>> guardamar talía hinojosa is lara's mother, a diabetic who cares for her disabled son. >> this morning when i wake up, i say, oh, i need to go back to my house. >> what happened was my home. i want to go back, but i can't. but i can't go back. >> i'm coming. come inside. >> this is what aftermath looks like. donated clothes and living in a relative's airbnb for just 12 months. dealing with the maze of home insurance. >> this is definitely going to take a lot longer than 12 months. >> and money? a lot of people outside of california think it was celebrities who lost homes, rich people. is that true? >> this is your everyday, hard working. i work in construction,

have to continue paying. >> this family of faith is left grasping for meaning. >> i hear the voice the god told me. i gave it to you. everything and i lasted one second. you need to follow me only follow me. i believe in god and i. i think one one day i'm going to have a house and i'm going to have everything. >> they only hope god is listening. >> now, is somebody going to help us? are we helpless? what do we do? who do we call? i don't know. >> kyung lah. thank you for that. the next hour of cnn newsroom starts right now

this is cnn breaking news. you are in the cnn newsroom, i'm jessica dean in new york. and right now fire crews are racing to put out wildfires tearing across parts of los angeles county, the most destructive fires los angeles has ever seen. fears are rising that powerful santa ana winds could both strengthen and change direction. and with that, more homes could be at risk as those fires could push further inland toward brentwood and bel air, toward ucla. all of this creating simply hellish conditions for first responders and for the people trying to evacuate. more than 12,000 homes and businesses have been destroyed. nearly 60mi÷ have been scorched. and to put that into perspective, that is nearly three times the size of manhattan. and these fires are still burning. cnn's stephanie elam is in l.a .'s brentwood neighborhood. that is on the

eastern side of the palisades fire. and, stephanie, you've been there for hours today. you've been watching as crews have been trying to protect that area as they change different directions. what can you tell us about right now? i know you were feeling the winds pick up last time we talked to you. >> yeah, the winds have definitely picked up and had to catch my hat a couple of times when the gusts came up here. and if you take a look at the smoke behind me here, you can see it's starting to change direction as well. starting to go up and starting to move now south down this mandeville canyon here, as the sun is beginning to set. but over on that ridge, we did just see a flare up of flames. we've still seen some aircraft out here battling the blaze from the sky. even as the sun is going down here, but they are really working to create space between these homes and the wilderness if they can. a place where they can count on being able to stage and fight against these blazes if they do change and move this way, the winds

are definitely picking up. the humidity is very low and there is a lot of kindling out here in the form of this dry brush that is still burning down here below the sunset. you see the smoke coming up where they were dropping fire retardant and water earlier, but there's still some hotspots out there. now that the sun is going down, you can see that. so it doesn't take much for the wind to pick up an ember and blow it far. it could go for it could go a lot. it could be more than yards. it could be, you know, a football field away and start a fire someplace else, especially as the wind goes. here we go with one of the helicopters coming in here. these helicopters that have been coming through here throughout the day, i'm told, can drop somewhere between 702,000 gallons of water each time they fill up, and they can take that and drop it on a hot spot. they're going south down this canyon to do that. now. they've been here throughout the day, but obviously the whole idea here is first to save lives. we are told a lot of people here, most of the people here have evacuated. where i'm standing

in brentwood. and the second thing that they're trying to do is defend these homes. and that is what is very dangerous about living up in these canyons. it's beautiful. i mean, the sunset here is gorgeous, jessica, but the danger is when there is a wildfire, that they are the first ones that could be impacted by it. so you can see there's a yellow hose out there right now. they're prepared to defend these homes on this canyon. should the wind change, as we were told, and start to bring these flames this way. that is why they're they're prepared to protect these homes as this helicopter now making its way through these hotspots, down deeper into the canyon over here, trying to put those out and try to defend them from the flames coming this way. but it is a 24 hour attack, and they will be working to stop these flames all night. they'll be out here. there you go. you've got a drop of water right there. um, to try to put those flames out. so this is just because the sun's going down?

doesn't mean the battle stops now. it will continue on as they try to protect these homes from burning, which they have been out here working very hard to do. we just also saw some earth moving equipment that defended a created a defensible space clearing out brush. so they have a place to fight. and now they went up on the ridge behind us. they're looking to do the same thing there as well, creating that space. so they continue the fire going into the night. >> jessica and stephanie, i can't help but notice the sun is going down. you just mentioned how beautiful the sunset is. it is beautiful up there in mandeville canyon. but what does that mean for these efforts? if anything, does that shift anything around as they start to lose light? >> yeah, it's amazing what they're able to do. and they have new capability where they're able to fly at night, which is rather new. it's the last couple of years that they've been able to start doing that and spotting these hotspots. in fact, that's something that they've not been able to do. and then think about all the firefighters that

are on foot that are out there in, you know, like 100 pounds of gear out there digging fire lines, trying to stop the blazes. but this is some rugged terrain. it makes it really hard to get into some of these places, and you have to take into account all the things they're encountering, besides the fact that there's all this brush, because we did have those two wet winters, so we had a lot of growth, and then we have this drought that we're now back in here in los angeles county. so it's extra dry. and then there's just all the animals that are out there. there's snakes out there. there's all kinds of things that are out there that they have to be careful of. so this is a difficult a difficult battle that they are up against. and it will you know, it's not going to be easy if you ask them about containment. yes, there was some progress made, but the winds change. we could lose some of that containment. so that's what they're working to hold on to, to keep making progress on that containment. and slowly get a perimeter around it and then knock the fire all the way down. >> they are heroes among us, those firefighters. stephanie, thank you so much for that reporting. we really appreciate

it. meteorologist chad myers joining us now from the cnn weather center. chad, we have talked for hours now about the winds, the wind conditions, how that impacts what these firefighters are having to do and change the changes, their tactics. what do the conditions look like right now? >> now that we have sunset, now the desert is going to get cold again. it's going to be a pretty cool night in l.a. as well. but as the desert gets cold, unlike a rising hot air balloon, a cooling atmosphere begins to come down toward the ground and so the pressure gets a little bit higher. and then all of a sudden that air has to go somewhere and it goes out through the mountain, passes out through and into places that we don't need more wind. but this is a very. disconcerting map behind me. i've moved it ahead now to 3 a.m., a 43 forecast mile per hour wind gusts in malibu at that hour. and i know so much

damage has already been done in malibu for two fires, but now we're still seeing the wind come out of the mountains at night. this is how it happens. and then tomorrow the wind slackens a little bit, but i will tell you that i have been watching this since early early this morning. the lack of smoke in stephanie shot is very good. they really got a lot knocked down. but when we talk about another 30 or 40 mile per hour wind event on tuesday, how long can they keep knocking these hotspots down? that is really going to be the question critical. this is level two of three. now. the day that we had the big fire, it was three of three but still two of three. two of three. and the same for tuesday and wednesday. that critical forecast for wind and very dry land, severely dry land. this all this orange in here, that's all severe drought in every one of the places that we have a fire that probably

shouldn't really surprise anyone. and then the smoke forecast and without more fire starts. and that's not a guarantee, but without more fire starts by monday. the horrible air we've been talking about in l.a. does move away, and all of the smoke blows offshore here, and that would be good. the problem with this map is that it can't tell you whether there will be other fire starts, because it doesn't know, because this is a computer model and computer models can't tell you where the next spark might be. jessica. >> and another thing we're watching, chad, is the flames that are now encroaching toward the 405 there that runs directly through west los angeles, just a massive interstate. there. um, that's that's very key because that that really is a key line that that fire would have to essentially jump to get in more east. >> right. you're talking i mean, if you've ever looked at an aerial of l.a., you're going to notice the getty museum, right? that's right along the 405. that's the north south freeway from l.a. all the

way up toward san fernando and san fernando. so this is the area here that we're trying to keep the forecast, kind of the winds shifting from the east more than from the west more. but i was watching jessica wind blowing from the north and the fires because the land is so dry, the fire still burning against the wind. sure, it was burning downwind too, but the fires were still with the wind blowing the smoke. that way the fires were still encroaching the other way. and that's not how it usually happens, but it does when you're in a severe drought and you have just so many, so many fires, it's just going to be a very, very long night. and hopefully they get a lot more knocked down before they have to stop because of the wind if they do. >> yeah, we certainly hope that. chad myers, thank you so much for tracking that for us. and joining us now is marissa hermer. she's a los angeles based entrepreneur and restaurateur. her restaurant burned down, burned down. but less than 24 hours later, she launched a food delivery

service for those impacted by the fires called you give. we cook, they eat. marissa, thank you for being here. i'm first just i'm so sorry. and we keep saying that and it feels not sufficient because what you and your family and your community are going through is just traumatic. you. yeah. >> yeah, it's a new, fresh hell. >> i can't i can't imagine what that has been like. um, walk us through just what today was like. i know you and i were in communication earlier. you were just running all over town trying to make sure things and people were protected. what is what is your day like today? what is your life look like today? >> oh, well, the kids and i, my family, we are down in laguna. um, i'm on a neighborhood chat and they needed food. some of my neighbors have stayed to put out the fires. i live on the

fire line. my house is still standing, but the other side of the road is not. and the fire trucks have been moved to mandeville. so our neighbors are putting out fires and hotspots and they were hungry. so i came up to bring them food. >> and yeah um, i was just going to say how i how is it being with your friends, seeing the place where you raised your kids and you grab a coffee and obviously the relationships are still there, but the the actual neighborhood is just gone. >> yeah. i drove well, i was able to get to my house today. i had a police escort take me there. i stood in the queue and was able to get in, and then my car actually had to leave on the side of the mountain and and run down. was it tuesday? and the officer kindly drove me to my car to get there. i had to go through the palisades.

it's not good. >> i'm so sorry. i'm just so sorry. >> it's really bad and i think it's really bad. >> and it happened. marissa, so quickly. it was here and then it wasn't. and that has to be part of it, too. that's just so shocking. >> it's hard to grasp the reality of it. it's, um. it's out of a horror movie, but i just saw. >> how are you? >> yeah. go ahead. yeah. >> i mean, i don't know how to move forward. >> you know, we have to. we have to dig deeper than this. will have to galvanize us. but it's, um, it's mass mass destruction. >> how are your children doing? i can't i think that's been

the thing that has been so just hard to listen to. his parents having to explain to their kids that their home is gone, but they're still okay. i mean, how do you even begin to wrap your arms around that as a as a parent? >> there are a lot of questions that we don't have answers to. you know, one of our kids today said, mom, you know, asking all the questions, and he wants to know things. and i said, do you know the one thing you can know is that we don't know. that's the only thing we can grab onto right now. but we are here and we are safe, and mommy and daddy will figure it out because that's what we do. we're figure out we like we're going to figure it out, and then we need to like, carve out the pockets of time for joy and play like we were walking through the hotel lobby yesterday and we made up a game where we walk silly and everyone else walks silly after

them. so i walked like a duck and they all walked like a duck after me. and one of them walked like a monkey. and we all walked like monkeys. and you know, we have to find those moments to just give our brains a break. um, you know, we set up a game of wiffle ball on the beach and football and put away our phones. we have to. we're we're all we have to. take a break from this crisis and this trauma. >> absolutely, absolutely. and find a place to to have, like you're saying, to create some joy, some levity. um, especially when children, you know, they're kids. um, and i also teach. >> yeah, we have to spark joy. >> yeah. yeah, i can't it's amazing what you've been able to do to with your restaurant burning down. you've been able to serve meals to people. um, tell people about that effort. and i know there are so many people out there watching that want to help, and they feel helpless. if you have ideas for them, please share, because i know you. they want to help.

they want to wrap their arms around you all. >> yeah, we have to help. we all have to help. i was driving down on tuesday evening down to laguna, and i was wondering what's for dinner like? we all wonder. everyone around the world wonders what's for dinner. and it's harder to figure out dinner when you don't have a kitchen. and i can't get to my kitchen right now. but i realized we have kitchens in our restaurants. olivetta and shamia. and so we can cook dinner and you can text dinner to 70, 70, 70. and people want to help. so we have drivers who want to help. so if you go to shamia underscore, melrose and say you're a driver or you can say you're a family who can receive a meal or you can nominate a family because sometimes it's hard to raise your hand up and say, hi, i want i need dinner, and maybe you can afford it. maybe you can't. that's not the point.

we want to feel like we're a community. and so on tuesday, wednesdays and thursdays we are cooking food and we have drivers coming and we have families receiving food. and tuesday, wednesday, thursday is family dinner for you. we cook, they eat, and angelenos will be having dinner together. even though we're dispersed and displaced, we are going to have dinner together. >> and it's like the one i think, too. just like in these moments, having those moments together that are that kind of bring a sliver of normalcy to a very not normal situation, to be able to sit with your family and have dinner or sit with your community and have dinner, that's a really meaningful thing. it's a really meaningful thing. >> community is the most important thing right now. we have nothing. right now. we have hope and sometimes we don't. i mean, by the way, sometimes i'm on my knees and devastated and think how the how are we going to do this? but we have to keep hope and we have community and it might look a little different. we might be all over the place. but when one stranger delivers

food to another stranger because they care, that's community. >> that's community. that's love. that's doing something to lift people up. and you're certainly doing that. and i know how clearly this is just taking such a toll and how difficult it is, but to be able to to reach your arms out and help others in this moment is is really amazing. marissa hermer, thank you. please stay in touch with us. thank you for everything you're doing. and we really we we wish you all the love and and all the support. and we hope that there are brighter days ahead. thank you. thanks, marissa. and for more information about how you can help those affected by the fires in the l.a. area, you can go to cnn.com. slash impact. you can also text wildfires to 707070 to donate.

>> to the last fire i covered here in the palisades. that was 1000 acres. this is 16,000 acres. >> there were flames on both sides of the highway. there were embers flying. >> we see fire trucks coming from all around the state. >> what is the situation with the water? obviously in the palisades. it ran out last night. and the hydrant? why do i have to ask the governor why there is not water in the fire hydrants? >> oh my god, it's hard for me to stand here and know i'm standing in front of your home, which is gone. >> getting our first visual. what the palisades fire did to the big rock it is. >> knock, knock. number one broker here for the number one hit maker. >> thanks for swinging by, carl. >> no problem. so what are those for? >> this lets me adjust the base, add more guitar, maybe some drums. >> wow, so many choices. >> yeah. like schwab, i can get full service wealth management advice, invest on my own and trade on thinkorswim. >> you know, carl is the only front man you need. >> oh i got to take this carl it's schwab. schwab have a choice in how you invest with schwab.

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many people are evacuating. i just talked to one at a moment's notice. they are literally taking the clothes on their back and whatever they can grab out the door. and there is this threat of looting. people can't get to their homes right now. what are you hearing from people on the ground? and how concerned are you about people taking advantage of what is already a horrible situation? >> well thank you. let me just first start by saying that this is, um, i mean, this is the worst devastation and disaster that i've seen here in the state. it is it is worse than even the images are that are being shown across the country. i've been heartbroken to hear stories like the one we just heard, obviously, um, here on here on your network and what's, what's really, really important at this moment, like you said, is people follow the instructions of law enforcement and of our fire agencies. we have firefighters from across the entire western united states. we have now

firefighters from mexico and canada all trying to help us get these fires under control. we have a we are in the middle of a serious emergency. and i just heard from law enforcement was, please, folks need to listen to evacuate. and the folks that are choosing to not take these direct, these direct orders that are choosing to stay in their homes are not just endangering themselves, they're endangering our firefighters. and i was talking to a group of firefighters earlier, and they just need our help. they need the public's help, too. please listen to these these evacuation orders. >> yeah. and i know you mentioned you met with these first responders, these firefighters earlier today. um, and i think your underscoring something that's so important, which is they need to be able to do their job. it's already dangerous enough, you know, if people need to follow these evacuation orders and, and allow them to do their jobs, how are they doing? obviously they are working 24 over seven in

just extreme circumstances look. >> that's right. and i think what's important is we have firefighters from all across, of course, most of the western united states, but in california, agencies from everywhere, the entire region has been impacted. the firefighters that i was talking to and i visited a firehouse in the city of long beach. these are folks that are now being deployed. they're also they're tired. they are doing everything they can to do this work, but they're doing it heroically. and so it's important that they get our full support as well. um, they want folks to, to listen to authorities and to please be safe and stay safe. and our, our firefighters are coming from all across the area and they need our support. and i'll say one other thing. as you mentioned, the looting concern, um, law enforcement agencies, l.a. sheriff, the l.a. department, long beach, all these agencies have been crystal clear that you will be arrested if you are outside the

curfew hour in one of these impacted zones. um, we unfortunately, there are some, some, some folks out there that are that think this is some kind of joke or a game, and, and those folks are going to be arrested and the full extent of the law is going to be implemented in those cases. so please stay home if you can do what you can from home. a lot of folks are donating. there's a lot of efforts going on out there, and we've got to do everything we can in congress to make sure that fema has the resources they need to help every single person that has lost a home or a business. >> yeah, it's going to be years for them to to, in some cases, recover. i do want to ask you before we go. california governor gavin newsom launched this website to to fight the the spread of misinformation online because it's a double edged sword. there's some great information out there. there's some really bad information out there, he said. people want to, quote, divide this country for their own political gain. there's a lot of noise on the internet right now. and how does that

impact what's actually happening, which is an ongoing disaster. this is not even over i this has been the most frustrating part of this moment. >> we're in the middle of an emergency. this disaster is ongoing. we have fires going into more neighborhoods. the fire that's approaching brentwood is very serious, especially as winds as we know are are picking up in some parts of the region. and to have all these people out there first more focused on on blame or lies or telling all this disinformation online about what's actually happening on the ground is, quite frankly, shameful and sick. these people should be ashamed of themselves. what people need to be focused on right now is supporting first responders and supporting the victims that are being impacted by these fires, and i commend the governor. he is doing a great job right now in the state. he's on the ground. i've communicated with him. a lot of us have. and what's really important is to focus on helping people. and so i'm glad the governor has put up this website. it's fighting all this misinformation, and people need to focus on the important thing right now.

>> all right. congressman robert garcia, thanks for your time. we appreciate it. thank you. still ahead, firefighters are up against increasing winds tonight that could help spread the already devastating fires burning across l.a. county. we're going to go back to the fire zone for an update here in the cnn newsroom. >> to follow the trump confirmation hearings, follow the facts. follow cnn. >> this tiny home trend is not for me. now, this is more like it. same goes for my footwork. so i went hands free with wide fit skechers slip ins. just step in and go without bending down or touching my shoes. wide fit. hands free. skechers slip ins. >> this is a keepsake frame. >> this is a keepsake frame. >> this is our keepsake gallery wall. >> not bad. >> right? the keepsake frames app makes it so easy to frame your favorite photos. >> you just download the app, choose a photo, pick a frame, and after a few days, it's at your doorstep, ready to hang. >> it's so easy. click order ring. >> wow, it's so cute. nice.

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>> the palisades fire in los angeles is threatening to move further east toward bel air and brentwood. that would also include the getty center, ucla. joining us now, cnn's gustavo valdez from the pacific palisades neighborhood of los angeles. and, gustavo, obviously, you are standing in just one of the absolutely hardest hit areas. we're just a whole community was very quickly wiped out. tell us more about about what you've seen today. >> well, we've seen a few of the residents trying to come back and see what they find. in fact, not long ago we heard a lady calling the name of what she said was her pet dog, trying to see if somehow he's around the area. so that's just one of the many stories we've heard from residents, many of them frustrated that they can't even access this area. but i talked to a gentleman earlier that he went to his house and he seemed optimistic. the house is gone, but he says the memories live with him. >> i see the frame in my mind.

i know what was there. my memory, you know, i had my electric bike park right behind it. i had my pool table and my ping pong table. and, you know, we left my wife, you know, we just thought we were going to be back in two days. you know, we didn't honestly think that the fire was going to make it to us. that's the truth. so we had a basement, a kitchen, our bedrooms, and we had a rooftop that looked at the ocean. this is my front door right here. >> this way. right there. >> and now it's a it's a hole. yeah. >> i wish that i would have took it a little more seriously. we were safe, but i would have took more stuff with me, more memories. >> those memories, like those of all the residents, are likely buried under this rubble

in ashes. the fire is so intense that literally, there's nothing recognizable that we we can see. even the cars that have been damaged, we cannot tell what brand they were. now, about the advance of the palisades fire has been actually impressive to watch from the hotel where i'm staying in marina del rey, which is south of the fire i've seen over the past few days how the fire and the smoke has moved from one side of the mountain to the other. and this morning you could see how it was approaching the neighborhood. so that is the danger that the firefighters are facing as the forecast calls for increased speed on the winds in the next few days. now, today, they got some extra help from neighbors in texas north and south of the border. canada and mexico also sending help. governor newsom welcomed the mexican firefighters that arrived in l.a. they said any help is welcome. and about the mexican group that is coming is

not just firefighters. there are elements of the army, and they are going to be assisting those in communities where the spanish language is needed. they're going to try to assist with those efforts. also, knowing that there's a large mexican and hispanic community in general. i was in altadena earlier today, and i spoke with a woman who hadn't seen her house. i was able to get a video conference on the phone, and i was showing her her house, and she couldn't believe that her two story house, her bedroom was on the second floor. and now all that's left is the metal frame of the stairs going up to nowhere. >> just devastating. gustavo valdez, thank you for bringing us some of those stories. we appreciate it. still ahead, how firefighters are attacking the flames from the air. you're in the cnn newsroom.

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the heroic actions that these firefighters are taking. it is truly incredible what these men and women are doing around the clock, trying to protect people and homes. i know during your time in the air force, you dealt with similar operations in combat, but explain how critical the aerial firefighting is in trying to contain these fires yeah. >> jessica, good to be with you. there are so many aspects of this that are very similar to what you experience in combat, especially from an aerial perspective. and one of the key things to think about here is how all of this really comes together. so when you see all these aircraft flying, the different fixed wing aircraft as well as the rotary wing aircraft, the helicopters, all of that has to be controlled basically in a centralized way. here, for example, you can see a dc ten which is being used. it has a huge capacity, almost 10,000 gallons that can be dumped, dumped on fires that,

you know, that are raging in the california area. and these kinds of aircraft are really essential to fighting these fires. the c-130s, cal has c-130s, but the u.s. air force is also c-130s that they've brought in to help with the fire fight. many of them have come from national guard units, and not only from california, but from nevada and from wyoming. and what these efforts are basically is based on being able to use as much power as you possibly can bring to bear against a specific area. so just like you would run a bombing campaign in combat, you would be actually using these aircraft to target specific areas of the fire. and if you get those areas under control, then you can move ground teams in and use those ground teams to dampen, tamp down the flames in that specific area. so it's

basically a rolling activity that goes on based on not only what they see, but what they expect to develop in the next, not only few hours, but in the next few minutes. and that's based on a lot of, you know, intelligence work that the fire companies are doing. in this particular case. >> yeah. and we showed a graphic there of all the different types of planes, helicopters involved in this, how do they work together in concert to contain these fires? >> so a lot of it is based on really the airspace management. and this is a fancy way of talking about air traffic control. so each one of these aircraft is cued together, tied together with a centralized node that could include the ov ten, which is a spotter aircraft. and all of them are basically run in sequence. if you think of aerial operations, kind of like a ballet where you have certain

roles that each particular person has, in this case, each particular airframe has, and you bring in the heavy aircraft in order to take care of major areas of fire. and then you take, for example, the cl 415 that you see there. it picks up water from the ocean. in this case, then moves that water to the point where it can actually be dumped on a specific fire, and the air traffic controllers, the airspace managers, they basically take care of making sure that those aircraft are at the specific target area at the time that they're needed. and when they do that, they are basically choreographing the entire battle against that fire. and they do that in concert with the ground teams so that the fire authorities in los angeles county are going to be really taking a look at not only what they're doing on the ground, but how effective the air piece is. and the air piece can be extremely effective because

they bring so much to bear on specific points along the fire line. and once those fire line points are actually attacked, then you can go in and move the containment area up further and, and increase the the amount of containment that you have with a specific with the specific fire, with each specific fire. >> mhm. and then just the challenges here, i have been struck by these giant planes, the c-130s or these really large planes that are flying pretty low and pretty slow for, for what they normally do yeah. >> that's right. in fact, the c-130s, they have a special system on board that's basically been developed since the early 1970s. and what that system does is it has over 28,000 pounds of or, excuse me, 28,000 gallons that it can bring to bear on a specific part of the fire. they have to fly at an

above ground altitude of about 150ft. in some extreme cases, so that they can actually target the specific parts of the fire that they're going after. and one of the big challenges there, jessica, is that the winds are different at lower altitudes compared to higher altitudes. so they have to the pilots have to make sure that they account for the differing winds, especially in a place like southern california where the santa ana winds are, of course, playing a huge role in the fire and can actually affect how the airplanes are flying. >> certainly. all right. colonel cedric leighton, thank you so much for that context. we really appreciate it. >> you bet. jessica. >> we're going to have more on the california wildfires as the sun sets there over los angeles. just ahead. we'll be right back. >> kobe believed in himself at the youngest possible age. >> people who may never even know what a basketball looks like felt his presence.

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angeles right now is that it goes from blue sky to just a sea of sort of reddish black. and downtown los angeles emerges almost suddenly amidst all of that smoke. we went up by air in a helicopter to get a sense of the scale. you're talking about. the second largest city in america. just the scale from the sky of what we're looking at with these massive fires. and here's what we saw. >> so right now, we're south of the palisades and the fire looking up, you can see this is pch right here. >> pacific coast highway running right along the pacific ocean. yes. >> and then leading up into malibu. i'm seeing your picture. and once again, i guess you're not hearing. and even here, it's almost impossible to see with all the smoke. yeah. >> flying into this, it is like you're flying into a complete wall of fog. it almost doesn't even look like that. it just looks like an actual wall. like

a white wall? >> yeah. that we're flying into. >> there's a fire bomber just dropped retardant right there. all right, so that that red that we're looking at is, is fire retardant. there we go. yeah, we're zooming in on it. >> this is live right now. >> that plane is dropping that there. so that is an active area. then in the palisades fire. >> yep. that's their way of setting a defense wall for the fire. progressing any further. and when they are referring to containment this is what they're talking about is where have they set up their defense. and 100% containment pretty much means that they've set up set up their defense in a circle around the fire. and the circle is complete. >> and that is really important to understand that containment doesn't mean it's not burning. it means that they've been able to establish a perimeter, essentially that they can defend. i mean, it's using words like, again, war zone words, right? but that's exactly what it is. you're setting up a line that you're

going to you're going to make your front line. >> yeah. you're you're containing the threat. you're not eliminating the threat. >> so this is the plane that just dropped the fire retardant that we saw, and now it's going out as it was doing that one thing that you could see being in a helicopter and all of the altitudes are. is that the right. is that how i'd say it? yeah. altitude. so when you see that plane flying that dropped the fire retardant as that was happening, there was a commercial flight that you could see nearby it. and all of this is happening in, you know, an incredibly busy airspace there it is dropping more fire retardant right now. all of this is around the perimeter of the palisades fire, where they're trying to establish that defensive line. >> my in-laws actually lost their house in the palisades fire. and, you know, it's it's something that's very hard to comprehend because, you know, you started the week just business as normal and then,

you know, by tuesday night, they're wondering if their house is even still standing. and then wednesday, you know, i was able to get up in the air and confirm that it was it was gone. so that's their house right there in the center of the screen. >> that's their house. so this is your in-laws house right here? >> yep and you know, a lot of memories with our three kids there. and so it's just one of those things that you just got to, you know, pick yourself up and and rebuild. but you're not alone. you have a whole community that's suffering. and. try and, you know, on together one day at a time. so there's the entrance into the getty. >> all right. that is the getty museum, one of the the getty family and one of the preeminent art museums in the country, certainly in l.a. and they had right in the in the middle of the fire area, but had established a perimeter and were able to save. but look

right there, right there next to it, complete devastation. >> here's the wind. >> total devastation. and then can we swing back over to the getty? there you go. swing right back over to the getty. and you see right there, they were able to. save that. this is the past. the palisades fire in the distance saw another giant fire retardant plane flying through that. and then as we pan across you can see the i'd say right around there overnight smoke over all of l.a. here. and coming in here, you're going to see it. finally, the iconic hollywood, which you can barely see now because of the smoke behind that is the eaton fire and the red. so what we're looking at there, just over the hills and just that, that volume of smoke that is the eaton fire. this image is absolutely incredible. this looks like the aftermath of some sort of a bomb. yeah. and

that's just the sun shining back through the palisades. yep. it does though. it looks as if some a bomb had been dropped there. you heard the photojournalist there that was up in the helicopter with me talking about his family's home here in palisades that was razed to the ground. one thing that stood out to me, i said, how did you. how could you tell? that was exactly your family's home, your in-laws home? and he said, it's because i know the curve of the streets. i know the streets so well. and the end of that street, there was just a little hook. and that's how i was able to tell. and somehow that really brings it home of just how devastating this is and how much these communities mattered, that he would be able to find a home just because he knew the curve of the streets. he also said, and the pilot was, was was talking about how they felt a little part of every single person in los angeles has burned down, that there is just a searing pain for so many across this city, just as

they are getting ready to fight every day now, what could be another huge disaster in this city? jessica. >> so many of our fellow americans are really hurting tonight. aaron, thank you for that. and stay with cnn and cnn.com for continued updates on these fires. i want to say thanks for joining me this evening. i'm jessica dean. we're going to see you again tomorrow night starting at 5:00 eastern. good night. >> the thing about emergency medicine we are you never know what you're going to get. >> you don't see that every day. >> a tier one trauma. now. >> even though you do everything right, you don't always get what you hope for. >> i need help here. >> if you need me, i'll be saving lives. >> the pit. >> streaming exclusively on max. >> believe me, when it comes to

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