• Strong, dry winds fuel the fire forecast to worsen.
• Evacuations cause traffic jams, residents flee on foot.
• The National Weather Service is warning of extreme fire conditions.

More than 30,000 people evacuated their homes as a wildfire tore through a coastal area of ​​Los Angeles in a matter of hours, and another blaze about 50km inland spread rapidly on Wednesday.

Numerous buildings were destroyed and nearly 3,000 acres (1,200 hectares) burned in the upscale Pacific Palisades area between the beach towns of Santa Monica and Malibu, officials said. The area is home to many film and music stars.

Freeways were jammed with people fleeing the inferno as plumes of smoke and flames rose into the sky over Los Angeles on Tuesday night. The fires have not been contained by Wednesday morning, and Governor Gavin Newsom has declared a state of emergency

Pacific Palisades resident Cindy Festa said when she evacuated, fires were “so close to the cars,” demonstrating with her thumb and index finger.

“People left their cars on Palisades Drive. Burned up the hillside. The palm trees — everything’s running,” Festa said from his car.

A firefighter told the local TV station KTLA that several people were injured in the Palisades fire, some with burns to their faces and hands. A female firefighter had suffered a head injury.

Hollywood actor James Woods said on X that he was able to evacuate his Pacific Palisades home, but added, “I don’t know at this point if our home is still standing.”

The second fire, called the Eaton fire, broke out about 50 km inland in Altadena, near Pasadena, and grew in size to 1,000 acres (400 hectares) from 200 acres in a matter of hours, according to Cal Fire.

Nearly 100 residents from a Pasadena nursing home were evacuated, CBS News said. Video showed elderly residents, many in wheelchairs and on stretchers, huddled together in a smoky and windswept parking lot as fire engines and ambulances attended.

Fire officials said a third fire, named the Hurst Fire, had started in Sylmar in the San Fernando Valley northwest of Los Angeles, prompting the evacuation of some nearby residents.

More than 220,000 homes and businesses in Los Angeles County were without power late Tuesday, data from PowerOutage.us showed.

Palisades Fire

Witnesses reported a number of homes on fire with flames nearly burning their cars as people fled the hills of Topanga Canyon as the fire spread from there down to the Pacific Ocean.

Local media reported that the fire had also spread north, burning homes near Malibu. Parts of Malibu and Santa Monica are under evacuation orders.

Several burn victims were treated after walking toward Duke’s restaurant in Malibu in the evening, the Los Angeles Times reported, citing a firefighter.

Los Angeles Fire Chief Kristin Crowley had previously told a press conference that more than 25,000 people in 10,000 homes were threatened.

Firefighting planes fetched water from the sea to drop it on the flames as they engulfed homes. Bulldozers cleared abandoned vehicles from the roads to allow emergency vehicles to pass, television images showed.

The fire burned some trees on the grounds of the Getty Villa, a museum filled with priceless works of art, but the collection remained safe, largely because nearby bushes had been trimmed as a precaution, the museum said.

Before the fire started, the National Weather Service had issued its highest alert for extreme fire conditions for much of Los Angeles County from Tuesday through Thursday.

With low humidity and dry vegetation due to a lack of rain, conditions were “about as bad as it gets in terms of fire weather,” the service said.

Governor Newsom said the state had placed personnel, fire engines and aircraft elsewhere in Southern California because of the fire danger to the wider region.

The strong winds changed President Joe Biden’s travel plans and grounded Air Force One in Los Angeles. He had planned to take a short flight inland to the Coachella Valley for a ceremony to create two new national monuments in California.

“I have offered any federal assistance necessary to help suppress the terrible Pacific Palisades fire,” Biden said in a statement.

A federal grant had already been approved to help reimburse the state of California for its fire preparedness, Biden said.

Actor Steve Guttenberg told KTLA television that his friends were prevented from evacuating because others had abandoned their cars on the road.

“It’s really important for everyone to pull together and not worry about your personal property. Just get out,” Guttenberg said.

“Get your loved ones and get out.”