On Thursday morning, the Hollywood Hills were engulfed in an uncontrollable blaze as Los Angeles faced one of the most devastating wildfires in its history. The flames carved a fiery crescent across the city, threatening the iconic heart of the American film industry and straining firefighting efforts to their breaking point. With hurricane-force winds driving the inferno across bone-dry terrain after months without rain, over 100,000 residents were forced to evacuate.
At least five people have died since the fires erupted on Tuesday, and a ferocious wildfire that roared into the hillside enclave of Runyon Canyon threatened to burn homes indelibly associated with LA’s glamour and its rich past. It is the city’s most destructive fire in years and is closing in on the record set by a 1961 Bel Air fire that destroyed nearly 500 houses in a hillside enclave popular with actors like Burt Lancaster and Zsa Zsa Gabor.
The fires have destroyed homes and other structures and forced the evacuation of some 150,000 residents. They have also wiped out many acres of wilderness and killed thousands of trees.
In Los Angeles, the blazes have ravaged neighborhoods and spread into the affluent communities of Calabasas and Pacific Palisades, where celebrities and families live in sprawling mansions and ranches overlooking the ocean. Images showed luxury homes collapsed in a whirlwind of embers, swimming pools blackened by soot, and sports cars slumped over on their melted tires.
A raging fire in the Hollywood Hills has scorched 50 acres and is 0% contained. Helicopters dumped water on the blaze, but it made little difference.
The blaze was so intense that people could not see their homes, and streets became impassable. Many evacuees were forced to flee on foot, including residents at a retirement community who were pushed down the street in wheelchairs and hospital beds. Others took shelter in their patrol cars.
Firefighters struggled to keep up with the pace of the fires, but windy conditions made it impossible to contain them. The smoky air was thick with particulates, and people used pajamas and sweatshirts to cover their faces.
It is unusual for large wildfires to erupt in California in January. Still, leaders and scientists have been sounding the alarm that climate change is creating dangerous new conditions that threaten lives and property year-round.
Across Southern California, firefighters were working against the clock to contain six major fires sparked by lightning strikes and fanned by dry conditions. Some 7,500 personnel were deployed to battle the blazes, including over 2,000 firefighting vehicles and hundreds of prepositioned crews from out of state. More than 2,000 structures have been destroyed, and at least 2,000 more are threatened by the flames. Officials warned that the fires are so dangerous that they may not be fully contained for weeks, possibly months. They are threatening to become the most destructive wildfires in California’s history.