‘Flames on either side of us.’ Desperate evacuees flee apocalyptic California wildfires

As Tricia Cosentino fled the explosive Pacific Palisades wildfire in Southern California, she came across a young man walking through the smoke and ash.

She offered the man a ride into what soon became an apocalyptic scene, she told CNN.

“As we turned a corner, the plumes of smoke were just billowing up the road,” Cosentino said. “There was burnt ash. There were flames on either side of us.”

The evacuees quickly ran into problems.

“The car was very quickly getting smoky,” she said. “We had wet towels over our faces, and the cars ahead of us were not moving. There was also all of this debris that had fallen on the road. There were rocks and small boulders.”

Cosentino said it felt like a scene from the movie “The War of the Worlds,” in which an alien invasion devastates entire cities.

“I didn’t recognize the streets,” she told CNN.

Wildfires erupt amid windstorm

More than 1,000 structures have been destroyed in the Pacific Palisades fire, KABC reported. Two people have been killed in an Eaton Canyon blaze.

The fire broke out at 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 7, KTLA reported. Thousands of people have been forced to evacuate as the blaze quickly grew to more than 5,000 acres with no containment.

Other wildfires erupted in Sylmar and in the Eaton Canyon area near Altadena, the station said.

“This is a highly dangerous windstorm creating extreme fire risk, and we’re not out of the woods,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said, KTTV reported.

Wind gusts across the Los Angeles area have reached up to 100 mph during the past two days, the National Weather Service reported.

Thousands of evacuees flee flames, smoke

Residents described harrowing escapes and near misses as they fled the advancing flames

Jon Oei evacuated with his parents from their Pacific Palisades home at the last minute when they saw flames coming over nearby hills, The Guardian reported.

“There were no lights, and everything was on fire,” Oei said.

A video posted to Instagram by storm chaser Tanner Schaaf shows him and a friend fleeing the friend’s home in Pacific Palisades after trying to protect it from the flames.

“We tried, we tried bro,” Schaaf says in the video. “I’m sorry.”

Sheriece Wallace, who was unaware of the blazes, received a call from her sister as a firefighting helicopter dropped water on her house, The Associated Press reported.

“I was like, ‘It’s raining,’” Wallace said. “She’s like, ‘No, it’s not raining. Your neighborhood is on fire. You need to get out.’”

Kelsey Trainor of Pacific Palisades found the only road out of her neighborhood blocked when she tried to flee as flames jumped the roadway, The Associated Press said.

“People were getting out of the cars with their dogs and babies and bags,” Trainor said. “They were crying and screaming.”

A man carrying bags of belongings and paintings rode his bicycle out of a burning Pacific Palisades neighborhood, KNBC reported.

“Backyard’s on fire,” he said. “I’m out of here.”

This story was originally published January 8, 2025 at 12:18 PM with the headline "‘Flames on either side of us.’ Desperate evacuees flee apocalyptic California wildfires."