Wildfires tore across the Los Angeles area with devastating force Wednesday after setting off a desperate escape from burning homes through flames, ferocious winds and towering clouds of smoke. The flames from a fire that broke out Tuesday evening near a nature preserve in the inland foothills northeast of LA spread so rapidly that staff at a senior living center had to push dozens of residents in wheelchairs and hospital beds down the street to a parking lot.

Heartbroken families, burned-out business owners and beleaguered Los Angeles leaders are beginning to ponder a monumental task: rebuilding what was lost in the Southern California wildfires