700-plus-acre brush fire erupts in affluent Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, prompting mandatory evacuations

• A brush fire erupted in Pacific Palisades amid a powerful windstorm Tuesday.
• The Palisades Fire quickly grew to more than 700 acres, prompting mandatory evacuations in the area.
• Santa Ana winds, with gusts forecast up to 100 mph, are creating extreme fire conditions.

A major brush fire erupted in the Pacific Palisades, an affluent neighborhood of Los Angeles, in the first hours of a powerful windstorm on Tuesday.

The Palisades Fire broke out around 10:30 a.m. Pacific Time and quickly ballooned. As of 2:20 p.m. PT, the fire had spread across 772 acres.

Mandatory evacuation orders were issued for the area all the way down to the Pacific Ocean.

Westwood Recreation Center was open to evacuees as of Tuesday afternoon.

Live footage on ABC7 showed houses burning Tuesday afternoon, though no official counts of damaged structures have been released.

Further evacuation warnings prompted residents to prepare to flee, or to flee early if they have pets or need extra time to evacuate. These warnings covered the Topanga Canyon area and an additional swath of the hills down to La Costa Beach. Warnings and orders covered the entire region between Santa Monica and Malibu as of Tuesday at 2 p.m. PT.

The fire could spread further and grow stronger as extreme winds in the area are forecast to peak in the evening through Wednesday morning.

Evacuees abandoned cars as traffic stalled

Palisades Drive, the major road out of the neighborhood, was packed with slow-moving lines of cars shortly after noon, as people evacuated beneath a smoky haze and bright-orange flames licking the hillside in the distance, shown live on ABC7.

The state agency CalFire reported that the fire was on both sides of Palisades Drive.

ABC7 spoke to multiple people who were evacuating on foot, including some who had abandoned their cars on the road.

Highway 1 has closed between Santa Monica and Malibu.

A historic windstorm fuels the flames

Officials have not yet determined how the fire started, but it erupted during a high-risk major windstorm that created extreme fire conditions in the area.

Warm, dry Santa Ana winds from the deserts of Nevada and Utah are expected to bring gusts up to 100 mph to Southern California through Wednesday morning.

The National Weather Service called the windstorm "life-threatening and destructive" and warned that these could be the strongest north winds in 14 years.

With low humidity and dry vegetation in the region, the winds created a perfect storm for fire ignition. The NWS urged residents to be ready to evacuate, as such winds can rapidly spread any fire that breaks out.

"This is pretty much the worst possible scenario for a firefight," David Ortiz of the LAFD told local news station KTLA.

Read the original article on Business Insider

Author Of article : Morgan McFall-Johnsen

Read full article