LA wildfires mapped: Palisades and Eaton blazes now cowl greater than 4,000 acres
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The Los Angeles wildfires escalated rapidly on Tuesday, engulfing several homes in the Pacific Palisades, an affluent coastal neighborhood on the city’s west side.
By Wednesday morning, the fire had expanded to 4,420 acres, fueled by a fierce windstorm.
The area could see winds with gusts up to 50 miles per hour, essentially fanning the flames. A wind advisory is in effect through Wednesday evening in southern California.
Current evacuation order areas
A mandatory evacuation order was in place for the region between Piedra Morada Drive and Pacific Coast Highway due to dangerous conditions.
Cal Fire issued a red flag warning for the region saying it faced the threat of extreme wildfires fueled by powerful Santa Ana winds, low humidity, and critically dry vegetation.
Firefighting units and resources from both Los Angeles city and county were deployed to the area.
An estimated 30,000 people have been evacuated, including many celebrities, caused a heavy traffic jam along Sunset Boulevard.
Some residents abandoned their vehicles and fled on foot. The Los Angeles Fire Department planned to employ a bulldozer to clear around 30 abandoned vehicles.
“By no stretch of the imagination are we out of the woods,” governor Gavin Newsom said on Tuesday afternoon. “I saw firsthand the impact of these swirling winds and the embers and the number of structures that are destroyed. Not a few, many structures already destroyed.”
The Palisades fire expanded to nearly 3,000 acres by Wednesday morning.
The Eaton fire, burning in the San Gabriel Mountains above Pasadena, rapidly expanded from 400 acres on Tuesday to 1,000 acres by Wednesday morning.
City spokeswoman Lisa Derderian said at least 550 houses were within the evacuation zones of the Eaton Canyon fire. The fire would be especially challenging to combat, she noted, as extreme winds had grounded firefighting aircraft.
Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass declared a state of emergency because of the Palisades fire. “The city is working aggressively to confront this emergency,” she said.
“We were having dinner with the family and we just had to leave because the fire was coming so fast,” Darinka Whitmore from Eaton Canyon in Altadena, who fled with her husband and their four children, told The New York Times. “We just grabbed our backpacks and our kids and our doggies.”
The National Weather Service issued a warning on Monday for a “life-threatening, destructive, and widespread windstorm” in California, lasting through Wednesday.
“Widespread damaging winds are expected across most of Los Angeles and Ventura counties. Areas not typically windy will be impacted,” it said.
Source: independent.co.uk
