California fires live: Los Angeles fighting largest blaze in its history amid water and firefighting shortages | California

The Los Angeles metro has suspended fares for the remainder of the day.

In an update posted a short while ago, LA County supervisor Janice Hahn said metro services have been impacted by evacuation orders near the Easton fire.

“Given the extraordinary demands on the power grid and sporadic outages in numerous areas, we recognize it is difficult for many customers to buy and load their TAP cards at stations,” she said.

Residents of Los Angeles fled deadly wildfires engulfing the suburbs of the West Coast megalopolis, as firefighters struggled to contain the flames overnight amid fears they would worsen.

Tanner Charles posted this footage to X saying it showed “the moment my friend and I abandoned his house after we tried to save what we could.

“Please be praying for him and his family,” Charles wrote.

About 1.5 million residents are without power in California, with nearly a million of them in Los Angeles County, according to PowerOutage.us, as wildfires continue to rage across the region.

The Palisades fire, which is the most destructive wildfire in Los Angeles’ history, has increased in size yet again – now encompassing 15,832 acres.

The fire is confirmed to have destroyed 300 structures thus far, according to CalFire.

It is one of a number of fires raging in the Los Angeles area – stretching the resources of firefighting teams.

The US president, Joe Biden, has approved a major disaster declaration for California – directing the Department of Defense to deploy extra firefighting personnel to tackle the life-threatening blazes.

Here’s a recap of what else has happened today so far:

• At least two people were killed in the Eaton fire, north of Pasadena which has grown to 10,600 acres and has destroyed more than 100 structures. There have also been “a number of significant injuries”, fire officials said, and “tens of thousands of homes” are affected. About 32,500 residents were under evacuation orders, a drop from the more than 50,000 residents evacuated overnight.

• The Hurst fire, in the San Fernando Valley, is close to 500 acres after erupting on Tuesday night. More than 3,000 residents have been ordered to evacuate the area in Sylmar.

• All Los Angeles fire department air operations in the Palisades have resumed after being grounded due to extreme weather conditions. LAFD helicopters are back to dropping water and hundreds of firefighters continue to be on the scene to help respond to the Palisades fire and Hurst fire, said LA’s mayor, Karen Bass.

• Officials are urging residents across the region to conserve water so there is enough for firefighters to use. Demand was so high that three tanks emptied by Wednesday morning, causing some fire hydrants to dry out.

• California governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency on Tuesday. President Joe Biden warned the recovery “is going to take time” as he attended a briefing with Newsom at a Santa Monica fire station. President-elect Donald Trump blamed Newsom’s environmental policies for the fires.