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.

Foad Farid, a data scientist and engineer who lives in the Pacific Palisades, left home on Tuesday morning for an appointment in Malibu when he began receiving alerts on his phone about the approaching wildfire in the upscale Los Angeles neighborhood.