LA City mayor Karen Bass says "urgent preparations" are being made, with close to hurricane-force winds forecast which could spark new fires across the region. Watch: Our correspondent John Sudworth shares a tale of one street and two very different outcomes. We've just been listening in to a couple of press conferences about the Palisades and Eaton fires - the two largest blazes.
Here's the latest on those situations and the broader picture in Los Angeles, nearly a week into fighting several fires in and around the city. We are pausing our live coverage of the fires for now, but you can stay up to date on the latest below:. During a briefing earlier, President Joe Biden, Vice-President Kamala Harris and other administration officials, discussed the federal government's response to the California fires. But a "monumental task" remains he said, from clearing debris, distributing food and water, sending emergency payments to victims and more.
Harris, who is from California and whose home in Los Angeles has been threatened by the blazes, called it a "dangerous and unprecedented crisis" and "truly heartbreaking". She called on residents to remain "vigilant" over the next couple of days, as high-speed winds present an elevated risk for the fires to spread.
She praised the "acts of courage, heroism, building of community, people looking out for strangers" and "generosity of spirit" that have accompanied the disaster, thanking firefighters and other emergency responders for their "sacrifice" in battling the flames. Lisa Lambert US reporter. Sitting on a hill in the small California community of Topanga, the s country club now known as the Mountain Mermaid hosts weddings, parties, retreats and photo shoots, with guests staying overnight in accommodations such as "The Little Blue Bungalow".
It feels like the kind of place you might read about in a Raymond Chandler novel. In real life, mobster Mickey Cohen is said to have used the club as a brothel and gambling house in the s. When the fires started in Los Angeles last week, owner Bill Buerge - who has spent more than 30 years restoring and revitalising the Mermaid - says he did not even consider evacuating, even though flames from the Pacific Palisades blaze were only 10 miles 16km away.
