tv Anderson Cooper 360 CNN January 9, 2025 5:00pm-6:00pm PST
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managed to come in to talking about, you know, their, their homes. but now you've got this, this kind of fire and people are fleeing with their suitcases, as we've been hearing people did from here, right there watching that fire. it started up that hill, came down around this this curve. house to house. yeah. that split second. and now people grabbing those suitcases and fleeing. >> last night we got back into our house. then we were going to evacuate again to hollywood. but then a fire broke out in hollywood. so we thought, okay, let's just stay in our house. my sons and i just. and and we stay in our house and hope for the best, and we're totally fine. this, i mean, but these new alerts that have come out that it turns out some of them are. >> yeah. not real. yeah. have caused real fear. >> totally. so i've been getting texts in the past hour from santa monica. people are packing up their cars, getting ready to leave because they all got these alerts. and so. and no alert went out to santa monica to say
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>> and good evening. we are reporting tonight from a staging area along the pacific coast highway in the pacific palisades, where we have spent the day. i want to show you some images from malibu, from the pacific palisades and from the topanga canyon area, where my team and i were. much of today. you just get a sense of all the activity that has been going on in this area. and of course, this is just one of the fires. the palisades fire is one of the fires. zero containment at this point. the other, the eaton fire zero containment at this point, 1500 firefighters are focused on the eaton fire. that's the area that that hit altadena where i was yesterday. and that is still very active as well. there is so much to tell you
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about over the course of the next hour. the national guard have been called in according to authorities. there have been some looters who have been arrested. that is obviously a concern. another concern. there are so many things that firefighters have to deal with now. i want to we as i told you, we spent the day up in topanga, the topanga canyon area. it is a very different terrain, obviously, than in altadena. it is mountainous terrain and it presents a lot of challenges for firefighters. i want to show you some of what we saw over the last eight or so hours as of this afternoon, the palisades fire, which we are right now on the northern edge of, is the one that concerns fire crews. most obviously, they are battling all the fires that are going on. you can see a helicopter that's used to drop water flying over this area. we're in topanga right now. and what is happening here is there are two smaller fires which are moving up this hill and have been over
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the last hour or so. the firefighters here have been watching this. just tracking its progress as they prepare over the ridge. there is a community. there's residential community. there's homes. uh, that is of course, what they are trying to defend. this is just one small part of the palisades fire, obviously. but what they are trying to do for the entire palisades fire is use bulldozers, in some cases using shovels, whatever they can to build a perimeter around the fire. so we've seen we've seen three drops from these helicopters of water just on this one spot in the last ten minutes. there's a number of helicopters with water circling, trying to find the best locations for them to actually put down some water. but this is a persistent fire that's been moving up this mountain. it looked like the
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helicopters had put it out, but it keeps flaring up again. there's also spotter aircraft, spotter helicopters which go around trying to assess where it is. they should put put water down over on this ridge. a large crew of of firefighters. those are actually inmates who have volunteered to learn firefighting skills. they are working, clearing the. you see, the road there on that's a road likely created by bulldozers earlier to kind of create a fire line. they are now widening that road, clearing out more underbrush, and then they will move to other locations. but this is a very active spot. this is the northern edge of the palisades fire. and there are certainly because the wind has died down today, they're able to get a lot more air assets in the sky and a lot more water coming down. they've dropped a lot of water from helicopters over the
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last hour or so. it seems like the wind shifted and suddenly the fire just erupted. >> exactly. you know, afternoons they get the the the wind shifts up here. so that's exactly what's happened. and they had to vacate the line that we thought were going to put in. so back to a contingency line. come down around these houses and just try to cut this bowl off. >> you guys are doing incredible work. is this the worst you've seen? >> we're from northern california, so this is a little bit different down here. >> there's another fire. now there's a residential community right over here. but there is another fire, as you can see on the other side of it. so there's a lot of different areas that crews are trying to work on. they're trying to kind of build a defensive perimeter around the entire part of this northern edge of, of this fire. but it is it is a very dynamic situation. it is changing. the good news is the wind has died down. they're able to get a lot of these air assets. but, you know, just watching this one little tiny part of the palisades fire seeing numerous
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water drops on it. and yet the fire comes back. so it is it's a very tough, tough battle right now. so just left that that area and right as we were leaving, that fire had started back up again. so even though there were multiple drops by helicopters, another crew was coming in to try to build more of a fire line. it to me, it just is such a microcosm of the battle so many firefighters are facing in so many different areas. these are just very tricky conditions and they are working very, very long hours. as we said, the national guard has been called in. firefighters still coming from a lot of different areas as well. um, i want to talk to to some of the folks who have been most affected by this. we saw this video of a man named aaron sampson and his dad using a walker. they evacuated from aaron's dad's house in the in the pacific palisades. uh, as you know, for a lot of people getting out there was that
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traffic jam, essentially the fire moving fast. people were told by firefighters, you got to get out of your vehicles. you got to walk. i want to bring i want to bring aaron in now. aaron, i appreciate you spending the time with us. first of all, how are you and how's your dad doing right now? >> thanks so much, anderson. um, we're doing okay. we're both alive. so that's the most important thing. my father in law is safe down in the san diego area. i'm back home in the berkeley area, and he did lose his house. we did confirm that. but the most important thing is that we're alive. >> your dad, i understand, has has parkinson's. he is recovering from surgery. i can't imagine how concerning it must have been for you with dealing with your father in law, getting him to safety. can you just talk a little bit about your. evacuation? >> yeah. uh, it was probably the most intense thing i've ever dealt with in my life. so i was staying at his house. i was taking care of him because he recently had surgery. just a
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few days ago, and i was alone. we didn't have a car because my wife took the car and the kids to go back to northern california. we get a ping about the fire, but it was an evacuation order. it was, you know, there's a fire in the area. so at first i'm just casually, hey, dad, we might need to go and i'm packing a bag, and then i go look up outside and i see flames not far from his house. i'm like, dad, we got to go. we got to go. and my father in law, he didn't want to evacuate at the time. and then i got my wife on the phone and she said, dad, you're putting in danger the father of my children's lives. you need to leave now. so at that point, i'm scrambling to try and call an uber. i call 911. nothing is working. so then i go outside on glen haven, where he lives, and i just start running, trying to find neighbors. can you please help? can you please help? and all the. a lot of neighbors were frantic and they were packing and getting their family in order, but. and there weren't that many people left. but i found this one good samaritan neighbor who we didn't know his name is jeff, and he pulled up his car and he said, hop in. so at that point, i got my father in law, you
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know, got the walker ready. grabbed what? his medicine, his parkinson's medicine. >> and by the way, erin, i think, i think we have video of you doing this and getting it. let's just play that. >> yep. information. information that they need to pay attention to. now, mind you, there's a fire. >> dad. >> you see it might change very, very quickly. >> there's one of the many fires that i heard in that. >> where is the fire? >> right here. look to your right, dad. there's one of the fires that could have changed. >> as of the few minutes that we've been on the phone, the key message and takeaway is for the public to listen to real time evacuation. >> are you okay? >> that's really close to my house. and as soon as it's ready, set, go. we need the public. >> i mean, it's just so. it's terrifying. um, yeah. so you got into a one person's car, then what happened? >> i got into jeff's car and we're driving, and there were fires. as you can see, it got worse and worse. and as we got toward the bottom of the hill, the cars were just stopped. and
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that's what you see on the video here. everything was stopped. and at that point the fire leaped and was like 15ft away from the cars. and the cops were like, get out of the vehicles, get out of the vehicles. they started just running up and everyone. that's where my video started, another video started, and everyone just started getting out of the car. there were some frantic people yelling, um, and i was trying to get my dad just safely down that hill, you know, toward the pch so we can get out of danger. um, and, you know, at that point, the flames were so close, my father in law turns back. he said, if they get any closer, you just run. you said you just run. and i was. i was like, we're not going to get there, dad. we're not going to get. and then he sees me struggling another person. so jeff, i said goodbye to you know, we quickly said goodbye and then another person, a kind man, saw my dad and i struggling. it was apocalyptic. he pulls up his car. he was trying to get to his house in the palisades. they wouldn't let him through. his pets were there, but he he couldn't do anything. so he said, can i help get in the car? let me take you somewhere.
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another kind man. andrew just helped us. we got in the car. he was in shock. we were all in shock. and he's trying to get past and get us out of there. um, and it was i. you don't really realize the the danger of the situation until you're in it. you don't you don't realize the gravity until well after. but i certainly realize it now. and i'm so grateful to both jeff and andrew. they saved our lives. they really did. and i'm very grateful to them. >> well, i think there's video of you moving, trying to get your dad down the hill. i just want to show that. yeah. and we got this. >> we got this down. >> slow down, slow down. >> i can't do this. look at this. i got him in the wheelchair. >> all right? >> don't talk to me i don't know how far. >> aaron. >> it turns out. as the fire catches up, runs the
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safety. don't worry. he gets a on the bottom. don't go. >> i mean, it's just it is. it is so heartbreaking. i mean, i'm so glad you guys. it's it's just i mean, it's hard for me to listen and hear that to to hear the, your, your father in law's voice. i mean yeah, it's incredible. and it's incredible that you were able to get out. >> it is. and i'm very grateful. and my father in law, he's been bedridden for about a week. this was amazing that he was able to move like this in this situation himself. but without, you know, jeff and andrew, i really would have been stuck up, stuck up top of that hill. um, and contemplating that. and, you know, andrew ended up, you know, that was a ride. andrew met us toward the bottom of that when i was pushing him down. um, and andrew ended up pulling over on the pch because
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it was just shock, the gravity of it all. and i just want to call out one thing because we're all in this together. me, jeff and andrew and everyone in the community, they've all really shown up and everyone's had unbearable loss. but i reached out to them after and wanted to just say thank you for saving our lives. we wouldn't have done it without you. and you know, jeff, we found out. and andrew, they probably jeff definitely lost his house. it was the same street that my father in law was at. his car that we were in was burnt to a rubble, and everything in the car was burnt to a rubble. and i texted him, i said, you know, i am so sorry. we're indebted to you. i will make it up to you. and jeff wrote me, there is nothing to make up more important than our lives, and that's what's important. and that just. it. he's a remarkable individual. and then, andrew the same likely lost his house. doesn't know yet, but i just spoke. i just texted with him earlier and i said thank you so much. and he says, aaron, maybe we make this world a better place. hope has always been the wild card for humanity. we've always been able to pull it together. and
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so in the in the among the flames and the ashes, we have these two men who saved our lives. i'm so grateful. >> yeah. mentions indeed. aaron. well said. thank you. and i my best to to your father in law and to your whole family. i'm so glad you guys are okay. and what aaron said, i think is so. and what what what those people said as well is so important. i mean, we have seen that we've seen i saw that today up in, in topanga, a small communities, people banding together, helping their neighbors. i mean, it's, you know, you don't see that on tv a lot. you don't it doesn't make headlines on the news. but, um, it's happening. it's happening up there right now. um, bill weir is in malibu. bill, what are you seeing? you. >> know, anderson, the devastation along the strip of pacific coast highway is is really hard to describe. we're watching what is a really lovely sunset. otherwise,
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through the through the haze of this smoke here. but these are the multi-million dollar views that has this as some of the most valuable real estate in the country. but this five mile stretch between topanga and carbon canyon, i'd estimate 75% of the homes have been turned to ash. this this pushes the price tag. obviously, these are people's lives. um, these are families that lived on this little strip of land and loved this place so much. there's also restaurants that are iconic on the west side of los angeles. moonshadows reel in the funky, beautiful little seafood place where people got engaged and celebrated. those are jobs. so it is devastating. i was up in the palisades yesterday and thought that was something like i had never seen. this reminds me of lahaina and paradise combined and expanded. it's it is really unreal. but coming up later in the show, we were also up in topanga where you saw that that little, uh,
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amazing community banding together there, watching that line hold the line. and we're going to and we asked for what their impressions are of the first responders who are catching a lot of heat these days. but i'll be back with you later in the show to share that. >> all right, bill, look forward to that. we're going to take a short break. we'll have more from a number of spots. as we said, there are six fires. the two major fires, zero containment on those, the eaton fire. and here the palisades fire a lot ahead. stay with us. >> just because it's wet outside, you don't need to wear boots. presenting skechers waterproof sneakers with rugged, 100% waterproof construction in a comfy, breathable, lightweight, easy to wear sneaker. ditch the boots and experience comfy, capable skechers waterproof sneakers. it. are you ready for this? >> are you ready for this? are you ready for this new alka-seltzer plus cold or flu
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north of the 101, i believe. so that is the newest fire. six fires now burning. and as you said, it's the eden and the the the the palisades fire here where we have spent the day. i want to go to cnn's kyung lah and show you what what she saw today. she was in altadena, which is where we were broadcasting from yesterday, which was just a scene like i've never seen before, just block after block of houses, just burning in front of us for hours and hours. this was what happened when kyung was there today. >> right over here is my kitchen, my living room. oh my god, pots and pans and stuff. right there. oh! >> oh my god! yeah. hey
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25 years i've been here. >> easy. 25 gone less than three hours. >> when you look out at your neighborhood. what happened here? >> it just looked like a war zone here. this is a war zone. look, just like a war zone. >> i saw the fire at 2:00. i took a picture, and at 4:00, my phone went off and it says evacuate. evacuate. and that's what we did. there's nothing. there's nothing left. i literally just have the clothes on my back. there's nothing. things that my grandmother gave me. my granddaughter. she's always making me something. and i put it in a frame. you know, i don't have those no more. >> yvette said that this guy's house was touched by god. >> it had to be because it didn't burn. >> but if his house is touched by god, what happened to the rest of the neighborhood?
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>> god didn't didn't care about us. there it shows it right now. but i'm going to let this go, and i'm going to close my gate, and i'm going to get out of here because this is making me sick. >> and kyung lah joins us now. what is i mean, what was the scene like all over altadena today as you were going around there? >> well, anderson, you really saw that fire. you really felt what was happening in altadena. let me show you what it looks like 24 hours after you were here. this is just one small block of altadena. just one small block. and this is really just even half a block. each one of those chimneys represents a family home, and i'm sure you noticed this yesterday. anderson. these are small homes. these are working class, middle class families.
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i'm very familiar with this community. there are young families, retirees, people who bought these houses. many, many years ago. these are homes built in the 1920s. and so these homes have been here. they were built. a lot of these families have been here for generations. none of them thought this far away from the mountains with wildfire impact, these communities so badly. this is robert lara's home, one of the many houses that you saw yesterday. and so a three bedroom home. you can just see he came here hoping that he might be able to find some of his grandmother's jewelry. he had it in a fireproof safe. there was nothing left. it was simply ash. you can see some mangled metal, but really, that's all that's left here. and so the big question for all of these people who have to now dig through all of this is, is there anything that they can do? is there anything that they can find? and what do they do if there's nothing left?
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anderson. yeah. >> it's so sad to see that. it's just it's incredible. um, kyung, thank you very much. you're hearing some noises. we're in a staging area, so there's there's fire crews, there's police. you know, coming in and out. so that's that's some of the noise. i want to introduce you to scott mcdonald. he is living in topanga canyon. this is an area we were at throughout most of the day, which you saw earlier in the piece. um, scott, i understand you talked a little bit about what you went through. you were able to to save your home. yes, yes. >> anderson. uh, a group of us decided to stay, uh, knowing that it was the only way to save our homes. we don't get, uh, fire trucks or, uh, any rescue vehicles up there in a short period of time. since we were pretty isolated. and, um, from previous fires from people who, uh, have lived there a long time. they said,
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if you want to save your house, you have to stay. and my wife, helen decided to leave, uh, shortly before the fire started coming over the mountain. and, uh, my neighbor, uh, lars, uh, went down to his house and started his, uh. uh, prevention. i got my fire hoses out and got my pump started. uh, that failed pretty quickly. um, then i was stuck just pulling water out of our pool. the pool cover had melted, and, uh, i didn't have any electricity to, uh, wind that back up, but luckily, i was able to access the water, and i just kept running back and forth, putting out small fires against my house. um, one fire started in the back of the house, another off the living room. uh, on the video there, you see, off the living room, i ran outside, um, and one of the
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hoses, garden hoses, had enough pressure that i could knock that back. uh, my neighbor lars came back up to help me. uh. um, and, uh, he went back later after we got that fire under control. and then i just kept running around putting out small fires around the house. um, we got some cracked glass. um, firewood caught on fire that was too close to the house. luckily, i had it covered up. uh, there's a picture there of the firewood. um, all that side of that building, uh, flames were lapping up against that. um, that was probably where it was going to come in the house the most. um, and the back porch, which was made out of wood, um, embers got underneath it and it just kept igniting throughout the night. and i just kept having to stay up and put it out. and the video you see there, that's a view
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of a dog rescue area. um, nobody lives there. and they have some ponies. and i ran over there in my little truck and, uh, some police officers showed up. they rescued the dogs, we released the ponies. and that's the last i saw of anybody for hours. um, and i kept going back and forth to another neighbor. um, and, uh, he was taking pretty good care of the fire around his house. but the house across the street, some friends of ours, they lost their house. um, everybody lost their house around us, and there was nobody to help us. we were all on our own, and it was really sad. >> i mean, it's just incredible that you were able to do this. and, i mean, and i'm. i'm so sorry for your neighbors who weren't. and i mean, it's such a you know, i've never been up there. i spent the day up there. it's so beautiful. the
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area you live in. and i understand why you would. you would live up, why you would live up there. um, but those roads are so small. i mean, now thinking about you staying there, had you decided in the midst of this to try to get out? i mean, you may not have been able to get out those. i mean, those roads are really tough. >> i'm very familiar with the roads. so i had a plan to get out, and and i watched where the flames were going. and i knew, um, if it came over my house, um, or if it was going to come over my house, i was going to leave and just let it burn. um, but i was going to take stump road, which leads to mulholland. and i knew that was still open, and, um, i just stayed, and it looked okay. it looked like i was going to make it, um, we lost, uh, an art studio, some containers full of, um, lots of valuable material. um, but at that point, i didn't care about that. i just
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stayed at the house. this is. you know, we worked so hard, like everybody. they worked so hard to save this. and. yeah, uh, you know, we're all out on a limb on our own. we know the risks, and we try to prepare ourselves the best we can. and, uh, this time it worked for us. but for many others, it didn't. and the one the houses that burnt were people that left and the ones that survived were the people that stayed. and, you know, all our neighborhoods are pretty close. um, every saturday, lots of us get together and have dinner. we talk about these things, and we all know it can go wrong. and even the best laid plans go wrong as they did. um, hoses broke. uh, fire just came from every direction. and, uh, you know, we just tried as hard as we could, and i did, and it worked for me.
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but for other people, it didn't. and, uh, my heart goes out to them. i feel really bad. >> yeah, well, and and again, i mean, laura's coming over to help you again. >> we've seen we've heard so many stories of that of neighbors helping neighbors. and i mean, i said this earlier, it it doesn't get enough attention, uh, you know, on a day to day basis in this world today, but to, to just i think it's worth emphasizing tonight what neighbors helping neighbors and helping you get through the worst time of your life. so, scott, i really appreciate you being with us. thank you. and i'm so sorry for so many in your community. thank you. i wish you well. >> well, thank you for letting us tell the story. >> thank you. >> yeah, yeah, well, it was a privilege to be up there to today and learn about topanga. it's incredible. um, we've just been told that the death toll now has risen to seven five in the eden from the eden
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fire and two now from the pacific palisades. from the palisades fire. so the death toll now at at seven, expected to rise. but that's where it is right now. we're going to take a short break. we'll be right back. >> with so many choices on booking.com, there are so many tina fey's. i could be. so i hired body doubles to help me out, splurgy tina loves a hotel near rodeo drive. >> oh, tina! >> while tina booked a farm stay to ride this horse, glenn close with millions of possibilities. you can book whoever you want to be. that's my line. booking.com. >> booking.com. >> yeah, time to press rewind with neutrogena rapid wrinkle repair. it has derm proven retinol expertly formulated to target skin cell turnover and fight not one, but five signs of aging with visible results in just one week. neutrogena
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money today for ben and erin. >> the work's never done. i'll never stop. >> yeah, baby. >> until the whole town is transformed. >> i know what they want. they don't know where to find it. we do. >> hometown. all new sunday night at eight on hgtv. >> and welcome back to our continuing coverage. we're coming to you from the pacific palisades, from a staging area for firefighters and police and other personnel. you're looking at live pictures of the kenneth fire. that is the newest fire started earlier today, started about 50 acres within a couple hours. it's now at about 800 acres is the last estimate. and now the death toll is is officially seven. five confirmed dead from the eaton fire, which is where it hit pasadena and altadena, and also two now confirmed dead from the palisades fire. um, i want to check in with our natasha chan, who spent the day
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at an evacuation center in pasadena. she is in altadena tonight. natasha. >> yeah. anderson. the evacuation center was full of people who used to live in these neighborhoods. and these are their homes that are no longer here. i met so many of them who are just heartbroken. exasperated. they're angry. they're trying to figure out what their next steps are. they were there just to get a toothbrush, to get some clothes because they, in some cases, left with nothing but the clothes on their backs. one woman we talked to said that she actually stayed behind in a neighborhood really close to where i'm standing, trying to protect her 100 year old house, and she said she did that for so long, past the point where her neighbors had all fled, that firefighters removed her from the premises. here's what she said about what she left behind. >> everything i've ever worked for my entire life was there. my work equipment. my brother's ashes, my
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daughter's momentums, my keepsakes, my deceased mother's photos and belongings that she passed down to me. it's all i have. i have nothing. i can't even teach. and i'm a first responder. i teach people to save lives. and i couldn't even save my house. and i'm just shattered. i'm broken for my family, the community. >> anderson. there were 1200 people staying at that shelter, but she was one of several who have a place to stay tonight. but they just needed to go there during the day and get some toothpaste and get some resources. so many people just have nowhere to turn. >> yeah, natasha, i appreciate your coverage. thank you very much. i want to go to pasadena, where chef jose andres is. if you don't know him, he has
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done incredible work all around the world for the last several years since he created world central kitchen. jose, talk a little bit about what you are seeing, what you are doing right now. >> well, i'm right here in the convention center of pasadena. we have two food trucks outside making sure we take care of of the needs of the people that they, they, they, they feel they need to be around people to feel comfort, to feel hurt, to feel love. these people that are displaced, they don't even know if their homes are born. people obviously inside the shelter, we help also feeding the shelter at night when sometimes the numbers go up or down. um, i spend my my day today, uh, going uh, from the different, uh, fire staging areas. um, i was very near where i think you are right now, where we have had two food
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trucks making sure that 24 hours a day, we cover the needs of the firefighters, of the first responders, of the police, who they don't stop working. and when they have a break to have a piece of, uh, a sandwich, uh, an apple, uh, some water, we need to make sure that as they keep moving, we are next to them. so when they have that break, we we can be doing what we should be doing, which is taking care of the first responders that don't don't stop working. >> you know, jose, one of the things that just strikes me, you know, you and i are often in areas together where an entire, you know, city is, is, uh, in conflict or at war or a disaster has occurred. what's so strange here is you can be in, you know, some place in downtown los angeles or in beverly hills, and there are coffee shops open, and then you just drive a few blocks and people's worlds have been destroyed. it's this strange.
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it's just a bizarre situation. and obviously these fires now, we now have this, this the the kenneth fire, which is now grown. that's the newest fire. just how did this what stands out to you about what you have seen in the last two days? >> well, sometimes what you're describing is what becomes more chaos, right? >> because it seems some parts of the city are perfectly functioning. and then across the street, or half a mile north, everything is chaos. and that's why it's so important to have organizations in this case, like central kitchen and others that are able to adapt. you cannot have a plan that you follow. you have to be able to adapt. you are in palisades right now. i was all day in palisades yesterday. all night, all day today. and what we do is adapt because in a situation like a fire, you don't know what is going to happen next. and therefore, the firefighters
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move to a new location. hundreds of them is not going to be food or water waiting for them. so you need to have organizations like ours adapting to the new situation. and so as people are going back to their neighborhoods, when they are able to go back and they give them permission, we need to make sure we are there next to them with water, with food. no, because sometimes the food is not available to them, but because sometimes people, they need to feel that somebody out there is there to care for them, to show them love, to show them empathy. adaptation in this moment is the most important. in emergency. >> yeah, and i think we have some of the food distribution points, the locations of them that we can, that we can put on on the screen. um, jose from world central kitchen really obviously. so admire what you what you always do and what you are doing in these very
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difficult circumstances. thanks, jose. >> thank you. >> we're we're going to take a short break. our coverage continues in just a moment. >> one second. grandma. this guy is going to buy my car. >> okay. you need carvana entering plate number. >> no accidents. >> right? no generating offer. carvana can pick it up tomorrow. >> that's an amazing offer. >> sell your car the easy way. >> time to press rewind with neutrogena rapid wrinkle repair. it has derm proven retinol expertly formulated to target skin cell turnover and fight not one, but five signs of aging with visible results in just one week. neutrogena.
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>> paxlovid. >> paxlovid must be taken within the first five days of symptoms and help stop the virus from multiplying in your body. >> taking paxlovid with certain medicines can lead to serious or life threatening side effects, or affect how it or other medicines work, including hormonal birth control. tell your doctor about all medicines, vitamins and herbal supplements you take as certain tests or dosage changes of your other medicines may be needed. tell them if you have kidney or liver problems. hiv one r or plan to be pregnant or breastfeed. don't take paxlovid if allergic to its ingredients. stop taking and call your doctor right away. if you have allergic reaction symptoms. serious side effects can include allergic reactions, some severe like anaphylaxis and liver problems. these are not all the possible side effects, so talk to your doctor if it's covid, paxlovid, ask your doctor today. >> what are you thinking? >> i'm thinking about our honeymoon. >> what about africa safari? >> hot air balloon ride. >> swim with elephants. >> wait, can we afford a safari? >> great question. >> like everything, it takes a little planning. or put the money towards a down payment on a
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ranch in montana with horses. let's take a look at those scenarios. >> jp morgan wealth management has advisors in chase branches and tools like wealth plan to help keep you on track when you're planning for it all. >> the answer is jp morgan wealth management. >> i'm eva mckend in plains georgia and this is cnn. >> it's a very dynamic situation here in in topanga, you can be driving along a road and you see blue skies and you suddenly turn a corner. there's a switchback, and all of a sudden you're in a battle and firefighters are battling. they've dropped. we've watched two water drops so far on this location, but the fires keep coming back. so it looks there's a number of spotter aircraft as well as helicopters that have water. we'll see if they decide to drop more water to that. they're trying to put that out. and we watched them battle just that. blaze two blazes actually on on kind of a lull
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between two mountains for about an hour and a half, maybe two hours, multiple airdrops of water. that fire kept coming back. and when we were leaving, it just erupted again when the wind shifted again, just a sign of just how difficult it is. i want to bring in several other guests. doctor andy avalos, her her brother, uh, david as well, and david's daughter penelope, as well as his son, leo. i appreciate all of you being with us, david. i, i've learned that your your house has has been destroyed. i'm so sorry. can you just talk about what happened? >> sure. and thank you for, uh, saying that you're sorry about it. and thank you to everyone that's been reaching out to us. um, thursday. tuesday, uh, we we followed the evacuation orders, uh, around 1:00 and
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left our house on mount holyoke in in the palisades. and we were going to rendezvous with our kids who were coming home from school in santa monica. um, we didn't have much time. we grabbed, uh, just some documents, like passports and birth certificates. but the main thing we did was get our three pets. um, i'll introduce them to you. now, this is falkor. this is winston, and that's ariel. and so we have, uh, we have a black suit, a rabbit named oreo, a cat named winston, and a dog named falkor. uh, all three of them together are, you know, were rescues. so they were worth, you know, not much. but to us, they were invaluable. and we walked past many, much more valuable things in order to save these these things that are the most important living creatures to us. so, uh, so we're all
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together, and, uh, as opposed to some of the other folks you had on, uh, when i think about how i'm feeling right now and how we're feeling, it's three things. um, and you might be surprised to hear this, but we feel lucky. we feel very lucky that we're together, even though we literally have nothing. uh, in in a real way. we have everything. and it's right here in this room together. so that's that's one thing. and the second thing we feel is love. we feel a lot of love for all of the friends and family that have reached out to us, our neighbors that all lost their houses, too. um, we love them all, and we love all the people that have been reaching out to us in these times. you really find what people are about, and i can report to you that people are good. and, uh, we feel a lot of love. and the third thing, the last thing is we're very hopeful. we're very optimistic, and we're going to
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come through this more resilient than ever. and, uh, you know, we're very optimistic about the future. >> and, annie, i understand you have taken in a lot of animals and have some advice for, for for homeowners in the future about bringing animals with you, even though you may be concerned about, you know, can they be brought to a shelter? what how many animals have you taken in now? >> well, i've i've spent most of my time, uh, connecting animals and owners that need help that are evacuating with people who are willing to foster, to help them take care of their dogs. um, the majority of the people that i've been helping with, they actually don't even need to bring the dogs to us because so many places are becoming pet friendly. um, all the hotels that normally don't allow pets are now allowing pets. uh, you know, rental
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apartment rentals, airbnbs. people are understanding what's going on, and they're letting people stay with their pets. um, so currently we we've been kind of having transient numbers here. um, but this is an abandoned veterinary hospital, and i've been using it to house animals. um, i think currently we have about 40 animals here, about a dozen cats, um, and about a dozen dogs and a bunny. um, wow. that's awesome. uh, but the the important part is it's really amazing how many people have been reaching out to me that want to help. like the number of emails that i get from people who say, you know, i'll take a dog, i'll take a cat, you know, i'll help every way i can. i'll bring you food, i'll bring anything. and the message that i want to give to people is, please, please, i beg you, take your animals with you. you're not. you're
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probably not going to be able to come back to your house for a long time. um, so don't think you can leave and come back with with your animals. take them with you. now, um, you're going to have support. there's so many people in los angeles. it's not just us here in marina del rey. other veterinary hospitals are now taking in animals with free boarding. um, we're all trying to help out. we're all. we're all doing our part. um, but please take your animals with you. and another thing is trust that the places that you're going to find to stay are going to take your animals as well. >> yeah, well, listen, doctor, i so appreciate what you are doing. and david and penelope and leo and i don't remember the name of all your animals, but i thank you all for being with us. you. it's the first time i think i've smiled, uh, talking to you guys and hearing you guys talk. so thank you for for. i'm so glad you are together and for the message that you gave tonight. thank you. i wish
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you i wish you the best. i want to check in for a quick update. uh, i want to talk to, um. uh, captain sheila kelliher, who's joining us now? captain, i appreciate you joining us. what's the latest, uh, that you can tell us? >> listen. we're here. i'm at the palisades base camp, and we got notification about two hours ago. we have another fire on the other side of this canyon, uh, in the west hills. calabasas area, up in the victory trailhead that started off as 50 acres. it's now at 791. but our crews are doing an incredible job trying to get their arms. that's the kenneth fire. yes. and the they've had a ton of air support. they are, uh, striping that by the homes with the fire retardant. and they're doing an incredible job. but they have um, they, they are dealing with spotting fires. so that's going to be something that we're paying attention to all night. so we have got our hands full on all
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sides of this county. >> you know, it's so remarkable how from the air you can see embers going and and another fire starting, you know, a mile away from a fire like this. i was watching this last night and some of the fires that were in the hollywood hills and elsewhere. you could see these spot fires just flare up. it's it's terrifying to to see how quickly this can spread. >> it is so real. and what you're saying is so true. and i just got a notification that says that they just got a spot over off of las virgenes. now i live about four miles from there, so i know exactly that terrain. i know exactly what they're up against and that's spreading a bit west. so, um, i promise you, they got a bunch of people on that and we're really trying to get that to, to, you know, shut that down as quickly as possible because there are a lot of homes in that area kind of south of the
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that that park where all the hiking trails and everything are. >> yeah. well, i know, i know, you know, for those pilots who are flying at night, i know they're using night vision goggles. it's very specialized flying. they're doing incredible work. it can be very, very risky. i appreciate your efforts. thank you for for giving us that update on this. kenneth. fire went from 50 acres to to 800. that's just exploding over the last several hours. i want to go back to our bill weir. who's been who's in malibu. uh, bill, talk to us about what you've been seeing. >> i this was some of the most unique and valuable real estate in the nation. that iconic strip of homes between pacific coast highway and the sea. >> but now it holds mile after mile of smoldering ash and twisted metal. the result of tuesday night's blizzard of embers came howling down the hills to the beach. if i had
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to guess, i'd say 75% of the mansions along this five mile stretch of coastline look like this utter, utter devastation we've been watching as a crew from kern county in another part of the state, has been spraying water on the hotspots around this former mansion. there's obvious water pressure here, but so many questions about water pressure around l.a. county as multiple crews try to tap in as we speak. there are flames up into panga canyon, where nervous locals are watching and hoping, oh, there's a little drop there. yeah. what's going through your mind? >> uh, it's been a long couple of days until this morning. it's been really hard for us to get resources up here, especially in the air, like you're seeing now. yeah. we animals. >> so do you chalk that up to the fickle winds or. >> yeah. fire management i, i don't blame this on, uh, our elected officials or the fire management. there's just no way
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you can plan for an event like this. i think everybody's doing the best they can. and, uh, trying to get through it. yeah. >> how would you grade the response? just by what you've seen? >> i think the response is enormous. and i think the firefighters that we have here are absolutely the best in the world. initially on tuesday, when the fire started and i drove around at night and it was burning all across here, i did not see any firefighters at all. the only thing that i could see is a flashlight. so i assume there were some people, but no helicopters, no planes at all. but now it's a totally different situation. >> you chalk that up to the winds, or do you blame planning some? there's a lot of anger from folks in the palisades, like where were you? >> there's a lot of anger, but, you know, the fire spreads so fast and there were a lot of winds. it was night at times, so i think it was too windy for the helicopters and for the jets to come in. >> there's so much heightened emotion. right. you want somebody to blame, you want to say, where's the cavalry? right. yeah. >> yeah. that's a totally understandable emotion to feel right now. uh, but i think
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it's better to just focus our energy on doing what we can for each other. and supporting our firemen who have been incredible. uh, these guys are heroes, and we need to support them the best we can. and, you know, save the politics for later. you know yeah. >> it's incredible to see the efforts of these firefighters, you know, 24 hour shifts, 48 hour shifts in some cases. i mean, these these folks are working. and, you know, there's inmates as well, firefighters who are working, um, doing really important work up, up in topanga and elsewhere. i saw a number of those inmate crews as well. um. how does it, bill? i mean, you covered maui fires. paradise. i'm not comparing one to another, but. but what stands out to you? what you saw today? >> as you saw there, anderson,
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a real sense of community in topanga canyon village. these folks are no strangers to fire, as you know. they they talk about whether to stay, how to defend these sorts of things. a lot of gratitude and a lot of hope up there tonight that those winds don't shift for the worse. >> yeah, bill weir thank you so much. appreciate all your coverage. i want to show you, um, if you want to, if there's want to contribute to to to the efforts here to figure out a way to, to help people here, go to cnn.com. slash impact. well, there's a list of organizations that are that are doing work on the ground here that cnn dot com slash impact. uh, i want to show you just a live picture also of the kenneth fire again, which we are following closely. as i said, it's gone from 50 acres. it's now at 1000 acres. so that's an
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