LA wildfires: Apocalyptic scenes as wildfires raze 2000 properties, kill five amid water shortages

Crews battling multiple wildfires raging across Los Angeles are up against a near-perfect storm: intense winds, low humidity and, most troubling for residents, inadequate supplies of water to contain the blazes.

The red flag fire weather conditions are expected to persist through Thursday and into Friday night for a wide swath of Southern California.

Authorities said their municipal water systems were working effectively but they were designed for an urban environment, not for tackling wildfires and residents have been urged to conserve water.

On Wednesday, at least three major blazes burned in LA County communities simultaneously, including a fire in the affluent Pacific Palisades neighbourhood, an area west of downtown LA dotted with multimillion-dollar celebrity homes built along steep canyons.

The death toll from the fires stands at five but there are fears that could grow.

All five deaths occurred in and around Altadena and Pasadena, where the Eaton Fire is out of control, according to the LA Times.

It’s estimated more than 2,000 homes, businesses and other buildings have been damaged or destroyed across the Palisades and Eaton fires including luxury homes of Hollywood stars, and a “high number of people seriously injured”.

Mandatory evacuation orders are in place forcing about 100,000 people to flee their homes with another 100,000 warned to get ready to leave.

Lack of water has hampered efforts particularly in Pacific Palisades, an upscale coastal enclave where a wildfire has burned more than 15,800 acres and numerous homes, businesses and landmarks in the Palisades and westward along Pacific Coast Highway, toward Malibu.

The Pacific Palisades fire stands “0% contained”, according to the latest update.

Jay Lund, a professor in civil and environmental engineering at the University of California Davis, said city water tanks are typically designed to be able to put out localised fires, not widespread fires like the ones blazing in Los Angeles.

“It’s not a matter of there’s not enough water in Southern California, it’s a matter of there’s not enough water in that particular area of Southern California just for those few hours that you need it to fight the fires,” Lund said.

Mark Pestrella, director of Los Angeles County Public Works said, “A firefight with multiple fire hydrants drawing water from the system for several hours is unsustainable”.

Janisse Quinones, CEO and chief engineer of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, said the demand for water to fight fires at lower elevations was hampering the city’s ability to refill water tanks at higher elevations.

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power said that in advance of the windstorm, it had filled all available water tanks in the city, including three 3.8-million-litre tanks in the Palisades area.

The area had exhausted the three water storage tanks by early Wednesday, Quinones said in a press briefing.

The department urged Angelenos to conserve water, and said it had deployed 18 water trucks of 2000 to 4000 gallons since Tuesday to help firefighters.

Lund said the nature of the fires was such that it was nearly impossible to arrange enough water in advance.

“If everything catches fire at once, there’s not going to be enough water for everybody,” he said.

“There’s just no way that you could fit the pipes to work to move that much water across that area in a short period of time.”

A high wind warning remains in effect, with 5-40mph winds with gusts between 60-80mph expected.

The Eaton fire has now burned more than 10,000 acres and an estimated 1000 structures in Altadena and Pasadena.

The Hurst fire, in Sylmar in the San Fernando Valley northwest of Los Angeles, had exceeded 700 hectares.

All three fires were uncontained, officials said.

“We are absolutely not out of danger yet, with the strong winds that continue to push through the city and the county today,” Los Angeles City Fire Chief Kristen Crowley said at a press conference.

A fourth blaze, dubbed the Sunset fire, exploded around 5:45 pm and appeared to be burning south toward Hollywood Boulevard and has prompted evacuations of the Runyon Canyon area. The fire created massive traffic jams as residents rushed to escape.

The winds have made it impossible to offer aerial support for firefighting operations, officials said, putting municipal water systems under immense strain.

The skies above Los Angeles glowed red and were blanketed by thick smoke as the sun rose on Wednesday.

As the flames spread and residents began leaving after the fires broke out on Tuesday, roads were so jammed that some people abandoned their vehicles to escape the fire.

Emergency responders were going door to door to tell people to leave.

California Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency on Tuesday.

President Joe Biden planned to visit a Santa Monica fire station for a briefing from fire officials on Wednesday, the White House said.

Approximately 100 of the 1000 public schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District were shut down, Superintendent Alberto Carvalho told the press conference.

Pacific Palisades resident Cindy Festa said that as she left, fires were “this close to the cars,” demonstrating with her thumb and forefinger.

“People left their cars on Palisades Drive. Burning up the hillside. The palm trees - everything is going,” Festa said from her car.

Pacific Palisades is one of the most expensive neighbourhoods in the country.

A typical home was valued at $US3.7 million ($A6 million) as of the end of 2023, according to Zillow, more than all but four other postal codes in the United States.

Those fleeing the wildfires included Hollywood celebrities such as Jamie Lee Curtis, Mandy Moore and Mark Hamill.

In the Pasadena area, the Eaton fire engulfed homes, a synagogue and a McDonald’s restaurant.

Almost 100 residents from a nursing home in Pasadena were helped to leave, CBS News said.

Video showed elderly residents, many in wheelchairs and on gurneys, crowded onto a smoky and windswept parking lot as fire trucks and ambulances attended to them.

About 188,000 homes and businesses in Los Angeles county were without power on Wednesday, data from PowerOutage.us showed.

— with AAP