Wildfires swept through the Los Angeles area with devastating force on Wednesday after sparking desperate escapes from burning homes amid flames, high winds and towering clouds of smoke.
Flames from a fire that broke out Tuesday evening near a nature preserve in the inland foothills northeast of Los Angeles spread so quickly that staff at a senior living center had to push dozens of residents in wheelchairs and hospital beds down the street and into the parking lot. Residents, one of whom was 102, waited there in their nightclothes as the night sky glowed red with flames and embers falling around them until ambulances, buses and even construction trucks arrived to transport them to safety.
Another fire broke out hours earlier in the city’s Pacific Palisades neighborhood, a hillside area along the coast dotted with celebrity residences and revived by the Beach Boys in the 1960s in their song “Surfin’ USA.” In the frantic rush to reach safety, the roads became impassable when dozens of people abandoned their cars and fled on foot, some carrying suitcases.
Cherice Wallace was unaware there was a fire burning around her in that area until her sister called the moment a helicopter dropped water over her house.
“I was like, ‘It’s raining,'” Wallace said. “It’s like, ‘No, it’s not raining.’ Your neighborhood is on fire. “You need to get out.”
“As soon as I opened my door, it was like he was there,” she said. “The first thing I did was look at the trees to see where the wind was blowing. Because it hit me. It amazed me.” She was able to leave.
Traffic congestion on Palisades Drive prevented emergency vehicles from passing, and a bulldozer was brought in to push the abandoned cars to the side and create a path. Video along the Pacific Coast Highway showed widespread damage to homes and businesses along the popular road.
Pacific Palisades resident Kelsey Trainor said the only way in and out of her neighborhood was closed. Ashes fell around them as fires burned on both sides of the road.
“We looked across the road and the fire jumped from one side of the road to the other side of the road,” Trainor said. “People were getting out of cars with their dogs and children and bags, and they were crying and screaming.”
The Los Angeles Department of Wind and Power said in a statement Tuesday night that the high-altitude fires are preventing utility crews from getting water to refill tanks.
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A third wildfire started around 10:30 p.m. and quickly prompted evacuations in Sylmar, a community in the San Fernando Valley that is the northernmost neighborhood in Los Angeles. The causes of the three fires are being investigated.
Flame speeds in Santa Ana reached 60 mph (97 km/h) in some places Tuesday, and increased to 80 mph (129 km/h) by early Wednesday, according to reports received by the National Weather Service. . It can reach speeds of up to 100 mph (160 kilometers per hour) in the mountains and foothills, including areas that have not seen heavy rain in months.
The ongoing red flag warnings highlight extremely critical fire weather conditions due to a combination of strong wind gusts in some of the highest terrain Wednesday morning and exceptionally dry relative humidity levels, according to Peter Mullinax, a meteorologist with the Weather Service office in College Park, Maryland. .
“The winds are expected to continue throughout the day and into Thursday as well, and will provide very little relief,” he added.
The situation prompted the Los Angeles Fire Department to take the rare step of putting out a call to off-duty firefighters for help. It was too windy for firefighting planes to fly, further disrupting the fighting. The weather service said a high wind warning was in effect for the area until 6 p.m.
“This is likely to be the most destructive storm seen (since) the 2011 wind storm that severely damaged Pasadena and the nearby San Gabriel Valley foothills,” the weather service said in a red flag warning early Wednesday.
Gov. Gavin Newsom posted on X early Wednesday that California had deployed more than 1,400 firefighters to fight the blazes. “Emergency officials, firefighters and first responders are all on deck throughout the night doing everything they can to protect lives,” Newsom said.
The volatile weather prompted President Joe Biden to cancel his plans to travel to inland Riverside County, where he was scheduled to announce the creation of two new national monuments in the state. He stayed in Los Angeles, where smoke was visible from his hotel, and was briefed on the wildfires. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has approved a grant to help reimburse California for firefighting costs.
Officials did not provide an estimate of buildings damaged or destroyed in the Pacific Palisades wildfires, but said about 30,000 residents were under evacuation orders and more than 13,000 structures were under threat. Newsom visited the scene and said several homes burned. He declared a state of emergency.
The fire burned Temescal Canyon, a popular hiking area surrounded by dense neighborhoods with multi-million-dollar homes. Flames leapt down the iconic Sunset Boulevard and burned parts of Palisades Charter High School, which has been featured in numerous Hollywood productions including the 1976 horror film “Carrie,” the 2003 remake of “Freaky Friday” and the TV series “Teen Wolf.”
By evening, the fire had spread to nearby Malibu, and several people were there being treated for burn injuries, and one firefighter suffered serious head injuries and was taken to the hospital, according to Los Angeles Fire Department Captain Eric Scott.
By early Wednesday, the Eaton Fire, which started around 6:30 p.m. the day before, had rapidly burned 1.6 square miles (4 square kilometers), according to fire officials. The Hearst Fire jumped to 500 acres (202 hectares) and the Palisades Fire, which started around 10:30 a.m. Tuesday and sent a large column of smoke visible across Los Angeles, has destroyed 4.5 square miles (11.6 square kilometers), according to the Angeles National Forest. The fires were 0% contained as of early Wednesday.
As of Wednesday morning, more than 200,000 people were without power in Los Angeles County, according to tracking website PowerOutage.us, due to strong winds.
Recent dry winds, including the notorious Santa Anse, have contributed to above-average temperatures in Southern California, where there has been little rain so far this season. Southern California has not seen more than 0.1 inch (0.25 cm) of rain since early May.
The neighborhood, which borders Malibu about 20 miles (32 kilometers) west of downtown Los Angeles, features hillside streets with homes packed tightly along winding roads set against the Santa Monica Mountains and extending to beaches along the Pacific Ocean.
Longtime Palisades resident Will Adams said he immediately went to pick up his two children from St. Matthews Parish School when he heard the fire was nearby. Meanwhile, he said embers flew into his wife’s car as she tried to evacuate.
“She cleared her car and left it running,” Adams said. She and several other residents walked toward the ocean until it was safe.
Adams said he had never seen anything like this in the 56 years he had lived there. He watched as the sky turned brown and then black as the houses began to burn. He could hear loud pops and explosions “like little explosions,” which he said he believed were the transformers exploding.
“It’s crazy, it’s everywhere, in all the nooks and crannies of Palisades. One house is safe and the other is on fire,” Adams said.
Actor James Woods posted footage of flames burning among bushes and palm trees on a hill near his home. Towering orange flames rose between the landscaped yards between the houses.
Movie studios canceled the premieres of two films due to fires and inclement weather, and the Los Angeles Unified School District said it had temporarily moved students from three campuses in the Pacific Palisades area.
