viviana, good to see you back again. erica. this will be like my relationship with viviana will be a conversation we will continue to have, because it's going to be an important one. we're going to change everybody's narrative, 1 or 2 people at a time, if that's what we have to do to tell the real stories, which you've both done. thank you for being here. erika andiola is the director of communications at young center for immigrant children's rights. viviana andazola marquez is a trial lawyer at waymaker. all right. straight ahead. strong winds continue to complicate efforts to battle the wildfires in los angeles. the biggest fire is still expanding its path of destruction. we're going to bring you the very latest, including a report on the ground on another hour of velshi, which begins right now. hey. good morning. sunday, january the 12th. we begin this morning in southern california, where firefighters gained crucial ground against deadly wildfires overnight. but more wind is coming and the fires continue to blaze through densely populated

urban areas in and around los angeles. at this hour, we are expecting a news conference from los angeles mayor karen bass. any minute now. we're going to bring you that when it happens. but here's where things stand right now. officials say more than 12,000 structures have been destroyed or damaged since the fires began on tuesday. thousands more remain under threat. 16 people are believed to have died due to fire related causes. these are already on track to become one of the natural, the costliest natural disasters in u.s. history. the two largest fires known as the palisades. that's the one at the bottom of your screen to the left, and the eaton fire on the top of your screen to the right, have consumed nearly 38,000 acres of land, or about 59mi!s. firefighters did make progress against these two fires overnight, but this is where it gets tricky to describe this, because the palisades fire still grew by a thousand acres, and strong winds are expected to pick up again overnight tonight. meanwhile, the hurst fire. you can see that top left of your

screen. that's the san fernando valley northwest of la. it's 76% contained. it's under enough control that officials have lifted the last evacuation orders for that area. crucially, the winds calmed down enough in the afternoon yesterday to allow rescue workers to safely fly aircraft that could drop water to extinguish the flames in some places. we're going to talk about that in a second and how effective that is and why that's been a problem last week because of the high winds. you are looking at new footage. this is from yesterday afternoon, but it was released overnight by cal fire of this effort underway. now look at this. a massive plane deployed to disperse fire retardant to help establish defensive barriers to prevent the fires from expanding significantly into brentwood and encino. those are neighborhoods of los angeles, at least for now, that have not had the fire go into them. california governor gavin newsom activated more national guard members yesterday as well. the total number of national guard personnel deployed to help in

this emergency, now 1680. for more on this, i'm joined by now by nbc news correspondent allison barber. she is in the brentwood area of los angeles, where people, allison, are standing by, trying and hoping to get back into their homes. talk to me about what the situation is, where you are. >> yeah. i mean, look, this is one of the checkpoints. you see the national guard here. this is the area where then you get into the mandatory evacuation zones. you see that sign reminding people there is a curfew in place in the area. it's from 6 p.m. local time until 6 a.m. this morning. but what we've seen here today and what we saw yesterday is people gathering early here, waiting in this line of cars. it really goes as far as the eye can see over here, hoping to get some information about if they can go back to their homes to see the damage, and also to just get some basic necessities clothes, medicine, things like that that they had to leave at home when they evacuated. and now that they've been gone longer, needing to go back to essentially resupply. but what we're hearing from people on the ground is that

they're getting conflicting messages from law enforcement officers on scene, and they're not getting really any information about if they can go back or when. the line here, let's just walk a little this way so you can see it. ali, it really is hard to put into words because it goes back for blocks. the people in the first car, i was talking to them earlier this morning and they said they came here at 5 a.m. waiting, hoping that they could get an escort to go back to their homes to get some supplies. and for now, they're not getting any information. one woman we spoke to here, she talked about how devastating this has been and how frustrating it is that she feels like there isn't enough information, in addition to the fact that she has so many questions about how all of this happened. take a listen. >> allison. >> thank you. how do you feel the city has done in terms of responding to the fires and also dealing with the aftermath? >> well, don't get me started. you know, you hear so many different things like that. our reservoir was emptied. that's pretty upsetting and scary. this

doesn't seem to be going very well, i heard it. this line goes back, miles, and it's been like this every day, so i just think that they're probably doing the best that they can. but for all of us who are suffering, it doesn't seem like it's good enough. >> so a lot of frustration here, ali, and uncertainty about what is going to happen next. people just really needing to get some basic necessities, they say, but they can't get information on what that could look like. and if that will actually happen today. ali. >> allison. thank you. and we're going to go right to getting some more answers to this information that you were just talking about with the person you interviewed. this is the la fire chief. we're getting an update right now from her and subsequently from mayor karen bass. so you can see there on the right of your screen. let's listen in. >> although it was devastating to see firsthand the destruction of this fire, it is tremendously uplifting to see the outpour of

support from all over los angeles region. there are donations of food, water, supplies literally spilling over and out into our local fire stations that have become hubs for all of us to grieve, to have a warm meal, and to also gather together and support one another. your lafd, firefighters and everybody involved in these active fire incidences will continue to work relentlessly around the clock. i will now provide a brief update on the two active fires that are burning within the city of los angeles. palisades fire, air and ground crews worked tirelessly overnight with favorable wind conditions to prevent further spread into the mandeville canyon area. the fire is currently at 23,707 acres, with 4720 personnel that are assigned with 11% containment. evacuation

orders and warnings remain in place. i know this is incredibly frustrating, but i would like to understand. i'd like to express and explain the why. why our residents are not allowed to come back into that area. there are still active fires that are burning within the palisades area, making it extremely, extremely dangerous for the public. there's no power, there's no water, there's broken gas lines, and we have unstable structures. the first responders are working as quickly as possible to ensure that it is safe for you to return into your communities. canine search teams have been deployed to assist with our recovery efforts. the hearst fire i'm extremely pleased to report that this fire has been held to 799 acres and is now 89% contained, with over

300 firefighters assigned now today, strong north to northeast winds. gusts are up to 50mph with low humidity will be observed. a red flag warning is in effect and will remain until 6 p.m. wednesday evening. strong santa ana winds are also expected to last through wednesday, with the strongest winds occurring on tuesday, with the next wave of wind events. i want to be very, very clear here. it's very important that the community understands that these wind events are coming into los angeles. i want to reassure you that mayor bass, chief mcdonnell and i are united and focused on exactly what we need to do to prepare the city with these next strong winds that are coming. every available lafd firefighter is on hand and will remain in place through this wind event. additionally,

firefighters continue to pour into southern california region to bolster our firefighting capabilities. next, i'd like to introduce l.a. county sheriff luna. thank you. thank you. >> good morning. >> i'd like to start off with talking about staffing. >> we've increased our l.a. county deputy sheriff staffing to about 1200 personnel. >> and that may will that probably will continue to grow. many of them are on 12 hour shifts, which means 12 on, 12 off. they're working incredibly hard. they have been assigned close to 1500 missions and that a lot of work, a lot of good work that's still continuing. the missions continue to include hard road closures, traffic control points, roving security, welfare checks, evacuations as

needed, requested by fire, and at times when able to escorts for essential services and need. we also have assigned at least 60 california highway patrol officers split up for us, some at the eaton fire location, others at the palisades location. i personally like to thank commissioner shaun derry, who i will be meeting with. he's coming down here to thank him for his incredible help. national guard deployment is still at approximately 400. they're assisting the following agencies the los angeles county sheriff's department, the los angeles police department, the california highway patrol, pasadena, santa monica, arcadia, azusa, and sierra madre. >> yesterday, i submitted additional requests for more national guard assistance specifically to the los angeles police department and the l.a. county sheriff's department.

>> so i'm hoping that you'll see additional national guard personnel arriving today. i will be meeting with one of their very high ranking executives later today. evacuations for the palisades and eaton fires. these numbers are for both county and city area. they have dropped in the last couple of days, which is some good news. but as you hear, it's still a very fluid situation and that could change. so be aware of that. we're at approximately 105,000 residents under evacuation orders, and approximately 87,000 residents under evacuation warnings. i just want to remind everybody, if you are asked to leave and you're in an evacuation order area, your life is in danger. you need to leave. i know, and it's been stated already, a lot of our residents are trying to get back and they're frustrated.

i stopped by several checkpoints both in altadena and malibu yesterday. i personally listened to residents please, please let me back in. so i'm just going to say this in driving around some of these areas, they literally look like war zones. there are downed power poles, electric wires. there are still some smoldering fires. it is not safe. the minute it is safe. we understand the inconvenience and every conversation we're having about evacuations that de-population conversation is continuously coming up. we do care. we want to get you back into your homes, but we can't allow that until it is safe for you to do so. in regards to arrest and criminal activity, we had several more arrests overnight, bringing our total to approximately. i'm going to say approximately because we're

still trying to reconcile numbers about 2925 in the eaton fire area and four in the palisades area. i i'm going to guess that chief mcdonald may talk about this, but when i was out there in the malibu area, i saw a gentleman that looked like a firefighter, and i asked him if he was okay because he was sitting down. i didn't realize we had him in handcuffs. we were turning him over to lapd because he was dressed like a fireman and he was not. he just got caught burglarizing a home. so those are issues that our frontline deputies and police officers are dealing with. so again, that's why we're asking for your patience. yesterday in palisades, we had one arrest for curfew violation. unfortunately, they resisted arrest at eaton. we had six arrests last night, three for curfew violations and three for additional charges, including carrying a concealed firearm and narcotics related

charges. now, i just gave you stats about things our deputies are dealing with in the street. i want to put out a caution to people. if you are thinking about scamming, using this incident to take advantage of residents that have already been victimized from a white collar perspective, i have been in close communication. we had a press conference yesterday with chief mcdonnell and i, the state attorney general. we've been in constant communication with district attorney nathan hochman. i also received a call a day ago from martinez estrada, the us attorney here. they are all eager to prosecute anybody who is taking advantage of our residents during this very difficult time, whether it is a burglary or it is some kind of white collar crime in a scam or anything that you may be thinking about doing, the next issue, which is a little more

difficult to talk about, is yesterday we started a search and rescue operation out in the eaton area, where in the first day of this operation grid searching, we searched approximately 364 properties in the altadena area. and unfortunately, during that search, we did locate three deceased. as these searches continue, i. i unfortunately anticipate that those numbers will increase. we will start a similar operation in the northern side of the county here very soon. so the numbers i have, and again it's going to change. unfortunately, we have confirmed 14 deaths and that is in our specific la county jurisdiction. 11 at the eaton fire and three in our portion or our jurisdiction in the palisades fire la cities. that's

in addition to. so when you hear the coroner, our partners at the corner reporting numbers, that's a little bit different. missing persons i cannot emphasize because i'm calls. if you believe somebody is missing, please report it to your local law enforcement agency. right now with the sheriff's department, we have 16 missing persons reports. we have 12 in eaton and four in palisades. if there's any good news, there's no juveniles that are missing within those numbers. but i know just coming here this morning, it sounds like we just got dozens and dozens more. i have to reconcile those numbers. we'll report them at a later time. but. yeah. and then as i conclude, i know i talk about arrest. that is negative. some of the things we're talking about are sad. but in this time of crisis, the calls for people wanting to help

and donate are enormous. and that's who we are in the county of los angeles, the city of los angeles. so i just want to throw this out. if you are interested in donating food, money, clothing, whatever that may be. the emergency network los angeles by visiting. w ww dot e n l a.org and thank you for all of you who are amazing out there who want to help. and then if you want updated information about evacuation orders, warnings or road closures l.a. county.gov/emergency. and with that, i'm going to turn it over to the los angeles police chief, jim mcdonnell. good morning. good morning. thank you sheriff. in the wake of the devastating fires, i just want to acknowledge the incredible strength and resilience that our community has shown during these very challenging times. it's truly inspiring to see neighbors coming together to support one

another. and as your chief of police, i want to assure you that the lapd remains fully committed to your safety and well-being as we all move forward together. lapd currently has over 600 officers deployed to these areas, with support from the los angeles airport police, port police and the national guard, who has 100 soldiers assigned to the palisades incident. and we're very grateful for their support. excuse me. i want to just excuse me. touch on during the evacuation at the early stages, thousands of people fled their homes without notice and without much of anything but the clothes on their back. traumatic experience, certainly for everybody involved. we tried to be as compassionate as we could be by putting together a escorts that provided limited access for people to get into the area very deliberately and be able to retrieve medication or pets. in some cases, what we found was that was successful for those

who we were able to accommodate, but the numbers became overwhelming. there was frustration, there were long waits to be able to do it, and we still try to facilitate it, although we weren't able to do that for everyone today, we need to suspend that practice effective immediately. we have search operations now beginning. we will have cadaver dog deployment and that will result in crime scene preservation efforts. and then the recovery of remains. working closely with the l.a. county coroner tomorrow, winds will be picking up as you heard. further complicating our efforts and creating an additional fire danger. and so the atmosphere is very continuously changing. we have to adapt to the conditions that are presented to us. and in this case, this is a modification that some will have difficulty with. and i apologize for that. we recognize the importance of protecting fire affected areas, not just from the physical dangers left behind, but also from those who

might exploit this tragedy. to that end, our officers are conducting increased patrols in the areas impacted by the fires. identify. identifying the cause of these fires is critically important in conjunction with our partner agencies and led by the bureau of alcohol, tobacco and firearms, we've created the los angeles regional wildfire investigative task force, who's actively working to identify the cause of the palisades fire and ultimately all of the fires that we have experienced. lapd is still enforcing a curfew in los angeles city areas, where mandatory evacuations are still in place. last night, we made an arrest for an individual who violated their curfew order. as sheriff luna referred to the night before, there were three individuals in a vehicle. they were stopped. they were where they weren't supposed to be. one had on fire jacket and a fire hat, and he was additionally arrested for impersonating a firefighter. we have people who will go to all ends to be able

to do what it is they want to do, to exploit the victims of this tragedy, lapd sorry, i the order will remain in place tonight. curfew order from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. and unless your public safety personnel, personnel or some other disaster workers, you have no reason to be at these locations. and if you are in those areas, you will be subject to arrest. enforcing a curfew is an important tool to keep the burn areas and evacuated property secure, keeping looters out. this effort also helps protect public safety personnel who are operating in darkness in very difficult conditions. and as you heard previously, the threat there from gas lines, from electricity, downed power lines and many other, not to mention the toxic environment that is exists in that area due to the fire that burned plastics and different types of composite material. we all know what the long term effects of exposure to

that can be. i won't go in here to the scams in the sheriff referred to that, but there are a lot of scams. i would ask that for those of you looking to donate to fire victims, do so with caution. before contributing, take time to thoroughly research the charity or organization that you're considering. reputable groups will have clear information about their mission and proven track records. websites like charity navigator and the better business bureau are excellent resources to help verify their legitimacy. it's also good practice to avoid cash donations whenever possible, opting instead for secure, traceable payment methods to ensure that your contributions reach those in need. and if you come upon fraudulent donation requests, please notify us so that we can investigate. together, we can prevent further harm and protect the generosity of our community. in closing, i just want to reiterate that our department and all all of us standing here before you and so many others are with you, we're here for you for the duration, not only to ensure your safety, but provide

support and resources necessary to recover and ultimately rebuild. i want to assure the community that we're working tirelessly every day to protect lives, property and maintain public safety during this critical time. thank you all for your resilience and cooperation during this very difficult time. now i'd like to introduce the from the los angeles county board of supervisors chair, kathryn barger. thank you chair. >> thank you chief. good morning. >> yesterday i sent a letter to president elect trump inviting him to visit our county to see the devastation of these wildfires firsthand, to meet with our impacted residents and hear their stories, to thank our first responders, and most importantly, to see how the federal government can help our communities heal and rebuild. >> in my years at the county, i have seen time and time again

how essential of a partner the federal government is when responding to an emergency and helping our communities recover. i look forward to welcoming president elect trump to our communities so he can see the desperate need, but also the incredible opportunity, hope and perseverance of our impacted neighbors. it is in seeing this hope that i am confident that our communities will recover and rebuild. i also met with representatives from the state yesterday and discussed what we will need to rebuild la legislative. legislative leaders committed to working with the county to cut the red tape that will slow and limit residents rebuilding their homes. i also want to share that california governor newsom announced a sweeping executive order this morning related to the rebuilding efforts.

>> notably, he is suspending ceqa reviews and california coastal permitting for reconstruction of properties substantially damaged or destroyed in the fires, devastating los angeles county. >> i also appreciate the directive to state agencies to identify additional permitting requirements that can be safely suspended or streamlined to accelerate rebuilding and make it more affordable. >> i want to thank the governor for hearing my request and taking swift action to ensure that our residents will not be burdened by unnecessary requirements as they begin the process of recovery and rebuilding. we are also going to need full partnership from the county, city, state and federal governments, and i am committed to bringing everyone to the table for the betterment of our residents that right now are in tremendous need. every day since

these fires began, i have gone out to the impacted communities to hear directly from our neighbors and see the devastation. for myself, i'm also meeting with multiple times a day with our incident command. the focus, sacrifice, and determination of our firefighters and our first responders is unmatched and i have no doubt that they are doing all they can to protect our communities and that they are going to get these fires out. there have been so many questions about availability of resources for impacted residents, specifically the resources available through fema. yesterday, the county announced they will be hosting fema staff at seven and now eight libraries for residents to get direct assistance for disaster relief for fire victims in the san gabriel and crescenta valley areas. libraries include la crescenta. >> you're listening to county, la county board of supervisors chair kathryn berger. we're

going to continue to monitor this. la mayor karen bass is going to speak in just a moment. i'm going to come back to her in just a second when she does. but right now i want to go to brant pasqua. he's a battalion chief for cal fire. he's standing by at the palisades. fire chief, good to see you again. thank you for being with us. i am going to interrupt you when karen bass starts talking again, but i want to mention something that the sheriff pointed out earlier and that that in some of these places that have been hit by fire, that people are waiting to get back into, including where you are, there's no power, there's no water, there are no gas lines. the buildings may be unstable even if they look like they're standing and power lines are down. this is what firefighters deal with all the time. you know that those are dangers that are not obvious to the resident who says fires out. i need to get back to my house. >> absolutely. >> and it's understandable to think, you know, to see it from their perspective as well. but i tell you, it's still like a war zone up there. >> it's safe. >> it's unsafe for me and my crews being around. some of the things that we're we're seeing

up in the palisades and, and where this devastation has happened, 87,000 people are still under evacuation warnings. >> so some people have had those lifted. but for 87,000 people, that means they should have go bags, they should be packed, they should be ready to go. they should have an escape plan. they may still have to leave their homes. another 87,000 people as of this moment may still be told. and i'm hearing a lot of people getting knocks in the middle of the night, literally saying, you need to get out now. >> yeah, you're absolutely right. you know, we have predicted winds coming. >> so have that bag ready. >> you don't want to have to do it when the emergency arises. right. you want to get out early. you don't want to get caught in a traffic jam. you want to do what's best and safest for your family. >> brant, stand by a second. l.a. mayor karen bass speaking. now, i'll come back to you in a minute, okay? >> yesterday i was at the command post in sylmar, and it was an example of our heroic first responders, the

department, the deputy chief, jamie moore, as an example of one of those heroic first responders. i received an in depth briefing about the fires, the successes and the upcoming threats also met with many volunteers. it was very inspirational to be there and to see groups of people coming up in the entire time i was there delivering all sorts of supplies for the first responders. it was an example to me of the spirit of our city and how we need to continue to act in a unified manner. those people that are affected by the fires, we give all of our possible support to, and those people who are not affected by the fires, but who are willing to come out and volunteer and help, we will be prepared. we will get through this. but it takes the unity and the spirit that i saw yesterday

to make sure that los angeles comes out of this a much better city. as we fight these fires, my office is already working to make sure that we can rebuild as fast as we can by cutting through the bureaucracy that holds us back, even in normal times. i want to join the supervisor in thanking the governor for his action this morning. that will go a long way to making los angeles stronger than ever, and the generosity we are seeing proves that we will. more than 13,000 people have donated over $6 million to the california community foundation's wildlife recovery fund. please join them in supporting the most vulnerable people affected by the fire at cal fund. dot org also support the los angeles fire department foundation and support lafd.org. let me thank every los angeles

firefighter and the thousands of firefighters from across the state, the nation, and even the world. people are coming from everywhere to help us and make sure that we are ready for the days ahead. so to them, i want to say thank you. for angelenos impacted by the firestorm and for angelenos looking to help, the city has created an online hub at la city.gov to create a single place for people to go for assistance, or to find ways to help our community. this includes evacuation zones, fema support, resources for small businesses, and more. in the upcoming days, you will see as we continue to fight the fires. prepare for what is to come this week, but we will also prepare for our recovery. thank you. >> all right. >> that was la mayor karen bass.

i want to go back to the palisades fire, where battalion chief for cal fire, brant pasqua, is standing by. brant, a lot of information out of there. i don't know how much of that is new to you, because obviously you've got access to a lot of detailed information. but if you take what we just heard and what you and your team have just been doing, tell me where we stand now. i last spoke to you on friday night. are we substantially better off? are we still in remarkable danger? where are we? >> we're substantially better off. since friday night, we've had a lot of good productivity come within the last couple of days, with our aircraft and ground troops working together to help button this fire up. my commanders know that there's winds predicted, and this fire will be wind tested, so we are planning accordingly. we have a surge of engines in communities that where the fire still has heat near it. so we have engines placed around homes working on defensible space around those homes now before the winds get here. and we also have crews

going direct on the fire line, putting in fire line and putting the fire out. >> let's talk about the santa ana winds and the other winds that are going on. winds present two particular problems in this fire. one is they spread the embers. so you could be in a place that doesn't have an active fire. an ember blows on these 50 mile an hour winds, drops onto your house, and all of a sudden you've got a fire that spreads. there's a second problem, and that with high winds. you and i were talking about this on friday night. with high winds, you can't get the aircraft up. both the aircraft that distribute water to put out the fires and the aircraft that that that dropped that retardant that prevents the fires from flying. so talk to me about where we are in terms of winds and being able to fight this fire effectively using the aircraft. >> yeah. right now we're still looking good with winds. this is going to be another day. we can drop thousands of gallons of retardant and water and work alongside those ground troops to help get some containment on this fire, or at least have a

nice hold on it. so if those winds surface, say, tomorrow, we don't have to worry about it jumping our fire lines. >> i did. >> one of the things we heard earlier is that the hearst fire is it's at 7799 acres right now. it's 89% contained. you and i were talking a little bit about what containment means. it's not clear to all of us, because we hear that there's greater containment of the palisades fire where you are, and yet it spread by another thousand acres. so can you describe to me when we're when they say the hearst fires, 79, 89% contained. what does that mean? does that mean it's out of danger? does that mean it's going to get smaller or what? >> that. >> yeah. so at 89%, it's almost there to where we feel comfortable enough to where if we were to walk away there is no more threat. so you're, you're sitting at almost 90% a little more work. maybe they want to wait till it's wind tested for these winds to come through the next couple of days until we can call it 100%, but when it's 100%, that means we can walk

away and there's no threat that still remains. >> let's talk a little about you were saying have your go bag. be prepared. if la is one of the biggest cities in the country, so everybody knows someone there, and even if you live there, you're not sure what you're supposed to do. if that knock comes on to your door or you want to get prepared for it tonight, what is it you're supposed to do? how is it you're supposed to prepare? what is it you're supposed to take with you? and what is it you're supposed to leave behind? >> great question. and that's why we say prepare. now, come up with that plan now. because when you get that knock on the door, that's not when you want to think about it. so sit down with your family. make sure everyone knows what the plan is. if that knock comes that way, when it does come, it's almost like clockwork. everyone gets in. you go to where you already predetermined, and you grab the things that you've already figured out you want to take with you. and so it doesn't take that long. it's seamless and everyone gets out safe. >> we're watching video of a of a large aircraft, a large fixed

wing aircraft dropping fire retardant. that's the brightly colored material. talk to me about the difference between this and the water. what what what is this fire retardant achieving and why is it so important. >> yeah. so that's a 12,000 gallon of fire retardant drop you're seeing there out of that plane. what that does is the retardant sticks to the brush better. what it does is when it sits on the brush sticks on the brush, the fire hits it. it doesn't put it out. it just slows it down. when you slow it down. that gives our firefighters a chance to get up the hill with their hoses, with their hand tools. and that way they can battle a fire that's much more controlled than if it was just burning freely in the canyons without this fire retardant slowing it down, making it a smaller fire for them to battle. >> one of the things that's been very useful, these these super scooper planes that are able to go in and get water, take it out and then and then dump it.

obviously weather does have an impact on that, but assuming they can fly, one of the things we've seen in the last few days is collisions with drones. i imagine this is a relatively new phenomenon. talk to me about this. and is that something that can be solved very quickly so that we don't have aircraft that are trying to fight the fire, running into drones? >> we're trying. and just like you said, this is a new thing for us on these fires. we used to have maybe 1 or 2 here or there, but now i've heard there's almost near 40 for all of the fires down here in southern california. it's just too many. this these aircraft are just too valuable to save lives and homes that we need them in the air when we can be in the air. so please don't fly your drones. people's homes and lives are dependent on it. >> brian, i'm going to ask you to stand by if you can. i need to go back to that press conference. there are reporters now asking questions of the of the l.a. county sheriff, and we are finding a variety of things, including people with firearms,

with narcotics. >> don't go there. hopefully that answers your question. >> any other questions? we're going to go over here in the plaid shirt microphone. >> oh thank you. oh okay. how how troubled are you that there's a lack of communication between the city of los angeles and the incoming trump administration. >> there isn't a lack of communication between the city of los angeles and the incoming trump administration. i have spoken with representatives of the incoming administration. i'll be talking more about that in the coming days. >> mayor bass, where do conversations stand about long term housing for the displaced? >> well, you will hear more from us this week in terms of moving into the recovery phase. there's

a lot of things that we need to do. but one of the things that we're looking at and you know, something i've been working on for a long time in terms of expediting the process, but given this emergency, looking back at efforts that had taken place in the past and how we move full steam ahead, and this is where i was saying that we're going to be lockstep with the county, because we need to cut through the red tape. that has always been a problem, but now it's over. we absolutely have to get past this and get the rebuilding going as fast as possible. >> thank you, mayor bass. any other questions? we're going to go right here in the middle name and media outlet. >> hi. this is kiersten with kcal news on the missing people. i understand there was the family assistance center that was opened in pasadena. >> is that still open? and i mean, how many are you are you talking about that are still unaccounted for? thank you.

>> so in regards to missing persons, i reported 16 earlier today. i want to make sure that anybody who believes their family members are missing, that they do contact us, at least at the sheriff's department and our county areas. and then we do have the family assistance center so they can go there to report them or ask any questions that they may have. but it is critical that we are aware of these situations. and when i talk about reconciling numbers hour by the hour, the numbers increase. sometimes they decrease because people are being found. so i expect or anticipate that the number of missing persons will absolutely go up. but if there's a doubt in anybody's mind, please, that's what we're here for. please contact us right away and we'll

guide you through the process. so it's easier for you, because very difficult circumstances that we're all under right now. >> we're going to go in the middle in the magenta shirt. >> beth has abc nbc news is at brentwood, where yesterday and today, there's been massive lines of people waiting to get into the evacuated area to get things from their homes, medicines, etc. we're being told by folks here that they heard the city was allowing people up to their homes if they came to this location, but then they're not being allowed. >> some say they're being told by lapd three cars can go up with an escort every 15 to 20 minutes, but it's not happening. >> a lapd officer is telling some residents in, quote, it's all up to the fire department. >> what's the plan for all these people? will they be taking people to homes today? >> and what's the plan for these residents? >> yeah. thank you. i addressed that in my comments earlier. we had tried to facilitate, as best we could, people going in for a very short time escorted the

situation, controlled to get medication and in some cases small pets in the in the early days in particular, that got unwieldy. many people came out. they wanted to see, understandably, their property and the condition of their property. today, effective today, we've stopped that practice, and as we move forward, we'll reassess down the road. but as i mentioned, we're bringing in search, beginning search operations, bringing in cadaver dogs and beginning the recovery of remains process. so in addition to the threats that are posed by downed power lines, gas lines open, we've made the determination that we're no longer able to accommodate that. the winds are coming back tomorrow, presenting additional issues for us to deal with. >> thank you. can i add on to the medication? >> and i know for pasadena and i'm sure it's out in the evacuation. locations. kaiser and the county have personnel

doctors on site for those that need to get their medication, recognizing that people didn't bring it with them. so if they can't get in, i would really encourage them to go to one of the evacuation centers because it's important for them. >> we're going to continue to monitor this press conference, particularly for questions that are really important for people to know. and those of you who don't live in la who are in communication with people there. but i do want to go to chief pasqua again, who's standing by to help us understand some of the things that we're hearing on this ongoing story. brant, one of these things that we heard from is that there are firefighters from all sorts of places, and this happens is not uncommon. there are firefighters from nine different states from very different places in california, from canada, from mexico. i've even seen them coming in from other places. how do you integrate people when you're actively fighting a fire? because i would assume every single firefighter in that region is already busy working. >> right. you know what? what it

does is it gives those firefighters that have been here since day one a much needed break. that's the first thing. then the other thing is, i was thinking about this yesterday, even though some of the people that are coming from mexico might not speak our language when we're working alongside them, we all have that common goal in mind. that's to save lives, save property, and we put our heads down and we go to work and do that. and i think that's a really beautiful thing. >> let's talk about what you see, giving everything you and i have been listening to get to together from this press conference, from the weather reports, from the wind reports, from the fact that today has got to we got to see blue skies behind you. for people who are trying to imagine when things start to get back to normal, are you thinking this is a tuesday wednesday type of thing that we, you and i might be talking and saying, all right, this is contained, or are we not close enough for you to be able to say that sort of thing right now? >> so we're not going to be comfortable enough until these

predicted winds are over. and i see that it's predicted to go to at least wednesday night. so come thursday, friday we get back to our normal weather patterns. we didn't have any escape, fire or anything like that. i see us having containment come, come up a lot then, and us having this discussion of the fire looks really good. we're going to start getting people back into the areas again. >> all right. mayor karen bass being asked a question about her communication with the president elect. >> let's listen to her words in a couple of hours from a couple of the other city departments. and, chief, if you want to expand on that. thank you. >> thank you. we had a oh, i'm sorry, chief. >> any other comments or okay. thank you. and go ahead. >> could you clarify the total death count related to the wildfires? and if i could also clarification or guidance from the health departments regarding the air quality for residents? thank you.

>> i can confirm, for the los angeles county jurisdictional areas that we are at 14 deaths. that's 11 in the eaton area and three in the palisades. i'm sorry, palisades area, but that's just for los angeles county. los angeles would have different numbers, and the city of pasadena may have different numbers as well. i would say that the best source for that is the l.a. county coroner's office, because they encompass the entire county of los angeles, including the jurisdictions i just mentioned. >> anish mahajan, chief deputy director of l.a. county public health. >> the air quality is improving as we have seen the smoke lessen with the better containment of the fires. at this time, the south coast quality air quality management division is indicating whether a smoke advisory, specifically in those areas close to the fires in the northwest component of the

county, county residents should continue to monitor the air quality index, the aqi levels, wherever they are. but we are seeing improved aqi numbers, and so we encourage residents who are closest to the fire, who are smelling smoke or seeing it, who have the aqi levels in the unhealthy zones to be using masks when they're outside. >> any other questions? >> a very important point, by the way, for those people who are in a rush to get back to their homes, air quality is a massive issue. we've watched for the last two years where fires in canada were affecting air quality in new york city. so important to remember masks, checking air quality when you want to get back. brant. one of the things that's unusual about this fire, it's truly it's been happening in the last couple of years, but i've never seen it happen so much. there is a lot of bs out there. one of the reasons why we cover these press conferences is to get as much detailed information as we can from actual officials, and hold

them to account by having reporters ask them questions. but there's a lot of disinformation and a lot of misinformation, which complicates things, because when people are trying to make decisions about staying, leaving, getting back what they take, what they do, what's actually happening, what the causes are, how how do you process this right now? i mean, i know in your job at your commanders and your firefighters, you don't have time to process disinformation. you've got to actually fight fires. but what do you make of this, this new thing that we're having to deal with, like you said, we're lucky. >> our main priority is life safety, right? so that's what we're thinking about. we understand we have these new issues that have arisen so far, like the drones, like like looting. fortunately, we're not out there having to look for looters ourselves. we're we're working to put the fire out and get people out of harm's way. but yeah, it it definitely hampers operations out here on our fire. >> i do have to ask you, what are the spirits like amongst the fire crews? obviously it must feel a little better today

because after all of these days of work, there do seem to be some successes. but it's got to be exhausting. i assume some of these people are working multiple shifts, you know, not not getting time off, as you said, the crews coming in from canada and mexico and elsewhere in the other states are are able to give them some of a break. but but this is still hard, emotionally difficult work. >> it definitely is. and you know, what i've been thinking about is when the wind stopped blowing as hard as they were on tuesday and wednesday. that's what put smiles on people's faces as well, because we knew we were going to start turning the corner on this fire. we were going to start building containment, and we were going to start doing our job and saving homes. those first two days, it was rough. no one had sleep. the fire was was kicking our butts. and once the weather turned more favorable and we knew we could get in there and put the fight to the fire, if you will. that's when smiles started coming back. even though we were tired, we knew we were

going to start to get the upper from. we're not comfortable until. >> i'm sorry about that. no, we heard from we know from the government. we heard from these officials that they're going to make sure that they investigate the cause of the fire. we all know the proximate causes of the fire. a lot of brush, a lot of drought, high winds. but but they want to figure out exactly what it is in that process right now. are there things that are obvious to you and other firefighters out there that sort of need to change in the immediate future to prevent these disasters from occurring as, as, as frequently as they do? >> you know, to talk about what could change. i think about worst case scenario, and that's what i saw on tuesday and wednesday, and i almost don't even know where we could change defensible space if we double it to 200. would that have made a difference? i don't know, it was like a blowtorch coming through here with fire on all sides. and it's a tough one. i think what we have in place now really works well because most of the

time the santa ana wind fires. you don't hear a lot about because we, we, in conjunction with the homeowners defensible space, our aviation, our ground troops, we keep them small. we do our job. you don't hear about them. it's something like that happened on tuesday and wednesday last week where you're you're met with this, this disaster obviously for everybody. >> i mean, you in the, in the northwest or the west and the northwest are a little more used to this kind of stuff than we are. but we saw fires here in the northeast at a level we've never seen before. people are very interested in this concept of defensible space. can you just tell me a sentence or two about what you mean when you say increasing defensible space? >> yeah. so defensible space around your home is when you're clearing any dead or dying brush that may be within your 100 foot buffer zone of your home, so that if a fire does come through there, it doesn't have anything to burn. you keep everything nice and green, nice and watered and that way it doesn't burn

with the intensity. that dry brush would be close to your house. and then we also have home hardening. excuse me, where you can change your vents out to be ember proof. you can you can change your siding. you can do double pane windows. you can do things to harden your home, to make it more resistant to wildland fire and keep it from burning down. >> essentially, this is stuff that we're all going to study very closely. probably with you, brant, we're going to call you back to have that discussion that we're not in the middle of a fire fighting a fire like we are now. what can everybody in america do to keep their homes safer than they than they can be for wildfires? right. this is a much longer conversation than we booked you for. and i know you and your team are doing really hard work. we are so grateful to you both for staying with us and for getting back there and fighting those fires. so please, my commendations and thanks to your commanders and your troops out there who are who are helping make things safer for helping make things safer for people around califor here's to getting better with age.

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grew up in the palisades area, neighborhoods that have been nearly leveled by the flames, and both jacob and katy discovered their childhood homes had burned to the ground. >> this is the first time that i've seen the house that i grew up in, and i don't really know what to say. about that. >> mom, look at this. frontera. yeah. >> are your birth house? yeah. oh, i'm so sad. every one of you guys was born in that house. >> i know, it makes me. >> it makes me sad to. >> this was a really, really special place for the soboroff family. >> and i'm very sorry to see it go. and i'm very sorry for all of the residents of pacific palisades and everyone across the greater la area that's going through this right now.

>> i don't even know what to say. this is my house. this was my house. >> it went straight up into the air. it was a vertical. >> it looked like it was in san francisco. >> it was a vertical house. and this right here was the garage right above that. living room and kitchen. above that were the bedrooms. my bedroom was right over there. >> god, i went to high school here. >> i went to college from this house. >> actually, my first house party. >> the cops showed up.

>> i lost my grandmother when i was living here. we had a great big baby grand piano. it was my mom's pride and joy in the living room. and she would play chopin and i would play chopsticks. i was a teenager here. >> our reporter has been doing great work. all the reporters out there covering these stories. and part of that is, is remembering that sort of empathy that these things had close to home. but when we cover these stories, we meet the people whose lives and livelihoods are affected by hurricanes, by tornadoes, by fires, by earthquakes. and it's important to remember that for all the statistics and square mileage and square footage and number of people displaced, they're all individual people with their homes, with their lives, some of

whom are still waiting to get back to see whether their childhood homes or their current homes are still standing. and so our thoughts are with all of them across california who are who are trying to get back, who are hoping those winds stop blowing, who are hoping that those fires get under control. but until that's over, we will keep covering it right here on msnbc. that does it for me. thank you for watching. insight with jen psaki begins right now. >> from a blame game over wildfires to threats of territorial expansion, elected officials here and foreign leaders everywhere are bracing for donald trump's return to office in eight days. >> among them is prime minister of canada justin trudeau, who joined me here in studio for a sunday exclusive. >> plus, trump is officially sentenced in new york. jack smith has officially resigned from the justice department, and andrew weissmann is going to tell us what all of it means. and later, all those devastating wildfires continue to tear through southern