Tens of thousands of people have been forced to evacuate their homes in Southern California as wildfire rages Wednesday across the Pacific Palisades and surrounding areas.
Wind gusts topping 100 miles per hour have caused several fires to grow from non-existent to out-of-control within a matter of minutes in some places.
At least five people are dead, and thousands of structures have been destroyed.
Thousands of California firefighters are battling multiple major blazes across the sprawling Los Angeles megalopolis, and containment is nowhere in sight.
As of 6:30 p.m. ET, seven major fires larger than 10 acres were burning across the greater Los Angeles area, and all were 0% contained, according to CalFire. The largest of the infernos — the Palisades Fire— burned more than 15,000 acres along the coast to Santa Monica, destroying thousands of structures.
The smallest, just north of Los Angeles in Ventura, is burning just 11 acres, but as Tuesday’s events showed, the unpredictable winds and low humidity can turn small fires into catastrophic blazes in mere hours.
Firefighters are facing a host of issues, including a lack of water at hydrants. The Los Angeles Department of Power and Water asked Angelenos to conserve water so it could be used to fight the blazes. DWP is deploying tankers in areas where the hydrants are running dry.
Extremely high winds are also complicating things, with some areas of LA seeing hurricane-speed gusts — which is causing the fire to spread far and wide. Winds are expected to die down on Thursday, a much-needed boost to the region’s Bravest.
California is facing continued criticism from President-elect Donald Trump and residents for failing to institute a comprehensive clean-up program. In 2019 Trump threatened to cut off California’s access to funds if the state didn’t improve its wildfire prevention efforts.
While Gov. Gavin Newsom eventually agreed to ramp up the Golden State’s prevention efforts, a 2021 investigation from Capitol Radio found the Democrat overstated how much work had been done.
