New Wildfires Strain LA: Live News, Maps and Updates on California

On Wednesday, tens of thousands of people were displaced by several large fires driven by strong winds. Some residents, including Rob Sherman and his wife, Cecilia Peck, have been evicted more than once.

The Palisades Fire forced them from their home in the Highlands area of ​​Pacific Palisades on Tuesday. They drove through thick smoke and watched as flames burned along Pacific Coast Highway on their way to stay with a friend in Eagle Rock, a neighborhood west of Pasadena. But Wednesday morning, that home was also under an evacuation warning because of the Eaton fire.

“If it wasn’t so serious, I would have thought it was a bit of fun,” said Mr. Sherman. “But it’s so serious. It’s all happening against a background of life and death. I just felt, Another day to soldier on.”

The couple headed out again later that morning, this time heading to a friend’s place in Temecula, California, about 90 miles to the southeast.

Some people were trying to figure out where they could go that would be free of smoke — and accessible, given the active flames.

Rochelle Duffy, 79, and her husband were staying at a friend’s home in Altadena, Calif., for a week when the Eaton fire broke out. On Tuesday night, they went to another friend’s home in Arcadia before traveling to a third home in nearby Monrovia around 10 p.m. 02.30. The drive was short but terrifying, Ms. Duffy because the power and all the lights were off.

On Wednesday, the couple was trying to decide whether to head north to Santa Barbara.

“We need to find out: Is the highway accessible all the way?” said Mrs. Duffy. “Because we heard there’s a fire.”

Catherine Cowles, 69, lives on a quiet road in the foothills of Pasadena, California, where she occasionally enjoys seeing mountain lions or bobcats. Around 18:30 on Tuesday, a neighbor warned Ms. Cowles and her husband about a fire in the hills above the community. Mrs. Cowles left a sheet of uncooked peanut butter cookies on the counter in his haste to escape.

The couple went to her stepdaughter’s home in the Sierra Madre, just to the east. But within 90 minutes, it also felt too close to the Eaton fire to be safe, and they headed to a friend’s home in central Pasadena.

Mrs. Cowles has lived in Los Angeles for about 50 years, she said, but has never had to evacuate before.

“It makes it scarier, more real,” she said of having to flee twice. “Like this fire is just going to chew through the whole foot and then just swallow everything in its path. Because at 100 miles an hour, what’s to stop it?”

Alain Delaquerière the contribution of research.