CBS News —

Multiple fires continue to burn in Los Angeles County after prompting evacuation orders and warnings and destroying more than 1,300 structures, officials said. Five people are dead, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department confirmed to CBS Los Angeles. Three of the blazes weren’t at all contained, including the two biggest.

The National Weather Service says “extremely critical fire weather conditions” will “continue for portions of the Southern California Coast with critical conditions persisting into Thursday.”

The Palisades Fire exploded in size as powerful winds hit northwest Los Angeles, forcing the evacuation of at least 30,000 residents in the affluent community of Pacific Palisades. The Eaton, Hurst, Lidia, and Sunset fires are also burning. 

• The Palisades Fire in Los Angeles was first reported at 10:30 a.m. local time Tuesday and has grown to over 17,000 acres with zero percent containment, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire. It has destroyed 300 structures, Cal Fire said. But L.A. County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone says the number probably exceeds 1,000.
• The Eaton Fire, broke out Tuesday night in the hills above Altadena, a community in northern Los Angeles County, prompting evacuation orders for roughly 40,000 people. Five people have been killed in the blaze, which had burned at least 10,600 acres as of Wednesday afternoon with zero percent containment, according to officials. It had destroyed almost 1,000 structures as of late Wednesday evening.
• The Sunset Fire erupted Wednesday evening in the Hollywood Hills near the Hollywood Bowl and Hollywood Walk of Fame, prompting a new round of mandatory evacuations. It had burned 60 acres and was zero percent contained as of Wednesday night, Cal Fire said. Still, officials lifted most of the evacuation orders since, they said, fire activity was decreasing.

Hurst Fire and Lidia Fire partially contained

The Hurst Fire, which erupted in the Sylmar neighborhood of Los Angeles late Tuesday night and has burned more than 800 acres, was 10% contained as of Thursday morning, Cal Fire said.

The Lidia Fire, which started late in the day Wednesday and grew to 348 acres as of late Wednesday night, was 40% contained, according to Cal Fire.

The Palisades, Eaton and Sunset Fires – which combined burned more than 27,000 acres – were 0% contained as of early Wednesday, Cal Fire said.

Santa Monica moves toward imposing nighttime curfew

Santa Monica has issued an emergency order due to the impact of the Palisades Fire.

City Manager David White signed the order late Wednesday. The city council has to call a special meeting within a week to certify it.

The order includes a sunset-to-sunrise curfew in areas of the city where mandatory evacuation orders are in effect.

Mayor Lana Negrete said the order is intended to aid firefighting efforts and prevent looting.

It “helps us ensure nobody enters impacted areas who is not supposed to, particularly those with nefarious intentions attempting to take advantage of the mandatory evacuations,” she said.

Malibu couple escapes Palisades Fire weeks after close call from another one

Just weeks after having their lives threatened by the Franklin Fire in Malibu, one couple was forced to literally run for their lives when the Palisades Fire descended on their home. 

Alec Gellis and his girlfriend, who lives in Carbon Canyon, were among the thousands of people forced to evacuate on Tuesday when the fire erupted that consumed large swaths of the Pacific Palisades, destroying homes and well-known businesses.

Video on his phone shows embers and thick smoke flying across the screen as he runs for safety on Tuesday. 

“It was like a vortex of embers,” he said. “There was no oxygen. I couldn’t breath. I barely even made it to my car.”

He narrowly escaped as he had just a month ago, when he fended off the flames from the Franklin Fire that were threatening his and his neighbors’ houses.

“It’s just not real. I mean, a month — less than a month, my lungs weren’t even better from the last time. I’m still coughing from the last time,” Gellis said. 

Both were able to get out unscathed, though Kelly Lauren lost a lifetime worth of her writing. 

“It’s just hard,” Lauren said, fighting back tears. “Everything I’d, like, written for my whole life. I journal and write a lot, it’s just the little things you remember afterwards.”

She says that despite the loss of her home and collection of writings, she’s happy that she and Gellis got out when they did. 

“It reminds me of, like, the value of what is not tangible,” she said.