Fast-moving wildfire destroys homes as high winds batter Southern California | California

A fast-moving wildfire broke out Tuesday in Los Angeles County, quickly consuming more than 1,200 acres and destroying homes in an affluent community along the Pacific Ocean.

Fanned by unusually strong winds, the fire prompted frantic evacuations on the winding roads of Pacific Palisades, an area north of Santa Monica, with residents fleeing on foot as the flames approached.

map showing Los Angeles County, highlighting Pacific Palisades and Santa Monica

A ‘life-threatening’ windstorm is affecting much of Southern California, fanning the destructive wildfire and complicating initial containment efforts. The region could see the strongest winds in more than a decade, bringing extreme fire risk to areas that have not seen significant rain in months.

Videos shared online by residents, including actor James Woods, show flames licking at homes across canyons, trees battered by winds and plumes of black smoke billowing into cloudless skies. As the fire spread rapidly, severe traffic jams on the narrow streets forced many people to abandon their cars, some of which were later engulfed in flames. With abandoned vehicles blocking first responders, authorities were forced to use bulldozers to move the cars.

The fire broke out around 10:30 a.m. and by 3:30 p.m. it had burned more than 1,200 acres, with the city of Los Angeles declare a state of emergency. More than 30,000 people were under evacuation orders and 13,000 structures were threatened.

The fires were also reaching areas around the Getty Villa, an art museum on the Malibu coast, with reports early in the evening that the fires were approaching the grounds. The museum said earlier that it had fire prevention measures in place and that the library’s galleries and archives were isolated from smoke and protected by “double-walled construction”. The fire also approached Malibu Beach near the Pacific Coast Highway.

The Los Angeles school district was also forced to move students from three campuses, Joe Biden had to reschedule an event announcing the cancellation of two national monuments and movie premieres in Hollywood were canceled.

Actor Eugene Levy, honorary mayor of Pacific Palisades, was also forced to evacuate, telling the Los Angeles Times while stuck in traffic: “The smoke looked pretty black and intense.” Other evacuees described harrowing escapes, with one woman telling ABC7 how she abandoned her vehicle and fled with her cat in her arms: “I’m getting hit by burning palm fronds… It’s terrifying.” It looks like a horror movie. I scream and cry as I walk down the street.

Strong winds began hitting Los Angeles and Ventura counties on Tuesday and are likely to peak early Wednesday, when gusts could reach 80 mph, the National Weather Service (NWS) said Monday. Isolated gusts could exceed 100 mph in the mountains and foothills.

“Strong winds are coming. This is a particularly dangerous situation – in other words, it’s about as bad as it can get in terms of fire conditions,” the NWS said, referring to a type of red flag warning rarely issued.

“The worst, most serious part of this wind event is yet to come,” Los Angeles City Council Speaker Marqueece Harris-Dawson said at a news briefing around 4 p.m.

A vast region of Southern California, home to millions of people, is at what authorities described as an “extreme risk” from the destructive storm. The weather service warned of downed trees and large overturned vehicles, trailers and campers, and advised residents to stay indoors and away from windows. Powerful offshore gusts will also lead to hazardous conditions off the Orange County and Los Angeles coasts, including Catalina Island.

Southern California Edison cut power to more than 15,000 customers Tuesday evening, and more than 430,000 are under investigation for outages, according to the utility’s website. The closures are intended to target areas where conditions could lead to equipment-started fires.

Jeff Monford, a spokesman for the utility, said it was not always possible to notify customers in advance, telling the Los Angeles Times: “This is a phenomenon of increasing effects of the climate change on the weather. We are facing more extreme weather events that can change more quickly than we are used to.

The coming winds will act as an “atmospheric dryer” for vegetation, leading to a long period of fire danger that could extend to more populated hills and valleys, according to Daniel Swain, a climatologist at the University of California at Los Angeles. Angeles and the National Center for Atmospheric Research.

“We really haven’t seen a season as dry as this one follow a season as wet as the last one,” Swain said during a livestream Monday, explaining that abundant vegetation growth combined with strong wind creates a high risk.

Gavin Newsom, the state’s governor, announced Monday that his office would deploy resources across the region to respond to the storm, including moving fire crews and equipment from the north, where the fire season has ended , towards southern California.

“We are no strangers to the threat of wildfires in winter, which is why I ask all Californians to pay attention to local authorities and be prepared to evacuate if asked to leave,” said the governor in a press release.

The region experienced warmer than average temperatures, in part due to recent dry winds, including those from Santa Anas.

Southern California hasn’t received more than 0.25 cm of rain since early May. Much of the region has fallen into moderate drought conditions, according to the US Drought Monitor. Meanwhile, in the north, many severe storms occurred.

Fire risks are particularly extreme in the charred area left by the wind-driven Franklin Fire in December, which damaged or destroyed nearly 50 homes in the Malibu area.

The fire was one of nearly 8,000 wildfires that together will affect more than 1,560 square miles (more than 4,040 square kilometers) in California in 2024.

The last wind event of this magnitude occurred in November 2011, according to the NWS, in which more than 400,000 customers across Los Angeles County lost power for days and significant damage was caused in the San Gabriel Valley.

The Associated Press contributed to this report