Summary

  • A night-time curfew has been imposed in areas impacted by the devastating wildfires blazing across Los Angeles

  • The rule will be in effect in the Pacific Palisades and Eaton Fire areas as police warn that anyone involved in "despicable" looting will be arrested

  • At least 10 people have been killed in the fires so far and it's estimated 10,000 homes and other structures have been destroyed

  • A forecast for more strong winds is raising fears that the blazes could spread further and a red flag warning - indicating critical fire conditions - is in place

LA fires: How three days of devastation unfolded

Live Reporting

Edited by Rorey Bosotti and Alex Therrien

  1. Photos show scale of damage in west LA as smoke billows overhead

    As the fires continue to spread and leave destruction in their wake, the extent of the damage across west Los Angeles from the wildfires has been laid bare in these photographs.

    Particularly striking is the damage in the Pacific Palisades and Malibu areas – where the initial wildfires broke out – after three days of ongoing blazes.

    An aerial view shows a wide view of the Pacific Palisades neighbourhood, with rows of houses destroyed by the fires, and thick smoke in the hills in the background as fires continue.Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

    Aerial views reveal significant damage to the Pacific Palisades neighbourhood, where the fires first started on Tuesday

    A man sits on the side of a road next to a blue bicycle as a fire burns in the hills behind him, in LA on ThursdayGetty Images

    Fires in the largely upscale areas of west LA also raise safety concerns for those without a fixed address

    A firefighter points a water hose down at a smokldering section of a completely burnt out building by the sea in Malibu on ThursdayMediaNews Group via Getty Images

    Firefighters have had to tackle continuing blazes raging for a third consecutive day across the area, while burnings still smoulder in Malibu

    A view of Malibu's oceanside coastline with lots of burnt out properties and smoldering ruins, with a burnt tree in the foregroundMediaNews Group via Getty Images

    Malibu's stretch of ordinarily plush-looking coastline has been significantly impacted, with many oceanside properties completely burnt out

  2. Five fires still burning in Los Angeles

    As we've been reporting, there are currently five wildfires burning in the Los Angeles area. Here's a reminder of the current status of each:

    Palisades: The largest and first to break out on Tuesday. It's burning through nearly 20,000 acres in the Pacific Palisades, destroying more than 5,300 structures. It's now 6% contained.

    Eaton: Spanning nearly 14,000 acres in Altadena and Pasadena, it's the only fire in the area to remain 0% contained.

    Kenneth: The newest of the five fires, impacting about 960 acres in Los Angeles and Ventura counties. It's now 35% contained.

    Hurst: Fire officials are making some progress with the fire, which spans nearly 800 acres. It is contained by 37%.

    Lidia: Nearly 400 acres are affected in the town of Acton. Fire officials have contained 75% of the fire.

    Some of the previously identified blazes, including the Sunset fire - which appeared to be threatening the iconic Hollywood sign - have been 100% contained.

    You can also take a look at our map explainer, while context of what it means when a wildfire is contained is available here.

    A map titled 'Overview of the current fires' showing their location on a map of LA and surrounding areas

  3. One property left standing as nearby homes burn to the ground

    A single white three-floors property remains standing on the Maliby water front as all other houses next to it have been burned to the ground. White smoke billows from one home to the right of the frameGetty Images

    The Malibu area has suffered severe infrastructure damage due to the still-raging Palisades Fire, with charred ruins now lining the seaside town's once-coveted beachfront.

    While many properties have been burned to the ground, aerial shots of the waterfront show a single three-floor house still standing, as white smoke continues to billow from burned-down homes beside it.

  4. 'The price for living in paradise', says restaurant owner who lost her business

    Pile of burnt debris where The Reel Inn used to stand with twisted metal sheets and rubbleGetty Images

    This is all that remains of Teddy Leonard's restaurant, The Reel Inn, which she ran for 36 years in Malibu

    Teddy Leonard has been running The Reel Inn, a popular seafood restaurant in Malibu, for 36 years, but suddenly the business has been flattened by fire.

    "Our business burned to the ground," she tells BBC's Business Matters programme.

    Staff were still inside when firefighters rushed in, Leonard says.

    "Our manager says she got to the end of the car park, turned around, and the flames were engulfing the back of the building – it went so fast."

    In the 1990s, the restaurant was also threatened by fires but was saved. This time, though, it wasn’t so lucky.

    Still, Leonard has faith in the city.

    "Malibu will always be rebuilt," she says. "If you've been there, you've seen how beautiful that coastline is and what a treasure it is. We've all had these fires... these are the things that we deal with that are the price for living in paradise."

    The burned sign of The Reel Inn restaurant in MalibuGetty Images

    The burned sign of The Reel Inn restaurant in Malibu

  5. Photos show destroyed homes - with only chimneys still standing

    The Eaton wildfire has ripped through Altadena, leaving devastation in its wake.

    We've just received these photos showing the extent of the damage - strikingly, the chimneys are the only structures still standing:

    A chimney stands beside a burnt out car ot the left, and smouldering ruins to the rightGetty Images
    Two men in masks sort through rubble which was once a homeGetty Images
    A man in a red top looks at the charred remains of a home, with the chimney breast and foundation the only remaining structuresGetty Images
    Two people search through the wreckageGetty Images

  6. 'We are not out of danger' - LA fire chief

    A firefighter battles the fire in the Angeles National Forest near Mt. Wilson as the wildfires burn in the Los Angeles areaReuters

    A little earlier, Los Angeles Fire Department chief Kristin Crowley warned that high winds would continue to make firefighting efforts difficult overnight.

    "We are not out of danger," Crowley told the press during a briefing. "You can see the active fires that are burning with strong winds that are going to continue throughout the night."

    "I can tell you and assure you that firefighters and first responders remain focused on protecting lives and property. We urge the public to help us."

    As a reminder, there are currently five fires still actively burning in the Los Angeles area.

  7. 'Zero tolerance' for looters as National Guard bolsters security

    We've been hearing devastating stories of Los Angeles residents losing their homes and everything they own, while thousands others have been forced to evacuate in case the fires spread further.

    Some of these, as yet undamaged, homes have come under a different threat in the form of looting.

    So far police have arrested about 20 people for raiding abandoned buildings and a curfew was put in place overnight by authorities.

    In a press conference yesterday, LA County Sherriff Roger Luna described looting as "unacceptable behaviour" and said having soldiers to "augment those resources will help send a stronger message".

    Earlier, Luna said his office had officially requested support from the California National Guard and there were 400 troops ready to help with the response to the fires.

    LA Mayor Karen Bass also said yesterday that the National Guard would take on non-emergency roles to keep burn areas secure and there would "be zero tolerance" for anybody who "would dare to enter houses or loot property".

    LA Mayor Karen Bass (and California Governor Gavin Newsom second on right) talk to a man wearing a bright yellow CalFire jacket. Smoke in backgroundEPA

    LA Mayor Karen Bass, and California Governor Gavin Newsom, second on right, are briefed about the fires in the neighbourhood of Pacific Palisades

  8. Paris Hilton returns to destroyed home after watching it burn down on live TV

    Paris Hilton looking into the distanceEPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock

    "When I first saw the news, I was in complete shock - I couldn't process it," says Paris Hilton, who has returned to her home in Malibu after watching it burn down on live television.

    "But now, standing and seeing it with my own eyes, it feels like my heart has shattered into a million pieces," she writes in a post on Instagram.

    Sharing footage of the charred aftermath of the house, the 43-year-old says it wasn't just a place to live, but was "where we dreamed, laughed, and created the most beautiful memories as a family".

    "To see it reduced to ashes... it's devastating beyond words."

    She adds that, despite the pain, she knew she was "incredibly lucky" she and her family were safe, and "this isn't just my story. So many people have lost everything."

    Hilton shared a video on Instagram of the remains of her home

  9. Everything is gone, resident tells BBC

    Aircraft dousing hill fire with waterGetty Images

    "There's really nothing left, everything is gone," Los Angeles resident Richard Weintraub says while describing the scenes in the city this morning.

    Speaking to our colleagues over on BBC World Service's Newsday programme, he says everything seems to have turned into ash.

    Richard adds the area he lives in has a wide range of wildlife likely impacted by the flames, along with the huge number of residents who have lost their homes.

    "There is thick smoke in the air, dead animals everywhere in the mountains."

  10. Watch: Before and after images show sheer scale of devastation

    BBC Breakfast presenter Charlie Stayt has been comparing before and after images of buildings in Los Angeles, which show structures completely destroyed by the fires in the region.

    You can see those images in the video below:

  11. Red flag warning remains across LA and Southern California

    Helen Willetts
    BBC Weather

    A red flag warning - which means critical fire conditions - remains in place into Friday across Los Angeles and Southern California.

    This is due to strong Santa Ana winds, together with very low humidity and temperatures a few degrees above average. Plus, southern California is in severe drought at the moment, having had little rain so far this winter.

    But it’s a constantly changing situation and these warnings are being frequently updated by the US National Weather Service, where you can keep up to date.

    The winds are now strengthening again in the area. The strongest are expected across the mountains and through the valleys with damaging gusts reaching up to 75mph (121km/h). More generally, there will be moderate to strong gusty winds, with gusts around 40 to 50mph.

    This means it is an extremely dangerous situation as, with such dry vegetation and the gustiness of the winds, fires can develop and spread rapidly.

    The winds are forecast to ease a little through Friday afternoon, but there’ll still be a moderate breeze gusting to 40mph. There’s no sign of any rain, so conditions remain dangerous throughout Friday afternoon and evening.

    Warnings remain into Saturday despite some easing of the wind.

    However, the winds are expected to strengthen again on Sunday and early next week, with no rain in the forecast.

  12. 'No-one really knows what's going on,' Pasadena man says

    A building destroyed by fire with rubble on the ground, a chimney-like structure remains, haze and smoke covers the sceneReuters

    Thousands of buildings have been been destroyed by the Eaton Fire such as this one in Pasadena

    A resident in Pasadena - where the second-biggest wildfire (Eaton) is still 0% contained - has just been describing the chaos in his hometown to our colleagues at BBC Radio 5 Live.

    "There's a lack of manpower on the ground, a noticeable lack of fire department personnel," says Raffi Bilemjian. "No-one really knows what's going on...it's pretty dire."

    He says his family are safe and they were able to house evacuees.

    The fire started to move into north Pasadena in the last two days, Raffi says, but is now moving west into more forested, empty areas.

    "Pasadena seems to have escaped the brunt, but the city above Pasadena, which is called Altadena, has been completely devastated," he says, adding it's an "overwhelmingly working class part" of LA.

    He also criticised an evacuation alert that was mistakenly sent out to the whole county, which caused panic among residents.

    "It's really extremely chaotic... I don't know what the next few days or the next couple of weeks are going to hold."

  13. About 100,000 customers without power in Los Angeles

    About 100,000 homes and businesses are without power in Los Angeles, according to a site that tracks blackouts in the US.

    The latest estimates from Poweroutages.us show that in LA county, about 59,800 customers of the LA Department of Water & Power are without power, while about 38,500 customers of the provider Southern California Edison (SCE) have no electricity.

    In Ventura county, which borders LA and is where the Kenneth Fire is burning, about 20,000 SCE customers are without power.

  14. 'I looked out of my window and the sky was crimson'

    Lynwen Hughes-Boatman was told to leave her home in Altadena on Tuesday evening as wildfires swept down from the hills above her neighbourhood.

    "I looked out my upstairs bathroom window looking east and the sky was just crimson," she tells Radio Wales Breakfast earlier this morning.

    "So I grabbed my passport and my green card and a few other things and I just fled."

    "It happened so quickly. The winds were ferocious, I mean I've never seen winds like that at all and I just knew that a lot of properties were going to burn."

    "The embers were flying everywhere. The palm trees were on fire."

    The mother-of-one says she still has not been able to go back to her house but she knows that it is still standing thanks to videos taken by a neighbour.

    "Two thirds of my street and almost the entire neighbourhood is burnt."

    Lynwen - who moved to the US from Caerphilly, Wales in 1985 - says the city centre in Altadena is "gone" and the primary school her now-adult daughter went to is burnt to the ground.

    "The shops… the post office, it's all gone."

    Returning to the street where Lynwen lived

  15. Our neighbourhood has been decimated, man tells BBC

    James Kelly
    BBC News

    Remains of a burned down home, with active flames still visibleHarlan Boll

    Harlan Boll's Altadena home was destroyed by the fires

    Publicist Harlan Boll lost his home and beloved pet cat to the Eaton Fire, which has burned nearly 14,000 acres in Los Angeles.

    Boll, who has represented a number of Hollywood stars during his 35-year career, fled the suburb of Altadena, where he lived with his partner, before it was too late.

    But his beautiful 100-year-old home has been reduced to rubble and ashes, he tells me.

    Boll says he managed to secure some important items before leaving, but his cat "freaked out and ran back into the house and we couldn’t find him in the dark".

    Many people in the area have "lost their entire family histories and were literally left with the shirt off their back", he adds.

    Image of a big house with some trees and other greenery around itHarlan Boll

    The house before it was destroyed

    “We’ve seen fires on the hills before so initially we weren’t overly concerned.

    "We thought we’re fine and hopped in the car to Pasadena. When we headed back the hill next to our house had stated burning."

    Boll also tells me that his neighbourhood has been decimated.

    “There’s always a little part of me that thinks we’ll be fine, but in retrospect I’m glad I panicked.”

  16. Satellite images show scale of Palisades destruction

    These satellite images of the residential areas in the Palisades show how destructive the fire has been in the last 48 hours.

    One photo shows the area close to the well-known Palisades Charter High School - which counts celebrities including Will.i.am and Forest Whitaker among its alumni and has itself been a Hollywood filming location. It has sustained significant damage in the blaze.

    In the second, we can see houses have burnt down in the Summit Residence, along with two separate fires still burning in the residential area.

    Our colleagues have put satellite pictures of the same areas from before the fires for comparison below:

    Before and after the fire aerial shots of the residential area in the Palisades near Palisades Charter High School.
    houses have burnt down in the Summit Residence and two separate fires blazing in the residential area.

  17. Mel Gibson latest star to lose Los Angeles home

    Mel Gibson in a shirt and jacket with an event backdrop behindGetty Images

    Actor and director Mel Gibson says his home of over a decade burned down in Los Angeles while he was recording a podcast interview with Joe Rogan.

    In a later interview with NewsNation, Gibson says he returned to find his home "completely toasted".

    The loss is "emotional" and "devastating", he says, but adds that his family are "happy and healthy and out of harm's way".

    Gibson also expressed frustration at the city's response to the wildfires.

  18. Australia offers support - during its own fire season

    Tiffanie Turnbull
    BBC News, Sydney

    Wide show of Grampians National Park in Victoria with smoke billowing over the landscapeReuters

    A blaze in the Grampians National Park in the Australian state of Victoria on 25 December, 2024

    Despite being in the midst of its own bushfire season, Australia has offered to help authorities in Los Angeles.

    North American fire crews and aircraft were crucial when Australia faced its own unprecedented Black Summer fires, in 2019-20, and government minister Jenny McAllister has stressed that there is a "long history of co-operation between our countries on firefighting".

    "We are yet to receive any response for assistance... We’d assess, of course, our own needs. But we’ll do everything we responsibly can to help our colleagues in the United States if they ask us," she told Sky News Australia on Friday morning, local time.

    The breakout of fires in the middle of LA's winter has caused anxiety here in Australia, which has a comparatively small aerial firefighting fleet and relies on leasing aircraft from others. That leaves the country increasingly exposed as the northern hemisphere fire seasons expands and cuts into ours.

    There are currently more than a dozen fires blazing in the Australian state of New South Wales alone, although none of them are currently at emergency status.

  19. Evacuation alert mistakenly sent to whole county, residents say

    Christal Hayes & Max Matza
    Reporting from Altadena, California

    An alert was mistakenly sent to every cell phone in Los Angeles on Thursday, residents say, warning them a blaze would soon descend upon them.

    Approximately 10 million people live in the county.

    Rebecca Alvarez-Petit, who lives in west Los Angeles, was on a video work call when her phone started blaring. It echoed as each co-worker received the startling message that they might need to evacuate.

    "It was like a massive panic that I was watching in real-time," she says.

    A screengrab of the emergency alert

    Residents were sent this evacuation alert - which was later corrected

    While investigating whether they were in imminent danger, a further notification told them to disregard the evacuation alert. Alvarez-Petit says she felt relieved but also experienced a surge of anger.

    "We're all on pins and needles and have been anxiously sitting by our phones, staring at the TV, having the radio going - trying to stay as informed as possible because there wasn't a good system in place.

    "And then this. It's like - you have got to be kidding me."

    Notification saying that the previous alert was sent in error

    The follow-up alert Rebecca received

  20. ‘It’s gone. Altadena is all gone’

    Anna Boyd
    Live reporter

    Bonnie and Jason Matthews have lived in Altadena since 2017.

    On Tuesday they heard a fire had taken hold in Eaton Canyon, about five miles away.

    By 22:00, the power had gone and police drove by warning everyone to evacuate.

    Bonnie and Jason's house, with the glow of the Eaton fire rising behind it in the night sky

    Bonnie and Jason watched the fire approaching as evening fell

    They took their cats and left.

    "In the morning, we still had no word so my husband decided to drive up," Bonnie tells the BBC.

    "That’s when he texted me, 'It’s gone. Altadena is all gone.'"

    Jason took the below video upon arriving at their former home: