UCLA is ‘a ghost town’ as students flee campus next to Palisades fire evacuation zone
The 46,000-student UCLA campus — adjacent to Palisades fire evacuation zones — is on edge and has all but emptied out amid poor air quality and a university decision to move classes online this week.
UCLA officials said Sunday there is no immediate danger to the Westwood campus. But when the fire pushed toward Brentwood, the university sent out notices putting students on high alert, advising them to “to stay vigilant and ready to evacuate” if conditions changed.
Chancellor Julio Frenk, who took the helm this month, has been sharing video statements on Instagram and X to encourage the UCLA community to be resilient.
“We’re continuing to monitor the situation very closely and we have plans in place for whatever situation might arise,” Frenk posted on Instagram on Sunday. “As of now, there is no evacuation order or warning for our campus. But I know that many of us are facing real challenges. There continues to be a lot of uncertainty and fear about the future. There’s concern about air quality. There is a lot of worry about homes.”
UCLA has developed a plan to bus students off-site — about 14,000 live on campus — if fire authorities issue a mandatory evacuation order.
On Sunday, it appeared that many students had already made their own decisions.
The usually boisterous Dickson Court next to Royce Hall was empty except for a few tourists and neighborhood residents walking their dogs. Most dining halls were closed. “The Hill,” the northwest region of campus where dorms are concentrated, was largely silent in the second week of the spring quarter, aside from the sound of students scrambling to leave.
At a dorm area by De Neve Drive, students stood on the street with packed bags and bright yellow moving carts, waiting for parents, Lyfts and Ubers to drive them to airports, friends’ homes in Northern California or out of the state. The scene resembled a moving-in or moving-out day rather than winter quarter kickoff.
“Almost everyone is gone,” said Titi Olotu, who pulled up in a car to grab her belongings and head home to Sacramento while classes are conducted remotely through at least Friday.
Olotu initially left her Olympic Hall dorm amid smoky campus conditions Thursday to stay with an aunt near East L.A. She returned to campus Sunday to grab her passport and other personal documents.
“I’m probably one of the last to officially leave,” said Olotu, a second-year biology major. She went viral on TikTok with her videos criticizing UCLA for staying open for on-campus instruction Wednesday, the day after the Palisades fire — at nearly 24,000 acres and 11% contained Sunday — broke out.
“I wish things had been done better overall,” Olotu said.
The few students left on campus tended to be resident assistants — who work in dorms in exchange for free room and board and other benefits — and international students whose families were far away.
At the Saxon Suites residential hall, Tommy Contreras decided to stay put because of his responsibilities as a resident assistant and as a representative in the Undergraduate Students Assn.
“It’s a ghost town,” said Contreras, who estimated about 10 students were left Sunday out of the 120 he and a co-worker supervised in their part of the residential hall.
“At least thousands have left,” said Contreras, a third-year student majoring in political science and public affairs. He has been working with student government representatives to collect relief donations for the Dream Center Foundation, a charitable group. “I was on campus and yesterday I saw just one other person.”
Late last week, Contreras said, he could view the Palisades fire from his dorm. He was relieved now that there were no longer flames in his line of sight, he said.
“We are glad UCLA is working with us. For example, the dorm front desks have masks and the university has been responding to us needing to go to class remotely,” he said. “Still, it’s been tough. There are people with asthma and in need of air purifiers. We have had days where the floor is black and ash falls out of the sky. But we’re one UCLA community working though this together.”
Evan Li and Matthew Li, roommates who are not related and live in an apartment south of campus, decided to stick around. On Sunday afternoon, they played a game of horse at basketball courts off De Neve Drive while students nearby scurried to evacuate.
“I don’t think the fire is a threat to us,” said Evan Li, a senior who studies computer science and applied mathematics. “And home is far away if I tried to go there now.” His family is in Toronto.
Matthew Li, a senior majoring in neuroscience, said his mother in Sacramento had called him to discuss possibly coming home. But he said last-minute flights were too expensive, and he also thought the danger wasn’t immediate.
“I’m thinking we’ll be back to normal soon enough,” Matthew Li said.
In the case of a mandatory evacuation, UCLA said meeting points would be Pauley Pavilion and Tipuana Apartments, from which the university would provide transportation to alternative housing. Communications would include announcements via Bruin Alert.
UCLA has not disclosed where students would land if evacuated.
In a statement to The Times, the university administration said that the “safety and well-being of all Bruins remains our top priority” and that its Office of Emergency Management had “identified several suitable locations” for potential evacuees and would “determine specific sites based on student and operational needs.”
“We have surveyed all students in university-owned housing and in the Westwood area and stand ready to transport and house any students who indicated they need temporary housing,” the statement said.
“In the event of an evacuation, international students, and any students or employees who need housing, will be given shelter, food, supplies and wi-fi at an off-site location, free of charge,” a FAQ on the university’s website said.
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