(UPDATE) LOS ANGELES, California — Firefighters in California battled wind-whipped wildfires that tore across the Los Angeles area, destroying homes and clogging roadways as tens of thousands of people fled and straining resources as officials prepared for the situation to worsen on Wednesday.

The fire that broke out near a nature preserve in the inland foothills northeast of LA on Tuesday evening spread so rapidly that staff at a senior living center had to push dozens of residents in wheelchairs and hospital beds down the street to a parking lot, where ambulances, buses and even construction vans arrived to take them to safety.