now. >> erin burnett.out front tonight at seven on cnn. >> closed captioning brought to you by book.com. >> if you or a loved one have mesothelioma, we'll send you a free book to answer questions you may have. call now and we'll come to you. >> 800 821 4000. >> back to the breaking news right now. horrific scenes emerging from los angeles as authorities are reaching areas hit hardest by the wildfire disaster. cnn's gary tuchman is joining us now from the devastated pacific palisades neighborhood. gary, you're in an area where hundreds of people, unfortunately, sadly, had to abandon their cars while simply trying to evacuate. >> that's right. wolf. erin burnett was just talking about panic. this street personified the panic. >> you can look at these incinerated automobiles. >> the most important thing to tell you, there were no people in the automobiles. what happened the night that the fire came down to this street from the nearby hillside is that people were stuck in traffic trying to evacuate. >> they en

that is the size of washington, d.c., and cnn's erin burnett is going to join us now from the palisades erin, i know you've been on the ground for a couple of days now, and you've watched people go home to no home. you've watched people try to metabolize what's happened to them. all of this while these fires continue yes. >> i mean, you know, we have been seeing here since obviously, those fires ripping through on tuesday and wednesday, you know, on thursday, people had not seen their homes. >> they still so many of them have not seen their homes lining up, trying to go up behind where we are to the pacific palisades. but those are the people who have already suffered that unimaginable loss. right now, you have crews desperately trying to contain that palisades fire, which is really what is up on these mountains behind us that are completely scorched where we are. jessica. >> and at malibu, pacific palisades behind us that palisades fire, as you were pointing out, only about 11% contained, and that number has been very sticky. that has not increased from the official numbers that they h

erin burnett outfront starts right now.

let's go back to erin burnett again. she's at that staging center. and erin, i was mentioning that where you are is more west. you're right there by the water. natasha is more inland where they are trying to stop this fire from progressing more inland. but it is kind of interesting to see your hair is blowing in the wind. you can tell it is picking up where you are. where is where natasha is. it seems a bit a bit calmer, but that is the name of the game at this point. is is what these winds decide to do. >> that's right. and how they can move through the canyons, which can be those sort of narrow paths, those eddies, in a sense, air eddies that can be created that affects aircrafts ability to actually drop fire retardant, which is why they have been doing in some cases, as natasha is reporting, sort of pre dropping fire retardant in some of these neighborhoods that they anticipate could be at risk. and they're doing that to try to try to just in advance prep. of course they don't know where those embers will go. now the los angeles county fire chief t

i'm fredricka whitfield alongside my colleague erin burnett in pacific palisades, california. we'll get you, erin, momentarily. we continue to watch this breaking news. firefighters racing to put out wildfires tearing across parts of los angeles county. more strong winds are expected in the coming hours, which could stoke the flames even further, creating hellish conditions for fire crews on the ground and people trying to evacuate. fire officials are sending additional resources to the eastern flank of the palisades fire, where it's now threatening the brentwood and bel air communities. more than a 100,000 people are under evacuation orders across l.a. county. the fire is now being blamed for killing at least 11 people. police say another 13 are reported missing. progress had been made on two of the largest fires. the palisades. now 11% contained, while the eaton fire is 15% contained. but there's a new threat rising california officials raising alarms about price gouging and other scams impacting vulnerable fire victims we are talking about people who have lost loved ones who

let's go back out to my colleague, erin burnett, who has been on the ground there reporting on these es, talking with so many people who are affected. and, erin, as julia was just laying out, look, this is local, state government, also federal government. there's so much relief and building back that's going to have to be done. it's a massive, massive undertaking yes. >> and trying to start that process, even as they actually don't even know the scope of the disaster because they are fighting these fires. you can maybe see the winds starting to pick up a bit here. it's on and it's off, but it is obviously these red flag warnings are anticipated to dramatically pick up here and stay that way for these next days. so we're in a staging area right for part of the palisades fire. so you can see utility trucks, a lot of fire trucks will come and go from here. crews come down here to stage. leigh waldman has been here covering these fires, and you've had a chance to talk to a lot of the fire. fire officials, utility officials who are here. but while you were here today, you actually saw a fi

welcome back i'm erin burnett here in malibu.and just want to show you a little bit about where we are, why this area is so important. so this you can see just the total devastation, devastation and destruction in all of where we are in malibu. it is so incongruous with the absolutely gorgeous day that you have. of course, the sun has nothing to do with fire. you see this part destroyed now, the area that we're in, which is right up above the pacific ocean, is destroyed. but if frank and i'll just show you on the other side here, you can see over that right down the the ledge here, the part of malibu that is completely fine and still standing. the whole town is evacuated. you're not allowed to be here right now. even if your home is still standing. but. but the big situation that they're facing with these winds is a real fear that malibu is at risk for the rest of it, to completely burn down. but the situation in this area, of course, is it has already been almost completely destroyed. although there are some houses standing. and

cnn's erin burnett is live in pacific palisades for us tonight. and, erin, obviously, you got on the ground today. you've been looking at that and talking to these officials on the ground, just trying to understand the scope of this, even as they are still battling the fires that existed and new ones that are popping up this evening. what have you been seeing on the ground? >> yeah. caitlin, you talk about that new fire and you talk. it's mind boggling. it is. there were people grabbing their suitcases. i don't know if you can hear it, but phones going off here, evacuation orders coming in, those alerts and that with that fire grabbing their suitcases. more than many people here in pacific palisades were able to do, but immediately rushing to try to evacuate. so there's that new fire you talked about those winds they are anticipated to pick up over these next few hours, causing more red flag warnings, fire officials telling me their biggest fear is, is fire spreading, fires growing. of course you say they're 0% contained, but also reigniting. and h

cnn's erin burnett is live in pacific palisades for us tonight. and, erin, obviously, you got on the ground today. you've been looking at that and talking to these officials on the ground, just trying to understand the scope of this, even as they are still battling the fires that existed and new ones that are popping up this evening. what have you been seeing on the ground? >> yeah. caitlin, you talk about that new fire and you talk. it's mind boggling. it is. there were people grabbing their suitcases. i don't know if you can hear it, but phones going off here, evacuation orders coming in, those alerts and that with that fire grabbing their suitcases, more than many people here in pacific palisades were able to do. but immediately rushing to try to evacuate. so there's that new fire you talked about those winds they are anticipated to pick up over these next few hours, causing more red flag warnings, fire officials telling me their biggest fear is, is fire spreading, fires growing. of course you say they're 0% contained, but also reigniting. and h

i'm erin burnett in los angeles. and join me. i'll be back here again tomorrow night. of course, covering all of these fires. jessica. >> all right. erin, thank you so much. now. >> welcome to the whole story. i'm anderson cooper in topanga, california. this is the northern edge of the palisades fire, which began early tuesday morning. thousands of structures have burned. tens of thousands of acres have been destroyed. firefighters have been working around the clock. they're putting water down now on a fire that just has. they've been trying to battle for the last hour or so to try to protect a community nearby from here over the next hour. we want to tell you the story of these fires. what happened, how the fire moved so fast, what we know about how it started at this point, and the stories of people who had to flee for their lives. >> 18 million people are under a red flag warning. >> the national weather service is calling this a destructive and life threatening windstorm. >> a small spark could turn into an inferno in a matter of minutes. >> the warnings were ominou

it was a natural disaster. >> cnn's erin burnett is in the pacific palisades area. erin, you heard the fire chief there who said, you know, preemptively, they did a lot. but the biggest obstacle here, while they were ready for wildfires, not for all at once, which is what took place earlier in the week. no. yeah, that's exactly right. and what we're seeing right now, the winds are still low, but they're expected to pick up. and, you know, the scene is it is like an armageddon scene when you drive through brentwood, which is now under pressure from the palisades fire as you talk about some containment. containment basically means they establish a perimeter where they think they can prevent the fire from jumping, jumping over it. containment does not mean the fire is put out. so it's important when you talk about 8 to 10% contained, they right now are desperately trying to prevent that. palisades fire, which is where we are from spreading into areas like brentwood. they've requested nearly 4000 more firefighters. and even here we've been seeing quite a few of those fir

erin burnett outfront starts right now. >> outfront next, the breaking news. the new orleans attacker, using a rare compound in his explosive devices, so rare that it has never been seen before in the united states. >> where did he get it? >> and a wake up call tonight. >> those are the words of the suspect in the fiery explosion outside trump international hotel in las vegas. >> investigators tonight revealing more chilling messages that he left behind. >> and more breaking news this hour. >> trump ordered to appear before a judge to entenced on 34 felony charges, all just days before he is sworn in as president. >> let's go out front. >> and good evening. i'm erin burnett on this friday evening. a lot of breaking news to get to this hour. i want to begin with new information on the explosive devices planted by the new orleans attacker. officials are telling our jon miller that the attacker who drove a car through that crowd in the early hours of new year's day, murdering 14 people and injuring dozens more, used a rare organic compound not previously seen bef

cnn's erin burnett got a look at the damage from the air. and here's what she saw. >> so right now, we're south of the palisades and the fire, uh, looking up, you can see this is pch right here. pacific coast highway running right along the pacific ocean. yes. and then leading up into malibu. i'm seeing your picture. >> and once again, i guess you're not hearing. >> and even here, it's almost impossible to see with all the smoke. >> yeah. flying into this, it is like you're flying into a complete wall of fog. >> it almost doesn't even look like that. >> it just looks like an actual wall. >> like a white wall. yeah, that we're flying into. there's a fire bomber just dropped retardant right there. all right, so that that red that we're looking at is is fire retardant. there we go. yeah, we're zooming in on it. this is live right now. that plane is dropping that there. so that is an active area. then in the palisades fire. yep. that's their way of setting a defense wall for the fire. progressing any further. and when they are referring to conta

visit indeed.com slash hire erin burnett. >> out front tonight at seven on cnn. >> closed captioning is brought to you by uqora. help maintain a healthy urinary tract with uqora having utis for ten years at uqora, we make uti relief products. >> we also make proactive urinary tract health products. >> uqora is a life saver. >> try it today at uqora. com. >> let's get back to the breaking news. the wildfire disaster. and it is a disaster in los angeles county. i want to go straight to cnn's julia vargas jones. she is live on the scene for us. a huge fires in altadena, california, just northeast of downtown los angeles. julia, give us the latest on the conditions where you are. >> yeah, wolf, just moments ago, we just felt wind starting to pick up back again. we've had a lull throughout the day that's allowed some helicopters to fly and help with the fighting. you might be able to hear some of them now help with the fighting, with dumping water from the sky. so far it's only been firefighters going into every single one of these streets, but this is the main drag. this is lake avenue i

i'm erin burnett with the breaking news. we are live tonight from pacific palisades, california, one of the hardest hit and most devastated neighborhoods right now in california as the fires are raging so far uncontained at this hour. the pacific fire 0% contained. we understand right now. and in this neighborhood, house after house, as far as the eye can see, the schools, the churches, homes, just completely and utterly destroyed. winds set to pick up again in these next few hours. and as we anticipate that a new fire has also broken out that we are aware of right now, none of them right now, of the five major fires that we understand are under control at this point, they're trying to start to contain them as these winds pick up. there are six deaths so far reported. we don't yet know the full extent of what the death toll will be. it's impossible to even know that in these moments that we are in. but this is what this residential neighborhood looked like just a few days ago. one of the most beautiful neighborhoods and this

we'll go to erin burnett in just a moment. but first to anderson cooper, who is on the ground in l.a. anderson, the wind has been the antagonist of this whole episode, but they're worried now that it could be back tonight. what are you hearing? >> yeah. i mean, so the wind today, by the way, i'm at a staging area in the pacific palisades along the pacific coast highway. law enforcement personnel, firefighters. there is a battle going on right now. tonight in with six different fires. as you know, there's a new fire came up today. the kenneth fire started out as 50 acres. last estimate i heard about an hour ago. it's at a thousand acres. um, but the the the two biggest ones that the palisades fire and the eaton fire eden is what decimated altadena yesterday, where we were the the the palisades fire still going on here. i spent the day up in topanga, basically watching firefighters try to protect the community of topanga. residential homes. they're very up in the mountains, beautiful area, very a lot of winding small roads, swit

i'm erin burnett. outfront tonight, the breaking news, the deadly inferno. >> officials just confirming that five people are now dead as at least four major wildfires are burning out of control near los angeles. >> not a single one even close to being contained as we've been seeing flames go through home after home officials saying they expect the death toll to rise as crews start sifting through the ashes. >> and it is only getting worse right now. 157,000 people as we speak are now under evacuation orders. the winds are still at hurricane strength, and that is what is fueling the destructive fires. as they are leaping. the largest is the palisades, is now close to 16,000 acres, at one point burning through about five football fields a minute. and as you can see, these fires are burning dangerously close to many iconic landmarks. so far that those have been spared. and when you look at downtown los angeles, but the reality, though, is what you see on your screen for thousands and just listen to that.

>> erin burnett out front tonight at seven on cnn. closed captioning is brought to you by skechers. hands free slip ins. >> we talk on the phone, hands free. >> go hands free to turn on our lights. >> and now there's hands free footwear. >> revolutionary skechers slip ins. >> you just slip in and they're on. >> try skechers slip ins. >> right now we're getting more reaction to the breaking news that federal authorities issued a warning last month of potential vehicle ramming attacks here in the united states over the holidays. i want to bring in our national security and law enforcement experts and john miller. i'll start with you. cnn has learned that federal authorities warned only last month of these kinds of threats from lone offenders and the potential use of vehicle ramming. did new orleans officials overlook a potential threat here? >> i think new orleans officials have, as we've gotten further away from nine over 11, taken bourbon street, which is an ideal target for a ramming attack and not secured it to the point that they could have. there's a bunch of reasons for that. i

i'm erin burnett. outfront tonight, the breaking news this hour, new details on the two deadly attacks that have americans on edge tonight. two large vehicles used as weapons in both new orleans and las vegas. both suspects had served at fort bragg. both had been stationed in afghanistan in 2009. both had been decorated for their military service. but officials say there is no indication at least yet that they knew each other. in new orleans, the fbi just releasing this new poster calling for information for the public from the public about the new year's eve attack, in which 14 people were killed. this poster that you're looking at contains two new images of the suspect. shamsud-din jabbar from an hour before the attack. now, what's interesting here, as we look at this picture, long, light brown coat, almost like a work type coat, dark buttoned down shirt, blue jeans. and what the fbi says. and this stands out to when you look at his feet, what appears to be brown dress shoes. the poster also has this

and good evening. >> i'm erin burnett, live from pacific palisades, california, and out front tonight, the breaking news, the sheer devastation. officials right now are bracing for the winds to pick up here in southern california again. >> and i will say right where we're standing moments ago, and you can see the smoke now. >> moments ago, though, there were they were pumping water on that for just to try to stop any sort of a re-ignition. and that's, that's a lot of what we're seeing here. >> even places that seem to be just burned are still smoldering. there's still heat coming up. firefighters, you still have to keep all of these streets clear, and people are still not able to come home. lines and lines. people sitting for ten 12 hours in line in their car to try to get an escort up to come and see if their home still stands. this comes as we have brand new images of the out-of-control wildfires that, as of now, have killed at least 11 people from a helicopter ride that i just came from before we came on air with you. right now, what we saw from about 7000ft up was striking america

cnn newsroom continues with jessica dean and erin burnett. right now.

pacific palisades as cnn's erin burnett is there. all right. so it continues to be a very complicated scene. they can plan for a lot, but then, of course, it means shifting gears, making modifications along the way. given the wind direction change and so many other elements involved here. >> yes, fred. and you know, that wind direction. i mean, now you don't feel a lot of wind, but you can see that the air here obviously is is terrible in all of los angeles and in these areas, obviously very much so. sometimes you can acutely feel it and other times you just smell it. but now we literally have chunks of ash coming down again that, that we have been seeing over these recent days as the winds shift. and that's what they're dealing with with those fires, fighting them. when the winds shift, all of a sudden the flames go somewhere else. and as we know, they have requested now we've been seeing some of those big dc ten flying in with the fire retardant. they had requested additional air resources today, as well as up to 4000 firefighters on on one o

cnn's erin burnett is on the ground in hard-hit malibu. and, erin, obviously, as you've been reporting there, these most dangerous winds that that officials are watching for are expected to to start hitting within hours. do officials feel that the fire crews, that they are ready to go for this they do, but they know everything is at stake. >> caitlin. and we are starting to feel those winds pick up here, even just over the past couple of hours. we're starting to really notice it here in malibu. and you talk about that particularly dangerous situation, what they call the pds. that's only happened three times this fire season. and in those three times you got the eaton fire, you got the palisades fire. so those days have led to the massive fires that they are battling right now. and as we're feeling the winds pick up here, you've got we are within the palisades fire zone where we are in malibu. they are trying to protect areas that haven't burned where we are. you can see behind me complete devastation, but there is other parts of malibu here

i'm erin burnett. outfront tonight, we begin with the breaking news. trump's national security adviser doubling down on a military threat to greenland tonight. here is trump's incoming national security advisor, congressman michael waltz. >> greenland is key to our national security, and the arctic is important for our national security. do you agree with the president knows that? >> i think he just said all options are on the table. >> all options are on the table. congressman waltz's comment there is coming after trump explicitly said this about greenland and the panama canal today. >> your references to greenland and the panama canal and so forth. >> can you assure the world that as you try to get control of these areas, you are not going to use military or economic coercion? >> no. and can you elaborate? again, you didn't rule out military coercion in. >> well, we need greenland for national security purposes. i've been told that for a long time. long before i even ran. i mean, people have been talking about it for a long time. >> trump has been pu

erin burnett outfront starts right now. >> and outfront next, live from altadena. >> california already devastated right now at the center of new warnings tonight for those winds. fears of new fires starting right here. this as i meet a firefighter who lost his own home, trying to desperately save others in the rubble of his home. >> today, though, a priceless discovery and the search for a cause. >> cnn's spotting investigators combing several hiking trails where one of the fires started an investigation on the ground is out front tonight, and then a professional soccer player for l.a. her childhood home burned to the ground days before her wedding. so did she go ahead with it? she's my guest. >> let's go out front. and good evening. >> i'm erin burnett, live from altadena, california tonight and out front tonight. we do have the breaking news. these new warnings. we are now in the middle of an extremely dangerous situation here in southern california. powerful wind gusts are now whipping across the area. the major fear right now is that the winds will fuel even more destructive fires

." >>> good evening i'm erin burnett. the leader of the proud boys asking president-elect trump for a pardon today four years to the day after the violent insurrection on capitol hill. members of the proud boys stormed the united states capitol in an attempt to overturn the election. right now serving a 22 year sentence for conspiracy. leading a plot to prevent the transfer of power. his attorney is speaking to one person now and one person only to plea. trump. writing, he was portrayed throughout the government's case as a white ring extremists that had a militant organization. henry is nothing more than a proud american that believes in conservative values. just to be clear this is what he said on tape just days before january 6th. >> there are ways you can enact change. get armed and go to the capitol. as crazy as that sounds, yeah, i think that is the way you make the biggest noise. >> getting armed, going to the capitol. true conservative values. trump's push is meeting resistance in his own party. trump's allies, li

. >> erin burnett out front weeknights at 7:00 on cnn. >> a piece of las vegas strip history is no morell in all that dust. a whole lot of memories. >> implosions bother historian types like me. but at the same time, a hotel from, say, the 50s cannot compete with what we have today unless it's thoroughly remade. >> this is a city that thrives on replacing itself and growing all the time. >> i do shed a tear when you see something get knocked down that has this great historic story behind it, but las vegas wouldn't be here if it wasn't in constant state of evolution. nothing is sacred on the strip. >> in just about 15 hours, this building, the once grand dunes hotel and casino, will be demolished in what's billed as america's most spectacular architectural implosion ever. is it part of a larger effort to do away with the old las vegas and reshape vegas as something else? >> things that would have gotten a wow or a jazz ten years ago? draw a yawn today. and if las vegas doesn't move along, las vegas is not going to be the exciting place that it has been in the past. >> when i first came,

. >> i'm erin burnett, and i'm jake tapper. we're standing by for the first official tributes to president james earl carter here in washington, d.c., some of america's most powerful leaders are set to honor mr. carter's 100 years of life and his decades of service to his country and his planet. frankly. nearly 44 years to the day after he left the white house, president carter's journey from joint base andrews will take him across the frederick douglass memorial bridge. he'll travel into d.c. past the washington monument and the national mall, and then down pennsylvania avenue to the u.s. navy memorial. there, his casket will be carried to a caisson, a horse drawn military carriage, for the funeral procession to the u.s. capitol. there at the capitol. dignitaries will be on hand for a service in the capitol rotunda. vice president kamala harris, house speaker mike johnson and the new senate majority leader, john thune, will deliver eulogies after the service. members of the public are invited to pay their respects as president

. >> i'm erin burnett in los angeles and this is cnn. >> this week meta ceo mark zuckerberg announcedn end to the company's u.s. fact checking program, which used third party moderators to weed out misinformation on facebook, instagram and threads. these sites will now rely on users to correct misinformation and disinformation. zuckerberg attributed the decision in part to the reelection of president donald trump, citing a cultural tipping point in favor of freedom of speech. my next guest is very concerned about the move. maria ressa is a filipino journalist and the founder of a digital news site there called rappler. ressa won the nobel prize for her efforts to preserve freedom of speech and to fight disinformation. maria, welcome. in your experience, what role has fact checking played in, you know, in dealing with stuff that appears on facebook give us like an example or two so we understand what we are. what? what. fact checking is doing in your view? >> sure. you know, i was concerned and lived through the harms that facebook could that facebook created online violence is real wo

. >> erin burnett out front tonight at seven on cnn. >> closed captioning brought to you by book.com. >> if you or a loved one have mesothelioma, we'll send you a free book to answer questions you may have. call now and we'll come to you. >> 808 two one 4000. >> back now to the breaking news in los angeles and the wildfire disaster unfolding across l.a. county. i want to go to cnn's nick watt. he's on the ground for us covering the palisades fire. nick, the fire is now zero 0% contained. give us a sense of the utter devastation that you're seeing. you've been there all along. >> well, wolf, i mean, we can show it to you if you just pan down here. we're in this neighborhood, wolf, and there's just nothing left. absolutely nothing left. an entire neighborhood. and there are neighborhoods like this all over the palisades, where there are just no homes left. um, the death toll. we still don't know, but we've had the first confirmed death from this fire, wolf. but we're going to have to wait. unfortunately for the sheriffs and the cadaver dogs to come in before we can get any handle on tha

cnn's erin burnett surveyed the wildfire and firefighting from the air, a view that puts the enormity of the disaster firmly in context. >> so right now, we're south of the palisades and the fire, uh, looking up, you can see this is pch right here, pacific coast highway running right along the pacific ocean. >> yes. and then leading up into malibu, i'm seeing your picture. >> and once again, i guess you're not hearing. >> and even here, it's almost impossible to see with all the smoke. yeah. flying into this, it is like you're flying into a complete wall of fog. it almost doesn't even look like that. it just looks like an actual wall. like a white wall. yeah, that we're flying into. there's a fire bomber just dropped retardant right there. all right, so that that red that we're looking at is is fire retardant. there we go. yeah, we're zooming in on it. this is live right now. that plane is dropping that there. so that is an active area. then in the palisades fire. yep. that's their way of setting a defense wall from the fire. progressing any further. and when they are referring to con

>> i'm erin burnett and pacific palisades, and this is cnn. >> closed captioning is brought to you bye, an all in one home access and monitoring system. >> my garage. i'd be closing while i'm hiking in wyoming if my home just had a brain. >> welcome back. he made it to 100. president jimmy carter was laid to rest this week in a solemn state funeral, bringing together all five living presidents at washington's national cathedral. he leaves behind a complicated foreign policy legacy, defined in part by religion, most notably, he's considered to have lost a u.s. friendly iran to religious fundamentalist ayatollahs back in 1979 and the ensuing hostage crisis, where 52 americans were held for 444 days in the tehran embassy, effectively ended his presidency. decades later, in 2007, i interviewed carter for a series called god's warriors on the intersection between extreme religion and politics. a committed christian himself who made human rights a central plank of his foreign policy, carter reflected on how his own faith played a role in his life and his work. out of office, carter returned

anchor erin burnett is in the pacific palisades. let's start first with erin. erin, i know you've been on the ground now for a couple of days. we're coming to you as this fire is threatening to move ever more eastward and toward more homes, more people's lives. what are you seeing? >> well, jessica, you know, i mean, it is incredible the devastation that already is, is everywhere. massive devastation. thousands of people desperately trying to get back into areas that have been completely razed and destroyed, just to even have a glimpse of their homes, forced to leave with nothing. but at this hour, the great fear is that this fire, which is only about 8 or 9% contained and, you know, we can see even even on streets here, you still see parts picking up on the ridges, the fire. and i know stephanie is seeing that in the distance in brentwood as well, but that the winds are going to pick up potentially to hurricane force over these next hours and that that fire is going to spread. it is already the most devastating in los angeles history and could get unbearably w

cnn's erin burnett is on the scene in los angeles for us. erin, you've been there all day long. tell us what you've been seeing. and is there a sense now that they are gaining some progress here in terms of dealing with that fire? >> i'll start with the positive, because you say, is there a sense of positive? they have made some progress against some of the fires, and they've been trying to use a window. you know, you had winds for a bit this morning and then a period of calm. and they have been using that to try to establish basically a perimeter around as much of these fires as they can. not much progress, but they have been felt that they have made real progress. one firefighter right on the front line of the fire, telling me just a little bit ago, where we're standing in pacific palisades, actually just just up the street from me. i mean, i can see we can see live fire flames there, and you can see all the red over the hills. so these fires are still ongoing and in the house we're in front of, actually, just a couple of hours ago, abby, they had come if you can. i don't know

he told cnn's erin burnett he can remember every single word of their final conversation on tuesday morning. >> it was a normal conversation, like most mornings, you know, i'm sitting at work. yeah, a good coworker of mine, sean donahue, and i'm talking about football and asking dad who he likes and how are you doing, how you feel? yeah. and, dad, i love you. i'll talk to you later. and before we hung up, he said, son, the winds are picking up really, really bad. i said, dad, i talked to you later, and sometimes i'll talk to him later, and then sometimes i'll talk to him the next morning. but that night i didn't talk to him. that night i talked to him. i tried to talk to him the next morning, and the next morning i couldn't talk to my dad. >> this is a tragedy that will continue to grow. fire officials say it's not safe enough to assess the true number of deaths in these fires. and new this morning, ucla is asking its students to be ready to evacuate the campus at any time. they stress that there are no evacuation orders at this moment, but the fire has crept closer to campus, so students s

cnn's erin burnett got a look at the unfathomable devastation from the air while on board a helicopterh, i mean, jessica, one of the things that is so striking when you fly into los angeles right now is that it goes from blue sky to just a sea of sort of reddish black. >> and downtown los angeles emerges almost suddenly amidst all of that smoke. we went up by air in a helicopter to get a sense of the scale. you're talking about the second largest city in america. just the scale from the sky of what we're looking at with these massive fires. and here's what we saw. >> so right now, we're south of the palisades and the fire, uh, looking up, you can see this is pch right here. >> pacific coast highway running right along the pacific ocean. yes. >> and then leading up into malibu, i'm seeing your picture. >> and once again, i guess you're not hearing, uh, even here, it's almost impossible to see with all the smoke yeah. >> flying into this, it is like you're flying into a complete wall of fog. it almost doesn't even look like that. it just looks like an actual wall. like a white wall? yeah

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. >> erin burnett. >> out front tonight at seven on cnn. >> right now, house speaker mike johnson isn the clock with one day left until a key vote determines whether he will keep his job. as of now, he can afford to only lose one republican vote if every house member votes in all democrats in the house vote against him. even with an endorsement from president elect donald trump, johnson's future is still uncertain, something even he acknowledges. >> it's a numbers game. we have the smallest margin in u.s. history. we'll have a margin of probably two votes tomorrow during that, so can only afford to lose 1 or 2. but i think we'll get it done, i really do, lawrence. i've talked to every single one of those friends and colleagues over the holidays. we'll be talking about process reforms inside the house, and i've encouraged all of them. and i think the reason they're all going to vote yes is this we're shifting into a brand new paradigm. >> cnn's lauren fox joins me now with the latest. lauren, i was reading this this morning. this new congress is going to be sworn in tomorrow with the

. >> erin burnett out front weeknights at seven on cnn. >> good morning everyone. welcome to cnn this morning. it is sunday, january 12th. i'm amara walker i'm victor blackwell. >> good to be with you. thank you for joining us. and we of course, are following the new developments in those devastating fires burning through california. the death toll growing. and officials say they're concerned the fires will do the same. we're live in one of the hardest hit areas ahead. >> president biden is heading into his final full week in office. the steps he's taking this week to try to cement his legacy before president-elect trump returns to the white house and senate confirmation hearings will begin this week for some of president elect trump's cabinet picks, including some of his most controversial nominees, how they're expected to pla ey out and what it could tell us about the party's allegiance to trump. and could jeff bezos blue origin be on the verge of challenging spacex's dominance? the new rocket that will serve as a crucial test for blue origin in just under 24 hou

the answer is jp morgan wealth management reel inn erin burnett. >> food. this good can be easy with new prep and bake meals from hellofresh. they're light on prep, low on mess and barely lift a finger. easy. hellofresh. homemade, made easy and tasty too. wow. >> the winds are picking back up in los angeles county, where there is significant concern over the growing wildfires that have now killed at least 16 people. the palisades fire is now threatening communities west of the 405 freeway and looking ahead, the national weather service says dangerous conditions are expected to extend into next week, which could lead to new fires. more than 100,000 residents remain under evacuation orders, but some orders have been lifted in certain cities. now, the u.s. bureau of alcohol, tobacco, firearms and explosives will lead the investigation into the cause of the palisades fire. we'll be joined by a national response team that investigated the devastating 2023 maui wildfire. u.s. president joe biden says he's using the full power of the federal government to help peo

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. >> i'm erin burnett and pacific palisades and this is cnn. >> closed captioning brought to you by book.com. >> if you or a loved one have mesothelioma, we'll send you a free book to answer questions you may have. call now and we'll come to you. >> 808 two one 4000. >> we're back with our breaking news in our national lead. we're four days into these deadly fires in southern california. right now, firefighters are bracing for the gusty winds to return. the winds that make it so tough to fight these fires. the most destructive of the fires, the palisades fire, is still less than 10% contained. take a look at these before and after satellite images exclusive to cnn. the entire pacific palisades community there in that image virtually decimated. and that's where we find cnn's julia vargas jones. julia, what are you seeing there? >> well, we're seeing a lot of residents trying to see if their houses are still standing at this point. jake. four days out, they're trying to get to the scenes. and this is what they're meeting. this is, you know, the remnants of homes that they left, and some of the

. >> i'm erin burnett and pacific palisades and this is cnn. >> los angeles county is under a public health emergency declaration. county officials warned of poor air quality, of course, from the dangerous fires and the powerful winds. authorities say the thick smoke poses immediate and long term risks to the public. to find out what those risks are, we're joined now by susan annenberg. she's the environmental and occupational health department chair at george washington university. thank you for being with me. so let's start here with just the question. the risks in the smoke. what are they in these particles? >> well, wildfire smoke is a toxic mixture of pollutants and includes particles like really solid, tiny solid and liquid particles that can penetrate really deeply into our lungs and get into our bloodstream and really affect every organ of our body. >> but when you're considering this type of situation, when it's not just vegetation burning, it's also all the materials in our homes and our cars and our businesses and our roads. all the electronics and plastics and paints and

. >> i'm erin burnett in pacific palisades and this is cnn. >> president biden is in contact with leadersin california as crews continue to battle those deadly wildfires in l.a. county officials saying there is a significant concern that the fires will grow today. this, as the atf says it's now taken the lead on investigating what started the massive palisades fire. cnn's julia benbrook is joining us now live from the white house. julia, what more can you tell us about the federal response? >> well, jessica, as you mentioned, the atf is now taking the lead on the investigation into the pacific palisades fire. in a social media post. atf los angeles office said that they will continue to work in conjunction with state and local investigators to determine the cause of this tragic event. according to two sources briefed on the matter who spoke with cnn, their assistance was requested by local fire officials, and they will work to determine if line failures, arson or other causes may have played a part in starting the blaze. now, this comes as president joe biden continues to be regularly bri