California town in shock and mourning now threatened by wildfire

People attend the procession for the Ventura County Sheriff Sgt. Ron Helus, who was shot and killed in a mass shooting at a bar in Thousand Oaks, California, U.S., November 8, 2018. REUTERS/Ringo Chiu

(Reuters) - It is a moment many Californians have come to dread: Seeing smoke from one of the state's increasingly devastating wildfires approaching and knowing they may soon be forced to leave their homes, perhaps forever.

For residents of the Los Angeles suburb of Thousand Oaks, that moment came at the end of a gut-wrenching week in which a combat veteran entered a local bar and killed a dozen people in the kind of mass shooting that has become increasingly commonplace in the United States.