thank you. >> good morning, helen chavez, communications director for board chair katherine barger. chair barger recognizes and thanks the following elected representatives for joining us this morning and for their ongoing support during this emergency: assembly member jessica -- and senator maria elena if -- we will now transition to the question and answer portion of our press conference. when you are called upon, please announce your name and the media outlet that you are with. you can raise your hands if you want to be called on. anybody have a question. [inaudible conversations] >> oh, okay. i'm -- [inaudible] with nbc if l.a. you spoke about the arrests that were made overnight in recent days. can you speak to the biggest challenges when it comes to to accessing these fire areas, and do you find that these individuals are from the area or coming from further away? thank you. >> in regards to the challenges in our areas for the l.a. county sheriff's jurisdiction, the individuals that we're contacting do not live in the areas where we're arresting them. we're finding out they hav

county supervisor katherine barger extended an invitation of her own to the president-elect and urged the incoming administration to consider financial assistance for the communities affected. >>> back in the bay area, the fires are causing local fire departments to take a closer look at how prepared they are if something like all that happens here. they tell our amanda hari that we have had too many legendary blazes of our own and will have to face up to the inevitable next one. >> reporter: the berkeley fire chief says the images we're seeing out of southern california are a grim reminder of what can happen right here. he says the topography and vegetation in the oakland hills and berkeley hills is very similar to that in l.a. he wants to remind both firefighters and residents to be prepared. as multiple fires continue to burn in the los angeles area, local fire municipalities are trying to learn from the tragedy. >> if we didn't do that, i think it would be criminal. we have to learn. we're always learning. >> reporter: berkeley fire chief david sprague penned a letter to the commu

. >> reporter: county supervisor katherine barger extended an invitation of her own to the president-electnd urnled the incoming administration to consider financial assistance to the communities affected. >> i look forward to welcoming president-elect trump to our communities so he can see the desperate need. >> reporter: congresswoman jimmy choo says she thinks federal lawmakers should be prepared to sign off. part of her community was destroyed in the eaton fire. >>> the people impacted here just trying to get by these days, and that includes hundreds living in a beach front mobile home community who lost it all. we got a perspective on all this loss from the sky. >> from up here, you get the scope, the scale, of this disaster. >> reporter: at least two people died and more than 5,000 homes were destroyed when the palisades fire rolled over these hills and roared toward pacific. >> we're getting a closer look at beverly's community, the place she's called home for ten years. and look at it now. >> reporter: there is not much to see for beverly o'brien. the firestorm took what was her af

our first speaker is los angeles county board of supervisors chair, katherine barger. >> thank you. i'm going to make my comments short. because i know you want to hear from be our fire chief and people that have the information in realtime. but let me just say, this is a dynamic situation. we have fires throughout the entire county, which is spreading resources very short. one of the things people ask me is what do you want to convey to the public? and that is, heed the advice of first responders. when they ask you to evacuate, evacuate. this is not a drill. this is in realtime. so i want to thank the city of pasadena, who has opened up the pasadena convention center, for those impacted by the eaton canyon fire. i also want to acknowledge our faith-bailed fire. all saints is evacuating. but again, it's important for us to recognize that while the firefighters are there to protect structures, life is, first and foremost, front line. we need to make sure people heed the advice of our first responders. with that, i'm going to introduce our l.a. county fire chief anthony merony, to giv