We knew it could happen. Here was the forecast Tuesday morning on NBC4 Los Angeles.

This is a dangerous Santa Ana windstorm. The National Weather Service,

dubbing this as a particularly dangerous situation. It's the third time this season that they've used that strong wording.

The past two times, we've had big fires break out, so we have to be smart and we have to be safe.

And within hours, it did happen.

At 10.30 this morning, a brush fire was reported at 1190 North Piedra.

That's Kristen Crowley, fire chief of the Los Angeles Fire Department.

Extremely dry conditions, coupled with those high winds, meant that brush fire exploded. And by the time of Crowley's

afternoon press conference, the fire had burned more than 1,200 acres. Tens of thousands of people were

ordered to evacuate in communities between the Santa Monica Mountains and the ocean north and west of

downtown L.A. Here's Los Angeles

Council member Tracy Park. Obviously, the scope and scale of today's fire here in the

palisades has been terrifying. We are so incredibly grateful for the swift response.

The air was choked with smoke. The sky glowed a hazy orange.

Apocalyptic scenes played out on TV,

like a bulldozer scraping cars off one road

to make room for emergency vehicles.

Panicked drivers had abandoned the cars as they evacuated.

It wasn't long before another fire broke out near Pasadena

north of downtown L.A. By Wednesday morning, four fires were burning, and resources were severely

strained. This is not a normal red flag alert. That's L.A. County Fire Chief Anthony Moroney

at a press conference this morning. There are not enough firefighters in L.A. County Fire Chief Anthony Moroney at a press conference this morning.

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