Dozens of communities are now under mandatory evacuation orders in Southern California with evacuation warnings affecting dozens more as crews continued battling a pair of deadly wildfires in the region Friday.

The alert status for heightened combustion hazards in the county's inland valleys and mountains went into effect at 4 a.m. Wednesday and will last until 6 p.m. Friday.

Dire warnings have been issued for the Los Angeles area, with a dangerous threat for the strongest wind event in more than a decade. Outages and extreme fire behaviours are major risks