New blaze erupts in Hollywood Hills as Los Angeles fires rage

Los Angeles: The devastating wildfires surrounding the city on Wednesday (Thursday AEDT) have increased in intensity, leaving at least five people dead, hundreds of homes destroyed, and firefighting resources and water supplies stretched to the limit, with more than 100,000 residents forced to flee.

Dry, hurricane-force winds hindered firefighting operations and spread the fires, which have burnt parched terrain almost unimpeded since they began on Tuesday.

The fires were “unprecedented and unpredictable”, Los Angeles County fire chief Anthony Marrone told a news conference on Wednesday.

Even as firefighters struggled to contain two massive fires – one in the tiny coastal enclave of Pacific Palisades, the other bearing down on Pasadena – a new blaze flared up in the Hollywood Hills on Wednesday evening, prompting evacuations.

The Sunset fire was burning near the Hollywood Bowl and about 1.6 kilometres from the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

The streets around Grauman’s Chinese Theatre and Madame Tussauds were packed with stop-and-go traffic as sirens blared and low-flying helicopters soared by on their way to dump water on the flames. People toting suitcases left hotels on foot, while some onlookers walked toward the flames, recording the fire on their phones.

A firefighting helicopter drops water as the Sunset fire burns in the Hollywood Hills.Credit: Getty Images

The LA Fire Department issued an evacuation order for people in an area within Hollywood Boulevard to the south, Mulholland Drive to the north, the 101 Freeway to the east and Laurel Canyon Boulevard to the west – all iconic addresses for people in the entertainment industry.

At least six blazes burning in the metropolitan area and four were “zero per cent …contained” and growing, according to state officials, with thousands of firefighters battling the flames and off-duty firefighters called in to help.

Schools and roads were closed, homes and businesses lost power, air quality plummeted, and thousands of displaced residents searched for hotel space or sought shelter from friends and family.

President Joe Biden cancelled a planned trip to Italy late on Wednesday, just hours before he was set to depart, citing the need to help monitor the response to the fires.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass called the disaster the “big one”.

“I’ve have seen the front lines of the Palisades fire, and it is staggering,” she said at a Wednesday evening press conference.

Images of the devastation that emerged overnight showed luxurious homes that had collapsed in a whirlwind of flaming embers. The tops of palm trees whipped against a glowing red sky.

At least 100,000 residents were ordered to evacuate, officials said. The flames marched towards highly populated and affluent neighbourhoods home to California’s rich and famous. Hollywood stars, including Mark Hamill, Mandy Moore and James Woods, were among those forced to flee.

A tearful Woods told CNN his home was likely to have been destroyed.

“It is surreal here in Los Angeles,” actor Henry Winkler wrote on X. “It is biblical. So many people have lost everything.”

In Palisades Village, the public library, two major grocery stores, a pair of banks and several boutiques were destroyed.

“It’s just really weird coming back to somewhere that doesn’t really exist any more,” said Dylan Vincent, who returned to the neighbourhood to retrieve some items and saw that his elementary school had burnt down, and that whole blocks had been flattened.

The fires have consumed a total of about 108 square kilometres – nearly the size of the entire city of San Francisco. The offshore winds that have fanned the flames with gusts above 129km/h were expected to last through to Thursday, and another windstorm could follow next week, with no rain in between.

A vehicle and other structures are burned as the Palisades fire ravages a neighbourhood.Credit: AP

“We are prioritising life over everything else,” Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said. Several hundred deputies were helping residents evacuate and responding to emergencies, he said.

Vice President Kamala Harris’ Los Angeles home was included in one evacuation zone, although no one was there, according to a spokesperson.

The biggest blaze had consumed more than 2023 hectares in the picturesque Pacific Palisades neighbourhood, which lies east of Los Angeles between the beach towns of Santa Monica and Malibu, and is home to many film, television and music stars. The fire was the most destructive in the Los Angeles history.

Another fire, the Eaton fire, had grown to more than 800 hectares as it burnt some 50 kilometres inland in Altadena, near Pasadena, where two fatalities were reported, though officials said they did not have further details.

Nearly 1900 structures have been destroyed in the Eaton and Palisades fires, and the number is expected to increase.

The Hurst fire, in Sylmar in the San Fernando Valley north-west of Los Angeles, was also not contained.

In addition to the five deaths, many others were hurt in the fires. A “high number” of significant injuries had occurred among residents who did not heed evacuation orders, Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said.

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

As residents fled, roads were so jammed some people abandoned their vehicles to escape the fire. Emergency responders were going door to door to press evacuation orders.

On Tuesday, California Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency.

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.

“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 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 $3.7 million ($5.96 million) as of the end of 2023, according to data, more than all but four other zip codes in the US.

As the Pacific Palisades fire grew, it became the most destructive in the modern history of the city of Los Angeles. Before that, a 1961 Bel Air fire stood for nearly half a century as the most destructive fire in the city’s history. It burnt nearly 500 houses in the hillside enclave, including homes of actor Burt Lancaster, Zsa Zsa Gabor, and other celebrities.

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 and on gurneys, crowded onto a smoky and windswept carpark as fire trucks and ambulances attended.

About 400,000 homes and businesses in Los Angeles County were without power on Wednesday, data showed.

Officials said on Wednesday the Palisades fire was not contained and growing.Credit: AP

A number of burn victims were treated after walking towards 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.

Wildfire smoke is known to cause heart attacks and worsen asthma. Now, patients suffering from those conditions were showing up in emergency rooms at a time when hospitals were already full because of flu season, said Dr Puneet Gupta, the assistant medical director for the Los Angeles County Fire Department.

“We have a number of hospitals threatened, and if they have to be evacuated, it could become a crisis,” said Gupta, also a spokesperson for the American College of Emergency Physicians.

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 to 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.

Satellite imagery captured the Palisades fire burning in northern Los Angeles on Tuesday.Credit:

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.

Production on a number of Hollywood TV shows, including Grey’s Anatomy, Hacks and NCIS, has been paused.

The full economic impact won’t become clear until the flames are contained. But AccuWeather estimated damages and economic losses at $US52 billion to $US57 billion, saying it could become the worst wildfire incident in California history, given the number of structures that could be burnt.

AP, Reuters, Bloomberg

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