Los Angeles is no stranger to disaster, having weathered floods, earthquakes and riots.
But Tuesday brought one of most devastating days in the city’s history.
The Pacific Palisades Fire started around 10:30 local time.
Stoked by ferocious winds, the fire quickly spread, soon engulfing more than 3,000 acres in that upscale community.
Soon the horizon was covered in thick black smoke. A thin patina of ash cloaked the cars in my neighborhood some 20 miles (32km) away.
That fire continues to burn out of control. And it was soon joined by three other fires – none of which have been stopped.
LAPD chief Jim McDonnell described this as “a tragic time in our history” and said the winds Tuesday night were like “something I’ve never seen before”.
Harrowing television footage showed flames engulfing some of the multimillion dollar oceanside mansions in Pacific Palisades.
One resident who escaped likened the situation to a scene from a disaster movie.
The word “apocalyptic” – so often misused – is in my view entirely applicable.
Fires are burning out of control all around us, smoke covers the sky in all directions, and the emergency services are stretched to their very limit – running out of water and straining to respond to thousands of 911 calls.
Perhaps the most pitiful image was of elderly residents being evacuated from a convalescent home in the city of Altadena, where the Eaton fire currently spans more than 2,000 acres.
Frail and confused, they were rushed in wheelchairs to safety amid a flurry of burning embers in the depths of night.
Seasonal wildfires are nothing new here. But never in the 25 years that I have lived here in LA have I witnessed a situation so widespread, and so unpredictable.
Two lives have been lost, at least 1,000 buildings have been destroyed – along with many livelihoods – and the forecast suggests the worse is yet to come.
A city of 4 million people is now at the mercy of the weather.
It is – as one fire chief put it – a “widespread disaster”, and a tragic day in the history of America’s second largest city.
