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Palisades Fire evacuee POV: ‘Like driving through hell’
Alexandra Datig narrates as she evacuates along the Pacific Coast Highway with the Palisades Fire raging uncontained around her. Via Storyful.
LOS ANGELES – Fast-moving flames, whipped by wind gusts as high as 80 mph, created nightmarish scenes for Los Angeles residents trying to evacuate along the Pacific Coast Highway late Tuesday.
The Palisades Fire, which has burned more than 5,000 acres so far, has prompted evacuation orders for 30,000 people but many of them encountered roads choked with smoke and traffic as they tried to flee.
Los Angeles Fire Department officials reported that the abandoned vehicles contributed to additional roadblocks, further complicating evacuation efforts. Traffic was gridlocked on key routes like Pacific Coast Highway and Sunset Boulevard as people tried to leave the area and officials had to bring in bulldozers to move empty cars out of the way.
“Driving through hell itself”
Alexandra Datig said it was “madness” trying to evacuate.
Alexandra Datig shared video of the fiery scene along the Pacific Coast Highway, describing it as “like driving through hell itself.”
“All of PCH is on fire right now,” she says in the video. “Things are exploding, gas lines are on fire…It is like driving through hell itself. This is madness down here; these homes are on fire and you can feel the heat from the flames, even from inside your car.”
“I have never been so terrified”
Palisades fire: Dozens of drivers abandon their cars
LAFD officials said dozens of vehicles were abandoned at the location, and a bulldozer was used to push some of the vehicles out of the intersection to prevent them from blocking traffic in and out of the area.
FOX 11’s Hailey Winslow spoke by phone to Tricia Cosentino, who attempted to flee along Palisades Drive on Tuesday but was forced to turn around by the smothering smoke, flames, and traffic.
“I put the animals in the car, put my son in the car, even picked up a hitchhiker. We were surrounded by flames on all sides. There was smoke everywhere and I made a U-turn and came back up the hill because I was afraid to drive through it. So we’re stuck here,” she recalled.
“The canyon itself has a little bit of unstable land. So the rocks that are normally behind barriers, there’s all sorts of rocks that have now crumbled onto the road itself. So it’s even a little bit hard to drive. There is smoldering. There’s ash. Literally just within a foot or two of the road itself, the flames were coming all the way down. I have never been so terrified in my entire life.”
When asked why she didn’t leave earlier, Cosentino said previous close calls made her think the family was safe.
“We’ve always been able to leave. We thought it would be OK. I mean, from my patio right now, it looks like we’re in a war zone,” she explained. “It is terrifying. I’m trying to not break down so that my kid thinks that everything is OK, but it does not feel OK.”
Palisades Fire latest
Rick Caruso: There’s no water in the Palisades
Businessman and former mayoral candidate Rick Caruso compared the Pacific Palisades to a “third-world country” and said the area has no water in the hydrants to mitigate the spread of the 2,900-acre fire.
As of Wednesday morning, Los Angeles County Fire officials said the blaze had burned “well over” 5,000 acres with no containment. As many as 30,000 people were under evacuation orders, including 10,000 households and another 15,000 buildings, including businesses.
The situation prompted the Los Angeles Fire Department to take the rare step of putting out a plea for off-duty firefighters to help. It was too windy for firefighting aircraft to fly, further hampering the fight.
RELATED: Watch live: Palisades Fire forces mass evacuations, burns down homes
Other Los Angeles fires
LA wildfires prompt school closures
Classes have been canceled for several school districts in Los Angeles County amid multiple wildfires.
A second fire, dubbed the Eaton Fire, broke out Tuesday evening near Pasadena; officials said two people there were killed. Meanwhile, firefighters were battling a third blaze, called the Hurst Fire, that started around 10:30 p.m. It quickly prompted evacuations in Sylmar, a San Fernando Valley community that is the northernmost neighborhood in Los Angeles.
Schools in the area were closed, along with attractions like Universal Studios.
Flames were being pushed by Santa Ana winds topping 60 mph in some places. The winds were expected to increase overnight, producing isolated gusts that could top 100 mph in the mountains and foothills — including in areas that haven’t seen substantial rain in months.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency, warning that the worst of the winds were expected between 10 p.m. Tuesday and 5 a.m. local time on Wednesday.
The Source: Information for this story came from FOX 11 crews across Los Angeles, the California governor’s office, Cal Fire, and the Associated Press. Storyful spoke with Alexandra Datig and verified that her video was taken during the evacuation.
