Thousands Evacuated as Massive Wildfire Rages through California’s Iconic Pacific Palisades Neighborhood
The Palisades Fire has grown to more than 2,900 acres, is threatening over 13,000 structures, and has forced about 30,000 residents to evacuate.
A massive wildfire rages through the exclusive and picturesque Pacific Palisades neighborhood, between Santa Monica and Malibu.
The blaze is fueled by a combination of dried brush due to a dry winter and dangerously strong Santa Ana winds, with gusts reaching up to 60 mph and potentially topping 100 mph in some mountain locations. Already, the Palisades Fire has grown to more than 2,900 acres, is threatening over 13,000 structures, and has forced about 30,000 residents to evacuate.
Wide swaths of Pacific Palisades, Topanga and Malibu were under an evacuation order by the afternoon, as residents fought traffic jams and heavy smoke as they tried to escape the nearby flames. The Palisades fire broke out around 10:30 a.m. near Piedra Morada Drive and was pushed by intense wind gusts that officials had warned could fuel any spark into a fast-moving and erratic wildfire.
The fire had blackened more than 2,900 acres by 6:30 p.m as it continued to charge southwest. The grounds of the Getty Villa caught fire, as did the campus of Palisades Charter High School.
“It’s bad. It’s like an inferno,” said Lori Libonati, who lives in Pacific Palisades. She saw the fire start to burn Tuesday morning before evacuating.
By 3:30 p.m., about 30,000 residents had been evacuated from 10,000 homes, with no injuries reported, said Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell at an afternoon news conference. Firefighters responded to more than half a dozen calls of residents trapped in buildings throughout the day.
This is not a scene from a horror movie. This is currently Pacific Palisades, CA.pic.twitter.com/Oyt4k32UGW
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) January 8, 2025
State and local officials are already declaring an emergency.
L.A. City Council president Marqueece Harris-Dawson said the city is declaring a state of emergency through the wind event. Newsom also proclaimed a state of emergency in Los Angeles and Ventura counties on Tuesday after meeting with fire officials in Pacific Palisades.
As of right now, several buildings in the area have already been destroyed. Responders are being drawn from agencies around the area, and the fire remains uncontained.
Over 250 LAFD firefighters were battling the blaze, in addition to firefighters from neighboring agencies. Approximately 30 vehicles left abandoned on Sunset and Palisades will be moved by the county to provide clear access, the fire department said.
Other fire vehicles being utilized include 46 engines, three trucks, five helicopters, four brush patrols, two water tenders, six paramedic ambulances, one fast response vehicle, one advanced nurse practitioner unit, two bulldozers, 10 chief officers, fire investigators and safety officers, said LAFD Chief Kristin Crowley.
No injuries or fatalities have been confirmed, authorities said.
The cause of the fire is under investigation, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
Several noted conservative pundits who live in the area have already been impacted. Actor James Woods has been streaming details obtained through his home’s security cameras.
To all the wonderful people who’ve reached out to us, thank you for being so concerned. Just letting you know that we were able to evacuate successfully. I do not know at this moment if our home is still standing, but sadly houses on our little street are not. pic.twitter.com/xZjvsIg6Fg
— James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) January 7, 2025
Peachy Keenan’s home is in the path of the fire.
Palisades Village CvS burned down
And I’m next pic.twitter.com/LBhUFT2E1t
— Peachy Keenan (@KeenanPeachy) January 8, 2025
Joel Pollack has evacuated.
Massive fire above my neighborhood of Pacific Palisades, in #LosAngeles. Evacuating. pic.twitter.com/vJI06iWa1X
— Joel Pollak (@joelpollak) January 7, 2025
Rantingly.com is monitoring a smaller blaze in the Pasadena area.
View from my apartment in Pasadena of the #CloseFire
That’s my sanctuary. I hike the trails up there 2 or 3 times a week. Praying they get this contained, but not likely. pic.twitter.com/3K8SzIMg5K— Rantingly (@rantinglydotcom) January 8, 2025
A few previous incidents should be noted to place this blaze in the context of California history. The area was also hit hard by a blaze in the 1930’s.
Pacific Palisades was also largely destroyed by fire in 1938. This is a regular occurrence, which will of course be blamed now by academics on the burning of fossil fuels.https://t.co/w3AjmsYQAi https://t.co/42rrBtbUvS pic.twitter.com/jLsr5Oqdtf
— Tony Heller (@TonyClimate) January 8, 2025
During the fire of 1961, hundreds of homes in Pacific Palisades were destroyed by fire.https://t.co/lhv8Hu3jNE https://t.co/uJpvvFBVcw pic.twitter.com/hHI0WUajRj
— Tony Heller (@TonyClimate) January 8, 2025
Fortunately, the area recovered from the devastation. Hopefully, the same will be true this time as well.
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Last night I messaged a friend whose home is on Sunset Blvd, they evacuated, his immediate area had not burned – so far. Santa Ana winds are brutal sometimes. So hot, so dry, so fierce. A retired firefighter friend says in these conditions they cannot stop a fire, at best they can nudge its direction one way or another a little bit, but that’s all.
Managing dead fall and brush does wonders for minimizing number of fires and severity. Clean up the forest or suffer when nature does it for you. About half my farm is wooded, I have been managing it for close to 50 years now.
JohnSmith100:
This was exactly my thought when I read the phrase, “…dried brush due to a dry winter”. No, dried brush exists because the owners of the land it was on were either too stupid, too lazy, or too cheap (or all of the above) to have it routinely cleared.
The complete and utter failure of these entitled millionaires to take basic wildfire precautions is to be expected. They’ve never faced any consequences for their actions, right down to selecting a home in a known fire zone. How many of them had non-combustible roofs and siding? How many of them had pressurized nitrogen bottles connected to water tanks to put water spray on their roofs and siding when triggered by the heat? How many of them had gas-powered pumps to utilize their swimming pool water to spray their homes?
How many of them took the simple precaution of making sure that they had a minimum circumference around their home of non-combustible rock mulch? From the pictures I’ve seen they let the brush grow right up against their houses.
Multi-million dollar homes going up in flames because of personal (and government-induced) short-sightedness. They didn’t want to add $30,000 or $50,000 to the cost of their 5-million dollar house (a whopping 1% increase in their cost) and we living here in fly-over land get to pay for it through increased insurance premiums and tax dollars.
It’s a chaparral scrubland. The State and County are responsible – homeowners are required to cut and maintain 30-50ft firebreaks bordering fence lines. Most do. 99% of the mountain forest regions are supposedly maintained by the USFS. The fed own most of our forests. Pacific Palisades Park is State property.
OK, after the people and their pets, I’m worried about the Getty Villa. Incredible collection of Roman artifacts.
The grounds of the Getty caught fire, but the museum itself is designed with extensive wildfire protections. Hopefully, the collection will survive this inferno. https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-01-07/getty-villa-museum-catching-fire-lafd-says
Don’t build flammable houses if you’re not going to clear out the brush.
The actual fire isn’t anyone’s “fault” but failing to do everything possible to impede its spread certainly is.
.
You’re a sick man, seek help.
Build hurricane and flood proofed floating homes along the gulf/east coasts. Build wind-proof homes in tornado alley. Build tsunami proofed homes …….
My college roommate lives in the Palisades. Their youngest child’s elementary school burned to the ground last night. Their church is engulfed in flames. They don’t live up in the hills. This is in the flats of Pacific Palisades. It’s absolutely amazing how far into the city this fire is traveling. There is no water for the fire department to use. That church is less than 25-meters from a fire station and there was nothing the FD could do because they have no water, something that really isn’t being discussed by the national news networks, including Fox. This is a failure of government of the highest order. Their mayor is in Ghana right now. She should stay there.
“There is no water for the fire department to use.”
Yeah, but the smelt roe are thriving, so there’s that.
“there was nothing the FD could do because they have no water”
Sounds positively Hawaiian.
The mayor of Los Angles, who is currently in Ghana on really important business, cut the city fire department’s budget by 20 million.
They get the leaders they deserve
The people of Pacific Palisades didn’t vote for Bass. They voted OVERWHELMINGLY for Caruso. He won every precinct north/west of Santa Monica and Beverly Hills by at least 65%. That race was really an East LA vs West LA civil war, with Bass carrying everything in Hollywood and east and Caruso carrying everything west with the exception of the very center of the the Valley. But, his strongest results came from the place that is now burning to the ground. I feel sorry for them. I’m not sure of secession is possible for them. If it is, they should strongly consider it.
The people doing the heavy lifting here — fire, police, medical — do not need the mayor or other politicians to be nearby… They (the emergency services) respond as needed. All the politicians do is try to turn things like this into a political advantage for themselves. Politicians need to stand back, shut up and let people do their jobs.
Looters should be shot.
You’re right. Firefighter Hollyn Bullock reports that her wife, Chief Kristin Crowley is on top of things.
Babylon Bee: Newsom Assures Wildfire Victims He Is Diverting Millions Of Dollars To Emergency DEI Initiatives
Leslie, I don’t know where in Cal you are but you need to get out of. That Hellhole.
Staysafe
San Diego. I have family and work commitments here…plus I am living the dream of being a foreign correspondent for Legal Insurrection.
I’ve seen estimates that the State may be on the hook for something like $500 Billion (1/2 trillion) under the FAIR option as the Insurer of last resort. Can you or others with better CA knowledge about this than non CA residents tell us if that figure seems plausible?
There goes reparations.
Seeing videos of the business district of Pacific Palisades, which was an absolutely charming, thriving area. It’s totally destroyed now, looking like something out of an alien invasion movie. So many of the homeowners and business owners don’t have fire insurance anymore because government prohibited insurance rate increases and insurers simply cancelled policies over the last 18-months. Not sure when/how this is going to be rebuilt.
https://x.com/JonVigliotti/status/1877020919475884110
That video is taken ( believe) on the corner of Antioch and N. Swarthmore in the Palisades. It looks like the entire block is gone, literally gone.
The Green New Deal is strong with most of the LA intelligentsia. They have never learned about removing the dead underbrush in these canyon areas. It’s an explosive combination when you add in the Santa Ana winds. If it continues its march to Malibu they will compare it to Sherman’s march to the sea. Can’t blame this fire on PG&E either.
For the tut-tutters – It’s not just California.
The Smokehouse Creek Fire was a record-breaking wildfire affecting the northeastern Texas panhandle and western Oklahoma that started on February 26, 2024.
As of March 16, 2024, the fire had burned approximately 1,058,482 acres (1,654 sq mi; 428,352 ha) before it was successfully contained.
The cause of the fire was downed power lines due to a broken utility pole.
The weather conditions over Texas at the time were highly conducive to the spread of fires, with warm temperatures and gusty conditions prevailing over the region.
Wildfires are a part of the natural order especially in areas like this with routine dry conditions and high wind. Mitigation measures before the fire is the only way to limit the damage. Clearing some of the dead/dry ladder fuel and adequate water storage to help fight fires would seem to be not just common sense but very easy to do….if those things were a priority for State/Local leaders which doesn’t seem to be the case in Southern CA. Adding to the problem is lack of private insurance due to other poor decisions by State leadership.
The chickens are coming home to roost. Environmental policies have caused a lot of grief for California. By not responsibly managing the land is manifesting their folly.
Through CA land management and immigration policies, the state seems intent on restoring the former Mexican heritage.
Mexican? More like Bronze Age.
Sure would have been nice if the State of Commiefornia had managed it’s forests with techniques that we’ve known about for centuries. Gaia worship gone wrong, at the expense of the normal people.
This is only several brush fires that have taxed emergency services well past the point of ineffectiveness. They are clearly unprepared for and incapable of responding to a major earthquake…that will also spawn hundreds of fires over a much, much larger area. California is a beautiful but also failed state.
IMO the State of CA is one of several parts of the USA which have been able to prop themselves up on the work and investments of prior generations. Eventually the mismanagement of resources, poor public policy choices and bad priorities overwhelms them. The patched over problems burst through the layers of political BS and propaganda overwhelming what little remains of functioning systems.
Bad State wildfire mitigation policy, bad State Insurance policy, chronic under investment of fire fighting resources, blunt refusal to build more/larger water reservoirs, a seeming indifference to historical fire/wind patterns and an emphasis not on merit but ‘diversity’ for public officials. All poured into the mixer to blend up this current mess.
Biden on the ground with Newsom is Santa Monica CA while the fires rage, more evacuation orders given, tens of thousands displaced, area of fire growing.
Couldn’t go to NC on day 1 or day 2 though b/c he didn’t ‘want to be a distraction’. GTFO with that crap.
Joe…run towards the fire…be a hero and save the ice cream, Joey! Do it Joe!
This apocalypse would be great timing for his final pardon list.
Gavin said not to worry! It must feel good to Californians that there are tampons in all the men’s bathrooms, plenty of garbage all over the streets, numerous immigrant encampments, gasoline is $5 a gallon, eggs at $10 per dozen, and Pride Week is coming soon! Besides Team Gavin makes sure your children’s teachers are perverts who believe in gender transition for your kids at age 6.
Who cares about a little wind and fire? Right? From his perspective, Gavin can always blame it on Trump, global warming, domestic terrorism, the Latin language or something else that is far-right GOP-ish.
Why can’t sea water be used to put out the fire?
It absolutely could be, particularly for the Palisades fire; the fires near Calabasas and Pasadena are more challenging because they’re both so far from the ocean. But, to do that, they would have needed a competent PLAN and the proper equipment. They don’t have those things. But, they do have a Lesbian fire chief, more female and LGBTQ firefighters and everyone is using the propre pronouns. Isn’t that enough?
Some of you should be ashamed of yourselves.
Yes … CA is an oppressive poorly governed political hell hole.
How about a little consideration and understanding for the people in these fires who have lost their homes, businesses and maybe even their lives.
But no … not here … you people dump on CA every chance you get regardless of any tragedy Californians endure. Those of you that do make me puke.
You’re right, Ken. We never stop to realize that nobody elects these stone incompetents, they elect themselves. California government is one giant self-licking ice-cream cone.
The people who vote the right way still made the decision that “something else” took precedence over their liberty and their lives, or else they’d be somewhere else. Who am I to judge their decision.
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