LOS ANGELES (AP) — Massive wildfires roaring through the Los Angeles area left neighborhoods in ruins Wednesday, killing at least two people and threatening landmarks made famous by Hollywood as desperate residents escaped through flames, hurricane-force winds and towering columns of smoke.
Three major blazes that erupted just a day earlier blanketed the city with a dangerous, thick cloud of smoke and ash and destroyed homes across the metropolitan area, from the Pacific Coast inland to Pasadena, home of the famed Rose Parade. One of the fires was the most destructive in the modern history of the city of LA.
With thousands of firefighters already attacking the flames, the Los Angeles Fire Department put out a plea for off-duty and out-of-state firefighters to help. The strong winds had temporarily stopped aircraft from dumping water from above until they were able to resume flights.
More than 1,000 structures were destroyed and numerous people were hurt in the fires, including first responders, said Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone.
Images of the devastation showed luxurious homes that collapsed in a whirlwind of flaming embers. Amid the debris was a toppled statue and a blackened motorcycle, its tires melted away.
“This morning, we woke up to a dark cloud over all of Los Angeles. But it is darkest for those who are most intimately impacted by these fires. It has been an immensely painful 24 hours,” LA County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath said.
At least 70,000 people were ordered to evacuate — a number that kept changing because evacuation orders were continually being issued, officials said. The flames marched toward highly populated and affluent neighborhoods, including Calabasas and Santa Monica, home to California’s rich and famous. Hollywood stars, including Mark Hamill, Mandy Moore and James Woods, were among those forced to flee.
“We are prioritizing life over everything else,” Sheriff Robert Luna said.
The fires have consumed a total of about 22 square miles (56 square kilometers) — about half the size of the entire city of San Francisco.
Jennie Girardo, a 39-year-old producer and director from Pasadena, said she was alarmed when her neighbor came to check on her.
“When I opened my door, it smelled like I was living inside of a fireplace,” she said. “Then I also started to see the ash. And I’ve never seen that in my life. Like raining ash.”
Flames moved so quickly that many had little time to escape. Police sought shelter inside their patrol cars, and residents at a senior living center were pushed in wheelchairs and hospital beds down a street to safety in the foothills northeast of LA. On Wednesday, many of those residents were at the Pasadena Convention Center, waiting to hear where they would be staying.
One of the fires ripped through the Pacific Palisades neighborhood, a hillside area along the coast dotted with celebrity homes and memorialized by the Beach Boys in their 1960s hit “Surfin’ USA.” In the race to get to safety, roadways became impassable when scores of people abandoned their vehicles and fled on foot, some toting suitcases.
“People were getting out of the cars with their dogs and babies and bags,” said Kelsey Trainor, who escaped while ash fell all around and fires burned on both sides of the road.
California’s wildfire season typically begins in June or July and runs through October, according to the Western Fire Chiefs Association, but January wildfires are not unprecedented. There was one in 2022 and 10 in 2021, according to CalFire.
The season is beginning earlier and ending later due to rising temperatures and decreased rainfall tied to climate change, according to recent data. Rains that usually end fire season are often delayed, meaning fires can burn through the winter months, the association said.
President Joe Biden pledged on Wednesday to sign a federal emergency declaration after arriving at a Santa Monica fire station for a briefing with Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Newsom posted on X that California had deployed more than 1,400 firefighting personnel to combat the blazes. He also dispatched National Guard troops to help. Firefighters from neighboring states also were being asked to assist.
“We are absolutely not out of danger yet,” Los Angeles city Fire Chief Kristin M. Crowley said.
The fires burned through Temescal Canyon, a popular hiking area surrounded by dense neighborhoods of multimillion-dollar homes and also jumped famous Sunset Boulevard, burning parts of the Palisades Charter High School, which has been featured in many Hollywood productions, including the 1976 horror movie “Carrie and the TV series “Teen Wolf.”
As it grew, the fire burning in the Pacific Palisades became the most destructive fire in the modern history of the city of Los Angeles.
With an estimated 1,000 structures destroyed and the flames still growing Wednesday, it is far more destructive than the second-most destructive, according to statistics kept by the Wildfire Alliance, a partnership between the city’s fire department and MySafe:LA. Structures refers to homes and other buildings.
The last most destructive fire was the Sayre fire in November 2008 that destroyed 604 structures in Sylmar, the northernmost suburb in the city. Before that, a 1961 Bel Air fire stood for nearly half a century as the most destructive fire in the city’s history. It burned nearly 500 houses in the tony hillside enclave, including homes of actor Burt Lancaster, Zsa Zsa Gabor and other celebrities.
Residents were urged residents to limit water usage. Los Angeles Public Works Director Mark Pestrella said the city’s water systems that service homes and businesses were working effectively, but “they are not designed to fight wildfires.”
More than 100 schools were closed due to fire risk. Southern California Edison shut off service to thousands because of safety concerns related to high winds and fire risks. More than 500,000 could face shutoffs depending on weather conditions, the utility said.
Recent dry winds, including the notorious Santa Anas, have contributed to warmer-than-average temperatures in Southern California, where there’s been very little rain so far this season. Southern California hasn’t seen more than 0.1 inches (0.25 centimeters) of rain since early May.
The winds increased to 80 mph (129 kph) early Wednesday, according to reports received by the National Weather Service, and could top 100 mph (160 kph) in mountains and foothills.
Longtime Palisades resident Will Adams said embers flew into his wife’s car as she tried to evacuate, so she jumped out and ran toward the ocean to get out of danger.
“It is crazy, it’s everywhere, in all the nooks and crannies of the Palisades. One home’s safe, the other one’s up in flames,” he said.
Watson reported from San Diego. Associated Press writers Heather Hollingsworth in Mission, Kansas, Jeff Martin in Atlanta, Janie Har in San Francisco, Hallie Golden in Seattle, video journalist Eugene Garcia in Los Angeles, Ethan Swope in Pasadena, Brian Melley in London, Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire, Sarah Brumfield in Cockeysville, Maryland, and Tammy Webber in Detroit contributed to this report.