Details of the deaths have not been disclosed. Marrone warned that the winds that fuel the fires “put all Los Angeles County residents at risk.”
Tens of thousands of Los Angeles residents have been ordered to evacuate, and authorities are urging residents to heed warnings and evacuate.
“When a fire breaks out, you never know where it’s going to break out next,” Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell said.
Meanwhile, California Governor Gavin Newsom and local fire officials briefed President Joe Biden at the Santa Monica Fire Station. Biden also approved a major disaster declaration that paves the way for federal funds and resources to be sent to California.
“The governor has asked for a proclamation setting out everything the federal government can do, and I’m ready to sign it today,” Biden said.
The Los Angeles County Fire Department has already requested mutual aid from Orange, Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties. Firefighters from as far away as Nevada, Oregon and Washington rushed to Los Angeles to help local firefighters on the front lines battling the blaze.
Los Angeles Fire Department Chief Christine M. Crowley said the fire “has stretched emergency services to their limits.”
In some parts of the city, the battle already appeared lost.
Much of Pacific Palisades, a neighborhood of 23,000 people located about 20 miles west of downtown Los Angeles and home to movie stars and Holocaust survivors, was reduced to ashes and more than 1,000 homes burned to the ground. Most of the residents went missing.
“The whole city burned down,” Vanessa Pellegrini, co-owner of Vittorio Ristorante & Pizzeria, told MSNBC. “There’s nothing we can do.”
No deaths were reported, but authorities said dozens of residents who were not evacuated and firefighters battling the blaze were injured.
Some of the area’s most famous residents, like “Police Academy” star Steve Guttenberg, said, “People are really panicking and really scared right now.”
“Most people have evacuated their homes, but the fire is really raging. This wind is terrible, it’s very hot. It was like a volcano,” he told MSNBC’s Chris Jansing. Ta.
A section of the Pacific Coast Highway through the Pacific Palisades was completely closed to traffic. So did many of the other major arteries in the west end of Los Angeles, closest to the Pacific Ocean.
