LA residents flee the wealthy village of Palisades as it burns down.

A wildfire fanned by strong winds ripped through the affluent Los Angeles neighborhood of Pacific Palisades on Tuesday, burning homes and prompting the city to issue an evacuation order for 30,000 people.

The Los Angeles Fire Department said Tuesday that more than 2,900 acres have burned on the hillsides. The cause of Flame It is not known.

Smoke darkened the sky in the area as winds gusted to 60 mph. Gusts are expected to accelerate overnight and reach up to 100 mph, the strongest for Southern California in at least a decade.

About 13,000 buildings in the Palisades, home to Hollywood stars such as Tom Hanks and James Woods, are at risk, fire officials said. California Governor Gavin Newsom said: “Many structures were destroyed.”

Newsom declared a state of emergency, as did Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass. President Joe Biden, who was in California to dedicate national monuments, pledged federal aid to the state’s response to the disaster.

After sunset, Santa Monica issued evacuation orders for areas close to the Palisades fire, warning residents of an “immediate threat to life.”

Another large fire broke out in Altadena, about 30 miles east of Pacific Palisades. The fire, which has burned nearly 400 hectares, has forced evacuations.

After the fire broke out on Tuesday morning, the pass snakes through the Pacific Palisades Canyon, quickly filling up with gridlocked traffic as residents rush to evacuate. Many cars were also abandoned as drivers fled on foot to the beach, witnesses said.

The fire department sent trucks to improve access to the fire to the abandoned cars.

“We’ve been evacuated three times (from the previous fire), but this is the scariest thing we’ve ever seen,” said Susan Vash, who lives with her family in Santa Monica Tuesday afternoon.

She has lived in the Mandeville Canyon area of ​​Palisades since 1998. “Whenever this happens, we say we have to move, but we never do.

The fire threatened Getty Villa, and some trees and plants on the hill were burnt. But the art collection and museum staff are safe, the museum president said.

Helicopters and “super scope” planes were dropping water on the fire, although strong winds were causing problems for the aircraft. Utility companies shut off power to more than 8,000 homes to prevent live electrical wires from fueling the fire.

The Pacific Palisades fire is believed to have broken out around 10:30 p.m. Evacuees said the rapid spread forced parents to rush to school and pick up their children. Some who fled said that they could not be sure if the houses they left behind were still standing.

It could take days for firefighters to bring the blaze under control, and even longer before residents are allowed to return home, fire officials said.

The National Weather Service warned of “life-threatening storm surges,” accelerating the fire’s spread across an arid landscape that has seen little rain in months.

Fire crews warned the winds would worsen overnight. “Just know we’re not out of danger,” said Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone.