They glided into the Angeleno hotel courtyard in Audis, SUVs and Mercedes, outcasts from the burning canyons of Bel-Air.
Wealth did not shield displaced residents from the fury of the flames but it did made evacuation a more comfortable affair – a short drive south to a chic hotel with a penthouse restaurant offering panoramic views of the drama engulfing Los Angeles.
Firefighting helicopters moved through plumes of smoke, dropping water on mansions and estates, including a winery owned by Rupert Murdoch, while ground crews battled the flames’ flanks. About 500 acres of Bel-Air succumbed to the conflagration.
That was Wednesday night. By Thursday, the Bel-Air blaze, one of multiple fires in and around LA, was 20% contained and flames were no longer visible from the Angeleno’s 17th-floor restaurant.
Helicopters still buzzed overhead, sirens still wailed up and down the 405 freeway and ash and smoke filled the air but there was a sense of relief as evacuees breakfasted amid Christmas decorations on a choice of Belgian waffles, buttermilk pancakes, avocado toast and granola and berry parfait.
“Our place is OK,” said Wes Eagle, 31, who had fled with his family from Santa Clarita, north of Bel-Air, on Tuesday. “It was pretty intense. We got our stuff packed up, grabbed some pictures, and just went.”
Other parts of LA and southern California were not OK. More than 300 structures have been destroyed and some 200,000 people have been ordered to evacuate. Many schools have shut for the week.
Video and photographs posted on social media showed hillsides above busy roads covered in flames, rows of houses reduced to ash, and firefighters spraying water on walls of fire. Footage of a man appearing to coax a rabbit out of the fires near La Conchita went viral.
The Thomas fire alone has consumed about 96,000 acres in Ventura County and could continue for weeks if strong winds endure and rain refuses to fall. Authorities said a woman was found dead after a car crash in an area under an evacuation order. Fresh blazes erupted in Malibu and Huntington Beach but were swiftly contained. Fire officials warned that the worst may be yet to come.
Bel-Air, a plush LA neighbourhood studded with celebrities and billionaires, including Elon Musk, braced for disaster on Wednesday night when the so-called Skirball fire turned hills alongside the 405 into an inferno. They menaced the Getty Center, singed part of Murdoch’s $28m estate and cut power to the UCLA campus.
Residents fled, many heading to hotels in Beverly Hills, Hollywood and Brentwood, such as the Angeleno, a cylindrical tower which bills itself a luxury boutique hotel. One staffer said it had received “many” evacuees. Managers declined to specify how many.
In the courtyard on Thursday afternoon some were already leaving in hope of returning home, or finding refuge with friends. One family loaded up a Mercedes with suitcases, pet food and framed pictures. The children wore face masks.
Across the freeway, Birgitta Sjostrand, 80, waited at the corner of Bellagio Road and Moraga Drive – the entrance to Murdoch’s estate – for police to escort her home.
She wanted to collect medicine left in the haste of Wednesday’s flight. “A fireman pounded on my door and roared: ‘Get out now,’” she said. Some neighbours lost homes but hers survived, said Sjostrand, despite trees in her garden catching fire. Her husband’s graduate students had planted them upon graduation.
Her family knew about the risk and had rehearsed evacuation drills, said Sjostrand. “But when it’s reality, you panic.”
A blaze in 1961 destroyed more than 500 homes in Bel-Air and Brentwood. Some stars, such as Maureen O’Hara and Kim Novak, stayed on their properties, battling flames with garden hoses.
Zsa Zsa Gabor lost a home, prompting a memorable lament: “My three dark minks, my white mink, my sables, some really very nice little jewels are gone.”
Some scientists linked this week’s conflagration to climate change. “This fire is big, fast, and furious. But the most striking thing about its vast size, bewildering speed, destructive power is that this fire blew up in December. Repeat: December,” said Char Miller, a Pomona college professor of environmental analysis and expert on wildfires.
“This is a sign that the fire season is lengthening as the drought in southern California deepens – that the fire season is intensifying in response to climate change.”
