What has been described as a fast-moving wildfire erupted in Los Angeles county on Tuesday, quickly consuming nearly 3,000 acres and destroying homes in an affluent community along the Pacific Ocean.
According to reports, the fire, whipped by unusually strong winds, prompted frenzied evacuations through winding roads in the Pacific Palisades, an area north of Santa Monica, with residents fleeing on foot as flames approached.
A “life-threatening” windstorm is impacting a large swath of southern California, fanning the destructive fire and complicating early containment efforts. The region could be seeing the strongest winds in more than a decade, bringing extreme fire risk to areas that have been without significant rain for months.
Videos shared online from residents, including from the actor James Woods, show flames licking homes through the canyons, thrashing trees blowing in the winds and plumes of black smoke billowing into a cloudless sky. As the fire rapidly spread, severe gridlock on narrow streets led many to leave their cars, some which were subsequently engulfed in flames. With ditched vehicles blocking first responders, authorities were forced to use bulldozers to move cars.
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The fire broke out around 10.30am and by 6.30pm had burned more than 2,900 acres, with the city of LA and the California governor declaring a state of emergency. More than 30,000 people were under evacuation orders, with 13,000 structures threatened.
The blazes also reached the grounds of the Getty Villa, an art museum by the Malibu coast. Some vegetation on the property burned, but museum officials said no structures had been impacted and that the galleries and staff were protected by a range of prevention measures.
The blazes also hit the grounds of the Palisades Charter high school, including its baseball field, and approached the beach in Malibu near the Pacific Coast Highway. Southern California Edison shut off power to more than 20,000 customers as of early Tuesday evening, with more than 430,000 under consideration for outages, according to the utility’s website. The shutoffs are meant to target areas where the conditions could lead to fires started by equipment.
Story was adapted from the Guardian.
