The setup in the atmosphere is known as a strong pressure gradient. This occurs when areas of high pressure and low pressure are close, creating fast offshore winds.
Above those fast winds is a lot of cold air, which is very dense, and can crash down, pulling strong winds to the ground, rolling down mountains.
We generally refer to those winds in Southern California as the Santa Ana Winds; however, the winds fueling the fires may not be classified as such.
When very strong winds develop in Northern California, we call them Diablo Winds; in 2017, these winds fueled catastrophic wildfires in Napa and Sonoma.
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