• Multiple blazes raged out of control in Los Angeles and Southern California Wednesday.
• Business Insider spoke with three residents about their experiences fleeing the scene.
• They called it terrifying, devastating, and apocalyptic.

The fires storming through Los Angeles and Southern California have left over 1,000 structures burned, at least two people dead, and tens of thousands of others displaced as they heed mandatory evacuation orders.

Business Insider spoke with three people who encountered the devastating impacts of the blaze firsthand. Their words have been edited for length and clarity.

'I don't know where everyone in our community is going to go'

Alisa Wolfson, a journalist, lives in the Palisades with her husband and two daughters, ages 7 and 10. They evacuated to a friend's home and then the Beverly Hilton before losing their home in the fire.

My husband and I both grew up in the Palisades and bought our home there in 2018. My mom's still there, too. We love our neighborhood, and there's a strong sense of community. There's a reason that it's impossible to buy in and that Bill Hader lives on our street. It was like a storybook — too good to be true.

I was sitting in my home office Tuesday looking out the window when a girlfriend called me to see if I had heard that there was a fire nearby. I looked up and saw a little thing of smoke, but I thought we'd be fine. Within 10 minutes, it grew beyond what I ever thought was possible. I went out to the street and could see that the nearby hillside was engulfed in flames. I called my husband at work and said, "You need to come home right now."

Very quickly, it turned into all of our neighbors on the street throwing things in their cars and driving off. It was terrifying. I grabbed our dog Gus and just as I was leaving, my neighbor across the street called and asked me to pick up her dog since she wasn't home. I went back into my house, got her key, and put her dog in the car.

A friend whose daughter goes to the same school as mine picked our girls up, and we met at her house, which was just outside the evacuation zone. We put all the dogs in the yard, and the girls played with their friends. I thought we'd just camp out for a few hours — but then things started to look terrible really quickly. Around 1 p.m., my husband borrowed our friend's e-bike and rode to our house to see if there was anything he could do and to grab a few things left behind. He saw tons of smoke, firemen, and the hillsides burning — it was really wild.

We stayed at our friend's house until they lost power, then checked into the Beverly Hilton. It was like all of West Los Angeles had descended upon the hotel — it took 40 minutes just to pull into the driveway.

We paid $560 for the night for a room with two beds, which doesn't seem outrageous to me. They've been wonderful here. They greeted everyone in line, handing out water bottles. Henry Winkler was checking in ahead of me, and Cisco Adler's here. It's like a real LA tale. My mom is staying in the room next door with her dog — the number of dogs in this hotel right now is insane.

The front page of the LA Times featured a house on our street in flames. The images looked apocalyptic. Our daughters kept asking, "Is our house safe?" but we weren't sure.

This afternoon, a neighbor who rode his bike into the neighborhood confirmed it: We've lost our home. Our neighbors have been texting that they have too. I'm utterly devastated and in a state of shock, barely functional. I haven't been able to break the news to my daughters yet. I don't know where everyone in our community is going to go. Our entire town appears to be gone.

This isn't something that should be happening. People need to elect local officials who really care about the climate and do what's needed to prepare for or prevent events like this. Last night, my husband asked me, "Where do you think you want to spend the rest of your life?" We have family in Connecticut, and last night it crossed my mind — do we just bail and start fresh? I don't know. For now, we're just taking it hour by hour.

'It was like the apocalypse, in a way''

Katie Cassidy, an actor and close friend of Alisa Wolfson, lives three minutes away from Wolfson in the Palisades. On Tuesday afternoon, she and her significant other evacuated to her parents' home in another part of Los Angeles.

My significant other, who is Canadian, woke up around 10:15 a.m. and said, "Oh my gosh, this weather is so beautiful, and the wind is so nice," and I was like, "Oh no, wind is not good." I was born and raised in Los Angeles, so I'm aware of fires and the Santa Ana winds, especially around this time of year.

I went outside and smelled smoke. My close friend Alisa lives up the street, so I called to check on her and her family. Moments later, firetruck after firetruck and helicopter after helicopter passed by. My gut knew that this was not good. I started to pack away our things and valuables.

We kept our eye on the situation. There were more helicopters and more smoke. The sky turned darker and red, and we started seeing ashes.

Around noon, my partner looked out the window and said, "Babe, there are people running down the streets with their suitcases and bags and kids and strollers." We threw everything in the car, brought our cats and dog, and left.

Luckily, my parents live in another part of Los Angeles, so we came here. We later saw on the news that the people we saw running down the street were people who'd abandoned their cars on Sunset Boulevard because they were stuck in traffic. It was really terrifying and devastating to see; it was like the apocalypse, in a way.

I wish I would've left earlier. I was trying to get a better gauge of what was going on and trying not to panic. People need to be aware and not be stubborn and stay in their homes thinking it'll never happen because it will; it's happened to me. I don't know if our house is still there, but if it isn't, it'll be the second home I've lived in that has burned to the ground in LA; my childhood home in Bell Canyon burned down in a fire some years after we sold it.

Even though my parents' place is safe at the moment, the winds can change. Our bags are packed, and we're ready to move with our fur babies when and if need be. At the end of the day, we're just grateful to be alive.

'There's only so much you can take'

Adam Wood, a 45-year-old film producer, director, and editor, lives in North Hollywood and helped his friend evacuate from Pasadena early Wednesday morning.

Everyone was aware there was a fire building in Altadena around late Tuesday afternoon, and we've had issues up there before. My friend has an urban farm up there that houses rabbits, pigs, and chickens. My thoughts and concerns were with him — if he had to get out, he'd need as much help as possible. I went over there in the early evening Tuesday to help.

At first, evacuators didn't think the fire would come down toward where we were, but at around 2:45 in the morning, we got the evacuation order through an alert on the phone. Then a fire official knocked on the door, and we had about half an hour to pack as much as we could, including a young pig, into the back of my friend's Tesla.

Thankfully, we got everyone out, and all the animals got out OK. My friend had already packed his documents and anything of physical value in his wife's SUV and his Tesla. The chickens were huddled together in one cage, and the rabbits were also hutched in one of the cars.

His wife and two kids were also there, and they all took a bunch of personal items, a suitcase each, and some computers. Of course, there's only so much you can take. The cars were jam-packed, but much of their personal property had to be left behind.

As we drove away, it was pretty hectic given that it was a rush and the whole neighborhood was also leaving at the same time. Thankfully it wasn't replicable to the scenes in the Palisades where people abandoned their cars. But the glow of the fires was visible on the horizon, and smoke filled the air.

He lives in a very nice house, and God knows if that still exists.

Now, there is the Woodley fire, which is closer to my home, so we are keeping a watchful eye on my place and hoping we won't need to evacuate ourselves.

• Polymarket lets people bet on a variety of things, like election outcomes and pop culture events.
• It's also taking bets on the Palisades fire in California — with at least nine different wagers.
• Polymarket says the wisdom of the crowd can lend "unbiased forecasts for the most important events impacting society."

As the Palisades fire is still tearing through parts of the Los Angeles area on Wednesday, Polymarket — the prediction market platform — is allowing people to place wagers on certain elements of the disaster.

There were at least nine different predictions you could place money on as of Wednesday afternoon that were related to the fire. The topic had its own trending module on the site.

One question asked: "Will the Palisades fire be contained by Friday?" Only 2% of bets said yes. (California officials said Wednesday morning that the fires raging through California are "zero percent" contained. Two people have been reported dead in the wake of the disaster.)

Each wager has its own page on the site — and on those pages with bets related to the fire was a disclaimer from Polymarket.

The disclaimer reads:

Note on Palisades Wildfire Markets: The promise of prediction markets is to harness the wisdom of the crowd to create accurate, unbiased forecasts for the most important events impacting society. The devastating Pacific Palisades fire is one such event, for which Polymarket can yield invaluable real-time answers to those directly impacted in ways traditional media cannot.

Note: There are no fees on this market.

On its site, Polymarket says that users can submit suggestions for markets, but a new prediction market, like the ones about the fire, can only be created by Polymarket.

A spokesperson for Polymarket told Business Insider: "Polymarket charges no fees — and generates no revenue — from these markets and provides them as a service to those looking for unbiased and up-to-date information during fast-moving events."

Other wagers available as of Wednesday:

• "Palisades fire burns 10,000 acres by Friday?" (Bettors said this was 99% "yes.")
• "Will Palisades fire spread to Santa Monica by Sunday?" (Bettors gave this a 14% chance.)

So far, it appears the markets have drawn only small bets, with one question drawing a little more than $8,000 and another drawing more than $30,000, according to tallies on the site.

Polymarket, where bets are placed in crypto, became popular during the 2024 election. It showed the odds of Donald Trump winning far above what traditional polls were showing.

In addition to politics and sports, Polymarket offers bets on news and pop culture topics like Oscar nominations or the odds of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce getting engaged this year.

• Some homes affected by the Los Angeles wildfires might not have insurance.
• Insurers have been canceling plans and declining to sign new ones in the state.
• Years of worsening wildfires have increased payouts and other costs for insurers in California.

As wildfires destroy homes in Los Angeles, some homeowners might face rebuilding without insurance payouts.

That's because some insurance companies have been cutting back on their business in California in recent years as wildfires in the state have worsened.

State Farm, for instance, said in 2023 that it would no longer accept new homeowners' insurance applications in California. Then, last year, the company said it would end coverage for 72,000 homes and apartments in the state. Both announcements cited risks from catastrophes as one of the reasons for the decisions.

Homes in the upscale Pacific Palisades neighborhood, one of the areas hardest hit by the fires so far, were among those affected when State Farm canceled the policies last year, the Los Angeles Times reported in April. State Farm did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Other home insurers have dropped coverage in the state, even in areas where the wildfire risk is low, NBC Bay Area reported in September.

"When insurance companies face higher losses or payouts, they typically respond in two ways: raise premium prices and stop renewing policies or writing new policies," Dave Jones, the director of the Center for Law, Energy & the Environment at the University of California, Berkeley's School of Law said in a September Q&A posted to the university's website. "California insurers are doing both."

Between 2011 and 2018, Jones was also California's insurance commissioner.

A new rule, set to take effect about a month into 2025, will require home insurers to offer coverage in areas at high risk of fire, the Associated Press reported in December. Ricardo Lara, California's insurance commissioner, announced the rule just days before the Los Angeles fires broke out.

At a press conference on Wednesday, one reporter asked Lindsey Horvath, a member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, whether the Los Angeles fires would affect insurance companies' operations in California.

"I believe it already has, and the conversation is ongoing," Horvath said.

• Firestorms in Los Angeles have burned over 5,000 acres, destroying homes and killing two people.
• One of the two biggest blazes, the Palisades Fire, could be the costliest in US history.
• The fires have spread so fast in part because of a windstorm and flood-drought whiplash.

All was well in Los Angeles at around 10 a.m. on Tuesday.

Less than 24 hours later, 2,925 acres of the Pacific Palisades were ablaze in what is being called the worst wildfire in Southern California since 2011.

Three more blazes have ignited in the area, with one, the Eaton Fire, engulfing another 2,000-plus acres.

Firefighters had not contained the blazes as of Wednesday morning, the Los Angeles Fire Department said.

More than 1,000 structures have burned, at least two people have died, and the fires could get even worse in the coming hours.

California is no stranger to fires, but this situation is different and especially dangerous for a few reasons.

An 'urban firestorm' that could be the costliest in history

Few brush fires in California history have intruded into such vast areas of dense, urban housing.

The UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain called it an "urban firestorm" as he assessed live images of the developing Eaton Fire on Tuesday morning.

Perhaps the best historical comparison is the 1991 Tunnel Fire, which raged through more than 1,500 acres of Oakland, but it was smaller than either of the two giant blazes in Los Angeles. It killed 25 people and injured 150, and ranks as the third-deadliest and third-most-destructive fire in California history.

The true toll of this week's fires won't be clear until later.

Swain said that he and several colleagues have estimated that the Palisades Fire could be the costliest on record in the US because of the number of structures burning and the fact that those homes are some of the most expensive in the world.

"We are looking at what is, I think, likely to become the costliest wildfire disaster in California, if not national history, along with a number of other superlatives," Swain said.

A historic windstorm spread the fire fast

A powerful windstorm buffeted the flames throughout Tuesday and into Wednesday morning, with gusts of wind reaching up to 90 miles an hour, according to the National Weather Service.

During a 2 ½ hour period overnight, the Palisades Fire's size more than doubled, per the fire service's reports.

The winds were so powerful on Tuesday evening that water- and retardant-dropping aircraft could not fly.

It's a phenomenon that scientists have warned about: a deadly combination of high winds and dry, open land — such as the brushland now being swept by flames in Los Angeles — amounting to fires that move faster than emergency responders can keep up with.

"It's certainly unusual how fast it's grown," Douglas Kelley, a researcher at the UK's Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, told Business Insider. "It's definitely a lot faster than I guess a lot of people were expecting in the area at the time."

A study published in Science in October found that while only about 3% of US fires over a nearly two-decade period could be considered "fast fires," they caused disproportionate damage.

"The most destructive and deadly wildfires in US history were also fast," wrote the study's authors, led by University of Colorado Boulder's Jennifer Balch.

Between 2001 and 2020, fast fires accounted for 78% of fire-destroyed buildings and a full 61% of suppression costs — or $18.9 billion, the scientists wrote. And they are getting more frequent, the study said.

The windstorm was bad luck. But the other primary factor in the fires' rapid explosions — the fuel — is strongly linked to the climate crisis.

Weather whiplash made abundant fire fuel

Southern California has experienced heavy rainfall and flooding the past two winters — which is a huge part of the problem.

Abundant rainfall spurred an explosion of grasses and brush, the primary fire fuel in Southern California. Then, with very little rainfall in the past few months, all that vegetation was flash-dried.

Kelley said those dry conditions made the Palisades especially susceptible to a fast-spreading fire.

This is part of a growing phenomenon that Swain calls "hydroclimate whiplash," or weather whiplash. As global temperatures rise, many parts of the world, especially California, are seeing more violent swings between extreme wet and extreme dry conditions.

The same confluence of weather whiplash and extreme winds was behind the Camp Fire, Swain said. That November 2018 blaze in Paradise, California, was the deadliest and most destructive in the state's history, destroying 18,804 structures and killing 85 people.

• 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."