Many officials are giving updates, each on different aspects or issues arising from the wildfires.

LA County fire chief Anthony Marrone is up next and gives an update on the Eaton Fire.

He says 13,956 acres have been burned so far, with 3% of the fire contained.

Between 4,000 and 5,000 structures could be at risk of damage, he says, and 1,527 firefighting personnel are currently assigned to the incident.

Next is Lindsay Horvath, LA County supervisor, who gives an update on some of the fires firefighters have been containing.

She says a small brush fire in Pacoima was quickly ousted by the fire department, but warns the smoke generated by the fire continues to impact air quality, and a smoke advisory has been issued for throughout Friday.

She adds that residents should run their air conditioners and air purifiers, avoid exercising outdoors and remain indoors "as much as possible".

Mayor Bass continues by saying "we are already putting plans in place to ensure we aggressively rebuild".

Her office is working to clear the way of "red tape" and "bureaucracy" - "all of it must go", she says, adding that reconstruction will be "an enormous undertaking".

She says she doesn't believe there is anything Angelenos can't do "if we stand together".

Image source, YouTube/County of Los Angeles

Next up is LA City Mayor Karen Bass.

She says the LA Fire Department has been battling through the night against the wildfires, including the Palisades Fire.

She adds that the LAFD has worked with the LA County governor and sheriff to secure National Guard support, freeing up firefighters and police officers to keep everyone safe and prevent anyone from trying to take advantage of the tragedy.

She also mentions that $2.5m has been raised within 24 hours to help with the reconstruction effort.

The briefing starts with Kevin McGowan, director of the Office of Emergency Management at the County of the Los Angeles Chief Executive Office.

He acknowledges the "extreme" frustration that residents have felt for the erroneous alert messages they have received.

"I can't express enough how sorry I am for this experience."

He says this is due to a technology failure and that he is working to find the root cause, and urges the public not to disable the alerts on phones.

In a few minutes, we'll be hearing from Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass for her first briefing of the day on the wildfires.

She'll be joined by city and council officials to provide the latest updates on the five fires currently burning in the area.

Stick with us as we bring you the top lines from the briefing. You can follow along by clicking Watch Live at the top of the page.

Earlier today, we reported that around 100,000 customers were without power in Los Angeles County.

As of now, at 15:20 GMT (07:20 local time), about 93,000 homes and businesses in the county are still without power, according to PowerOutage.us, external, a site that tracks blackouts.

This is a significant improvement from Tuesday, when at least 200,000 customers in the county were without power.

Meanwhile, in Ventura County – which borders LA and is where the Kenneth Fire is burning – around 15,761 customers remain without power.

California's fire battalion chief says the battle with the Palisades wildfire is "headed in the right direction" as winds slow.

Speaking on CNN News, Brent Pascua says firefighters have now contained 6% of the fire and predicts this figure will soon reach double digits.

"We still have fire weather, with the low humidity, the gusty winds, but this is what we're used to fighting," he says.

"What we saw in the first couple of days of this fire was like something I had never seen. It was 60-70 mph and we were just chasing our tail, trying to get people out of the way so we wouldn't lose any lives."

He goes on to describe the wildfire fire, made stronger by the Santa Ana winds, as "like a blowtorch igniting the things next to it".

"Even if we had hose lines out, water, endless supplies, we would have still saw a lot of devastation here," he adds.

Image source, Reuters

The latest wildfire to break out is Kenneth on the border of Los Angeles and Ventura Counties.

The fire in West Hills, which spans nearly 1,000 acres, began on Thursday and is spreading rapidly, the California fire department says, threatening nearby communities and infrastructure.

A man has been detained on suspicion of arson in relation to the Kenneth wildfire, although a fire official told the BBC there is currently no "conclusive evidence" any of the wildfires were started deliberately.

The Kenneth fire is around 35% contained, according to the Cal Fire website.

A flare from the Kenneth fire has burned at least one home in the last few hours, CBS, the BBC's US partner, reports.

Evacuation orders are in place for nearly 180,000 people in Los Angeles and at least 10 people have died, as the most destructive wildfires in the history of Los Angeles continue to rage.

For readers waking up in the US, and those needing a recap, here's what you need to know:

There are at least five separate fires raging across Los Angeles. They include:

• 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. Authorities say 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
• Hurst: Fire officials are making some progress with the fire, which spans nearly 800acres. It is 37% contained
• Lidia: Nearly 400 acres are affected in the town of Acton. Fire officials say they have contained 75% of the fire
• Kenneth: The newest of the five fires, impacting about 960 acres in Los Angeles and Ventura counties. It's now 35% contained

How bad is the damage?

• More than 10,000 buildings have been razed by the fires, while a further 60,000 are also at risk
• Preliminary estimates suggest total damage could amount to as much as $150bn (£122bn)
• Insured losses are expected to exceed $8bn(£6.5bn)

Image source, MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images

As we've been reporting, firefighters say they are making some progress in containing the fires across Los Angeles.

The Palisades fire - first to break out and biggest of them - spans nearly 20,000 acres, and has now been 6% contained.

Speaking roadside from his fire truck, LAPD captain Adam Van Gerpen tells the BBC World Service's Newshour programme firefighters have been "working around the clock".

"We’re going on the third night and I’m talking to you, this is 04:30 in the morning our time (12:30 GMT) and I’m sitting in my vehicle right now watching the fire because this really is all hands on deck," he says.

Van Gerpen is on the Pacific Coast Highway, where he says there are homes "going up on both sides of the road".

"That’s not a time where you can let up," he says, but adds: "Yeah our firefighters are exhausted, but this is what we do."

US President Joe Biden is to meet key officials to discuss the federal response directed to the wildfires across Los Angeles.

Vice President Kamala Harris will also be at the briefing in the Oval Office.

Biden's already said there'll be extra federal funds and resources to help the state cope with the fires, the worst in Los Angeles' history.

Let's bring you some pictures taken at the scene of the Palisades fire overnight. As we've mentioned, the blaze has consumed nearly 20,000 acres of land so far.

Firefighters have been working around the clock to try to control the spread of the fire, and as of Friday morning in LA it was 6% contained.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Reuters

High winds caused the Palisades fire to engulf large swathes of land rapidly.

The graphic below shows just how quickly the fire spread in 24 hours.

Image source, Getty Images

Los Angeles County's Sheriff's Department has warned people against returning to their homes too soon, saying dangerous hazards remain that could endanger life.

In a statement on X, the department says that while it wants people to be able to return to affected areas as soon as possible, there are still downed power lines, open gas lines, and unpredictable damaged structures that "can cause serious injury or death".

The warning also asks the public not to expect the department to conduct rescue missions, "as our focus is to maintain a high patrol visibility and prevent looters from entering the affected areas".

Justin Rowlatt
Climate editor

New figures showing that 2024 was the hottest year ever recorded have been released as wildfires in California continue to rage.

Data from the EU’s climate monitoring service, Copernicus, shows that last year was 1.6C above pre-industrial levels, making 2024 the first calendar year to breach the 1.5C warming ceiling agreed upon in Paris in 2015.

This doesn't mean the target has been breached – it is a 20-year average – but it shows just how close the world is to doing so in the longer term.

“It means we are living in a climate humanity hasn’t experienced before,” Samantha Burgess, the deputy director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service, told the BBC. She says global temperatures are the hottest they have been for more than 100,000 years.

• Read more about how climate 'whiplash' is linked to raging LA fires here

Image source, Getty Images

While the wildfires have been causing widespread damage, some residents have been shocked to return to their neighbourhoods to find their homes are still standing.

"Its been rough - it's like a bad dream," Altadena resident Cameron Hudson told ABC's Eyewitness News.

"When I left Monday night, there were embers the size of golf balls raining down. It was unbearable. [There was] smoke, fireballs - it seemed like a bad movie." He returned the next day to find his house "untouched".

Hundreds of homes and businesses in Altadena have been destroyed by the Eaton Fire.

Lifelong Altadena resident Jessica G expected her property to disappear too.

"We didn't think there was going to be anything left - and then we drive up the hill, and by the grace of God, there it is."

"We are truly blessed - but I'm so sad for everybody else who lived on the street," she says.

The Palisades and Eaton Fires – both of which began on Tuesday – are the two biggest blazes currently engulfing Los Angeles, according to the latest data from California's Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

The images below show the extent of the damage caused by these two fires, with the Palisades Fire burning nearly 20,000 acres and destroying more than 5,300 structures.

The Eaton Fire spans about 14,000 acres, with at least 4,000 structures flattened.

"This is crazy," Aaron Samson told his elderly father-in-law as they both tried to evacuate from a rapidly approaching fire.

He tells CBS, the BBC's US partner, that a neighbour helped them escape and "saved our lives".

Watch some of the footage Samson captured of their dramatic escape below:

Allie Garfinkle, who lives about six miles (10km) from the Palisades Fire in Venice Beach, has told the BBC's Business Matters programme how she and her husband woke up on Wednesday morning.

"We could actually smell the smoke," she says.

Garfinkle recalls stepping out to the Venice Boardwalk, a promenade in the neighbourhood: "It was dark at nine o'clock in the morning and completely empty."

The couple decided to leave as the smoke was affecting her husband's health.

"We got in the car and drove," she says. "It took about 45 minutes before the sky cleared, and we realised it was actually a sunny day."

Since the fire broke out, Garfinkle has been checking in on friends who live in the area.

"West LA is actually a pretty small place," she says, adding that a friend’s family had just moved to Pacific Palisades for a more suburban lifestyle. "Now that's changed completely."