Winds dying as crews fight flames in Southern California

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Edwin Bernard, 73, is no stranger to flames that have frequently menaced his sunburnt corner of Los Angeles, but they never arrived as quickly or came as close to his home before.
Fire swept down the hill across the street and spit embers over his home of 30 years, sizzling through dry grass and igniting trees and bushes. He and his wife scrambled to go, leaving behind medication, photo albums and their four cats.
“It was a whole curtain of fire,” Bernard sai