7 blazes rip through LA as satellite captures destruction

The Hurst fire
It began at 10.10pm on Tuesday and has grown to about 855 acres. Located just north of San Fernando.

The Woodley fire
It started at 6.15am local time on Wednesday and is covering some 30 acres. The LA Fire Department said it has now been contained.

The Lidia fire
It broke out on Wednesday afternoon in the mountainous Acton area north of Los Angeles. It has been 40 per cent contained.

The Sunset fire
The fire in the Hollywood Hills ignited at about 6pm on Wednesday.

The Olivas fire
Blazing in Ventura county, northwest of Los Angeles, it has now been 100 per cent contained.

A home belonging to the actor and comedian Billy Crystal was among more than 1,000 buildings destroyed by wildfires raging across Los Angeles, including a blaze that started in the Hollywood Hills.

Crystal and his wife, Janice, said in a statement that they had lived in their Pacific Palisades house since 1979. “We are heartbroken, of course, but with the love of children and friends we will get through this,” they said.

Leighton Meester and Adam Brody were also reported to have lost their $6.5 million home. Brody, star of Nobody Wants Thisand Meester, who was in Gossip Girlbought their Pacific Palisades home in 2019, according to the Associated Press.

Jamie Lee Curtis and Maria Shriver were among more those forced to evacuate. Shriver, the former first lady of California when married to Arnold Schwarzenegger, the former governor, said that the destruction was devastating. “Everything is gone,” she added.

The fire in Hollywood Hills is “rapidly expanding”, David Acuna, a battalion chief at the Californian Fire Service has told BBC’s Today programme.

He added that firefighters across the greater Los Angeles area have again been hampered by high winds overnight and progress on containing the fires “is zero”.

“The wind has been blowing consistently at 60-100mph since yesterday morning,” he said. “It actually blew harder last night.”

Acuna added that more evacuation orders, already affecting 130,000 people, would be drawn up.

Five people have been killed by the fires sweeping across Los Angeles, but officials have warned that the death toll will grow.

Announcing the deaths, Robert Luna, Los Angeles county sheriff, said that more deaths are feared. Another official said all five who were killed had died in the Eaton fire.

At a news conference, the Los Angeles chief of police James McDonnell said: “This is a tragic time in our history here in Los Angeles, but a time where we’re really tested and see who we really are.”

As the blazes spread, more than 130,000 people across the wider Los Angeles area have now been placed under evacuation orders.

A blaze erupted on Tuesday morning in the Pacific Palisades, one of Los Angeles’ wealthiest neighbourhoods.

By Wednesday evening [local time] it had consumed more than 25,000 acres and was at “0 per cent containment”. It is likely to be the most destructive fire in Los Angeles’ history, according to the Wildfire Alliance, with estimated economic losses exceeding $50 billion.

The Los Angeles Fire Department reported “a high number of significant injuries”, mostly burns, along with the five deaths linked to the Eaton Fire.

Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, declared a state of emergency as officials warned that red flag fire conditions with tornado-force winds were expected to continue into Thursday, posing a danger to all of Los Angeles County’s 9.6 million residents.

• Read in full: How the high winds caused fire to spread rapidly

In the span of 12 hours on Tuesday, three separate wildfires ignited in Los Angeles with some 30 miles between them.

Twenty-four hours on from the first spark, thousands had been forced to flee and hundreds of homes were destroyed as the flames swept across vast swathes.

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It has been not only unprecedented — these are the most destructive wildfires in Los Angeles history — but unexpected: though southern California endures thousands of fires each year, they usually happen between July and November.

How the fires spread in the first 12 hours:

• Read in full: It started in Pacific Palisades — then the ‘devil’s wind’ whipped wildfires across southern California

Prince Harry and the Duchess of Sussex faced power outages in their Montecito mansion and the prospect of evacuation if wildfires reached their neighbourhood.

A large swath of Montecito, located in Santa Barbara County, has been considered a “high fire risk” area. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex may need to flee the $22 million home they share with their two children, Archie, five, and Lilibet, three.

The Southern California Edison company has indicated that power shutoffs are being considered in Santa Barbara.

Although the nearest fire is in Malibu, some 70 miles away from the Sussex’s home, neighbourhoods in Santa Barbara — which are home to other celebrities including Oprah Winfrey and Gwyneth Paltrow — are still considered in danger.

Karen Bass, the mayor of Los Angeles, has returned to the city ravaged by wildfires amid criticism of her ill-timed diplomatic mission to Ghana.

Arriving back in the US on Wednesday the mayor faced questions on the city’s handling of the fires.

At the airport, a Sky News reporter pressed her on whether she needed to apologise to Angelenos for leaving just as the National Weather Service began issuing warnings about the incoming windstorm — and if she regretted decreasing the fire department budget earlier this year.

The mayor remained silent during the questioning.

One of the five people killed in fires ripping through Los Angeles died attempting to save his home from the flames, his sister said Wednesday.

Victor Shaw, 66, told his sister, Shari Shaw, he wanted to stay behind and fight the flames as she made the painful decision to leave their family home in the Altadena area.

“When I went back in and yelled out his name, he didn’t reply back,” Shari Shaw told the local broadcaster KTLA. “I had to get out because the embers were so big and flying like a firestorm that I had to save myself. I looked behind me, and the house was starting to go up in flames, and I had to leave.”

Al Tanner, a friend of Shaw’s, later found his body on the driveway with a garden hose still in his hand. “It looked like he was trying to save the home that his parents had had for almost 55 years,” he told KTLA.

There are at least six fires across Los Angeles and its neighbouring counties.

A new fire erupted in the Hollywood Hills, near Runyon Canyon, on Wednesday evening, fire chief Kristin Crowley told a press conference, forcing more evacuations.

Four of them were 0 per cent contained according to state officials, with the two largest having collectively burnt nearly 27,000 acres in the Palisades and Eaton, since Tuesday.

At least 137,000 people have been pushed to evacuate from the Palisades and Eaton fires alone.

The other blazes are the Hurst Fire, which broke out in the Sylmar neighbourhood north of San Fernando and the Sunset Fire.

Fires burning in and around Los Angeles have claimed the homes of numerous celebrities, including the singer Mandy Moore and reality star Paris Hilton.

Moore lost her home in the Altadena neighbourhood roughly 30 miles east of the Palisades. “Honestly, I’m in shock and feeling numb for all so many have lost, including my family. My children’s school is gone. Our favourite restaurants, levelled. So many friends and loved ones have lost everything too,” Moore wrote on Instagram alongside a video of devastated streets in the foothill suburb.

Hilton shared a news clip on social media that included video of her destroyed home in Malibu.

Cary Elwes, the star of The Princess Bride, said his family was safe but that their home had burnt in the coastal Palisades fire. “Sadly we did lose our home but we are grateful to have survived this truly devastating fire,” Elwes wrote on Instagram.

President Biden has cancelled his upcoming trip to Italy to focus instead on the federal response to fires.

“After returning this evening from Los Angeles, where earlier today he had met with police, fire and emergency personnel … President Biden made the decision to cancel his upcoming trip to Italy to remain focused on directing the full federal response in the days ahead,” the White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement.

Biden had been due to travel to visit Rome and the Vatican from Thursday to Sunday it what would likely be his final overseas trip as president.