Evacuated residents are waiting in their cars for hours to get permission to return to Los Angeles neighborhoods devastated by the Palisades Fire, which has been burning for three weeks and destroyed thousands of homes and other structures.

A line of vehicles stretching two or three miles snaked along PCH Tuesday as motorists inched into a parking lot for permits to drive into the burn zone.

For the first time since the devastating Palisades fire ignited on Jan. 7, all Pacific Palisades residents can now return to their properties.