L.A. Mayor: 'Devastation I've Never Seen'

"We relocated resources earlier in the week and that paid off big time," Schwarzenegger said.

Firefighters try to save a home as another burns in the background during a wildfire that destroyed...

Firefighters try to save a home as another burns in the background during a wildfire that destroyed several homes, Saturday, Nov. 15, 2008, in the Sylmar area of Los Angeles. The fire in this foothill community on the edge of the Angeles National Forest broke out late Friday and charred more than two square miles in a few hours, prompting officials to order about 5,000 residents to leave their homes.

(Mark J. Terrill/AP Photo)

And even as firefighters were still battling some serious blazes in several communities, attention in other burned locations has begun to shift from damage control to damage assessment.

Schwarzenegger toured the mobile home park with Villaraigosa as investigators searched the site using sniffing dogs to determine whether anyone died in the the fire there. With the search about 30 percent complete by midday, officials said there was some good news.

"To this point no human remains have been found," Deputy L.A. Police Chief Michael Moore said.

Schwarzenegger called the fire at the mobile home park a learning experience and wondered aloud if mobile homes should be required to be built with more fire retardant materials just as regular homes are.

And there are other indications that the immediate emergency is improving. Nearly all freeways are passable and there are no power outages. Police are now focusing on looters.

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Five have been arrested in the northern San Fernando Valley. Two women were caught by an evacuated resident who was returning to his home.

Evacuees who have not been able to go home yet are obviously anxious.

"It's killing me wondering, 'Is my house going to be there when I go back.?'" said Sharron Baker, who was in an evacuation center in Brea.

Another expressed sympathy after he learned his home was spared.

"You don't expect anything like this," said Chad Miller of Yorba Linda. "Just for your life to change so dramatically ... and I feel so terribly for our friends who already lost their houses." Officials predict that all the fires will be 100 percent contained within a few days, but some of them burning in mountainous areas may not be completely out for weeks.

Up until recently, November would have meant that the rainy season had begun here, but California and Los Angeles in particular are mired in an historic drought. In fact, if there is not a wet winter, severe water shortages and rationing have been predicted by the state's Department of Water Resources.