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LOS ANGELES — At one smoldering end of California, Capt. Alex Arriola and hundreds of other firefighters charged up flaming hillsides in the middle of the night Monday to battle a brush fire that exploded on the tinder-dry edge of West Los Angeles.

As helicopters doused the hills to protect the priceless artworks at the nearby Getty Center and homes went up in flames, the fire crews on the ground began attacking the blaze to keep it from leaping across the street and taking out other multimillion-dollar houses.

“It was pretty much chaos,” said Captain Arriola, a 34-year veteran of the Los Angeles Fire Department.