Thousands of Pacific Palisades residents were urged to evacuate Tuesday as fire exploded amid intense winds.
The current honorary mayor of the celebrity-studded Los Angeles neighborhood, actor Eugene Levy, was fleeing along with other residents. And like many others, the “Schitt’s Creek” actor was stuck in traffic.
“The smoke looked pretty black and intense over Temescal Canyon,” Levy told The Times. “I couldn’t see any flames, but the smoke was very dark.”
The fire was sparked around 10:30 a.m. and quickly grew, threatening many upscale homes to the west.
Residents fleeing down Sunset Boulevard gathered along the Pacific Coast Highway, many calling family members still trapped in traffic; others cried as they finally reunited.
Cavalry Christian School students and teachers posted in the Sunset Beach parking lot, waiting to connect with students and family members. But the smoke quickly moved toward the shore. By noon, ash was dropping from the sky along the coastline.
“I figured it was safer at the beach, but now I’m not so sure,” said Daryl Goldsmith. “The wind is virulent and I just hope things don’t burn down. … The poor fire department couldn’t get up there.”
Goldsmith was at her Palisades home with friends when she spotted the fire. It quickly exploded, she said.
As she rushed to evacuate, her husband stayed behind to help a disabled neighbor escape. Firefighters began directing traffic, but Goldsmith decided to ditch her car in the grass and walk down to the shore.
As she waited at Sunset Beach, her husband was still stuck up the hill.
Residents said when officials first issued evacuation orders, the fire quickly jumped from five miles up Palisades Drive to just half a mile, near Calvary Christian School.
Although evacuees were at first using all lanes of Palisades Drive to escape, fire crews halted cars on the road to fight the new spot down along the evacuation route, said Erin Sheehy, whose husband was stuck in the traffic. Some residents got out of their cars and began walking miles down to the coast.
Evacuees were now waiting for word about their homes.
“It looks grim,” Magnolia Shin said around noon Tuesday, about an hour after she left her house on Piedra Morada Drive. Shin said that she could feel the heat from the flames before she left, which were within 50 yards of her home. She didn’t have time to try to save anything from her home before evacuating.
“I couldn’t even get my rabbit.” she said. “I just left. I just took my purse and drove away.”
