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Los Angeles’s ABC affiliate reports:
Tens of thousands of residents in the western Los Angeles area were under mandatory evacuation orders Tuesday evening as a wind-driven wildfire exploded in size and swept through communities in the Pacific Palisades.
The Palisades Fire was first reported around 10:30 a.m. Tuesday in the 1100 block of North Piedra Morada Drive. By evening, the fire had exploded to more than 2,900 acres and was expected to keep spreading amid hurricane-force Santa Ana winds. There was no containment, according to CalFire.
There was no initial estimate for the number of structures damaged or destroyed. However, news footage showed dozens of homes and other structures ablaze.
NBC News reports:
With the affluent area of Pacific Palisades one of those worst affected by the fires, many of the area’s famous residents have shared their experiences and feelings.
After being evacuated from his hillside home late Tuesday and sharing video of his neighbors houses on fire, actor James Woods appeared to confirm that his house was caught up in the fire. Posting on X, the “Once Upon a Time in America” star said “I couldn’t believe our lovely little home in the hills held on this long. It feels like losing a loved one.”
Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson have a home in an area currently under an evacuation order and their second son Chet posted a message on Instagram, saying “the neighborhood I grew up in is burning to the ground [right now]. Pray for the Palisades.”
The Los Angeles Times reports:
As fires raged across Los Angeles on Tuesday, some firefighters battling the Palisades fire reported on internal radio systems that fire hydrants in Pacific Palisades were coming up dry. “The hydrants are down,” said one firefighter.
“Water supply just dropped,” said another. L.A. developer Rick Caruso, who owns Palisades Village in the heart of the Westside neighborhood, told The Times he was receiving similar reports from his staff at the shopping center.
“There’s no water in the fire hydrants,” Caruso said. “The firefighters are there [in the neighborhood], and there’s nothing they can do — we’ve got neighborhoods burning, homes burning, and businesses burning. … It should never happen.”
The Associated Press reports:
The flames from a fire that broke out Tuesday evening near a nature preserve in the inland foothills northeast of LA spread so rapidly that staff at a senior living center had to push dozens of residents in wheelchairs and hospital beds down the street to a parking lot. The residents waited there in their bedclothes as embers fell around them until ambulances, buses and even construction vans arrived to take them to safety.
The traffic jam on Palisades Drive prevented emergency vehicles from getting through and a bulldozer was brought in to push the abandoned cars to the side and create a path. Video along the Pacific Coast Highway showed widespread destruction of homes and businesses along the famed roadway.
Flames were being pushed by Santa Ana winds topping 60 mph (97 kph) in some places. The winds were expected to increase overnight, producing isolated gusts that could top 100 mph (160 kph) in mountains and foothills — including in areas that haven’t seen substantial rain in months.
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