Residents and celebrities flee as wildfire rages in Los Angeles (photos)

Los Angeles residents, including celebrities, have been ordered to evacuate their homes as a wildfire engulfs the Pacific Palisades while another destructive blaze erupted hours later in nearby Altadena on Tuesday night, Jan. 7. 

California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency after touching down in the Pacific Palisades area and meeting with first responders fighting the blaze. 

“By no stretch of the imagination are we out of the woods,” Newsom warned. 

Newsom noted he found “not a few – many structures already destroyed.” 

Tens of thousands have evacuated the county, including Emmy-winning actor James Woods, whose neighbour lost their home, he said on X after he fled. 

Some residents even fled on foot after abandoning their cars in the street, inadvertently creating obstacles for firefighters trying to battle the blaze. 

“We looked across and the fire had jumped from one side of the road to the other side of the road,” Kelsey Trainor said. 

“People were getting out of the cars with their dogs and babies and bags, they were crying and screaming. The road was just blocked like full-on blocked for an hour.” 

Another resident, Will Adams, said embers flew into his wife’s car as she tried to escape. 

“She vacated her car and left it running,” Adams said, adding she and many other locals walked down toward the ocean until it was safe. 

As residents brainstormed to find a way through the streets that had quickly turned into parking lots, a bulldozer was brought in to help push cars aside. 

“Police Academy” star Steve Guttenberg came in out of the blue to help drive abandoned vehicles off the road. 

“We really need people to move their cars. So if you leave your car behind, leave the key in there so a guy like me can move your car so that these fire trucks can get up there,” the 66-year-old pleaded. 

“It’s really, really important,” he told KTLA. 

“I would have an ask that if you would, please do everything you can to open up the streets so we can get the resources we need to be able to deal with this emergency.” 

By late Tuesday night local time, evacuation orders had spread to parts of nearby Santa Monica. 

The Los Angeles Fire Department urged all off-duty members to report “their availability for recall” as the blaze showed no signs of slowing down. 

Live camera feed from UC San Diego shows smoke rising from the burning hillside near the Pacific Palisades neighbourhood in the Santa Monica Mountains. The fire quickly spread to a staggering 200 acres within an hour as the wind pushed it onward, according to the LAFD. 

All residents near the fire had been ordered to “leave now” as the fire continued to grow.