LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- A windstorm that forecasters described as potentially destructive and life-threatening is impacting a large swath of Southern California, dramatically raising the risk of wildfires for the next several days.
Firefighters are battling a fire in the foothills of Pacific Palisades, a Los Angeles coastal neighborhood. Another brush fire erupted in the evening in the Eaton Canyon area near Altadena, prompting mandatory evacuations. Then late Tuesday night, the Hurst Fire erupted in the Sylmar area.
Winds are expected to peak in the early hours of Wednesday, when gusts could reach 80 mph, the National Weather Service said. Isolated gusts could top 100 mph in mountains and foothills.
Red flag warnings are in effect and will and remain in place until 6 p.m. Thursday for the Malibu coast, the Santa Monica Mountains Recreational Area, the San Gabriel Valley, the San Fernando Valley, Calabasas, the Santa Clarita Valley, the San Gabriel Mountains, and the 5 Freeway and 14 Freeway corridors.
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The Pacific Palisades fire reached the Malibu coast Tuesday afternoon. The fire has exploded to 1,262 acres.
Road closures are in place for southbound Pacific Coast Highway at Las Flores Canyon Road and Topanga Canyon Boulevard. The road is also closed at Coastline Drive and southbound Pacific Coast Highway.
Several homes erupted in flames in a residential area of Pacific Palisades on Tuesday afternoon as a massive wildfire continued to burn uncontrolled.
The hillside homes were burning around 2:30 p.m. in the 1200 block of Rimmer Avenue, on the edge of a residential area north of Sunset Boulevard.
The houses were among those under a mandatory evacuation order, but it was unclear if any residents were inside.
Meanwhile, sections of the 10 Freeway and Pacific Coast Highway were closed to all non-essential traffic to aid in evacuation efforts. But other roads were blocked.
Some residents jumped out of their vehicles to get out of danger and waited to be picked up.
Kelsey Trainor, who lives in the Highlands above the Pacific Palisades, said the only road in and out of her neighborhood was completely blocked. Ash fell all around them while fires burned on both sides of the road.
"We looked across and the fire had jumped from one side of the road to the other side of the road," Trainor said. "People were getting out of the cars with their dogs and babies and bags, they were crying and screaming. The road was just blocked, like full-on blocked for an hour."
A homeowner along Livorno Drive in the Marquez section of Pacific Palisades had to break it to his wife that they lost their home in the fire.
The firefighters appeared to have salvaged some items from the home's garage, but unfortunately, the rest of the residence looked to be a complete loss.
That wasn't the only home lost along Livorno Drive - several other residences were destroyed along the street as well.
Panicked drivers stuck in traffic trying to evacuate the Palisades Fire zone ditched their cars along Sunset Boulevard to flee from the approaching flames.
Palm trees lining the iconic boulevard were going up in flames, as the Palisades Fire pushed its forward momentum toward the ocean.
Hundreds of abandoned cars along Sunset Boulevard were pushed out of the way by a fire bulldozer as crews made a path to reach the front lines of the blaze.
The vehicles were left behind by people making a mad dash to evacuate the zone as flames closed in.
