Thousands of people have fled their homes as a brush fire in the Pacific Palisades has grown to more than 17,000 acres Wednesday.

The blaze began shortly after the start of a Santa Ana windstorm that the National Weather service warned could be the strongest to hit Southern California in more than a decade.

The Pacific Palisades wildfire and three others burning in and around Los Angeles, driven by powerful winds, have expanded, forcing residents to evacuate, destroying homes and other buildings and clogging roads in the region.