30,000 flee as wildfires tear through Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES — More than 30,000 people evacuated their homes as a wildfire ripped through an upscale coastal area of Los Angeles on Tuesday and Wednesday, with flames engulfing homes and setting hillsides ablaze.

Two other fires inland were also spreading fast, officials said.

Numerous buildings were destroyed and nearly 1,200 hectares were burned in the Pacific Palisades area between the beach towns of Santa Monica and Malibu, officials said.

Roads were jammed with people fleeing the inferno as plumes of smoke and flames rose in the sky over Los Angeles on Tuesday night. The fires had not been contained by Wednesday morning and Californian Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency.

A fire official told local television station KTLA that several people were injured in the Palisades Fire, some with burns to their faces and hands. One female firefighter had suffered a head injury.

The second blaze, dubbed the Eaton Fire, broke out some 50 kilometers inland in Altadena, near Pasadena, and increased in size to 400 hectares in a few hours, according to Cal Fire.

Nearly 100 residents from a nursing home in Pasadena were evacuated, CBS News reported.

Fire officials said a third blaze named the Hurst Fire had started in Sylmar, in the San Fernando Valley northwest of Los Angeles, prompting evacuations of some nearby residents. The Hurst Fire has grown to 202 hectares, according to Cal Fire.

More than 220,000 homes and businesses in Los Angeles County were without power late on Tuesday, data from PowerOutage.us showed.

Agencies via Xinhua