also today, mayor karen bass and fire chief kristen crowley defended their preparations and responsee fires. at a news conference to two also addressed their differences saying they are focussed on getting the city out of the current crisis. now, overnight the palisades fire, the largest of them, grew by about 1,000 acres, leading to new evacuations. and national guard troops are deployed to keep properties safe. 22 people have been arrested, including suspected looters. we have a team of cbs news correspondents covering this disaster. we begin with the latest fire developments. good evening to you, lilia. >> reporter: good evening, maurice. and you're right, the winds are picking up and we are not far at all from that house you just mentioned. as you can see, there is smoke around. and i can see from the leaves and from the running firefighters that the situation could be a little bit heavier in the coming hours. >> reporter: firefighters in los angeles are making an all-out aerial assault with helicopters dumping water on the spreading flames. while planes dropped fire retardant in

my name is kristen crowley. los angeles city fire department, fire chief. i'd like to start with just a moment if we could, of gratitude. a moment of gratitude for our first responders, our boots on the ground, that are battling this intense and multitude of fires. and like chief marrone said, we are going to continue to work hard to ensure that we save people, lives, and property. with that, i'll be touching on a couple of major points with the pacific palisades fire, we know that it continues to demand a significant amount of resources and attention a second major brush fire, now referred to as the hurst fire is in the sylmar area of los angeles. together, these fires are stretching the capacity of emergency services to their maximum limits the los angeles city fire department is battling these two major fires, while also maintaining, i want to focus on these as well. 911 services for the city's p4 million residents. now, despite the severity of the conditions, our department remains fully committed to safeguarding lives and property. next, i want to focu

lafd chief kristen crowley wrote a memo to the city asking for more funding. she also criticized a 7 million dollar cut in overtime funds saying it would hamper the department's ability to respond to fires. chief crowley has since said that the scale of these fires would have led to significant damage regardless of the budget, a bay area, firefighters there down in los angeles right now, including santa rosa fire marshal paul lowenthal. all he and a large group of firefighters are on the ground there providing aid to the la cruz. he says extremely dry conditions in southern california are incredibly challenging. plus, the area is so vast. he also mention that there are many firefighters who lost their own homes in blazes here in northern california and fighting these fires is personal. >> there's obviously a lot of firefighters is as events like this continue to happen become a personally affected by these incidents. it's not unfortunately a common out to hear stories about firefighters that had their own homes damaged or destroyed. but at the same you know, i

my name is kristen crowley, los angeles city fire department fire chief.boots on the ground that are battling this intense and multiple jurisdiction and number of fires. gratitude for those who are doing the work. they have been there since yesterday and through the night and like chief maroney said we will continue to work hard to ensure that we save people, lives and property. with that, i will touch on a couple major points. with the pacific palisades fire we know it continues to demand a significant amount of resources and attention. a second major brbrushfire w referred to as the hearst fire has erupted in the sylmar area of los angeles. together, these fires are stretching the capacity of emergency services to their maximum limit. the los angeles city fire department is battling these two major fires while also maintaining, and i want to focus on this, as well 911 services for the city's approximate 4 million residents. now, despite the severity of the conditions, our department remains fully committed to safeguarding lives and poverty. next, i want

we'll hear from la city fire chief kristen crowley following that. we'll hear from la county fire chief anthony maroney. after that, we'll hear from la pd chief jim mcdonnell. then sheriff robert luna. and following that, we'll hear from la dwp general manager jim, the skin giannis as well as superintendent about albert. oprah follow. the mayor will come back to the podium and open it up for questions. i'll call on questions from the left. and with that, we're best. thank you. >> good evening, everyone. i stand here today with incredible sympathy and concern about the devastation and the tragedy that our city and county are facing. and i definitely want to send my condolences to the families who lost loved ones to the families and neighborhoods who lost property. this firestone firestorm is the big one in magnitude. >> hurricane force winds are usually accompanied by rain storms. but these are hurricane force winds that are combined with extremely dry drought conditions to provide context at 10:20pm, am yesterday. the palace, 8 fire was at 10 acres.

kristen crowley says that her crews had been prepositions around the fire lines of the existing fires. so they have water tankers, they have fire trucks, they have the personnel, they have people in strategic locations. and they've, they've sprayed fire retardant around the, sort of in a perimeter of the existing fires. but when you have these kinds of high winds, it's, it's not only the existing fires you have to worry about. it's also new fires being sparked. there's reason to believe and, and, and this is under investigation, but there is some evidence to suggest that at least one of the fires, the heat and fire burn that burned in alhambra was started by a fault in the some electrical transmission towers or lines. and that happens on, in high wind conditions. so that's always a possibility or human clauses are always a possibility. and once the wind gets going, um it's not like a single line of, of fire moves. you know steadily down the hill or up hill or through a town, it's embers flying for kilometers overhead through the wind, when born ambers, that'll hit a, a spot, a brush o

and the like the la city fire chief, kristen crowley that says that she has a 3 position 1st and now and equipment in areas of critical danger. and we saw that as we were driving into this area in a part of the, the county called mandible canyon. dozens and dozens and dozens of fire engines and tanker trucks. and of course, many, many firefighters standing by waiting in germany's in terra, minnesota, says syrian refugees should be allowed a single trip to that home country without as affecting the immigration status as he pays us. said it would give refugees a child. so the site is a permanent for tons of syria was possible felon. normally with folks refugees fees, if they travel to that country of origin, stomach cane has more from the german capsule button and on house there is a reaction to the proposal. what we understand from certain, well connected sources in the syrian community here who look into the legalities, certain aspects of life is here and say that yes it could. it has been suggested to them that this could happen pretty quickly. why is this happening? because there a

. >> on sunday afternoon, los angeles fire department chief kristen crowley gave an update on the pacificalisades fire and an explanation to residents who want to survey their homes. one palisades resident says despite losing her home in the fire, she's now preparing for the future. >> this is a lemon that i salvaged from my lemon tree. i'm going to make lemonade out of this. i'm going to rebuild. we're going to be stronger as a community. we're going to be better. >> 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. >> firefighters throughout the area spent sunday making progress against the wildfires that have destroyed thousands of homes before the stronger winds in the coming days return. a red flag warning has been issued by the national weather service. >> we have the expectation of widespread critical fire weather conditions across the fire next couple of days. that means north northeast winds gusting anywhere from 35 to 55mph, and tho

kristen crowley, los angeles city fire department fire chief. i want to start off with just a moment to share with everybody out there that's been impacted by these wildland fires that the entire lafd family, sworn and civilian, our city family. mayor bass, city leadership, everybody, our thoughts and hearts and prayers go out to you as we continue to push forward and mitigate this emergency. >> we understand the impacts and we're working and will continue to work very, very, very hard for everyone. >> another point i want to make is that also, we are so very grateful for the firefighters and the first responders that have already arrived and continue to arrive in the southern california region. >> we absolutely know that we cannot do this on our own, and we are tremendously appreciative of all of your continued support as the increasing wind event is upon us as we speak. >> the los angeles city fire department has maximized our resource capabilities and response capabilities. all available lafd resources have been staffed. i have strategically

now we find out that kristen crowley to complained about the budget cuts now said i made difficult adjustmentsdon't blame the mayor. here is a flashback though. she said these budgetary reductions have adversely effected the department's ability to maintain the corporations, the reduction in hours has severely limited the department's capacity to prepare for, train for and respond to large scale emergencies. yesterday she says well, i made different decisions and we didn't worry about it. and that wasn't a factor here. what's the truth when you cut 17.6 million out of a budget? >> well, typically, if you know when you make budget cuts, you don't necessarily see an immediate effect right away. particularly something that happens in a trickle down effect that will happen later. the timing of this is really just unprecedented. so when you do have those auxiliary pieces that you cut from around your fire stations and kind of dwindle your -- dwindle it down to just basically what your fire stations going to receive the major part of that money, what you do is you basically in effect cut your insura

fire chief kristen crowley, adding that it is too dangerous for many residents to go home. >> 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. tell me your first name. >> we met shannon grooms when she walked up to talk to police. her family waiting since 4 a.m. >> we're just hopeful to get a couple minutes to grab some things and. and then get out of town. >> she was with her fiance, shay burns, and shay's 81 year old mother, judy mcelroy, trying to get back to their pacific palisades home. >> we don't have any answers and there's a lot of different information, which is why i'm posted up here. >> shannon couldn't get in. she told us about something she forgot to take. >> my aunt passed away recently, and she left me a small diamond, and i was saving to be able to afford to make it into a new ring. >> i asked for her address, hoping that if we passed her house while we were reporting, we might be able to help. a

that's an exact quote that appeared to be a disgusting dig at the city's fire chief, kristen crowley,cades, rising through the ranks to become the first female and lgbtq fire chief in la's history. musk also amplified a post this week from conspiracy theorist alex jones. yes, that guy is still around. alex jones wrote that los angeles fires are part of a larger globalist plot to wage economic warfare and de-industrialize the united states before triggering total collapse. i'm not sure that guy is okay, musk responded by to that post by writing, true? yes. just to repeat here, that's just the richest man in the world and the best friend of the incoming president. confirming to his 200 million followers that he thinks the devastating wildfires are a part of a globalist plot. and so now we're back in this vicious cycle where trump and his new bestie push lies about a natural disaster. and then right wing media runs with them. >> i'll say it out loud they have no intention of putting out these fires. >> all these people are focused on pronouns and fish you can eat and, you know, scrubbing

city fire chief kristen crowley. >> good morning, everyone, and thank you, chief. here we are. so good morning. yesterday i spent the day in the palisades community and visited a number of our fire stations, fire station 23 and fire station 69, and had the opportunity to talk with our members who were the first on scene at the palisades fire. even without running water, gas or electricity, your lafd firefighters are doing everything they can to help the community. 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 a

i would now like to bring up fire chief kristen crowley of the los angeles city fire department. >> thankf moroney. so i'll just be providing a brief, brief update of the overnight operations of our fires. so palisades fires, this fire was currently tracked at 20,438 acres, with 3073 personnel assigned. crews worked very, very hard overnight, strengthening our containment lines and addressing multiple spot fires in and around the topanga canyon area. resources responded to the area included our air assets to aid in the containment efforts. due to the favorable overnight weather conditions and the diligent. and i'll focus on the diligent work and effort and commitment of our first responders, we can report that the palisades fire is now 8% contained. wind gusts are expected to increase in daylight hours. that will test our containment lines. our firefighters will continue to respond to any flare ups and increase our containment lines. evacuation orders remain in place. the hurst fire, due to more accurate mapping and acreage, has been updated to 771 acres with 37% containment. all evacuati

some very strong warning from the la fire chief, kristen crowley.aid that the crews made excellent progress over the weekend. we are not in the clear. started by saying the increasing wind event is upon us. we saw very high winds about a week ago when these fires started. things died down a couple days later. but here we are back at crisis levels to remind you, 24 people confirmed dead in these wildfires. some 12,000 structures damaged, many of them, of course, homes and businesses. but really, the full toll of the fire has not yet been told. >> and we'll continue to follow this story, continue to follow what is happening here in this press conference, and bring you any relevant details as we get them here on air and@ktvu.com and on the fox local app as well. >> now to san francisco where new this morning a police suv crashed into another vehicle and a building early this morning. we have video here that shows damage to the police vehicle. it happened at the corner of san bruno avenue and paul avenue. a police officer and driver were both taken to t

fire chief kristen crowley, adding that it is too dangerous for many residents to go home. >> there aret extremely, extremely dangerous for the public. there's no power, there's no water, there's broken gas lines, and we have unstable structures. >> tell me your first, last name. >> we met shannon grooms when she walked up to talk to police. >> we're just hopeful to get a couple minutes to grab some things and then get out of town. >> she was with her fiance, shay burns, and shay's 81 year old mother, judy mcelroy, trying to get back to their pacific palisades home. >> we don't have any answers and there's a lot of different information, which is why i'm posted up here. >> shannon couldn't get in. she told us about something she forgot to take. >> my aunt passed away recently and she left me a small diamond, and i was saving to be able to afford to make it into a new ring. >> i asked for her address, hoping that if we passed her house while we were reporting, we might be able to help. a couple of hours later, we saw it. amazingly, it still standing because if you look around just across