Raging Los Angeles fires kill at least two people

Los Angeles — At least two people were killed as several fast-growing wildfires raged out of control near Los Angeles on Wednesday, destroying hundreds of buildings, scorching hillsides and prompting officials to order about 70,000 people to evacuate their homes.

Fierce winds were hindering firefighting efforts and fuelling the fires, which have spread unimpeded since they began on Tuesday.

The biggest blaze has consumed more than 2,000ha in Pacific Palisades, a neighbourhood in west Los Angeles County between the beach towns of Santa Monica and Malibu that is home to many film, television and music stars.

More than 1,000 structures have been destroyed, Los Angeles County fire chief Anthony Marrone said on Wednesday.

Another blaze, the Eaton fire, had grown to more than 800ha as it burned about 50km inland in Altadena, near Pasadena. Two fatalities were reported there, though officials said they did not have further details.

The Hurst fire, in Sylmar in the San Fernando Valley northwest of Los Angeles, had exceeded 200ha. All three fires were uncontained, officials said.

A “high number” of significant injuries had occurred among residents who hadn’t heeded evacuation orders, Marrone said.

Officials warned that the gusty winds were forecast to persist throughout the day.

“We are absolutely not out of danger yet, with the strong winds that continue to push through the city and the county today,” Los Angeles City fire chief Kristen Crowley said.

The winds have made it impossible to offer aerial support for firefighting operations, officials said, putting municipal water systems under immense strain. Residents were urged to limit water use.

“The fire department needs the water to fight the fires, and we’re fighting a wildfire with urban water systems, and that is really challenging,” said Janisse Quinones, the CEO of the city’s water and power department.

The skies above Los Angeles glowed red and were blanketed by thick smoke as the sun rose on Wednesday.

As the flames spread and residents began evacuating after the fires broke out on Tuesday, roads were so jammed that some people abandoned their vehicles to escape the fire. Emergency responders were going door to door to press evacuation orders.

California Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency on Tuesday. President Joe Biden planned to visit a Santa Monica fire station for a briefing from fire officials on Wednesday, the White House said.

President-elect Donald Trump, who takes office in two weeks, blamed Newsom’s environmental policies for the disaster in a post on his Truth Social website.

The Los Angeles region had been ripe for fire heading into autumn, when seasonal winds arrive in the region, after consecutive wet winters created an abundance of grass and vegetation that turned to fuel during an intensely hot summer, climate scientists said.

‘This close’

About 100 of the 1,000 public schools in the Los Angeles unified school district were shut, Superintendent Alberto Carvalho told the press conference.

Pacific Palisades resident Cindy Festa said that as she evacuated, fires were “this close to the cars,” demonstrating with her thumb and forefinger.

“People left their cars on Palisades Drive. Burning up the hillside. The palm trees — everything is going,” Festa said from her car.

David Reed said he had no choice but to leave his Pacific Palisades home when police officers showed up at his door. “They laid down the law,” Reed said.

He gathered his most important possessions and accepted a ride from officers to the evacuation centre at the Westwood Community Center.

“I grabbed my trombone and the latest book I’ve been reading, which is my Jack Kerouac anthology here, because I’m a beatnik,” he said, adding that he could see flames approaching his home.

Pacific Palisades is one of the most expensive neighbourhoods in the US. A typical home was valued at $3.7m at the end of 2023, according to property company Zillow, more than all but four other zip codes in the country.

The fleeing evacuees included Hollywood celebrities such as Jamie Lee Curtis, Mandy Moore and Mark Hamill.

At least three blazes

In the Pasadena area, the Eaton fire engulfed homes, a synagogue and a McDonald’s restaurant.

Almost 100 residents from a nursing home in Pasadena were evacuated, CBS News said. Video showed elderly residents, many in wheelchairs or on gurneys, crowded onto a smoky and windswept parking lot as fire trucks and ambulances attended to them.

About 188,000 homes and businesses in Los Angeles county were without power on Wednesday, according to data from website PowerOutage.us.

Multiple burn victims were treated after walking toward Duke’s restaurant in Malibu in the evening, the Los Angeles Times reported, citing a fire official.

“We’re facing a historic natural disaster and I think that can’t be stated strong enough,” Kevin McGowan, director of emergency management for Los Angeles County, said at the press conference.

Firefighting aircraft scooped water from the sea to try to drop it on the flames as they engulfed homes. Television broadcasts showed bulldozers clearing abandoned vehicles from roads so emergency vehicles could pass.

The fire singed some trees on the grounds of the Getty Villa, a museum loaded with priceless works of art, but the collection remained safe largely because nearby bushes had been trimmed as a preventive measure, the museum said.

Before the fire started, the National Weather Service had issued its highest alert for extreme fire conditions for much of Los Angeles County from Tuesday until Thursday.

With low humidity and dry vegetation due to a lack of rain, the conditions were “about as bad as it gets in terms of fire weather,” the service said.

Reuters