A rapidly spreading wildfire threatened homes and forced thousands to evacuate in the Pacific Palisades area of Los Angeles. Driven by powerful Santa Ana winds, the fire was one of several that broke out in the region. The wind and fire threat were expected to last for days. NBC News' Liz Kreutz reports.
the Palisades blazeAnother fire broke out tonight near Eaton Canyon northeast of Pasadena, far from the Palisades Fire. It was also fueled by high winds.Residents at the Pasadena Park Healthcare & Wellness Center in Pasadena, California, are being evacuated as the Eaton Fire grows nearby. KNBC’s Macy Jenkins reports.Home are engulfed in flames and elderly patients are evacuated by armored vehicles during the rapid spread of the Eaton fire in Pasadena, Calif., this evening.
The winds, expected to peak overnight and into Wednesday morning, have caused wildfires to spread rapidly, including in Pacific Palisades and near Altadena and Pasadena.A 50-acre brush fire has broken out in the Sylmar area of Los Angeles, the LAFD said tonight, triggering evacuation orders. The district said it would provide an update about operations for the rest of the week at 3 p.m. tomorrow.
An area with around 30,000 people was put under evacuation orders after the fire broke out at 10:30 a.m. in Pacific Palisades and quickly grew, driven by high Santa Ana winds. Evacuation zones later grew.Dramatic video showed patients from a senior facility in the Pasadena area, not far from the Eaton Fire that broke out tonight, being evacuated amid high winds and heavy smoke.
The Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District so far has not shut down Santa Monica schools, even as the nearby Palisades Fire prompted authorities to issue mandatory evacuation orders for the very north end of the city. The buses will take riders to the Palisades Fire's evacuation center a few miles away at the Westwood Recreation Center in the L.A. community of Westwood.The number of homes and businesses without power in the Los Angeles area has risen to more than 96,000, according to
“If you see price gouging — or if you’ve been the victim of it — I encourage you to immediately file a complaint with my office,” Bonta said in a statement. Structures have been destroyed in the Palisades Fire, but an exact count was not immediately known. The blaze grew from 10 acres when it started as a brushfire reported at around 10:30 a.m. to more than 2,900 acres tonight.
The fire was first reported at 6:23 p.m. near Altadena and Midwick drives, an area where Pasadena and Altadena meet, CalFire said.President Joe Biden said tonight that he has been briefed on the wildfires and that “I have offered any federal assistance that is needed to help suppress the terrible Pacific Palisades fire.”
“We are not out of danger,” Marrone said at a news conference."The National Weather Service has predicted that the winds are going to pick up and get worse.” The winds have caused the Palisades Fire to rapidly increase in size since it broke out around 10:30 a.m. A cause has not been determined.The Close Fire, near the entrance to Eaton Canyon, is estimated to have consumed 10 acres, city spokesperson Lisa Derderian said tonight.
“Smoke and ash can harm everyone, even those who are healthy. However, people at higher risk include children, older adults, pregnant individuals, and those with heart or lung conditions or weakened immune systems,” Davis said.As the Palisades Fire continued to spread, it claimed more structural victims, including buildings on the area's high school campus and the adjacent Theater Palisades.
The fire was reported at around 10:30 a.m., and first fire crews found a 10-acre brushfire in winds of around 40 mph, Los Angeles Fire Chief Kristin M. Crowley has said.Daryn Simons, a producer, rushed to her Pacific Palisades home from work this morning to grab her animals — Harper, a yellow lab, and Maeve, a cat — before she fled the fire.
The proclamation seeks to ease the use of local government resources and empowers the governor to call up the National Guard if necessary. In a statement just after 5 p.m., the Getty Villa Museum and the Getty Center said flames had reached the grounds on the coast in Pacific Palisades. “I just saw smoke and some orange and red flames — and I screamed, ‘Fire, fire, we have to go,’” said Libonati, who said she believes she was one of the first to call authorities about the fire.“It was just moving so fast,” Libonati said of the flames. “It was just all a blur, kind of, we were running around just trying to get out of there.”
“It was pretty terrifying,” Handler said. “And the smoke was really thick, and there were, like, burning embers on the ground. It was pretty scary.” Along the Malibu coast, Escondido Canyon recorded a gust of 62 mph at 10 a.m., and Pacific Coast Highway had a 44-mph gust, the agency said in Residents in the area were warned to be prepared to leave because of the dangerous Santa Ana wind event, which fueled the fire that broke out today, Fire Chief Kristin Crowley said at a news conference.
In a subsequent statement, his office said the Federal Emergency Management Agency approved a Fire Management Assistance Grant that will cover 75% of eligible firefighting costs. "When @losangelesfiredepartment station 37 saw how fast these flames were moving, they realized the house would probably burn and they ran in and grabbed photo albums and keepsakes," she wrote.
The fire, which has grown to more than 1,200 acres, was first reported around 10:30 this morning as a brushfire, and responding firefighters found an approximately 10-acre fire with winds of around 40 mph, Fire Chief Kristin M. Crowley said.explained how she tried to escape before she retreated to safety as flames raged around her vehicle.
It was not clear whether the fire was due to a mechanical problem or the wildfire. Embers scattered by strong winds can start spot fires in previously unburned areas.The American Red Cross for Los Angeles was transitioning an evacuation center in Westwood into an overnight shelter where people can get showers, food and safety through the night as the Palisades Fire burns.
People preparing to leave a fire should get their pets in one room so they can easily access them, she said. People with small pets are asked to keep them in a carrier, but details about pets at the shelter are being worked out, she told NBC Los Angeles.More than 17,000 utility homes and businesses are without power across California as warm, dry winds raced to the coast and fanned the Palisades Fire in Los Angeles today, according to utility trackerL.A.
Getting out hasn't been easy for the people trying to flee the Palisades Fire. Gridlock is being reported along the only available thoroughfares. "Today’s event will be rescheduled for next week at the White House so that key stakeholders can attend," it said in a statement. “It looks like the winds will increase a little in strength later today and tonight,” Rich Thompson, a weather service meteorologist based in Oxnard, said.
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