Key events
On Tuesday afternoon, officials said at least 25 people had died from the southern California fires. But the death toll is likely to rise, according to Los Angeles county sheriff, Robert Luna.
Nearly 30 people were still missing, Luna said on Tuesday. Some people reported as missing earlier have been found.
According to the Associated Press, just under 90,000 people in the county remained under evacuation orders, half the number from last week.
Here are some of the latest images that have come in on the newswires:
LA police announced about 50 arrests, for looting, flying drones in fire zones, violating curfew and other crimes
Millions of southern Californians were on edge as a final round of dangerous fire weather was forecast for the region on Wednesday, reports the Associated Press (AP).
Police announced roughly 50 arrests, for looting, flying drones in fire zones, violating curfew and other crimes.
Of those, three people were arrested on suspicion of arson after being seen setting small fires that were immediately extinguished, LA police chief Jim McDonnell said. One was using a barbecue lighter, another ignited brush and a third tried to light a trash can, he said. All were far outside the disaster zones. Authorities have not determined a cause for any of the major fires.
Among nine people charged with looting was a group that stole an Emmy award from an evacuated house, Los Angeles county district attorney, Nathan Hochman, said.
The biggest worry remained the threat from intense winds. Now backed by firefighters from other states, Canada and Mexico, crews were deployed to attack flareups or new blazes. The firefighting force was much bigger than a week ago, when the first wave of fires began destroying thousands of homes in what could become the nation’s costliest fire disaster.
Kaylin Johnson and her family told the AP that they planned to spend the night at their home, one of the few left standing in Altadena, near Pasadena. They intended to keep watch to ward off looting and to hose down the house and her neighbors’ properties to prevent flareups.
“Our lives have been put on hold indefinitely,” Johnson said via text message to the AP, adding that they cannot freely come and go because of restrictions on entering the burn areas. “But I would rather be here and not leave than to not be allowed back at all.”
‘A crisis that impacts the nation’: LA mayor talks up recovery of city
Los Angeles mayor, Karen Bass, has cautioned residents that the emergency isn’t over yet, but she wants them to start thinking about recovery and rebuilding if possible.
“While we’re going through what I hope is the final hours of this emergency, it’s also time to begin to talk about our recovery,” she said.
You can listen to her comments in this video:
Opening summary
Hello. It is just past 8.30am in London and 00.30am in Los Angeles. This is the Guardian’s latest live blog with coverage of the wildfires in southern California.
Forecasters have warned of another “particularly dangerous weather situation” across northern Los Angeles where residents are braced for new wildfire evacuation orders.
Los Angeles, and parts of Ventura county to the north, faced “extreme fire risk” warnings through Wednesday, with officials warning of “significant risk of rapid fire spread” due to the Santa Ana winds – which have gusts of up to 75mph.
The “particularly dangerous weather situation” designation is used very rarely, and was designed by meteorologists to signal “the extreme of the extremes”. The winds were predicted to reach near hurricane-force in some areas.
This is the fourth time in recent months that Los Angeles has faced a “particularly dangerous weather situation”, and the three previous warnings all resulted in major wildfires, the Los Angeles Times reported.
“I don’t want people to start thinking everything’s OK now. Everything’s not OK yet,” the Los Angeles county sheriff, Robert Luna, said in a Tuesday morning press conference. “It is still very dangerous for the next 24 hours.”
Meanwhile, the official death toll from last week’s fires in Altadena and the Pacific Palisades is expected to rise.
Here is the latest on the evolving situation in southern California:
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As of Tuesday morning, 84,800 people had been warned they might be ordered to evacuate because of fire risk, while another 88,000 people remained under current evacuation orders.
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On Tuesday afternoon, officials said at least 25 people had died from the fires, but this number is expected to rise. At least two dozen people have been reported missing, 18 of them in the Eaton fire in north-east Los Angeles, and six around the Pacific Palisades.
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More than 12,000 structures had been destroyed. Estimates put the cost of damage at about $250bn, which could make it the costliest fire in American history.
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Los Angeles mayor, Karen Bass, and other officials – who have faced criticism over their initial response to the fires – expressed confidence that the region was ready to face the new threat with scores of additional firefighters brought in from around the US, as well as from Canada and Mexico. At a press conference, Bass described the level of destruction across parts of the city as the aftermath of a “dry hurricane”, and pledged that city officials would work hard to reduce the bureaucracy residents may face as they start to recover from the fires.
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More than 75,000 households, most of them in Los Angeles county, were without power on Tuesday morning, but Southern California Edison had warned nearly half a million customers on Monday that their power may be shut off temporarily because of the expected high winds on Tuesday and Wednesday.
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As of midday on Tuesday:
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The Palisades fire, at 23,700 acres and 17% containment.
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The Eaton fire, at 14,100 acres and 35% containment.
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The Hurst fire, at nearly 800 acres and 97% containment.
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The new Auto fire, which broke out on Monday night in Ventura, is now fully contained, and no evacuation orders remain in effect.
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