Wildfires tore across the Los Angeles area with devastating force on Wednesday after setting off a desperate escape from burning homes through flames, ferocious winds and towering clouds of smoke. Flames broke out on Tuesday evening near a nature preserve in the inland foothills northeast of LA while another blaze that started hours earlier ripped

"Wildlife is incredibly resilient," a biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said, noting that "many species adapted to endure it."