section_path: Evacuation
section_name: Evacuation
paragraph_text: Evacuation
  
  In a LAFD press conference on January 7, at 3:40 p.m., fire chief Kristin Crowley said that over 30,000 people were under evacuation orders, with more than 10,000 houses and 13,000 buildings under threat. During the conference, Marqueece Harris-Dawson, the president of Los Angeles City Council and acting mayor, declared a state of emergency in response to the fire.
  
  During the hectic evacuation, some roads became gridlocked. In some areas, residents were seen fleeing their vehicles along the Pacific Coast Highway and taking refuge in the ocean to escape the advancing flames. As flames moved closer, people abandoned their cars and fled for their lives, some taking their keys with them; bulldozers were later called in to move almost 200 such vehicles off the road to make way for emergency vehicles. The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) sent around 140 officers to assist with evacuations and gridlock. Fire department officials issued an Emergency Alert System message, which was relayed by the National Weather Service, to notify residents of the evacuations, and subsequently ordered residents unable to evacuate to shelter in place. At 2:30 p.m. on January 8, an evacuation order covering part of Santa Monica was expanded to cover all areas north of Montana Avenue from the beach to 11th Street, with evacuation warnings for additional areas north of Montana Avenue and areas north of Wilshire Boulevard and west of 10th Street.
  
  On January 10 at 6:00 p.m., evacuation warnings extended northeast, with the warnings changing to orders within the hour for the area enclosed by Sunset Boulevard to the south, Encino Reservoir to the north, Interstate 405 to the east, and Mandeville Canyon to the west. Communities in this area include parts of Tarzana and Encino in the San Fernando Valley.
  
  Evacuation orders were lifted on January 27, when the City of Los Angeles allowed resident-only access to the previously mandatory-evacuation areas.