As of Thursday, the Palisades fire had reached 15,000 acres, spreading to Malibu and Topanga and torching homes and restaurants along the Pacific Coast Highway. One resident told the Washington Examiner ’s video producer Natasha Sweatte that his community is coming together in this time of crisis.

Wildfires have devastated a celebrity-filled neighborhood in Los Angeles, destroying homes, canceling major industry events, and ravaging a high school featured in movies like ‘Carrie’ and ‘Freaky Friday.

The Palisades fire off Pacific Coast Highway in Pacific Palisades on Jan. 7, 2025. Wally Skalij joined the Los Angeles Times as a staff photographer in 1997. Mark E. Potts is the senior editor for video at the Los Angeles Times.

Firefighters on Jan. 7 battled the raging flames of the Eaton Fire in Pasadena, California, where homes were burned to their bare skeletal structures.

Several homes in the area have burned, but the neighborhood’s famous trees, decorated each year for the holidays, did not appear to be ablaze at mid-day.