Skip to Main Content National News Forecasters alerted the worst might be yet to come with the windstorm forecasted to last for days, producing separated gusts that might top 100 miles per hour in mountains and foothills.
A home burns as a firemen fights the Palisades Fire in the Pacific Palisades community of Los Angeles Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. AP Photo/Eugene Garcia
By CHRISTOPHER WEBER, Associated Press
upgraded on January 7, 2025|6:31 PM
LOS ANGELES (AP)– Firefighters rushed to confine a fast-moving wildfire in the Los Angeles hillsides dotted with star homes as a possibly “dangerous, devastating” windstorm struck Southern California on Tuesday, fanning the blaze seen for miles while roadways were obstructed with vehicles as homeowners attempted to run away.
Big plumes of smoke from the Pacific Palisades fire are seen from Montana Street in Santa Monica, Calif., Tuesday Jan. 7, 2024. — Tea Price/San Francisco Chronicle by means of AP
Forecasters cautioned the worst might be yet to come with the windstorm anticipated to last for days, producing separated gusts that might top 100 miles per hour in mountains and foothills.
Currently the winds were falling trees, developing hazardous browse and bringing severe wildfire danger to locations that have not seen significant rain in months.
Fire teams were fighting a handful of little blazes in the Los Angeles location, consisting of in the foothills of the Pacific Palisades location in western Los Angeles where homeowners were bought to leave. The Palisades Fire promptly took in more than 200 acres (81 hectares) of dry brush and sent out up a substantial plume of smoke noticeable throughout the city. Citizens in Venice Beach, some 6 miles (10 kilometers) away, reported seeing the flames.
An Associated Press reporter saw a roofing system and chimney of one home in flames and another house where the walls were burning. The area that surrounds Malibu about 20 miles (32 kilometers) west of downtown LA consists of hillside streets of tightly-packed homes along winding roadways nestled versus the Santa Monica Mountains and extends down to beaches along the Pacific Ocean.
Star James Woods published video of flames burning through bushes and previous palm trees on a hill near his Pacific Palisades home. The imposing orange flames rippled amongst the landscaped backyards in between the homes.
“Standing in my driveway, preparing yourself to leave,” Woods stated in the brief video on X.
Areas of Interstate 10 and the picturesque Pacific Coast Highway were closed to all non-essential traffic to assist in evacuation efforts. Other roadways were obstructed.
Some citizens leapt out of their cars to leave threat and waited to be gotten.
Kelsey Trainor, who resides in the Highlands above the Pacific Palisades, stated the only roadway in and out of her area was entirely obstructed. Ash fell all around them while fires burned on both sides of the roadway.
