LOS ANGELES — Another fast-moving brush fire erupted in Los Angeles on Wednesday night, this time in the iconic Hollywood Hills, forcing more evacuations for nervous residents as firefighters struggled to contain other destructive blazes in the area.
The Los Angeles Fire Department issued an evacuation order shortly after 6 p.m. local time Wednesday for portions of the Hollywood Hills, a celebrity-populated neighborhood in central Los Angeles. As of 10 p.m. ET, the blaze, dubbed the Sunset Fire, consumed at least 20 acres and remains 0% contained, according to Cal Fire.
Mandatory evacuations were issued for Laurel Canyon Boulevard on the west to Mulholland Drive on the north to 101 Freeway on the east down to Hollywood Boulevard on the south. Cal Fire said the Los Angeles Fire Department was responding to the blaze.
“We understand this is a heavily populated area, this is not a time to delay,” Los Angeles Fire Department spokesperson Margaret Stewart told KABC-TV. “We need people to swiftly and calmly exit the area and head south.”
‘It feels like we’re being surrounded by the fires’
The fire is located just west of the Hollywood Bowl music venue and about 10 miles southwest of the world-famous Hollywood Sign. Images and videos shared on social media showed the fire appearing to spread uphill while a large plume of smoke moved toward the Hollywood area.
Gary Baseman, 64, of Los Angeles, is about one of two dozen people who gathered at the top of an eight-story parking structure at The Grove, an upscale outdoor mall in Los Angeles, to watch the brush fires in Hollywood Hills. “I just needed to see for myself what’s going on,” said Baseman, an artist.
Michael Carsh, who said he lives a mile away, peered at the fire and smoke through binoculars. “I felt pretty safe, and now looking at this, it’s pretty scary. It feels like we’re being surrounded by the fires.”Carsh, 49, pointed to an area between the parking structure and the fire. “I have friends that live there and they’re holding out right now. But I’m saving a room for them.”
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