Palisades Fire: Most destructive wildfire in LA city history

PALISADES, Calif. - The Palisades Fire is now the most destructive wildfire in Los Angeles city history, with an estimated 1,000 structures destroyed.

The blaze has scorched nearly 16,000 acres as of Wednesday, and the flames are still growing.

According to statistics kept by the Wildfire Alliance, a partnership between the city’s fire department and MySafe:LA, the blaze has surpassed the 2008 Sayre Fire as the most destructive. That fire destroyed 604 structures in Sylmar, the northernmost suburb of the city.

The Palisades Fire

What we know:

The Palisades Fire, which started around 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, rained flaming embers onto trees and rooftops in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood. Residents rushing to escape created a traffic jam, blocking emergency vehicles from getting through. Crews used a bulldozer to push the abandoned cars off to the side.

Photos depict what some residents describe as an apocalyptic scene.

Evacuations

About 30,000 residents were under evacuation orders from the Palisades fire and more than 13,000 structures were under threat, authorities said. The Eaton fire prompted more than 50,000 evacuation orders, Angeles National Forest officials said. Many Hollywood stars, including Mark Hamill, Mandy Moore and James Woods, were forced to flee.

Other fires

The Eaton Fire, which started about 6:30 p.m. Tuesday north of Pasadena in the Altadena area, had exploded in size to 16.6 square miles by late Wednesday morning, according to fire officials. At a senior center, employees pushed dozens of residents in wheelchairs and hospital beds to a parking lot to escape.

The Hurst Fire started about 10:30 p.m. Tuesday and prompted evacuations in Sylmar, a San Fernando Valley community in the northernmost neighborhood in Los Angeles. That fire had grown to nearly a square mile by early Wednesday.

Water troubles

What they're saying:

Some residents banded together in an attempt to save their homes, using water from their backyard pools to douse flames closing in. Other residents questioned why there weren't adequate water resources to help in the firefight.

Erik Scott, the public information officer for the Los Angeles Fire Department, admitted there were some challenges with water pressure.

"We did experience some challenges with water pressure while battling the Pacific Palisades Fire. LADWP proactively filled all available water storage tanks, including three 1-million-gallon tanks located in the Palisades area. However, water availability was impacted at higher elevations, which affected some fire hydrants due to limited replenishment of water tanks in those areas. The extreme demand caused a slower refill rate for these tanks which created a challenge for our firefighting effort," he said on the platform X.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.