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The Los Angeles Fire Department is ordering mandatory evacuations after a fire erupted on a hillside near the Getty Center museum.
The wildfire was reported around 1:30 a.m. Monday and by 7:30 it had burned about 500 acres. The fire department called it “a very dynamic fire that is moving in a westward direction driven by high winds.”
There are reports that several homes have burned.
The fire started near the Sepulveda Boulevard offramp from southbound Interstate 405. A 6½-mile stretch of the freeway was closed in both directions, between Highway 101 and Sunset Boulevard.
The department ordered evacuations of more than 20 square miles including:
- The Mountain Gate and Mandeville Canyon communities, between I-405 and Sullivan Fire Road/Capri Drive, north of Sunset Boulevard and south of Mulholland Drive.
- Pacific Palisades between Temescal Canyon Road and Chautauqua Boulevard.
More than 3,300 homes are in the mandatory evacuation zone, the fire department said.
An evacuation warning was issued for the area between Topanga Canyon and Temescal Canyon.
On the map above, the red tone indicates mandatory evacuations, the orange the evacuation warning, and the yellow line a rough perimeter from Monday morning.
The Getty Center is about a mile south of the fire’s ignition site. Its officials say the art museum was built with thick walls and doors to minimize fire damage to the contents.
Mount Saint Mary’s University tweeted that its Chalon campus near the Getty has been evacuated under orders from the LAFD. Students were taken to its Doheny campus.
Los Angeles Lakers player LeBron James said in a tweet early Monday morning that he had to leave his home because of the wildfire.
“Had to emergency evacuate my house and I’ve been driving around with my family trying to get rooms. No luck so far!” James wrote. He later tweeted that he found accommodations.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
