Out-of-control wildfires are ripping across parts of Los Angeles, leading to at least five deaths, burning down hundreds of buildings, and prompting more than 130,000 people to flee their homes in America's second-largest city.

Firefighters battled Thursday to control a series of major fires in the Los Angeles area that have killed seven people, burned at least 10,000 structures from the Pacific Coast to Pasadena and sent thousands of people frantically fleeing their homes.

Context: Los Angeles, which is about the same size as two small U.S. states, can be hard to picture. Disasters or riots might occur on one end of the city while those on the opposite end are far removed from the scene. These wildfires, though, have assaulted the metropolis as a whole.