Rows of cars at a dealership, blasted by flames, looked like they had been bombed. A man wearing a mask walked by debris of a neighborhood destroyed. A couple, arms around each other, looked at what was left of their smoldering home. A statue of a human, without a head, lay on a street.

Major fires across Los Angeles this week have killed at least five people, forced 180,000 to flee their homes, and destroyed thousands of structures