Australians are among tens of thousands in California ordered to flee their homes as two monster bushfires roar through some of Los Angeles' most exclusive suburbs.
The residents of the beachside enclave of Malibu and the gated community of Hidden Hills, where celebrities including Kim Kardashian and Grammy Award winners Drake and The Weeknd live, were ordered to leave by authorities.
Australian businessman Jon Sully, his wife Kath and their three children Spencer, Isabelle and Hamish, also had to make a mad dash from their Hidden Hills home as the fire line approached on Thursday night.
"We got the first mandatory at 7.06pm last night and packed the kids, dogs, passports, photos etc in the car," Mr Sully, a co-founder of retail leasing platform StoreMatch, told AAP.
"We could see the red glow over the ridge that was flaring up so didn't hesitate to go."
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They went to a friend's house in nearby Agoura Hills but three hours later were forced to evacuate again when police on loudspeakers drove around the neighbourhood warning they were in peril.
They made it to a third friend's house and spent a nervous night.
The threat remains for the region.
"The smoke was apocalyptic," Mr Sully said.
Mandatory evacuations were also ordered in Thousand Oaks, the location of Wednesday night's mass shooting when a former US Marine murdered 12 people at the Borderline Bar & Grill, including Ventura County Sheriff sergeant Ron Helus.
Many of the sheriffs and fire officers who were at the shooting had to turn to battling the wildfires.
The fire zone is a popular area for Australian expatriates to live.
More than 3000 hectares of land and at least 20 homes have been destroyed as two fires, powered by strong winds, were unstoppable as they headed west, jumped the 101 Freeway and roared towards Malibu on the coast.
Authorities said about 75,000 homes in Ventura and Los Angeles counties are under mandatory or voluntary evacuation orders and the number could grow.
