Hollywood is hunkered down as deadly wildfires rage all around Los Angeles County. Tens of thousands have evacuated from their homes, primarily from the Pacific Palisades neighborhood in northern Los Angeles along the coast,

Production has come to a halt on several television programmes as US authorities attempted to bring the Californian blaze under control.

A brutal windstorm caused several fires to break out in the greater Los Angeles area on Jan. 7, with a big blaze in the Pacific Palisades forcing families to evacuate and putting Santa Monica on evacuation notice.

In the close-knit Los Angeles suburb of Altadena, where rows of neat bungalows once nestled in the shadow of the San Gabriel mountains, smoldering ruins and the skeletal frames of burnt out cars now lie.

The Sunset Fire started as a brush fire in Los Angeles' Hollywood Hills amid windstorm conditions. By mid-Thursday morning, the fire was stopped, an official said.

The Sunset fire has grown rapidly and is threatening a swath of Los Angeles that contains the Hollywood Bowl and the Chinese Theater.