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fire fighters say they cannot be contained. at least 70,000 people have been ordered to flee their homes. more than 1000 buildings have been destroyed and authorities are warning all l.a. residents they are in danger. officials expect the fires to worsen due to ferocious wind and finishing water supplies -- and diminishing water supplies. hello and welcome to world news america. thank you for being with us. four wildfires are burning out of control in the suburbs around los angeles. these are the latest pictures from that city in california. at least two people are known to have died and dozens more injured. at least 70,000 people have been ordered to leave their homes and tens of thousands more have been told to pack up and be ready to go.

the chief of the los angeles fire department has said all l.a. residents are in danger. here is where the fires are burning. there is a fire around the palisades between santa monica and malibu. it spread with incredible speed through tender dry conditions. within a matter of hours, the area on fire had doubled in size. the police chief says the fire conditions are unprecedented and unpredictable and that there is no possibility of bringing them under control at this time. more than 1000 firefighters have been deployed, including some from other states. 1000 buildings have been destroyed in one area alone, the pacific palisades neighborhood. u.s. president joe biden has promised personnel and assets from the deposit of defense. the fire chief gave an update on the two biggest fires, starting with that major blaze in the palisades.

>> we have well over 5000 acres that have burned and the fire is burning. we have no percentage of containment. we have an estimated 1000 structures destroyed, and also no reported fatalities and a high number of significant injuries to residents who did not evacuate, in addition to first responders on the fire line. >> the fire chief explained the scale of the disaster that emergency crews are facing. >> together, these fires are stretching the capacity of emergency services to their maximum limits. the los angeles city fire department is battling these two major fires while also maintaining 911 services for the city's approximate 4 million residents.

despite the severity of the conditions, our department remains committed to safeguarding life and property. >> you can get a sense of the size of these fires from a video taken by a passenger on board a flight that had been rerouted to l.a. international airport on tuesday. you can see thick dark clouds of smoke and that orange glow from the fire. this video filmed on tuesday shows the terrifying moments the flames engulfed a home in pacific palisades. two men and a dog trapped inside. you can see the flames ripping around their home. the l.a. fire department public information officer has been giving us an update on the current situation. captain, thank you for joining us on bbc news. you are the l.a. fire department public information officer. can you tell us what is the latest situation regarding the fires?

what is the area that is currently burning or at risk? >> the palisades fire is a very dynamic brush fire. i'm looking out the window and the wind gusts are still 50 to 70 miles per hour heading right into the ocean and turning back around, up the canyon. our last fire perimeter we are looking at, roughly 2000 acres, that number is growing rapidly and it will continue to increase as the wind drives this fire up the canyons and pushing into the various areas. that is a very dynamic number we are looking at. roughly 12,000 acres right now. >> that is a large space to say the least. how many people are impacted by that, in terms of who has been evacuated and what have they been urged to do? >> we have approximately 30,000 households we evacuated

yesterday under an evacuation order. this was a very difficult fire to catch, with 100 mile-per-hour wind. we took a very proactive approach. you are looking at roughly 15,000 households and 30,000 or so people. >> do you have any reports of stranded individuals, or have those impacted managed to get to safety? >> last night, earlier in the incident, we did have some reports of people waiting to exit their homes, thinking they might be able to stay. they left and the fire was very fast-moving, it was dark, there is smoke and embers everywhere. a 75% chance embers would ignite a new fire so they were caught in a very difficult situation.

some of them abandoned their vehicles and ran to safety, others unfortunately were burned. it is a very dynamic situation. we are hoping that now everyone has heated our advice along with evacuation orders and is able to get out because we are still at 0% containment on this fire. we have very erratic wind i have not seen in my career. they are heading in one direction, then turning 180 degrees and heading back up the canyon. hurricane force wind that is erratic and there is no way you can stay in your home. >> how do you actually tackle that? what is the plan for trying to bring them under control? >> we are fortunate in that we were able to get our air assets up. that is a big way we were able to prevent this fire from

spreading. we also are able to get helicopters in the air this morning, which were grounded yesterday with the unusually high wind. this morning we were able to get them in the air and do some water drops to try and save as many homes and protect as much as we possibly could. >> do you have enough resources for what you need to fight this fire? >> we always want more. we have roughly 850 personnel assigned to this fire from all over the state and coming from out of state. as needs change, we continue to ask for more resources, so we are always proactively looking to make sure we have that correct resource calendar we are able to provide everything we need to.

>> that's go to the pacific palisades neighborhood now in los angeles and we can speak to our correspondent. what is it like for you at the moment? >> this fire, the pacific palisades fire is still burning fiercely. the wind has whipped up, acrid fumes and smoke in the air, and just a short while ago, officials who earlier today put the acreage burned in this fire at 5000 acres upped that to nearly 16,000 acres, and among the thousand or so structures that have been torched is an area just behind me on this ridge, and this used to be a luxury mobile home park. it is now completely destroyed. there were about 170 mobile

homes. none of them exist and about 37,000 people, clearly many of them will -- will not be coming back to the homes they were used to living in. the whole future of this depends on the elements and the wind is expected to pick up. some good news is that the wind here at the moment appears to be blowing towards the coast rather than inland, which is a shred of good news. >> we heard earlier in the program, huge numbers of people under evacuation orders, huge mentions of down in jazz. do we know, has everyone in those areas managed to get to

safety? >> that is an interesting question because at this briefing earlier today, officials said that some people who had decided not to heed the evacuation warnings had suffered what they called significant injuries. we do know that according to the local report, some of those significant injuries were incurred by firefighters. it has clearly been a very tough 24 hours or so for the rescue authorities here, and they have a lot more ahead of them and they have pulled in additional resources from nearby states and they are also -- also asking any off do -- off-duty firefighters to report for duty. >> thank you for that update and take care of yourself. as we've been talking about,

much damage to properties so far and in happier times, this was a popular local haunt, with many celebrities living nearby. this is the scene by topanga beach. the area and its neighboring businesses gutted by the flames. you can see what remains of that neighborhood. the owner joins me now. thank you for being with us on bbc news. we are looking at devastating images of your beloved restaurant. at what point did you realize you were going to have to abandon the restaurant, which has served the local community for so long? >> when the fire fighters appeared, our crew stayed right up until the fire fighters appeared. they said you need to go now,

and they left and within hours it was gone. my husband and i were at home, watching the fire because we were evacuated from topanga. >> and the restaurant, have you seen anything like this? we've heard from the fire fighters, just what an awful combined set of circumstances this is. >> no. we had a picture yes to -- next to where you would check out and pay for your food, a picture of a fire that came right up to the back in the 1990's and we had stayed open and fed the fire fighters and the crews and they saved the restaurant that time. this time, this fire is unprecedented in our experience. the wind is so high.

it doesn't appear to be any way that this fire could be fought. from the ridge where we live, we watched it jump and we watched the spots jump and we had already lost the restaurant, and then we needed to get our things and get out of our homes, so i am talking to you from an airbnb in mar vista. >> we know material things are material things and human life is the most precious but what has it been like packing up everything you've worked for and watching it burn like this? >> devastating. it was much like being punched in the gut. you get the wind knocked out of you and then when we arrived at the airbnb and members of our family were here, and we were able to look at each other and say it doesn't matter because we have each other and we are here and we are safe. the outpouring of love and

support for the community has just been remarkable. it is a testament to my husband and what he has created over 36 years with this restaurant, and our crew, who most of them have been with us for over 30 years. it's been remarkable that we were able to keep it going with the same crew. >> what was that journey like, and you had to evacuate, given so many others are doing the same? i mentioned -- i've heard mention the traffic is pretty intense to say the least. >> we were able to go out the back way and down through the valley and out through the 405 and the 101. what was frustrating for me and i'm sure for the fire fighters is that a lot of people from the valley, we were passing cars that were coming up just to look , they just wanted to see where

the fire was, but they were impeding our ability to get out, which is not ok, and that is something i would love for people to be aware of. we all want to know what is going on and see it firsthand but at the same time we have to be aware that the first responders need to be the priority and people getting out of their homes need to be the priority. >> what is your own plan for what happens next insofarn at t? >> we have started a gofundme for our crew. our first concern is the crew. they've been with us so long and we want to make sure that they are taken care of and our second plan is to try and speak to the state parks and rebuild the restaurant if we can. we don't know what has happened with our home yet or what is going to happen so we just tabled that for the moment. we are focusing more on the

amazing amount of love and support we've gotten from the community and globally. we've heard from people all over the world, and it really is a testament to my husband and to the restaurant and what we have been able to create. >> on that sense of community, one of the remarkable things about this is the scale of this fire. we've heard 12,000, 16,000 acres are burning and potentially the whole of l.a. is at risk. what does that feel like, to be part of that, everyone trying to scramble to safety and help others as well? >> it has felt a little bit like what i imagine armageddon. we got up this morning, i went out to walk our dog and i looked up and the sky was pitch black and there was smoke from the pasadena fires meeting the smoke

from the palisades fire's and it is very unreal feeling and you just find, what we are holding on to is each other, and our community and if we can all take care of each other with this same love and compassion they are showing as we go through these troubled times, if we could show that the rest of our lives, the world would be a different place. >> indeed. thank you for talking to us and our best wishes to you and everyone as you go through this. thank you for being with us. u.s. president-elect donald trump has asked the supreme court to withhold his sentencing in the criminal hush money case in new york. it comes after the u.s.'s highest court issued a ruling last year that granted u.s. presidents immunity from

criminal prosecution over official acts while in office. president-elect trump argues the immunity protections should apply to that new york conviction. his lawyers have 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 has given the manhattan prosecutors until thursday to respond to the request. given the justices time to act for his criminal sentencing currently set for friday. donald trump was found guilty last year of paying so-called hush money to an adult film actress but the sentencing has been delayed. joining me now is a former u.s. federal prosecutor and former assistant u.s. attorney in the district of new york. lovely to talk to you again. the supreme court has given the prosecutors until tomorrow

morning to respond. what would you expect them to say? >> definitely going to get an answer for them. a series of last-ditch efforts by the soon to be president, the delay or prevent the sentencing from going forward. the supreme court has very much signaled that we will get a decision from them likely tomorrow, and that suggests to me that they will likely let the sentencing go forward, though who knows what will happen. >> who knows indeed. is there any expectation that the president-elect would receive a prison sentence for this conviction, should the sentencing go ahead on friday? >> as far as criminal defendants go, the former president is the luckiest criminal defendant in the world because the sentencing judge has basically already told

trump what he is going to get. he is going to have a sentence that doesn't have any prison time, it has no fine or probationary sentence. that makes it a lot easier for the supreme court because the judge has already signaled that the sentence will have no further consequences upon the soon to be president. there are of course consequences that come with any felony conviction, but most of those, the former president has already experienced. >> so what what the motivation for trump be at this point in delaying if there is not going to be any sentence or fine? >> it is interesting. i think it is optics to him. it's funny because one of the arguments that trump's team has put forward is that the sentencing will somehow impede trump from dissipating in

everything he needs to do to get ready to take office. it is frankly absurd. the sentence proceeding itself will be an hour or two. these continued efforts to lobby the courts to overturn the judgment, those have taken hours and hours of time. that argument does not hold a lot of water. >> president-elect trump says he intends to appeal this conviction but am i right in that he can't do that until the sentence has been handed down? >> there have been a series of appeals. essentially appeals during the course of the case, but ultimately we need the conviction to be final for trump to be able to assert a number of appeals that i certainly expect he will do and that will take many years to resolve. >> the courts in new york are separate to the power of the

president. >> that's right. this is a state court matter which is another reason the supreme court may not want to get involved. it took her to leave because trump hasn't exhausted all of his remedies. he has simultaneously petitioned the court of appeals in new york state, the highest court in the land in new york, as well as the supreme court at the same time, just because of the time constraints here but the supreme court could really punt on this, saying you have not exhausted all the remedies you have in the state, so we are not going to rule on this. they could find a lot of other procedural reasons why they are not going to address this and then allow the sentencing to go forward. >> we will wait to see what the supreme court decides. thank you for joining us here on bbc news.

here in washington, d.c., mourners continue to pour into the capital to pay respects to former president jimmy carter for his -- before his estate funeral tomorrow. the body of the 39th president lies in state at the capitol rotunda. you can see members of the public filing around to pay their last respects. mr. carter was in office from 1977 until 1981, and he died at the age of 100 in late december. all living u.s. presidents have been invited to tomorrow's funeral where current president joe biden will deliver the eulogy after a private service, mr. carter will then be buried in a plot visible from the front porch of his home in georgia. we will have live coverage of the funeral here on bbc news, so join us for that. let's have a look again at our top story, a look at the latest pictures coming to us from

california and that wildfire disaster that is continuing to unfold in los angeles. you can see plumes of smoke high into the sky. strong wind fueling those fires. authorities in l.a. have warned all residents they are in danger from those fires burning around the city. two people have been killed, many others injured and tens of thousands have been forced to leave their homes. u.s. president joe biden has promised extra resources to help with the fight. that's it for today. announcer: funding for presentation of this program is provided by... financial services firm, raymond james. announcer: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation,

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i'm amna nawaz. geoff: i'm geoff bennett. firefighters in and around los angeles struggled to control multiple raging wildfires, fueled by high wind and forcing tens of thousands of people to evacuate. amna: the united states announces another