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.