A wildfire in Los Angeles forces evacuations due to extreme winds

By Daniel Cole

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – A wildfire burned about 200 acres and threatened homes in an upscale part of Los Angeles on Tuesday, forcing evacuations after officials already warned of extreme fire danger from dry, strong winds.

The Pacific Palisades fire between Santa Monica and Malibu prompted the Los Angeles Fire Department to issue a mandatory evacuation order for a wide area, from the hills of Topanga Canyon to the coastline.

Huge clouds of smoke could be seen billowing from the hills from miles away as flames engulfed nearby homes. The fire was fanned by the Santa Ana winds, which blow warm and dry winds from the inland deserts to the coast.

“Immediate threat to life. This is a lawful order to LEAVE NOW,” read a message posted by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire).

Some evacuees walked away from the fire, while others got their cars stuck in traffic.

Before the fire broke out, the National Weather Service had issued its highest warning for extreme fire conditions for much of Los Angeles County from Tuesday through Thursday, predicting wind gusts of 50 to 80 mph with isolated winds of 80 to 100 kilometers per hour. mph (130 to 160 km/h) in the mountains and foothills.

This combined with low humidity and dry vegetation due to a lack of rain.

“In other words, this is about as bad as it can get when it comes to firefighting,” the National Weather Service’s Los Angeles office said on X.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass ordered emergency measures that mobilized city agencies to prepare for downed power lines and trees likely to cause power outages.

Los Angeles Fire Department Capt. Erik Scott urged complacency amid cool winter weather and warned of “explosive wildfire behavior” in a public message.

(Reporting by Daniel Cole in Los Angeles and Daniel Trotta in Carlsbad, California; Writing by Daniel Trotta; Editing by Mary Milliken)