Palisades wildfire explodes to nearly 3,000 acres The Palisades fire more than doubled in size Tuesday evening, up to 2,921 acres from 1,262 earlier in the afternoon, according to the California department of forestry and fire protection (CalFire). CalFire also expanded its evacuation zones to include larger swaths of the coastal California communities of Topanga and Malibu. A community theater in the Pacific Palisades is “completely burned out right now. We just saw a partial roof collapse” NBC 4 Los Angeles’ Darsha Phillips reported. “It is completely engulfed in flames.” Theatre Palisades opened in 1988, according to the organization’s website. Just about thirty minutes before the roof collapsed, the building had not been on fire, yet another sign of how fast the fires are moving, Phillips said. The worst of the fires could be yet to come, with winds expected to increase overnight and continue for days, producing isolated gusts that could top 100 mph (160 kph) in mountains and foothills – including in areas that haven’t seen substantial rain in months. The blaze began at about 10.30am, shortly after the start of a Santa Ana windstorm that the National Weather service warned could be “life-threatening” and the strongest to hit Southern California in more than a decade. The exact cause of the fire was unknown and no injuries had been reported, officials said. "It"s everywhere" - locals describe the scene Locals have described the scenes on the ground, via the Associated Press: Resident Kelsey Trainor said the only road in and out of her neighborhood was completely blocked. Ash fell all around them while fires burned on both sides of the road. “We looked across and the fire had jumped from one side of the road to the other side of the road,” Trainor said. “People were getting out of the cars with their dogs and babies and bags, they were crying and screaming. The road was just blocked, like full-on blocked for an hour.” Long-time Palisades resident Will Adams said he immediately went to pick his two kids up from St. Matthews Parish School when he heard the fire was nearby. Meanwhile, he said embers flew into his wife’s car as she tried to evacuate. “She vacated her car and left it running,” Adams said. She and many other residents walked down toward the ocean until it was safe. He watched as the sky turned brown and then black as homes started burning. He could hear loud popping and bangs “like small explosions,” which he said he believes were the transformers exploding. “It is crazy, it’s everywhere, in all the nooks and crannies of the Palisades. One home’s safe, the other one’s up in flames,” Adams said. These photos give a sense of how strong the windstorm is, whipping embers as a properties burn. Summary A fast-moving wildfire in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles spread rapidly on Tuesday, as a fierce windstorm raged through the region. By Tuesday evening, the Palisades fire had grown to nearly 3,000 acres, according to the California department of forestry and fire protection (CalFire). A second fire was reported near Los Angeles on Tuesday evening, near Altadena, according to CalFire. More then 30,000 people in the Palisades were under evacuation orders. Many residents were forced to flee their homes urgently, leaving on foot or braving long traffic jams to reach safety. In an afternoon press conference, the California governor, Gavin Newsom said that the Palisades fire had destroyed “not a few” but “many structures”. The full extent of the damage is not yet clear The fire reached the grounds of the Getty Villa museum, a branch of the Getty Center. It’s not clear whether any structures have caught fire, but officials confirmed the grounds were on fire and that flames were approaching the museum buildings. About 15,000 utility customers in southern California have had their power shut off to reduce the risk of equipment sparking blaze. The fires ignited as the region was hit by unusually strong winds caused by a “life-threatening” windstorm that is affecting a large swath of southern California. By sunset in north-east Los Angeles, a local Target supercenter was sold out of flashlights. Some of the nearby streets had already lost power, part of outages across Los Angeles, that had already affected clusters of hundreds and even more than a thousand customers, according to the Los Angeles department of water and power. By 6.30 local time, the wind, which had felt merely brisk earlier in the day, was feeling intense: I started to worry that a gust might blow my open car door off its hinges. It’s not just the speed of the wind, either – the air is painfully full of dust, dry leaves, and debris, so much that I tried to cover my eyes as I walked. Experts have been repeating that part of the fire danger of southern California’s high winds right now is that, without any significant winter rain so far this season, the landscape is bone dry. I could feel that in the wind tonight: it feels like the wind is picking up everything and whipping it in our faces. A second fire was reported near Los Angeles on Tuesday evening, near Altadena, according to CalFire. The fire, which was first reported at 6.23pm local time, encompassed 10 acres by 7pm. As the Palisades fire has grown, engulfing the campus of Pacific Palisades Charter high school, the Los Angeles fire department has asked all off-duty officers to report for duty. Nick Melvoin, the Los Angeles Unified School District trustee, confirmed to the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times that the school, which leases its site from the school district, was on fire. Although students are still on winter break and do not need to be evacuated, “the physical campus is currently on fire”, he told the New York Times. “The baseball field. Classrooms. Bungalows. The tennis courts.” Four LAUSD schools in the area will be closed on Wednesday: Canyon Charter Elementary, Marquez Charter Elementary, Palisades Charter Elementary and Paul Revere Charter middle school. Palisades wildfire explodes to nearly 3,000 acres The Palisades fire more than doubled in size Tuesday evening, up to 2,921 acres from 1,262 earlier in the afternoon, according to the California department of forestry and fire protection (CalFire). CalFire also expanded its evacuation zones to include larger swaths of the coastal California communities of Topanga and Malibu. As the sun sets in California, we’ve gathered photos of the Palisades fire that broke out this morning, about 10.30am local time. Officials have said that the worst of the high winds driving the fire are expected overnight Tuesday into Wednesday. Forecasters predicted the windstorm would last for days, producing isolated gusts that could top 100 mph (160 km/h) in mountains and foothills – including in areas that haven’t seen substantial rain in months. Gavin Newsom, the California governor, urges residents to heed evacuation orders Speaking at a press conference in Pacific Palisades this afternoon, the California governor Gavin Newsom noted that he found “not a few – many structures already destroyed” and thanked the US president, Joe Biden, for issuing a fire management assistance grant. “No politics, no hand-wringing, no kissing of the feet,” Newsom said. The Democratic governor was scheduled to speak at an event with Biden this afternoon that was rescheduled due to the inclement weather. “My message to the incoming administration, and I’m not here to play any politics, is please don’t play any politics.” Newsom further urged residents to heed evacuation orders: “By no stretch of the imagination are we out of the woods.” Southern California Edison, the utility company, cuts power to nearly 15,000 customers About 15,000 utility customers in southern California have had their power shut off to reduce the risk of equipment sparking blaze. Half a million customers total were at risk of losing power preemptively, the Associated Press reported on Tuesday evening.