Raging wildfires fanned by strong winds tore across the wealthy Los Angeles neighbourhood of Pacific Palisades on Tuesday, burning homes and prompting the city to issue evacuation orders to 30,000 people.
More than 2,900 acres had burnt in the hills around the Palisades, an affluent coastal community with some of the most expensive property in the US, the Los Angeles Fire Department said on Tuesday. The cause of the blaze is unknown.
Smoke blackened the sky over the area as winds reached up to 60mph. Gusts were expected to accelerate overnight and could reach as high as 100mph, the strongest in at least a decade for Southern California.
Fire officials said about 13,000 structures are at risk in the Palisades, home to Hollywood stars such as Tom Hanks and James Woods. Gavin Newsom, California’s governor, said “many structures [are] already destroyed”.
Newsom declared a state of emergency, as did Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass. President Joe Biden, who was in California to dedicate national monuments, promised federal aid to reimburse the state for its response to the disaster.
After sundown, Santa Monica issued an evacuation order for an area closest to the Palisades fire, warning residents of an “immediate threat to life”.
Another large fire spread in Altadena, about 30 miles east of Pacific Palisades. The blaze, which has burnt about 400 acres, also prompted evacuations.
Roads that snake through the canyons of Pacific Palisades quickly filled with gridlock traffic after the fire broke out on Tuesday morning, as residents rushed to evacuate. Many cars were also abandoned as drivers fled on foot towards the coast, witnesses said.
The fire department has sent trucks to move the abandoned cars to improve access to the blazes.
“We’ve been evacuated three times [from previous fires] but this is the scariest we’ve seen,” said Susan Vash, who evacuated on Tuesday afternoon and is staying with family in Santa Monica.
She has lived in the Mandeville Canyon area of the Palisades since 1998. “Every time this happens we say we have to move, but we never do.”
The fire threatened the Getty Villa, and some trees and plants on the hilltop site were burnt. But the art collection and museum employees remained safe, the museum’s president said.
Helicopters and “super scooper” aeroplanes dumped water on the fires, though the strong winds proved to be a problem for the aircraft. Utility companies shut off power to more than 8,000 homes to prevent live electrical wires from increasing the fire risk.
The fire in Pacific Palisades is believed to have started around 10.30am. Evacuees said it spread quickly, forcing parents to rush to schools and pick up their children. Some who fled said they could not be sure if the houses they had left were still standing.
It could take days before firefighters get the blaze under control, and even longer before residents are allowed to return home, fire officials said.
The National Weather Service warned of “life threatening windstorms”, which have accelerated the fire’s spread across a parched landscape that has had very little rain in months.
Fire officials warned the winds would only get worse overnight. “Know that we are not out of danger,” said Anthony Marrone, chief of the Los Angeles County Fire Department.