Scores of Los Angeles residents returned Tuesday to wildfire-ravaged Pacific Palisades after officials began letting people drive back into the scorched community, the first opportunity most have had to carefully scour the sites of their former homes.

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.