LA Residents Face Gridlock, Chaos Amid Wildfire Evacuations

Residing in the city of Los Angeles, several residents made harrowing choices  as they hightailed to escape from rapidly spreading wildfires-they suffered jams, bottlenecks, or the terrifying route of deserting their automobiles in attempting to avoid blazes that brought destruction in more than a large part of city. It has evacuated over 180,000 while killing 10 people so far. But, alongside the tale of destruction that the fire created, was another story—of chaos and evacuation.

As the fire raged early on, most residents responded to the warnings and evacuation orders by the authorities, even evacuating their homes before they were told to. However, when they did attempt to evacuate, their movements were severely restricted. As residents of Pacific Palisades tried to leave on Wednesday, they discovered the Pacific Coast Highway, the main route to Malibu, was quickly filling up with cars. With roads at a standstill, some were forced to abandon their cars and flee on foot, hoping to outrun the fire. Bulldozers were brought in to clear the abandoned cars to allow firefighters to pass through. One resident, who was stuck for hours, shared his experience with the BBC, describing a traffic jam that lasted two hours while he was trying to escape the Palisades fire.

The case of Maryam Zar, the former chairperson of the Pacific Palisades Community Council, illustrates the same. Zar had to evacuate her house three times within 24 hours because the high wind had led to extreme fire spread, sweeping the fire through the neighborhoods with alarming speed. "Nobody was moving at all for a good half an hour and I was stuck on a road for 45 minutes," she recalled. The scene was "complete devastation" and a "hellscape.

Several factors may be contributing to the quickly spreading fire, including years of drought, followed by heavy rainfall in recent years, and a return to dry conditions in autumn and winter. Powerful Santa Ana winds do not help matters; they dry out vegetation and disseminate flames at frightening speed. These conditions have led to fires of exceptional intensity.

The layout of the region's transportation network adds to the problem. Chris Nevil, a public information officer at MySafe:LA, a nonprofit focused on fire prevention and disaster readiness, said that LA's narrow, winding roads can impede a fast evacuation. In affluent neighborhoods like Pacific Palisades, there are often only two or three main roads leading in and out. “Our big concern [has] always [been] that the roads will become gridlocked, and we’ll be stuck with the fire chasing us down,” Zar explained. Unfortunately, this fear became reality for many, with some residents finding themselves trapped in traffic, unable to escape.

Similar chaos unfolded in Hollywood as the Sunset fire spread, closing in on nearby neighborhoods. Major roads leading out of these areas soon became bottlenecks, again. Despite the risk, these neighborhoods remain highly in demand, and their residents are often drawn by the seclusion and closeness to nature. But it is these qualities that carry inbuilt risks. "People want to live in these secluded peaceful places where they're in touch with nature, but that comes with built-in risk," Nevil observed.

Abandoned cars also compounded the strain on LA's road network, as they impeded the work of firefighters battling the flames. Traffic and blocked roads greatly slowed the evacuation process and endangered more lives in the process. According to Natalie Enclade, executive director of Buildstrong America, a group dedicated to increasing resilience across the US, the large number of residents trying to evacuate at the same time caused a bottleneck. The gridlock slowed evacuation efforts, leaving most residents stranded in danger.

Big fires and evacuations in California cities are not a novelty. The destruction of infrastructure during the 2018 Camp Fire in northern California decreased the ability to communicate, which complicated evacuation. Sometimes debris blocked the only road exit available for entire communities. "The biggest reason is lack of resources," Enclade said. She added that local agencies are often overwhelmed by the size and fury of megafires.

According to the LA County fire chief, there are also not enough firefighters to put out fires of such size. Under normal circumstances, LA's roads are a challenge; under emergency circumstances, it is extremely challenging. According to Geoff Boeing, assistant professor in USC's department of urban planning, "There are choke points in this network throughout the city. In places where there's no space for alternative routes, traffic just stacks up.". These bottlenecks are a consequence of factors including the topography and the "aesthetics of exclusivity" of an exclusive community behind a limited entry point.

It's at this juncture where all these factors come together to create a perfect storm: narrow roads, high-density traffic, scarce evacuation routes, and lack of resources. Even with all the danger involved, many Angelenos are still in the riskiest areas. They opt for a neighborhood surrounded by nature, although they do this knowing that it poses huge dangers.