California's first Santa Ana wind event of the fall is blasting the Los Angeles Basin with strong wind gusts, increasing the threat for rapidly spreading wildfires.

Gusts from 50 to 70 mph were common below passes and canyons in Southern California Friday morning from Ventura and L.A. County to the San Diego County mountains. The strongest gust has been measured at Magic Mountain (83 mph), north of the San Fernando Valley.

Red flag warnings have been issued for parts of Southern California and the Sierra Nevada due to strong winds, dry air and hot temperatures. Many of these warnings extend through Saturday evening and warn of widespread gusts up to 40 to 50 mph and isolated gusts up to 70 to 90 mph.

(MORE: What are Santa Ana winds, and why are they so dangerous?)

Several brush fires were already burning in Southern California on Friday, including the Bryson Fire, which was spreading rapidly in Malibu, and the Norte Fire in Orange County, California, which has already impacted several homes by Friday evening.

Firefighters worked to contain two other fires that had sparked Thursday afternoon and triggered evacuation orders in the city of Azusa, north of L.A., and Camp Pendleton near San Diego, The Associated Press reported.

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Preparation for impacts — including damage to trees and power lines, blown away lawn furniture and holiday decorations and potential fire growth — should be rushed to completion.

Widespread power shutoffs

Even if you don’t lose power due to the wind, local power companies also warned of preemptive power outages.

Numerous outages are already in effect across parts of Southern California and into the Sierras. More than 225,000 customers in Northern, Central and Southern California were without electricity as of Friday evening, according to poweroutage.us.

This is done as a precaution when winds are strong in an effort to prevent new wildfires.

(WATCH: Wildfire smoke exposure quadrupled in US over past two decades)

California’s wildfires so far this year

California has been experiencing a relatively mild year in terms of wildfires so far, with only 520 square miles burned compared to 816 square miles this time last year, according to CalFire.

But wildfire season is still ongoing across the state, and much like with other types of hazardous weather, it only takes one to lose your home or even your life.

(More: Bouquet Fire explodes near Santa Clarita amid SoCal heat wave)

Make sure you have a way to get alerts about fires in your area even if the power goes out, and have a plan in place in case of emergency.

Sara Tonks is a content meteorologist with weather.com and has a bachelor’s and a master’s degree from Georgia Tech in Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, along with a master’s degree from Unity Environmental University in Marine Science.