LeBron James has offered his prayers as Southern California battles horrific wildfires.
Over 30,000 people have been evacuated with 1,400 firefighters deployed to tackle three blazes near populated areas.
CBS News reports that extra crews have been drafted in from Northern California and Arizona – the first time a call for aid has been put out for 19 years.
Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron is one of the city’s adopted sons and took to social media to share his well wishes.
“Praying for everyone in Southern California,” he posted on X.
Dozens of schools have been shut, with premieres postponed out of respect for those who are struggling.
Pacific Palisades resident David Latt spoke to the BBC about his family being forced to flee.
“You’re expected to have a grab-and-go bag, which has essential documents – maybe it’s passports or whatever, important paperwork,” he said.
“You’re walking around, room to room, looking at what you cannot part with – maybe it’s a photograph, maybe it’s a necklace my wife remembers her Mum giving her.
“Everything else, you’re saying, ‘I can’t take you with me, I may never see you again’. I mean, it’s that part you can’t get over. It’s tough.”
The fire began at 10.30am PST Tuesday and by evening had reached a size of 1,900 acres.
Santa Ana winds blowing from inland helped trigger the blazes by drying out vegetation and are now spreading the flames.
AFPA brushfire is raging around the Pacific Palisades community[/caption]
Emergency services have already switched focus from protecting property to saving lives.
“This event is not only not over, but it is just getting started and will get significantly worse before it gets better,” UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain said on Tuesday afternoon per the LA Times.
“The vegetation will become progressively drier the longer the wind event goes on.
“So some of the strongest winds will be at the beginning of the event, but some of the driest vegetation will actually come at the end, and so the reality is that there’s going to be a very long period of high fire risk.”
A combination of a hot summer and lack of rainfall during the traditional wet season have led to increased risk
“Southern California has experienced a particularly hot summer, followed by almost no precipitation during what is normally our wet season,” added Swain.
“And all of this comes on the heels of two very rainy years, which means there is plenty of fuel for potential wildfires.”
“We were here not too long ago [for] the Franklin fire and, a few weeks prior to that, the Mountain fire,” said Governor Gavin Newsom.
“November, December, now January — there’s no fire season. It’s fire year. It’s year-round.”