Strong winds — with gusts as high as 79 mph in the San Gabriel Mountains — began blowing their way through Southern California on Tuesday morning, Jan. 7, leading to the possibility of downed trees and wires, power outages and dangerous fire weather.

Wildfires began breaking out in Southern California Tuesday morning as a life-threatening, widespread windstorm that could be one of the most destructive to hit the region in over a decade roars to life and creates extremely dangerous fire weather conditions.

Thousands of people fled their homes as a brush fire in the Pacific Palisades quickly spread to 1,260 acres Tuesday, a blaze which authorities said could grow further as even stronger winds are expected through the night.