Several massive wildfires ravaged the Los Angeles area with devastating force early Wednesday as residents desperately tried to escape burning homes through flames, fierce winds and towering clouds of smoke.
At least three separate fires were burning across the metro area, from the Pacific coast inland to Pasadena, home of the famous Rose Parade. With thousands of firefighters already attacking the flames, Los Angeles firefighters appealed for help from off-duty firefighters, and weather conditions were too windy for firefighting planes to fly, causing hindered the struggle even more.
Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone said two people were killed and many others injured in the fires, which destroyed more than 1,000 structures.
Images of the devastation that emerged overnight showed luxury homes collapsed in a swirl of flaming embers. The tops of the palm trees whipped against a glowing sky.
Tens of thousands of residents were ordered to evacuate as the fires spread toward the highly populated and wealthy neighborhoods home to California’s rich and famous. Hollywood stars including Mark Hamill, Mandy Moore and James Woods were among those forced to flee.
Flames that broke out Tuesday night near a nature preserve in the foothills northeast of Los Angeles spread so quickly that staff at a senior living center had to push dozens of residents in wheelchairs and on hospital beds in the street to a parking lot. Residents – including one aged 102 – waited in their sheets as embers fell around them until ambulances, buses and construction vans arrived to take them to safety.
Another fire that started hours earlier ravaged the Pacific Palisades neighborhood, a hillside area along the coast dotted with celebrity homes and memorialized by the Beach Boys in their 1960s hit “Surfin’ USA “. In the rush to safety, roads became impassable as dozens of people abandoned their vehicles and fled on foot, some with their suitcases.
Sheriece Wallace didn’t know there was a fire around her until her sister called her just as a helicopter was dropping water on top of her house.
“I was like, ‘It’s raining,’” Wallace said. “She said, ‘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 it was there,” she said. “The first thing I did was look at the trees to see where the wind was blowing. Because it struck me. This blew my mind. She was able to leave.
A traffic jam on Palisades Drive prevented emergency vehicles from getting through, and a bulldozer was brought in to push abandoned cars to the side and create a path. Video along the Pacific Coast Highway showed widespread destruction of homes and businesses along the famous route.
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Pacific Palisades resident Kelsey Trainor said the only road in and out of her neighborhood was blocked. Ashes fell everywhere while fires burned on both sides of the road.
“We looked across the road and the fire had spread from one side of the road to the other,” Trainor said. “People were getting out of cars with their dogs, their babies and their bags. They were crying and screaming.
A third wildfire broke out Tuesday evening and quickly prompted evacuations in Sylmar, a community in the San Fernando Valley that is the northernmost neighborhood of Los Angeles. A fourth fire was reported early Wednesday in Coachella in Riverside County. The causes were under investigation.
The flames were driven by Santa Ana winds exceeding 60 mph (97 kph) in some locations Tuesday, increasing to 80 mph (129 kph) early Wednesday, according to reports received by the National Weather Service. They could reach 100 mph in the mountains and foothills, including areas that haven’t seen significant rain in months.
California’s wildfire season typically begins in June or July and continues through October, according to the Western Fire Chiefs Association, but January’s wildfires are not unprecedented. There was one in 2022 and 10 in 2021, according to CalFire.
The season starts earlier and ends later due to rising temperatures and reduced precipitation linked to climate change, according to recent data. The rains that usually end the fire season are often delayed, meaning fires can continue into the winter months, the association said.
“This will likely be the most destructive wind storm seen (since) the 2011 storm that caused significant damage to Pasadena and the nearby foothills of the San Gabriel Valley,” the weather service said in an alert warning early Wednesday.
Governor Gavin Newsom posted on X Wednesday morning that California had deployed more than 1,400 firefighters to fight the blazes. “Emergency managers, firefighters and first responders are all on deck all night long to do everything they can to protect lives,” Newsom said.
Pasadena Fire Chief Chad Augustin said much of the city is under evacuation orders as his department waits for winds to die down so they can bring planes up and start dousing the flames. In the meantime, it will be difficult to control the fire, Augustin told ABC affiliate KABC television.
Fire departments across California sent firefighters because crews in the Los Angeles area were exhausted, he said.
President Joe Biden canceled plans to travel to inland Riverside County, where he was expected to announce the creation of two new national monuments. He stayed in Los Angeles, where smoke was visible from his hotel, and was informed of the wildfires.
Officials did not give an estimate of structures damaged or destroyed in the Pacific Palisades fire, but they said about 30,000 residents were under evacuation orders and more than 13,000 structures were threatened. Newsom visited the scene and said many homes had burned. He declared a state of emergency.
The fire destroyed Temescal Canyon, a popular hiking area surrounded by dense neighborhoods of multimillion-dollar homes. Flames jumped the famous 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 remake of “Freaky Friday” from 2003 and the television series “Teen Wolf”.
Several people in Malibu were treated for burns and one firefighter suffered a serious head injury, according to Capt. Erik Scott of the Los Angeles Fire Department.
As of Wednesday morning, the Eaton fire, which broke out the day before, had quickly burned 9 square kilometers, according to firefighters. The Hurst Fire has grown to 500 acres (202 hectares) and the Palisades Fire, which started Tuesday morning and caused a spectacular plume of smoke visible across Los Angeles, has burned 4.5 square miles (11.6 square kilometers), according to the Angeles National Forest. The Tyler Fire in Coachella was relatively small, burning 15 acres (6 hectares). All fires were 0% contained.
As of Wednesday morning, more than 180,000 people were without power, mostly in Los Angeles County, according to the tracking site. PowerOutage.us. Southern California Edison has cut power to some customers due to safety concerns related to high winds and fire hazards. More than 500,000 people could face outages depending on weather conditions, the utility said.
Recent dry winds, including the notorious Santa Anas, have contributed to warmer than average temperatures in Southern California, where there has been very little rain so far this season. Southern California hasn’t received more than 0.25 cm of rain since early May.
Will Adams, a longtime Palisades resident, said he immediately went to pick up his two children from St. Matthews Parish School when he learned the fire was nearby. Embers stole from his wife’s car as she tried to evacuate, he said.
“She got out of her car and left it running,” Adams said. She and many other residents walked toward the ocean until they were safe.
Adams said he’s never seen anything like it in the 56 years he’s lived there.
“It’s crazy, they’re everywhere, in every nook and cranny of the Palisades. One house is safe, the other is on fire,” he said.
—Watson reported from San Diego. Associated Press writers Jeff Martin in Atlanta, Janie Har in San Francisco, Hallie Golden in Seattle, video journalist Eugene Garcia in Los Angeles, Ethan Swope in Pasadena, Brian Melley in London, Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire, Sarah Brumfield in Cockeysville, Maryland and Tammy Webber in Detroit contributed to this report.