• Wildfires are rampaging across Los Angeles County this week.
• Hundreds of thousands of people are under evacuation orders or warnings.
• Insured losses could top $20 billion, JPMorgan analysts estimated — the most-ever in California.

The Los Angeles area battled a series of massive wildfires Thursday that continued to rip through its picturesque mountains and hillsides — creating a hellscape of burned-out neighborhoods and livelihoods that could end up being the most costly fire disaster in California history.

JPMorgan analysts said the blazes tearing through the region could lead to more than $20 billion in insured losses — and around $50 billion in total economic losses. That would make these conflagrations "significantly more severe" than the Camp Fires that struck the state in 2018 and racked up $10 billion in insured losses, the current record.

As of Thursday morning local time, an additional 200,000 people had been placed under evacuation warnings — with officials advising them to get ready to leave their homes if the fires raging near their residences got closer.

Thick bands of smoke could be seen in several directions from the city's downtown core — with at least five fires burning throughout the 4,000 square-mile county that's home to nearly 10 million people.

More than 29,000 acres have burned so far — and at least 10 deaths have been reported as of 9 p.m. local time on Thursday.

And at least 10,000 homes and other structures have been destroyed so far, per the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

Los Angeles District Attorney Nathan Hochman described the scene in LA as apocalyptic.

"Not since the 1990s, when Los Angeles was hit with the fires, the flood, the earthquake, and the riots, have I seen such disaster occur here in our city," Hochman said at the briefing, referring to the Northridge Earthquake and the disturbances in the wake of the Rodney King verdict.

The National Weather Service predicted the "red flag warning" that signals high fire danger will persist for LA County and nearby Ventura County through Friday.

But there was some brightening on the horizon: Officials said weather conditions are beginning to turn favorably for firefighters.

Meanwhile, 20 people have been arrested on suspicion of looting in areas affected by the fires, Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said at Thursday's briefing.

And he issued a stern warning to the public: Anyone who remains in areas under mandatory evacuation orders is guilty of a misdemeanor, and his officers will begin enforcing that. Beyond that, crimes like looting could reach the felony level, he said.

As for people still in their homes, around 95,000 power customers remain in the dark, Janisse Quiñones, the CEO and chief engineer of the city's Department of Water and Power, said. Satellite images of the LA fires showed the destruction left in their wake.

Here's a look at the latest happenings in the main fires spreading throughout the area:

Palisades Fire

The Palisades Fire in the Pacific Palisades area north of Santa Monica was the first fire to strike the region on Tuesday morning. It has spread to nearly 20,000 acres, making it one of the worst natural disasters in LA history, officials said Thursday.

Data from state agency CalFire early on Friday showed that the fire was 6% contained.

The blaze has reduced thousands of structures to rubble, but exact numbers are not yet known, the officials said.

Wind gusts in the area have tamed down some since their Tuesday highs of nearly 100 mph but remain up to 60 mph. They were expected to continue through Thursday.

Los Angeles City Fire Chief Kristin Crowley would not confirm reports that the fire started in a resident's garden, saying the origin is still under investigation.

Some celebrities have lost homes in the blaze, including Paris Hilton and Billy Crystal.

Eaton Fire

The second-largest fire in Los Angeles County is the Eaton Fire, which started on Tuesday evening in the Pasadena-Altadena area at the foothills of the Angeles National Forest.

The blaze has spread to over 13,000 acres and reduced at least 1,000 homes to ash as of Thursday, officials said. As of early Friday, it was zero percent contained, according to CalFire.

Still, LA County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone said the fire's growth has been "significantly stopped," and the cause remains unknown.

Hurst Fire

The Hurst Fire, which began late on Tuesday night in the northern part of the San Fernando Valley, spread to around 855 acres, according to data from CalFire, a state agency.

CalFire data estimated it was 37% contained early on Friday.

LAFD's Crowley said firefighters have been able to hold the fire within a containment area and have established a perimeter.

Sunset Fire and others

The Sunset Fire broke out in the Runyon Canyon area of the Hollywood Hills on Wednesday evening, quickly spreading to scorch over 40 acres and threaten major LA landmarks.

As of Thursday morning, firefighters were able to stop the fire's forward progress, Crowley said. Crews are still working to "put out spot fires within the perimeters to keep the wind from spreading any additional embers," she said.

All evacuation orders related to the Sunset Fire were lifted as of 7:30 a.m. Thursday, Crowley said.

Meanwhile, a large structure fire broke out nearby, consuming two large homes in the Studio City area. Still, firefighters were able to stop its forward growth at just one acre and prevent another brushfire, Crowley said.

Another fire, the Kenneth Fire, started on Thursday afternoon near Calabasas and Hidden Hills, north of the Palisades Fire. The fire quickly grew from 50 acres to 1,000 acres in less than a few hours, according to Cal Fire.

A mandatory evacuation order was issued for several neighborhoods near the fire.

An evacuation notice intended for residents impacted by the Kenneth Fire was mistakenly sent out across LA county due to a "technical error," County Supervisor Janice Hahn said in an X post.

Yet another fire, the Lidia Fire, started Wednesday afternoon in Acton near the Antelope Valley, about 20 miles northeast of the San Fernando Valley. It spread to consume 348 acres but has been 60% contained, per CalFire.

One of this week's fires has been 100% contained. The Woodley Fire, which began Wednesday morning in the southern part of the San Fernando Valley, has been suppressed and there are no current threats, Crowley said. Patrols were monitoring the area for any flare-ups, she said.

Events canceled and landmarks closed as smoke chokes LA

Major and minor events alike have been canceled or postponed across the LA area as the city battles the fires.

The 30th Annual Critics Choice Awards, set for Sunday night, were rescheduled for January 26. A National Hockey League game between the Los Angeles Kings and the Calgary Flames, scheduled for Wednesday night at Crypto.com arena, was postponed. The LA Lakers rescheduled Thursday night's game.

Music venues across the city were also canceling or postponing their shows, including The Troubadour, The Wiltern, The Echo, the Kia Forum, Walt Disney Concert Hall, and others.

Flights into and out of LAX, Hollywood Burbank Airport, Ontario International Airport, and Santa Ana's John Wayne Airport were also experiencing delays and cancellations.

The fires are also shuttering tourist attractions in and around Los Angeles, which attracts nearly 50 million visitors a year.

The fires forced some Los Angeles-area landmarks to close, including the Hollywood sign, the Los Angeles Zoo, the Broad Museum, the Norton Simon Museum, the Getty Villa and Getty Center, Universal Studios Hollywood and Universal CityWalk, and the Griffith Observatory.

Airbnb told CNN that it would be allowing refunds for bookings in areas affected by the wildfires, following a viral social media post from a customer who said the company refused to offer her a refund.

California already struggled with an insurance crisis

The devastating fires this week will likely only worsen California's ongoing insurance crisis, where many homebuyers already struggle to get approved for loans, home insurance, and fire insurance — even in areas outside the typical risk zones.

In recent years, some insurance companies, like State Farm, have stopped accepting new home insurance policies in the state entirely, as wildfire risks have only increased.

Experts told Business Insider that prices are likely to continue rising for those who can still get insurance.

"I've seen numbers go up 200%, 300%, even 500% in a year," Nick Ramirez, the owner of a California insurance agency, told BI.

And as the fires' estimated damages already climb into the billions of dollars, some homeowners will have to rebuild without the help of insurance payouts.

"These fires will likely be the costliest in history, not the deadliest, and that is the only silver lining right now," Daniel Swain, a climate scientist with UCLA, told LAist.

This a developing story. Please check back for updates.

• TikTok CEO Shou Chew met Trump at Mar-a-Lago Monday.
• TikTok is trying to avoid an impending ban on the app.
• Trump has said he is opposed to the TikTok ban and that he has a "warm spot" for the app.

TikTok CEO Shou Chew met with President-elect Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago on Monday, a person familiar with the meeting told Business Insider. The meeting comes as the popular video-sharing app fights to avoid an impending ban in the US.

Earlier on Monday, TikTok asked the US Supreme Court to block the law that requires the app to be sold by January 19 or be shut down. TikTok, which is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, argued the ban violates the First Amendment rights of the millions of Americans who use the app. The request came after a panel of federal judges earlier this month upheld the ban.

Representatives for TikTok did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Details of the meeting were unclear. Trump has spoken out against the TikTok ban, which was passed by Congress and signed by President Joe Biden earlier this year.

"We'll take a look at TikTok," Trump said at a press conference earlier on Monday. "You know, I have a warm spot in my heart for TikTok."

Trump also said at the press conference that company executives have been more open to meeting with him ahead of his second term and that during his first term they were "hostile."

"Everybody was fighting me," he said. "This term, everybody wants to be my friend. I don't know. My personality changed or something."

Trump positioned himself as the TikTok-friendly candidate in the election

The meeting between Shou and Trump is the latest in TikTok's legal fight to remain available in the US.

The ban stems from lawmakers criticizing TikTok's data-collection practices and being concerned that the Chinese government is using the app to influence American politics.

In his first term, Trump tried to get the app banned in the US. But he has since flipped-flopped on his stance.

During this presidential run, Trump positioned himself as the TikTok-friendly candidate.

In June, he launched a TikTok account to rally younger voters. It now has 14.7 million followers.

Some of his closest advisors — some of whom he has tapped for cabinet roles — support the app's banning.

His pick for secretary of state, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, called the potential ban a "win for America" in March. Federal Communications Commissioner Brendan Carr is also a vocal critic of the app, having called it an "unacceptable threat to U.S. national security."

Other cabinet picks, such as tech executive Jacob Helberg, the former US director of national intelligence John Ratcliffe, Gov. Doug Burgum of North Dakota, and Gov. Kristi Noem of South Dakota, are all outspoken critics of the app.

• UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was fatally shot outside a Manhattan hotel on December 4.
• Police arrested Luigi Mangione, who now faces a murder charge for the killing.
• Mangione has hired prominent New York lawyer Karen Friedman Agnifilo to defend him.

Luigi Mangione, the man police say murdered UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, has hired high-profile attorney Karen Friedman Agnifilo.

Friedman Agnifilo is married to Marc Agnifilo, lead lawyer defending Sean "Diddy" Combs against federal sex-trafficking charges.

The Combs and Mangione cases will be handled by the same Manhattan law firm, Agnifilo Intrater LLP, and can be expected to dominate legal news headlines in the coming year.

In getting retained, Friedman Agnifilo bested some half-dozen other prominent attorneys who had been interviewed by the Mangione family last week, according to multiple sources who asked not to be named due to their connection with the case.

Friedman Agnifilo last week left her previous law firm, Perry Law, to join her husband's firm as counsel, representatives for both firms told Business Insider.

Friedman Agnifilo had been a CNN commentator as recently as Wednesday, when she suggested that an insanity defense would be Mangione's best bet.

She told journalist Kaitlan Collins, "It looks like to me there might be a 'not guilty by reason of insanity' defense that they're going to be thinking about because the evidence is going to be so overwhelming that he did what he did."

On Friday night, Collins broke the news that Friedman Agnifilo had been hired by the Mangione family.

Friedman Agnifilo worked as the chief assistant district attorney at the Manhattan District Attorney's Office for seven years before pivoting to private practice in 2021.

Mangione faces a second-degree murder charge in New York for the fatal December 4 shooting of Thompson, a 50-year-old father of two from Minnesota. That charge carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.

(A charge of first-degree murder is reserved for those accused of killing a law enforcement official or witness of a crime, or for when a murder is committed during the commission of another high-level crime, including robbery, rape, or kidnapping.)

Mangione is fighting extradition to New York City. The 26-year-old Ivy League graduate appeared for a hearing on December 10 at Pennsylvania's Blair County Courthouse, where a lawyer, Thomas Dickey, told the judge that Mangione was contesting his extradition. Police arrested Mangione in Altoona, Pennsylvania, on December 9 on local charges and later arraigned. Mangione made a bail request, which the judge denied during the hearing.

The suspect will remain at Pennsylvania's Huntingdon State Correctional Institution during the extradition proceedings. Dickey told reporters on December 10 that Mangione would plead not guilty to all the charges in Pennsylvania.

In an interview with CNN that evening, Dickey also said that he anticipates Mangione would plead not guilty to the murder charge in New York and that he hadn't seen any evidence that officials in New York "have the right guy."

Mangione also faces four other charges related to the killing of the insurance CEO: two counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the second-degree, one count of second-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument, and one count of criminal possession of a weapon in the third-degree.

A gun found on Mangione matched the three shell casings found at the site of the shooting, New York Police Department Commissioner Jessica Tisch said during a December 11 press conference.

Tisch added that the suspect's fingerprints also matched those found on a water bottle and snack bar wrapper discarded near the crime scene.

During Mangione's arrest, officers found a three-page handwritten document "that speaks to both his motivation and mindset," Tisch said at a separate press conference on December 9.

An internal NYPD report obtained by The New York Times gave the clearest view of the potential motive yet. Based on the so-called manifesto discovered, Mangione "likely views himself as a hero of sorts who has finally decided to act upon such injustices," the NYPD report said, as reported by the Times.

Mangione "appeared to view the targeted killing of the company's highest-ranking representative as a symbolic takedown and a direct challenge to its alleged corruption and 'power games,' asserting in his note he is the 'first to face it with such brutal honesty,'" according to the NYPD report by the department's Intelligence and Counterterrorism Bureau, the Times reported.

In a statement to Business Insider, representatives for Nino Mangione — a Maryland state legislator and a cousin of Mangione's — declined to comment on the news of Mangione's arrest.

"Unfortunately, we cannot comment on news reports regarding Luigi Mangione," the statement read. "We only know what we have read in the media. Our family is shocked and devastated by Luigi's arrest."

Recognized at a McDonald's

Mangione was eating in an Altoona McDonald's when an employee recognized him from the several surveillance images that authorities released in the aftermath of Thompson's killing and called the police, New York police said at the December 9 press conference.

Altoona police found Mangione in the McDonald's with multiple fake IDs and a US passport, as well as a firearm and a suppressor "both consistent with the weapon used" in the shooting of Thompson in the heart of Manhattan, Tisch, the NYPD commissioner, said.

The gun appeared to be a "ghost gun" that may have been made on a 3-D printer. NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said at the press conference that such a gun could fire a 9-millimeter round.

A Pennsylvania criminal complaint filed against Mangione said officers found a black 3-D-printed pistol and 3-D-printed silencer inside the suspect's backpack.

When Altoona officers asked Mangione if he had been to New York recently, he "became quiet and started to shake," the criminal complaint said.

Clothing, including a mask, was also recovered "consistent with those worn" by the suspect wanted for Thompson's killing, along with a fake New Jersey ID matching the ID that the murder suspect used to check into a Manhattan hostel before the attack, Tisch said.

Based on the handwritten document that police found on Mangione, according to Kenny, "it does seem that he has some ill will toward corporate America."

During a December 10 interview on NBC's "Today" show, Tisch said the "manifesto" revealed "anti-corporatist sentiment" and "a lot of issues with the healthcare industry."

"But as to like particular, specific motive that'll come out as this investigation continues to unfold over the next weeks and month," the NYPD commissioner said.

NBC News and The New York Times, each citing an unnamed senior law enforcement official, reported that the handwritten document read in part: "These parasites had it coming."

"I do apologize for any strife and trauma, but it had to be done," it added, according to the reports.

Police believe that Mangione acted alone.

NYPD investigators traveled to Altoona last week to interview Mangione after Altoona officers took him into custody.

Blair County District Attorney Peter Weeks said at Mangione's Pennsylvania arraignment that Mangione was carrying $10,000 in cash, including foreign currency, according to the Associated Press.

Mangione disputed the amount in court.

Mangione was active on social media

Mangione posted and amplified posts about technological advances like artificial intelligence on X. He also posted about fitness and healthy living.

He frequently retweeted posts by the writer Tim Urban and commentator Jonathan Haidt about the promise and perils of technology. He also appeared to be a fan of Michael Pollan, known for his writing about food and ethics.

Other deleted social media posts showed support for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and expressed skepticism toward both President Joe Biden and President-elect Donald Trump.

At the top of his profile was a header image with three images: a photo of himself, smiling, shirtless on a mountain ridge, a Pokemon, and an x-ray with four pins or screws visible in the lower back.

Mangione founded a company called AppRoar Studios in 2015 while still in high school. AppRoar released an iPhone game called Pivot Plane that is no longer available.

The two other cofounders of AppRoar could not be reached for comment.

Mangione's X account has been deactivated. A spokesperson for YouTube said his three accounts on the platform were also terminated, but that they had not been active for about seven months.

A manhunt

Mangione's arrest followed a nearly week-long manhunt.

According to police, Manigone was born and raised in Maryland, and has ties to San Francisco, California. His last known address was in Honolulu, Hawaii.

The New York Post, citing law-enforcement sources, reported that Mangione's mother reported him missing in mid-November.

Law-enforcement sources told ABC News that FBI agents and members of the NYPD spoke to the mother a day before Mangione's arrest, following a tip, and that in the conversation she indicated that the person in the surveillance photos could be her son.

Kenny, the NYPD's chief of detectives, said that Manigone has no prior arrest history in New York and no known arrests in the US.

A Luigi Mangione with a matching birthday and address received a citation for simple trespass for entering a forbidden area of a state park in Hawaii in November 2023. He pleaded no contest and paid a $100 fine.

"For just over five days, our NYPD investigators combed through thousands of hours of video, followed up on hundreds of tips, and processed every bit of forensic evidence — DNA, fingerprints, IP addresses and so much to tighten the net," Tisch said at Monday's press conference announcing the arrest of Manigone.

Thompson was shot multiple times on a Midtown sidewalk as he was walking toward the Hilton hotel. He was steps away from a side entrance to the hotel — where he was set to speak at UnitedHealth Group's investor conference — when a hooded gunman opened fire on him from behind.

The chief executive of the nation's largest health insurer was struck at least once in the back and at least once in the right calf, police said.

Surveillance footage showed the gunman firing his weapon as Thompson, wearing a blue suit jacket, walked several feet in front of him.

The gunman fled the scene, first on foot and then on an electric bike, which he rode into Central Park before ultimately escaping from New York City, police said.

Shell casings and bullets found at the scene had the words "deny," "defend," and "depose" written on them, according to multiple reports citing unnamed sources. BI couldn't independently confirm these details.

In the aftermath of the attack, the NYPD offered a $10,000 reward for tips leading to the gunman's arrest, with the FBI offering a reward of up to $50,000 for information leading to his arrest and conviction.

A spokesperson for UnitedHealth Group, the parent company of UnitedHealthcare, reacted to news of Manigone's arrest in a statement to BI, saying: "Our hope is that today's apprehension brings some relief to Brian's family, friends, colleagues and the many others affected by this unspeakable tragedy. We thank law enforcement and will continue to work with them on this investigation. We ask that everyone respect the family's privacy as they mourn."