Paradise destroyed: Fire razes LA enclave bigger than Manhattan

Three days after the fire began raging in the Pacific Palisades of Los Angeles, only 8% of it has been contained and residents are still required to stay away from the wealthy enclave.

But some are ignoring the mandatory evacuation orders, slipping past roadblocks and witnessing the devastation firsthand. Others are having to find out the status of their homes from afar — via social media footage, news reports or drone images.

Whatever the source, the picture that is emerging is clear: Entire neighborhoods leveled. Homes from cozy cottages to lavish beachfront villas reduced to ash. Schools gutted. And along the commercial corridor, buildings from the Gelson's supermarket to the local Starbucks in ruins.

Darrin Hurwitz, a 49-year-old lawyer who lives in the Palisades, is staying with his family about 50 miles away from LA while they await official confirmation if their house was destroyed. But based on video footage and media reports, he says he's pretty certain that it's gone.

He had moved with his family to the area only a year and a half ago, charmed by its beauty, hiking trails and sense of community.

"I love the Palisades, you know, it's paradise," he said. "But I don't know that we are those people that are going to want to invest the next five to 10 years of our lives to building our dream house in an area that you know is increasingly at risk of wildfire and other natural disasters."

Hurwitz's concern points to how the fires that have utterly devastated the Pacific Palisades and other enclaves across LA will reshape the city long after the last embers of the blazes burn out.

The Palisades fire, stretched across an area larger than Manhattan and where the median home price approaches $4 million, has damaged or destroyed more than 5,000 structures. The high value of real estate in the community sets up the prospect of a crisis for insurers, who have been increasingly pulling out of areas prone to climate disasters.

Rick Caruso, the billionaire owner of the Palisades Village, a high-end shopping center that narrowly escaped the worst of the flames, expressed disbelief at the scale of the devastation.

"Most of the downtown is gone, whole sections of neighborhoods are gone," Caruso told Fox News. "What's amazing to me is how widespread the devastation — that this could happen in a relatively short period of time."

The death toll from all of the Los Angeles-area fires climbed to 10 overnight, including at least two in the Palisades fire. Investigators, often working with cadaver-sniffing dogs, are just beginning to search many of the burned homes.

The fallout in Pacific Palisades — known for its hiking trails, canyons and beachfront splendor — has sent the community of roughly 27,000 people reeling. Los Angeles employers with residents in the affected areas have scrambled to make accommodations, offering hotel rooms, remote work options and human resources support.

Katie Koch, the chief executive officer of asset manager TCW Group Inc., based in downtown Los Angeles, posted a message of support to employees on LinkedIn, calling the fires "truly devastating and heartbreaking."

With it came a poignant note of personal impact: She too lost her house in the fire.

"A number of our team members have been displaced and several have lost their homes completely, my family included," she wrote. "Even after the fires are contained and the devastation can be assessed, the recovery process is certain to be long for both the LA area and many among our TCW family."

From CEOs to longtime residents to Hollywood stars, the blazes have been unsparing. Celebrities including actors Billy Crystal, Cary Elwes and James Woods lost their homes. Paris Hilton posted a social-media video Thursday showing the ruins of her family's house.

Actress Jamie Lee Curtis, who lives in the area, described the destruction during an emotional appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Wednesday night. "It's a catastrophe in southern California," she said as her voice cracked.

As of Friday morning, the Palisades Fire had spread to more than 20,000 acres. Another massive fire, the Eaton blaze, stretched out over almost 14,000 acres, destroying an estimated 5,000 structures. Local officials at press briefings struggled to convey how much the conflagrations, whipped by strong winds Tuesday night, were unlike any they had seen before.

"This firestorm is the big one," Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said in a press briefing Wednesday. "I have seen the frontlines of the Palisades fire, and it is staggering."

Beyond the human trauma of destroyed residences and businesses, the fires are a reminder of the financial costs of the climate crisis for insurers and homeowners. Last year, California's largest property insurer, State Farm General Insurance Co., canceled 69% of its policies in Pacific Palisades' 90272 ZIP code.

That's forced some residents to rely on the state-funded FAIR plan, where policies in that same ZIP code grew 85% between 2023 and 2024.

The Pacific Palisades housing market had been outperforming many areas in the region, with sales in the main ZIP code surging 19% in the third quarter, according to Jonathan Miller, the head of appraisal firm Miller Samuel Inc. The median sales price was $3.79 million, he said.

"What will be surprising in the aftermath will be the high number of homes that didn't have sufficient insurance coverage," Miller said. "Coastal locations that have been subjected to drought and high winds, no matter how wealthy their occupants are, are fair game for wildfires."