Strong winds drive wildfires, evacuations across California's Los Angeles

California firefighters have battled wind-whipped wildfires that have torn across the Los Angeles area, destroying homes and clogging roadways as tens of thousands fled, straining resources as officials prepared for the situation to worsen.

The blaze that broke out on Tuesday evening in the foothills northeast of Los Angeles spread so rapidly that staff at a senior living centre had to push dozens of residents in wheelchairs and hospital beds down the street to a car park.

The residents waited in their bedclothes as embers fell around them until ambulances, buses and even construction vans arrived to take them to safety.

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