s "wet" season, but much of the south and east of the state has seen less than half the normal rainfall expected to fall between the 1 October and now. That contrasts with above-average rainfall in north-west of the state.
It's meant that the ground and vegetation have become parched and perfect fuel for fires. Only in the last week did the US Drought Monitor categorise much of the area around Los Angeles as being in "moderate drought".
Image source, National Weather Service / National Oceanic and Atmospheric AdministrationJuan Benn
North America reporter
Almost 400,000 residents across southern California are currently without power, according to tracking site PowerOutage.US, external.
Some 259,102 residents have lost power in Los Angeles County, where four wildfires have destroyed homes and burned through thousands of acres. According to LA's Department of Water and Power, external, most of the outages are in parts of the county nearest to the wildfires.
Nearby Ventura County has 49,458 people without power. Around 60,000 customers in San Bernardino and Riverside counties in southern California are also affected.
The strong winds that have fanned the blazes across thousands of acres are also battering power lines.
Gabriela Pomeroy
Live reporter
I’ve just spoken to Miriam Feygenson, who lives in Los Angeles and believes her home has burnt down.
She went on holiday to Florida a few days ago and tells me she watched on her house’s security camera as fire surrounded her home, which sits on on the border between Malibu and the Palisades.
"I am feeling numbness, grief and disbelief," she says. "My home is gone. We saw an inferno on our security cameras which we could watch remotely."
She describes seeing what looked like a "hurricane of fire with embers blowing everywhere" around her house, as well as flames engulfing nearby homes. She says she also saw her neighbour’s back garden completely covered in flames before the power cut and her cameras stopped working.
"We went on vacation so we didn’t think to take any mementos," she tells me, recalling some of the items she no longer has.
"There are things that are not digitised like sonogram photos, my wedding dress and my little girl’s lovely dresses. I keep thinking about them - I have an emotional attachment to things. I was so proud of my house, and now it is gone."
Image source, BBC / Miriam FeygensonMiriam Feygenson and her husband Alex Filler