Blaze Breaks Out in Hollywood Hills, as L.A. Wildfires Kill at Least 5 (2025)

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Here’s the latest on the fires.

The 60-acre Sunset fire, burning among the hiking trails and secluded mansions of the Hollywood Hills, was zero percent contained as of 9 p.m. local time. A mandatory evacuation order was in effect for a wealthy area bordered by Mulholland Drive and Hollywood Boulevard, and an evacuation warning extended west along Sunset Boulevard toward West Hollywood and Beverly Hills.

The street names evoke the grandeur and romance of the movies, and the iconic “Hollywood” sign stands nearby, on the other side of the 101 Freeway.

As of Wednesday evening, five people had died as a result of the wildfires, more than 25,000 acres had burned, more than 100,000 people were under mandatory evacuation orders and hundreds of thousands of customers had lost power. Glowing embers were floating through the sky like lightning bugs as thick black smoke turned day into night.

The largest of the blazes is the uncontained, 15,000-acre Palisades Fire. It has already consumed more than 1,000 structures, making it the most destructive in Los Angeles history, according to Cal Fire, the state fire agency.

About 16 million people in Southern California were under a red flag warning, the highest fire-related alert issued by the National Weather Service, by 9 p.m. on Wednesday. The agency said “extremely critical” fire weather conditions — the result of strong winds and dry conditions — were forecast to wane overnight. But conditions would remain “critically elevated” through at least Thursday and potentially into Friday, it said.

Here’s what else to know:

• Other fires: East of Los Angeles in Eaton Canyon, the day-old Eaton fire had reached Pasadena and consumed more than 10,000 acres as of Wednesday night. Another blaze that started on Tuesday, the Hurst fire in the San Fernando Valley, had grown to about 850 acres. Read more about the three major fires.

• Water availability: A lack of water has hampered crews’ efforts to beat back the major fires and several smaller ones The Los Angeles Department of Water & Power said that the department had filled reservoirs across the city before the windstorm. But with so many trucks connected to hydrants, and no aerial support possible, the tanks were depleted.

• Climate context: Santa Ana winds are notorious for spreading wildfire, and they often occur in colder months. By January, though, their impacts are usually less dramatic, as the landscape is typically less flammable after rains in the fall and early winter. But this year, the rains have not come, leaving most of Southern California extremely dry. Scientists have also found that fires across the region have become faster-moving in recent decades.

Yan Zhuang, Jacey Fortin, and Ken Bensinger contributed reporting.

The remaining area is closed until Thursday morning as firefighters ensure fires don’t flare up again, the fire department said, asking residents to be cautious as they return to their homes.

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The fact that they’re burning at the same time — while more fires keep popping up across the region — makes it that much scarier.

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This fire is about eight miles northeast of the Sunset fire in the Hollywood Hills.

L.A. residents criticize mayor’s absence during fire emergency.

Ms. Bass, a former Democratic congresswoman who became mayor in late 2022, did not return to Los Angeles until Wednesday afternoon, by which point more than 1,000 homes had burned and 100,000 people across the region had been forced to flee from their homes.

The mayor’s absence has drawn criticism from some Angelenos. Many said there was insufficient warning from officials about the likelihood of devastating fires, even as weather forecasts predicted extreme danger this week.

By Thursday last week, the National Weather Service in Los Angeles had begun warning of “extreme fire weather conditions.” By Sunday, the warnings had become even more dire — “rapid fire growth and extreme behavior with any fire starts.”

But Mayor Bass posted her first warning on X about the wind storm on Monday, when she was already in Ghana. Her office did not send out a news release about fire risk until nearly 11 a.m. on Tuesday morning, after the blaze in Pacific Palisades had already broken out.

“There was zero preparation. There was zero thought here,” said Michael Gonzales, 47, whose home burned down in Pacific Palisades, a wealthy neighborhood that overlooks the Pacific Ocean. His family of five was camped out in a hotel in Santa Monica on Wednesday as they began figuring out where they will live.

Mr. Gonzales, a lawyer, said he believed Mayor Bass made a poor decision to remain overseas despite forecasters warning of the most dangerous fire conditions in more than a decade.

“It was an utter breakdown in leadership and it starts with the mayor’s office,” he said in an interview.

In her first news conference since returning to Los Angeles, Mayor Bass on Wednesday defended her administration when asked about criticisms of the city’s response to the fire. She said the disaster was the result of months of little rain and winds that had not been seen in the city for at least 14 years.

“We have to resist any, any effort to pull us apart,” she said.

Ms. Bass said that she returned home as quickly as she could after the fires tore through Pacific Palisades and other parts of Southern California.

“I took the fastest route back, which included being on a military plane,” she said.

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power filled all 114 available water reservoirs and storage facilities ahead of the windstorm, including the ones in the Palisades area, said Janisse Quiñones, the department’s chief executive. Without aerial water supply, the heavy use of fire hydrants depleted the tanks, which crews were now working to refill, she said.

Rick Caruso, a real estate developer who lost to Ms. Bass in the mayoral race in 2022, said that he had a team of private firefighters in Pacific Palisades on Tuesday night helping to protect a major outdoor retail space he owns, as well as some nearby homes. All night, he said, they were telling him that water was in short supply.

City officials confirmed that water tanks ran dry during the intense firefight early Wednesday in Pacific Palisades because demand surged to four times the normal rate for 15 hours. The system, they suggested, was not designed to supply so much water in such a short period.

“The lack of water in the hydrants, I don’t think there’s an excuse,” Mr. Caruso said. “This was very predictable,” he said, referring to the forecasts that predicted the devastating windstorm.

Mr. Caruso, who served two stints as president of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, said that it will take time to account for why firefighters struggled to get enough water to fight the fires.

“This is a massive failure of epic proportions,” he said. “To know the storm was coming and then to leave, and not rush back. Leadership matters and the first thing is to be present.”

Isabelle Taft contributed reporting.

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The Sunset fire is threatening beloved L.A. landmarks.

It was less than a mile west of the Hollywood Bowl, which is one of the city’s biggest entertainment venues and is inside the mandatory evacuation zone set up after the Sunset fire broke out. The Dolby Theater, where the Academy Awards are held, the TCL Chinese Theater and the Capital Records building are also in the zone.

The authorities have ordered mandatory evacuations for a wealthy area bordered by Mulholland Drive and Hollywood Boulevard, names that evoke the grandeur and romance of the movies. Evacuation warnings stretched west into parts of Beverly Hills, home to many Hollywood stars.

The Hollywood sign is near the evacuation area, as is the Griffith Observatory. The Hollywood Hills can be tricky to navigate, full of the same kind of narrow, twisting roads that complicated evacuations in Pacific Palisades on Tuesday.

All staff at the Hollywood Bowl left safely after the venue received evacuation orders, a spokeswoman said. The TCL Chinese Theater said in a statement that it had closed for the night and sent employees home.

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Biden cancels a trip to Italy to focus on the fire response.

The fires that broke out across the Los Angeles region on Tuesday scuttled that plan. Mr. Biden had been in Los Angeles on Wednesday on a previously planned visit and changed his schedule to receive a briefing from the California governor and officials involved in the fire response.

Mr. Biden then flew back to Washington on Wednesday evening before the Carter funeral.

Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, said that after arriving back at the White House, Mr. Biden decided to cancel his trip.

Previous presidents have made similar decisions when faced with natural disasters. In 2010, President Barack Obama canceled a trip to Indonesia and Australia during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. It was the second time Mr. Obama had called off the same trip, after earlier canceling it to oversee negotiations over what became the Affordable Care Act in Congress.

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The city said that extensive fire resources were being deployed to stop the spread of the fire but warned residents to be ready in the case of a mandatory evacuation. “This is a reminder to have your emergency kit ready to go.”

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‘It was biblical’: Ash and flame upend life in Southern California.

This time, it was different.

In a furious assault that began Tuesday morning and continued into Wednesday night, a wind-and-wildfire monster attacked a metropolis of 4,753 square miles and nearly 10 million people, whipping up flames that tore through communities of every socioeconomic status and stripe.

Mansions were reduced to ash in Pacific Palisades, a West Los Angeles celebrity enclave. Subdivisions burned to the ground 35 miles to the east in the tidy suburb of Altadena. Ranch hands in rural Sylmar, 25 miles to the north, fled into the fiery night, leading horses. New homeowners in freshly built developments hours away in inland communities like Pomona braced for evacuations as 59-mile-per-hour winds rattled the windowpanes and palm trees.

As of late Wednesday, the fires had claimed at least five lives and destroyed more than a thousand buildings, with more damage expected as the wind intensified with nightfall. A new fire in the evening had engulfed part of the Hollywood Hills. More than 80,000 people were under evacuation orders.

It wasn’t just that the place was in flames. It was that it seemed to be in flames everywhere at once, as a barrage of separate wildfire events erupted in population centers across the region, each spawning its own constellation of spot fires from wind-driven embers. Psychically if not physically, they merged into a kind of mega-catastrophe for Southern Californians. Ash, smoke, wind and flames carried the heart-stinging realization, which spread like a contagion, that a new and less manageable landscape was on the horizon.

“The only thing I can think of that would compare with this would be a massive earthquake,” said Zev Yaroslavsky, 76, who served for decades in Los Angeles as a city councilman and county supervisor. “Except that earthquakes have an epicenter.”

He paused to cough, hoarse from the smoke that has blanketed the region. “This thing is all over the place,” he said. “It’s impacting everybody who breathes the air. When I went to get the paper this morning, a big black cloud hung over the city from the Eaton fire. It was biblical.”

When Antonio Villaraigosa was mayor of Los Angeles from 2005 to 2013, not a year passed that didn’t include a helicopter ride in which he surveyed the vast Los Angeles Basin after some disaster. Every year, he said, he would be struck by the sheer breadth and vulnerability of Southern California.

The high rises down Wilshire Boulevard. The celebrity compounds in the Santa Monica Mountains. The endless tracts of little homes, each a repository of a family’s dreams and life savings. The hills, with their narrow and twisty streets and bone-dry chaparral — a constant peril in fire season, though it was also clear that the sheer size of the place could trump even an inferno.

On Wednesday, Mr. Villaraigosa and others said, no place seemed immune.

“I’ve lived here my whole life and never seen anything like this,” said Mr. Villaraigosa, 71, who spoke by phone from his own Los Angeles home, where he was anticipating evacuation orders. “The devastation in the Palisades. The first responders. The fire chief in Pasadena just estimated that the number of homes lost there would be in the triple digits. The Ralphs on Sunset is destroyed. I used to go to that market all the time.”

To outsiders, Los Angeles can come off as a faceless sprawl filled with artifice and isolation. But those who live there discover that every neighborhood and every backyard is its own universe. Each hub of the region has its own character, cuisine, vernacular, soul and landmarks.

The fire in Pacific Palisades took with it not only the homes of famous people — “One day you’re swimming in the pool and the next day it’s all gone,” the actor James Woods told CNN, weeping — but also the infrastructure of a small town with a population roughly the size of Pottstown, Pa.

The Palisades has a median household income of $155,433, nearly double that of Los Angeles County, according to city and census data that includes nearby Brentwood. The house where the first flames were reported has an estimated value — midrange for the community — of about $4.5 million. Far pricier properties, famously, rise into the hillsides, owned by family-friendly moguls like Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg. Sugar Ray Leonard’s estate is on the market for just under $40 million.

But many of the homes that burned were in a part of town known as the Highlands, where townhouses built in the 1970s and ’80s have long offered a more affordable option for retirees and single parents. There are longtime denizens who have lived in the Palisades for decades, having bought low years ago in a gem of a place that was more coastal than Beverly Hills and less rustic than nearby Malibu or Topanga Canyon. As firefighters struggled to save the central business district and the local school buildings, generations of “Pali High” graduates frantically begged them to save the site of their teenage memories.

The communities around Eaton Canyon, an hour’s drive to the east, make up another Southern California entirely. Anchored by Pasadena, which has a population of more than 133,000, the area is a majority-minority magnet for the middle and upper-middle class of the region. Altadena, the unincorporated community closest to the fire, is known for its rambling ranch houses and neat bungalows that hug the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains.

People hike in the canyon on weekends and debate the relative merits of drought-tolerant landscaping and rose gardens. Christmas decorations are a competitive sport. The splendor of the Angeles National Forest is a local respite. And the threat of wildfire is a constant.

“This is my fourth fire and the only time we’ve ever left,” said Muffie Alejandro, 74, the owner of a manufacturing company who has lived near Eaton Canyon since 1989. On Tuesday, she evacuated to a hotel with her husband, Jan, and her dogs, Mingus and Clinton. “This is the worst I’ve ever seen,” she said.

Sylmar is yet another Los Angeles, remote and rugged, far to the north in the San Fernando Valley, an arid swath of ranches and working-class suburbs once known for its groves of olive trees. Its population is about 80,000, and three-quarters Latino. The terminus of the Los Angeles Aqueduct system is there, as is the Olive View-U.C.L.A. Medical Center.

It burns regularly, too. One wildfire, in 2008, destroyed nearly 500 houses. El Cariso Community Regional Park, a local landmark, is dedicated to fire crews who died in a 1966 blaze.

This week, those distinct versions of paradise became one, united in terror.

“There’s a kind of mantra that when the wind blows, Los Angeles burns,” said D.J. Waldie, 76, a historian who has written extensively about Southern California and is a lifelong resident of the Los Angeles suburb of Lakewood. “That’s true again, but there’s an ominous sense this time.”

This disaster, he said, has come suddenly, and all over, and seems only to promise more disaster: “I think that Angelenos are thinking, ‘This is going to go on and on and on. And what will become of us?’”

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Who’s in charge of the firefighting effort?

But two leaders who have emerged as among the most critical to the firefighting effort are a pair of fire chiefs: Anthony C. Marrone, the fire chief for Los Angeles County, and Kristin M. Crowley, the chief of the city’s fire department. The two top fire officials are working in what is known as “unified command” with a third key group, California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, the state fire agency known as Cal Fire.

A spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Fire Department said on Wednesday that the department was responsible for the Palisades fire, which was burning in the neighborhood of Pacific Palisades, and the Hurst fire, which was cutting through the San Fernando Valley and concentrated in the Sylmar neighborhood, also within city limits.

“We are absolutely not out of danger yet,” Chief Crowley said at the news conference.

Cal Fire has assigned what is known as an incident commander to each fire, though a spokesman at a command post in Malibu said on Wednesday afternoon that it was not yet clear who those commanders were.

A third fire, the Eaton fire, is ripping through the Angeles National Forest, the Altadena area of Los Angeles County and part of the city of Pasadena. That blaze falls under the jurisdiction of Chief Marrone and the Los Angeles County Fire Department. Chief Marrone is also a regional fire coordinator who said he had asked for help from nearby counties and the state office of emergency services.

“Please prioritize your safety,” Chief Marrone said at the news conference.

Chief Crowley, a 22-year veteran of the department, became the first female and L.G.B.T.Q. chief of the city’s fire department when she took the oath of office in March 2022.

Chief Marrone has worked with the county fire department for almost 40 years and has worked as a chief officer there for more than two decades.

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Here are steps you can take to be safe as fires sweep Southern California.

Sign up for emergency alerts

An easy way to monitor the spread of fires, including which areas are under evacuation orders, is to check for updates on California’s statewide fire agency website, where maps of each fire are regularly updated. Check Cal Fire’s website here. The state also sends emergency notifications during fires or other disasters, which you can sign up for here.

If you live or work in Los Angeles County, you can also sign up to receive countywide emergency alerts by text, email or phone call. You can also enroll in alerts that are specific to your city or neighborhood, using the options available at the bottom of this page.

You can register for countywide emergency notifications from Ventura County, the neighboring county where fires have also erupted this week amid extremely heavy winds. Those alerts will help you stay in the loop not just during fires, but also in the event of an earthquake or other disasters.

The app Watch Duty is another option to follow real-time updates on fires. The app uses a network of retired firefighters and dispatchers who monitor radio broadcasts from emergency responders to quickly send updates. It also has a real-time map showing the intensity and spread of the fires.

Avoid dirty air

Wildfires create smoke that can have serious health ramifications for people as far as 100 miles from the flames — even if they can’t see or smell smoke nearby. Health experts say that there is most likely no safe level of exposure to wildfire smoke, which can trigger asthma attacks and exacerbate other conditions such as diabetes and heart disease.

Keep an eye on AirNow.Gov for a measure of your local air quality. Fire.airnow.gov also has a helpful map of fire and smoke patterns and how they are influencing air quality.

If the air quality in your neighborhood is poor, or if it is moderate but you are at high risk, try to limit the amount of time you spend outside as much as possible. If you must go outside, wear an N95 mask — a surgical mask isn’t enough to filter out all smoke particulates, experts say.

Indoors, make sure all the windows in your home are tightly shut, and run air purifiers if you have them, as they can help filter particles from the air.

Here is more on how to make your home as safe from pollution as possible.

Pack a ‘go bag’

When a fire is fast approaching, there usually isn’t time to assemble a bag with everything you might need to be away from home for a few nights. So be sure to pack a bag in advance.

In a backpack or other easy-to-grab kit, you’ll want a change of clothes, a first-aid kit, a flashlight and an extra set of car keys. It’s also recommended that you keep a three-day supply of food and water.

The New York Times has additional guidance on what to put in your emergency bag.

Check for school closures

The Times is tracking which school districts are canceling classes this week, either because of evacuations, winds or smoke-choked air. You should also check with your child’s school or school district to see whether they will be open.

On Wednesday, at least 18 of the 80 school districts in Los Angeles County announced that schools would close for the day. Many urged parents to take precautions as the fires continued to rage and strong winds affected the area.

Find an evacuation shelter

The Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, has set up an easy way to find a shelter near you. Text “SHELTER” and then your ZIP code to 43362.

Los Angeles County has also set up a number of shelters:

• Westwood Recreation Center, at 1350 Sepulveda Boulevard, Los Angeles, Calif. 90025

• El Camino Real Charter High School, at 5440 Valley Circle Boulevard, Woodland Hills, Calif. 91367

• Pasadena Civic Center, at 300 East Green Street, Pasadena, Calif. 91101

Officials also recommend two shelters for animals. One is for small animals: the Agoura Animal Care Center, at 29525 Agoura Road, Agoura Hills, Calif. 91301. The other is for large animals: Los Angeles Equestrian Center, at 480 Riverside Drive, Burbank, Calif. 91506.

Find a disaster resource center

Two disaster resources centers are opening in Los Angeles County on Tuesday to provide support for people affected by the fires, including help for those who lost birth certificates, driver’s licenses, social security cards and other important documentation. Disaster relief will be available to people whose homes or businesses were lost or damaged in the fires, and referrals will also be available for mental health counseling and other services.

The locations for the centers are:

Westside LocationUCLA Research Park West
10850 West Pico Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90064

Eastside Location
Pasadena City College Community Education Center
3035 E. Foothill Blvd.
Pasadena, CA 91107

The centers will be open Tuesday from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m. Beginning Wednesday, the centers will be open from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., according to LA County Recovery’s website.

Check on the status of your home

Thousands of structures have been destroyed in the fires, and Cal Fire is tracking damage assessments on its website. People wondering whether their homes survived the fires can go to the Eaton Fire Incident Page or the Palisades Fire Incident Page, which are listed on Cal Fire’s website. Scroll to the bottom of the incident page until you reach the “Damage Assessment Map,” and agree to the terms and conditions to access the map. Enter your address in the map’s search bar to see how much damage, if any, your home sustained. Damage assessments are ongoing and are subject to change, and information is updated as it becomes available, Cal Fire said.

A damage assessment map for the Palisades fire can also be found on the LA County Recovers website at this link, and the damage assessment map for the Eaton Fire can be found here. If there is no color icon on your address, it means a building has not yet been inspected, according to LA County Recovers.

Apply for aid

On Friday, California launched a website, CA.gov/LAfires, a central resource for information from local, state and federal governments.

The site has links for individuals and business owners who sustained losses in Los Angeles County to apply for disaster assistance and prepare an insurance claim.

Protect your pets from the smoke

Whether residents are in areas directly touched by the fires or on the edges of the smoke perimeter, they should refrain from taking their pets outside while smoky conditions remain, local veterinarians warned.

The greatest concern is the potential for lung damage, said Andrew Grussendorf, a veterinarian in Fallbrook, a town in nearby San Diego County. Pets can be just as negatively impacted by smoke inhalation as humans, he said.

And owners who are evacuating or close to flames should make sure to transport their animals off the ground to avoid burning their paws, Dr. Grussendorf said.

If you think that you may need to evacuate with your pet, the National Fire Protection Association recommends you pack a “go bag” in advance that includes ownership and vaccination records, collars and leashes, medications, and food.

The group also suggests bringing photos of you with your pet in case your animal becomes lost and you need to prove you are the owner. It also suggests making sure your pet’s identification tag has your phone number and address — but also a relative’s phone number in case your own cellphone goes out of service.

Eli Tan and Rachel Nostrant contributed reporting.

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