Vigilante fire clean-up launched by local Los Angeles contractor

"We never left," said the local contractor, taking a brief pause from shouting directions to his army of workers, as they shovel scorched debris from the roads and sidewalks into giant pickup trucks and trailers. "We're going to do everything we can to get this place back up and running as quickly as possible." At least eight people died in the Palisades fire alone, of 25 across Los Angeles. It razed entire blocks of this upscale neighborhood, and left much more shrouded in an unlivable carnage of ash, mud and collapsed structures.