Wind gusts beyond 120km/h fanned the flames on Wednesday as fires feasted on dense brushland fed by record rain and then dried out by prolonged drought to create super-combustible conditions.
“It was just trying to fight this fire like in a hurricane with fire all around you,” California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection battalion chief Brent Pascua said.
That winter drought showed no signs of breaking with cloudless — except for the smoke — skied forecast for days but the winds offered some relief with gusts set to drop to about 50km/h to 80km/h.
“What a welcome sight,” Pascua said.
“What this fire so desperately needed was a break in these winds so that we can actually get some containment now on this fire.”
With aircraft joining the fight on Wednesday night, crews were able to make rapid progress fighting a fire on Sunset Boulevard that threatened several of Los Angeles’ most iconic landmarks, including the TCL Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard, allowing some evacuation orders to be lifted.
“We hit it hard and fast and Mother Nature was a little nicer to us today than she was yesterday,” Los Angeles Fire Department Captain Erik Scott said.
Heartbreaking images capture apocalyptic wake of destruction
Most destructive fire in LA history
Despite this, the historic blaze in the celebrity-studded Pacific Palisades neighbourhood remained completely uncontained as it spread west along the coast to destroy beach houses in Malibu.
Billy Crystal, Mandy Moore and Paris Hilton have all lost their luxury homes — among more than 2000 homes, businesses and other structures already destroyed.
The Eaton fire in Altadena was also listed as uncontained, along with the Sunset fire in the Hollywood Hills, where steep, narrow and winding roads caused big problems as residents raced to safety and fire trucks charged towards the flames.
“Up here on the hill, the roads are just so small. There is barely any room for fire trucks,” Studio City resident Brandon Jones told CNN affiliate KABC.
Fires further out of LA in Lidia and Hurst had been more successfully contained and the much smaller Woodley fire completely so.
Combined, the blazes had burned about 108 square kilometres — almost the size of San Francisco — by Thursday morning (Friday morning AEDT) and the Palisades wildfire was the most destructive on record.
Hundreds of homes destroyed in once-leafy neighbourhood
The second-largest wildfire was burning in Eaton near Altadena, sandwiched between Pasadena and the Angeles National Forest on LA’s northern edge.
Jose Velasquez sprayed down his family’s home with water as embers rained down on the roof.
He managed to save their home, which also houses their family churros business.
Others weren’t so lucky. Many of his neighbours were at work when they lost their homes.
“So we had to call a few people and then we had people messaging, asking if their house was still standing,” he said.
“We had to tell them that it’s not.”
A swathe of about 250 homes in an Altadena neighborhood that had been dotted with the green canopies of leafy trees and aquamarine swimming pools was reduced to rubble.
Only a few homes were left standing and some were still in flames in images from Maxar Technologies satellites.
Fast-moving flames allowed little time to escape
The main fires grew rapidly in distinctly different areas that had two things in common: densely packed streets of homes in places that are choked with vegetation and primed to burn in dry conditions.
Flames moved so quickly that many barely had time to escape. Police sought shelter inside their patrol cars, and residents at a senior living center were pushed in wheelchairs and hospital beds down a street to safety.
Higher temperatures and less rain mean a longer fire season
California’s wildfire season is beginning earlier and ending later due to rising temperatures and decreased rainfall tied to climate change, according to recent data.
Rains that usually end fire season are often delayed, meaning fires can burn through the winter months, according to the Western Fire Chiefs Association.
Dry winds, including the notorious Santa Anas, have contributed to warmer-than-average temperatures in Southern California, which has not seen more than 2.5 millimetres of rain since early May.
Fire conditions could last through Friday — but wind speeds were expected to be lower on Thursday.