SVE NEWS & REUTERS.COM Sharing Series — California wildfires: New wildfire breaks out in LA’s Hollywood Hills, fire chief says

“We have a new brush fire that has just broken out within the last five minutes in the Hollywood Hills,”  LA City Fire Chief Kristin Crowley told reporters.

“I am going to go ahead and excuse myself,” Crowley said, leaving the press conference early.

The Eaton fire in Altadena, California – one of the multiple fires burning – still has 0% percent containment with firefighter resources from out-of-state, LA County Fire Chief Anthony C. Marrone said during a briefing along with LA Mayor Karen Bass.

“The fire has been mapped this afternoon at 10,600 acres and it is still growing,” Marrone added, adding the cause of fire is unknown yet.

“Southern California is continuing to endure some of the most historic fire conditions on record,” LA City Fire Chief Kristin Crowley said at a press conference.

“Extreme fire weather driven by strong and erratic winds and low humidity have ignited multiple fires across our region” Crowley said. “The incident is very very dynamic as we speak.”

Altadena, California, U.S. January 8, 2025. REUTERS/Zaydee Sanchez

U.S. private forecaster AccuWeather said damage and economic loss from Los Angeles wildfires are estimated at $52 billion to $57 billion on a preliminary basis.

AccuWeather added that the figure could rise depending on the fires’ spread.

“Should a large number of additional structures be burned in the coming days, it may become the worst wildfire in modern California history based on the number of structures burned and economic loss,” AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist Jonathan Porter said.

State officials said earlier on Wednesday that more than 1,000 structures had burned so far.

J.P. Morgan believes that insured losses originating from the wildfire could be around $10 billion, the brokerage firm said in a note.

Fire damage in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, U.S. January 8, 2025. REUTERS/Daniel Cole

More than 1.5 million homes and businesses in southern California were without electricity on Wednesday, according to PowerOutage.us, as wildfires raged uncontrollably around Los Angeles.

At least six fires have erupted since Tuesday in Los Angeles and Ventura counties, so far claiming two lives. High winds and fires have damaged some electric infrastructure, and utilities have shut power to some locations preventively.

Southern California Edison shut off power to more than 169,000 homes and businesses, or more than 3% of its 5 million customers, across six counties.

The company issued notices to 8.5% of its customers that they were being considered for additional shutoffs.

So-called power safety shutoffs happen, in part, to reduce the risk that airborne objects spark additional blazes when they strike power lines.

It was unclear when power would be restored.

When gas canisters at his neighbors’ homes began exploding under the heat of the flames, Kevin Williams knew it was time to run.

“The wind whipped up, the flames were up about 30 or 40 feet (9 to 12 meters) high, and you hear ‘pop, pop, pop’. It sounded like a warzone,” Williams told Reuters at an evacuation center in Pasadena.

“There were two big explosions that actually shifted the ground, and so I knew it was time to get out. ”

Hundreds of people who escaped in the dead of night were hunkered down at the Pasadena Convention Center, some sleeping under Red Cross blankets, others nursing wounds in wheelchairs as volunteers handed out water and bananas.

Frances Colella, a 71-year-old retiree, fled with her husband and their three dogs to their 104-year-old mother’s house in the neighboring suburb of La Canada Flintridge, only to find the fire had followed them, forcing a second evacuation into Pasadena.

“It’s a really sad occurrence and I can’t remember anything like this,” she said, resting in a wheelchair in the evacuation center.

Thomas Hutchinson, who lives in the foothills of the San Gabriel mountains, remembers seeing smoke in his house and receiving an alert on his phone to evacuate.

Hutchinson, 66 and disabled, called 911 but was told no one could help him. In a stroke of fortune, an ambulance passed by his road and whisked him to safety.

As Hutchinson watched houses burning around him, the retiree’s only concern was saving his dog Rusty.

“I would have stayed up there if they wouldn’t let me take him… I don’t go anywhere without him,” Hutchinson said.

The NHL’s Los Angeles Kings have postponed Wednesday’s home game against Calgary Flames due to the ongoing wildfires in the region.

“Our hearts are with our entire Los Angeles community,” the Kings said in a statement.

The NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers’ head coach JJ Redick on Tuesday said members of his family had evacuated their home in the fire-ravaged Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles.

“I just want to acknowledge and send thoughts and prayers to everyone in the Palisades right now,” Redick said before the Lakers’ 118-97 road loss to the Mavericks in Dallas.

The Lakers returned home to LA after the game, did not practise on Wednesday, and are scheduled to host the Charlotte Hornets at Crypto.com Arena, the same venue where the Kings play, on Thursday night.

The NFL’s Los Angeles Rams were scheduled to hold practice on Thursday at their facility in Woodland Hills ahead of their playoff game on Monday at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood.

The playoff-bound Los Angeles Chargers held an indoor practice on Wednesday, according to ESPN.

Firefighters battle the Palisades Fire on the west side of Los Angeles, California, U.S. January 7, 2025. REUTERS/Ringo Chiu

By 3 a.m. PT (1100 GMT) Wednesday, the Palisades area had exhausted its three water storage tanks, which are able to hold a million gallons of water each.

The demand for water to fight fires at lower elevations was hampering the city’s ability to refill water tanks at higher elevations, said Janisse Quiñones, CEO and chief engineer of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.

“We’re fighting a wildfire with urban water systems, and that is really challenging,” she said, noting that Pacific Palisades experienced four times the normal water demand for 15 hours as firefighters battled the blaze.

Quiñones urged people in Los Angeles to conserve water “because the fire department needs the water to fight the fires.”

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power is sending about 20 water tanks to support the fire department and has identified other areas in the system where tankers can refill, Quiñones said.

The water tanks help maintain pressure on fire hydrants, but because so much water was being used, water pressure was diminished, which in turn slowed down the department’s ability to refill the tanks.

Shaun Tate, 45, said he fled his home in Altadena, a Los Angeles suburb in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains, at 4:15 am when he saw flames rolling towards his house.

“I came out of the house because I heard something fly off the roof,” Tate said at an evacuation center in Pasadena, around 5 miles south of Eaton Canyon, where a now sprawling fire sparked to life on Wednesday night.

“We packed up the SUV and drove down here,” he said. “I chose to save my laptop, my diabetic medication and a little bit of food.”

President Joe Biden and California Governor Gavin Newsom at a Santa Monica Fire Station, Los Angeles County, January 8, 2025. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

California Governor Gavin Newsom held a media briefing with President Joe Biden at a Los Angeles-area fire station. Biden was in town for a mix of official and personal business including the birth of a great-grandchild.

Highlights of the briefing included:

• More than 750 firefighters were battling the blazes. National Guard troops and Navy water-carrying helicopters are being added.
• Resources from Arizona are starting to arrive. Newsom requested 250 fire engines with 1,000 staff.
• Newsom also asked for help from other states including Nevada, Oregon and Washington.
• Fires have destroyed more than 1,000 structures.
• More than 100,000 people have been evacuated, Newsom said.
• Newsom expressed “deep gratitude” to Biden for what he said was an immediate response from the White House including declaration of a disaster.
• Biden called the rapid progression of the fires since Tuesday “astounding.”

(Illustrated by Zoe Law)

Wildfires have disrupted operations at Hollywood Burbank Airport.

About 16% of the flights scheduled on Wednesday were canceled and 10% were delayed, according to the tracking site FlightAware.

Mike Christensen, the airport’s communications manager, said passengers have been advised to check with their airlines before arriving at the airport.

United Airlines has issued a travel waiver for affected customers, allowing them to reschedule their journey until Jan. 15.

Nine flights have been cancelled and 64 others are delayed at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), according to Flightaware. LAX did not comment on the impact of the fire to its operation.

Firefighting vehicles at the Eaton Fire in Altadena, California, U.S. January 8, 2025. REUTERS/David Swanson

Stars including Jamie Lee Curtis, Mandy Moore and James Woods were among those forced to evacuate their homes by the out-of-control wildfires in Los Angeles.

Woods described the scene in his affluent Pacific Palisades neighborhood as an “inferno.”

“We were literally in the exact epicenter of the fire as it started,” Woods said on CNN on Wednesday.

“Don’t know if our place made it,”  actor Mandy Moore of TV series “This is Us,” posted on Instagram about her family’s home.

“So gutted for the destruction and loss,” she said.

Other celebrities forced from their homes included “Schitt’s Creek” actor Eugene Levy, Mark Hamill of “Star Wars” and reality stars Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag, according to media reports.

The wildfires prompted organizers of Hollywood’s Screen Actors Guild Awards to cancel a live announcement of its nominations on Wednesday.

Permits for filming in Pasadena and other areas east of Los Angeles were withdrawn at the request of fire officials, according to permitting organization FilmLA.

City authorities also blocked public access to the famous Hollywood sign in the hills above Los Angeles.

Powerful winds fuelled the fast-spreading fire, which grew in size more than five-fold over just four hours on Tuesday night, and were hindering efforts to fight the blaze.

Before the fire started, the 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, the conditions were “about as bad as it gets in terms of fire weather,” the service said.

The Eaton Fire burns in Pasadena, January 7, 2025. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni

While it is rare to see such a scale of destruction in January, forest fires are now a year-long risk in California, said Lindon Pronto, a former wildland fire fighter who now works as an expert in fire management with the European Forest Institute.

“The obvious impact of climate change in this situation is that the average number of days per year where the vegetation is very available for fire has doubled since the 1980s. So the fire season has been growing longer and longer in California,” Pronto told Reuters.

The fires began during an extreme wind event, with very low rates of humidity, that dry out the vegetation which becomes fuel for the fire.

FILE PHOTO: A firefighter battles the Palisades Fire, Los Angeles, California, U.S. January 7, 2025. REUTERS/Ringo Chiu 

When asked by a reporter if fire chiefs in the area were prepared for the wildfires, Anthony Marrone, chief of the Los Angeles County Fire Department, was clear: “L.A. County and all 29 fire departments in our county are not prepared for this type of widespread disaster.”

“There are not enough firefighters in L.A. County to address four separate fires of this magnitude.”

However, Marrone said emergency personnel were prepared, bolstered by extra resources from the state.

“We’re doing the very best we can.”

At least two people were killed as a trio of fast-growing wildfires raged out of control on Wednesday near Los Angeles.

The fires have destroyed hundreds of buildings, scorched hillsides and prompted officials to order some 70,000 people to evacuate their homes.

Fierce winds were hindering firefighting efforts and fueling the fires.

PALISADES FIRE

The biggest blaze had consumed more than 5,000 acres in the picturesque Pacific Palisades neighborhood.

It lies west of Los Angeles between the beach towns of Santa Monica and Malibu and is home to many film, television and music stars.

More than 1,000 structures have been destroyed, Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone said at a news conference.

EATON FIRE

The Eaton fire had grown to more than 2,000 acres as it burned some 30 miles (50 km) inland in Altadena, near Pasadena. Two fatalities were reported there, though officials said they did not have further details.

HURST FIRE

The Hurst fire, in Sylmar in the San Fernando Valley northwest of Los Angeles, had exceeded 500 acres.

All three fires were 0% contained, officials said.

There was a fourth fire, the Woodley Fire. Los Angeles City Fire Chief Kristen Crowley characterized it as “smaller”, and said it has been located and contained.

A “high number” of significant injuries had occurred among residents who did not heed evacuation orders, Marrone said.

Officials warned that the gusty winds were forecast to persist throughout the day.

“We are absolutely not out of danger yet, with the strong winds that continue to push through the city and the county today,” Crowley said.

The Palisades Fire is taking place in one of the most expensive neighborhoods in the United States.

A typical home in the neighborhood was valued at $3.7 million at the end of 2023, according to real estate website Zillow, more than all but four other zip codes in the US.

The other four are all in California: in Beverly Hills, two in Los Altos and in Saratoga.

A view of the Palisades fire from a plane, January 7, 2025, in this picture obtained from social media. Mark Viniello/via REUTERS 

A passenger flying over Los Angeles captured dramatic nighttime footage and photos of the Pacific Palisades Fire on Tuesday.

Reuters was able to confirm the location from information provided by the source and other videos uploaded to social media showing the same scene.

The date of the video and stills was confirmed via original file metadata.

(Video credit: Mark Viniello)

Here are more key quotes from the press conference on the Los Angeles fires:

CEO and Chief Engineer of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power Janisse Quiñones:

• She asked residents to conserve water, saying that Los Angeles fighting wildfires with urban water systems was really challenging. She said the city would be issuing a boil water advisory for 48 hours

Kevin McGowan, director of LA County Office of Emergency Management:

• “We’re facing a historic natural disaster. And I think that can’t be stated strong enough. This is not a normal red flag.”

Los Angeles Police Department Chief Jim McDonnell:

• “This is a tragic time in our history here in Los Angeles, but a time where we’re really tested and see who we really are. And it’s critical that at these times we be patient, that we come together, that we focus on saving lives and to be able to do the very best job we can.”
• “These are, as I mentioned, unprecedented conditions, but also unpredictable as the fire continues to spread and pop up in different locations, none of us know where the next one is going to be.”

In a post on his Truth Social platform, Donald Trump blamed California’s Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom for the destruction caused by the fires.

“It’s always sad when I have to say this, but part of our responsibility is to make sure that no one loots or steals from our residents, our community members who are already being impacted. And I’m sad to report we made two arrests this morning for looting already,” said Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna.

“We want to make sure that everybody understands we’re absolutely not out of danger yet with the strong winds that continue to push through the city and the county today,” LA City Fire Chief Kristin Crowley said.