Pacific Palisades locals describe catastrophic fire as they escape with designer suitcases: ‘Like a disaster movie’
A fire is raging in Southern California’s Pacific Palisades neighborhood, known for luxury shopping and A-list celebrities like Reese Witherspoon and Ben Affleck.
DailyMail.com spoke to a resident of the flaming area who lives not far from the downtown shopping district.
Mina and her daughter were lucky enough to ride away with the clothes on their backs and their two small dogs.
The mother described the scene as “chaotic” and “frightening,” with people running, sirens blaring and ocean-filled planes buzzing overhead.
‘People park their cars on the side of the road, get out and run for their lives!’ Mina told DailyMail.com. “People are literally running on the sidewalks, pulling children by their hands and carrying Louis Vuitton luggage.
‘A man ran away with two Gucci suitcases and a houseplant. It looks like something out of a disaster movie.’
A BMW and a Tesla are seen driving bumper to bumper traffic as the fire rages in the background
A Porsche is seen driving away from the fiery scene in Los Angeles on Tuesday
And there is no shortcut to safer ground.
“It’s taking three hours to get out of the Palisades right now. They are bumper to bumper Porsches and BMWs. People are running for their lives!’
As for fearing for her life, she is outspoken.
‘I’m not scared because I got out. But I’m very concerned. I may not come back to my house. It may have been burned. I may lose my home that I love,” she added.
Still, some of her neighbors want to stay and are hosing down the roofs of their houses “in the hope of saving it.”
‘I’m amazed that people want to stay, they could die! It’s insane. I don’t think people know how serious it is,” Mina said.
Police rush into the area to help people get away. ‘Everywhere you look the sirens are wailing!’
There aren’t many places to go. It is a challenge to even get to the Pacific Ocean.
And all the hotels in the area are filling up.’
When it comes to cars, people ask to leave their keys outside.
“Everyone is asking people to put the keys in their cars so that security people can drive them away if a fire breaks out. That’s so the car doesn’t explode with a full tank of gas. It could be a firebomb.”
Firefighters run as a wildfire burns in Pacific Palisades, California
A firefighter protects a structure from the advance in California
A fire rages in Southern California’s Pacific Palisades neighborhood, known for its luxury shopping and A-list celebrities like Gwyneth Paltrow and Ben Affleck
She described the scene as “chaotic” and “frightening”, with people running and sirens blaring
All shops and schools are also closed.
The fire started just before 11 a.m.
“I was supposed to leave my house at 11 o’clock and when I went outside it smelled like fire, but not that bad,” she said.
“It started in the Palisades Highlands, north of where I live.
‘I could see flames and smoke on the ring of fire, I’ve never seen flames so close before.
‘It spread like crazy, so fast, and the flames were as high as 40 feet. I could see the flames rising, flying through the air and falling on the brush. I left shortly after because I saw the fire coming down the hill towards my house. I didn’t wait for an evacuation that came at 1:30 p.m.’
The evacuation warnings were posted on the Citizen app and LAFD.org. “I looked at my phone,” Mina said, “but I was gone before they told people to leave.”
She took all her paperwork, her bag, her dogs, dog food and a bottle of water with her.
‘My daughter wanted to take more, but I said no. We can always buy more stuff later,” she said, “We had to put our lives first.”
A wildfire breaks out near Pacific Palisades on the west side of Los Angeles during a weather-related storm in Southern California
A Los Angeles County firefighter battles the Palisades wildfire as a car burns
She got into her SUV and drove down Sunset Boulevard to PCH.
‘The traffic was bad and the fire-fighting planes flew low above our heads. It was noisy and windy. They took water from the ocean and dumped it on the ring of fire.”
She said there were two to four people walking back and forth.
‘I’m so glad I left straight away and I pray others come out okay. This is terrifying,” Mina said.
At least 510 acres of the Pacific Palisades area between Santa Monica and Malibu had burned, officials said Tuesday afternoon, after already warning of extreme fire danger due to dry, strong winds. The size of the fire increased sixfold in just a few hours.
Witnesses reported that a number of homes were on fire, with the flames nearly scorching their cars as people fled the hills of Topanga Canyon, with the fire spreading from there into the Pacific Ocean.
Flames engulfed homes and bulldozers cleared abandoned vehicles from roads so emergency vehicles could pass, television footage showed.
Before the fire broke out, the National Weather Service had issued a highest alert for extreme fire conditions for much of Los Angeles County from Tuesday through Thursday, predicting wind gusts of 50 to 80 mph with isolated winds of 80 to 100 kilometers per hour. mph (130 to 160 km/h) in the mountains and foothills.
This combined with low humidity and dry vegetation due to lack of rain.