A night-time curfew has been imposed in areas impacted by the devastating wildfires blazing across Los Angeles. A new fire front has sprung up – the Kenneth fire is raging out of control. The Eaton fire continues to expand and the largest – the Palisades blaze – has burnt through 20,000 hectares. Across LA, the scale of the damage is staggering. A huge outdoor donation centre has been set up distributing food, clothing, and hygiene items to people affected by the wildfires. The death toll has also risen to 11 but could go much higher as authorities search the worst hit areas.
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TVTranscript
00:00This is the Malibu coastline.
00:04It's one of the most well-known parts of Southern California.
00:08And what we're looking at here is what up until a few days ago would have been prime
00:12waterfront real estate.
00:14Houses looking directly out over the ocean, right up and down this road.
00:20There is property after property that has been destroyed, cars that have been burnt
00:25out.
00:26There's a power line here that has been brought down.
00:29The power in this area is off.
00:33And if we look down the coast, you can get really a small glimpse of the scale of the
00:40destruction here.
00:41You can see how this fire has come right up to the shoreline, damaging so much in its
00:49path.
00:51It's quite remarkable how many properties have been lost.
00:54And then just up the road from here, I can see a lifeguard tower that is completely unscathed.
01:01But so much damage in this region.
01:04It's been hit, what is known as the Palisades fire.
01:08It's one of two fires along with the Eaton fire to the northeast of here that has caused
01:16so much destruction where fatalities have been reported and where thousands of structures
01:22have been damaged or destroyed.
01:25Favourable weather conditions, more favourable weather conditions at least, compared to those
01:29early stages of these fires, has helped crews to start to contain them.
01:34But it's pretty slow moving at this stage and authorities are worried that conditions
01:42could worsen in the days to come.
01:45They are facing all sorts of questions about how they have handled this emergency, about
01:52whether Los Angeles was as prepared as it could have been for the catastrophic conditions
01:58that fuelled these fires and allowed them to spread so rapidly.
02:02They insist that all of those questions will be answered, that reviews will be undertaken,
02:07but that at the moment they're focused on the emergency that is still unfolding.
02:12They have apologised for emergency alerts that were mistakenly sent out overnight to
02:19people who aren't in fire zones, aren't in evacuation zones.
02:24Tens of thousands of people still remain under evacuation orders.
02:30But these alerts to people's mobile phones, including mine, I got one about 4am this morning
02:35suggesting that we might need to leave.
02:38They were sent out by mistake and authorities have conceded that that has caused confusion
02:44and frustration and they're worried now that people might disable those alert systems on
02:50their phones and they're concerned that if that happens and conditions change, if the
02:55threat assessment changes, then members of the public could be left vulnerable.
02:59So they've urged people not to do that.
03:02They insist that support is being provided at the state and at the federal level.
03:09There have been resources put in place to try to combat looting because a number of
03:13arrests have been made so far and the National Guard has been brought in to try to manage
03:21that situation and police are patrolling these worst affected areas as well.
03:26But still such an anxious time for so many people in this city.