The wildfires that began ravaging Southern California communities on Thursday promoted Palisades Charter High School officials to cancel many extracurricular activities scheduled for Friday, Nov. 9.

A school spokesman said that the school’s small gym was being prepared as an evacuation site for people ordered out of Malibu and other locations affected by the Woolsey fire, which started Thursday afternoon near Simi Valley.  The American Red Cross had not officially activated Pali as an evacuation site by 3 p.m. Friday, but teams were preparing the small gym to be converted into a relief center, a school spokesman said.

All extracurricular events and after-school activities were cancelled Friday, as were events scheduled for the weekend. The 5:45 p.m. late buses were cancelled Friday, as were performances of the fall play “The Barker,” a school spokesman said.

By the time school dismissed on Friday, southbound lanes on Pacific Coast Highway were jammed, as mandatory evacuation orders were issued for Malibu and neighboring communities.  

By 2 p.m. Friday, the Woosley fire had burned more than 14,000 in Ventura and Northwest Los Angeles County, according to news reports.