Firefighters battled early Thursday to control a series of major fires in the Los Angeles area that have killed five people, ravaged communities from the Pacific Coast to Pasadena and sent thousands of people frantically fleeing their homes.

The Santa Ana winds have long been a harbinger of trouble in Southern California, their fierce gusts igniting and spreading wildfires that leave devastation in their wake. This week, as flames roared through neighborhoods and forced hundreds of thousands to evacuate,