Destructive brush fires are erupting across California as firefighters say there's "no possibility" of containment. The Palisades, Eaton, Hurst, and Woodley fires come as powerful winds slam northwest Los Angeles.

• Multiple major fires are tearing through parts of the Los Angeles area.
• The Palisades fire has burned through over 15,000 acres as of Wednesday.
• A new fire broke out Wednesday evening in the Hollywood Hills.

Emergency personnel across the Los Angeles area are battling multiple major fires.

Officials have ordered over 100,000 people to evacuate, five people have been reported dead, and over a thousand structures have been burned.

Images of people escaping their homes, abandoning their cars, and searching for safe harbor careened across television and social media on Wednesday. Planes dropped water on huge flames whipping through canyons and mountain passes.

And it's showing little sign of slowing down, officials said. Dry conditions combined with high wind gusts of more than 90 miles per hour have helped fuel the multiple fires burning around the metropolitan area.

A total of five separate fires are now sweeping through parts of the region in and around Los Angeles after a new fire — called the Sunset Fire — broke out in the Hollywood Hills, near the iconic Hollywood sign, on Wednesday evening, forcing the LA fire chief to leave in the middle of a press conference. It has so far burned 10 acres as flames could be seen rising from the hills against the night sky.

Los Angeles Mayor Bass said during a press conference Wednesday evening that residents may receive more evacuation orders as wind conditions continue to be "strong and erratic."

Ride-hailing companies such as Uber and Lyft have offered free rides to evacuation centers for Los Angeles residents. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said on Thursday that his company will be providing "free Starlink terminals to affected areas."

Los Angeles schools would be closed on Thursday, impacting more than half a million students, LA Unified School District Superintendent Alberto Carvalho announced Wednesday.

The longest-burning of the now five active fires in Los Angeles County, the Palisades Fire, has burned over 15,000 acres, official said.

"Our entire town appears to be gone," one Palisades resident told Business Insider.

The Eaton fire, impacting the Pasadena-Altadena region, has burned about 10,600 acres and continues to grow with zero percent containment, LA County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone said at a press conference. The Hurst fire, in the north of the region near San Fernando, covered over 700 acres.

The fourth fire, the Woodley fire in the Sepulveda Basin, has burned 30 acres. Chief of Los Angeles Fire Department Kristin Crowley said that fire was under control as of Wednesday evening.

Evacuation orders and warnings continue to be issued throughout Wednesday evening, including a notice for residents living near the Hollywood Hills.

Pasadena Fire Chief Chad Augustin said Wednesday afternoon that he hoped milder wind conditions overnight would allow for more aircraft and additional resources to be directed at the Eaton fire.

"That's what gives me confidence that we're going to get a handle on this fire," Augustin said.

By Wednesday afternoon, over 100,000 people living near the Eaton fire received evacuation orders, a representative for CalFire told BI.

Five people have died as a result of the Eaton fire, the spokesperson said. Two firefighters were reported to have minor injuries.

Some 377,000 Californians, meanwhile, were also out of power as of Wednesday afternoon, according to a tracking site.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency on Tuesday, and announced that the state had secured federal assistance from FEMA to support the fire response.

"There's no fire season. It's fire year," Newsom said at a press conference on Tuesday afternoon, noting other fires California has faced in recent months, including the Franklin and Mountain fires. "It's year-round."

Historic windstorm is 'worst possible scenario'

Officials have not yet determined how the fires started, but they erupted during a high-risk major windstorm. Combined with low humidity and dry vegetation in the region, the winds created a perfect storm for fire ignition.

The high winds were "making it extremely challenging" for firefighters on the scene, Los Angeles City Fire Chief Kristin M. Crowley said, making them unable to air-drop water on the fires Wednesday morning. But by the afternoon, water-dropping aircraft had returned to the skies.

The National Weather Service called the windstorm "life-threatening and destructive" and warned that these could be the strongest north winds in 14 years.

Just the Palisades fire alone has already become the most destructive fire ever to hit Los Angeles County, CNN reported, citing CalFire data.

The weather service urged residents to be ready to evacuate, as such winds can rapidly spread any fire that breaks out.

"This is pretty much the worst possible scenario for a firefight," David Ortiz of the LAFD told local news station KTLA.

Tourist landmarks close as smoke chokes LA

The Los Angeles area is a huge tourist draw, attracting nearly 50 million visitors a year.

The fires forced some Los Angeles-area landmarks to close, including the Hollywood sign, the Los Angeles Zoo, Universal Studios Hollywood and Universal CityWalk, and the Griffith Observatory.

Even miles from the fires in South Los Angeles, smoke reduced visibility to just one block, officials said.

Airbnb told CNN that it would be allowing refunds for bookings in areas affected by the wildfires, following a viral social media post from a customer who said the company refused to offer her a refund.

A National Hockey League game between the Los Angeles Kings and the Calgary Flames, scheduled Wednesday night at Crypto.com arena, was postponed. The 30th Annual Critics Choice Awards, set for Sunday night, were also rescheduled, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Disneyland, over 30 miles from the nearest fire, was still open on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, police also made some arrests for looting as some people tried to steal in the areas affected by the fires, Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said at Wednesday morning's press conference.

Evacuees abandoned cars as traffic stalled

Palisades Drive, the major road out of the Pacific Palisades neighborhood, was already packed with slow-moving lines of cars shortly after noon Tuesday, as people evacuated beneath a smoky haze and bright-orange flames licked the hillside in the distance, shown live on ABC7.

CalFire reported that the fire was on both sides of Palisades Drive.

ABC7 spoke to multiple people who were evacuating on foot, including some who had abandoned their cars on the road.

One resident told the news channel that "a whole bunch of neighbors" were stuck in their homes on Palisades Drive.

Jonathan Vigliotti, a CBS News correspondent who was on the ground as a neighborhood went up in flames, said on X that there was "mass panic in the streets."