California firefighters have battled wind-whipped wildfires that have torn across the Los Angeles area, destroying homes and clogging roadways as tens of thousands fled, straining resources as officials prepared for the situation to worsen.
The blaze that broke out on Tuesday evening in the foothills northeast of Los Angeles spread so rapidly that staff at a senior living centre had to push dozens of residents in wheelchairs and hospital beds down the street to a car park.
The residents waited in their bedclothes as embers fell around them until ambulances, buses and even construction vans arrived to take them to safety.
A blaze that started hours earlier ripped through the city’s Pacific Palisades neighbourhood, a hillside area along the coast dotted with celebrity residences and memorialised by the Beach Boys in their 1960s hit “Surfin’ USA”.
In the frantic haste to get to safety, roadways became impassable, as scores of people abandoned their vehicles and fled on foot, some toting suitcases.
Traffic jams prevented emergency vehicles from getting through. A bulldozer was then brought in to push abandoned cars to the side and create a path. Video along the Pacific Coast Highway showed widespread destruction of homes and businesses along the famed roadway.
A third wildfire started at about 10:30pm (06:30 GMT, Wednesday) and quickly prompted evacuations in Sylmar, the northernmost neighbourhood in Los Angeles. The causes of all three fires were under investigation.
Flames were being pushed by winds topping 60mph (about 100km/h) in some places. The wind speeds were projected to increase overnight, producing isolated gusts that could top 100mph (160km/h) in mountains and foothills — including in areas that have not seen substantial rain in months.
The situation prompted the Los Angeles Fire Department to take the rare step of putting out a plea for off-duty firefighters to help. It was too windy for firefighting aircraft to fly, further hampering the fight.
Officials did not give an estimate of structures damaged or destroyed in the Pacific Palisades wildfire, but they said about 30,000 residents were under evacuation orders and more than 13,000 structures were under threat. Governor Gavin Newsom visited the scene and said many homes had burned.
By evening, the flames had spread into neighbouring Malibu and several people there were being treated for burn injuries. A firefighter had a serious head injury and was taken to a hospital, according to Los Angeles Fire Department Captain Erik Scott.
As of Tuesday evening, nearly 167,000 people were without power in Los Angeles County, according to the tracking website PowerOutage.us.
Recent dry winds, including the notorious Santa Anas, have contributed to warmer-than-average temperatures in southern California, where there has been very little rain this season. Southern California has not seen more than 0.1 inches (2.5mm) of rain since early May.
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