Multiple massive wildfires tore across the Los Angeles area with devastating force early Wednesday as residents made a desperate escape f🅺rom burning homes through flames, ferocious winds and towering clouds of smoke.
Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone said two people were killed and many others hurt 𒈔in the fires, which have destroyed more than 1,000 structures.
At least three separate blazes were burning in the metropolitan area, from the Pacific Coast inland to Pasadena, home of the fame🔥d Rose Parade. With thousands of firefighters already attacking the flames, the Los Angeles Fire Department put out a plea for off-duty firefighters to help.
Weat🤡her conditions were too windy🌌 for firefighting aircraft to fly, further hampering the fight.
Images o🌊f the devastation that emerged overnight showed luxurious homes that had collapsed in a whirlwind of flaming embers. The tops of palm trees whipped against a glowing red sky.
Tens of thousands of residents we🌃re ordered to evacuate as the fires marched toward highly populated and affluent neighbourhoods home to California's rich and famous. Hollywood stars, including Mark Hamill, Mandy Moore and James Woods, were a🧸mong those forced to flee.
Flames that broke out Tuesday evening near a nature preserve in the foothills northeast of LA spread so rapidly that staff at a senior living centre had to push dozens of residents in wheelchairs and hospital beds 🙈down the str🌠eet to a parking lot.
Residents — one as old as 102 — waited in their bedclothes as embers fell around them until ambulances, buses and construction vans arriv🙈ed to take them to 🅺safety.
Another blaze that started hours earlier ripped through the city's Pacific Palisades neighbourhood, a hillside area along the coast dotted with celebrity 🥂homes and memo🍬rialised by the Beach Boys in their 1960s hit “Surfin' USA.”
In the race to get to safety, rඣoadways♏ became impassable when scores of people abandoned their vehicles and fled on foot, some toting suitcases.
Sheriece Wallace was unaware there was a fire burning around her until her sister called at the moment a helicopter 𒊎made a water drop over her൩ house.
“I was like, It's🎉 raining,'” Wallace said. “She's like, 👍No, it's not raining. Your neighbourhood is on fire. You need to get out.'”
“As soon as I openꦰed my door, it was like right there,” she said. “The first thing I did was looked at ⛄the trees to see where the wind was blowing. Because it hit me. It blew me back.” She was able to leave.
A traffic jam on Palis♉ades Drive prevented emergency vehicles from getting through, and a bulldozer was brought in to push the abandoned cars to the side and create a path.
Video along the Pacific Coast Highway sh𝕴owed widespread destruction of homes and businesses along the famed roadway.
Pacific Palisades resident Kelsey Trainor said the only road in and out of her neighbourhood was blocked. Ash fell 🦂all around while fires burned 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 said. “People were getting out of the cars with their dogs and babies and bags. They were crying and screaming.꧑"
A third wildfire started Tuesday evening and quickly prompted evacuations in Sylmar, a San Fernando Valley community that's the northernmost neighbourhood in Los Angeles. A fourth fire was reported early Wednesday ꦯin Coachella, in Riverside County. The causes were under investigation.
Flames were being push♔ed by Santa Ana winds topping 97 kph in some places Tuesday, increasing to 129 kph by early Wednesday, according to reports received by the National Weather Service.
They could top 160 kph in mountains and foothiꦕlls, including in areas that have not seen substantial rain in months.
California's wildfire season typically begins in June or July and runs through October, according to the Western Fire Chiefs Association, but January wildfires are not unprecedented. There was one in 202♓2 and 10 in 2021, ꩵaccording to CalFire.
The season is𝕴 beginning earlier and ending later due to rising temperatures and decreased rainfall tied to climate change, according to recent data. Rains that usually end fire season are often delayed, meaning fires can burn through the winter months, the association said.
“This will likely be the most🍎 destructive windstorm seen (since a) 2011 windstorm that di♍d extensive damage to Pasadena and nearby foothills of the San Gabriel Valley,” 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 firefi💛ghting personnel to combat the blazes. “Emergency officials, firefighters and first responders are all hands on deck through the night to do everything possible to protect lives,” Newsom said.
Pasadena Fire Chief Chaℱd Augustin said much of the city was under evacuation orde💟rs as his department waits for winds to die down so he can get aircraft up to starting dousing the flames.
Until that🤪 happens, it's going to be difficult to get the blaze there under control, Auꦚgustin told KABC television, the ABC affiliate.
Fire departments across California were sending firefighters becauseಌ crews 🐭in the Los Angeles area were stretched to the limit, he said.
President Joe Biden cancelled plans to travel to inland Riversiღde County, where he was to announce the establishment of two new national monuments. He remained in Los Angeles, where smoke was visible from his hotel, and was briefed on the wildfires.
Officials did not give an estimate of structures damaged or destroyed in the Pacific Palisades wildfire, but they 🦩said about 30,000 reside🗹nts were under evacuation orders and more than 13,000 structures were under threat.
Newsom visited the scene and said many homes had burned. He declared a sta﷽te of emergency.
The fire burned down Temescal Canyon, a popular hiking area surrounded by dense neighbourho♉ods of multimillion-dollar homes. Flames jumped famous Sunset Boulevard and burned parts of the Palisades Charter High School, which has been featured in many Hollywood productions, including the 1976 horror movie “Carrie,” the 2003 remake of “Freaky Friday” and the TV series “Teen Wolf.”
Several people in Malibu were treated for burns, and a firefighter had a ser💮ious head injury, according to Los Angeles Fire Department Capt Erik Scott.
By early Wednes✤day, the Eaton Fire, which started the day before, had quickly burned 9 square kilometres, according to fire officials. The Hurst Fire jumped to 500 acres (202 hectares) and the Palisades Fire, which started Tuesday morning and sent up a dramatic plume of smoke visible across Los Angeles, had burned 11.6 square kilometres, according to Angeles National Forest.
The Tyler Fire in Coachella was relatively small, burning 15 ac🍷res (6 hectares). All fires were at 0 per cent containment🍌.
As of Wednesday morning, more than 1,80,000 people were without power mostly in Los Angeles County, according to the tracking website PowerOutage.us. Southern California Edison shut off power to some customers because of safety concerns related 💖to high winds and fire risks.
More than 5,00,000 could face shutoffs depending on weather conditions, the𝔉 u𝔍tility said.
Recent dry winds, including the notorious Santa Anas, have contributed to warmer-than-average temperatures in Southern California, where there's been very little rain so far this season. Southe꧒rn California hasn't seen more than 0.25 centimetres of rain since early May.
Lon🎉gtime Palisades resident Will Adams said he i🐎mmediately went to pick his two kids up from St Matthews Parish School when he heard the fire was nearby. Embers flew into his wife's car as she tried to evacuate, he said.
“She vacated her car and left it ♊running,” Adams said. She and many oꦅther residents walked down toward the ocean until it was safe.
Adams said he had never witnessed anything like ♎it in the 56 years he's lived there.
“It is crazy, it's everywhere, in all the nooks and crannies of th𒅌e Palisades. One home's safe, the other one's up in flames,” he said.
