DDN – A fast-moving wildfire broke out Tuesday in the interior foothills northeast of Los Angeles, hours after another blaze ripped through the city’s Pacific Palisades area near the coast, destroying numerous houses and forcing tens of thousands of people to evacuate.
The Eaton fire in Altadena began near a nature park shortly before 6:30 p.m. The fire spread so quickly that personnel at a senior care facility had to drag dozens of residents in wheelchairs and hospital beds down the street to a parking lot, where they waited in their bedclothes for ambulances and other cars to transport them to safety.
To the west, the Pacific Palisades fire, which began Tuesday morning, blazed out of control throughout the night.
The Los Angeles Fire Department asked off-duty firefighters to help fight the flames, which were being pushed by winds gusting up to 60 mph (97 kph) in some areas and causing chaos as residents evacuated.
It was too windy for firefighting planes to fly, which hampered the fight.
The Pacific Palisades fire raged through a Los Angeles hillside lined with celebrity mansions Tuesday, destroying houses and prompting evacuation orders. In the frenzied rush to get to safety, routes became blocked, and dozens of people abandoned their automobiles and fled on foot, some carrying suitcases.
According to the LA Fire Department, the traffic bottleneck on Palisades Drive prevented rescue vehicles from passing through, so a bulldozer was dispatched to push the abandoned automobiles to the side and clear a passage. California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who was in Southern California to attend President Joe Biden’s dedication of a national monument, took a detour to the canyon to observe “firsthand the impact of these swirling winds and the embers,” and stated he found “not a few—many structures already destroyed.”
Officials did not provide an exact number of structures damaged or destroyed in the Pacific Palisades wildfire, but they did say that over 30,000 persons were under evacuation orders and more than 13,000 structures were threatened.
The worst could be yet to come. The fire started around 10:30 a.m., shortly after the onset of a Santa Ana windstorm that the National Weather Service predicted may be “life-threatening” and the strongest to reach Southern California in more than ten years. The actual cause of the fire remained unknown, and no casualties were recorded, officials added.
The Eaton fire was burning approximately 25 miles (40 kilometers) northeast of Altadena.
The winds were predicted to pick up overnight and last for days, resulting in isolated gusts of up to 100 mph (160 kph) in highlands and foothills, including locations that had not had much rain in months.
“By no stretch of the imagination are we out of the woods,” Newsom reminded locals, with the strongest winds forecast between 10 p.m. Tuesday and 5 a.m. Wednesday. He proclaimed a state of emergency on Tuesday.
The mayor’s office reported that as of Tuesday evening, 28,300 families were without electricity owing to the severe winds. About 15,000 Southern California utility customers had their power turned off to prevent the risk of equipment igniting a fire. A total of half a million people were at risk of losing electricity prematurely.
The Pacific Palisades fire swiftly devoured around 4.6 square miles (11.6 square kilometers) of land in the Pacific Palisades district of western Los Angeles, resulting in a towering cloud of smoke visible throughout the city. Residents of Venice Beach, about 6 miles (10 kilometers) away, reported seeing the flames. It was one of several blazes in the area.
Sections of Interstate 10 and the picturesque Pacific Coast Highway were restricted to non-essential traffic to aid in the evacuation efforts. However, other highways were closed. Some residents stepped out of their vehicles to escape danger and waited to be picked up.
Kelsey Trainor, a resident, reported that the only road in and out of her community was entirely closed. Ash dropped all around them, and fires flared on both sides of the road.
“We looked across and the fire had jumped from one side of the road to the other side of the road,” Trainor told us. “People were crying and screaming as they got out of their cars, carrying their pets, babies, and bags. “The road was completely blocked for an hour.”
An Associated Press video journalist witnessed one home’s roof and chimney on fire, as well as another’s flaming walls. The Pacific Palisades neighborhood, which borders Malibu about 20 miles (32 kilometers) west of downtown Los Angeles, features hillside neighborhoods of densely packed residences along winding roads snuggled against the Santa Monica Mountains and stretches down to beaches on the Pacific Ocean.
An Associated Press photographer witnessed multi-million dollar residences on fire as helicopters overhead dropped water loads. Roads were congested in both directions as evacuees raced down to the Pacific Coast Highway, while others begged for rides back to their houses to retrieve pets. Two of the burning residences were located in upscale gated neighborhoods.
Will Adams, a long-time Palisades resident, said he immediately hurried 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 attempted to flee.
“She vacated her car and left it running,” Adams added. She and several other residents walked down to the ocean until it was safe.
Adams claimed he had never seen anything like this in the 56 years he has lived there. He watched as the sky turned brown, then black, and homes began to burn. He heard loud pops and bangs, “like small explosions,” which he believed were transformers exploding.
“It is insane; it is everywhere, in all the nooks and crannies of the Palisades.” “One home is safe, and the other is on fire,” Adams added.
Actor James Woods shared a video of flames burning through plants and palm trees on a hill near his house. The towering orange flames billowed across the groomed yards between the dwellings.
“Standing in my driveway, getting ready to evacuate,” Woods stated in the brief video on X.
Actor Steve Guttenberg, who lives in the Pacific Palisades, asked those who abandoned their vehicles to leave their keys behind so that they might be moved to create room for fire trucks.
“This is not a parking lot,” Guttenberg informed KTLA. “My friends up there are unable to evacuate.” I’m walking up there as far as I can, moving cars.”
Biden’s planned trip to inland Riverside County, where he was to announce the establishment of two new national monuments in the state, was canceled due to the variable weather. He stayed in Los Angeles, where smoke could be seen from his hotel, and was informed on the wildfires. The Federal Emergency Management Agency granted a grant to help California cover the expense of firefighting.
Biden said in a statement that he and his team are in contact with state and local officials and have offered “any federal assistance that is needed to help suppress the terrible Pacific Palisades fire.”
Some trees and plants on the Getty Villa grounds had been burned by late Tuesday, but Getty President Katherine Fleming said in a statement that personnel and the museum collection were safe. The museum, located on the eastern end of the Pacific Palisades, is a separate campus of the world-renowned Getty Museum dedicated to ancient Greek and Roman art and culture. The fire also burnt the Palisades Charter High School classrooms.
Due to the fire and windy weather, film studios canceled two movie premieres, while the Los Angeles Unified School District said that pupils would be temporarily relocated from three schools in the Pacific Palisades.
Recent dry winds, particularly the legendary Santa Anas, have led to warmer-than-average temperatures in Southern California, which has received very little rain this season. Southern California has not received more than 0.1 inches (0.25 cm) of rain since early May.
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