Flames from the Palisades Fire surrounded the car Aaron Samson and his 83-year-old father-in-law, who has Parkinson's disease, were in as they tried to escape.

A survivor of a coal mine disaster in India has shared a harrowing account of the moments after the tunnel was suddenly engulfed by water. Ravi Rai was working in the mine in the north-eastern state of Assam on Monday morning when water entered the pit.

Their escape came as thousands of people fled wildfires in the Los Angeles area that turned picturesque neighborhoods into smoldering wasteland, with chimneys or wrought-iron staircases about all that remained of homes.