At least two people have d!ed in a wildfire in Los Angeles, officials have said, with firefighters battling five blazes across California.
Los Angeles County fire chief Anthony Marrone said two people have been k!ylled in the Eaton fire, one of four growing blazes in the area.
All four of the Los Angeles blazes – dubbed the Palisades, Eaton, Hurst and Woodley fires respectively – are at zero percent containment, according to the state’s fire department website Cal Fire.
Mr Marrone also told a news conference a “high number” of significant injuries had occurred among residents who did not need evacuation orders, and that an estimated 1,000 structures have been destroyed in the Palisades fire.
The county’s sheriff said around 70,000 people across the city are under evacuation orders, and that two people have been arrested for looting.
At the news conference, Los Angeles’ chief of police James McDonnell told reporters: “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.
“It’s critical that at these times we be patient, that we come together, that we focus on saving lives and to be able to the very best job we can.”
He then urged those under evacuation orders to take them “very seriously”, saying they make “the difference between living and not”.
Kristin Crowley, fire chief of the Los Angeles Fire Department, also said: “We want to make sure that everybody understands we are absolutely not out of danger.”
By 5pm UK time, the Palisades fire has burnt more than 5,000 acres east of Los Angeles, while the Eaton blaze has grown to more than 2,000 acres.
It comes after the governor of California, Gavin Newsom, declared a state of emergency on Tuesday, Jan. 7.
He said the state had positioned personnel, firetrucks and aircraft elsewhere in Southern California because of the fire danger to the wider region
Meanwhile, President Joe Biden has been briefed on the fires while in the state to announce the creation of two new national monuments.