Hello and welcome to NewsHour from the BBC World Service.

Coming to you live from London, I'm James Kamara Sami.

Later in the programme, we'll hear from the daughter of Dominique Pelico,

the Frenchman convicted last month of drugging his wife, Giselle,

and allowing dozens of men to rape her.

His daughter tells us about the day when her mother told her the truth about her father.

It was a Monday. I received that call from my mum. It was like an earthquake or like a tsunami in my own living room.

I was so close from my father. You can't, you know, imagine. It was a nightmare.

But we begin in Los Angeles, where the rolling threat from wildfires, which have caused

at least 11 deaths and destroyed thousands of properties, is expected to pick up pace again,

with new evacuation orders being issued for neighborhoods surrounding the city.

In Altadena, this father and son told us how they watched their house burn to the ground.

I've lived through fires up in the foothills before that got really close but never got into the houses so much.

But this one, it moved so quickly. It was, you know, on a distant ridge one minute and then 10 minutes later,

it was like right on top of us. It was crazy how fast it moved with the winds blowing it.

And suddenly then I have fired and then it just burned and stuff. It's so sad.

The California Department for Forestry and Fire Protection has lowered the number of active fires from six to four,

but the biggest in the upmarket Pacific Palisades area now covers nearly 23,000 acres and is far from contained.

And the LA County Fire Department Chief Anthony Maroni warned that a confluence of factors

meant the threat level would stay high for the next few days.

Moderate to locally strong, Santa Ana Wins will affect Los Angeles County and today, tomorrow and then again on Monday through Wednesday.

L.A. County fire will be prepared.

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