Thousands flee as wildfires burn out of control in and around Los Angeles and homes are destroyed

LOS ANGELES — Wildfires tore across the Los Angeles area with devastating force Wednesday after setting off a desperate escape from burning homes through flames, ferocious winds and towering clouds of smoke. 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 — one as old as 102 — waited there in their bedclothes as the night sky glowed red from flames and embers fell around them until ambulances, buses and even construction vans arrived to take them to safety. Another blaze that started hours earlier ripped through the city's Pacific Palisades neighborhood, a hillside area along the coast dotted with celebrity residences and memorialized by the Beach Boys in their 1960s hit "Surfin' USA." In the frantic haste to get to safety, roadways became impassable when scores of people abandoned their vehicles and fled on foot, some toting suitcases. Sheriece Wallace was unaware there was a fire burning around her in that area until her sister called at the moment a helicopter made a water drop over her house. "I was like, 'it's raining,'" Wallace said. "She's like, 'No, it's not raining. Your neighborhood is on fire. You need to get out.'" "As soon as I opened my door, it was like right there," she said. "The first thing I did was looked at the trees to see where the wind was blowing. Because it hit me. It blew me back." She was able to leave. 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. Pacific Palisades resident Kelsey Trainor said the only road in and out of her neighborhood was 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 fires at higher elevations were preventing utility crews from getting water to refill tanks, the Los Angeles Department of Wind and Power said in a statement Tuesday night. A third wildfire started around 10:30 p.m. and quickly prompted evacuations in Sylmar, a San Fernando Valley community that is the northernmost neighborhood in Los Angeles, and a fourth was reported early Wednesday in Coachella, in Riverside County. The causes of the fires were under investigation. Flames were being pushed by Santa Ana winds topping 60 mph (97 kph) in some places Tuesday, increasing to 80 mph (129 kph) by early Wednesday, according to reports received by the National Weather Service. They could top 100 mph (160 kph) in mountains and foothills — including in areas that haven't seen substantial rain in months. 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 CalFire. Recent data show the season is beginning earlier and ending later due to rising temperatures and decreased rainfall tied to climate change. That means rains that usually end fire season are often delayed, meaning fires can burn through the winter months, the association says. Ongoing red flag warnings highlight extremely critical fire weather conditions due to a combination of strong wind gusts in some of the highest terrain Wednesday morning and exceptionally dry relative humidity levels, according to Peter Mullinax, a meteorologist with the weather service's office in College Park, Maryland. "The winds are expected to continue throughout today and even into Thursday as well, providing very little in terms of any relief," he said. The situation prompted the Los Angeles Fire Department to take the rare step of putting out a plea for off-duty firefighters to help. It was too windy for firefighting aircraft to fly, further hampering the fight. A high wind warning was in effect for the region through 6 p.m., the weather service said. "This will likely be the most destructive windstorm seen (since a) 2011 windstorm that did extensive damage to Pasadena and nearby foothills of the San Gabriel Valley," the weather service said in a red flag warning early Wednesday. Gov. Gavin Newsom posted on X early Wednesday that California had deployed more than 1,400 firefighting personnel to combat the blazes. "Emergency officials, firefighters, and first responders are all hands on deck through the night to do everything possible to protect lives," Newsom said. The erratic weather caused President Joe Biden to cancel plans to travel to inland Riverside County, where he was to announce the establishment of two new national monuments in the state. He remained in Los Angeles, where smoke was visible from his hotel, and was briefed on the wildfires. The Federal Emergency Management Agency approved a grant to help reimburse California for the firefighting cost. Officials didn't give an estimate of structures damaged or destroyed in the Pacific Palisades wildfire, but they said about 30,000 residents were under evacuation orders and more than 13,000 structures were under threat. Newsom visited the scene and said many homes had burned. He declared a state of emergency. The fire burned down Temescal Canyon, a popular hiking area surrounded by dense neighborhoods of multimillion-dollar homes. Flames jumped famous Sunset Boulevard and burned parts of the Palisades Charter High School, which has been featured in many Hollywood productions including the 1976 horror movie "Carrie," the 2003 remake of "Freaky Friday" and the TV series "Teen Wolf." By evening the flames had spread into neighboring Malibu and several people there were being treated for burn injuries and a firefighter had a serious head injury and was taken to a hospital, according to Los Angeles Fire Department Capt. Erik Scott. By early Wednesday, the Eaton Fire, which started around 6:30 p.m. the day before, had quickly burned 3.5 square miles (9 square kilometers), according to fire officials. The Hurst Fire jumped to 500 acres (202 hectares) and the Palisades Fire, which started around 10:30 a.m. Tuesday and sent up a dramatic plume of smoke visible across Los Angeles, had burned 4.5 square miles (11.6 square kilometers) according to Angeles National Forest. The Tyler Fire in Coachella was relatively small, burning 15 acres (6 hectares). All fires were at 0% containment. As of Wednesday morning, more than 200,000 people were without power in Los Angeles County, according to the tracking website PowerOutage.us, due to the strong winds. 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 neighborhood, which borders Malibu about 20 miles (32 kilometers) west of downtown LA, 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. Long-time Palisades resident Will Adams said he immediately went to pick his two kids up from St. Matthews Parish School when he heard the fire was nearby. Meanwhile, he said embers flew into his wife's car as she tried to evacuate. "She vacated her car and left it running," Adams said. She and many other residents walked down toward the ocean until it was safe. Adams said he had never witnessed anything like this in the 56 years he's lived there. He watched as the sky turned brown and then black as homes started burning. He could hear loud popping and bangs "like small explosions," which he said he believes were the transformers exploding. "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," Adams said. Actor James Woods posted footage of flames burning through bushes and past palm trees on a hill near his home. The towering orange flames billowed among the landscaped yards between the homes. Film studios canceled two movie premieres due to the fire and windy weather, and the Los Angeles Unified School District said it temporarily relocated students from three campuses in the Pacific Palisades area. Watson reported from San Diego. Associated Press writers 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.