Local TV news is covering the Palisades Fire live as it unfolds, producing some surreal scenes that even longtime Los Angeles residents never have witnessed.
Among those is the wild video of a giant bulldozer powering through dozens of cars — including Mercedes and other high-end makes — that were abandoned along Palisades Drive as gridlock hit during mandatory evacuations Tuesday morning.
Earlier, KTLA reporter Gene Kang was doing man-on-the-street interviews and encountered a local resident who was bemoaning the vehicles blocking the road. It turned out to be Steve Guttenberg, whom the reporter did not recognize immediately.
“What’s happening is people take their keys with them as if they’re in a parking lot,” he said. “This is not a parking lot.
We really need people to move their cars. 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 fire forced the evacuation of the Pacific Palisades, an affluent coastal neighborhood west of downtown Los Angeles that is home to some 24,000 people, snarling traffic for miles along Sunset Boulevard for fleeing residents.
Gusts of up to 100 miles per hour, the strongest Southern California has experienced in more than a decade, were forecast through lunchtime Wednesday.
As of 3:30 p.m. local time, the fire had grown to more than 1,200 acres, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said — a rapid increase from 300 acres about 90 minutes earlier.
Billowing clouds of black and gray smoke drifted from the Pacific Palisades toward the shoreline, where it stretched across the Pacific Ocean. Multiple agencies were responding with strike teams, helicopters and other aircraft to battle the blaze.
The National Weather Service in Los Angeles warned of a “life-threatening and dangerous windstorm” rolling through the area late Tuesday through Wednesday. Red flag warnings are expected to remain in place until Thursday evening.
