Blackened Skies and Celebrities on the Run as Trio of Wildfires Sweep Southern California

MARCH AIR RESERVE BASE, California — The winds that swept over this Air Force base in the western reaches of Riverside County on Tuesday did not portend good things for Wednesday. Southern Californians generally are inured to the dry gusts of the Santa Ana winds, but these were clocking at 65 to 75 miles per hour, almost knocking my young nephew to the ground as we were visiting the March Field Air Museum at about the same time the Pacific Palisades started to go up in flames.As of noon on Wednesday, three wildfires were raging out of control across the Southland, as we call it here, with winds whipping and the Palisades fire having burned more than 5,000 acres, destroying several homes along the iconic Pacific Coast Highway in the direction of Malibu. The Eaton fire has already burned more than 10,000 acres at Altadena and Pasadena, with flames consuming an unspecified number of buildings; another wildfire was burning near Sylmar. As of midday, according to a Los Angeles Times report, another fire had broken out at Brentwood, near the ongoing Pacific Palisades “inferno.” There have been two confirmed fatalities and more than 1,000 homes, businesses, and buildings destroyed in the fires raging in Los Angeles County.Governor Newsom has declared a state of emergency, warning that the worst of the winds were expected between 10 p.m. Tuesday and 5 a.m. Wednesday.“The sky is black over Santa Monica and you can smell the fires,” a colleague told this correspondent from his car driving along Wilshire Boulevard, adding, “I have two clients in the Palisades who told me this morning that their houses have burned down. I have a third who I’m afraid to ask.”The ferocity of the winds overnight Tuesday, reportedly gusting up to 100 miles per hour at times, turned what had been a calm spell of California weather into a disaster unfolding across multiple fronts and across a sprawling geographic area. There are political dimensions too, with reports coming in of fire hydrants in the Pacific Palisades running dry and firefighting teams, already overwhelmed and stretched to the limit, grappling with issues of water scarcity there and possibly in other locations. President-elect Trump wasted little time in referring to Mr. Newsom as “incompetent” on social media. Los Angeles’s mayor, Karen Bass, who like Mr. Newsom is a Democrat, has been criticized for visiting the West African nation of Ghana while portions her city burns.The neighborhood of Pacific Palisades is famous as the home of the Getty Villa, an art museum modeled after an ancient Roman villa that is perched on a bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Some of the lush grounds of the villa have reportedly been affected by the fire, though the villa itself and priceless Greek and Roman antiquities contained therein have not been damaged. In a statement, the head of the J. Paul Getty Trust, Katherine Fleming, confirmed fires did burn some landscaping, but did not reach the structure. Still, both the Getty Villa and the newer Getty Center, at Brentwood, will remain closed at least through the weekend. As of Wednesday morning firefighters were reporting zero containment of the blaze, though diminishing winds were giving hope that the tide could turn by evening. In the meantime, even the Pentagon was trying to help. The deputy Pentagon press secretary, Sabrina Singh, said at press conference that 10 Navy helicopters were set to “immediately assist with aerial suppression” — these are in addition to modular air fighting system units being employed by the California National Guard and the Nevada National Guard to try to douse the flames from above. Ms. Singh also said, though, that “we can’t even get assets up in the air because the fires are so bad and because the winds are so bad.”Things are not looking good on the ground. Sections of the normally scenic P.C.H. have turned into what locals are describing as hellscapes, with even celebrity homes succumbing to the fiery wrath of Mother Nature in one of her more notorious Southern California guises. The Palisades fire has forced many Hollywood stars, including Mark Hamill, Mandy Moore, and James Woods, to evacuate their homes.“Evacuated Malibu so last minute,” Mr. Hamill wrote in an Instagram post Tuesday night. “Small fires on both sides of the road as we approached” the Pacific Coast Highway.Other Hollywood stars who have homes in the area include Adam Sandler, Ben Affleck, Steven Spielberg, and Tom Hanks. Universal Studios has shut down. A statement on the NBCUniversal-owned theme park’s website Wednesday read, “Universal Studios Hollywood and Universal CityWalk will be closed today as a result of the extreme winds and fire conditions.”As People reported, the closure marks the first time the attraction has shut down since the Covid-19 pandemic. Palisades Charter High School, a famous filming location, has burned completely to the ground. As of Wednesday, thousands of Malibu residents were under evacuation orders as the Palisades fire was reaching the city limits of the oceanside celebrity enclave.

Blackened Skies and Celebrities on the Run as Trio of Wildfires Sweep Southern California

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