The Collector Jay Leno

Lamenting the horror of the recent LA fires

- Jay Leno

As I write this, the massive fires here in California are 15% contained. Just to give you an idea of the scale of this nightmare, more than 10,000 homes and buildings have burned to the ground and it's not over yet.

The paradox is the fact that it's 75°F today and sunny. Malibu is one of those places they name automobiles and restaurants after. It's home to beautiful people, movie stars, and some of the most sinuous driving roads in the country. I think there are more Porsches here per capita than any place else.

Fires are common. We have a 'fire season'; fire breaks out as often as it snows in England. But we've never seen anything like this. Winds of 75-100mph -the Santa Anas - combined with global warming and extremely dry conditions, over-building and over-population, have all fuelled this nightmare.

One especially frightening scenario I saw involved a group of Mercedes and Porsche SUVs as well as Teslas, Lexuses and other luxury vehicles stuck in a bottleneck at the base of a canyon. Most of the people were forced to abandon their cars and run for their lives. The Santa Ana winds pick up speed as they race through the canyons carrying fire. Imagine spraying an aerosol can on a cigarette lighter, but on a much greater scale.