Written by Rollo Ross and Jackie Luna
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Raging wildfires surrounding Los Angeles spread to the Hollywood Hills area on Wednesday after other blazes in the area killed at least five people, destroyed hundreds of homes and stretched firefighting resources and water supplies to the limits.
More than 100,000 people were ordered to evacuate as dry, hurricane-force winds hampered firefighting operations and the fires that have scorched drylands spread almost unhindered since they started on Tuesday.
“This firestorm is the biggest storm,” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said in a press conference after her return to Los Angeles after cutting short an official trip to Ghana.
A new fire broke out in the Hollywood Hills on Wednesday evening, prompting more evacuations and raising the number of wildfires burning in Los Angeles County to six, Fire Chief Christine Crowley said in a press conference.
Four were 0% contained according to state officials, including a pair of major fires on the city's east and west sides that continued to grow as Wednesday night fell.
The so-called Sunset Fire in the Hollywood Hills burned 50 acres (20 hectares) on Wednesday, Cal Fire said. The helicopter crew extinguished the fire with drops of water, which appeared to hinder its rapid progress.
The Los Angeles Fire Department issued an evacuation order for people in an area within Hollywood Boulevard to the south, Mulholland Drive to the north, Highway 101 to the east, and Laurel Canyon Boulevard to the west — all landmark addresses for people in the entertainment industry.
In that area there is the Dolby Theater, where the Academy Awards ceremony is held. the next (LON:) This week's Oscar nominations announcement has been postponed by two days due to the fire, organizers said.
Although relatively small in size compared to the others, the Sunset Fire burned directly above Hollywood Boulevard and the Walk of Fame. It would have to cross Highway 101 to endanger the Hollywood sign and the Griffith Observatory high up in the ridge.
Burning ruins
On the west side of Los Angeles, the Palisades Fire burned through 15,832 acres (6,406 hectares) and hundreds of buildings in the hills between Santa Monica and Malibu, and raced through Topanga Canyon until it reached the Pacific Ocean on Tuesday.
Aerial video broadcast by KTLA-TV showed block after block of homes on fire in Pacific Palisades, the smoke grid occasionally punctuated by the orange flames of another house still burning.
To the east, in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains Eaton (NYSE:) The fire destroyed another 10,600 acres (4,289 hectares), another 1,000 structures, and killed at least five people, officials said.
Private forecasting firm AccuWeather estimated initial damage and economic losses at more than $50 billion.
“We are facing a historic natural disaster,” Los Angeles County Emergency Management Director Kevin McGowan said at a news conference. “I think that can't be stated strongly enough.”
Although forecasters said the winds would calm briefly Wednesday evening, so-called red flag conditions were expected to persist through Friday.
Nearly 300,000 homes and businesses were without power in Los Angeles County, down from about 1 million homes earlier on Wednesday, according to PowerOutage.us. Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said school was canceled throughout Los Angeles County through at least Thursday.
“We've seen fires over the years but nothing like this.” Francis (BCBA:) Colella, a 71-year-old retiree, told Reuters at an evacuation center in Pasadena, resting in a wheelchair alongside dozens of others. “It's a really sad event and I can't remember anything like this.”
Water problems
The size and spread of the fires stretched exhausted fire crews beyond their capacity.
Firefighters from six other states were transferred to California, while an additional 250 engine companies with 1,000 personnel were moved from Northern California to Southern California, Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone said at a news conference.
Officials said water shortages caused some taps to run dry in the upscale Pacific Palisades area.
“We have pushed the system to the limits,” Janice Quiñones, CEO of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, said at a news conference. “We are fighting wildfires with urban water systems.”
Pacific Palisades relies on three tanks, each holding about 1 million gallons (3.78 million liters), and the demand for water to fight fires at lower elevations makes it difficult to refill water tanks at higher altitudes, she said.
By Wednesday afternoon, all three of those tanks and all 114 tanks across the city had been refilled, Quiñones said in a later news conference.
The fires broke out at a particularly vulnerable time in Southern California, which has not seen heavy rain in months.
Then strong Santa Ana winds came, bringing dry desert air from the east toward the coastal mountains, fanning wildfires as they blew over hilltops and down through canyons.
Scientists said the fires, which broke out outside the traditional wildfire season, represent the latest in extreme weather events that are likely to escalate further as global temperatures continue to rise in the coming decades.
President Joe Biden, who declared the fires a major disaster, joined California Governor Gavin Newsom at the Santa Monica Fire Station for a briefing on firefighting efforts.
Biden, in his final days as president before handing over to President-elect Donald Trump on January 20, canceled an upcoming trip to Italy in order to focus on directing the federal response to the fires, the White House said.
“We're doing anything and everything as much as it takes to contain these fires… to make sure we get back to normal,” Biden said at the fire station. “It's going to be a hell of a long way. It's going to take some time.”
