>> jimmy carter was as close to being a renaissance man as any president entering the oval office in modern times. he was skilled in an astonishing array of activities, farmer,

businessman, nuclear engineer, naval submarine officer, woodworker, painter, fly flisherman, music lover, poet, author, sunday school teacher, creator of the carter center and yes, loving husband, father, grandfather and great grandfather and nobel peace prize winner. the high toothy smile was a man of steel determination, discipline and self-confidence. in 1974, when he was governor of georgia, i suggested that if he ran for president and won a few southern primaries, he might get lucky and be the vice presidential nominee for regional ballot. stu, i've already decided to run but i will be the democratic

nominee for president, not vice president. for one of our nation's most religious presidents, it's appropriate to celebrate jimmy carter's remarkable life in this magnificent cathedral. his religious values gave him an unshakable sense of right and wrong, animating his support for civil rights at home and human rights abroad. and propelling him to major achievements as the only democratic president elected between 1968 and 1992. his faith brought integrity to the presidency after the watergate and vietnam eras. i will never lie to you, he promised. it was a vow he fulfilled.

this faith respected other religions as well. he was the first president to light a hanukkah menorah. he created the u.s. holocaust memorial museum which i have the honor of chairing. he had a kosher shabbat dinner at camp david for the israeli delegation and came to our house for a passover seder. >> harris: you have been watching the funeral of our nation's 39th president jimmy carter. if you want to continue to watch, please do so on fox business where you can watch it in its entirety. right now the mayor of los angeles, karen bass, is set to lead a news conference live. we'll take it now on the devastating southern california wildfires. she is being introduced. let's watch together. >> a truly truly welcome sight. first and foremost i want to

assure our residence in los angeles county and this thaw the city of l.a. and county are working hard and working hand in hand to bring every resource available to the table. last night the county opened an additional shelter for those evacuating and suffered losses. the fairplex will to take in large animals in need of a home. the county is working to harness and utilize the incredible outpouring of generosity from individuals, nonprofits and companies that want to help. we have heard that many companies like airbnb, uber and lyft are offering free or subs subsidized services for those impacted. the county will share these resources through our website. in addition, the state has

activated cal fire management team three and they will be joining federal management team five in theron going efforts. we hope as early as tomorrow. cal fire team 3 will be tasked with overseeing victim search operations an damage inspections to facilitate debris removal operations and setting up disaster recovery assistance center allowing federal management team 5 to focus on firefightering operations and the active front. as the supervisor mentioned yesterday wildfires don't care about jurisdictional boundaries. between the city and the county, we are managing the various resources coming online with the increasing demands on our first responders. i saw this firsthand driving through the streets of altadena yesterday. driving up lake avenue the devastation could not be missed. the number of homes, businesses

and buildings that were on the fire dwarfed in any sense of available resources. altadena is a very unique and special part of the 5th district. it is a community that embodies the spirit of a big small town. a community full of rich culture, history, and one that passionately supports the small businesses that drive its economy in the community. it is also one of the only communities in los angeles county that manages the urban wildland interface. altadena is a resilient community. they have seen some significant battles before. but the scale of the impact today is larger than anything that i have seen in my career. the loss of historic resources at eaton canyon nature center, the park and altadena golf

course cannot be measured. i saw fire engines and companies from other parts of california joining los angeles county fire in an effort to protect life and property. in the midst of the emergency, we've all seen individuals who are targeting vulnerable communities by burglarizing and looting homes. this is simply unacceptable. you will be hearing from our d.a. hochman shortly regarding his efforts to hold these individuals accountable and i promise you, you will be held accountable. shame on those who are preying on our residents during this time of crisis. the emergency order we strictly enforced by the sheriff's department who are pro-actively patrolling to protect these communities from looting and any criminal activity. they have made 20 arrests of individuals who will be held

accountable for the actions they've taken. i want to thank president joe biden and governor gavin newsom for pledging to bring federal and state resources to help los angeles county in our moment of need. president biden's disaster declaration includes a promise of public assistance and individual assistance. we will begin the process of rebuilding. we'll have critical resources available to insure the residents of our communities are not fighting these battles alone. i intend to bring in a motion to ratify the county's emergency proclamation at the next board ever supervisors meeting. make no mistake, this board and this county will continue to do everything in our power to insure the safety of our residents as we look forward to the path of recovery. with that, i would like to

introduce supervisor lindsey horvath. okay, mayor bass, i would like to introduce l.a. city mayor bass. >> thank you, supervisor. one voice, that is the way we speak and that is the the way we stand here united, los angeles will stand united and stand strong. so first of all, my thoughts are with the thousands of angelenos impacted by this emergency as more angelenos were forced to make the terrifying decision to evacuate. our priorities, of course, are to keep angelenos safe and to protect homes. the winds continue to be of a historic nature and a key factor of this firestorm. for much of tuesday, the unprecedented winds prevented air operations to continue.

however, as of yesterday, the winds have allowed for air operations and that has enabled significant progress against the fires in hollywood and studio city last night. as of 7:30 this morning, evacuation orders in hollywood have been lifted. angelenos cooperated . the community stood together and evacuated and angelenos should continue to proceed with caution. air operations are continuing rapidly in the palisades and silmar and across our region. we continue to see our heroes from our l.a. firefighters and from personnel, families, neighbors from across the county, and the state. we thank you. however, we continue to confront a big one-level firestorm. historic winds and extensive drought have created a perfect storm that has driven people from their homes and have taken people's homes and that has

taken people's lives. i've been in the fire zones and you can see how fast and devastating these wind-driven fires are. i know people from all over the nation are asking how they can help. so here are two essential ways. first of all, support the california community foundation, wildlife recovery fund at cal fund.org and support the los angeles fire department foundation at support lafd.org. in addition to shelters, airbnb is offering free temporary housing. go to 211laorg for more information. this is a regional crisis. so working together is the the only way we will get through this. that's where i've been in constant contact with my colleagues at the county, state, and federal level. president biden, governor newsom

have assured us of full state and federal support. of course, county chair barger and i are coordinated. fire, police, utilities and other agencies are coordinated as well. we have pre-deployed and executing a strategy and we're adapting to conditions on the ground in realtime. this is an unprecedented historic firestorm but we are all hands on deck. we need to continue to cooperate, we need to evacuate when asked to do so. we need to help others. help our neighbors and first and foremost, we need to stay united. we need to stay strong, a united l.a. is the way we will recover, is the way we rebuild our communities. and with that i believe i am

introducing supervisor lindsey horvath. >> good morning. the strength and resilience of los angeles county is more than anything we are seeing on the ground. i know this because of the relentless fight that our first responders, our firefighters and law enforcement officials are putting forward giving it everything they've got to take on each of these fires throughout the region. that being said, this is testing even the strongest among us. last night i personally received an alert that i, too, was under evacuation warning and i was put in the shoes of tens of thousands of angelenos who have been facing this from the moment the fires broke out.

no one should have to choose which priceless mom menendez -- what to take and leave behind for their families and communities ton safe. i've heard from so many community members about the pricelessness of the community centers, the faith centers. i know in the palisades alone there are more than 20,000 jewish community members and i was contacted by the jewish federation and the work that they are doing throughout the region to support the jewish community we've heard with the eaton fire, the loss of so many faith centers throughout the palisades fire and so much more. these are not just structures. these are places where people have made lasting memories.

memories they will hold onto but as they look at their community now, their hearts break and we are in mourning with them. this is a time of grief. and that is why it is tremendous that our governor and our president and all of the leaders behind me and all of the leaders out throughout los angeles are standing strong for all of our angelenos who are suffering great heartache. the pacific palisades has suffered immense loss and my heart goes out to all of the residents who are continuing to try to understand what is left of their homes. in the topanga canyon i've been speaking to residents throughout the night and they've been in constant communication with those on the ground and we're in communication with them to insure that we are supporting topanga on the ground. i know there is this morning a

fire active behind the lumberyard and the chief has personally deployed resources to insure that we're actively fighting the fires to topanga. the canyon is a treasure and we're fighting protect it. sunset messa. the community members of malibu and santa monica that declared a curfew, people trying to take advantage of this crisis, it is absolutely unacceptable and we will all stand together to keep each and every neighborhood safe. the hollywood hills, my heart broke with you last night. i am grateful for the swift work and the aerial assault that took place in order to protect our hollywood hills quickly. when you saw a home go up in flames in studio city you wondered if that would be the next outburst.

the residents of studio city, we stand with you. and in silmar, we have at least achieved some containment of the hurst fire but we have a long way to go and we're watching and standing with you. this is a moment where we will share detailed updates but we will not forget that behind each of these up dates is a person who deserves our support. with that, gas shutoffs continue to affect more than 15,000 people in malibu from brentwood country club to pepperdine. a boil water advisory remains in effect for the sunset mesa and topanga canyon in malibu including communities of big rock and carbon mesa, metro fares remain suspended thanks to the leadership of metro board chair and our ceo.

if you have essential travel today, please do so safely away from the areas of the evacuation orders. if you do not have essential travel, please remain indoors. for the latest updates and service impacts, you can go to alerts.metro.net. l.a. counting assessor has -- misfortune, calamity, damage assessment for property owners affected by the fires at assessor.la county.gov. all school districts in the third district are closed. with that mental health supports are available through the county's department of mental health. you can call 8 hundred-854-7771. please use this resource. we know you are experiencing traumatic pain and we want to do

our best to help start healing. thank you for the outpouring of support from across the county and across the country. emergency network l.a. is coordinating volunteers and support through enla.org. our county is doing everything possible to respond to these fires until they are contained. and as chair barger referenced, today is a day of mourning and in the words of former president carter, our faith calls us to do all that we can, wherever we can, with all we can. and in this spirit, indeed in this moment, this moment calls us to do the same. thank you. next i would like to welcome l.a. county fire chief anthony maroney. >> good morning. thank you, supervisor horvath. i will be providing an eaton fire update in addition to a region 1 update.

the eaton fire is 10 thousand 6 hundred acres and growth has been significantly stopped. and we have zero% containment. we have over 879 firefightering person assigned and mutual aid resources continue to arrive to assist with this fire fight. from this point forward, incident fatality information and reporting will be the responsibility of the los angeles county sheriff's department. we have several reported injuries and over 1000 structures damaged and destroyed. the cause of the fire remains unknown and it continues to be under active investigation. as i stated yesterday, as soon as a cause is determined, we will advise the media. the lidia fire that started

yesterday has been 40% contained and forward progress has been stopped. it is limited to 348 acres. the number of resources assigned to this fire siege event has increased significantly and we have a much better posture than we did on tuesday and wednesday. out of state resources continue to arrive in los angeles county and city. and we are appreciative to our fire partners from throughout the western united states for providing assistance to los angeles county in our time of need. regarding the current red flag warning, the national weather service predicts the warning will remain in effect for los angeles county and the majority of ventura county through friday. i would like to also acknowledge the presence of dr. lori from

the u.s. fire administration who flew out with her team from washington, d.c. last night to be with fire chief crowley and i so they could witness firsthand the challenges and the devastation that have resulted. lastly, i want to acknowledge the tireless efforts of my l.a. county fire department personnel both on the front lines and those behind the scenes who continuously place themselves in harm's way to protect residents and property in our great county of los angeles. thank you for always being there and continue to be safe as they take care of themselves, those around them, and the people we serve and protect. thank you and i would now like to invite up fire chief kristin crowley of the los angeles fire department.

>> thank you, chief maroney. good morning. we continue to battle multiple major brush fires in the city of los angeles and across the los angeles region. today we expect winds to subside somewhat which will allow fire crews to increase containment lines. however, i want to be very clear here as well, we're still under red flag warning with -- [audio issues] >> harris: they're having some audio difficulties there. apparently a lost mic somewhere and so you are getting that ambient tone from the woman speaking now. you just heard from l.a. county

fire chief and city fire chief crowley now is speaking and as soon as they get that microphone situation figured out on their end we'll go right back. a couple of things that have popped in the last little while that really matter in all of this, that red flag warning for los angeles and ventura counties will continue through tomorrow, through friday. we learned that from the fire chief maroney of l.a. county. that is something that people still need to heed. let's go back live to the fire chief of the city now kristin crowley. >> to challenge firefighting efforts for the palisades area. wind gusts are up to 60 miles-an-hour and expected to resume throughout the entire day. firefighters and air resources will continue to work to protect the community and infrastructures and gain control

so that we can contain this fire. damage assessments are ongoing at the palisades fire. however, preliminary reports estimate the damage or destroyed structures to be in the thousands. it is safe to say that the palisades fire is one of the most destructive natural disasters in the history of los angeles. we will continue to provide additional information as it becomes available. i'll move on to the hurst fire. january 7th start. the size, 855 acres, unified in command, lafd, united states fire service, angeles national forest and lapd. 0% containment. firefighters held the fire within a planned containment area and are successful and we have established a perimeter. crews were able to get a handle

on a few of the flare-ups over the night. we'll continue to strengthen our containment lines and create a number of dozer lines to minimize the fire growth. next woodley fire started on january 8th. size 30 acres, containment fully contained and we're using fire patrols to monitor the area for any flare-ups. the fire has been declared as a knockdown and there are no current threats. next the sunset fire, which is in then canyon area. forward progress i'm glad to share with everybody was stopped and the crews are working to put out spot fires within the perimeters and to keep the wind from spreading any additional embers. as of 7:30 this morning, all evacuation orders have been lifted. this fire was rapidly and

aggressively attacked by using coordinated air and ground fire suppression efforts. residents heeded our timely evacuation orders, more information to come on that. next up the sun swept fire in the studio city area. as i talked about all the previous incidents on top of this, our fire department was faced with another massive challenge. very large structure fire encompassing two large hillside homes with heavy fire that exposed brush bract out in the studio city area of los angeles. the fire extended within the adjacent brush potentially causing another additional brush fire. our lefd poured all available resources into this fire and through a combined effort were successful in preventing another devastating brush fire. our firefighters stopped the

forward progress at just under one acre. also to be clear, all the incidents that i just spoke about are all under an active investigation. let's talk about the preparations for today. the lafd continues to augment and recall all of our firefighters to fill every single available seat on every single available apparatus within the city of los angeles. firefighters continue to move into the southern california region from across the western region of the united states and we're very, very grateful for any assistance that we're receiving. weather conditions are beginning to turn favorably which will allow us to increase our containment lines. again, our primary focus remains on impacting and affecting rescues and saving lives while protecting property. the multiple incidents across the city and region continue to tax our firefighters. however, rest assured that every

single firefighter, first responder, law enforcement officer across the region remains 100% committed to protecting our communities. stay informed with trusted news and official updates. be prepared to evacuate if you live near a wild land area. follow all evacuation warnings and orders without delay. we also ask the public to stay off the roadways and away from any impacted areas which we want to make sure there is zero room for any other issues when it comes to delays for our firefighters, first responders to get to where we need to go. i want to take just a moment to thank every single los angeles resident who has been impacted by this for staying vigilant, supporting our first responders and helping your neighbors. thank you to mayor bass, city leadership and everybody here. as you can see we stand with every single community member,

business, anybody that's been negatively impacted by all of these incidents. we stand with you. we will remain strong with you as well. and i tell you we're throwing everything at this that we possibly can and we'll move through this and continue to support one another. with that, i will go ahead and introduce our next speaker, which is sheriff luna. sir. >> good morning, robert luna, sheriff of los angeles county. currently we have well over 4 hundred sheriff's personnel deployed to the fires in addition to normal staffing for patrol-related functions throughout the county of los angeles. deputies continue to assist our residents with evacuations they are performing a lot of humanitarian missions, so many stories to shore providing food and blankets to people. rescuing people who unfortunately did not evacuate when asked to.

you've heard it over and over up here. a lot of the stories of heroic actions by our deputy sheriffs, police officers, firefighters, a lot of them are taking place from people who did not choose to evacuate. putting their own lives at risk. so please if you are asked to evacuate, evacuate. it is not only your life you are putting in danger. we continue to conduct roving patrols, manning hard road closures, providing security and evacuation areas to prevent anyone who may be tempted to engage in criminal behavior like looting. it was mentioned earlier before by the supervisor and i will make this crystal clear to everybody out there. over last night and this morning, we are up to 20 -- 20 individuals who chose to go into our areas and deprive these poor

people who have been through so much of their property. absolutely unacceptable and i will give direction to our department members, as you know when we have an evacuation order by law if you remain in that area, you are guilty of a misdemeanor. if you commit certain crimes it could jump up to a felony. i will be asking our employees to start enforcing that. that is very different than a curfew. why? because it is 24/7. i don't have to wait for the sun to go down or the sun to come up. if you are in one of these areas and you do not belong there, you are going to be subject to arrest. i hope that is as clear as i can make it because i don't -- our first choice isn't to do enforcement, not to make arrests, it's to help people. but if people choose to commit crimes they will be held accountable. and the d.a. who is standing next to me will clarify even

that a little bit further. this continues to be a fluid and evolving crisis and the numbers that we release throughout this incident are going to fluctuate. anything we say is subject to change. we're getting information from our boots on the ground. it is very chaotic out there because it is still so fluid. so forgive us if we give a number and have to modify those numbers. i talked about the 20 arrests that have been made so far. unfortunately i do expect that to go up. we're not going to tolerate that kind of activity. we have substantially increased our deployment of deputies at the fixed traffic posts and trying to limit and clear out any authorized vehicles or people in these areas. i do want to talk as we are summonsing more resources. i have been in contact with the chief of the office of emergency services for the state of california. that's done at the direction of

governor newsom. from the get go of this he has offered any and all resources to us and law enforcement and they're doing the same for fire but i will specifically talk about policing. the california national guard is on stand by at our direction specifically my direction and we along with my partner jim mcdonald at the lapd are currently in discussions if we are going to need them or how we would deploy them as the hours go on. stand by for that information as the hours tick on. chief maroney mentioned this regarding any death toll information. yes, we had preliminary numbers yesterday. i have to be honest with you as i reviewed some of those last night and this morning i was not satisfied with some of the information that we are getting. it is not the fault of our people. the people that are working under very difficult conditions are doing their best to do what

they need to do. at one point we'll be able to do a more thorough search of these impacted areas. some of them look like a bomb was dropped in them where we'll be able to bring in canines and other things to help us hopefully not discover too many fatalities. that's our prayer. but this is a creels is and we don't know what to expect but we're ready for everything. so all information at least on the county side of this equation we're working with our coroner's office and figure out those numbers. be patient with us when you ask us about death toll numbers. we don't know yet. we eventually will. evacuations overall for palisades, hurst, lydia fires the number in both county and city areas, evacuation orders are impacting 179 thousand 783

residents. 180,000 people in los angeles county under evacuation orders close to 200,000 residents under warnings. i urge residents asked to evacuate to follow our warnings. i gave examples earlier. i am going out to through my staff give me stories when deputies are putting their life on a line. it is the result of somebody who chose not to evacuate. i don't want to tell those stories any more. i don't want our communities and officers being injured. if you are told to evacuate, evacuate. two of our sheriff substations are out of power running on generators. that's both altadena, the ones

in the thick of things. described the issues of mutual aid. we'll consistently evaluate and re-evaluate the needs for more law enforcement personnel. i get calls from all over this region from other sheriffs and police chiefs everybody wants to help. that's awesome. that's part of our profession. very proud to be part of it. last thing i will say is for any specific information regarding evacuation orders or warnings or any road closures, there are a lot of them, please go to la county.gov/emergency. with that i'm going to introduce the chief of the los angeles police department, jim mcdonald. >> good morning. i will start off with a sincere thank you to all who have cooperated and supported the first responders and others who have been out there doing the best they can to make this as

manageable as it can be. we're on full tactical alert to be able to accomplish the firefighters mission. we're assisting with safety as well as evacuation sites. you heard the sheriff quote the numbers of people out there using those and again we want to provide every level of safety we can for those involved in that effort. we've been joined by our port police and los angeles world airport police partners as part of the city family in doing the jobs we're doing as we move forward today. i want to thank our team. many of our team and many of the people who are here behind me have left their families and fire areas to come to work to be able to help others. we've had a large number of people who have been evacuated. a large number of people in this group here who either family or friends have lost their own homes and lost everything they own and are dealing with taking care of young families at the same time while they are trying

to balance the needs of work with the needs and responsibilities of family. we truly are all in this together and we have to look at it that way as we move forward. the advice i would give is consistent with what you've heard. the air is not healthy for people who are challenged from a respiratory standpoint. if you don't have to come into anaire that is so impacted, please don't. traffic, we're trying to maintain ingress and egress for first responders in particular. we had people coming in from other states to be able to help in the fire suppression effort and we need them to be able to get in and be able to do what they need to do as easily as possible. the evacuations, they will probably still continue as the winds pick up. we want to be able to do that as effectively as we can. again i said thank you for the cooperation but i ask for additional cooperation should the need arise as we move

forward. this is anything but predictable. we're thankful for the wind conditions we have now and the ability for fire partners to try to make up for lost time to be able to put containment around several of our burn areas and to be able to move forward on that. again i just want to say that you have heard from and you will hear from the d.a. from the sheriff about our crime suppression efforts. for those who want to take advantage of others, we're there and we'll be there and we'll be working to hold you accountable for what you are doing in that regard. as this runs its course, fatigue will certainly become a significant factor for those who are both directly involved in the operation as well as members of our community. so again we are very thankful for the people who are doing this on all of our behalf but we need to stick together. we need to support each other and this is a thing where morale is a big deal for both the community and all of our folks.

take care of each other out there and let's do the best we can. thank you. i mentioned our d.a. the newly elected district attorney of los angeles county nathan hochman. >> yesterday i bore witness by walking and driving through pacific palisades. i ended up at my sister's house, a house where she and her husband had raised four boys, celebrated birthdays, barbecues and what not and that house has been burned to the ground. not just her house, just all her neighbors up and down each one of the blocks i traveled those houses no longer exist. they are now basically rubble. and i haven't seen something like that and i've lived here over 60 years. the entire time i've been here it looked apocalyptic.

not since the 1990s since i have seen such disaster in our city. like back then los angeles has true grit. it has resilience. it will rebuild and it will rebuild better than ever. but along the way there might be people out there who want to take advantage of the people who are suffering these tragic losses. these criminals need to hear as they heard from the sheriff, as they've heard from chief mcdonald, an unmistakably clear miss acknowledge. if you want to loot, if you want to commit burglary, if you want to engage in grand theft, if you want to engage in internet scams where you are going to take advantage of people who are going to be seeking insurance and government benefits, you will be arrested, you will be prosecuted, and you will be

punished to the full extent of the law. the reason i want to send this warning now is i don't want any mistake later that somehow they thought oh, it is not a big deal. it's a huge deal. these acts are despicable and we'll prosecute them with maximal punishment. so i want to make sure that message is received loud and clear. because the first responders in this situation have been simply heroic. i not only saw fire departments from l.a. county and city, i saw fire engines from across this entire state that have come to our rescue and thank you. thank you to all the first responders. when it comes to law enforcement, it is an all hands on deck operation with law enforcement and the d.a.'s office. again, detectives are putting on uniforms and getting out there on the streets to protect us.

we owe them a huge thank you. and from the d.a.'s office, if we do get these cases, please be on notice that we are going to try and deter you from committing the crimes in the first place but if you do commit these crimes, do not expect anything else than maximal punishment. i will now introduce l.a. county public works director. >> good morning. i am the director of the los angeles public works agencies. my heart goes out to everyone affected by the devastating event. i personally toured many of the areas yesterday and met with residents and as everyone here has described it is an absolute tragedy including the life safety support system and infrastructure that supports

life in these communities. i know from personal experience feeling the loss of a wildfire and have respect for our firefighters and other first experience. our current mission which has been going 24/7 for three days now is to support our fire department and our sheriff's department and the local pds in their efforts to save lives. that is our number one mission right now and what we're currently continuing to do. as this event is still active. we're also focusing on the inevitable recovery and repopulation of the areas that we will build back and build back strong. the current focus is on utility restoration. i know many people are already asking about that. sewer, water, power system and transportation system have beg significantly damaged. the heat of the system, wind knocked down thousands of trees

notice roadway. we have a lot of debris throughout the communities who have experienced this fire. this debris has been moved enough to let our firefighters and sheriff and pd into the area to do their work but it will need to be processed and moved safely out of the area and we're working on a coordinated effort across la county to do debris removal that will be necessary to restore the community back to its former way of life. the debris can be hazardous. debris that is on the private property is considered hazardous and may be toxic. i want to warn everybody now that is either there who has remained behind or visiting the areas, it is not safe. it is not safe to touch the debris. it is not safe to remove the debris yourself. there is a process for that and we'll be mobileizing with the city of los angeles to provide a health review of every property and make sure when we move that debris it is done in a way

that's safe and safe for you and for the other residents who remain behind in the area. we are also working on water supply system. the water supply system currently is still supplying fire suppression, last night we got to see the wonderful use of our reservoirs, the city's reservoirs and our reservoirs to take water from the reservoirs and actually use firefighting ariel attacks to the system. you saw what a difference that made in the fire fight last night. those reservoirs are full and continue to be ready at the disposal of our firefighter fighting friends. the was system suffers poor water quality due to the introduction of ash and debris into the reservoirs and filtration systems. there are specific areas that we're asking for water to be boiled. i would just say with all caution anyone who has remained behind if there is any residence in your area burned to the ground and you are still there you should go ahead and boil

water. we'll be actively coming to communities in the next day within this day or next day delivering water, domestic water for people who remain in the fire zone area. l.a. county will be coordinating that effort not only for the district 29 but also working with the city of l.a. to deliver water to residents who have remained behind or who again have partial damage and are maybe staying in their homes. i want again to just mention that a fire fight with multiple fire hydrants drawing water for several hours is not sustainable. that's why the air support is so important. our residents in the sunset mesa, coastline drive and on the south to shore heights drive on the north have our -- are up in the area. the partial damaged or threatened area. topanga canyon road is another

area threatened. it all applies to you residents who are there. now what can we do -- what can the public do? what you should be doing as we still active fire, if you again i will reiterate it is extremely important to listen to the sheriff and to pd when you are asked to evacuate to evacuate immediately. don't hesitate. do not wait. your life is not worth it. the systems that you are leaving behind, they are going to be impacted and they cannot be restarted easily. so i know a lot of people are talking about starting up. if you are thinking about creating your own water and sewer and power system at your home be very careful about that. it is not something that a licensed contractor should be doing or our utility folks. please don't do that. yesterday if you are leaving your home i want to make sure you lock that home. that you close that home up tight and that you leave access for firefighters by not closing gates or creating a situation

where they can't get to your home to fight off fire. the road system is impacted heavily throughout l.a. county including city an county areas. there are multiple -- hundreds of signals that are flashing red. remind everybody treat it as a stop sign and stop for that flashing. and if you come to a barricade you need to turn around. those streets are closed for the purpose of recovery and not for looking. please do not argue with the sheriffs that are there or the p.d. if the road is closed there is a good reason for it. it is not safe for you to be in the area. that safety includes the debris i was talking about. trees down, potholes, road systems destroyed. there could be breaks in the roadway that could cause major damage to your vehicle. i'm asking that you comply with all road closures until further notice. we are available as a 24/7 agency. you can reach our department at

1-800-675-help. if you see something, please tell us about it. whether it's a gas leak, whether it's a utility line down, if it's a signal that's mal functioning or a sewer system leak. any of those things that keep our life safety system going we need know about that so we can get to them. i do need to mention all of the utility workers, not just my folks, but the folks at the city of los angeles, the folks at the southern california edison, gas company are all coordinating each other to restore your systems and our folks are working 24/7. there are many heroic store ears like the sheriff and fire have of our utility folks out in the middle of the night 24/7 getting those systems back up into place. i want to thank all of the utility workers doing their job not going who emotion to family at night. they are working 24/7 as well. i want to introduce the ceo and chief engineer of the department

of water power. >> good morning. i am the ceo and chief engineer of ladwp. the crews continue to work around the clock to restore power and support firefighting efforts. on the power front we have restored 2 hundred thousand customers so far since the windstorm started and as of this morning we have approximately 945,000 customers out. we have 118 crews working around the clock to restore power as fast and safe as possible. we're expecting our mutual aid crews to arrive today and support the restoration efforts. our rest oration times are ranging from 24 to 48 hours. we are prioritizing wires down so if you see a wire down, please call 911 and we'll send

crews immediately to make the area safe. however, if you leave and the fire impacted areas or near those areas, you might experience longer outages mainly because either our equipment has been compromised due to fire and not table access the area yet or shutting down the power for the safety of the firefighters and first responders. on the water side, the boil water notice for palisades on zip code 90272 continues in effect and will continue for at least 48 hours. i have water quality engineers taking samples around the system to insure the water quality remains a priority for our consumers. we continue to support lafd and cal fire and water supply issues and firefighter response including opening our water reservoirs as mentioned yesterday.

hollywood reservoir was critical asset fighting the sunset fire. all our reservoirs are open for air assets and we continue to work around the clock with other water agencies to increase the supply and pressure of the water system including metropolitan water district. i want to end this by thanking dwp crews and personnel for their commitment and efforts to support the restoration of l.a. thank you. >> thank you very much for that. now. >> i also want to -- we recognize president biden and governor newsom but we also have here with us today congress member george whiteside, gong member laura friedman, senator perez, assembly member rodriguez and malibu mayor. make no mistake we're all working together. i want to thank you all for

being here. i know our congress representatives flew in and we appreciate it and we are all in this together. with that we'll take some questions. >> thank you, just a couple rules of the road. i will call on you when you get called upon announce your name and which media outlet you're with. >> jonathan, with cbs news for mayor bass, please. mayor, la county is in a panic state. it began two days ago with the palisades fire. my crew and i arrived shortly after it started and for several hours we watched as hundreds of homes in the neighborhood burned to the ground and did not see a single fire engine. we watched as good samaritans guided traffic. there was fear and there was a lot of confusion. you were out of the country at the time. shortly after the fire started, a press release was put out warning of this fire behavior. my question to you is what

explains this lack of preparation and rapid response? >> let me say first and foremost my number one focus and the focus of all of us here with one voice is that we have to protect lives, we have to save lives and we have to save homes. rest assured that -- >> but that did not happen. >> when that is. >> let me finish. rest assured. when we are finished saving lives and homes, we will do what we can to correct or hold accountable, anybody, department, individual, et cetera. but my focus right now is on the lives and on the homes. >> do you think your leadership was effective while responding to this disaster? >> i just said what i believe is the most important thing for us to do right now. and that is going to continue to be my focus. thank you. >> thank you. >> thank you, let's go to the middle with the laptop.

>> before we go on, i want to introduce -- this is an important announcement, the u.s. fire chief robert garcia has an announcement made on the national forest. >> thank you, i will be brief. in the overnight hours, the u.s. forest service in an effort to reduce calls for service and reduce potential risk for wildfire, we made a decision until further notice that the angeles national forest is closed. we'll get some additional information out. press release, that kind of information on the details of the closure. but it's similar to the types of orders that the county and the city instituted regarding curfews and access, and that type of thing, the angeles national forest closed until further notice, and likely until we get through this fire event. >> media outlet and name. >> thomas fuller from the new york times. for chief luna, i want to follow up on what you said about you weren't satisfied with the information that you were get on fatalities.

it was widely reported there were at least 5 deaths. do you believe that the death t -- thedeath toll is not accur. >> based on the information i received in the last 8 hours. >> is it more than that? >> i want to be confident in the specific information we're getting. what i am doing now is going back through everything because you got to understand the urgency, the chaotic nature of what we're dealing with and we're still in the middle of that. so i want to make sure that as we go forward, at least for the sheriff's department, we're actually having our homicide unit involved because they do -- they not only do murder investigations, they do death investigations. i'm going to change the system and verify each number because i don't care if it's just one, that is somebody's family. that is somebody we love and care for. so i want to make sure that is solid before we start presenting that information. unfortunately, based o