Filmmaker on the frontlines of firefight

Alan Simmons is a former  firefighter who captures, up close, the intense work trying to control major wildfires. Simmons tells Anderson Cooper what it's like to battle rapidly growing blazes in California.

On Friday a Los Angeles-area wildfire threatened 4,000 homes and  spread across 28,000 acres in less than a day and a half. Here are photos of firefighters in action:

A firefighter sprays water on a flare up as a wildfire burns along the Pacific Coast Highway on May 3, 2013.
Photo credit: ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images

A Ventura County Fire Department helicopter heads to make a water drop on the wildfire in Pt. Mugu State Park on May 3, 2013.
Photo credit: Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images