California wildfires: State of emergency declared in Los Angeles and 30,000 evacuated as huge blaze rips through celebrity neighbourhood
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A state of emergency has been declared in Los Angeles after a huge wildfire swept through hillsides dotted with celebrity homes. The fire forced the evacuation of 30,000 people, some of whom abandoned their cars and fled on foot to safety. Nearly 3,000 acres of the Pacific Palisades area between the coastal towns of Santa Monica and Malibu had burned by the Palisades Fire, officials said.
Fire officials said that several people were injured, some with burns to faces and hands. A second blaze dubbed the Eaton Fire broke out some 30 miles inland near Pasadena and doubled in size to 400 acres in a few hours, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said.
California Governor Gavin Newsom, who was in Southern California to attend the naming of a national monument by US President Joe Biden, made a detour to the area to see "first hand the impact of these swirling winds and the embers". He said he found "not a few - many structures already destroyed".
Among those forced to evacuate were almost 100 residents from a nursing home in Pasadena. Video showed elderly residents, many in wheelchairs and on gurneys, crowded onto a smoke-filled car park as fire trucks and ambulances attended. Fire officials also said a third blaze named the Hurst Fire had started in Sylmar, in the San Fernando Valley northwest of Los Angeles, prompting evacuations of some nearby residents.
