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A fast-moving wildfire ripped through an affluent area of Los Angeles, destroying homes and forcing thousands of people to evacuate as firefighters warned that conditions would worsen overnight.
About 30,000 people were ordered to leave their homes on Tuesday after a brush fire erupted in the Pacific Palisades community, causing panic and traffic gridlock, with some abandoning their cars on narrow hillside roads. The blaze reached and jumped the Pacific Coast Highway at Will Rogers State Beach, according to KABC Channel 7 Eyewitness News.
California Governor Gavin Newsom said “many structures” had been destroyed by the flames. “By no stretch of the imagination are we out of the woods,” he said, adding that firefighters were anticipating other blazes to erupt throughout the region that was being raked by severe winds.
The blaze was at almost 3,000 acres and remains uncontained. More than 13,000 structures are under threat, Kristin Crowley, the chief of the Los Angeles Fire Department, said at a press conference. No injuries have been reported.
The US National Weather Service has issued red flag warnings that extend from central California’s coast to the US-Mexico border. Beverly Hills, Hollywood Hills, Malibu and the densely-populated San Fernando Valley are facing a “particularly dangerous situation” — the most severe fire alert level.
Widespread and damaging gales are expected to worsen overnight, with isolated wind gusts in mountains and foothills reaching as strong as 100 miles per hour (161 kilometers), according to the National Weather Service.
Winds are expected to peak Tuesday through early Wednesday afternoon, with the strongest gusts expected to scour the San Fernando Valley and the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains. Weather forecasters have told residents to expect downed trees and power lines, as well as widespread power outages.
Anthony Marrone, fire chief for Los Angeles County, warned that it’ll be very difficult to use aerial resources to fight the fire at night if the winds pick up because water and fire retardant becomes ineffective.
“Flying during the night is more dangerous than flying during the day,” he said.
The blaze erupted as Southern California braced for what forecasters called a “life-threatening and destructive” Santa Ana wind storm that could last for days. The region has received almost no rain for months, leaving grass and brush primed to burn.
During the day on Tuesday, Los Angeles residents found themselves witnessing scenes that were befitting of a disaster film.
From the Venice Beach Boardwalk, a fire-fighting plane could be seen skimming above the ocean, scooping up water and returning to the Palisades to drop it. Surfers bobbed in the Pacific, watching the smoke from afar.
In Santa Monica, cyclists and runners on a beachfront bike path stopped in their tracks as the piercing blare of emergency alerts burst from their cell phones. The ridge line of the Santa Monica Mountains was almost completely obscured by smoke.
The fire threatened the Getty Villa, a museum with a collection of Greek and Roman antiquities. “Some trees and vegetation on site have burned, but staff and the collection remain safe,” Katherine E. Fleming, president and CEO of the J. Paul Getty Trust, said in a statement.
Longtime Venice resident Mike Kerns, 62, was walking out of a doctor’s appointment in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood at 11 a.m. and noticed a plume of smoke coming from the mountain above. About 10 minutes later, he looked back at the plume and saw the whole mountain below it engulfed.
“It was like a movie,” Kerns said. “Like the end of the world.”
Evacuation orders were issued for east Malibu and the entire Pacific Palisades neighborhood — where the median home sells for $3.4 million, according to Zillow.
Edison International’s Southern California utility — the largest in the region — shut off electricity to about 17,700 homes and businesses in an effort to prevent wildfires. The company said it may need to cut power to an additional 438,000 customers if Santa Ana winds become exceptionally strong.
The municipal electric utility, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, said around 28,000 customers are without power as of 5 p.m. local time.
The winds are expected to weaken somewhat starting Wednesday afternoon, but may not die down completely until Saturday at the earliest, according to the weather service.
“Hell of a way to start the New Year,” Newsom said at the Tuesday afternoon press conference. “There is no fire season, it’s a fire year,” he added.
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