Devastation left behind by Southern California wildfires; tens of thousands ordered to evacuate

In all about 70,000 people were under evacuation orders Wednesday in the Los Angeles area.

Two people were killed so far with more than 1,000 buildings destroyed, the Los Angeles Fire Chief said in a morning news conference, the AP reported.

The Palisades fire has burned 4.5 square miles already, while the Eaton fire has burned about 1.6 square miles and the Hurst fire burned 500 acres so far, the AP reported.

The Palisades and Hurst fires are “stretching the capacity of emergency services to their maximum limits,” Fire Chief Kristin Crowley said, according to CNN. In 24 hours, the department had reported to 3,624 calls to 911. Typically, they have 1,500 in that same period.

Those working to save lives and property are victims themselves, officials said.

“As I’m walking up to this podium, I’m getting messages about several of our employees who are have lost their homes in the last several hours,” Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said, according to CNN. “I don’t know how many, because we are still gathering that information. But … we all live here in Los Angeles County, so we are impacted.”

Even the sheriff’s station in Altadena, California, had to be evacuated.

Several celebrities were also evacuated including Mark Hamill, Mandy Moore and James Woods, Deadline reported.

Hamill shared on Instagram that there were “small fires on both sides of the road” when he and his family left their home.

Woods shared a video on X of homes near his burning.

Woods later said that his phone was getting alerts that his home’s smoke detectors were going off, meaning that his home was being burned.

“I couldn’t believe our lovely little home in the hills held on this long. It feels like losing a loved one,” he said. “It tests your soul, losing everything at once.”

The Santa Ana winds were as high as 80 mph Wednesday morning but the National Weather Service said they could go as high as 100 mph. The winds prevented aircraft from flying over the blazes to battle the flames from the sky, Pasadena Fire Chief Chad Augustin said, according to the AP.

The National Weather Service said a “continued red flag weather event with strong winds and low humidities” is over all of Los Angeles County, CNN reported.

Typically, the wildfire season begins in June or July and lasts through October, the Western Fire Chiefs Associated said. But CalFire said there have been wildfires in January including one in 2022 and 10 in 2021, the AP reported. The early start or late end can be attributed to rising temperatures and less rainfall, the Western Fire Chiefs Association said.