20 hours Ago By [email protected] (Catherine Stoddard)
Residents in the scenic area of Pacific Palisades in Los Angeles, California, have been ordered to evacuate. The wind-driven brush fire has scorched about 1,262 acres so far. Forecasters predicted the windstorm that is battering Southern California could last for days and produce winds of up to 100 mph.
LOS ANGELES - As strong winds continued to batter Southern California, a large brush fire broke out in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Pacific Palisades on Tuesday. Fire crews were battling a handful of fast-moving fires in the Los Angeles hillsides and residents living in the area of the Pacific Palisades were forced to evacuate their homes. Cloud of smoke seen in Los Angeles, California, from the Palisades Fire on Jan.
7, 2025. (Credit: FOX 11 Los Angeles.) The Palisades Fire swiftly consumed about 1,262 acres as of 3:25 p.
m. PT. The blaze sent up a huge plume of smoke visible across the city.
Residents in Venice Beach, some 6 miles away, reported seeing the flames. Firefighters run as a brush fire burns in Pacific Palisades, California on January 7, 2025. (Photo by DAVID SWANSON/AFP via Getty Images) Several structures are threatened by the blaze, according to FOX 11.
Video from the scene showed at least two homes on fire in the area and at least a dozen homes are in danger of becoming consumed as well. Road closures have been ordered along the Pacific Coast Highway and traffic has caused heavy gridlock. Due to heavy gridlock, people were seen abandoning their vehicles on the street and walking.
Fire officials said about 100 vehicles were abandoned, creating even more traffic and road closures. (Credit: FOX 11 Los Angeles/KTTV) FOX 11’s Hailey Winslow spoke by phone to Tricia Cosentino, who attempted to flee along Palisades Drive but was forced to turn around by the choking smoke, flames, and heavy traffic. "I put the animals in the car, put my son in the car, even picked up a hitchhiker.
We were surrounded by flames on all sides. There was smoke everywhere and I made a U-turn and came back up the hill because I was afraid to drive through it. So we're stuck here," she recalled.
The Palisades Fire has consumed more than 200 acres (81 hectares) of dry brush and sent up a huge plume of smoke visible across the city Tuesday afternoon. (Credit FOX 11 Los Angeles/KTTV) "From my patio right now, it looks like we're in a war zone." "The canyon itself has a little bit of unstable land.
So the rocks that are normally behind barriers, there's all sorts of rocks that have now crumbled onto the road itself. So it's even a little bit hard to drive. There is smoldering.
There's ash. Literally just within a foot or two of the road itself, the flames were coming all the way down. I have never been so terrified in my entire life.
" When asked why she didn’t leave earlier, Cosentino said previous close calls made her think the family was safe. "We've always been able to leave. We thought it would be OK.
I mean, from my patio right now, it looks like we're in a war zone," she explained. "It is terrifying. I'm trying to not break down so that my kid thinks that everything is OK, but it does not feel OK.
" Plumes of smoke are seen as a brush fire burns in Pacific Palisades, California on January 7, 2025. (Photo by DAVID SWANSON/AFP via Getty Images) About 30,000 residents are under a mandatory evacuation, FOX 11 reported. The National Weather Service said what could be the strongest Santa Ana windstorm in more than a decade began Tuesday across Los Angeles and Ventura counties and was forecast to peak in the early hours of Wednesday, when gusts could reach 80 mph (129 kph).
The weather service warned of possible downed power lines and knocked-over big rigs, trailers, and motorhomes. Strong offshore gusts will also bring dangerous conditions off the coasts of Orange and Los Angeles counties, including Catalina Island, and potential delays and turbulence could arise at local airports. The winds will act as an "atmospheric blow-dryer" for vegetation, bringing a long period of fire risk that could extend into the more populated lower hills and valleys, according to Daniel Swain, a climate scientist with the University of California, Los Angeles and the National Center for Atmospheric Research.
The Palisades Fire burns near homes amid a powerful windstorm on January 7, 2025 in Pacific Palisades, California. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images) Utilities said they were considering preemptively cutting power starting Tuesday to about a half-million customers across eight counties. In recent years, California utilities have routinely de-energized electrical lines as a precaution against weather conditions that might damage equipment and spark a fire.
Information for this article was gathered from FOX 11 Los Angeles and The Associated Press. This story was reported from Los Angeles..
