jason kirkpatrick, there is much more we could talk about, i hope to do that another time.ou for your time. we have a live page with the very latest on the la fires from correspondents across the area on the bbc website the app. last year — 2024 — was the hottest year since records began, according to new figures from european climate scientists. climate monitoring body copernicus says temperatures were 1.6 degrees higher than the pre—industrial average. the agency said this showed that a warming threshold of 1.5 degrees agreed in paris in 2015 was in danger of being permanently breached. with the details here's our climate editor, justin rowlatt. remember the series of huge storms that battered the uk at the beginning of last year and left large areas flooded? scientists judge climate change has made rain and snow on stormy days here in the uk 30% more intense. and we've had it relatively easy. remember those devastating floods in spain in october? or the historic drought in the amazon basin, which reduced river levels to a 120—year low. or how about the six typhoons that

jason kirkpatrick is a climate expert from la and former vice—mayor of arcata, in california, with experienceisaster planning and management. his cousin's home also burned down three years ago in a wildfire. we heard the governor of california asking for an inquiry into why those fire hydrants run out. what is your theory about what happened? we have theory about what happened? - have seen some reporting on that. we are talking about a one—time event in terms of it being the worst ever fire in la. my experience with natural resource disasters, natural disaster planning is you should try to plan for a worst—case scenario. in california there are fires, earthquakes. in britain it is more flooding. but when you have these kinds of events that we see more and more of with extreme weather, caused by climate change, which are going to be growing, to battle a fire like this you would need five or ten times as many firefighters and the budgets are not going to be ready for that. they will have to look at these issues like water but at the same time, people have to start being a bit prepared for this.

jason kirkpatrick, a climate expert and former vice—mayor of arcata in california, says these fires bringhis time there. i know exactly what this feeling is like, it is terrifying. i've been stuck in these fires, my cousin lost her house in this area a few years ago when it burned down, and even as a youth in this area i remember nearby fires, i was on the roof of our wooden shingled home with a garden hose, hosing down the roof so that flying embers with these big winds called santa ana winds would not catch my house, it was terrifying. so when we see fires on this scale, the worst in los angeles history, and we're told by climate change experts that the frequency is likely to increase, what needs to change, first of all, in terms of how emergency responses are organised, in your view? ok, the short—term thing for emergency response, there are some small things that we are learning from these lessons we are hearing in the news. the water planning needs to be done a bit better. they have really done well, but this is the worst ever fire and now there will be lessons learnt, there will be