TOPSHOT-US-WEATHER-FIRE

TOPSHOT - A spiral staircase stands amidst the smoldering skeleton of a house destroyed by the Palisades fire along the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, California, on January 8, 2025. Terrified residents caught in blazing neighbourhoods, influencers ignoring the ban on drones and the frightening unpredictability of the wildfires are just some of what journalists covering the fires ravaging Los Angeles for AFP have had to manage. The United States' second-largest city has never faced a blaze of this scale, driven by an extreme autumn drought and fierce Santa Ana winds -- the strongest since 2011 -- that have turned dry hills into kindling, fuelling a relentless inferno that has raged for more than a week. (Photo by Zoë Meyers / AFP) (Photo by ZOE MEYERS/AFP via Getty Images)