dina demetrius is at the scene of the fire in laguna niguel with the very latest. good morning. >> reporter: good morning, anne-marie. yes, at least two dozen homes have been destroyed here, and we still see flames burning inside some of them. so now firefighters are going into homes that are still standing, investigating attics and checking interiors for any embers that may turn into flames hours later. multimillion dollar mansions and other homes went up in flames wednesday. high winds and dry terrain fueling a wildfire in southern california. fire crews on the ground went house to house trying to contain the blaze. from the sky, planes dropped retardant in hopes of stopping the spread. >> we have heli-tankers and ground crews, and we have every fire engine available in the area to put this fire out. >> reporter: laguna niguel residents brianna kivinski couldn't get to her home to rescue her pets. >> i guess we'll wait here. i'm afraid to go further. >> reporter: firefighters came through delivering brianna's cat back to her. >> i know they have huge things tol w

dina demetrius, laguna niguel, california. >>> health officials say covid cases have tripled in the past six weeks driven by ba.2 variant. a covid spike just shut down a school. >> reporter: we have seen transit agencies implement the masking mandate. now some schools are starting to reinstate that mandate as well. this school here in santa rosa even had to close this week due to a covid outbreak. the test positivity rate has jumped 1% just in the last week in california. >> workplace outbreaks have increased, school outbreaks have increased. again, after many, many weeks of these rising cases, it really hasn't affected the hospital to a great extent. >> reporter: there are only 13 patients right now in the hospital, one on a ventilator. that's compared to roughly 150 in january. >> there's a slight increase in hospitalizations in california by 15% compared to two weeks ago, but it's a drop in the bucket compared to where we were in january. >> reporter: because of outbreaks, st. rose school was required to close and other students are requiring students to mask indoors. dr. hong says we

dina demetrius explains. >> reporter: these college grads have a good reason to smile.and for teachers now. makes it easier to figure out a job which is nice. >> reporter: it's not just teachers. employers across the economic spectrum need workers. the latest data shows there were 11.5 million job openings in march, the highest number ever recorded. >> i feel great. i can't feel anything but great today. >> reporter: darnell neville actually lined up a position as his final year of school was starting. >> the job i'm at now i got back in september. >> the job market for the class of 2022 looks very promising. >> reporter: mary gatta is with the national association of colleges and employers. the group's recent survey found employers plan to hire 31% more new college graduates this year than last year. what are you seeing in terms of salaries? >> so we continue to see salaries rising. >> reporter: the average starting salary for business is more than $60,000, up 3% from last year. engineering salaries have increased 4%, and computer sciences saw a 5.2% jump to nearly $76

cbs reporter dina demetrius joining us right now. >> dina, you've been there all morning long. the containment looking like now? >> reporter: containment is still around zero percent. there are about 200 acres that have been burned. there are at least two dozen homes that have been destroyed. some are still smoldering. what firefighters are doing at this point and have been doing is going into homes that are still standing and investigating attics and other indoor areas, investigating for embers, looking for embers that may exist there that could turn into future flames in that home. >> multimillion dollar mansions and other homes went up in flames wednesday. high winds and dry terrain fueling a wildfire in southern california. fire crews on the ground went house to house trying to contain the blaze. from the sky planes dropped retardant in hopes of stopping the spread. >> we have helitankers and ground crews and every fire engine available in the area to come and put this fire out. >> this resident couldn't get to her home to rescue her pets. >> i guess we'll wait here because

cbs reporter dina demetrius joining us right now. >> have you heard from firefighters about what kind of strategy they're taking to fight this? it's really -- it keeps burning these homes. >> reporter: well, all night long firefighters have been in the canyons and actually going house to house putting out hot spots. yesterday and overnight they were using flames with fire retardant, that they were dropping down. basically it is very much on the ground with these firefighters. as you said, at least two dozen homes have been destroyed here, and there are still some that are smoldering. firefighters have been going house to house to the ones that are still standing, investigating attics to see if there are embers there that could be smoldering and turn into flames hours later. >> multimillion dollar mansions and other homes went up in flames yesterday. high winds and dry terrain fueling a wildfire in southern california. fire crews on the ground went house to house trying to contain the blaze. from the sky, planes dropped retardant in hopes of stopping the spread. >> we have helitankers