California fires live: around 35,000 homes and business without electricity in LA as 16 deaths confirmed

It’s around 2am in Los Angeles, where firefighters are continuing to battle the four fires that are ravaging the city. Sky News gave this update on these fires about an hour ago:

• Palisades: At least 23,654 acres, 11% contained

• Eaton: At least 14,117 acres, 15% contained

• Kenneth: At least 1,052 acres, 90% contained

• Hurst: At least 799 acres, 76% contained

Los Angeles county board of supervisors chair Kathryn Barger has invited US president-elect, Donald Trump, who will be inaugurated on 20 January, to visit the region and see the devastation caused by the fires first-hand. Barger said Trump’s visit would provide hope to the local community suffering from the wildfire’s damage.

“By accepting this invitation, Mr President-elect, you will join us in supporting our citizenry and thanking our heroic first responders, who have risked their own lives to save others,” Barger wrote in the letter, which has been posted on X.

“We would also ask you, as our president, to stand with the people of Los Angeles County as we set our course to rebuild. Your presence would be deeply felt and appreciated.”

Outgoing US President Joe Biden has already approved a disaster declaration for the southern California fires, committing the federal government to covering all of the fire management and debris removal costs for six months.

In a social media post on Wednesday, Trump said California governor Gavin Newsom, who is a Democrat, had “refused to sign the water restoration declaration put before him that would have allowed millions of gallons of water” to put out the fires.

California attorney general Rob Bonta has warned that it is illegal to engage in price gouging, looting or scamming of any kind and those who do in response to the fires will be held accountable by the law.

“We’ve seen businesses and landlords … jack up the price,” he told journalists at a press conference yesterday. “It’s called price gouging. It is illegal. You cannot do it. It is a crime punishable by up to a year in jail and fines.”

Prices should only be increasing 10% or less from before the fire, Bonta was quoted as having said. He said that “this is California law and it’s in place to protect those suffering from a tragedy”.

The comments come amid reports of California residents who have lost their homes to the fire struggling to find new places to live due to price gouging – where companies or an individual excessively raise prices during emergencies.

“We put in an application at a house … that was listed at $17,000 a month, and they told us if we didn’t pay $30,000, we weren’t going to get it. They told me they have people ready to offer more and pay cash. It’s absolutely insane,” Maya Lieberman, a 50-year-old stylist, who is unable to find anywhere to live, told the Agence France-Presse (AFP) news agency.

Here are some of the latest images being sent to us over the newswires from California:

A preliminary estimate by AccuWeather put the damage and economic losses so far of the LA fires – that have already destroyed at least 12,000 structures – at between $135bn (£111bn) and $150bn (£123bn).

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the Los Angeles wildfires that have destroyed 12,000 structures and killed 16 people.

Five of the deaths were attributed to the Palisades fire and 11 resulted from the Eaton fire, the coroner’s office said on Saturday evening.

The Los Angeles county sheriff, Robert Luna, said the death toll is expected to rise as authorities deploy search dogs to devastated areas. The sheriff also said 13 people are reported missing.

County supervisor Lindsey Horvath said the LA area “had another night of unimaginable terror and heartbreak, and even more Angelenos evacuated due to the north-east expansion of the Palisades fire”.

The CalFire operations chief, Christian Litz, said the main focus on Saturday would be the Palisades fire burning in the canyon area, not far from the UCLA campus and the J Paul Getty Museum. Over the past 24 hours, the Palisades fire spread over an additional 1,000 acres (400 hectares), consuming more homes.

A fierce battle against the flames was under way in Mandeville Canyon, home to Arnold Schwarzenegger and other celebrities not far from the Pacific coast, where swooping helicopters dumped water as the blaze charged downhill.

The National Weather Service warned of worsening Santa Ana winds that it predicted would pick up on Saturday night into Sunday morning in Los Angeles and Ventura counties, and again on late Monday through Tuesday morning, bringing sustained winds of up to 30mph and wind gusts up to 70mph.

The fire also was threatening to jump over Interstate 405 and into densely populated areas in the Hollywood Hills and San Fernando Valley.

In other developments:

• In response to criticism over water supply issues, the LA Department of Public Works released a statement “correcting misinformation” about the lack of water to fight the Palisades fire this week. The statement was released one day after the chief of the LA fire department, Kristin Crowley, told Fox LA that her firefighters had been hamstrung when hydrants ran dry in certain parts of the Palisades on Wednesday morning.

• Malibu has lost one-third of the eastern edge of the city, mayor Doug Stewart said yesterday evening. He said that Malibu, a community of about 10,000 people on the western edge of Los Angeles, has suffered three fires in three months, with the Palisades fire, which threatens to spread west of interstate 405, being the worst.

• Firefighters deployed from Mexico arrived in Los Angeles on Saturday afternoon. Canadian and Texan firefighters are also on their way to California.

• Authorities issued new evacuation orders for eastern communities threatened by the Palisades fire late last night, including parts of the affluent Brentwood area.

• California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, has doubled the deployment of the state’s national guard to Los Angeles amid the wildfires.

• Newsom has also launched a website aimed at addressing misinformation about the Los Angeles area wildfires. CaliforniaFireFacts.com, a branch of Newsom’s own website, includes information about water availability, forest land management and LA’s fire department budget.

• The Southern California Edison CEO, Steven Powell, has told reporters there are now about 50,000 customers without power, “down from over half a million just a couple days ago”. Powell said there was no evidence that any of Edison’s equipment caused the Hurst fire but that the investigation was continuing.