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>> dangerous winds returning to los angeles. gusts up to 70mph. firefighters reaching a critical point as they race to contain the deadly wildfires. plus, president elect donald trump's cabinet picks. gearing up for a week of potentially bruising confirmation hearings. first up, his choice for defense secretary. pete hegseth and mark zuckerberg sits down with joe rogan as the social media empire gets rid of fact checkers. good morning. i'm jim acosta in washington. you are live at the cnn newsroom. >> this is cnn breaking news. >> and good morning. at 7 a.m. in los angeles, daybreak and more heartbreak in southern california. at least 24 people have died. dozens are missing at this hour. more than 40,000

acres have been burned, according to the last estimates, along with more than 12,000 buildings, homes and businesses destroyed. and it's about to get even worse. fire officials are warning this week that wind gusts could reach 70 miles an hour. that means the progress made to contain 14% of the palisades fire and 33% of the eaton fire may be lost. people are expected to be let back into some evacuation areas thursday, but many will find there is nothing left. and check out this video. wind gusts and flames whipping up fire. tornadoes as they're called. like this one. fire crews are looking for possible causes of all of this with an electrical transmission tower or other power equipment coming under scrutiny, and president elect donald trump and his allies are accusing california's governor and the los angeles mayor, both democrats, of mishandling the crisis. >> there is a serious lack of

competent governance in california, and i think it's part of the reason why these fires have gotten so bad with respect to the future vice president. >> i didn't hear his remarks, but i would invite him, as i did donald trump, to to visit with the community. express empathy of the scale of this tragedy and and be here for the american people that happen to reside here in southern california. >> all right. let's get the latest on the fire. cnn's stephanie elam is in malibu for us. stephanie, more dangerous wind gusts apparently on the way. that is not good news. >> not good news, as they've been really making some progress on these blazes, jim. and that is precarious because with these blazes, there comes the threat that some of those embers could get caught up in that wind and fly really far and start a fire someplace else. so that's what they are working to prepare for. staging firefighters in parts of these areas where they know that they could be a threat to prepare for what we are already starting to feel. it's windy

out here. now, let me just show you. i'll show you where we're standing here. this now the sun is up. you can see that this is what's left of what wasn't in here along the pacific coast highway in malibu. just completely destroyed. stairs to nowhere. you can even see a palm tree that just looks like it was taken down. the remnants of the tree still there. but this is just a microcosm of the overall loss in this area. and you're talking about here, and you're talking on the east side and altadena and pasadena, where i was earlier. and it's weak. i mean, block after block after block of just lost homes. and when we cover these wildfires, you're used to seeing maybe a block that's destroyed, maybe where it runs through front and back. but to see blocks of just homes that are just decimated and it's not just homes, it's also businesses. it's also the infrastructure underneath of the ground. all of that has been destroyed in these areas,

and that is why officials are saying it's going to take a long time to clean things up. in fact, take a listen to the fema administrator talking about that. >> the complexity of removing the debris from this fire is going to be significant, and it's going to take a long time. it's going to take more than six months to remove this debris. we'll get the majority out. california will get the majority of out in that timeframe, but it's going to take some time to be able to get everything out so they can start rebuilding and make sure that it is safe for people to come back in and start rebuilding those homes. >> and obviously, that's what a lot of people are trying to figure out. when are they going to be allowed back into those evacuation zones? i can tell you, as far as children are concerned, los angeles unified school district is putting school back in session today, save for nine schools and here in malibu and also in pasadena, schools are still closed for the rest of this week because it's just too precarious. too many families have been

impacted by these blazes, jim. >> yeah. i mean, it's just staggering to take it all in. and, stephanie, i understand you were id'd by the authorities there as you were navigating the fire zone, trying to get to your live shots. tell us more about that. >> yeah, it's normal that there are checkpoints when there are wildfires. that's normal. because we are media. we can show our i.d. and we can get through. but this time, what they did is they didn't want to see our i.d., they wanted to see our actual work i.d., they wanted to see our personal i.d. to make sure that they matched. there have been cases where we know two people were posing as firefighters, but they were actually just taking advantage of the situation and were arrested for potentially looting. that sort of behavior is why they're being extra cautious out here. you've got the national guard staged. you can see their tents up along the pacific coast highway as well. they are out here making sure that the people who are coming into these evacuation zones actually have a reason to be here.

>> yeah. all right. very important. stephanie elam, thank you so much. we're so grateful for all the work that you're doing. all of our colleagues are doing out there. we really, really appreciate it. thank you so much. in the meantime, our next guest is a mother of three three who lost her home and business to the palisades fire. jamie geller joins us now with her husband. thank you both so much for being with us. we appreciate it. how are you doing? how is your family doing? >> um, i mean, that's a loaded question, i guess. right? um, we are alive. we lost. um, you know, everything but a couple things in a suitcase. so i, you know, you revalue what's really important, but it's just, i think at this point, i don't know how many days in we are. i think it's just really overwhelming because you feel like you lost everything. but then so did everybody that, you know, so how do you

mourn the loss of your life? and then also everybody is mourning the loss of everything. it's it's overwhelming. i think how i feel is overwhelming. if you want a one word and michael, we have video of where your house once stood. >> tell us, i mean, how are you coping with this? what are the next steps? what are your plans? i guess you're still trying to get your arms around all of this. >> i mean, your your correspondent said it perfectly. it's it's it's it's decimated. it's it's, you know, like she said, we are a small city. we're we're actually part of los angeles, but our community is kind of like a small island. it's kind of like a little island in the middle of los angeles. you know, people, it's hard to get on and people don't want to get off once they're there. um, and it's, it's it's a small city completely decimated markets, churches, you know, our home is gone, but, you

know, and i think the plans are we have to find somewhere to live. yeah. first steps are finding somewhere to live. you have, you know, thousands, 50,000 people trying to find rentals. you have landlords, you know, trying to price gouge, um, and listings that were once, you know, 1200 to 500 or now 10,020 thousand. um, it's it's it's it's complicated. it's complicated. it's i think we're still in shock and it's we're just, you know, trying to take it one step, one day at a time, you know, one step, one hour at a time. at this point. >> and what do you want to hear from local officials? what do you need? i mean, i know you were just explaining. you need a place to live, and you need people who are renting out places to live to not price gouge. but what can be done at this point, i don't. >> that's exactly right. what can be done at this point? like that's i don't know. i never

thought, you know, when i evacuated our house, when we evacuated our house, i thought maybe 20% chance my house will burn. we're used to fires. we live, you know, up a mountain. we're used to the fires and leaving. but i don't, um. yeah, i don't. i never even crossed my mind that my store would burn down. right. so i don't know how. it's like we did sneak in on somebody else's press pass. and what we saw, it's like the the things you see on the news, it's as if a nuclear war, a nuclear, not nuclear, but a bomb, a bomb, bomb like, it's as if bombers flew over the community and completely decimated the community. how do you move forward? i don't know, they couldn't save us. there wasn't water. how can they think they're going to move? i don't know what officials can do if they couldn't get us. >> you know where i was born and raised. this is a good point. i was born and raised in

the community. and i remember, you know, this is not the only time that the conditions were ripe for this type of wildfire. you know, when i was younger, i remember when, you know, whether, you know, they had weather information, they would stage firefighters just preemptively. in certain, you know, um, vulnerable areas, streets. they would just have engines on the tops of the streets waiting in the first bit of smoke or any fire to break out. they were prepared. they were read you know, they would they would get these fires out immediately. this just seems like a lack of of of resources. um, you know, not not enough engines, you know, and for them to even once the engines and the firefighters showed up to not have water, you know, we know for a fact fire hydrants were, were depleted, whether that whether that's because, you know, they had been strained earlier or they, you know, the actual reservoirs were just not

there were there was no preparedness, no preparedness. >> and how are your your boys doing? uh, how are your sons doing? >> yeah. they have such different personalities. right. so they're 17, 15 and ten. the ten year old is crying a lot. the 15 year old is like, i don't care. it's just stuff. i just give me my phone and i'm good, you know? so that's refreshing. um, the 17 year old is also more bummed. he i think, has the capacity at that age to understand the loss and the loss of our community, the loss of every restaurant they've ever known, their doctor's office, their school. like he can comprehend that where the other ones are more stuck in my house is gone. >> we're we're a beach community. you know, we grew up surfing the beaches of malibu. um, all the way. and our older son is a competitive surfer and he's lost every surfboard that he has, you know, from his first surfboard. he's, you know, all of our so all of our

possessions are decimated. we have three pairs of, you know, pants, three shirts. we have. >> i forgot my own suitcase when we were packing. and i forgot it. and so i literally got to the hotel, the first hotel, and we got evacuated from that one and realized that i had literally what i was wearing. and it was in that hotel where i watched my store burn down on the news. and then when we got evacuated from santa monica and we went more south, i, i got the news of our house burning down, so we never would have thought that this would occur. >> you know, this this is not like, oh, you you were ready. yes, we were ready with with the proper documents and things, as if we had to evacuate for two days. perhaps, you know, but nothing like this. come. we're in an area where you would never think that the fire would have actually reached a community. >> yeah, that's that's sort of like the way the palisades works. there's like, there's a

sunset boulevard, right? and then there's all these streets going up mountains and then streets going down to the beach. and i think the fire burned from the beginning to the end of the mountain on top. and then just roared down every street. so you had the gridlock and people literally, i was one of the people that had to abandon my cars and run to the beach. there was nowhere to go there. >> controllers have a map. if you're if you're. i'm not sure if your producers have a map, but we we are part of the santa monica conservancy mountain range. um, and our community is, is, is is sort of at the base of that before the beach. and you just you would never think that the fire would have torn up the entire santa monica conservancy, you know, santa monica mountains conservancy. yeah. it's insane. it would actually have got down to the community. >> i've been out there and i, you know, i've hiked in those hills. i was just there in october, and it's staggering to me, just as somebody who loves l.a.

and has been out there many times to see what has taken place. but in the meantime, jamie, michael, thanks for just giving us a glimpse into what is happening with you right now. if there's anything more we can do or say to help you, please let us know. keep us posted. >> thank you. thank you so much. thanks for having us. we appreciate it. >> all right. give those boys a hug for us. thank you so much. all right, coming up, president-elect donald trump's controversial cabinet picks. get ready for their moment up on capitol hill. cnn's manu raju is there. >> homan for 13 of donald trump's picks will have confirmation hearings in the days ahead. what are their challenges and can they get confirmed? we'll dig into all of that when we get back. >> to this part. changed my life. >> superman crazy. just that simple little thing over the horse. >> chris wanted to change the world. >> people are literally walking because of him. >> super man. the christopher reeve story february 2nd on cnn.

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money right kobe. >> the making of a legend premieres january 25th on cnn. >> 13 of president elect donald trump's cabinet picks will be on capitol hill this week for their confirmation hearings before the senate. they include pete hegseth for defense secretary and marco rubio for secretary of state. cnn's manu raju is up on capitol hill for us. manu, or any of these picks in jeopardy? what do you think? >> right now, it appears that a lot of them, if not all of them, will be confirmed. but there's still questions about how they will perform at this. these critical sometimes make or break moments during these confirmation hearings. do they stumble? do they offer any ammunition to one side or the other? but for the moment, the republicans are in line. and that's really all that these nominees need in order to be confirmed. remember, in order to get confirmed by the united states senate, you need to have a simple majority of support. that means for the republican led senate, which is 5347, they can afford to lose three republican senators on any party line vote. and at the moment, we're not hearing any

opposition from republican senators, many of them keeping their cards close to the vest. but there are several ones that we are watching very closely this week. one of them, pete hegseth, coming before the senate armed services committee tomorrow. he has had a number of controversies emerge, including allegations of sexual assault back in 2017, allegations of excessive drinking on the job and mismanagement of a veterans organization that he headed up. he has denied all of that. how does he perform when he is asked about that at the hearings, as well as pam bondi on wednesday, she will go before the senate judiciary committee. the nomination to be the next attorney general of the united states. she's flown under the radar, but she'll face questions, particularly from democrats, about donald trump's push to overturn the election. how does she feel about that? does she separate herself from donald trump and another one to watch to russell vought who is who will be the head of a very powerful budget committee in the white house that could budget office in the white house, the budget office essentially helps determine how to deal with regulations, pushes forward the policy

agenda on spending cuts and the like. he has pushed very conservative policies, and democrats will be targeting him. but at the moment, it's uncertain whether any of these will stumble. any of these nominations will lead to any opposition from republicans, which is why the trump team is very confident that these nominees will be confirmed. maybe not on day one, but soon thereafter unless something changes at these hearings this week, jim. >> and manu, i mean, one of trump's very controversial cabinet picks, rfk jr.. what do we know about his confirmation hearing? >> it has not been scheduled yet, jim, but he has been trying to assuage republicans concerns and democratic concerns about his views about vaccines. of course, he has falsely said in the past, linking childhood autism to taking vaccines. he has seemed to have walked those back in those private meetings, even suggesting to members that he is, quote, pro vaccine safety and he is not anti-vax. he said that the republicans and democrats alike still at

the moment, no republicans have come out in opposition to him. we'll see if that changes when it comes time to have his hearings, he'll have two before the senate finance committee and senate health committee in the coming days. jim. >> yeah. how he answers those questions will be critical in all of this. manu raju up on capitol hill, thank you so much. and one week out from trump's second inauguration, the president elect is fighting to stop the release of special counsel jack smith's final report on his investigation. smith resigned from the justice department, according to a court filing. cnn's paula reid joins us now. paula, are we going to see this report on january 6th? what do we think? >> i don't know, jim. i mean, right now the justice department is under a deadline. it doesn't expire until later today. they have to wait until then before they release this. we're waiting to hear from a federal appeals court, the 11th circuit. we might hear from the trump appointed judge, aileen cannon. there's a lot of unknowns, but there's not going to be a lot of news in this report. we already had the committee investigation into january 6th. there was the trump indictment. there was, of course, this unusual filing back in october where the judge allowed us to see a lot of

evidence that you would never see before a trial. so most of the evidence that jack smith has collected is already really in the public square. so we're not looking for news. the way i'm sort of looking at the potential release of this report is whether doj is really going to fight and be aggressive to just at least defend their work and get it out, because the trump team has been so extraordinarily successful in keeping this entire case at bay. if they're able to successfully block the release of the report, something that, again, has no news and is required by regulation, that would really be astonishing. >> well, it's extraordinary because it's the biden administration that is in charge until january 20th. and so if they're in charge and they have this report, i mean, it seems to me it's a little odd that the courts could come in and block this from coming out. it's their report. >> well, it was made very complicated, right, by trump appointed judge aileen cannon, who shocked the legal community over the summer by ruling that jack smith was not properly appointed. and she tossed the classified documents case that is being appealed. it was widely expected that would be

overturned, but that's another report that's out there. we're not expected to see that before trump takes office, because he had two codefendants. their cases are still active. but look, if the biden administration doesn't let this report out, if the trump administration doesn't let this report out, freedom of information act requests from journalists, other outlets, that is one possible way this information could see the light of day. and again, that classified documents report. that's where there's going to be news. sure. >> well, the public has the right to know. i mean, they absolutely have the right to know. we should see that report. paula reid, thank you very much. coming up, more on the deadly wildfires in california. president elect donald trump looking to blame local and state leaders there. what about his response? we'll talk about that next. >> in the situation room with wolf blitzer tonight at 6:00 on cnn. >> it are you ready for this? >> are you ready for this? are you ready for this new alka seltzer plus cold or flu fizzy. >> choose chew. fizz. feel better? >> fast.

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>> all there is with anderson cooper. listen, wherever you get your podcasts. >> as wildfires rage out of control in los angeles, misinformation is spreading across social media, thanks in part to president elect donald trump. he has used the disaster to point fingers at democratic officials and make false claims about california's water policy and federal assistance. just last night, take a look at this. trump reposted a meme on his truth social account, replacing the iconic hollywood sign with the phrase trump was right. as the hills around it burned. let's discuss with cnn political commentator and democratic strategist maria cardona and former white house spokesman and president for president george w bush, pete seat. maria, let me start with you. let's put that back up on screen again. i mean, he's been going after democrats and their response to the fires and so on. i mean, trump talked about uniting the country after he won election in in november and that he's putting things out like that.

what do you think? >> it's disgusting. and he's not even in office yet. and he's already giving us a preview, which is, frankly, a look back at what we already had, the four years that he was in office. but i think this is going to be that on steroids. i think people are already exhausted. what he's doing in terms of politicizing these fires after horrendous loss of life, loss of property, loss of livelihoods, you've had people on your show. it is gut wrenching to hear their stories. you have all sorts of community suffering, the latino community suffering, african americans, all kinds of communities. frankly, many of which voted for trump. and what is he doing? he's not doing anything to help those communities, to bring the country together, to bring down costs. now, when when they need it the most, he should be working with california leadership. he should be saying if he has an issue with how newsom or democrats have dealt with this, he should say, let's sit down to figure out how we can make this better. but we know he's not capable of that because he is not a

leader. he's a bully. >> pete. i mean, how is that uniting the country? i mean, he told americans in his victory speech, it is time to unite. and yet he's putting out memes saying trump was right with the hollywood hills on fire. i mean, is that the behavior of a president there are legitimate questions that need to be asked and answered as far as how the fire started and how it was able to engulf so many structures and so many acres so quickly. >> i was in southern california in october 2007 with then president george w bush to see firsthand a fire that burned almost 1 million acres. it was incredibly devastating. but even then, there are questions that need to be asked. we can't just say it's climate change and wash our hands of accountability. among those questions, why were the hydrants running dry? gavin newsom himself is asking that

question what role did his refusal to divert water from northern california to southern california, something the trump administration tried to do in 2020? what role did that play? what role did budget cuts play? over $17 million cut from the fire department's budget. those are questions that those who have lost their homes, lost their possessions and now only have memories. they deserve to know the answers to those questions. >> oh yeah, pete, no question about it. and we'll hold their feet to the fire to all of this. there's no question about it. but, you know, i do want to raise the question. i mean, is he really going to do this for four years, put these kinds of memes out there when people are suffering, when their whole communities have been destroyed. you know, he's going after the governor, calling him newscum and so on. i mean, come on. right. >> donald trump takes the permanent campaign maybe a little too literally into heart. and there are better and more appropriate ways to ask those questions. but this is

the way donald trump does it. and and people still put him back in office. maria says that folks are exhausted and tired. well, obviously not the last election says a completely different story. >> and maria, i do want to get to the confirmation hearings because they're going to get started for several trump cabinet picks, including pete hegseth for defense secretary, doug burgum for interior, doug collins for the va. obviously, burgum and collins will probably sail right through. how how much should democrats engage on the hegseth pick? do you this is going to be a battle, you think? >> yeah, i think it should be. i think they should engage on the hegseth pick. look, there is an assumption that presidents get to choose who their cabinet secretaries are and who their appointees are. absolutely. but there's also an assumption that president elect will pick the most qualified people will pick the most. the people who are going to mostly unite the country will pick people who are experts in their field, will pick people who do not have scandalous,

controversial backgrounds like pete hegseth and frankly, others. he's not the only one. so i think democrats should absolutely unite to give trump the appointees that he wants, the ones that are actually qualified, that have good backgrounds and expertise in the areas that they that he has appointed them in. but then there are others, like pete. pete hegseth, tulsi patel, robert kennedy jr.. i mean, i think those are the most dangerous. those are the top dangerous. four. i believe, that deserve for democrats to really not just pick a fight, but ask the tough questions. let the american people know why these picks are so dangerous to the country, to national security, to our health care, to the future of what we want this country to be. and so i do think that it's worth for democrats to bring up those questions. >> and, pete, i do want to ask you about this. jd vance, the president, vice president elect, was on fox yesterday saying that these violent january 6th rioters should not receive pardons. let's listen to that.

>> i think it's very simple. look, if you protested peacefully on january the 6th and you had merrick garland's department of justice treat you like a gang member, you should be pardoned. if you committed violence on that day, obviously, you shouldn't be pardoned. and there's a little bit of a gray area there, but we're very much committed to seeing the equal administration of law. and there are a lot of people, we think, in the wake of january the 6th who were prosecuted unfairly, we need to rectify that. >> after that interview, vance appeared to try to clean it up in a post on x, saying some of the rioters were, quote, unjustly locked up, including people who were, quote, provoked and got a garbage trial. pete, what are your thoughts on this? i mean, i think that of all the things that trump is going to do on january 20th or after, afterward, this has the potential to divide the country like any like unlike anything else. >> well, donald trump was pretty consistent throughout the campaign that there could very well be pardons for those who participated in january 6th. but he's also said

recently that it's not going to be blanket. it's not going to be everyone that they're going to look at these cases person by person, issue by issue and make a determination. so i think jd vance is probably correct that those who actually committed violent acts on that day won't see a pardon. >> all right. maria and pete, let's hope so. we'll be watching. yeah. that's going to be critical to watch all of that. we'll be right back. >> super man the christopher reeve story. february 2nd on cnn. >> did you know that cold weather in the winter can wreak havoc on your car, your engine, mechanical and electrical systems are the most likely to fail, and some of the most expensive to repair. the fact is, winter is the worst time to break down. are you ready? is your car? besides changing the oil and checking your tires, there's one more thing you need to do for your vehicle before the weather changes. call carshield. if you call carshield now before your car breaks down, you can get

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the company. zuckerberg also appeared on the joe rogan podcast, lamenting a, quote, neutered corporate culture and accusing the biden administration of pressuring him to remove covid misinformation. >> basically, these people from the biden administration would call up our team and, like, scream at them and curse. and it's like these documents are it's all kind of out there. basically, it just got to this point where we were like, no, we're not going to we're not going to take down things that are true. that's ridiculous. >> joining me now, cnn chief media analyst brian stelter. brian, this is the same man who banned trump from facebook and instagram in 2021. i was at the white house the day that he was kicked off of twitter. a lot has changed. what a difference four years makes. and i'm glad you brought that up. >> that it was zuckerberg. it was facebook that banned trump from the platform, just as twitter did. and now here we are. and there's very much a maga makeover of meta happening. look, i heard a business analyst describe zuckerberg as a really

effective shape shifter. and i think that's a great phrase for what is happening. zuckerberg is shifting because he believes that's what's best for his shareholders. and remember, he owns 13% of of of meta. he is a billionaire many times over thanks to that stock price that's been on a tear lately. so he is trying to evolve the company to make sure it is successful in the trump years. and that means, number one, being cozy to trump, to the president elect, keeping meta in the good graces of the government, maybe making that pesky ftc antitrust case go away. meta has a lot of business before the u.s. government, and i think that's ultimately what this is all about. >> yeah, and he's complaining about the biden administration, you know, yelling at them to say, you know, get some of this covid misinformation off of their platforms. i mean, isn't that that's sort of what the white house should be doing, right? i mean, tell, tell folks to get this garbage off these platforms if you can, as best as you can. and to get rid of fact checking altogether, especially during these wildfires. i mean, that sounds like something that could really, you know, backfire big

time. >> it's so easy. four years later to sit around and say, ah, you know, they were pressuring us. we went too far during an emergency, right? the early months of the covid pandemic were an emergency unlike anything that we've lived through before. and were there some mistakes? were there some screw ups? were there some poor decisions? of course. but it's so easy to sit back and claim that now, as opposed to honestly reflect on what happened. and i think so much of this debate about free speech, you know, acts as if it's very simple, when in fact, many of these conversations are very complex. ultimately, it's about values. and i was so struck by president biden kind of shaming meta the other day, shaming zuckerberg and saying that it was shameful to remove the fact checkers. biden obviously valuing fact checking, even though he was often fact checked during his four years in office. >> right. i mean, fact checking is a good thing. it's not a bad thing. and, brian, i mean, is that correct that they're just not going to have fact checking altogether on these very powerful platforms?

>> all of meta's financing of fact checking is going away effective in march, and it will be replaced by community notes, you know, letting users police themselves and decide what is true and false. it's going to result in a much more chaotic and confusing information environment. and that's ultimately the big picture about what this is about and why it matters. that's what biden was getting at. in his recent interview with usa today, he said his biggest regret as president was not being able to navigate this changing information environment. we've heard some of his cabinet secretaries say the same thing, that they they feel like they're outmatched in this environment. ultimately, we're talking about facts versus fiction. we should ask who benefits from the fictions? who benefits from an environment where there are more lies, more propaganda, more innuendo spreading, and who suffers? you know, that's the kind of cost benefit analysis that i think zuckerberg is kind of trying to avoid, as he curries favor with the incoming administration. >> yeah. fact checking is not always popular, but it is necessary. we've got to have facts in this society. all right, brian stelter, thank you so much as always. we appreciate it. coming up, as crews fight the flames in los

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health. get super beta prostate i'm pete muntean at reagan national airport. >> this is cnn. >> even as crews scramble to contain the los angeles wildfires, investigators are already looking into how they started, including the possibility that an electric transmission tower was the origin of the eaton fire. that's according to the los angeles times. southern california edison, the power company, said it's unlikely that its equipment caused the fire. and joining us now is ed nordskog. he is an arson profiler and investigator. ed, thanks so much for joining us. what do you make of that

possibility that it was the power company's equipment that caused this? >> i say that's a decent possibility. i've investigated fires in eaton canyon. there are power transmission lines there. they have been involved in past fires over the years. so that's a reasonable place to start. >> and, you know, we were talking to this couple earlier on in the program. and, you know, a lot of people are tearing their hair out trying.

>> wins. but not to this level. and that was preceded, of course, by the dry year. it was a very dry, hot, dry year. and there was a lot of moisture last year which caused more brush. so all three of those things came together. and now you have this catastrophe. >> and so you think it may be very well a possibility here that it was these hurricane force wind gusts that just absolutely made this much worse than anybody thought was possible. >> yes. especially in the palisades area. they haven't had fire in there for decades. and so it's not a normal place to have fire. and the hurricane force winds were the biggest factor for that fire. >> and i want to talk about the palisades fire. washington post investigators showed that it was likely that it may have been started near where some new year's eve fireworks were

being used, and there was a blaze that had been extinguished just days before. is it possible that there were some remaining hotspots from that? and this was a re-ignition fire yes. >> so in the in the term of art in the wildland sector, it's called holdover fire. and that's a reasonable theory at this point. they're going to investigate it today. um, but there is a burn pattern in the area. you can tell just as the first smoke is spotted. so there was a previous fire roughly in that area. so that's what the investigative teams will be working on. >> and do you think that there's a possibility that arsonists were behind any of this? >> well, you have you have, yes and no. you have six larger fires going on in los angeles. there's no indication right now that any of them were intentionally started by arsonists. however, los angeles has 10 million people in it. they have 5060 fires a day in

los angeles every day of the year. um, 30 or 40 of them are set by homeless people or transient type people. and those are all sort of criminal fires. most of them do not get big. but on a wind driven day, they could. so it's not uncommon to have multiple arson arrests in l.a. every day. >> and because that is i mean, that is what is so puzzling about all of this. we were just showing the map and the way that these fires are spaced apart. i mean, it goes to what you were saying, that you do have numerous fires happening all at once in l.a. county, but not anything like this and this palisades fire the way it swept across these neighborhoods. i mean, if you're if you're just sitting on a barstool talking to a guy in there and he says, how the hell did this happen? what do you say? >> again, it goes back to your very first question. it's just a very unique set of circumstances that came together. and the biggest factor for palisades was the wind. it just it was one of the biggest winds we've ever seen

here. so that took that took what would normally be a smaller fire and drove it into this massive event. >> all right. ed nordskog, thank you very much for your expertise. we appreciate it. this morning. you're welcome. and donations are pouring in from all over. find out how you can help by going to cnn.com/impact or text wildfires to 70 7070 to donate. we'll be right back. >> with erin burnett out front tonight at seven on cnn. >> if you or a loved one have had a shoulder, hip, knee or ankle joint replacement, the bankruptcy of exactech, a medical device manufacturer, could affect your rights. >> exactech distributes shoulder, hip, knee and ankle implants, including optitrack, optitrack logic, truliant,

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>> this tiny home trend. now this is more like it. the same goes for my footwork. so i went hands free with wide fit skechers slip ins. try wide fit skechers slip ins. >> thank you all very much for joining me this morning. i want to bring in my good friend pamela brown. and pamela, you know, i could not let us get through the hour without mentioning my commanders. and the doink heard round the world. let's take a look the washington commanders off the upright and it is in. >> wow, look at that. >> look at that man. oh, man. >> oh, nail biter. >> you know, it was. it was a great victory.