Residents of Venice Beach, about 10 km from the city, also reported seeing flames.
Kelsey Trainor said ash was scattered all around as the fire jumped from one side of the road to the other.
“People were getting out of their cars with their dogs, babies and bags, they were crying and screaming,” she told the Associated Press.
“They just blocked the road, as if they completely blocked it for an hour.”
Ellen Delos-Bacher told the Los Angeles Times how she rushed from downtown Los Angeles to her home, where her 95-year-old mother and their two dogs live.
She also got stuck at Sunset Boulevard and Palisades Drive.
Ms. DeLache-Bacher described a fire that erupted behind a nearby Starbucks and police racing down the road, yelling at stranded motorists: “Save your lives!”
She left the car with the keys in the ignition and ran half a mile down to the beach.
“It’s like the apocalypse,” she said.
