Pacific Palisades fire burns in Los Angeles, Eaton fire kills 5: Live Updates

When David Hansen was driving Tuesday morning, he didn’t pay much attention to the early reports of the Palisades fire. In less than half an hour, however, it was clear to him that the fire had grown in size and that his mother, who lived in the Palisades Heights, needed help evacuating her home.

The neighborhood has about a thousand homes, Hansen told CBS News, but only one way in and out. A neighbor tried to help his mother evacuate, but the two were told to turn around and take shelter because burned cars and trees at the foot of the road had blocked traffic. Fortunately, Hansen remembered a fire access road and drove down it to get to his mother’s house.

“I was probably the last car to cross the fire road when the flames were touching it,” Hansen said.

He was able to get to his mother’s house, but when he and his mother, followed by friends, tried to use the fire escape to leave, it was “completely engulfed in flames,” he said. They were again instructed to shelter in place and spent two stressful hours at his mother’s house until the Los Angeles Fire Department was able to use a bulldozer to clear burned cars from the road. They left the area around 3pm local time, he said.

“She was in shock then, she’s in shock now,” Hansen said of her mother. “I think she thought this would never happen. She’s experienced fires, she’s experienced evacuations … this was an inferno that none of us anticipated.”

Hansen said they don’t know if his mother’s home is still standing. His sister’s home in Malibu was destroyed, he said.

“I’ve never seen anything so extreme. Everyone thought they were in a war zone,” he said.