Thousands flee as wildfires spread rapidly across Southern California

Tens of thousands of residents in Southern California have been forced to evacuate as a series of fast-moving wildfires ravage the region, CNN reported.

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The most destructive, the Palisades fire, is spreading rapidly across Los Angeles, with homes destroyed and major roads closed. Authorities are scrambling to manage the situation, with widespread evacuations and emergency declarations. The out-of-control Palisades fire, which has burned more than 2,900 acres, is blazing through nearly five football fields per minute. It has prompted an emergency declaration from Los Angeles officials, who warned that the worst is yet to come due to the "tornado-like" winds complicating the firefighting efforts. As the fire approached key roads, including Sunset Boulevard, many drivers were told by fire officials to abandon their vehicles and flee. "The fire came right down to the road and the fire department came up and said get out of your cars now -- because the fire was right up against the cars," said Marsha Horowitz, who was caught in the fire's path on Sunset Boulevard. "There were three lanes of cars, and the fire was right down and there was nothing to stop it." As the fire continued to spread, fire crews began bulldozing abandoned vehicles to clear the path for emergency response vehicles. Meanwhile, in the Malibu and Santa Monica areas, where evacuation orders were also issued, drivers abandoned cars in the face of the expanding inferno.