Inside the first hours of the deadly Pacific Palisades fire

The largest wildfire to hit Los Angeles this week rapidly tore through homes and communities, whipped by winds that sent embers skyward.

A little after midnight on New Year’s Day, Francine Sohn was jolted awake by a phone call from a neighbor, who sounded hysterical. “There’s a fire on the hill,” the neighbor told her.

Sohn, 72, looked outside and saw a small brush fire perilously close to her Pacific Palisades neighborhood in western Los Angeles. She watched firefighters douse the flames, waiting to see if she should flee. But there was no need: the wind was a brisk but manageable 15 mph, and the fire was contained before dawn with no homes damaged and no one hurt.

A week later, the same thing happened: another small fire spotted in the same area. But this one turned into a monster.

Francine Sohn at her home with the canyon behind her.Courtesy Francine SohnThe Palisades Fire, now one of the most destructive natural disasters in Los Angeles history, began in the backyard of Palisades Highlands, a secluded and well-to-do community overlooking the coast between Malibu and Santa Monica. Residents and hikers first saw it as a modest brush fire looming in the parched scrubland.

But whipped by winds that hit 60 mph, the flames rapidly rolled over the mountainside and roared through neighborhoods, growing to more than 20,000 acres and consuming more than 5,000 structures. It is now one of six wildfires burning simultaneously in Los Angeles County that have forced 180,000 people from their homes and left at least 11 dead.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/pacific-palisades-highlands-fire-first-hours-rcna187156

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