Several roads and freeways in the Los Angeles area were closed early on Wednesday morning as multiple wildfires raged out of control, including a section of the storied Pacific Coast Highway that runs through Pacific Palisades, the site of the biggest fire.
“As of 1:30 AM, highways are being FULLY CLOSED at various locations due to fires or wind-related incidents,” the California Department of Transportation District 7, which covers Los Angeles County, said on social media, listing the closures and calling on residents to limit nonessential travel.
Long lines of slow-moving or gridlocked vehicles choked the Pacific Palisades area as residents attempted to obey mandatory evacuation orders. It was not immediately clear how the road closures would affect evacuations.
The closures included the southbound Pacific Coast Highway at Cross Creek Road in the city of Malibu and the highway’s northbound lanes at the McClure Tunnel in Santa Monica. Both were closed because of the Palisades fire, the department said.
The Eaton fire, a separate fire raging east of Los Angeles and north of Pasadena, had not forced road closures, the department said. But it added that Route 39, otherwise known as the San Gabriel Canyon Road, north of the city of Azusa, was closed Wednesday morning as a preventative measure, and only residents were allowed to enter.
The westbound lanes of I-210 at Roxford Street, a road that runs between the freeway and I-5 through Sylmar, a northern neighborhood of Los Angeles, diverted all traffic off at Roxford Street because of a third major blaze, the Hurst Fire, about 30 miles north of the Palisades fire.
The Hurst fire also prompted the closure of the I-210 eastbound at Interstate 5 and both the north and southbound connectors of the I-5 to the eastbound Interstate 210.
The closures came into effect overnight, the department said, but it was providing updates on the social media platform X showing places where roads had either been newly closed or reopened.