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Southern California in Flames

Aired October 22, 2007 - 11:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everybody. You're with CNN.
I'm Heidi Collins. Tony Harris is off today.

Developments keep coming in to the CNN NEWSROOM on this Monday, October 22nd.

Here's what's on the rundown.

Southern California in flames. Ferocious winds propel major wildfires.

This hour, Malibu's mayor pro tem on her town fight.

White House with a handout. President Bush today asking for $42 billion more for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

And good news/bad news. Breast cancer rates are down, so are the number of women getting checked.

We'll tell you all about it in the NEWSROOM.

First up this hour, no rest for the weary in southern California. About a dozen wildfires are raging from Santa Barbara to San Diego. Thousands of acres have been burned.

Thousands of homes evacuated. The largest evacuation so far in San Diego County. Residents packing up and heading out of some 10,000 homes around Ramona.

The danger brutally clear. At least one person has been killed, 17 others injured.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency for seven southern California counties. Major fires are bearing down on the posh beachside community of Malibu as well. Two thousand acres have burned, more than two dozen buildings destroyed.

Want to go ahead and head up the California coast to Malibu now. Reporter Vince Gonzalez is there for us this morning.

Vince, I know you just got off the phone with L.A. County public information officers. What did they have to say to you?

VINCE GONZALEZ, REPORTER: Well, they had good news and bad news, Heidi. The bad news is the fire gained in size by about 1,000 acres overnight, now up to 2,200 acres from 1,200 last night. That's actually not as bad as it sounds because they managed during the lull in the winds to really lay down some containment lines. That resulted in the good news, 10 percent containment on this fire. But it is still burning up in the canyons, it's still endangering homes.

We just spoke to the mayor pro tem, the acting mayor a short time ago, and she told us new voluntary evacuations are being called for and other residents, hundreds of them, have been told to stand by. They could be asked to leave their homes.

The sheriff's deputies and police are circling the neighborhoods, getting ready to let people know if they need to get out. The problem is residents, because of this fire, don't have any power, so they're relying on the sheriff's vehicles to go around with their loud speakers telling them when it's time to get out.

The fear is that as the fire moves out of the canyon, it will once again start throwing those embers out in front of it. We've got the gusting winds again today. Those embers caused a lot of fires yesterday, and they are pushing the fire down the canyon toward Malibu. And the results can be devastating.

Houses were burned yesterday -- I'm standing -- which is -- this is exactly what happens when these embers get out ahead of the main fire. This is the Presbyterian Church here in Malibu. There was no real fire around this church. The fire was actually on the other side of the mountain, but the embers came over, lit several small fires here, an ember hit this church, and fire crews told us they got here as quick as they could, but they could not put out the flames, and it just totally destroyed this church.

The Sheetrock fell off, the roof caved in. There's really nothing left here.

Behind me is what looks like it was a meeting room. There's a table and chairs still set up there. There's still smoking rubble in there. And as the winds have been gusting, we have been seeing hotspots here flaming up.

We have been seeing embers coming over the mountain, hitting areas of brush and trees just about 200 yards or so from us, and seen the crews jump on those right away. Because what they're trying to do is prevent this fire from coming out of the canyon again and starting all those spot fires that caused so much devastation yesterday -- Heidi.

COLLINS: Boy, yes, it's a really good point to mention those hotspots, too, Vince, because I think sometimes people forget how long it takes for even just one ember to completely stop burning and really get cool so that it's not a danger anymore.

Vince Gonzalez for us this morning.

Vince, appreciate that, coming in from Malibu.

Want to go ahead and take a step back now and look at the bigger picture.

In all, more than 50,000 acres have burned across southern California. Wind gusts have topped 80 miles an hour. That's hurricane strength. More than 10,000 homes have been evacuated, and so far at least one person has been killed, 17 others have been injured.

Let's get over to CNN meteorologist Rob Marciano with more on exactly what is going on here.

It's not too difficult to figure out. Santa Ana winds and really hot temperatures.

ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, and a dry year. That's the other thing you've got to remember.

COLLINS: Yes.

MARCIANO: So you've got a lot of dry fuel, and these winds continue to come in off the hot, dry desert. That higher elevations, they come down, they compress, and they speed up, and in some cases, you know, getting through those canyons is like putting your thumb over the garden hose. It make that is water go out even faster. The same deal happens with winds.

As far as what we're seeing for rainfall -- for wind mile per hour measurements at this hour, 44 miles an hour in Glendale, and 35 miles an hour in Ontario. Ontario switched winds yesterday morning between 5:00 and 6:00 a.m. And they went from -- they jumped 10 degrees in that time and they also saw their humidity drop from 80 percent relative humidity down to 10.

So it can change in a hurry. And that's what firefighters are continually having to deal with. Thirty-nine-mile-an-hour wind gusts right now in Oceanside.

To give you an idea, that reporter talked about how these embers will jump. Well, the fire gets racing with the wind. It will obviously climb uphill even faster, and then it hits more dry brush, it will hit fuel, it will hit -- it will hit trees. And then on the other side of the hill, those trees will spark and those embers will fly in some cases a half-mile, in some cases more than a mile, and they will hit the more dry land that's there. And unfortunately, in southern California you know, Heidi, it's so populated, it doesn't take much for a fire to move to get to a community where people live, and unfortunately we're seeing structures lost because of that.

COLLINS: Yes, absolutely. And the pictures, boy, I just -- I can't get over what we're seeing here this morning.

All right, Rob, thank you.

MARCIANO: You bet.

COLLINS: And as we said, this story is developing certainly by the minute, and CNN crews are posted at each point along the way. CNN's Kara Finnstrom is in San Diego County now with this report. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KARA FINNSTROM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, fire officials say the San Diego community woke up to the worst possible scenario this morning. They say this fire, the Witch Creek Fire, spread much more rapidly and became much more intense than anyone anticipated.

That fire lit up the hillsides behind us just a little while ago. Earlier on this morning we have some pictures that we took at that time to show you how intense these flames were as they spread behind us. They actually crossed over the San Diego city line and approached some homes that are very large.

Officials this morning are going to be going up in helicopters trying to assess the amount of damage that was done and how far exactly this fire has spread. But they did earlier today evacuate up to 20,000 people from the San Pasqual Valley, and they're urging everyone in the San Diego area to stay tuned to their television, to keep their radio on, and keep really abreast of what this fire is doing.

RON ROBERTS, SAN DIEGO COUNTY SUPERVISOR: People need to stay tuned to their television sets and their radios for information. Anybody that's in any of the affected areas -- and the areas have grown sig rantly since yesterday. We are extremely concerned with people who are not listening and who are waiting to be asked more than once to leave their homes. They're creating a dangerous situation for themselves and for others.

FINNSTROM: Now, fire officials here say one of the reasons they are so concerned is this fire is taking the path that the Cedar Fire took back in 2003. That was the most devastating fire in California history, the most deadly. It took the most homes. And fire officials say a lot of times these wildfires will take the same path once they start burning because of the topography of the land.

They're very concerned about that, also very concerned about these red flag conditions out here. Wind gusts of up to 80 miles per hour making it very difficult for firefighters to do their work, and also taking just large chunks of glowing embers and pieces of burning debris and spreading this fire way out in front of its march. So fire officials will be working hard today and tomorrow to try and get this fire somewhat contained, but at this point there is no containment.

Kara Finnstrom for CNN, near San Diego.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: That story, as she said, coming from San Diego, our Kara Finnstrom.

Now more live pictures this morning of the situation in Malibu, California. Joining us, Mayor Pro Tem Pamela Conley Ulich.

I'm wondering...

MAYOR PRO TEM PAMELA CONLEY ULICH , MALIBU, CALIFORNIA: Good morning, Heidi.

COLLINS: Good morning to you.

I wanted to make sure you were there before I tossed out some questions because I know it is incredibly windy. We've been talking about it all morning long.

Give us some of your thoughts about what's happening today if you can.

ULICH: Well, it's -- as you can see, it's blowing here. We are basically, like I said, at the mercy of the wind this morning.

We have reported 10 percent containment, which is better than last night, zero percent. I have, of course -- you look around here, we have this church that burned down, five residences have burned down. There's nine homes damaged, two commercial homes have been damaged.

It's really a catastrophe when anyone loses their home. Our thoughts and prayers go out to everyone who has lost their homes or who's facing danger.

There's a lot of concern because a lot of people here have lost power. They don't have their cable. They don't know what's going on. And so our advice to them is just be prepared.

In the case you do have to evacuate, you will -- you will hear it from the sheriffs. They will be out there with their sirens and their blow horns, and they will tell you to evacuate.

COLLINS: Mayor Pro Tem, I just -- I'm wondering, how is that evacuation process going? I know that these are voluntary evacuations at this time.

ULICH: Right.

COLLINS: It feels like if the power is out, is it a better idea just to have everybody go on and get out of their homes to be on the safe side?

ULICH: You know, it's really hard if you have kids to just get out and go. So I can see why some people can't leave.

If you're anywhere -- if you feel uncomfortable, listen to your gut. You should move. If you feel OK, then stay.

I think at this at this point the fire is going -- is right now in the east of Malibu. If you're up by Malibu High School at this point, I think you should be prepared and ready to go, but I think you could probably wait a little bit until you hear further news about whether or not the fire is spreading. And you can smell it and you can see it, too.

So at this point it's basically in the east of Malibu, but if the winds change, then just be prepared to leave. Schools are closed, which is a good thing.

Parents, I know this is a horrible day when it's uncertainty, but at least you have one thing, you have your children, or you have your grandmother or whoever is at home with you.

COLLINS: Sure.

ULICH: So just enjoy the day with each other. Even though it's a tragedy, there's a silver lining, which is hopefully people can spend quality time together.

COLLINS: If you could, would you give us a sense for the rest of the country, who may just not be familiar with all that southern California is familiar with by way of these Santa Ana winds and oftentimes dry conditions. I mean, this is not the first time that we have seen fire in the area.

What is it like? I know all the fire crews are on scene, you're having to bring in other firefighters from other states, those hot shot crews, to have 10 percent containment of obviously above zero now, but still I imagine it's just pretty darn frightening.

ULICH: It's very frightening. A lot of people, as I said, without electricity. You don't really know what's going on.

I'll give you a good story though.

I think Malibu is a great place to life because this church, I talked to the pastor's wife, Kay (ph), and Greg (ph), the pastor, yesterday. Even though people who were trying to get to church yesterday couldn't make it, they went to the pastor's home to bring food and water to take care of other people. Not worried about themselves so much, but about taking care of each other.

So that's a great example of how when the times are rough, you can still do other things for other people.

COLLINS: Yes.

ULICH: So it was really great to see the community coming together.

COLLINS: Yes, very good. All right. Well, as we end with this interview with those pictures that we are seeing of those intense, intense flames, we certainly wish you and the rest of southern California the very best of luck in fighting this thing.

Mayor Pro Tem Pamela Conley Ulich, we appreciate your time this morning.

ULICH: Thank you.

COLLINS: Also want to let everybody know that coming up shortly, we're going to be talking with someone from the Red Cross a little more about evacuations and how on earth you get all of those people out when they need to go.

Meanwhile, you can watch continuing coverage of the wildfires ravage in California all day on CNN. And you can check out our online network, CNN.com live. Just log on to CNN.com/video for live feeds from the fire scene.

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Get the rest of the story right here.

And U.S. troops launch raids in Sadr City, but are now accused of targeting Iraqi civilians. What the U.S. military is saying.

Plus, rocker gets charged for more than breakfast at the Waffle House. A scuffle sends Kid Rock to the pokey.

More ahead on the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: More live pictures to show you this morning of the situation in southern California and the wildfires.

You see the view, a pretty wide view, too, of Canyon County, California, coming it in from our affiliate there, KCAL. You see the flames over there on the left, you see the housing development just over the little rise there. Hopefully they will be able to certainly put that out before they get too much closer to that development. A pretty precarious situation there.

On the other side of your screen, you can see the pictures coming in from Malibu, California, and a much more intense situation there as well. Just simply in that shot, the scope of it and the flames everywhere still burning. The thick, thick smoke as well really, really unbelievable. Can't even see the ground obviously there.

We're continuing to watch this story.

In fact, we want to go ahead and take a moment to talk with someone who is on the phone with us from the Red Cross this morning.

Nick Samaniego is working at Saugus, California, at a high school there that's being used as a shelter. He's joining us now to tell us the situation.

Nick, tell us what you can. I know you had about 90 evacuees from the Malibu area overnight. What's the situation this morning? NICK SAMANIEGO, RED CROSS SPOKESMAN: Well, tension is still really high. It's a very emotional situation for a lot of the families that are still here.

We still have about 50 individuals here at the high school. You can hear a little bit of echo behind me because I'm here in the locker room trying to find a quieter place where I can talk to you. But still a lot of emotion. People are on edge, wanting to know when they are going to be able to go back home.

A lot of people have pets that they didn't get a chance to bring with them. So that's the situation we're dealing with right now.

COLLINS: What do you tell people?

SAMANIEGO: We try to calm then, try to support them, let them know that we're here. They can lean on us. You know, we're here so we can provide support, some meals, a safe place to stay until the restrictions are lifted and everybody can go back home. But it's really difficult to try to tell people to relax and tape a deep breath when they're not sure what the situation is for their homes and for their pets.

COLLINS: Yes, and that's always a big issue as well, trying to get back to the home and make sure that everything is OK. Had to run out of there and leave pets behind. I know a lot of people are without power. Certainly a lot of people have just plain lost their homes altogether.

I'm not sure if you are a local resident or not, but have you seen something like this before? I mean, obviously it's not the first fire that southern California has suffered.

SAMANIEGO: Certainly not. And I have lived my whole live here in southern California. And we go through our wildfires every single year, but this seems to be a little bigger than what we're typically dealing with. Obviously we have a number of fires here in Los Angeles County, and certainly in other parts of southern California as well. So there are a number of Red Cross chapters that are involved, a lot of volunteers are here giving their time from all over southern California, trying to make this a more comfortable and more bearable situation, but certainly it is still very difficult for people.

COLLINS: Well, you sound like a pretty comforting guy.

I wonder, what are people telling you? Are they panicked? Are they able to cope? What are they telling you about their personal feelings?

SAMANIEGO: You know, emotions run the whole gamut. Certainly if you talk to kids, you will see that they're just excited to get the day off of school, but there are parents that are concerned. There are elderly folks that are concerned. Some people live in these communities their entire lives.

COLLINS: Yes. SAMANIEGO: You know, they've built their families and their lives around these homes that they have up here in these areas that are so prone to being burned. So, you know, it is high tension. It is very emotional, as I stated earlier, but we're doing our best to try to comfort them and try to help them weather this and get them back home as soon as law enforcement lifts those restrictions.

COLLINS: All right. Very good. Well, I'm sure they appreciate the work that you're doing.

And Nick Samaniego with the Red Cross this morning.

Appreciate your time.

Also want to let you know, if you are in the southern California area, you can always share pictures with us of what's happening so we have a better idea. You can send in a CNN I-Report. You can show us the flames or how you might be protecting your home, or what you and your family are actually doing to just plain escape the danger.

There are two ways to send an I-Report. On your computer, just go to CNN.com and click on "I-Report," or type ireport@cnn com into your cell phone and share your photos or video. Of course, please, please be careful. Don't put yourself in harm's way to do this.

Guns on campus. A college teaching students to shoot.

We'll tell you the story after a quick break here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: This just in now to the CNN NEWSROOM. A possible cease-fire coming in the growing tensions between Turkey and Iraq. A spokesman for Iraqi President Jalal Talabani tells CNN the Kurdish rebel group the PKK will announce a cease-fire.

That news follows a rebel ambush in southern Turkey killing 12 Turkish soldiers. Eight other soldiers are still missing. Turkey retaliated, killing 34 Kurdish rebel fighters. Turkey's foreign minister earlier announced he would head to Baghdad for a meeting Tuesday with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to discuss the worsening situation.

Also new this morning, word that President Bush will ask Congress for billions more dollars to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He is expected to make an announcement this afternoon.

Pentagon officials tell us the president will request more than $42 billion in extra funds. That will bring the total to $189 billion for fiscal year 2008. If approved, the extra money would pay for additional armored vehicles and repair existing equipment damaged in the war.

President Bush will comment on this latest war spending request this afternoon at 1:55 Eastern. He'll make that statement from the Roosevelt Room at the White House.

Of course, CNN will carry it for you live.

That music always scares the heck out of me.

Save your pennies. You will need them at the gas pump. Prices shot up 5 cents in the last two weeks.

The national average, $2.80 a gallon, according to the Lundberg Survey. That's 60 cents more than this time last year.

San Francisco drivers pay the most, at $3.17 a gallon. But the best deal, Newark, New Jersey, at $2.56.

Some of you moms and dads might want to consider working overtime to pay for your child's education. Just out this morning, a report on the rising costs of college.

The College Board released its numbers, latest numbers on tuition and fees. The cost of a four-year public education is up more than 6.5 percent to $6,185. It's up 6.3 percent to a little less than $24,000 at a four-year private school. And two-year public college costs are up a little more than 4 percent, to $2,361.

Save your pennies, that's for sure.

Hurricane-force winds, live pictures now. The firestorm sweeping across much of southern California. We'll have the very latest straight from the fire line.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: Boy, a story to tell you about this morning. That's for sure. Winds gusting to the strength of a hurricane, and flames racing to the doorstep and beyond. More than two dozen buildings are reduced to ash in southern California. In all, more than a dozen fires are burning now, and thousands of people are under orders to evacuate. So far at least one person has been killed. 17 others injured. The most harrowing scene in San Diego County.

Authorities there have ordered evacuations in Ramona, that's a community of about 36,000 people, and a home of the stars is also in the path of danger. Major fires are bearing down on the beach side community of Malibu. 2,000 acres have burned. More than two dozen buildings there destroyed.

In fact, you want to go ahead and get to one of our i-reporters this morning. James Fabin is in Irvine to tell us a little more about what he saw. Good morning to you, James. What did you see?

JAMES FABIN, I-REPORTER: Hey, good morning Heidi. Well, last night I was actually heading out to the gym and I saw this huge pillowing cloud of smoke coming up, and I knew it was definitely a fire. I knew it wasn't the Malibu fire because I'm quite a bit south from there. So, I called my girlfriend on the phone and said hey turn on the news, see what it is.

I could hear in the background immediately breaking news a fire in Orange County approaching Irvine. I drive towards the fire. Used my GPS, got really close to it. Actually got really lucky. I was on a road that was being used to evacuate people, and they stopped traffic from going forward, and I pulled off to the side.

Jumped out, and got my camera, and probably the most amazing thing that I think this video shows is how strong the wind is. You can really hear it just pounding against all of us that are there on the side of the road, seeing the flames come up over the hill and pretty much surround us as the smoke continued to billow out towards the ocean and Newport Beach.

COLLINS: James, I've got to tell you, it's amazing. It almost looks like a volcano kind of lava coming over that hill or something, and we can certainly hear that wind just ferociously blowing there. Also, James, as we're looking at this, I do see cars traveling along sort of straight into -- I don't want to say the flames because obviously there's a hill there.

FABIN: Yes, the cars that were allowed to go forward were ones that lived in that direction, and they could actually turn right at the end of that road, which I was very near the end, but I was one of the ones -- and you can't see that many of them blocked back behind me that are backed up, but we were being made to do u-turns and get out of there.

I was there for about 35 minutes and it got to the point where the police said move, and this morning I tried to go over there, and you can't even get close to that area. The fire came down the hill and burned most of the stuff around there.

COLLINS: Yes. Of course, you know, we don't -- the idea of going out there and shooting just for this obviously.

FABIN: Never do that.

COLLINS: No. And we want everybody to stay safe if they do in fact send in a CNN i-report. But James, this is a pretty incredible video. We appreciate you being an i-reporter for us and also staying safe at the same time. Wow. Look at that. We appreciate it. James Fabin coming to us from Irvine this morning.

And in fact, we want to remind everybody, if you are in southern California, you can share your pictures of what's happening with us. You can send in an CNN i-report and show us the flames, how you're protecting your home, or maybe what you and your family are doing to escape the danger. There are two ways to do it. On your computer just go ahead to CNN.com and click on i-report. Or type i-report at CNN.com just right there into your cell phone.

You can send your video that way. But again, always want to remind you to please, please be careful when you do this. Again looking at some of the professional pictures coming into us now from our affiliate KCAL at Canyon County, California. Boy, it's just all over the place down there, isn't it?

Rob Marciano is standing by to give us more of the weather scenario. We keep talking about three things now. We keep adding them on. You have got them all straight in your mind, but it's not very much rain, high temperatures, high winds.

(WEATHER REPORT)

COLLINS: Yes, no question about it. We had a chance to speak with the associate pastor of Malibu Presbyterian Church, he says you're right it's just completely destroyed, but they are hopeful they maybe they can rebuild as soon as this is all over. Rob, thanks so much for that.

Want to move on to this story now. Breast cancer rates are down. That is the latest word from the American Cancer Society. It sounds pretty good, right? But maybe not quite as good as you think. CNN Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is here now to explain more. Why can't it always be just good news?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right, because it sounds like good news. Breast cancer rates are down. How could that be bad? Well, there is some serious concern about decreasing breast cancer rates and concerns that women just aren't doing the right thing. First of all, let's take a look at what this statistic actually says. It says the breast cancer rate, in other words the rate of women getting breast canner, went down 3.5 percent each year between 2001 to 2004.

So, if you add that up, that is a pretty hefty decrease. And so you might think, golly, how could that be bad? Here is the reason. The American Cancer Society experts are concerned that the reason the rates are going down is that women are not getting mammograms. In other words, women -- mammogram rates are definitely going down, that is for sure.

And they're concerned that it makes it look like women aren't getting breast cancer, when in fact it just means they're not getting diagnosed with breast cancer. They have breast cancer, but it's not showing up in the statistics because they're not getting mammograms. So look at these years here between 1987 and 2000, mammogram rates went up. But from 2000 on, mammogram rates started to level off and then went down.

So bottom line is the American Cancer Society is concerned that what's driving these breast cancer rates going down is that more women are not getting mammograms and it makes it look good, but it's really not.

COLLINS: It just seems crazy to me though, because we do so many stories and I hear people and friends talking about mammograms, and when to get them, and go ahead and go do it. Are women confused about whether or not they should do it?

COHEN: There are a couple things driving this probably. One of them is that I talked to some American Cancer Society folks who said, you know, there was a lot of get your mammogram messages going out there in the late '90s. But they feel like the messages have kind of petered off a little bit and women aren't hearing the message the way they used to.

Also, more Americans don't have insurance than they did years ago. If you don't have insurance, you're probably not going to get things like mammograms. And also it's tough to get a mammogram in some places. It can be a very long wait, and there are concern that is women call up, hear it's a three-month wait, and just don't do it.

COLLINS: Well, then we're going to do our job here and remind people exactly when do you need to have it done, and how do you go about doing it?

COHEN: It's very simple. You should get your first mammogram at age 40 and once a year starting from them. And then, for women who are at high risk you should be getting a mammogram and an MRI every year. And your doctor can help you figure out if you're at high risk or not. It's also important to note, some women should be getting mammograms even earlier than age 40. You have to talk to your doctor.

COLLINS: Yes. Talk to your doctor. Always the best idea. All right, Elizabeth Cohen, thank you. Appreciate it.

To get your daily dose of health news online just logon to out website. You will find the latest medical news, a health library, and information on diet and fitness. That's address cnn.com/health.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: We have been taking a look at some of these incredible pictures coming in from all over southern California actually. These now Canyon Country, my apologies. I have been saying Canyon County, but it's Canyon Country, indeed. Coming in from our KCAL there you see quite a bit of smoke. Looking now, and I'm not there, so obviously I don't want to say anything that's incorrect.

But looking now a little bit more like that smoke is rising directly up into the air, as opposed to blowing completely horizontally. Of course, one of the main concerns is the Santa Ana winds for fighting these fires. There has already been one death, 17 people injured. Overnight an incredibly, incredibly dangerous fast- moving fire.

Temperatures hovering around 90 degrees today and for the next couple days, and certainly very, very dry conditions there lead to the result of zero percent containment in the area -- Malibu area. Maybe a little bit more. We heard from the mayor, Pro Tem a little while ago, possibly up to 10 percent containment or so, but obviously a lot more work to be done.

Also manning the fire lines for CNN, viewers just like you armed with cameras. They are citizen journalists who send in our i-reports. We just had an i-reporter on a moment ago, who had some amazing pictures. T.J. Holmes is in the NEWSROOM now, sort of looking over some of the reports coming in. T.J., what do you have? T.J. HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we've got a 19-year-old from Irvine, Texas, who certainly didn't grow up seeing anything like this who is now at Pepperdine University a student there. Check out the video this student sent us. We'll listen to it here for a moment as well. This is student John Ball (ph).

This is a 19-year-old computer engineering major out there at Pepperdine University. The school there, of course, threatened yesterday by the fire. This was taken yesterday morning actually. He says it was around 7:00 in the morning. Got up, didn't know what was going on really, just got up to -- actually to get ready to go to church and stepped outside and saw all of this.

Grabbed a camera and started taking some pictures. But, you can certainly hear that wind and maybe some of the flames there as well. Just a loud sound there as you can imagine. This picture here we want to show you. This was taken actually in Malibu Canyon. Actually in Oxnard Shores, California. This is actually about 25 miles north of the fire.

An i-reporter, Helal Hallway (ph) again in Oxnard Shores. But this still photo taken because it's 20-something miles away, and still the light -- the sky is lit up like this because of the size of the fire and even being that far away it could light up the sky like this. He says the whole place smells like a camp fire.

Says that this was taken in the afternoon, about 2:00 in the afternoon, but at the same time it was pretty much dark outside and just the sky illuminated like that from this fire. Some of the best pictures and some of the best video we always get on some of these stories are the people on the ground who have become our i-reporters. Those just give us an insight and a view of these fires that we really sometimes just can't get ourselves.

COLLINS: Yes, I know. It's just amazing to see that sort of glow, isn't it of the flames. All right. T.J., thank you. I know you're watching those for us. Appreciate it.

Meanwhile, sky high college costs are a huge worry for parents, whether your kids are in high school or even still in diapers, and tuition bills only getting bigger. Susan Lisovicz is at the New York Stock Exchange this morning with a look at the high price of higher education. Good morning to you, Susan.

(BUSINESS REPORT)

COLLINS: Back to the story now, that we've been showing you all morning long. These incredible live pictures. To southern California, in flames. Major wildfires stoked by serious winds. More live reports coming your way in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: Raising the profile of being environmentally friendly. It's not just Hollywood getting in on the act; music stars are spreading the message as well. More from CNN entertainment correspondent Brooke Anderson.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AL GORE, FMR. VICE PRES. OF THE UNITED STATES: Times like these demand action!

BROOKE ANDERSON, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Al Gore's global concert event Live Earth sparked widespread conversation about global warming. For some of the participating artists, like Alicia Keys, it was an awakening.

ALICIA KEYS, PERFORMER: It's almost as if the whole planet has to blow up before anybody says, ah damn, I wish I would have just...

ANDERSON: For others, it's a lifestyle they've been committed to for the past few years.

JACK JOHNSON, PERFORMER: We want it to become just the standard.

ANDERSON: Jack Johnson, Willie Nelson, and Neil Young are leading the movement among musicians. They filled their buses was biodiesel long before it became popular. Now others, including Sheryl Crow, John Mayer are Melissa Etheridge are following their examples.

MELISSA EHERIDGE, PERFORMER: My last tour that I did last summer all of my buses and all of my trucks were run on 100 percent biodiesel.

JOHN MAYER, PERFORMER: We're using biodiesel on the tour. We're recycling everything we can on the tour.

ANDERSON: Jack Johnson carries the message from the road to his recording studio, an old house renovated to be ecofriendly.

JOHNSON: Everything was like the green issue this year, and a couple of my friends like, it's annoying and I thought, like, are you kidding? That's great.

ANDERSON: Recycled denim insulates the walls, cork covers the floor, and because of $75,000 worth of solar panels on the roof, they can power their own studio, and on sunny days they pull in enough energy to power their neighbors, too.

GORE: Today two billion of us have come together in over 130 countries on all seven continents.

ANDERSON: Al Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize for his staunch environmentalism.

NEIL YOUNG, PERFORMER: I think it's great. He's won a lot of things. It's about time he got one of them.

ANDERSON: Yet Live Earth critics say transporting thousands of people to and from the venues and beaming the event around the globe did the environment more harm than good and generated tons of trash. MAYER: But you can't track how many people had their lives affected, or how many people just had their minds affected.

ANDERSON: Despite the criticism, one thing is clear -- people are now talking green more than ever before.

Brooke Anderson, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: It's a CNN investigation you can't afford to miss. Watch the premiere of "PLANET IN PERIL." Anderson Cooper, CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta and Animal Planet's Jeff Corwin team up to explore the world's environmental issues. From remote corners of the globe to the heart of the big city, that's tomorrow and Wednesday, 9:00 p.m. Eastern, only on CNN.

Well, parts of Colorado get an early taste of winter. Downed power lines, downed trees and big headaches.

Indians fall in a Boston massacre. Red Sox move on to the world series after another postseason comeback.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: Well, more pictures now of exactly what we did not want to see. We're looking at San Diego now, and I'm talking not just San Diego County, but definitely -- we're looking at our live news feed. This is the air check coming in from our affiliate there, KGTV. That's why you saw some other anchors on the screen.

Meanwhile, they are obviously following this story very closely. What happened is, as we mentioned earlier, the fire did jump the county lines, but now it appears to be in the actual city, San Diego. We saw some of those homes that looked like they were on fire, and fire crews there really just dousing every home they can get their fingers on try to keep them from going up in flames. These pictures now from our affiliate in Malibu, California, KTLA. Obviously the situation perilous there a well.

We're going to be following this story and these fires all day long right here on CNN, but meanwhile, CNN NEWSROOM does continue one hour from now.

"YOUR WORLD TODAY" is up next with happening all across the globe and right here at home. I'm Heidi Collins. Have a good day, everybody.

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