burned-out building A firefighter searches a burned-out building in Paradise, California, on Thursday, Nov. 15, 2018. (Photo: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg)

As wildfires raged across California, mobile phones went silent as towers and lines succumbed to the flames.

"We had to drive through neighborhoods with sirens and public address systems to alert residents and visitors," said David Katz, a spokesman for the Malibu Search and Rescue Team. "In some cases, we had to go house to house on foot."

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