PASADENA, Calif. − At least two people were killed and tens of thousands have fled their homes as multiple wildfires driven by powerful Santa Ana winds blasted across Los Angeles County on Wednesday, setting houses and hillsides ablaze as roadways clogged with residents scrambling to safety.

The fires destroyed more than 1,000 homes, businesses and other structures, Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone said at a briefing Wednesday. There also were a “high number of significant injuries to residents who did not evacuate, in addition to first responders who were on the fire line,” he said.

Marrone said the deaths occurred in the Eaton Fire, which ignited 30 miles inland in Altadena near Pasadena, and quickly grew to more than 16 square miles, or 10,600 acres. The fire destroyed homes, a synagogue and a McDonald’s restaurant.

The Palisades Fire, which pulverized buildings and had singed nearly 5 square miles, was burning nearly 11,802 acres between the beach towns of Santa Monica and Malibu. A third blaze, the Hurst Fire, ignited in Sylmar in the San Fernando Valley northwest of downtown Los Angeles and had burned at least 500 acres, prompting evacuations of some nearby residents.

“We’re facing a historic natural disaster. And I think that can’t be stated strong enough,” said Kevin McGowan, director of emergency management for Los Angeles County.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said several department employees had lost homes to the fires.

“We are prioritizing life over everything else,” Luna said, adding that two arrests had been made for looting. 

Gov. Gavin Newsom has declared a state of emergency as firefighters struggled to control the fires, all listed as 0% contained. Photos from the scenes showed homes engulfed in flames, and thousands of residences were threatened. Much of Los Angeles was enveloped in smoke.

“Winds will not die down much until noon on Wednesday around Los Angeles,” said meteorologist Ryan Maue on X. “The worst is yet to come in next few hours with 80-105 mph gusts. This is a hurricane of fire.”

Pacific Palisades wildfire rages:Tens of thousands forced to evacuate: Updates

Evacuees left to wonder if homes are still standing

When Sal Flores and his family decided to voluntarily leave their Altadena home late Tuesday night, they expected it to be completely fine by the time they returned. But a friend drove by the home Wednesday morning and discovered the devastation: The family house they’ve owned since 1985 was completely burned down. 

“Devastating,” Flores said.

Flores and his family are among the hundreds that have made their way to the Pasadena Civic Center, which is being used as an evacuation center for the Eaton Fire.

Pasadena resident Toni Gustafson was with a friend in Altadena when the two decided to leave at about 2 a.m. and head to the center “because the fire was so close.” She learned that her neighborhood was later evacuated.

Gustafson doesn’t know the status of her home because a neighbor relayed to her there were downed power lines preventing them from going back to check on houses. However, her friend is pretty sure his Altadena home is gone. 

“It didn’t look good when we left,” Gustafson said.

Flores doesn’t know how long his family will be at the center and how they move forward after losing their home. 

“We’re thinking about what’s the next step, what’s going to happen?” Flores said. “Obviously, right now, we don’t have all the answers, so we’re just waiting to see once this fire is done, how do we start the rebuilding process?”

‘Like a disaster movie’: Residents describe treacherous escapes

When Kelsey Trainor and her wife grabbed their go bag and left their home about an hour after the Palisades Fire broke out, there were already hundreds of cars gridlocked on Palisades Drive. There was only one way out and nowhere to go.

Trainor, an attorney, recalled seeing plumes of smoke rising from the Pacific Highlands and massive flames on each side of the road as they slowly approached Sunset Boulevard. She watched people abandon their cars and flee toward the ocean as planes dropped water from above.

“It felt surreal, like a disaster movie in slow motion, with ash falling down around us, wind pelting the ash to your face,” Trainor said.

To the east, Karen Maezen Miller is a Zen Buddhist priest and teacher who’s been tending a 109-year-old Japanese garden in Sierra Madre for more almost three decades. Tuesday night she had her husband left in at a run as flames from the Eaton Fire danced behind them.

“We could see the fire in our rearview mirror,” Miller, 68, said. “I didn’t even want to look because it moved so fast. I just wanted my husband to drive, drive, drive.”

The winds had been extraordinary for two days, gusts of up to 100 miles per hour and for brief moment on Monday she’d imagined it would only clear things away, blow down the dead branches and empty the trees of leaves. The power went out in their area and they drove through darkness for what seemed like forever.

“There was debris everywhere, whole trees in the middle of the street. You’re trying to flee a fire, but you couldn’t drive on the road,” she said. “This was like nothing in our experience, it was on a whole other scale.”

− N’dea Yancey-Bragg and Beth Weise

Altadena residents lose home, memories: ‘That’s all gone’

Among those who lost their homes to the Eaton Fire were Alexia Palomino and her mom, who had lived in their single-story Spanish-style house in Altadena for 15 years. They had begun packing up a little Tuesday evening, but grabbed photos and cash when they got an evacuation alert at about 3 a.m.

Palomino said as she pulled away in her Ford Bronco, she took one look back at the house just in case, then began her escape, driving over debris clogging the street.

“It was just jam-packed with cars everywhere,” Palomino, 27, said. “It was just to the point where you couldn’t see and couldn’t breathe.”

Palomino fled to her brother’s house, texting with a neighbor who is a firefighter for updates.

“He said that our neighbor’s house was going up and the houses across the street were already gone, five houses in a row,” said Palomino, a Ph.D. student. “At that point I knew it was just a matter of time.”

Palomino said she’s now mourning the loss of the house and the memories it held, along with heirloom textiles from Mexico and her grandmother’s jewelry.

“That’s all gone,” she said Wednesday. “Losing those memories, it’s feeling like being violated. They could rebuild the house exactly as it was and it won’t have the same sounds and the same smells. You can’t put that into blueprints and build it all over again. And that’s the part that’s lost when we lose our home.”

− Trevor Hughes

Biden calls LA wildfires ‘astounding’ at briefing with officials

President Joe Biden said Wednesday that the federal government will provide assistance for “as long as it takes” to help Los Angeles fight wildfires that have ravaged parts of the county and recover from the devastation. 

“It’s astounding what’s happening,” said Biden, who was joined by California Gov. Gavin Newsom at a briefing in Santa Monica.

Biden said he’s directed the Defense Department to rapidly provide additional firefighter personnel and equipment and pointed to 10 Navy helicopters coming to assist from San Diego, among other forms of aid.

“We’re doing anything and everything and as long as it takes to contain these fires and help you reconstruct and make sure you get back to normal,” Biden said. “It’s going to be a hell of a long way. It’s going to take time.”

− Joey Garrison 

Pacific Palisades homes among USA’s most expensive

Residents driven from the Pacific Palisades neighborhood by the Palisades Fire were fleeing some of the nations most expensive homes. The median listing home price in the town of Pacific Palisades was $4.5M, and median home sold price was $3.5M, according to realtor.com. David Reed said he had to leave his Pacific Palisades home when police officers arrived.

“They laid down the law,” Reed said.

Resident Cindy Festa said that as she evacuated, fires were “this close to the cars,” demonstrating with her thumb and forefinger.

“People left their cars on Palisades Drive. Burning up the hillside,” Festa said from her car. “The palm trees − everything is going.”

Smoke, ash blanketing the air across LA

The first light across the Los Angeles area Wednesday came through layers of ash and smoke thick in the air. An eerie yellowish-orange sky replaced the typical striking pink dawn, and an impenetrable layer of gray made it hard to see across the city. As the morning marine layer dissipated, a big smoke cloud hung over the sprawling city. 

The distinct smell of fire traveled miles away from affected areas, finding its way into homes through open windows. Ash from the trio of fires sits and a massive cloud of smoke from the separate fires hung over the city with the blue sky behind it occasionally piercing through. After a night of wind gusts howling at near 100 mph, the wind had calmed down and in some places the air was still. 

How contained is the Palisades Fire?

Extreme fire behavior, including “short and long-range spotting,” continues to challenge firefighting efforts, Cal Fire said in an incident update Wednesday. The fire was listed as “0%” contained. Winds gusts of up to 60 mph were expected to continue through Thursday, potentially aiding in “further fire activity.”

“Immediate threat to life. This is a lawful order to LEAVE NOW,” the updated warned. “The area is lawfully closed to public access.”

‘No one could move’:Pacific Palisades evacuees describe harrowing escape

Scene Viewer

‘High speed river of air’ fueling weather chaos

The National Weather Service in Los Angeles said the “high speed river of air” remained over Los Angeles County on Wednesday morning and was fueling a “widespread, major wind event.” The good news was the air was moving southward and should cause the winds over Los Angeles to decrease slowly, the weather update said. 

“Since the wind speeds are so high now, the slow decrease will not bring the winds down to below warning levels until early evening,” the update added. “There will, however, be a fairly notable drop off in wind speeds late this morning.”

− Doyle Rice

‘Hellish’ Santa Ana winds:Winds are fueling destructive fires around Los Angeles

How did the California wildfires near Los Angeles start?

Cal Fire has listed the causes of the three primary fires − Palisades, Eaton and Hurst − as “under investigation.” But even before the fire started, the National Weather Service had issued its highest alert for extreme fire conditions for much of Los Angeles County. The culprits were low humidity, dry vegetation because of a lack of rain and powerful winds.

The weather service office in Los Angeles warned Monday that wind gusts could reach 100 mph in some areas this week prompt “extreme fire behavior” wherever blazes ignited.

“This is a particularly dangerous situation − in other words, this is about as bad as it gets in terms of fire weather,” the weather service office in Los Angeles warned Monday. “Stay aware of your surroundings. Be ready to evacuate, especially if in a high fire risk area.” Be careful with fire sources.”

How did the fires start?What ignited the wildfires raging across the Los Angeles area?

Air quality could have impact on long-term health

Southern California − with sprawling cities, clogged freeways and heavy industry − is already known for some of the worst air quality in the nation. This week’s wildfires are putting millions of people at risk for immediate health problems and longer term issues.

When most people think about the dangers of fire, they think about burns, said Dr. Cedric “Jamie” Rutland, a national spokesperson for the American Lung Association and a pulmonologist in Orange County, near Los Angeles. But smoke is a major contributor to health problems, he said, and with such widespread fires “it’s going to affect the surrounding region.” Read more here.

− Eduardo Cuevas

Wildfire smoke from ragingCalifornia blazes is putting millions at risk

When did the fires start?

The Palisades Fire started burning around 10:30 a.m. Tuesday and scorched nearly 3,000 acres between the beach towns of Santa Monica and Malibu. Around 6:30 p.m., the Eaton Fire broke out in Altadena near Pasadena and swelled to more than 2,200 acres. A smaller blaze named the Hurst Fire ignited in Sylmar, in the San Fernando Valley northwest of downtown Los Angeles and consumed about 500 acres at around 10:30 p.m.

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Fire nears museum with antiquities and valuable art

Some trees and vegetation at the Getty Villa, an education center and home to a J. Paul Getty museum in Pacific Palisades, were burned but no the buildings were damaged, Getty officials said in social media posts. The Villa museum is home to Greek and Roman antiquities housed in what is described as a “re-created Roman country home.” The Villa will remain closed to the public through Monday.

The Getty Center, which also houses a museum, was farther from the flames in Brentwood but was closed Thursday “in an abundance of caution,” Getty officials said.

What landmarks are impacted?Which sites are affected by the wildfires in Los Angeles? Here’s what we know.

Hollywood stars feel heat from fires

The raging fires in Los Angeles are disrupting Hollywood movie premieres, and some celebrities were being forced to evacuate. Oscar-nominated actor James Woods revealed on social media Tuesday that he was evacuated and shared a photo of a burning hillside. Steve Guttenberg, known for movies such as “Three Men and a Baby” and “Police Academy,” took action Tuesday, helping move cars to allow access for emergency vehicles.

Tuesday’s premiere of Jennifer Lopez’s latest film, “Unstoppable,” was canceled because of “safety concerns around heightened wind activity and fire outbreaks.”

“As much as we were looking forward to celebrating this wonderful and inspiring film with you, safety is our first priority,” a spokesperson “for Unstoppable,” publicist Emily Teichner, said in a statement to USA TODAY.

− Edward Segarra

Vice president pledges support for burning communities

Vice President Kamala Harris, a California native, issued a statement Wednesday saying that she was being briefed on the fires and reiterated President Joe Biden’s offer of federal assistance. Harris expressed gratitude for the “heroic first responders” risking their own safety to protect people and property.

“A proud daughter of California, I know the damage that wildfires have on our neighbors and communities,” she said. ” I also know that the impact is often felt long after the fire is contained.”

Palisades fire map

See map: Palisades Firesets almost 3,000 acres ablaze, prompts thousands to evacuate

Pacific Palisades evacuees describe harrowing escape

Katia Meyer has lived in Pacific Palisades almost her entire life. Tuesday was one of the most surreal, and at times terrifying, days she’s had there. Tuesday’s fast-moving wildfire sent locals seeking shelter in neighboring Southern California cities such as Santa Monica and Marina del Rey. Meyer, her husband, her mother and their dachshund were trapped in gridlock for four hours as they tried to drive the seven miles to stay with friends in Westwood in Los Angeles.

“The problem was traffic. No one could move,” she said. “There was a moment when we were trapped on Sunset Boulevard and I was thinking, ‘If the flames come down here, we’re trapped in our car.”

Luca Bove was working Tuesday night at the Farms Market and Deli in Santa Monica, California, one town over from the fire in Pacific Palisades where the blaze was visible up in the hills to the west. Bove said signs of the wildfire were everywhere.

“I’m not going to lie, it’s kind of scary,” Bove said. Read more here.

− Elizabeth Weise and Terry Collins

Reuters contributed to this story