Federal Authorities Search for Arsonists as Locals and Celebrities are Trapped in LA Fire Gridlock

Thousands more Los Angeles residents are fleeing their homes as the deadly Palisades Fire threatens to engulf two more neighborhoods.

Fresh evacuation orders were issued as the flames threatened the celebrity-studded Brentwood and Mandeville Canyon areas.

Footage from earlier today shows at least one house ablaze in the canyon and massive clouds of smoke billowing near Sepulveda Pass at Highway 405. 

As numerous individuals in Los Angeles are evacuating, many drivers on Sunset Boulevard, located south of Mandeville Canyon, have found themselves trapped in a gridlock.

One distraught woman was stuck in standstill traffic for two hours while en route to a fire station to deliver donated goods for firefighters, as reported by ABC.

‘There was a visibility when I first got here, a little bit of blue sky, and it has unfolded to absolutely ugliness,’ she told the publication.

Firefighters and helicopters have also been seen circling the area and making massive water drops as the 22,660-acre fire continues to spread. 

The devastating wildfires have already claimed the lives of approximately 11 people, scorched over 37,000 acres of land, and razed 12,000 structures in their path.

At least 13 people remain missing, according to officials. In total, about 153,000 residents are under mandatory evacuation orders and about 57,000 structures remain at risk. 

The good Samaritan further added that while standing still on the road, she offered a place to stay to a woman in the car ahead who had been forced to evacuate from her home.

‘It’s very unfortunate that it takes something like this to bring everybody together. Hopefully this will continue, even after this,’ she told the publication. 

Several off-ramps to the 405 Freeway including Getty Center Drive, Skirball Center Drive, Sunset, Wilshire, Santa Monica and Olympic boulevards have been closed in order to limit traffic in the West Los Angeles area. 

According to state authority Cal Fire, there are at least six fires currently burning, with the Palisades fire being the largest. 

The spread of flames has forced thousands more to evacuate from their homes in the upscale Brentwood and Encino suburbs where several celebrities, such as LeBron James, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Kamala Harris, own homes. 

‘I pray this nightmare ends soon! So many prayers’, James, who purchased his lavish Brentwood pad in 2017 for $23 million, tweeted over night. 

Former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Brentwood mansion is also under threat as LA authorities declared a local health emergency over night for the whole county due to poor air quality. 

LA County Public Health issued a public health order, stating that the fires had ‘severely degraded air quality’ that poses ‘immediate and long-term risks to public health’.

As airplanes continue dropping fire retardant in Mandeville Canyon, aiming to create a defensive barrier around homes, federal agents remain on the lookout for fire starters.

Earlier this morning, Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell announced that the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives will be taking the lead in investigating the exact cause of the fires. 

The ATF will serve as lead agency of a newly formed Los Angeles Regional Wildfire Investigative Task Force – a team of local, state and federal agencies that will ‘investigate the cause of these fires and to see if there’s any connection between them.’ 

‘They have tremendous resources and expertise and can bring in resources from across the country to do their investigation. 

‘So we’re very thankful for them and their resources,’ the Chief said.  

The National Weather Service has warned that locally strong Santa Ana winds – the nemesis of firefighters – could soon return. 

Those winds have been blamed for turning wildfires into infernos that leveled entire neighborhoods in the LA area, where there has been no significant rainfall in more than eight months.

Even as the fires spread, the grim work of sifting through the devastation continued Saturday, with teams conducting systematic grid searches with cadaver dogs, said Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna. 

A family assistance center also was being set up in Pasadena, said Luna, who urged residents to abide by curfews.

‘We have people driving up and around trying to get in just to look. Stay away,’ he said. ‘We understand that this is extremely stressful and absolutely challenging, but we appreciate the public´s cooperation as we work together to get through this crisis.’

Yesterday, many residents returned in a state of shock. 

For some, it was a first look at the stark reality of what was lost as the region grapples with the ominous challenge of overcoming the disaster and rebuilding.

Bridget Berg, who was at work when she watched television coverage of her house in Altadena erupt in flames, came back for the first time with her family two days later ‘just to make it real.’

Their feet crunched across the broken bits of what had been their home for 16 years.

Her kids sifted through debris on the sidewalk, finding a clay pot and a few keepsakes as they searched for Japanese wood prints they hoped to recover. 

Her husband pulled his hand out of rubble near the still-standing fireplace, holding up a piece of petrified wood handed down by his grandmother.

‘It´s OK. It´s OK,’ Berg said as much to herself as others as she took stock of the destruction, remembering the deck and pool from which her family watched fireworks. ‘It´s not like we just lost our house – everybody lost their house.’

While some residents sifted through rubble for keepsakes, officials urged them not to, warning that the ash can contain lead, arsenic, asbestos and other harmful materials.

‘If you’re kicking that stuff up, you´re breathing it in,’ said Chris Thomas, a spokesman for the unified incident command at the Palisades Fire. ‘All of that stuff is toxic.’

Residents will be allowed to return – with protective gear – after damage teams have evaluated their properties, Thomas said.

Governor Gavin Newsom announced Saturday that the number of the state’s National Guard members that will be activated to respond to the fires will double.

The state will now deploy 1,680 members, and will station the force at traffic checkpoints to prevent people from re-entering scorched communities that were razed to the ground.

National Guard troops will also aid firefighting efforts, with Texas Governor Greg Abbott announcing the same day that he will also send a large supply of firefighters and resources to help control the situation.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced on Saturday that his state will help California’s overwhelmed response to the Los Angeles fires.

The Lone Star State will deploy firefighting resources including 135 firefighters and personnel, and 45 fire engines, ambulances, command vehicles and equipment, Abbott said in a press release.

Hollywood actor Dennis Quaid appeared emotional as she spoke on the streets of Brentwood after he was forced to evacuate his home.

Quaid told NBC News that the crisis will serve as a ‘big lesson’ for many that ‘our experience of reality can change in a moment.’

‘On Tuesday, we woke up to this big plume of smoke, and then that was a really exciting day,’ he continued. ‘And the Palisades went up Wednesday, it came within 150 yards of the house.’

The ‘Far From Heaven’ actor went on to praise the ongoing efforts of fire crews, saying he saw planes dropping water and flame retardant on his community.

‘Those pilots, they’re incredible,’ he said.

‘Texans know all too well the devastation wildfires can cause to our communities, and our country is stronger when we come together in times of crisis,’ the governor said.

As investigators continue to search for the cause of the Los Angeles fires, new evidence potentially points to downed power lines as a possible source.

Southern California Edison said in a filing on Friday that one of its high-voltage power lines short-circuited at around the same time the Hurst Fire erupted on Tuesday.

Although Edison said it was not yet clear if the fallen power line happened before or after the fire started, it comes after Bob Marshall, the chief executive of Whisker Labs, a company that monitors electrical activity, told Fox News that the firm saw spikes in faults in the hours before the Eaton, Palisades and Hurst Fires.

Marshall said data shows the power was not immediately shut off after the faults surged, and may have been caused by ‘tree limbs touching wires or wires blowing in the wind and touching.’