Multiple wildfires, including the Palisades Fire and Eaton Fire, are raging across southern California Thursday, leaving at least 5 dead and burning more than 27,000 acres, officials say. Police have arrested 20 suspected looters.

Firefighters are making progress slowing the major fires in the Los Angeles area that have killed five people, ravaged communities from the Pacific Coast to Pasadena and caused thousands of people to flee their homes.

Ferocious winds that drove the flames and led to chaotic evacuations have calmed somewhat and were not expected to be as powerful during the day. That could provide an opportunity for firefighters to make progress reining in blazes that have hopscotched across the sprawling region,

Rows of cars at a dealership, blasted by flames, looked like they had been bombed. A man wearing a mask walked by debris of a neighborhood destroyed. A couple, arms around each other, looked at what was left of their smoldering home. A statue of a human, without a head, lay on a street.

The number of deceased people has increased to 10 as authorities and the medical examiner continue to respond to reported fatalities.

It is not yet known what sparked the wildfires, although power cables blowing in the wind are a likely cause. But three factors made the conflagration blow up. We explain.

LOS ANGELES − As multiple wildfires continue to burn through Southern California, evacuation orders remain in place throughout the region through at least Thursday. Authorities continue to investigating the causes of three wildfires that began burning in Southern California on Tuesday and two fires that sparked north of Los Angeles and in Hollywood on Wednesday.