Thousands flee Los Angeles fire as dangerous winds whip region

The National

07-01-2025

A fast-moving wildfire ripped through an affluent neighbourhood in Los Angeles, California, forcing thousands of people to evacuate as the region braced for a brutal wind storm that could last well into the weekend. One blaze erupted in the Pacific Palisades neighbourhood of Los Angeles on Tuesday and quickly jumped to 770 acres and counting, threatening homes and triggering evacuation orders. Traffic on Palisades Drive gridlocked as residents fled, with some people abandoning cars and walking past palm trees engulfed in flames, live video from KTLA 5 showed. Fire crews used earth movers to clear roadways of the vehicles, the footage shows. From the Venice Beach Boardwalk, a firefighting plane could be seen skimming above the ocean, scooping up water and returning to the Palisades to drop it. Surfers bobbed in the Pacific, watching the smoke from afar. In Santa Monica, cyclists and runners on a beachfront bike path stopped in their tracks as the piercing blare of emergency alerts burst from their cell phones. The ridge line of the Santa Monica Mountains was almost completely obscured by smoke. Long-time Venice resident Mike Kerns, 62, was walking out of a doctor's appointment in the Pacific Palisades neighbourhood at 11am and noticed a plume of smoke coming from the mountain above. About 10 minutes later, he looked back at the plume and saw the whole mountain below it engulfed. 'It was like a movie,' Mr Kerns said. 'Like the end of the world.' As of 1.40pm local time, the fire was still burning uncontained as it approached the coastal communities of Santa Monica and Malibu, which suffered a wildfire last month that destroyed 20 homes and structures and damaged 28 more. Evacuation orders were issued for east Malibu, the entire Pacific Palisades neighbourhood – where the median home sells for $3.4 million, according to Zillow – and the area surrounding the Getty Villa museum. Todd Sammann, an investment manager and 14-year resident of Pacific Palisades, was stuck in traffic while fleeing after seeing a towering wall of smoke and flames charring a hillside. 'The wind is heavy and the fire is spreading quickly, so when the evacuation notice was issued, I gathered our pets, passports and wedding photos and headed out,' Mr Sammann said. Just under 26,000 people live in the mandatory evacuation zone, said Margaret Stewart, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Fire Department. Authorities were unable to determine how residents had heeded the warning, she said. The evacuation zone includes 13,200 structures. The blaze began as Southern California braced for a Santa Ana wind storm that could bring gusts as high as 161 kilometres per hour and last for days. The region has received almost no rain for months, leaving grass and brush primed to burn. 'We are no strangers to wintertime wildfire threats,' California Governor Gavin Newsom said before the winds arrived on Monday. 'So I ask all Californians to pay attention to local authorities and be prepared to evacuate if told to go.'