A man laden with bags packed with belongings and carrying paintings fled his Pacific Palisades home Tuesday night on a bicycle as a wildfire quickly closed in on the neighborhood.
Surrounded by smoke and flying embers and wearing goggles, the man was one of about 30,000 people under evacuations orders in the Palisades Fire, which started Tuesday morning in dry and extremely windy conditions in the coastal LA County community.
"Backyard's on fire," he told NBCLA. "I'm out of here."
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Several homes in the neighborhood were already on fire at about 9:30 p.m. when the man biked away in a harrowing scene. He handed the paintings to NBCLA reporter Robert Kovacik for safe-keeping until he could retrieve them
The Palisade Fire was one of three wildfires that spread with devastating speed Tuesday and into Wednesday morning. A red flag warning remains in effect into Thursday for widespread parts of Southern California.
The Palisades Fire in the community of about 23,000 people nestled between the Santa Monica Mountains and the Pacific Ocean was at nearly 3,000 acres Wednesday morning. The location is about 5 miles northwest of Santa Monica and 10 miles east of Malibu, just off Pacific Coast Highway.
The Eaton Fire near the foothill community of Altadena also prompted evacuation orders in the San Gabriel Valley east of Los Angeles after it started Tuesday evening.
The Hurst Fire start late Tuesday in Sylmar, located in the northern San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles.
