L.A. fires still raging; 5 dead, 2000 buildings lost, 130,000 evacuating

 Firefighters battled early Thursday to control a series of major fires in the Los Angeles area that have killed five people, ravaged communities from the Pacific Coast to Pasadena and sent thousands of people frantically fleeing their homes.

Ferocious winds that drove the flames and led to chaotic evacuations have calmed somewhat and were not expected to be as powerful during the day. That could provide an opportunity for firefighters to make progress reining in blazes that have hopscotched across the sprawling region, including massive ones in Pacific Palisades and Altadena.

The latest flames broke out Wednesday evening in the Hollywood Hills, striking closer to the heart of the city and the roots of its entertainment industry and putting densely populated neighborhoods on edge during exceptionally windy and dry conditions. But only about a mile away, the streets around the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the TCL Chinese Theatre and Madame Tussauds were bustling, and onlookers used their phones to record video of the blazing hills.

A day earlier, hurricane-force winds blew embers through the air, igniting block after block in the coastal neighborhood of Pacific Palisades as well as in Altadena, a community near Pasadena that is about 25 miles east. Aircraft had to be grounded for a time because of the winds, hampering firefighting efforts.

Nearly 2,000 homes, businesses and other structures have been destroyed in those blazes — called the Palisades and Eaton fires — and the number is expected to increase. The five deaths recorded so far were from the Eaton Fire.

Some 130,000 people have been put under evacuation orders, as fires have consumed a total of about 42 square miles — nearly the size of the entire city of San Francisco. The Palisades Fire is already the most destructive in Los Angeles history.

In Pasadena, Fire Chief Chad Augustin 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 due to the intense winds fanning the flames.

A swath of about 250 homes in an Altadena neighborhood that had been dotted with the green canopies of leafy trees and aquamarine swimming pools was reduced to rubble. Only a few homes were left standing and some were still in flames. Along a stretch of about 70 wall-to-wall homes overhanging the Pacific Ocean in Malibu, fewer than 10 appeared to be intact.

More than half a dozen schools in the area were either damaged or destroyed, and UCLA has canceled classes for the week.

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 race to get away in Pacific Palisades, roadways became impassable when scores of people abandoned their vehicles and set out on foot.

Several Hollywood studios suspended production, and Universal Studios closed its theme park between Pasadena and Pacific Palisades.


(AP Photo Stephen Lam/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)