Strong winds that sent wildfires ripping through the mountains and foothills around Los Angeles fed a spectacle of smoke, flames and flight. Crews are battling a fire in the foothills of Pacific Palisades, a Los Angeles coastal neighborhood. Another brush fire erupted in the evening in the Eaton Canyon area near Altadena, prompting mandatory evacuations. Then late Tuesday night, the Hurst Fire erupted in the Sylmar area. Burgeoning wildfires burned uncontrollably across a wide swath of greater Los Angeles on Wednesday, transforming the landscape into scenes of apocalyptic destruction with blocks and blocks of neighborhoods reduced to ash. Authorities called the situation one of the most catastrophic fire events in California history.