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A high school is gone. Nursing home patients flee for their lives. Family treasures are up in smoke. An untold number of homes have been incinerated by a wind-fueled conflagration in the Los Angeles areas of Pacific Palisades, Pasadena, and Sylmar, and forecasters predict the winds fueling the destruction won’t stop until Thursday.

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At a certain point, the Santa Ana winds swooshing through the San Gabriel Mountains take whatever spark is burning and turn it into a firestorm. As L.A. folks wake up Wednesday and take stock of what remains, smoke and ash fill the air, and thousands upon thousands of people have fled for their lives.

The winds are so strong that Joe Biden, in town to dedicate a couple of parks, was forced to cancel an event in the Coachella Valley. 

The fires are not contained, much less controlled. Firefighters believe that nearly 3,000 acres filled with some of the priciest real estate in Southern California is incinerated. 

And it isn’t over yet. In fact, the 60-70 mph Santa Ana winds aren’t expected to die down until Thursday. 

Wildfires create their own weather systems turning the warm Santa Ana winds into near-hurricane-level sustained winds. This conflagration could be started by a welder’s tool, a spark from an engine, fireworks, or druggies at a homeless encampment. The result is that people will return when the flames die down and their homes may not be there anymore. 

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The Palisades fire was reported Tuesday at 10:30 a.m. in Topanga Canyon, and by last night, the fire was so ravenous that firefighters couldn’t keep up. 

That small puff of smoke that started at 10:30 a.m. had turned into a conflagration of more than 1,200 highly populated acres of Los Angeles that dips down into even more populated areas like Santa Monica. 

Pacific Palisades High School reportedly burned to the ground. 

Cars were abandoned on the streets blocking fire truck access. 

Hollywood stars were reporting their evacuations, such as James Woods who, when it was still light outside, told people on X that the fire was too close for comfort. 

One of his neighbors sent Woods a hair-raising video while trying to drive away from the firestorm.

And it was at that point that Woods said he was leaving, too. 

Pasadena and Altadena are also the scene of another Santa Ana-fed firestorm called the Eaton fire.  

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In an evacuation zone in Pasadena, a nursing home needed to clear out its patients.

Throughout the day the local utilities cut off electricity to homes. Over the years, sparks from power lines have been blamed for starting fires. As a result of lawsuits, the utilities are cut off. 

President Joe Biden was in Southern California’s Coachella Valley to announce two new national parks, but the strong winds caused the White House to cancel the event. 

The National Weather Service says this Santa Ana windstorm is the strongest in a decade. KTLA reported that “gusts could reach 80 mph (129 kph). Isolated gusts could top 100 mph (160 kph) in mountains and foothills.”