LOS ANGELES -- A fast-moving fire in the Hollywood Hills broke out Wednesday night as more evacuations were ordered for Los Angeles residents and fire crews battled three other major blazes that killed at least five people.
One fire was burning near the Hollywood Bowl and other iconic landmarks in the Hollywood Hills.
Winds were easing and firefighters from across the state were relieving exhausted crews, but the danger was far from over. As officials provided an update on the fires, a new blaze broke out in the Hollywood Hills, and evacuation orders were also extended to Santa Monica.
More than 1,000 structures, mostly homes, have been destroyed, and more than 130,000 people are under evacuation orders in the metropolitan area, from the Pacific Coast inland to Pasadena, a number that continues to shift as new fires erupt.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said firefighters from across California and elsewhere had arrived to help along with air operations that were dousing flames. She warned they still faced "erratic winds," though not of hurricane force like Tuesday evening, when much of the destruction occurred.
In Pasadena, Fire Chief Chad Augustin said between 200 and 500 structures have been damaged or lost from an inferno that started Tuesday night.
He said the city's water system was stretched and was further hampered by power outages but even without those issues, firefighters would not have been able to stop the fire as embers blown by the intense winds ignited block after block.
"We were not stopping that fire last night," he said. "Those erratic wind gusts were throwing embers for multiple miles ahead of the fire."
On the Pacific Coast west of downtown Los Angeles, a major fire leveled entire blocks, reducing grocery stores and banks to rubble in the Pacific Palisades, a hillside area along the coast dotted with celebrity homes and memorialized by the Beach Boys in their 1960s hit "Surfin' USA."
With thousands of firefighters already attacking the flames, the Los Angeles Fire Department put out a plea for off-duty and out-of-state firefighters to help. The winds temporarily stopped aircraft from dumping water from above until they were able to resume flights.
More than 1,000 structures were destroyed, and many people were hurt in the fires, including first responders, Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone said.
Images of the devastation showed luxurious homes that collapsed in a whirlwind of flaming embers. Swimming pools were blackened with soot, and sports cars slumped on melted tires.
"This morning, we woke up to a dark cloud over all of Los Angeles. But it is darkest for those who are most intimately impacted by these fires. It has been an immensely painful 24 hours," LA County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath said.
BIDEN CANCELS TRIP
President Joe Biden on Wednesday canceled the final overseas trip of his presidency just hours before he was set to depart for Rome and the Vatican, choosing to remain in Washington to monitor the response to the California fires.
Biden was scheduled to leave Thursday afternoon, after eulogizing former President Jimmy Carter at a memorial service in Washington, for the three-day trip to meet with Pope Francis and Italian President Sergio Mattarella and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. The trip was meant as a coda to the second Catholic U.S. president's time in the White House and a final opportunity to showcase the strength of American alliances before he leaves office on Jan. 20.
The announcement of the trip's cancellation comes just hours after Biden departed Los Angeles after meeting his first great-grandchild, who was born Wednesday at an area hospital. He received a briefing from local fire officials before returning to Washington, as smoke and ash from blazes raging in the area clouded the daytime sky.
NO TIME TO RUN
Flames moved so quickly that many barely had time to escape. Police sought shelter inside their patrol cars, and residents at a senior living center were pushed in wheelchairs and hospital beds down a street to safety in the foothills northeast of Los Angeles.
"People were getting out of the cars with their dogs and babies and bags," said Kelsey Trainor, who escaped in the Pacific Palisades while ash fell all around and fires burned on both sides of the road.
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 to CalFire.
The season is beginning earlier and ending later due to rising temperatures and decreased rainfall tied to climate change, according to recent data. Rains that usually end fire season are often delayed, meaning fires can burn through the winter months, the association said.
Dry winds, including the notorious Santa Anas, have contributed to warmer-than-average temperatures in Southern California, which has not seen more than 0.1 inches of rain since early May.
The winds increased to 80 mph Wednesday, according to reports received by the National Weather Service, and could top 100 mph in mountains and foothills.
LANDMARKS DAMAGED
Biden pledged to sign a federal emergency declaration after arriving at a Santa Monica fire station for a briefing with Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Newsom posted on social media platform X that California had deployed more than 1,400 firefighting personnel to combat the blazes. He also dispatched National Guard troops to help.
The fires burned through Temescal Canyon, a popular hiking area surrounded by dense neighborhoods of multimillion-dollar homes, and also jumped famous Sunset Boulevard, burning parts of the Palisades Charter High School, which has been featured in many Hollywood productions, including the 1976 horror movie "Carrie" and the TV series "Teen Wolf."
Several Hollywood studios suspended production, and Universal Studios closed its theme park between Pasadena and Pacific Palisades. The Getty Villa, a campus devoted to art and culture of ancient Greece and Rome, said its structures and collection were safe.
As it grew, the fire burning in the Pacific Palisades became the most destructive fire in the modern history of the city of Los Angeles.
With an estimated 1,000 structures destroyed and the flames still growing Wednesday, it is far more destructive than the Sayre fire in 2008 that destroyed just over 600 structures, according to statistics kept by the Wildfire Alliance, a partnership between the city's Fire Department and MySafe:LA. Structures refers to homes and other buildings.
Southern California Edison shut off service to thousands because of safety concerns related to high winds and fire risks. More than 1.5 million customers could face shutoffs depending on weather conditions, the utility said.
Information for this article was contributed by Heather Hollingsworth, Jeff Martin, Janie Har, Hallie Golden, Jaimie Ding, Eugene Garcia, Ethan Swope, Brian Melley, Kathy McCormack, Sarah Brumfield and Tammy Webber of The Associated Press.
Firefighters battle the Palisades Fire in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Etienne Laurent)
Fire explodes out of a window of the Altadena Community Church, Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025, in the downtown Altadena section of Pasadena, Calif. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)
Water is dropped on the advancing Palisades Fire by helicopter in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
A surfer takes off on a wave in Santa Monica, Calif., during sunset under a blackened sky from the Palisades fire in the Pacific Palisades on Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)
A resident of a senior center is evacuated as the Eaton Fire approaches Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025 in Altadena, Calif. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
This photo provided by Shania Accius shows the wildfires from a JetBlue flight from New York City to LAX early Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025 in Los Angeles. (Shania Accius via AP)
A wildfire-ravaged property is shown after the Palisades Fire swept through in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
Thick heavy smoke from wildfires passes over the Hollywood sign in Los Angeles on Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)
The Palisades Fire ravages a neighborhood amid high winds in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
Photo GalleryCalifornia wildfires, 01.08.2025