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.

Some Pacific Palisades residents said they waited on line for more than two hours Tuesday to get approval to go back to their 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.