Roughly 30,000 Los Angeles residents — including celebrities — have been ordered to evacuate their homes as a wildfire engulfs the ritzy Pacific Palisades and some have stepped up to help emergency responders clear roads blocked by abandoned vehicles Tuesday.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency after touching down in the area and meeting with first responders fighting the blaze that has torched roughly 1,260 acres as of 5 p.m., according to a press release from his office.
“By no stretch of the imagination are we out of the woods,” Newsom warned as winds up to 100 mph are expected to increase overnight across the tony enclave — including regions that are “abnormally dry,” according to the US Drought Monitor.
Tens of thousands have evacuated the county, including Emmy-winning actor James Woods, whose neighbor lost their home, he said on X after he fled.
Some residents even fled on foot after ditching their cars in the street — inadvertently creating obstacles for firefighters trying to battle the blaze.
While the Bravest brainstormed to find a way through the streets that had quickly turned into parking lots, a bulldozer was brought in to help push cars aside while “Police Academy” star Steve Guttenberg came in out of the blue to help drive abandoned vehicles off the road.
“We really need people to move their cars. So if you leave your car behind, leave the key in there so a guy like me can move your car so that these fire trucks can get up there,” the 66-year-old implored.
“It’s really, really important.” he told KTLA.
Reality TV stars Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag lost their Pacific Palisades home in the massive blaze, according to TMZ, just hours after Pratt shared a video of a plane dropping water on the nearby flames on Instagram.
Live camera feed from UC San Diego shows smoke rising from the burning hillside near the Pacific Palisades neighborhood in the Santa Monica Mountains. The fire quickly spread to a staggering 200 acres within an hour as the wind pushed it onward, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department.
All residents near the fire had been ordered to “leave now” as the fire continued to grow.
President Biden urged Pacific Palisade residents to remain “vigilant” and said he’s offered federal assistance to help California authorities battle the blaze.
“Earlier tonight, FEMA approved a Fire Management Assistance Grant to support areas that are impacted and help reimburse the state of California for the immediate firefighting costs. My Administration will do everything it can to support the response,” Biden said in a statement.
Forecasters are particularly wary of an extreme wildfire threat that spans across most of Southern California through Wednesday on top of a “life-threatening, destructive, widespread windstorm” that is expected to last from Tuesday afternoon to Wednesday morning.
“Strong winds are coming. This is a Particularly Dangerous Situation – in other words, this is about as bad as it gets in terms of fire weather,” the National Weather Service said.
“Stay aware of your surroundings. Be ready to evacuate, especially if in a high-fire-risk area. Be careful with fire sources.”
Strong winds knocked out power to more than 28,000 homes by Tuesday night across the region while at least 15,000 utility customers were already without power, either because of an outage or a manual shutoff to reduce the risk of the equipment making the fire even worse.
The strongest winds will blow through Southern California starting Tuesday with gusts peaking near 80 mph. Remote areas in the mountains and foothills will be as high as 100 mph.
All Malibu schools were closed on Tuesday because of the increasingly dangerous weather conditions. As of Tuesday afternoon, Santa Monica schools were set to remain open.
Flights in and out of the Los Angeles International Airport are expected to be delayed or canceled due to the impending storm. Pilots are being encouraged to keep their distance from impacted areas during the windstorm.
Many homes, including multi-million dollar mansions and other buildings, have already been destroyed with more expected to follow over the next day.
One of the prior strongest windstorms in 2011 toppled trees and powerlines, causing power outages for hundreds of thousands of customers.
The winds are forecasted to taper off by Wednesday evening but are expected to return on Friday.
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