The devastating wildfires surrounding Los Angeles have spread to the Hollywood Hills, after other fires in the area killed at least five people, destroyed hundreds of homes and stretched firefighting resources and water supplies to their limits.
More than 100,000 people have been ordered to evacuate as dry, hurricane-force winds hamper firefighting operations and fanned the fires that have been burning almost unabated in drought-stricken areas since Tuesday.
“This is a massive fire,” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said at a news conference.
A new fire broke out in Hollywood Hills on Wednesday night, Fire Chief Christine Crowley said at a news conference, forcing more evacuations and bringing the number of fires burning in Los Angeles County to six.
Four of them are burning out of control, including two large fires on the city’s east and west sides that continued to spread as night fell Wednesday.
The Hollywood Hills fire burned 20 acres on Wednesday, the California Fire Department said. Helicopter crews were dropping water on the flames and appeared to be slowing the fire.
The Los Angeles Fire Department has issued an evacuation order for people in an area of Hollywood that is home to famous locations related to the film and entertainment industries.
Inside the area is the Dolby Theatre, where the Academy Awards are held. The announcement of Oscar nominations has been delayed because of the fire, organizers said.
Although relatively small compared to the others, the fire is burning just above Hollywood Boulevard and its Walk of Fame. If it were to spread across the highway, it would threaten the Hollywood sign on the hill as well as the Griffith Observatory.
Smoldering Burns
On the west side of LA, the Pacific Palisades fires consumed 15,000 acres and hundreds of buildings in the hills between Santa Monica and Malibu on Tuesday, racing up Topanga Canyon until they reached the Pacific Ocean.
Aerial footage from KTLA television showed block after block of smoldering homes in Pacific Palisades, a web of smoke occasionally broken by the orange flames of another burning home.
To the east, in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains, a second fire has destroyed another 10,000 acres, 1,000 buildings and killed at least five people, local officials said.
The AccuWeather Weather Service estimated the initial damage and economic loss at more than $50 billion.
“We are facing a historic natural disaster. And I don’t think that can be said strongly enough,” Kevin McGowan, the Los Angeles County emergency management commissioner, said at a news conference.
“We’ve had fires for years, but not like this,” Frances Colella, a 71-year-old retiree, told Reuters at an evacuation center in Pasadena, resting in a wheelchair with dozens of others.
“It’s really sad and I can’t think of anything like this.”
Exhausted firefighters, water shortages
The size and spread of the fire have exhausted fire crews.
Firefighters from six other states have been rushed to Southern California, Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone told a news conference.
Water shortages have caused some hydrants in the upscale Pacific Palisades neighborhood to run dry, officials said.
“We’ve pushed the system to its limits. We’re fighting the fire with the city’s water systems,” Janisse Quinones, executive director of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, told a news conference.
The fires broke out at a particularly sensitive time for Southern California, which has not seen significant rainfall in months.
Then came strong winds, bringing dry desert air from the east toward the coastal mountains, fanning wildfires as they blew over hilltops and down canyons.
Scientists say the fires, which are breaking out well outside the traditional wildfire season, mark the latest in weather extremes that are likely to escalate further as global temperatures continue to rise in the coming decades.
President Joe Biden, who has declared the fires a major disaster, joined California Gov. Gavin Newsom at a Santa Monica fire station for a briefing on firefighting efforts.
In his final days as president before handing over to President-elect Donald Trump on Jan. 20, Biden canceled an upcoming trip to Italy to focus on coordinating the federal response to the wildfires, the White House said.
“We’re doing everything possible to contain these fires … to make sure you get back to normal,” Biden said at the fire station. “It’s going to be a hell of a long way. It’s going to take time.”
