Three menacing, fast-spreading wildfires that started Tuesday in Los Angeles County are expected to continue to grow this week after already devastating areas and communities overnight.
Even for a region accustomed to an annual “fire season,” the fires on Tuesday quickly became the most threatening seen in at least a decade due to their proximity to densely populated areas — particularly the neighborhoods in the Pacific Palisades, Malibu, Pasadena, Altadena and Sylmar — and the abnormally strong, unrelenting winds.
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By midday Wednesday, thousands of homes and businesses had burned down, and tens of thousands of residents had been evacuated from those communities, with a combined 23,000 acres either charred or in flames. Media outlets report at least two people have died in the wildfires.
The largest fire started in the Palisades and has become the most destructive fire in L.A. County history. Among the notable losses were the elysewalker designer clothing store in Pacific Palisades and the popular seafood restaurant Reel Inn along the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, along with a high school and a grade school. Many other homes, structures, facilities and service stations also burned down along the Pacific Coast Highway.
By early Wednesday morning, the fire was advancing closer to Riviera Country Club, destroying homes at Amalfi Drive and Sunset Boulevard.
Rick Caruso, billionaire developer of the retail shopping center Palisades Village and a former candidate for L.A. mayor, called in to at least two local television stations to express his anger at the city’s lack of preparedness — specifically, he said that fire hydrants in the Palisades did not have water. He said he didn’t think the destruction should have been so bad.
“There’s no water in the Palisades. There’s no water coming out of the fire hydrants,” he said. “This is an absolute mismanagement by the city. It’s not the firefighters’ fault. It’s the city.
“This was a disaster waiting to happen. What’s predictable is preventable. And who’s paying the price is all these people and their homes.”
Indeed, firefighters reported that fire hydrants ran out of water in the Palisades, and officials on Wednesday said the county was not prepared with enough manpower to handle the three fires.
Caruso also complained that Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass happened to have been out of the country attending an inauguration in Ghana.
“I gotta be very honest, we got a mayor that’s out of the country, and we’ve got a city that’s burning, and we don’t have the resources to put out fires,” he said Tuesday evening. “It looks like we’re in a third world country here.”
Caruso said his daughter’s home was destroyed and he wasn’t sure about his son’s home. He said he is committed to rebuilding the community.
A second fire started in Altadena on Tuesday afternoon. The blaze quickly exploded to burn hundreds of acres within a couple of hours, and forced more evacuations down into Pasadena. It had since spread to more than 10,600 acres as of noon Pacific time Wednesday, after also destroying an unknown number of residential and commercial properties, including dozens of mobile homes, a supermarket, an auto repair shop, Altadena Baptist Church, Saint Mark’s Episcopal Church, the Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center, and more.
A third fire then was reported to be spreading Tuesday evening in Sylmar near the northernmost area of the San Fernando Valley. It has since expanded to more than 700 acres.
Multiple school districts announced classes were canceled Wednesday and for the rest of the week.
This is a developing story. It was updated at 1:15 p.m. Pacific time
Gregory Cornfield can be reached at gcornfield@commercialobserver.com.
