down the slope and the fire is growing. we have no percentage of containment. right now on nbc bay area news tonight, deadly and destructive wildfires in

southern california growing bigger by the hour. 80,000 people under evacuation. and now a new fire spreading quickly. we're going to take you there live. congratulations. a day full of inauguration events for san francisco's new mayor, danielle lowry. and it's not over yet. we're going to take you to the celebration happening right now in chinatown. i love people, and i want to help make people's lives better. and we catch up with former congresswoman barbara lee. moments after making her run for oakland mayor official. good evening. this is nbc bay area news tonight, and i'm jessica aguirre. we begin in los angeles. day two of a growing inferno in southern california. the massive and now deadly wildfire emergency unfolding. and now, just in the last hour, another fire igniting, this time in the hollywood hills.

firefighters overwhelmed. evacuations have now been ordered for this new wildfire near runyon canyon. sky ranger overhead. right now live. look at what's being called the sunset fire. it started just before 6 p.m. it's burning toward hollywood boulevard. at least 20 acres have burned so far. and now this is adding more strain on already strained resources. firefighters have been at work for more than 24 hours tackling the palisades fire and pacific palisades. the eaton fire, which started last night, that one already being blamed for at least five deaths. that fire is in the community of altadena, which is north of the very famous pasadena. more than 10,000 acres have burned. officials estimating 500 buildings have also burned. pacific palisades the original blaze that started in the morning yesterday. officials say at least 1000 structures have been lost, with the fire chief admitting that they do not have enough manpower for an emergency of this size. homeowners

rightfully frustrated, devastated. we'll get through it. we'll build another home. will we go? but we lost. we lost all of the things. that's the part. they're smaller photographs. there's no fire department. there's no. there's no help here. and all i need is a little bit of liquid on the side of this house to stop it from burning down. so frustrated. i think everybody here is frustrated as firefighters who can't do the job because there's simply not enough of them. too many fires. officials are urging people to be prepared to leave because, as we're now seeing in the hollywood hills, that danger is spreading. i want to bring in nbc's jennifer bjorklund live from pacific palisades. that's where that first fire happened. jennifer and that area now decimated. absolutely just destroyed. jessica. it is still burning. as you can see, the

hills are still glowing orange behind me, and they have not been able to cut any lines around this fire. in fact, this fire has been moving, spotting, backing back up the hill and being pushed back down. we didn't think there was anything left to burn, but somehow there is still black smoke pouring out and fire crews racing one way and the other. we've been here all day long, sitting here in this wind that has been absolutely relentless. and you mentioned that fire that's burning in the hollywood hills, the sunset fire, chasing more people out of their homes tonight. those are just, you know, a few acres. but those are important acres, very, very highly populated, densely populated areas that we are told are being hammered by about five helicopters and 20 engines that are doing their best to contain that and keep it from spreading into the flatlands like we've seen from this fire yesterday

that started on the hill, didn't burn up the hill, came down the hill pushed by those heavy winds and pushing the fire against its nature, its natural inclination to burn uphill and then be turned back onto itself and put itself out, which is what we usually see. these winds have not let up since yesterday. we've had a full day of them, a full night, another full day. it looks like we're going to have another full night tonight, and no real relief in sight until at least the weekend. yeah, jennifer, we can hear all those sirens and we see all that, you know, all that's happening behind you. what about the air? air? you know, air drops. what about fighting this from the air? i know the wind has been a problem. when can we expect to see that? because that will really aid firefighters. yeah, it sure will. and that is where everything went sideways last night. because the wind was so strong. it was like a blowtorch. if you saw them trying to do

water drops, which they did a few early on, the water would would drop out of the helicopter and evaporate and dissipate and get blown out of the way with, with, without ever hitting its target. so it made very little difference at very high risk. and that's what happens when the winds are high. so they made the decision not to really fly this fire overnight. and it was the correc decision because even with fire hoses, the firefighters on the ground with their high pressure water hoses, we're seeing the water turn to vapor and barely make a dent in the flames that were being blown by the wind in, in a way that we haven't seen in at least a decade in southern california. it is a very complicated, difficult situation. jennifer bjorklund, thank you for filling us in. and please stay safe. yeah. now, it really is hard to know at this juncture just how destructive these wildfires are right now. we need the light of day, this fire, to all these fires. just too massive, too chaotic. but the palisades fire alone has burned at least a

thousand homes and businesses. other structures as well. that number, though, really is expected to get much larger. right now you're looking at video of the drive into pacific palisades earlier this afternoon. you can see that fire still raging, and you can see how much loss there is for so many, including my next guest, aaron dahl. she evacuated along with her husband and her children from that very area yesterday, and they have unfortunately since learned that their home may not have survived the flames. first off, aaron, thank you so much for being here and i am truly sorry. this is a difficult, frightening thing for you to experience, especially with your children. whe are you now and is the magnitude of the good that you're safe and your kids are okay, and the magnitude of the bad of what you've lost sunk into you. yet? i think it's going to take a while for everybody. as a community, we've been talking a lot today. there's been an outpouring of support. but

palisades is full of families. it's all families. but since the whole community is burnt down, where do you reach out to usually reach out to your community for support. and we're all in need of support right now. the good is hard to see. this entire situation has to be so terrifying. you know, being a mom, i can't even imagine what that evacuation for you must have been like yesterday. yeah, our five year old helped me. he was a champion. all the kids have all gotten involved, but i saw kids evacuating on foot trying to get out of it because it was just moving so quickly and the winds were so high. we live in the lower marquez area. that's where our house was on. ballinger and i grew up in the palisades, and all of my friends have lost their homes. we counted today. i think there's only four standing out of hundreds. i know that must be so hard to lose. so much like that, not only your present, but your

past as well. i know your kids are young. how were you explaining to them that you've had to make this run for your lives? and how do you try to quell their fears when something so terrifying is happening to you? we've been circulating a lot of text today about how to talk to your children about loss, and i just told my five year old about half an hour ago, and it was really hard. earlier today, invited his friend over to play, and we had to explain. it's something we're all going through, but they're so resilient and he's such a champion. we have not told our two ye old yet, but i don't think she's going to fully understand. yeah, i know yore a little olivia. i know that this is really hard. i mean really hard. this will probably be the hardest thing you've ever done in your life, right? but you have your kids and you have your husband, and you guys are safe. and the human spirit is so

invincible. i know that you'll have the strength to move forward. what do you and your husband say to each other in this moment? to be able to have the strength to know that you're going to be safe, and that you know that you're going to be able to move forward, we're going to be okay. we're in this together. we have good family. we have family in the bay area that we've been talking to all day. we have so much love coming in from across the nation, from friends and family, and we feel it. but everybody here in the palisades needs it. i mean, everybody, everybody. so it's the mindset. it's the friends and family that matter. yeah, it really is. and we if you have family here in the bay area, we hope you come to the bay area. the bay area welcomes you with open arms. we want to come back. we want you to come here so that we can embrace you and tell you that we support you and everyone in southern california as well. thank you. thank you for being with me. thank you. all right,

let's show you another look at the sunset fire. this is the one in the hollywood hills. this is the newest fire. it is unfortunately spreading quickly, and the winds are not helping. let's bring in our chief meteorologist, jeff ranieri. jeff, now, just yet another fire. i mean, how much more does this wind go on? because if we've seen five fires now, big fires 24 hours in, 24 hours later, what are we going to be at? yeah, that's just the unknown at this point. we're, you know, not seeing gusts nearly as highgh as was this tie last night when we were getting gusts 90 to 100mph. but anything really around 50mph. and we're seeing or even a little bit less than that, we're seeing rapid rate of spread. so here's the deal. in terms of what we're watching right now. we've got the palisades fire. we have the hurst fire, also the eaton canyon fire in altadena, and then now the sunset fire. so i want to take you down here towards the sunset fire. this is the new one that just happened re in the past couple of

hours. right now, gusts here coming out of the northwest 15 to 35mph. here's hollywood, west hollywood right there. you got runyon canyon. so this is a very well known area. and this fire, the way the winds are blowing, is pushing it down here towards the populated areas. so there are evacuations in place, at least 100 acres on that fire. now, as we get you down here towards the palisades, fire winds right now, 15 to 35 santa monica. also malibu on high alert with this fire. but winds are way down from this time yesterday. and then you got the fire here in altadena. winds right now 15 to 35mph. so on all of these fronts, even though the wind is not as gusty as it was last night, this is still very touch and go down there in southern california. and are we still looking at friday as the day that the winds will really clamp down? that's what all the projections we're seeing right now. i can show everybody better on that in our hourly forecast here. and you'll see as we roll through tonight lower elevations

15 to about 30. but notice the bright colors in the mountains. that's still where we could get 40 to 60 this evening and into tomorrow. but eventually watch how this wind starts to disappear as we head through friday's forecast. you can see how in the mountains the bright colors right there. by 8 p.m. on friday, get out of here. and we're looking at much calmer winds. and that's what firefighters need to get additional air drops on this fire. yeah those air drops are going to be key. all right. thank you jeff i'll talk to you in a little bit later. all right. let's pivot for a moment. we've got another big headline for us here in the bay area. big party in san francisco's chinatown for san francisco's new mayor. this comes just hours after daniel lowry was sworn into office. check it out. i, daniel lowry, do solemnly swear. lowry took the oath before a packed crowd outside of city hall today. but as in the day of inaugural event started much earlier. lowry started at saint anthony's with his family, spent some time passing out coffee and shaking hands with people taking advantage of the nonprofit services. after that, he spent some of the time walking through

the tenderloin with police chief bill scott. the new mayor and his family then boarded a cable car for a quick break before the main event. and in a nod to the rich history of san francisco, enjoyed some hot chocolate from ghirardelli. inauguration ceremony drew big names among the speakers. warriors coach steve kerr, former california surgeon general doctor nadine burke harris, mayor lowry's wife becca proud mary mayor lowry told the crowd some difficult decisions need to be made moving forward, but he also believes he's got the people and the vision to bring real change for the city and the people who live there. i entered this mayor's race not as a politician, but as a dad who couldn't explain to my kids what they were seeing on our streets. recovery is possible, but it needs to be more than a possibility in san francisco. it must be our mission together. together we can all get better, do better, and return san francisco to its

rightful place as the greatest city in the world. one more item of business tonight for mr. lowry before he gets to work. celebration with supporters in chinatown, where the night markets are going on, larry is expected to give another speech any moment. he's at the far east restaurant. that's where gia vang also joins us from. we're at far east cafe in chinatown. and just look at the crowd here. there are lion dancers here ready to welcome in the new mayor, mayor daniel lowry here at far east cafe. let's take you inside, because there are about roughly 800 people who rsvp to this event. come on. this is where people are walking into the event. and then we turn the camera around right here. there are tables on the first floor, 13 tables down here. we're going to go upstairs and show you where the bulk of the event will be happening. now we're on the second floor of far east cafe. take a look. there are 67 tables. the tables are getting

filled in right now, but it will be a tight, tight squeeze in here. who are they expecting? well, up to 40 dignitaries, including attorney general rob bonta and the lieutenant governor eleni kounalakis. this is a celebration for the new mayor, daniel lowry, and for the mayor to thank his supporters. he's doing it in chinatown at one of the biggest banquet halls left in here. of course, it is a tight squeeze in here. daniel lowry, the new mayor, will leave here at about 730, they think walk down grant avenue to make a speech at the main stage happening at the night market. that's happening right outside of us here in chinatown. we'll send it back to you. quite the night. thank you very much, gia. up next, we're going to take you back to the devastating wiosld

set fire. it started just this evening before 6:00. this is west of the hollywood bowl, the concert hall. you know about that one? ten acres so far. evacuation orders in effect for the areas nearby. just one of several raging fires in los angeles. all right, but we want to tell you want to go back to pacific palisades. let's bring in our own velena jones, who traveled down there to los angeles. she joins us live from there. this is the original fire velena that started yesterday, 1030 in the morning. and that basically has decimated that entire, you know, enclave. yeah, that's exactly right, jessica. you know, when you go through different areas here at pacific

palisades, you just see the destruction that has completely wiped out some of these communities here. we're at the lower lyi level of pacific palisades right now. here at the entry point, you can see fire crews milling about right now, their trucks going from one location to the next. the house behind me has been on fire for quite a bit of time. i mean, we've just been in this one location for about an hour. it was completely destroyed when we got here, but the fire continues to go right now. but we have seen constant fire crews pass by this house and not treat it. and that's because they have other homes that they are focused on right now. homes that have not burned, that they are trying to prevent from being damaged, from being burned, to try to save more homes in this area. but we were up in the hills earlier today. and from neighborhood to neighborhood, you just see all

the homes completely destroyed have been leveled to the ground. we were up in the hills where we saw one house that had been burning for over an hour. we saw actually cars in the garage. you could start to hear some of those explosions, a hissing sound, and you can just really see the devastation that has completely cover this community here tonight. up in the hills, there's no power. coincidentally, down here where we are, this is the only house that has caught on fire. you can see the structure behind me. it used to have a top level when we got here. and minute by minute, it kind of just continues to disintegrate. every couple of minutes, we hear some noises of the house continuing to fall here in this area. but the houses around it, they have not been impacted by the firire yet. and so we have seen a lot of fire crews here in this neighborhood protecting the homes that have not been touched

by the fire yet as the winds pick up overnight. of course, that is continuing to be a concern as that is what fanned all these flames throughout this area. and so that's what firefighters are focused on here tonight, jessica. okay. be safe out there. we'll be seeing more of you in the coming days. thank you. all right. the cat is out of the bag. former congresswoman barbara lee officially running for mayor. this follows weeks of speculation and a public push from other city and community leaders. lee broke the news in a video message this morning. 78 year old, in fact, just retired from the u.s. house of representatives last week after serving for more than two decades. now we caught up with lee at oakland city hall. she was there to officially pull papers for her campaign. we asked her about what it took to finally make that decision. i think listening to people, listening to everyone from a variety of sectors in our community here in oakland, and finding where there were common threads, where people talked about the same issues over and

over and over again. i said, wow, you know, this is really important in terms of trying to bring people together, because so many people i've talked to, labor, business, community activists, i'vealked to members of the clergy, and the same issues keep coming up. and so i said, well, let's do this. and i'm very excited. barbara lee is far from the only person in the race, though she faces more than a dozen other potential candidates. oakland voters will ultimately decide during a special election

fire. the sunset fire. exploding in the hollywood hills. one of the most iconic neighborhoods in los angeles. bringing jeff ranieri right now. here we are with another fire. jeff, what's the what are you thinking for this fire and the wind tonight? winds 15 to about 35mph. and it's trying to push that downhill, which is always hard with fires to go downhill. but it's so extremely dry. those evacuation warnings in effect for good reason. look at this. up to a 100mph in parts of southern california. here, as we track through the past 48 hours. let me get you more details on our forecast right now in your microclimate, weather, and what i can show you here as we get you into the wind is it's not extremely gusty in the valleys here, lower elevations of southern california. but notice this bright coloring here on the map, the wind map that still gusts right now of 40 to 50 plus miles per hour in the mountains.

so we're not expecting major, major improvement in all of this to get out of here until we head into friday night. that's when it improves for them back here across the bay area. bay area. after some wind this morning, we have now started to see any kind of wind exit. so calm winds tomorrow. high pressure brings us some dry and sunny conditions that will begin us here with temperatures in the 40s to start. and then as we head through the day, we're up here to 67, in santa rosa, 66 martinez and 68 in san jose. on the 7-day forecast. we're going to keep it dry as we move through the next seven days. with temperatures generally in the 60s and some chilly 40s in the mornings. wll have more updates, of course, on those fire conditions at 11. of course we will. all right. that's going to do it for us here tonight at 7:00. we'll have full coverage, of course, at 11:00. and let's send some good thoughts to our friends in southern

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