2008 Pulitzer finalists | Breaking News Photography

INFERNO: Without aerial support, firefighters are overwhelmed by flames racing through homes in Green Valley Lake in the San Bernardino Mountains.  (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

FIRE AND WATER: Luke Schroder,14, looks at the smoke-filled sky after surfing Sunday in Malibu. Evacuations and road closures kept many from the beach.  (Richard Hartog / Los Angeles Times)

TARGET: In an almost artistic sight, a plane drops fire retardant onto a blaze in the hills above Malibu as seen from Cold Canyon Road.  (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

WALL OF FIRE: Firefighter Jason Falarski battles to save a house in Poway. For many in San Diego County, the scene was reminiscent of the deadly 2003 Cedar fire. Several hundred thousand people evacuated their homes as wildfires flared across vast areas of the county, but the size of the exodus made escape impossible for some.  (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

WORRIED: Malibu residents Saxon McClintock, 21, and her boyfriend, Russell Watts, 20, watch as flames move closer to their home. The wind-stoked blaze has charred more than 2,200 acres.  (Stephen Osman / Los Angeles Times)

READY TO GO: Katie Borg, left, waits as her mother, Judy, at right, and sister Kelsey pack their car in preparation to evacuate their home in Arrowbear, near Lake Arrowhead. Firefighters were still trying to get the upper hand on the fierce fire near the resort area.  (Robert Durell / Los Angeles Times)

MAKING DUE: Ariel Yue peers from a tent at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego. Provisions, and volunteers to give them to thousands of evacuees, were abundant.  (Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)

FLYING EMBERS: David Ottesen, 16, gets hit by an ember as flames approach his parents on Bent Tree Courtin Poway Monday. David Ottesen does what he can with a hose before firefighters arrive. “These embers were flying at us, hundreds of embers, and we had to dodge them,” he said.  (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

TAKING SHELTER: Firefighters deploy their fire shelters as fire engulfs their area temporarily trapping them along a ridge near Santiago Canyon Road. No firefighters were seriously hurt.  (Karen Tapia-Anderson / Los Angeles Times)

PERILOUSLY CLOSE: Flames racing up a hillside threaten homes near Running Springs. Mandatory evacuations were in place throughout much of the San Bernardino Mountains from Snow Valley Lake west to the Valley of Enchantment. Although the blaze jumped over California 330, firefighters were heartened by its movement from areas of dense timber into regions with lighter vegetation.  (Robert Durell / Los Angeles Times)

FLARE-UP: Redlands Fire Capt. Rob Sandberg works on a hose Monday on Juniper Lane in Green Valley Lake. Some residents of the Green Valley Lake area have had to evacuate their homes three times in the last four years because of brush fires.  (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

CASUALTY: A 25-year-old Forest Service firefighter who fell while working to create a containment line is readied for transport to a hospital. The Forest Service is shifting its focus from protecting structures to surrounding the blaze.  (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

A VALIANT EFFORT: A firefighter from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection is dwarfed by flames along East Grade Road on Palomar Mountain early Wednesday. Authorities estimate that about 525,000 were ordered or urged to leave their San Diego County homes as the fires raged, substantially more than in other counties.  (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

DIRECT APPROACH: Hector Hernandez throws a bucket of water on a spot fire on Palomar Mountain. A fire climbing up the mountain had burned 20,000 acres and was threatening the Mt. Palomar Observatory, one of the world’s largest telescopes.  (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

ON THE WAY: A firefighting helicopter passes over Amy Berling while she hoses the yard of a friend as flames approach the South Escondido home.  (Brian Vander Brug / Los Angeles Times)

PATH OF DESTRUCTION: Homes in the Rancho Bernardo neighborhood of San Diego are reduced to rubble.  (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

LOSS: Cassondra Ott, 24, sits amid the debris of her boyfriend’s home in Rancho Bernardo, near San Diego. Authorities closed an emergency shelter at San Diego’s Qualcomm Stadium and bused the remaining evacuees, only about 115 of the nearly 13,000 once housed there, to the Del Mar Fairgrounds.  (Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times)

SAD MOMENT: Tim and Susan Deehan embrace amid the ruins of their home overlooking Oak Canyon and Lake Poway in San Diego County. Evacuees were beginning to return to their neighborhoods, as residential areas were no longer threatened. San Diego County officials said the first rebuilding permit had been requested.  (Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times)