A fast-moving fire forced more than 30,000 residents to evacuate Los Angeles’ Pacific Palisades neighborhood amid “deadly and destructive” winds.
The fire, which broke out around 10:30 a.m. local time Tuesday morning, was burning in the Pacific Palisades Highlands community. In just a few hours, the fire grew to more than 1,200 acres, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CalFire). It was fueled by a combination of dry conditions and strong winds, which are expected to strengthen further overnight.
Gusts of up to 100 mph are expected in the windiest locations.
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Kelsey Trainor, an attorney who lives in Pacific Palisades, said she fled her neighborhood around 11:30 a.m., only to get stuck in a traffic jam on Palisades Drive.
“There was just smoke around us, fire everywhere. People were honking their horns,” Trainor said. She said she felt trapped, with flames on both sides of the only exit route. “Gridlock – nowhere to go.”
Trainor briefly left his car to offer help and a mask to an elderly woman who was having difficulty breathing. Ash was hitting her face, pushed by intense winds, she said.
Trainor said it took more than an hour to get to safety.
“What’s really scary is that it seemed really dangerous for people who were doing what they’re supposed to do,” Trainor said, noting that she had a stockpile of supplies and a “fire bag” packed and that she was gone before her phone rang. with an emergency alert.
“I felt really helpless,” she said.
More than 10,300 homes and 13,200 structures were threatened by the fire as of Tuesday afternoon, LAFD Fire Chief Kristin M. Crowley said at a news conference.
“We feel very fortunate at this point that no injuries have been reported,” Crowley said, while adding that she had received reports of several damaged structures.
Flames could be seen rising from apartment buildings near Sunset Boulevard and homes on the hillside.
Mallory Sobel, who lives in the Pacific Palisades Highlands neighborhood, said it took her two and a half hours to leave the neighborhood, where homes were darkened by thick plumes of smoke.
“I can feel it in my lungs right now. My throat hurts. My car was full of soot as I drove down slowly, very slowly. I wore a mask because it was so powerful,” Sobel said.
She added that she left with just a bag of emergency supplies and her family’s passports.
“Good Samaritans are all over the street, helping people get down hills and drive their cars,” she said.
Around thirty vehicles which had to be abandoned had to be cleared by bulldozers to facilitate access for firefighters, according to firefighters.
The flames also posed a threat to communities dotting the canyons west of Pacific Palisades, including Rustic Canyon and Topanga Canyon.
“Be prepared to receive evacuation orders,” Erik Scott, public information officer for the Los Angeles Fire Department, said in a video on X speaking to residents. Scott added that the fire was “spreading quickly due to the high winds.”
Margaret Stewart, another LAFD public information officer, said more than 250 firefighters were responding to the blaze. The fire was moving generally west, she added, although firefighters were also concerned about swirling fires and spot fires in canyons that could send embers in any direction.
“They can carry up to a mile,” Stewart said.
Conditions in Southern California were primed for a rapid wildfire. Los Angeles hasn’t received significant precipitation in months, and National Weather Service forecasters had predicted “a destructive and life-threatening windstorm” from Tuesday afternoon into Wednesday morning.
Rich Thompson, a meteorologist with the weather service based in Oxnard, said downtown Los Angeles has received only 0.16 inches of rain since July 1.
Thompson said the weather service observed wind gusts of 50 to 80 mph Tuesday and expected the danger to increase overnight.
“It looks like the winds are going to increase in strength a little later today and this evening,” he said. “Hollywood Hills, the Beverly Hills area, Palos Verdes – they get some Santa Ana winds, but usually not as strong.”
Winter wildfires in California are often caused by Santa Ana winds, which sweep down mountain slopes to bring warm, dry air to coastal areas. Winds generally lower humidity levels and can quickly fuel emerging fires, especially when the landscape is dry.
Climate change has increased the risk of such events, Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles, said in a YouTube address.
“Climate change is increasing the overlap between extremely dry growing conditions later in the season and the occurrence of these wind events,” he said.
Thompson said the landscape would only get drier as the day progressed, a frightening sign for firefighters.
“Humidities are starting to drop into the 20 to 30 percent range and continue to drop to the 10 to 10 percent range tomorrow and Thursday,” Thompson said, adding that “the wind will continue to blow tonight and tomorrow. There will be no no humidity.
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