WILDFIRES driven by hot Santa Ana winds flared into gigantic waves of flame that devoured entire neighbourhoods, choking the sky over Southern California with smoke and ash, and killing at least 13 people, in the state's deadliest outbreak of fires in more than a decade.

Ronald Reagan’s administration was growing concerned about congressional criticism of the sluggish US response to terrorism in 1985, according to a memo among thousands of presidential papers just released.