Mass evacuations as wildfire rages in Los Angeles
Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated as a wildfire rages across an upscale section of Los Angeles, destroying homes beneath huge plumes of smoke that cover much of the metropolitan area.
At least 510 hectares of the Pacific Palisades area between Santa Monica and Malibu had burned, officials said on Wednesday (Australian time), after they had already warned of extreme fire danger from powerful winds that arrived following extended dry weather.
The fire grew rapidly in a matter of hours as officials warned the worst wind conditions were expected to come overnight, leading to concerns that more neighbourhoods could be forced to flee.
Flying embers set alight a palm tree at the intersection of Sunset Boulevard and Pacific Coast Highway.
Witnesses reported homes on fire with flames nearly scorching their cars when people fled the hills of Topanga Canyon, as the fire spread from there down to the Pacific Ocean.
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“We feel very blessed at this point that there’s no injuries that are reported,” Los Angeles Fire Chief Kristin Crowley said.
Firefighters in aircraft scooped water from the sea to drop it on the nearby flames. Flames engulfed homes and bulldozers cleared abandoned vehicles from roads so emergency vehicles could pass, television images showed.
With only one major road leading from the canyon to the coast, and only one coastal highway leading to safety, traffic crawled to a halt, leading people to flee on foot.
Before the fire started, the US National Weather Service had issued its highest alert for extreme fire conditions for much of Los Angeles County from Tuesday until Thursday, predicting wind gusts of 80-130km/h with isolated gusts of 130-160km/h in the mountains and foothills.
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Combined with low humidity and dry vegetation due to a lack of rain, conditions were extremely dangerous, authorities said.
“In other words, this is about as bad as it gets in terms of fire weather,” the Los Angeles office of the National Weather Service said on X.
Governor Gavin Newsom said the state began moving fire resources from northern to southern California as early as Saturday because of the weather warning.
Many of those personnel, firetrucks and aircraft remained in position elsewhere in Southern California because of the fire danger to the wider region, he said.
“Hopefully, we’re wrong, but we’re anticipating other fires happening concurrently. And that’s exactly the previous experience we’ve had with these kinds of wind events,” Newsom said.
Known as Santa Ana winds, the strong, dry westerly winds originate in inland deserts and more common in the fall but can affect Southern California any time of year.
Pacific Palisades is home to several Hollywood stars.
Actor James Woods said on X he was able to evacuate but added, “I do not know at this moment if our home is still standing”.
More than 25,000 people in 10,000 homes were threatened, Crowley said, equal to nearly the entire population of the Pacific Palisades.
