Fast-moving wildfire destroys homes as strong winds hit southern California

A fast-moving wildfire erupted in Los Angeles county on Tuesday, quickly consuming more than 1,200 acres and destroying homes in an affluent community along the Pacific Ocean.

Whipped by unusually strong winds, the fire prompted frenzied evacuations through winding roads in the Pacific Palisades, an area north of Santa Monica, with residents fleeing on foot as flames approached.

A “life-threatening” windstorm is impacting a large swath of southern California, fanning the destructive fire and complicating early containment efforts. The region could be seeing the strongest winds in more than a decade, bringing extreme fire risk to areas that have been without significant rain for months.

Videos shared online from residents, including from the actor James Woods, show flames licking homes through the canyons, thrashing trees blowing in the winds and plumes of black smoke billowing into a cloudless sky. As the fire rapidly spread, severe gridlock on narrow streets led many to leave their cars, some which were subsequently engulfed in flames. With ditched vehicles blocking first responders, authorities were forced to use bulldozers to move cars.

The fire broke out around 10.30am and by 3.30pm had burned more than 1,200 acres, with the city of LA declaring a state of emergency. More than 30,000 people were under evacuation orders, with 13,000 structures threatened.

The blazes were also reaching the areas around the Getty Villa, an art museum on the Malibu coast, with early evening reports that the blazes were approaching the grounds. The museum said earlier it had fire prevention measures in place and that the galleries and library archives were sealed off from smoke and protected by “double-walled construction”. The fire also approached the beach in Malibu near the Pacific Coast Highway.

The Los Angeles school district was also forced to relocate students from three campuses, Joe Biden had to reschedule plans for an event announcing two national monuments and movie premieres in Hollywood were canceled.

Actor Eugene Levy, the honorary mayor of Pacific Palisades, was also forced to evacuate, telling the Los Angeles Times while stuck in traffic, “The smoke looked pretty black and intense.” Other evacuees described harrowing escapes, one woman recounting to ABC7 how she abandoned her vehicle and fled with her cat in her arms: “I’m getting hit with palm leaves on fire … It’s terrifying. It feels like a horror movie. I’m screaming and crying walking down the street.”

Strong winds began hitting Los Angeles and Ventura counties on Tuesday and were likely to peak in the early hours of Wednesday, when gusts could reach 80mph (129km/h), the National Weather Service (NWS) said Monday. Isolated gusts could top 100mph in mountains and foothills.

“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 NWS said, referring to a rarely issued type of red flag warning.

“The worst and most severe part of this wind event is yet to come,” said LA city council president Marqueece Harris-Dawson at a briefing around 4 pm.

A large area of southern California, home to millions of people, is under what officials have described as “extreme risk” from the destructive storm. The weather service warned of downed trees and knocked over big rigs, trailers, and motorhomes, and advised residents to stay indoors and away from windows. Powerful offshore gusts will also bring dangerous conditions off the coasts of Orange county and LA, including Catalina Island.

Southern California Edison shut off power to more than 15,000 customers as of early Tuesday evening, with more than 430,000 under consideration for outages, according to the utility’s website. The shutoffs are meant to target areas where the conditions could lead to fires started by equipment.

Jeff Monford, a utility spokesperson, said it wasn’t always possible to give advanced notice to customers, telling the Los Angeles Times: “This is a phenomenon of the increasing effects of climate change on weather. We have more weather extremes that can change more quickly than we might be accustomed to.”

The upcoming winds will act as an “atmospheric blow-dryer” for vegetation, bringing a long period of fire risk that could extend into the more populated lower hills and valleys, according to Daniel Swain, a climate scientist with the University of California, Los Angeles and the National Center for Atmospheric Research.

“We really haven’t seen a season as dry as this one follow a season as wet as the previous one,” Swain said during a Monday livestream, explaining that the abundant growth of vegetation combined with a severe wind event creates an elevated risk.

Gavin Newsom, the state’s governor, announced on Monday that his office would deploy resources around the region to respond to the storm, including moving fire crews and equipment from the north, where the fire season has come to an end, to southern California.

“We are no strangers to winter-time wildfire threats, so I ask all Californians to pay attention to local authorities and be prepared to evacuate if told to go,” the governor said in a statement.

The region has been experiencing warmer-than-average temperatures, in part due to recent dry winds, including the notorious Santa Anas.

Southern California has not seen more than 0.1in (0.25cm) of rain since early May. Much of the region has fallen into moderate drought conditions, according to the US Drought Monitor. Meanwhile, up north, there have been multiple drenching storms.

The fire risks are particularly extreme in the charred area left behind by the wind-driven Franklin fire in December, which damaged or destroyed nearly 50 homes in the Malibu area.

The blaze was one of nearly 8,000 wildfires that together impacted more than 1,560 sq miles (more than 4,040 sq km) in California in 2024.

The last wind event of this magnitude occurred in November 2011, according to the NWS, during which more than 400,000 customers throughout LA county lost power for days, and there was significant damage in the San Gabriel Valley.

The Associated Press contributed reporting

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