As the wildfire rages in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood, President Joe Biden is staying in Century City, which is nearby but not in the immediate fire area.

Smoke from the fire is visible from the hotel where Biden is staying, and it was visible from Air Force One on the tarmac earlier today.

The Los Angeles fire chief said officials will look later at whether residents could have been evacuated from the Palisades Fire more efficiently.

Residents in the area were warned to be prepared to leave because of the dangerous Santa Ana wind event, which fueled the fire that broke out today, Fire Chief Kristin Crowley said at a news conference.

“People did evacuate. It was slow to evacuate. What I have been briefed on is that the evacuations were slow, but they did occur,” she said.

“We will follow up on that, if there’s anything better in the future that we can communicate to the constitutions and continue to train to that — because the evacuation order, we can never do it early enough,” she said.

Around 30 cars and other vehicles were abandoned on a roadway in the rush to escape the fire, and they had to be cleared by dozers.

No deaths or injuries from the fire have been reported.

Gov. Gavin Newsom said the state has procured federal money to help fight the growing Palisades Fire.

Newsom expressed satisfaction with the speed of the federal government's approval, saying there was "no handwringing."

In a subsequent statement, his office said the Federal Emergency Management Agency approved a Fire Management Assistance Grant that will cover 75% of eligible firefighting costs.

"Californians are urged to remain vigilant and follow the instructions of local authorities during critical fire weather conditions expected in many areas of Santa Barbara, Ventura, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Orange, Riverside, and San Diego counties through Thursday," the governor's office said.

Mallory Sobel, who lives in the highlands of Pacific Palisades, said it took her two and a half hours to drive out of the neighborhood, where homes were shadowed by plumes of thick smoke.

“I can feel it in my lungs right now. My throat is sore. My car was full of soot as I was making this slow, slow climb down. I wore a mask because it was that potent,” Sobel said.

She added that she left with just a bag of emergency supplies and her family’s passports.

“Good Samaritans are everywhere on the street, helping people navigate down the hill and helping people with their cars,” she said.

A reporter at the scene of today's Palisades Fire captured firefighters working to save a resident's mementos, stacking up photo albums pulled from a home damaged by the blaze.

NBC Los Angeles reporter Karma Dickerson captured the moment with cellphone video posted to Instagram.

"When @losangelesfiredepartment station 37 saw how fast these flames were moving, they realized the house would probably burn and they ran in and grabbed photo albums and keepsakes," she wrote.

The video shows firefighters piling up photo albums and an entire drawer of keepsakes across the street from the home.

The station is in nearby Westwood.

The Palisades Fire, which erupted from just a few acres at 10:30 a.m. to more than 1,200 acres this afternoon, has damaged multiple homes, Los Angeles Fire Chief Kristin M. Crowley said.

The exact number was unavailable. Crowley told reporters that 10,367 homes were threatened by the blaze, which is spreading in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood.

A map showed mandatory evacuations for the entire community, from Interstate 405 to the sea and from its southern boundary with Santa Monica nearly to its northern border with Malibu.

According to the property data firm Attom, the median home price for the neighborhood last year was $3.1 million.

Firefighters are working to douse houses in water as the Palisades Fire continues to grow. NBC News’ Bill Karins details weather conditions while the winds fuel the flames. 

More than 10,000 households are threatened by the Palisades Fire, and evacuation orders are in effect for around 30,000 residents, the Los Angeles fire chief said.

The fire, which has grown to more than 1,200 acres, was first reported around 10:30 this morning as a brushfire, and responding firefighters found an approximately 10-acre fire with winds of around 40 mph, Fire Chief Kristin M. Crowley said.

Low humidity, strong winds and topography are “making it extremely challenging” for firefighters, Crowley said.

Several dozen cars were abandoned on Sunset Boulevard after embers picked up and winds created a new fire.