Shocking News: Cause of Los Angeles Wildfire Kills at Least 5, Fires in Palisades and Eaton Are Raging

“This fire storm is ‘the big one’ in magnitude,” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said at a news conference Wednesday evening. “It is staggering.”

The Palisades Fire, currently the largest of the blazes, broke out Tuesday morning near the Pacific Palisades neighborhood on the city’s west side. It had burned more than 15,800 acres as of Wednesday afternoon and forced at least 60,000 people to evacuate. The Eaton Fire erupted to the northeast, near Pasadena. It more than doubled in size Wednesday morning, surging to 10,600 acres, and is still growing, officials said, with evacuations of more than 70,000 residents across Altadena, La Cañada Flintridge and parts of Glendale. Smaller fires are burning in the San Fernando Valley: The Hurst Fire grew to more than 700 acres by early Wednesday evening. Yet another fire, the Lidia Fire, was around 100 acres.

Shortly before 6 p.m. in Los Angeles, another fire — the Sunset Fire — erupted near the Hollywood Hills, with 20 acres burned so far. Bass said Wednesday afternoon that the separate Woodley Fire in the Sepulveda Basin was under control.

The hurricane-strength gusts that fanned the flames are expected to ease Wednesday night, but could re-intensify late Thursday.