Palisades Charter High School: School featured in Hollywood films including Freaky Friday and Teen Wolf TV series burns down as wildfire rages

NBC Los Angeles reported on Tuesday night (7 January) that the fire spread through several structures at the campus. The fire had all but destroyed the adjacent Theater Palisades.

The school is a popular location for Hollywood productions. The school has featured prominently in films, most notably Brian De Palma’s 1976 horror classic Carrie, where it was dubbed Bates High School in the movie.

The school also featured heavily in Danny Steinmann’s 1984 teen vigilante movie Savage Streets, the 2003 remake of Freaky Friday, the Teen Wolf TV series, Nima Nourizadeh’s 2012 film Project X and the 2001 teen rom-com Crazy/Beautiful. The school also boasts a notable alumnus of Hollywood talent including J.J. Abrams, will.i.am, Forest Whitaker, Jennifer Jason Lee, Katey Sagal, Peter DeLuise, Thomas Newman, Penelope Ann Miller, Amy Smart, and Adam Shankman among others.

Firefighters were on the scene quickly trying to save structures. Other schools in the Palisades area were evacuated Tuesday, and several campuses will be closed Wednesday (8 January).

In Pacific Palisades, it was challenging to assess the condition of the high school campus because of thick smoke. “The baseball field is on fire,” Allison Holdorff Polhill, senior advisor to school board member Nick Melvoin, confirmed in the late afternoon.

She said: “Neighbours have sent me photos of the baseball field on fire. And the tennis courts. Classroom bungalows may be on fire, but that is not confirmed. The fire department deployed in an attempt to save the structures.”

Palisades High School is an independent charter school that operates on a campus owned by L.A. Unified. It is not in session this week, although there were staff members and student athletes at the school Tuesday morning. All were quickly evacuated as reports of the nearby fire emerged.

At least 30,000 people were ordered to evacuate in California as the wildfire spread from just 20 acres to more than 3,000 in a matter of hours. “Don’t wait, evacuate” said an advisory by California governor’s office, while vice president Kamala Harris issued a statement saying her “heart goes out to all those impacted”.