It was a picture-perfect December afternoon in Pacific Palisades, and the sounds of a neighborhood coming back to life were in the air: the steady drone of jackhammers, the hum of emergency generators, the squeals of contractor pickup trucks loaded with building materials.
Wildfires
At least two people have been killed and thousands have been evacuated due to the South Fork and Salt fires in New Mexico, which broke out June 17. Some 1,400 structures have been destroyed and more than 23,000 acres ravaged.