grace has brought me safe thus far ♪ ♪ and grace will lead me home >>> and after the service, our stephanie elamak with two of hannah anderson's closest family members. stephanie joins me now from sanity, california. tell us about your interview. >> it was moving to sit and watch this family come together, don, and put their arms around hannah. she sat between her two grandparents and listened. after the ceremony was over, i had a chance to sit down with her grandma, sarah brit, mother of christina, who passed away, and also sarah's brother, hannah's uncle, david braun. and they wanted to paint for us just how much this meant for the family. keep in mind, it's been three weeks now since they first lost their family members to when they were actually able to say goodbye. take a listen. >> we've had to put our grief aside for this day. and it was very uplifting, and my daughter would have just thoroughly loved it. >> as you know, ethan was so handsome. full of spirit. loved football. she was a devoted mother, and a wonderful person to have in our family. >> the prayers that went out from far and w

stephanie elam is on the ground for us there in banning. nie, i see the smoke there behind you. set the scene for me. >> reporter: yeah. that's true, brooke. we've watched this fire which basically started around 2:00 in the afternoon pacific time yesterday exploding into 10,000 acres at this point. we know four firefighters have been hurt. one civilian also hurt. we're hearing that person may have been badly burned. we're working on getting confirmation about that. the fire, it started this direction. as you can probably tell by my hair, the wind is blowing this way. that is the way the fire is going. it's been a long fire line they've been fighting with 1,000 firefighters overnight. brooke, there's one thing i really want you to hear. there's this woman that we met last night. she evacuated her house. but listen to how close things came for her. >> keep going, stephanie. i apologize. we don't have it. >> we'll try to get it to you in the next hour. i want you to hear basically she said -- she has a bird. they helped her get the bird out. s

. >> i want to bring in stephanie elam in san diego following this. stephanie, first of all, is there a sense of a need that she feels to set the record straight? why does she feel she has to explain herself? is she faced with criticism in the social media world? >> reporter: she has been dealing with a lot of that. a lot of people have had a lot of questions about decisions made about where she has been and some of her public appearances and the social media aspects of what she has been saying and i think it is important to keep in mind this is a 16-year-old girl. she is very young. she is still dealing with the fact that she has lost her mom and lost her 8-year-old brother and in fact during that today show interview listen to what she said about her family members that she lost. >> he had a really big heart, and she was strong hearted and very tough. she knew how to handle things. >> reporter: she is also talked about how the social media helped her keep in touch with friends and feel a little normalcy, suzanne. >> one thing she has to deal with and

stephanie elam is in banning, california, the focus of the fire fight right now.phanie, i've been following your tweets all morning, we know you're there close to the action. what's the latest? >> reporter: one thing we can tell you, chris, they are in there still fighting, about 1,000 firefighters are out there fighting. the fire cresting over the mountain behind us. they're saying the fire line is about eight miles long at this point. we know two firefighters have been injured fighting this and one civilian we do not know their condition but there's 1,500 people evacuated and 15 structures at least that have been damaged. they're hoping to get in there later in the day after the sun breaks figure out how many of the structures were houses. they're also very concerned about the wind. as you can see if you look around me, you look at my hair it's very windy out here right now so that is a concern going into the day. one good thing is that it's a little chilly right now and that is helping the firefighters but they're hoping to get in there and make some more groun

cnn's stephanie elam in santee, california, right now. about the emotional service, stephanie. >> reporter: it was definitely emotional to watch, as everyone was gathering here, don, coming together, we saw hannah walking around the inside of the church. hugging people, as was her father. as the service got started, she sat down between her grandparents, tina's parents, and her grandmother protectively had her arm around her through most of the service. but there were some very, very moving words that came from the father, and i want you to hear those now. take a listen. >> a horrific events occur in germany or russia or africa or even in a different state, they're not entirely real to us. when they occur on our own doorstep and touch us as intimately as the horrific murders of tina and ethan, then they are indeed fairly real. we're touched by this evil and we can never bee the same again. >> and while she was smiling before the ceremony started, during the memorial at the end, you could see that she was feeling that, that hannah was feeli

stephanie elam is in santee, california, with the latest on this.> reporter: it was very emotional, don, as you sat there, i was listening from afar as i sat inside the church. you saw the emotions on people's faces as they began the service. it was interesting to watch the dynamics before the service started, hannah anderson after this huge ordeal of being kidnapped and losing her mom and brother, welcoming people into the church and she was hugging people and holding a baby for a while, lots of smiles and as the service got started, you could tell her tone definitely changed. she had tough moments. there were poignant words from the father as he was remembering tina and ethan, and i want you to hear a few pieces of what he has to say. >> when horrific events occur in jer nann germany or russia or africa, they are not entirely real to us, but when they reach our doorstep when they touch us like the murders of tina and ethan, then they are indeed very real. we're touched by this evil and we can never be the same again. >> reporter: and you could def

cnn's stephanie elam with the very latest. good morning, stephanie. >> good morning, don. yeah, talking about a fire that started around 2:00 p.m. local time yesterday. it hasn't even been 24 hours that this fire has been burning and now the fire line is about eight miles long. i can tell you about 1,000 firefighters that are in there fighting and there are also 15 structures that have been damaged. we don't know how many of those are homes and i can tell you that two firefighters were injured and one civilian also injured from what we understand it could have been pretty bad injuries, but we don't know for sure how bad they're doing. i talked to one woman yesterday who was evacuated and she paints a picture of just how close it came for her to get out of her house. take a listen. >> the fireman helped me bring out pictures and stuff and then i couldn't get to my purse and my medication in the back bedroom and they wouldn't let me back in. they wouldn't let me go get it. i told them, please, i can make it in a minute. no, you just have five minutes. we'll take care of ever

details from stephanie elam. >> reporter: one thing she wanted to clear up, she knows people have beenting about those 13 text messages she swapped with jim dimaggio. she wanted to clear it up and here's what she had to say. >> the phone calls weren't phone calls, they were texts, because he was picking me up from cheer camp and he didn't know the address or where i was. so i had to tell him the address and tell him that i was going to be in the gym, not in front of the school. just so he knew where to come get me. >> reporter: she got choked up remembering her mother and her brother and having to prepare herself for the memorial that's going to happen here on saturday. and one other thing i want to mention, anderson, i just spoke with the aunt of jim dimaggio. she says that she believes her niece, the family member that's asking for the dna test to be done to find out if jim dimaggio is actually the father of hannah and ethan, she thinks that niece is just after the money because she's not getting the insurance policy. so another interesting twist here in this bizarre case. >> we wish

stephanie elam joins us now from santee, california. give us an idea of what's expected?well, we are expecting to see a lot of people turning out here in santee, california. we've already seen here at the guardian angels catholic church, we've seen hannah and her father arrive with some other family members. they're inside hugging other people showing up to pay their respects for tina and ethan. it's been about three weeks now since these two family members were found killed in that property about 40 miles away from here in a very remote area to the east of where we are now, so with that in mind, the parents of tina, who i spent some time with this week, they want to focus on the memory of christina and ethan and all the joy they brought to their family and to remember them and this is one thing they wanted to share with the community. >> and there have been so many reports that kind of dribble out almost on a daily basis. even since the alleged kidnapping and the fire at that home and the latest involves dimaggio's family and a dna test. bring us up to date on where that

. >> cnn's stephanie e elam live in san diego with more.porter: good morning, carol. when you take a listen to what hannah is saying, there's a lot of people who have a lot of questions about what's happening. we still haven't learned a lot of those details, but we know the memorial service for her mother and 8-year-old brother is going to be held on saturday. that's what the family wants everyone to be focused on. but at the same time, we've heard that the sister of jim dimaggio, one sister would like to see a dna test done to find out if he was actually the father of hannah and also of ethan. that has gotten the family very upset. take a listen to hannah's great-unc great-uncle. this is her maternal grandmother's brother. listen to what he had to is say. >> what i would tell the dimaggio family, i'd tell them to shut up. with their accusations and their implications until after the funeral, until after my precious tina and precious ethan are buried. the family members that your family murdered, that's what i'd tell them. >> reporter: and

stephanie elam joins us now from california. this is a public memorial, right? how has this town come together? >> when you take a look at the story, it's a small community outside of san diego and when you look at the story and realize it's been three weeks since christina and her son, ethan, were found dead in that house some 40 miles away from here, it's time for the family to come together and mourn and remember them and they want the community to be a part of that, too. we are outside of the guardian angels catholic church here where the memorial service is going to happen. they say they can fit about 500 people inside, but they expect it could be about 1,000 people that show up and will overflow outside here of the church so they can remember christina, who was 44, and ethan, who was 8. and also just putting some focus here, the family says, on remembering all the good these two people brought to their worlds because they said there's been too much focus on the negativity brought into their lives by james dimaggio. families, dna tests of hannah anderson. t