Thousands Evacuated as Fire Rips Through Pacific Palisades, Whipped by Ferocious Santa Ana Winds

The strongest Santa Ana winds in over a decade that whipped wildfire and chaos through the Pacific Palisades on Tuesday were expected to worsen overnight, with 100mph gusts forecast fanning an uncontrolled blaze that led to 30,000 evacuations and cancellations of events from movie premieres to a planned airport departure by President Joe Biden.

The Getty Villa museum, Palisades High School and the Bel Air Beach Club were among the locations affected by the raging flames that the fire department struggled to get under control amid howling winds. Grounds at the Getty were burned, although the priceless antiquities in the villa were reported safe. Palisades High School, meanwhile, became engulfed in flames and in videos shared online appeared in a dire state.

By nightfall Tuesday, the fire had spread to nearly 3,000 acres, destroying luxury homes in the celebrity-filled enclave. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a state of emergency proclamation, while Los Angeles officials also braced with a state-of-emergency declaration with the fire marching toward western neighborhoods like Brentwood and Bel Air. Forestry officials released an interactive map for residents to track the fire’s spread.

In Santa Monica, residents stood on san Vicente and watched the flames a mile away. Among those taking video was Albert Brooks, standing at 14th street.

Flames and smoke choked the Southern California sky with eerie red light and smoke that drifted out to sea. Numerous state and local agencies scrambled firefighters, airplanes and helicopters to battle the blaze, but there was no indication that it was even partially contained.

Traffic backed up for miles Tuesday on the routes out of the Palisades, located just off the Pacific Coast between Santa Monica and Topanga Beach and home to some 24,000 people. The evacuation area included hundreds of luxury homes and iconic landmark sites, including the Getty Villa; officials there said fire had burned some trees and other parts of the grounds.

The fire was first reported around 10:30 a.m. and had already grown to nearly 800 acres by the early afternoon. President Joe Biden was in a motorcade vehicle in the West Los Angeles area Tuesday morning for his planned trip to Thermal when his camp decided to return to their hotel, hunker down and reschedule the event. It was not clear when they planned to leave.

Entertainment industry executives, producers, actors, writers scrambled to find places to shelter for the night, everywhere from the Beverly Hills Hotel to friends’ couches. One marketing executive said he left a meeting in Beverly Hills at around 5 pm and stopped at Century City to buy clothes for overnight, booking a hotel.

A PR executive in West Hollywood was taking a friend’s orphaned dogs overnight who had to move to a no-dogs hotel. One Fox executive said that the flames were getting too close for comfort: “We can see the Palisades fires from the lot!”

And residents of neighboring Brentwood were also starting to pack up, concerned that the fire would spread overnight.

Los Angeles Fire Department officials issued an evacuation warning midday Tuesday for the Pacific Palisades Highlands community, including all neighborhoods from “Rustic Canyon to the East and Topanga Canyon to the West.” Palisades Drive is closed from Pacific Coast Highway up into the Palisades Highlands neighborhood. All Malibu schools were closed for the day and Pacific Palisades schools were relocating.

“Those near the Palisades Fire should get set for a potential evacuation,” the city of Los Angeles posted on X earlier Tuesday. David Ortiz of the LAFD urged West L.A. residents to follow orders and “do not stand in the way of this fire.”

Mayor Karen Bass echoed those sentiments on X, writing, “In preparation for high winds, LAFD pre-deployed strike teams in and near areas prone to wildfire. Firefighters are now actively and aggressively responding to the Palisades Fire with support from regional partners.”

The winds were forecast to continue through midday Wednesday, and the National Weather Service said gusts could get up to 100 miles per hour. The Palisades are located about 10 miles from Malibu, where the fires burned over 4,000 acres and several homes after similar windy conditions in December.

In nearby Los Angeles, parties, premieres and other events were canceled outright. An FYC event in West Hollywood for Jason Reitman’s “Saturday Night” film was scrapped; Universal and Amazon MGM Studios canceled premieres for “Wolf Man” at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, and “Unstoppable” at the DGA Theater.

Newsom warned Los Angeles residents that “we are not out of the woods” as the fierce Santa Ana winds gained strength.

“We’re going to have the most significant wind event between 10 p.m. this evening and 5 a.m. tomorrow morning, so it’s incumbent that everybody, have a wildfire action plan for their home if they live in a brush covered area,” Los Angeles Fire Chief Andrew Maroney said in a press conference.

As people evacuated, many captured harrowing footage of flames raging, abandoned cars being pushed aside by bulldozers and firefighters battling flames. Among them was actor James Woods, who posted video of his Palisades home being menaced by towering flames; he said with the aid of firefighters he and his family were able to safely evacuate.

Notable residents of Palisades include Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson, Ben Affleck, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kate Hudson, Miles Teller, Chris Pratt and more. Spielberg’s reps said he was on the East Coast, while others didn’t respond or declined to disclose their whereabouts.

So far, no one has been reported injured.

“At this point, we feel very blessed at this point that there’s no injuries that are reported. We do have reports of multiple structures that are damaged since the beginning of this fire,” Maroney said.

Creative agency head Sara Fitzmaurice photographed flames encroaching on Santa Monica and Brentwood from the Brentwood Country Mart, a shopping and dining mecca for entertainment industry families. The flames in the Palisades lie just past residential streets where industry luminaries like Mel Brooks and Peter Chernin live.

Sharon Waxman contributed to this report.

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