live from washington. this is bbc news. disaster in los angeles — four wildfires are burning out of control. firefighters say they are short of water as the fires remain completely uncontained. at least 70 thousand people have been ordered to flee their homes. more than a thousand buildings have been destroyed and authorities are warning all la residents that they are in danger. officials expect the fires to worsen due to ferocious

winds, as president biden pledges extra firefighters the death toll from california's wildfires has risen to five. four fires are continuing to burn out of control in the suburbs of los angeles. officials say despite best efforts, the fires are zero percent contained. these are live pictures from los angeles. at least 70 thousand people have been ordered to leave their homes — and tens of thousands more have been told to pack and be ready to go. the chief of the los angeles fire department has said all la residents are in danger.here�*s where the fires are burning. a fire around the palisades — between santa monica and malibu — started last night, driven by fierce winds. it spread with incredible speed through tinder—dry conditions. within a matter of hours, the area on fire had doubled in size.

the city's police chief says the fire conditions are unprecedented and unpredicatable and that there is no possibility of bringing them under control. more than a thousand firefighters have been deployed, including some from other states. 1000 buildings have been destroyed in one area alone — the pacific palisades neighbourhood. us presidentjoe biden has promised additional personnel the fire grew at an extraordinary speed, flames raging out of control as hurricane force winds battered the coast. and the fire continues to grow with 0% containment. we have over 500 personnel assigned and unfortunately, we have two reported fatalities to civilians. la county and all 29 fire departments in our county are not prepared for this type of widespread disaster.

there are not enough firefighters in la county. along this coastal road we have been seeing the fires destruction. there is power lines down, patches still smouldering and the air is so thick with smoke that we can barely see more than a few metres in front of us. this was the moment two residents found their house engulfed by flames. it's going to be ok, all right? we are going to be ok. la's governor watched as the fire spread across thousands of acres in hours. thousands made homeless, a state of emergency called in a situation out of control. some abandoning their cars to the mercy of the flames. 0thers made attempts to stay and save their homes. fire crews struggled against a terrifying inferno causing utter destruction. flights continued to land into la's main airport. passengers witnessed the frightening scenes below.

oh, my god. emergency services have been stretched to their limit, battling the unpredictable fires on multiple fronts. at least a thousand buildings have been destroyed as the situation took many people by surprise. my sister called and she was like, are you 0k? and at that moment, a helicopter flew over my house and just dropped water and i was like, it's raining. she was like, no, it's not raining, your neighbourhood is on fire, you need to get out. in one of the worst hit areas a reporter described the carnage. you're at the heart of the pacific palisades in a neighbourhood that is completely lost. home is out in the street gone. as the second fire broke out, elderly residents of a care home huddled in a car park. a lot of these people are terrified and they

don't have a blanket, they have nothing. in some of la's most exclusive neighbourhoods, hollywood stars left their homes to the flames. none of the fires have yet been brought under control. some returned to their neighbourhoods now turned to ash. i'm ok, i will be ok. i am tough and we will start over, even though i am 91 years old. i will start over again. this afternoon, president biden visited teams on the ground to get an update. we will do anything and as long as it takes to contain these fires and help reconstruct, make sure we get back to normal. it will be a long way. many still unsure where to go in this fast changing situation. look at this. beyond comprehension. a dark day for los angeles. the californian dream becoming a nightmare. emma vardy, bbc news,

los angeles. david bullis is in the palisade neighborhood. good to see you. describe the situation at the moment. within the last hour the winds here have really picked up. beyond that this vast fire is still burning. as talking short while ago to brent armitage, he's an actor in screen writer, he's an actor in screen writer, he lives a short distance year and has evacuated from his home 30 minutes notice. he returned today a short while ago to find that his was the only house on the street that had survived this deadly wildfire. everything else he said the grocery store, the local church

had been raised to the ground. he likened it ——. this fire is currently occupying 16,000 acres it is estimated for the evacuation orders have been extended to santa monica over here to my leftjust along the coastline. the us navy and the national guard have deployed air dropping planes and helicopters to dump retardant and water on the flames in the hope of quelling them. i think it really is the best hope now because the firefighters have conceded they are overwhelmed, those on the ground and indeed additional resources are being drafted in from neighboring states, aragon, nevada, washington state for the all firefighters who are off duty in la have been urged to report

for duty. it is a real uphill battle. as i said, this fire continues to burn out of control. continues to burn out of control-— control. as we said, 0% contained _ control. as we said, 0% contained at _ control. as we said, 0% contained at the - control. as we said, 0% i contained at the moment. control. as we said, 0% - contained at the moment. for those that have evacuated in palisades and now santa monica and other areas, what is a situation at the moment, where can they had to get help?- can they had to get help? there are evacuation _ can they had to get help? there are evacuation centers - can they had to get help? there are evacuation centers that - are evacuation centers that have been set up. there was a rather tragic site overnight of people being led out of a convalescent home not far from here in wheelchairs and shipped off as members flew all around them to a local evacuation center about 37,000 evacuated from this area alone. but there were people who declined the

authorities demands to leave their homes and officials said this morning that some of those people had suffered what they called significant injuries. just before we let you go david, we understand the wins, there is conditions are not set to die down anytime soon. that's right. the epicenter is reporting that further high winds are expected later in the week. that is really going to provide an additional headache for the firefighters. 0ne for the firefighters. one small crumb of comfort is the fact that the wins here appear to be blowing towards the coast over there behind me rather than in land and towards the city of los angeles.— los angeles. david willis reporting _ los angeles. david willis reporting from _ los angeles. david willis reporting from the - los angeles. david willis | reporting from the pacific palisades neighborhood.

we can speak now to someone who has had to evacuate from their home, maryam zar. she lives in the pacific palisades and serves as chair of the pacific palisades community council. she joins us now from redondo beach, california, which is about 25 miles south of the pacific palisades. pacific palisades community council. thank you forjoining us. give us a sense of how you and your family are doing and what do you know about your home at this point. you know about your home at this point-— this point. thank you for havin: this point. thank you for having me _ this point. thank you for having me on. _ this point. thank you for having me on. let- this point. thank you for having me on. let me i this point. thank you for - having me on. let me clarify, on the past chair of the pacific palisades council. we have a current chair sue cole that has been speaking to the media as have others in the palisades. this is really in extraordinary event even for us and we live in a high fire zone for that we always have fire on the mind but this is extraordinary. i'm doing 0k. the mind but this is extraordinary. i'm doing ok. my family and i were able to evacuate. you can see the remnants of our evacuation behind me. we went first to my mothers house in santa monica, she was then evacuated within two or three hours of us arriving there. we then thought we'd go to my sister in laws

place, she is in brentwood, which is a community, we called a sister community next to the palisade so that we headed to brentwood and they turned out to be within the evacuation warning area so we picked up the entire broader family and came out to south bay in redondo beach, which is about 20 miles south along the shoreline. itjust so happens that we're i am stay i can look out the back yard and see the smoke billowing from the palisades.— smoke billowing from the palisades. ., , . palisades. how do you perceive what is happening? _ palisades. how do you perceive what is happening? it - palisades. how do you perceive what is happening? it is - what is happening? it is unbelievable. _ what is happening? it is unbelievable. today - what is happening? it is unbelievable. today is l what is happening? it 3 unbelievable. today is the first full day where people are waking up i assume in the bone palisade phones are alight with people sharing information, carrying with a canon sharing with their network and it goes from there. there is no good news. some people have been

able to drive into the palisades and some people have been able to send pictures or video. it is devastated. it's a devastated land. it really looks apocalyptic. very little remains standing whether it's the commercial district, which we call the village, which is adorable little old town. it's historic and sweet at the same time, it's kind of modern and historic, there's almost nothing there. people's homes have been downed. people sharing snapshots of their home with nothing but the skeleton standing. there are famous trees, not so famous trees, and we know people have historic significance in some way and alljust gone. significance in some way and alljust gone-— alljust gone. was there any -e of alljust gone. was there any type of warning _ alljust gone. was there any type of warning that - alljust gone. was there any i type of warning that something like this could happen?- like this could happen? well, eah, like this could happen? well, yeah. we _ like this could happen? well, yeah, we live in _ like this could happen? well, yeah, we live in this - like this could happen? well, yeah, we live in this little - yeah, we live in this little community that we always say is nestled between the pacific

ocean and the santa monica mountain range. the community of hillside streets, also a lot of hillside streets, also a lot of flats but many hillside neighborhoods. we're within the very high fire severity zone. l afd classifies us to be in the high fire is old for that we monitor legislation that has to do with a high severity zone we entered days with leaders when it comes to things with fire safety because we know that this is where we live. in our minds i would say that every single person has a warning sign is always going up because we know we live here. i was talking to someone earlier and they said, what do you do when you evacuate and i said most people probably thought if you don't have a go back you thought about what you would do so you can probably gather pretty quickly. there's nothing we can do about our topography. they are hillside streets, they can be narrow. we don't have a lot of ways in and out of this little community. it's a sweet and beautiful community for a

lot of reasons but one of them is the fact that it's kind of nestled in this area. these are the realities was that we know that when we evacuate it's going to be hard. surprisingly everybody i know has been able to evacuate as scary as it was. if you could just share with us how the community itself is doing for them as you said, you've been in contact with other people.— other people. people are devastated. _ other people. people are devastated. what - other people. people are devastated. what i - other people. people are devastated. what i see l other people. people are l devastated. what i see on other people. people are - devastated. what i see on my text stream is sentiments like, no words or devastation. people are devastated. i was just sharing with my family precious few people are messaging me with news that their homes are still standing. there is really devastation again, i think everyone realizes we're in a fire zone. but this degree of decimation was beyond our imagination. the fire has

really impacted the entirety of the palisades and taking quite a lot with it.— a lot with it. maryam zar, thank you _ a lot with it. maryam zar, thank you for _ a lot with it. maryam zar, thank you for sharing - a lot with it. maryam zar, | thank you for sharing your story with us today. thank you for covering — story with us today. thank you for covering it. _ around the world and across the uk. this is bbc news. let's look at some other stories making news. a body found in italy's dolomite mountains — is believed to be that of 35 year—old british man samuel harris. he and aziz ziriat, who's 36, were last heard from on new year's day after sending messages home from the the region. after search operations resumed wednesday — the rescue team said a body was found "unfortunately lifeless, buried under the snow". rising flu cases are putting hospitals across the uk under severe pressure. about 20 hospital trusts in england have declared critical incidents. the head of urgent and emergency care for nhs england, professorjulian redhead, has warned that the peak of flu season is still to come. several ambulance services have told the bbc they re working at their highest level of escalation too. economists warn that chancellor rachel reeves

could be forced to cut spending or hike taxes even further, as the government tries to meet its self—imposed borrowing target. government borrowing is at its highest level since the 2008 financial crisis. the rise has also seen the value of the pound plunge to its lowest level in nine months. you're live with bbc news. donald trump has asked the supreme court to halt his sentencing in the criminal hush money case in new york. it comes after the us�*s highest court issued a ruling last year that granted us presidents immunity from criminal prosecution over official acts while in office. trump argues the immunity protections should apply to the new york conviction. trump's lawyers have now asked the supreme court to consider whether he is due an automatic stay of his sentencing in new york while he appeals against his conviction there. the supreme court gave manhattan prosecutors until thursday to respond to trump's request — giving the justices time to act before his criminal sentencing this friday.

trump was found guilty last year of paying hush money to an adult film actress, but the sentencing has been delayed. meanwhile germany and france have warned donald trump against threatening greenland, following the us president—elect�*s refusal to rule out using military force to seize the autonomous territory. on tuesday, mr trump reiterated his desire to acquire greenland, saying that the arctic island was "critical" for national and economic security. denmark — a long—time us ally has made it clear that greenland is not for sale. without specifically naming mr trump, german chancellor 0laf scholz said eu leaders were baffled at his statements. the french foreign minister said the eu would never allow that kind of aggression. translation: greenland is a territory of _ the european union. european territory. and so of course, is out of the question for the eu to let any nation in the world, whichever it is, and let i say starting with russia, attack its sovereign borders.

we are a strong continent. we have to keep on strengthening ourselves and we should wake up. the us secretary of state antony blinken expressed opposition to the idea — saying it's not going to happen. i think one of the basic propositions of the last four years is that we're stronger,. years is that we're stronger, more effective, we get better results when we're working closely with our allies, not saying or doing things that may alienate them. having said that, uh, it's the idea expressed about greenland is obviously not a good one, but maybe more important, it's obviously one that's not going to happen. so we probably shouldn't waste a lot of time talking about it. our correspondent paul adams has more. i think this whole episode gives us an indication of what the next four years are going to be like. donald trump issues

threats, he cajoles, he breaks taboos and then the world stumbles for that we hear sharp intakes of breath and try to figure out what he means and what we should all do about it. as for what he means, that is not obviously clear. donald trump is set in the past that he believes that greenland should become part of the united states. he recognizes its strategic significance located as it is between north america, europe and russia. also that it has untapped mineral wealth that heat my quite like to exploit. is there perhaps another part of the agenda here, which 1533 00