Besides burning the most urban area, the Eaton and Palisades fires are the largest ever for California in January. Alexandra Syphard, a senior research scientist at the Conservation Biology Institute, said their timing and path through the city “may have no precedent in history.”

Vast areas of Los Angeles have been destroyed since these fires began on 7 January. Thousands of homes and businesses have been lost, and tens of thousands of people have been forced to evacuate. We hear from Kelly,

The fires are the second and fourth most destructive in the state’s history. While experts say the devastating 2018 Camp Fire in California is slightly similar to the Los Angeles fires in terms of destruction,