'The whole world was on fire': Infernos choke California yet again

It was too early to know how many made it out alive

Even in a state hardened to the ravages of wildfires, the infernos that raged at both ends of California on Friday were overpowering. At least nine people were killed, including several who died in their cars in a retirement community called Paradise. Malibu mansions burned. And in the neighborhood in Thousand Oaks where a gunman had killed 12 people in a crowded bar earlier in the week, survivors now fled the flames.

The fire-prone state was battling three major fires, one in the northern Sierra and two west of Los Angeles. In the northern town of Paradise, the ruins of houses