In Focus: Staff photos from Nov. 16 to Nov. 22

Firefighters pour water on a home in the Oakridge Mobile Home Park in Sylmar. Of the park’s 600 homes, 501 were destroyed and at least 40 more sustained serious damage. Best of 2008 Photography >>> Best of 2008 Main >>> (Brian Vander Brug / Los Angeles Times)

Sept. 16, 2014 10:18 AM PT

DEVASTATION: An aerial view shows streets of burned-out homes in Sylmar‘s Oakridge Mobile Home Park. “It was the Beverly Hills of mobile home parks. . . . We had a view, trees, a yard and neighbors,” said one grief-stricken resident. (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)

Patrick Franks, 11, hugs his dog Scamp while taking a break from digging for salvageable items in the ruins of his family home, which burned to the ground in Yorba Linda during the Freeway Complex fire. “He’s the first thing I rescued,” Patrick said with a smile. (Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times)

FIRE IN THE SKY: Drifting smoke from the wildfires lends an eerie beauty to the sunset off Royal Palms State Beach in San Pedro. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

GOOD FORM: A member of the Los Angeles Ice Theater group kicks off the opening of the outdoor Seaside Ice skating rink at Seaside Lagoon in Redondo Beach, open through Jan. 11. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

SMILE: Pam Contreras takes a photo with her adopted son Kenny, 5. Eighty-four children were formally adopted at the annual Adoption Finalization Event at Ontario Convention Center. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

CAUGHT: Roy Malleappah of the Southwestern Herpetologists Society holds an American alligator that was caught early Wednesday after it crawled under a bush in the 200 block of 4th Avenue in Venice. The reptile was first spotted in the street by a neighborhood resident. Animal control officers speculate that it escaped from its owner, but no one has claimed the alligator, which is 2 to 3 feet long. (Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times)

DAMAGE: Investigators get a closer look at a Metrolink locomotive after it hit a Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway freight train near the Metrolink station in Rialto. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

TAKING FLIGHT: USC tailback Joe McKnight is airborne after being tripped by Stanford safety Sean Wiser, but not before picking up 23 yards on the play in the third quarter. McKnight had 72 yards in eight carries in the Trojans’ 45-23 Pacific 10 Conference victory. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)