Firefighters are making progress slowing the major fires in the Los Angeles area that have killed five people, ravaged communities from the Pacific Coast to Pasadena and caused thousands of people to

Wildfires and brush fires can quickly spread into neighborhoods in large part because flying embers start little fires that then set homes ablaze. In the catastrophic Palisades fire, one of the city's iconic thoroughfares was severely damaged and large swaths of homes were reduced to smoldering rubble.