A large wildfire broke out in Pacific Palisades Tuesday afternoon, prompting mandatory evacuations affecting tens of thousands of people and highway closures. Later Tuesday a second wildfire broke out in the foothills of Pasadena on the other side of Los Angeles County.

California firefighters battled wind-whipped wildfires that tore across the Los Angeles area, destroying homes, clogging roadways as tens of thousands fled and straining resources as the fires burned uncontained early Wednesday.