Tens of thousands flee as homes burn and wildfire whips through L.A. hillside

A wildfire whipped up by extreme winds swept through a Los Angeles hillside dotted with celebrity residences Tuesday, burning homes and prompting evacuation orders for tens of thousands. In the frantic haste to get to safety, roadways were clogged and scores of people abandoned their vehicles and fled on foot, some toting suitcases.

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, according to the L.A. Fire Department.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who was in Southern California to attend the naming of a national monument by U.S. President Joe Biden, made a detour to the canyon to see "firsthand the impact of these swirling winds and the embers," and he said he found "not a few — many structures already destroyed."

Officials did not give an exact number of structures damaged or destroyed in the Pacific Palisades wildfire, but they said about 30,000 residents are under evacuation orders and more than 13,000 structures were under threat.

And the worst could be yet to come. The blaze began around 10:30 a.m. local time, shortly after the start of a Santa Ana windstorm that the U.S. National Weather Service warned could be "life-threatening" and the strongest to hit Southern California in more than a decade. The exact cause of the fire was unknown and no injuries had been reported, officials said.

The winds were expected to increase overnight and continue for days, producing isolated gusts that could top 160 km/h in mountains and foothills — including in areas that haven't seen substantial rain in months.

"By no stretch of the imagination are we out of the woods," Newsom warned residents, saying the worst of the winds are expected between 10 p.m. Tuesday and 5 a.m. Wednesday. He declared a state of emergency on Tuesday.

As of Tuesday evening, 28,300 households were without power due to the strong winds, according to the mayor's office. About 15,000 utility customers in Southern California had their power shut off to reduce the risk of equipment sparking blaze. A half a million customers total were at risk of losing power pre-emptively.

The fire quickly consumed more than 11 square kilometres of land in the Pacific Palisades neighbourhood in western Los Angeles, sending up a dramatic plume of smoke visible across the city. Residents in Venice Beach, some 10 kilometres away, reported seeing the flames. It was one of several blazes across the area.

Sections of Interstate 10 and the scenic Pacific Coast Highway were closed to all non-essential traffic to aid in evacuation efforts. But other roads were blocked. Some residents jumped out of their vehicles to get out of danger and waited to be picked up.

Resident Kelsey Trainor said the only road in and out of her neighbourhood was completely blocked. Ash fell all around them while fires burned on both sides of the road.

"We looked across and the fire had jumped from one side of the road to the other side of the road," Trainor said. "People were getting out of the cars with their dogs and babies and bags, they were crying and screaming. The road was just blocked, like full-on blocked, for an hour."

An Associated Press journalist saw a roof and chimney of one home in flames and another residence where the walls were burning. The Pacific Palisades, which borders Malibu about 32 kilometres west of downtown L.A., includes hillside streets of tightly packed homes along winding roads nestled against the Santa Monica Mountains and stretches down to beaches along the Pacific Ocean.   

An AP photographer saw multimillion-dollar mansions on fire as helicopters overhead dropped water loads. Roads were clogged in both directions as evacuees fled down toward the Pacific Coast Highway while others begged for rides back up to their homes to rescue pets. Two of the homes on fire were inside exclusive gated communities.