LA wildfires mapped: Palisades and Eaton blazes now cover nearly 30,000 acres

The Los Angeles wildfires continue to grow rapidly Thursday, engulfing homes in the Pacific Palisades and other neighborhoods, including star-studded Studio City, Calabasas and Altadena.

The fires spread in 48 hours across nearly 30,000 acres. Flames have been fanned by a fierce windstorm known as the Santa Ana winds, and officials are warning the situation could get worse as three of the four main blazes stand at zero percent containment.

The Los Angeles Fire Department first confirmed five deaths as the fast-moving blazes forced some 180,000 residents to evacuate their properties across California. Then, Malibu officials confirmed Thursday that human remains were found in a burned home, bringing the death toll to six.

Hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses have been left in blackout conditions with schools in impacted areas closing their doors.

Multiple injuries have been reported from residents who did not evacuate and officials say more than 4,000 structures have been destroyed by the Eaton Fire alone. A new blaze erupted in the Hollywood Hills on Wednesday night, prompting further evacuation orders. 

California Governor Gavin Newsom announced that more than 7,500 local, state and federal firefighting personnel and 1,200 fire trucks have been deployed in a bid to grasp a handle on the fast-moving fires.

President Joe Biden has told California officials to “spare no expense,” noting the federal government will cover “100% of the cost” for the next 180 days.

“I want to underscore I told the governor and local officials, spare no expense to do what they need to do and contain these fires,” Biden said.

Where are the fires currently burning?

The first and most major fire is burning in the Pacific Palisades, an affluent coastal neighborhood on the west of Los Angeles, having started in 10.30 a.m. local time Tuesday. By Thursday afternoon the fire covered more than 17,200 acres.

The blaze caused flaming embers to rain onto trees and rooftops in the neighborhood, with residents rushing to escape. It also created a traffic jam on Palisades Drive, blocking emergency vehicles from getting through. Crews used a bulldozer to push the abandoned cars off to the side, the Associated Press reported.

Later on Tuesday at around 6:30 p.m., the Eaton fire erupted in the Altadena area, north of Pasadena, and has engulfed 10,600 acres, as of Thursday morning. Both the Palisades and Eaton fires are at zero percent containment.

The Hurst fire in the San Fernando Valley has burned about 855 acres and it is at 10 percent containment. The Tyler fire in Coachella, home to the world-famous music festival near to Joshua Tree National Park, burned about 11 acres before it was contained late on Wednesday.

A new blaze erupted in the Hollywood Hills on Wednesday night called the Sunset fire, which was fully contained as of Thursday afternoon, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said.

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Which areas are being evacuated?

More than 180,000 residents are reported to have been evacuated across southern California.

Many of the evacuations were in the Pacific Palisades area, but others were in parts of Santa Monica and Altadena, with a mandatory evacuation order in place for the region between Piedra Morada Drive and Pacific Coast Highway due to dangerous conditions.

Fire Chief Kristin Crowley said that areas north of the highway, south of Mulholland Drive and east of Topanga County Boulevard were also being evacuated.

About 30,000 residents were under evacuation orders from the Palisades fire on Wednesday and more than 13,000 structures were under threat, authorities said. Several Hollywood stars – including Ben Affleck, Tom Hanks, Rita Wilson and Mark Hamill, have been forced to flee.

Live: evacuation order areas in Los Angeles County

The Eaton fire prompted more than 50,000 evacuation orders, Angeles National Forest officials added. City spokeswoman Lisa Derderian said at least 550 houses were within the evacuation zones of the Eaton Canyon fire.

“We were having dinner with the family and we just had to leave because the fire was coming so fast,” Darinka Whitmore from Eaton Canyon in Altadena, who fled with her husband and their four children, told The New York Times. “We just grabbed our backpacks and our kids and our doggies.”

Emergency shelters are open for Angelenos who have been evacuated due to these devastating fires. The Palisades fire shelter is located at the Westwood Recreation Center and the Hurst fire shelter is at Ritchie Valens Recreation Center.

In addition to the evacuations, more than 400,000 customers were without power in southern California, with the vast majority of them in Los Angeles County, according to PowerOutage.us, which tracks outages nationwide.

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Have there been any casualties?

The death toll is currently at six, officials said late Thursday. Several people are injured, officials added, but the exact number is unknown. No further details about the victims have been released.

LAFD spokesperson Erik Scott said previously that a 25-year-old female firefighter and “multiple burn victims” are among the injured.

The blaze has destroyed 1,000 structures in the Pacific Palisades and although no deaths had been reported in the area, there were a high number of significant injuries for residents who did not evacuate, according to Marrone.

“We ask that you keep all of Los Angeles County in your thoughts and prayers,” he said.

What is causing the fires?

The fast-moving wildfires are being fueled by a weather phenomenon known as the Santa Ana winds.

The Santa Anas are dry, warm and gusty northeast winds that blow from Nevada and Utah to Southern California toward the coast. They move in the opposite direction of the normal onshore flow that carries moist air from the Pacific into the region.

The name is understood to be linked to Santa Ana Canyon in Orange County, but the weather has other nicknames such as “devil winds” or “red wind.”

LAFD officials said they are bracing themselves for the bruising winds to reach gusts of up to 60 mph through Thursday. In some mountainous regions of south California, the Santa Ana winds reached speeds of up to 100 mph, according to the National Weather Service.

The weather service has issued an extreme weather warning of a life-threatening and destructive windstorm for some areas.

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Ongoing red flag warnings highlight extremely critical fire weather conditions due to a combination of strong wind gusts in some of the highest terrain Wednesday morning and exceptionally dry relative humidity levels, according to Peter Mullinax, a meteorologist with the weather service’s office in College Park, Maryland.

What have officials said?

“By no stretch of the imagination are we out of the woods,” California Governor Gavin Newsom said on Tuesday afternoon. “I saw firsthand the impact of these swirling winds and the embers and the number of structures that are destroyed. Not a few, many structures already destroyed.”

Newsom dispelled claims of waning water supplies after President-elect Donald Trump perpetuated the rumors and accused firefighters of not using ocean water to “protect a tiny little fish”.

“Broadly speaking, there is no water shortage in Southern California right now, despite Trump’s claims that he would open some imaginary spigot,” the governor said.

Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass declared a state of emergency because of the Palisades fire. “The city is working aggressively to confront this emergency,” she said.

On Thursday, Bass called on residents to “conserve water to the extent that you can” as firefighters battle the historic blaze. She said: “But make no mistake, Los Angeles will rebuild stronger than ever.”