California wildfires: Los Angeles death toll rises to 11 as governor orders water investigation – as it happened

Thanks for joining our live coverage of the Los Angeles wildfires today. It’s approaching 7pm in Los Angeles, where winds are easing, allowing firefighters to make significant progress containing the fires. But officials warn that the danger is far from over – red flag warnings are expected to go back into effect next week – and the work to identify the dead and rebuild is just beginning.

This blog is now closing, but you can read our full report on the Los Angeles wildfires here. Here are the top headlines from this afternoon and evening:

• There are six wildfires currently raging in Los Angeles county. They include:

  • The Palisades fire, at 21,317 acres and 8% containment

  • The Eaton fire, at 13,690 acres and 3% containment

  • The Kenneth fire, at 1,052 acres and 50% containment

  • The Hurst fire, at 771 acres and 37% containment

  • The Lidia fire, at 395 acres and 98% containment

  • The Archer fire, at 19 acres and 0% containment

• Eleven people have died, and more than 12,000 structures have burned, in the Palisades and Eaton fires – which are likely the third and fourth most destructive fires in California history. Six deaths have been confirmed in the Eaton fire and five in the Palisades. As family members have been alerted to the loss of their loved ones, six of the victims have been publicly identified. Law enforcement officials expect the death toll to rise once weather and fire conditions allow cadaver dogs and detectives into the burn zones.

• Fire chief Kristin Crowley criticised city officials over water supply issues and budget cuts that she says hindered her department’s ability to fight the Palisades fire. The water supply has become a focal point, with California governor Gavin Newsom calling for an investigation into the shortage.

• California governor Gavin Newsom has invited Donald Trump to visit the state and tour the devastation wreaked by the Los Angeles wildfires. Trump visited the state six years ago in the wake of the Camp fire, the most destructive fire in California history, which hit the town of Paradise.

• The state of California has issued a one-year moratorium preventing insurance companies from canceling or refusing to renew home policies in zip codes impacted by the Palisades and Eaton fires.

In his letter to the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power promising an investigation, California governor Gavin Newsom called “reports of the loss of water pressure to some local fire hydrants during the fires and the reported unavailability of water supplies from the Santa Ynez Reservoir” in Pacific Palisades “deeply troubling”.

The news that the Santa Ynez Reservoir had been closed for repairs to its cover, as the Los Angeles Times reported on Friday, “leaving a 117 million gallon water storage complex empty in the heart of the Palisades,” was quickly seized upon by Republicans seeking to blame California’s Democratic leadership for the lack of water to fight the fires.

Officials at the water authority acknowledged that the reservoir being offline contributed to some diminished pressure and dry hydrants in the Palisades, but it remains unclear when it went out of service for the repairs.

But as images of the reservoir, which had a floating cover installed in 2011 to protect drinking water against contamination, were shared online, and memes were launched, there was also widespread confusion, as amateur sleuths appeared to mistake the reservoir’s cover for its floor, and mistakenly concluded that the reservoir had been empty for more than a decade.

In fact, as a satellite image of the nearby Eagle Rock Reservoir available on Google Earth shows, the floating covers routinely found on reservoirs now makes it difficult, or impossible, for the untrained eye to determine whether a reservoir with a cover on it is empty or full.