IIn recent months, Jon Oei’s parents, who live in the high country of the Pacific Palisades, have received multiple evacuation orders due to wildfires, the most recent in the early hours of New Year’s Eve, he said.

When a forest fire broke out not far from the family’s home on Tuesday, the evacuation was not carried out immediately.

However, around 10:30 a.m. they could “see smoke rising over the top of the hill,” the 35-year-old said. The fire, which ignited when a violent storm swept across the region, spread quickly.

Oei lived with his parents and he knew that the only main road leading out of their neighborhood would be full of traffic after the first evacuation order. Video soon showed long traffic jams as residents tried to evacuate, empty cars lining some streets as people gave up waiting and continued on foot.

“I think a lot of people ignore the first call,” he said. “You’re stuck. You see people leaving their cars there.”

In the meantime, The wind also pushed the fire in the opposite direction from his parents’ house, Oei said. So they waited.

It wasn’t until after 5 p.m. that they finally decided to escape, he said. The family could see the fire coming over the Malibu side of the hills, meaning the only road out of the community was at risk of being blocked by fire.

“The decision most people have made: How long can I stay before I can’t really drive out that one street anymore?” Oei said. “When my family did it, it was almost over.”

Many other neighbors had already left by that point, he said, but he remembered “six or seven” other cars leaving at the same time.

As they headed toward the ocean, there was no longer much traffic on the Palisades drive. But it was dark and the power was out everywhere in the area. “There was no light and everything was on fire,” Oei said. During parts of the journey, the area on both sides of the road was in flames.

The family made it safely to Oei’s apartment in Santa Monica, he said.

Many residents of Pacific Palisades, an affluent community north of Los Angeles, told similar stories. The natural beauty for which the coastal enclave is known — hidden between pristine Pacific beaches and the green hills of the Santa Monica mountain range — also makes it vulnerable to fast-spreading wildfires. And what makes evacuation difficult?

Similar scenes occurred in nearby Malibu in December, when the so-called Franklin Fire forced thousands to evacuate.

Pacific Palisades resident Kelsey Trainor told the Associated Press that the only road in and out of her neighborhood was completely blocked. Ash fell all around them while fires burned on both sides of the road.

“We looked over and the fire had jumped from one side of the street to the other,” Trainor said. “People were getting out of their cars with their dogs, babies and bags, crying and screaming. The road was just blocked, like it was completely closed for an hour.”

Longtime Palisades resident Will Adams told the news service that embers flew into his wife’s car as she tried to evacuate. “She left her car and left it running,” Adams said. They and many other residents went down to the sea until it was safe.

He watched the sky turn brown and then black as houses began to burn. He could hear loud bangs and bangs “like little explosions” which he believed was the transformers exploding.

“It’s crazy, it’s everywhere, in every nook and cranny of the Palisades. One house is safe, the other is on fire,” Adams said.

Oei said that while his family’s experience was deeply shocking to some people, he found that repeated wildfires had left people in the area accustomed to responding. His parents have lived in their home for more than three decades.

“We were largely prepared for the evacuation,” he said. If he hadn’t stayed with them, his parents, who are in their late 60s and early 70s, “probably would have waited a lot longer to leave.”

“I would be very surprised if people in the area didn’t already have go bags set up,” he said. “That happened. We’re used to it.”

The Associated Press contributed reporting