By Jorge Garcia and Mike Blake, Reuters
Fast-growing wildfires raging in Los Angeles killed at least five people, destroying hundreds of buildings, scorching hillsides and prompting officials to order some 70,000 people to evacuate.
Fierce winds were hindering firefighting efforts and fuelling the fires, which have burned unimpeded since they began on Wednesday.
The Eaton fire, east of Los Angeles near Pasadena, has grown explosively since it was sparked, covering more than 4047 hectares. Two fatalities were reported there, though officials did not have further details.
Another blaze has consumed more than 5000 acres in Pacific Palisades, a picturesque neighbourhood in west Los Angeles County between the beach towns of Santa Monica and Malibu that is home to many film, television and music stars, Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone said at a press conference on Wednesday. More than 1000 structures have been destroyed there.
Los Angeles County firefighters spray water on a burning home as the Eaton fire moved through the area on January 08, 2025 in Altadena, California. Photo: AFP / Getty Images / Justin Sullivan
The Hurst fire, in Sylmar in the San Fernando Valley northwest of Los Angeles, had exceeded 500 acres. All three fires were 0 percent contained, officials said.
A "high number" of significant injuries had occurred among residents who did not heed evacuation orders, Marrone said.
Shaun Tate, 45, said he fled his home in Altadena, a Los Angeles suburb in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains, at 4.15 am local time when he saw flames rolling towards his house.
"I came out of the house because I heard something fly off the roof," Tate said at an evacuation centre in Pasadena.
"We packed up the SUV and drove down here," he said. "I chose to save my laptop, my diabetic medication and a little bit of food."
A car and home burn during the Eaton fire in the Altadena area of Los Angeles County, California on January 8, 2025. Photo: AFP / Josh Edelson
Officials warned that the gusty winds were forecast to persist throughout the day.
"We are absolutely not out of danger yet, with the strong winds that continue to push through the city and the county today," Los Angeles City Fire Chief Kristin Crowley said.
The winds have made it impossible to offer aerial support for firefighting operations, officials said, putting municipal water systems under immense strain. Residents were urged to conserve water use.
"The fire department needs the water to fight the fires, and we're fighting a wildfire with urban water systems, and that is really challenging," said Janisse Quinones, chief executive of the city's water and power department.
The skies above Los Angeles glowed red and were blanketed by thick smoke as the sun rose on Wednesday (Thursday NZT).
As the flames spread and residents began evacuating after the fires broke out, roads were so jammed that some people abandoned their vehicles to escape the fire. Emergency responders were going door to door to press evacuation orders.
California Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency on Wednesday. President Joe Biden planned to visit a Santa Monica fire station for a briefing from fire officials on Thursday, the White House said.
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.
The Los Angeles region had been ripe for fire going into the fall, when seasonal winds arrive in the region, after consecutive wet winters created an abundance of grass and vegetation that turned to fuel during an intensely hot summer, climate scientists said.
Embers fly off a burning bus at Aveson School of Leaders elementary school during the Eaton fire. Photo: AFP / Josh Edelson
'This close'
Approximately 100 of the 1000 public schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District were shut down, Superintendent Alberto Carvalho told the press conference.
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 at the Westwood Community 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 that he could see flames approaching his home.
Pacific Palisades is one of the most expensive neighbourhoods in the country. A typical home was valued at US$3.7 million as of the end of 2023, according to Zillow, more than all but four other zip codes in the United States.
The fleeing evacuees included Hollywood celebrities such as Jamie Lee Curtis, Mandy Moore and Mark Hamill.
A home is engulfed in flames during the Eaton fire in the Altadena area of Los Angeles County, California on January 8, 2025. Photo: AFP / Josh Edelson
At least three blazes
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 parking lot as fire trucks and ambulances attended to them.
Around 400,000 homes and businesses in southern California were without power on Wednesday, data from PowerOutage.us showed.
"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 at the press conference.
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 Wednesday through Friday.
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.
- Reuters
