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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees

Five Raging Wildfires In LA County, Four With Zero Percent Containment; Five Major Fires Burning In L.A. County With Zero Percent Containment; Los Angeles Fire Chief Warns We Are Not Out Of Danger. Aired 8-9p ET

Aired January 08, 2025 - 20:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): But Trump supporters are plowing on.

SEN. PETE RICKETTS (R-NE): President Trump is beginning a negotiation. He's also trying to think long-term about the threats to this country and keep us safe.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOREMAN (on camera): Still, plenty of other Republicans are respectfully and quietly saying they think Trump's plan is pretty much ridiculous and it's on a road to nowhere -- Erin.

ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: All right, Tom Foreman, thank you very much and thanks so much to all of you. AC360 starts now.

[20:00:39]

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, "ANDERSON COOPER: 360": I'm Anderson Cooper, thanks very much for joining us.

I've been reporting for last several hours from this location in Altadena and we're going to be broadcasting here over the next hour. It is the corner of Harriet and Glen, this entire neighborhood has just been devastated house after house.

This is one block area. This is one of the few houses which is still kind of actively burning down to the ground. Most of them, many of them have already burned down to the ground. The homeowners for this house just came back minutes ago, saw it and obviously they are just devastated. They were renting it out. This was their retirement plan. This is the house where they first moved into after they were married. There are stories like that on every spot where there was once a house on this street.

There are now five active fires going on, separate fires in Los Angeles. A fifth one has broken out in smaller -- it's 30 percent contained, but the four original fires, which began mostly yesterday, none of those four original fires are contained.

As you know, fire crews have been working around the clock. There are still not enough firefighters. I talked to Governor Gavin Newsom. I'll play some of that shortly. There are other firefighters coming in from western states. There's going to be a press conference from Karen Bass, the mayor, who is overseas, I believe, in Ghana, who has come back. She's now going to be giving a press conference.

But it is just -- this is a historic fire for this area. It has been dry now for eight months. There's, I think, about a quarter to half an inch of rain over the last eight months. Nothing, forecast for the next two weeks and water has been an issue. It's been an issue in the Palisades where hydrants went dry up in the hills and the mountains.

Even in this area, as you'll see in a moment, I talked to one of the firefighters earlier in the day, and the hydrants were dry. They had run out about two minutes after I got there, according to the fire captain.

Officials say it's not an issue overall that there is enough water in reservoirs to fight these fires. It's a question of getting it to some of these hilly areas, which seems like it's more of an engineering issue. But again, officials here say there's certainly a lot of questions that need answering.

But right now, it's about trying to contain it and none of these major four fires have been contained. The firefighters have actually been using water from their truck on this fire. I assume it's because the hydrants around here still don't have water. They've done -- they've been putting water on this for the last 30 minutes or so. But it is -- that house is gone and if you've been watching any of our coverage, this entire block burned down over the last several hours before our eyes. It's just been an extraordinary thing and we've seen this in the Palisades. We've seen this in a number of areas.

I just want to show you some of what happened here on this street earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: There just are not enough fire crews, able to deal with all the blazes that are going on. This house is completely gone. The next house next door, looks like the roof has just caught fire over there. The fire has also spread across the street. There are at least three houses ablaze and then the fire in just in the last two minutes or three minutes has spread to that vehicle, which was parked out front. There was a slight explosion as some of the gas went up.

A fire truck passed by here. There's another larger blaze up there which they are going to try to deal with right now. We're at Harriet, in Altadena, Harriet Street. The fire has spread now to this house, which is really now engulfed in flames. But, I mean, it's just surreal. I mean, look at this. Even a small thing like this tree is burning from the inside. So on this block, I count one, two -- I mean, all the houses on this side are gone.

Now, the fire, look, this house is engulfed. It's very much and likely that this house will be next, because these winds are now just whipping onto this house. [20:05:09]

It is just devastating.

What's so surreal is, look down the block. It is block after block here in this area in Altadena. I mean, there's a large -- a huge fire there burning several houses. Any other time there would be fire crews blocking off this entire area. But there's just too many fires, and they've just got to -- its triage.

We come upon Captain Chris Donelli of the LA Fire Department. His crew have been out more than 24 hours.

How's water? I mean, obviously, the Palisades have had water issues.

CHRIS DONELLI, LA FIRE DEPARTMENT, CAPTAIN: Fire hydrant ran dry about two minutes ago.

COOPER: And is that the water pressure issue or --

DONELLI: We are -- because there's so many engines tapping the grid and multiple grids. We're basically just taking all the water out of the grid.

COOPER: So, what do you do? I mean, you want to fight these fires.

DONELLI: We do have water tenders, vehicles that shuttle water to us that carry 2,500 gallons of water. But again, they're stretched thin as well. So, they have a lot of demand placed on them.

COOPER: So, on a scene like this right now, what can you do?

DONELLI: We are looking at houses that we can save. So things that we can do, we can clear brush away from fences, things that we can do with our hands or with tools. And we just help some homeowners get out. So just, I mean, first thing is rescue operations. We want you out. Houses can be replaced, all that lives cannot.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Lives cannot. That was just around the corner here earlier today. We're going to -- I just want to show you what's happening right now. So this house, as we talked about, is burned down. The house next door has not. Fire crews are here. They do have water in their trucks. And so they are hosing down right now. We actually got splashed by it.

They're hosing down the roof of this house in the hopes that that will stop this house from being destroyed by this fire, because embers coming -- I mean, we see the flames from here licking that house. So they're trying to keep that roof wet.

The captain was saying earlier, they really look at the attics. If smoke is pouring out of the attics, if the roof is on fire, it's gotten to that point, if it gets into the attic, then the house, if they don't have enough water, then the house is going to go. Gavin Newsom was in this area earlier, about an hour or so ago, and I spoke to him just up the block. Here's our conversation.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: What's the latest?

GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM (D-CA): Well, five dead, likely more just complete and utter devastation. I mean a lot of these fires, a lot going back to paradise and this approximates Paradise. It's not a numeric, just a feeling, a sense of loss, place, belonging.

COOPER: Still no containment?

NEWSOM: No, we're at zero containment. The winds have been a little bit more favorable as you've seen in the last few hours. So we've got the helicopters back up. We've got some fixed wing aircraft.

Out on the coast, it's a little different, it's pretty intense. We have 23 aerial assets just at the Palisades. But a lot of them are not operational because of those winds.

So, it's a combination of challenges. That said, we've depleted all our resources. In Northern California, we've already pre-positioned on Sunday, hundreds of personnel, special units, water tenders, dozers, engines, helicopters and it wasn't enough.

And now, were getting the mutual aid system, the EMAC system, governors from all across the country are calling. Oregon, sending, a few dozen, engines in Arizona, Utah. We're just grateful for all the support.

COOPER: A lot of these firefighters that I was talking to on the street, they've been working, you know, 26 to 27 hours. Are they -- that's just going to continue, I mean, there's enough folks here.

NEWSOM: Yes, I mean, we got a few thousand people working on this. And luckily we were fully staffed. The US Forest Service is staffed up traditionally at this time of year, remember, we are in January.

COOPER: It's supposed to be wet this time of year.

NEWSOM: It's supposed to be wet. I mean, so this is anomalous. Even, you know, I remember, Paradise happened in November. I mean, so there's no fire season in California. It's year round. But to have this level, the acuity of fires is without precedent. These winds are without precedent and the challenge is these winds are going to continue on and off a little bit less intense. Last night you got 80, 90 mile an hour winds.

These guys were just up there to try to mitigate the embers going two miles and getting just to go a quarter of a mile to try to save some.

COOPER: What is the situation with the water, obviously, in the Palisades. It ran out last night. And the hydrants, I was talking to the firefighter on this block. They left because there was no water in the hydrant here.

NEWSOM: The local folks are trying to figure that out. I mean, just when you have a system that's not dissimilar to what we've seen in other extraordinarily large scale fires, whether it be pipe electricity or whether it just be the complete overwhelm of the system. I mean, those hydrants are typical for two or three fires, maybe one fire. You have something at this scale. But again, that's going to be determined by the local authorities.

[20:10:18]

COOPER: The interesting part of it is the gravity that is the giant tanks of mountains which --

NEWSOM: Yes, well they're going down. We were just with the team and they are getting the tenders down to Pasadena filling things back up, coming back up --

COOPER: Are aerial assets now able to fly?

NEWSOM: Yes, they've been the last few hours particularly the helicopters, fixed wing has been up a little bit earlier. But out on the coast it's been a little more stubborn because those winds, those winds are swirling.

The challenge is it's, you know, you can see that they can fly. It's not a question of turbulence or anything else. It's just the mitigations flying all over the place. So, it's not -- it doesn't have any benefit necessarily. So, we've got National Guard working the rattlesnake teams out there on the line.

We're also trying to bring them in to supplement some of the law enforcement efforts as well. It's all hands on deck across the spectrum. The biggest thing, though, Anderson, that happened today sincerely. And you can appreciate in a community like this to get that direct individual assistance with the major disaster declaration within 36 hours of this incident from the president was a game changer for this community, for small businesses, et cetera.

So, not that we're thinking about the next phase, but we have to be thinking concurrently about the next phase is how we rebuild this community. But right now we're in this mitigation phase. We're in the public safety phase.

COOPER: I hate to even ask this question, but the President-elect chose to attack you, blame you for this.

NEWSOM: It's well, one can't even respond to it. I mean, it's -- you know, people are literally fleeing. People have lost their lives. Kids lost their schools, families completely torn asunder, churches burned down. This guy want to politicize it.

I have a lot of thoughts, and I know what I want to say. I won't. I stood next to a president of the United States of America today, and I was proud to be with Joe Biden. And he had the backs of every single person in this community. He didn't play politics, didn't try to divide any of us.

COOPER: Finally, your message to the folks here, to this community.

NEWSOM: I mean, we have their backs and were going to be back, and this is going to be a long, a long, long recovery process. But look, we have residents moving back into Paradise, California. I've seen remarkable recovery efforts. I've seen remarkable sense of community and purpose, resilience.

So, you know, I'm not just playing the politician role of optimism. I really am long-term optimistic. But the devastation to hear people wailing and crying, concerned about their pet, their family, they're just bewildered about what's just -- what they're experiencing. And again, not just experience. I was not talking past tense. This is happening in real time, zero percent containment.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: That was Governor Gavin Newsom spoke to him about an hour ago, literally just up the block. He was out here with fire crews talking to a fire officials trying to assess the damage, figure out next steps.

I also ran into a woman just around the corner. We saw her out on her lawn with a watering can, pouring water from a watering can, trying to keep the lawn wet to save her house. Miraculously, her house is still standing. There's about four or five on that side of the street, which are. And, I just want you to hear from her.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ELLEN RIPPBERGER, LIVES IN ALTADENA, CALIFORNIA: Maybe 3:00 AM we heard, you know, how your phone has that terrible alert, and we just, you know, you don't -- no lights, just the lights from everybody's car, headlights in their driveways and everybody on the street just cramming their possessions and pets and kids into cars.

And then we went to my husband's sisters house and then we can't find any news, there's no way to know if your house burned down or not.

This is the best neighborhood. Everybody knows each other, everybody helps each other. Before we left, our neighbor Brad here, he was putting out little fires even before -- he felt just he just had to go, he was putting out all fires on our property and who knows maybe that saved our house but that's the kind of neighborhood we have and it's, most of it is gone now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: I want to go to a press conference of Mayor Karen Bass. Let's listen in.

MAYOR KAREN BASS (D) LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: -- breaking for you and we stand with you. I know the world is looking at images of our city's devastation. I have seen the frontlines of the Palisades fire, and it is staggering. I've been in constant contact with our fire commanders, with county, state and federal officials. I took the fastest route back, which included being on a military plane, which facilitated our communications. So, I was able to be on the phone the entire time of the flight.

We are fighting for you and everyone in Los Angeles. Thank you to our first responders who waded in the flames pulled people from cars and got them to safety no matter how dangerous.

[20:15:10]

And thank you to everyone who heeded our warnings to evacuate. Tonight, more people may get evacuation us and if they do, please leave immediately.

If you have an evacuation warning, get ready to go. Protect yourself and each other and support our firefighters on the frontlines.

Our strategy included preparations and pre-deployment, and it now includes fire crews from around the state and from our federal partners. We are also adapting in real time. These winds continue to blow.

So let me be clear. I am making sure that we leave no resource untapped. Firefighters are now on scene from across the state and across the country.

I spoke with President Biden today, and Governor Newsom earlier today, and they assured me of full federal and state support. As we head into tonight, we are still facing strong and erratic winds in Palisades and in Sylmar, we are very much in an active firefight. I can report to you that the Woodley fire, however, in the Sepulveda basin, is under control.

I can also report that finally, air operations have resumed and that is a big deal. But it is up to the winds as to how long the air support can continue.

But these conditions are highly volatile. We've seen a devastating fire in the Pasadena area. Fires have sparked up in Simi Valley and on the LA and Ventura County line. And as our firefighters do, battle on the front lines, all of us must be vigilant.

So, if you receive an evacuation order, please leave immediately. If you receive a warning, get ready, protect yourself, and protect each other and don't divert firefighters from our strategy.

Signals are out and the roads have debris, so stay off the roads unless you are evacuating or have an emergency. Be prepared, food, water, medicine, a bag packed and ready. Again, this is an active situation and conserve water to the extent that you can. We want to make sure that we are ready if we need more water.

But make no mistake, Los Angeles will rebuild stronger than ever. Right now, if you need help, emergency information, resources and shelter is available. All of this can be found at URL.

Los Angeles, together, is how we will get through this, through the heroism of our firefighters, the vigilance of Angelenos, and the spirit of our city, this is a big moment. It is a big moment for all of us to come together, for Angelenos to be united, for Angelenos to be prepared to help each other. This is who we are.

LA will rise and make no mistake, I am confident that we will rebuild. And with that, I would like to introduce LA County Board of Supervisor Chair Kathryn Barger.

KATHRYN BARGER LA COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISOR CHAIR: Thank you, Mayor, and I want to thank you for your leadership. I know when this first hit we were in--

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: We're going to were going to monitor this press conference, bring you information as it as it comes in. I want you to meet some of the people who have been most affected by these fires.

Nikki and Kai Rivkin live in the Palisades, a mother and son, they went back, tried to go back to their house today to see how it is. I just want -- I recorded some video, I just want to play that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NIKKI RIVKIN, PALISADES, RESIDENT: No.

KAI RIVKIN: You have to turn around.

N. RIVKIN: No.

K. RIVKIN: Turn around, turn around, turn around, turn around.

N. RIVKIN: Oh my God.

K. RIVKIN: Turn around, Mom.

N. RIVKIN: Oh my God. We're okay. We're safe. Were okay.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Well, Nikki and Kai Rivkin join me now. They're staying with friends. I believe in Santa Monica. Nikki and Kai, thank you for joining us. I'm so sorry. We're talking under these circumstances. First of all, how are you both holding up?

N. RIVKIN: It really comes in waves. We just -- we're in shock. We woke up yesterday and everything was fine. And today we have no home and no clothes or anything and we're watching --

K. RIVKIN: Our house, right there.

N. RIVKIN: -- our house and his school.

COOPER: You know the house is gone.

K. RIVKIN: That's it right there.

N. RIVKIN: That's our house that you're seeing.

COOPER: How much time did you have to get out?

[20:20:04]

K. RIVKIN: Well, I was -- my friend called me in the morning and I woke up. My mom was at work, and I went outside my house, and I saw the fire and about eight minutes later, I just. I got my dad and my dog in the car. I grabbed their photo albums and just sat in like four hours of traffic trying to get out, and that's it.

N. RIVKIN: It was gridlocked. The traffic when we left, there was no movement and we were in separate cars. I couldn't get to them. It got to a point where, in the Palisades, we were at a deadlock and the fire came down on my car on both sides, and the firemen started running in between all of the cars, screaming, "Get out and run. Get out and run."

And people just abandoned their cars and people running down the streets with their babies and their dogs and running towards the ocean.

COOPER: And Kai, were you -- did you also have to get out of your car?

K. RIVKIN: No, we were just stuck in four hours of traffic not knowing which way to go. We were originally headed towards my mom and she called me screaming, telling me to turn around. So we had to turn around and then we were just stuck and no one was moving. No one knew which way you should go because everyone was just being evacuated different ways. So, it was just a panic.

COOPER: So, Nikki and Kai, I mean, what do you do now? What happens now?

N. RIVKIN: We don't know. We are -- we're -- I think -- we don't know. We don't have words. We never, ever, ever thought that this would be us. And when the mayor just said pack and prepare now, had we had that notice, I mean, we have nothing.

K. RIVKIN: I just look at it like a place of gratitude because everyone, my family is safe and were not the only ones that its happening to. All my friends, it doesn't seem real. My neighborhood that I grew up in and the rec center I used to play basketball at, everything is just gone. And I just want to wake up from this bad dream and it doesn't seem real.

COOPER: I know you guys have a GoFundMe set up. I think we have it on the screen. What is the address for it?

N. RIVKIN: It's GoFundMe, I don't know. Our friends and family.

K. RIVKIN: Our friend set it up. N. Rivkin: It's my sister, and, people that I work with set it up, and --

COOPER: It's on the screen right now. I apologize, I can't see the screen, but it's on the screen right now, I know. Listen, you guys must be exhausted. I appreciate you talking to us and again, I'm just so sorry for what happened to you and so many in your community.

N. RIVKIN: Welcome. Thank you.

COOPER: We wish you the best. I want to talk to an incident commander, his name is Jim Hudson about the Palisades fire.

Commander, I appreciate you taking the time to talk to us. Can you just tell us about the Palisades Fire, what the status is of it now, and what sort of assets are deployed?

JIM HUDSON, INCIDENT COMMANDER, PALISADES FIRE: Yes, currently, you know, as this began yesterday at about 10:30 and grew to about 8,000 acres this morning. You know, the priorities have been life, safety, and defending as many structures as we can. That has been our priority throughout the day. We have multiple resources on scene throughout the state. Many were pre-positioned by the state. The governor's office of emergency services or Cal Fire.

You know, we have requested a lot more resources that are currently in route or being mobilized currently to bolster this. But our priorities right now, we're still seeing the erratic winds that we saw yesterday and as they have continued through today, you know, a significant amount of ember cast.

We're taking targets of opportunity to build a suppression line where we can. But obviously the winds have been very significant, sustained 30 to 50 miles an hour gusts almost to 90 miles an hour we've seen today. But we are making some strides and then defending as many structures as possible and making some ground building line where possible.

COOPER: And I know there have been able to get air assets up to drop retardant, to drop water. The wind obviously has been an issue with a lot of that. In terms of, of water on the ground and hydrants, is that still an issue in the Palisades?

HUDSON: We're working around it. We've been working with the affected water agencies. They have provided us some water tenders. We've requested additional water tenders. And that really came down to capacity. As you know, as we had a lot of fire engines engaged and we are working through mitigation measures and continue to improve that throughout the day.

COOPER: And officials are saying there is enough water in reservoirs. Is it an issue just in kind of elevated areas, getting the pressure to get the water up to the hydrants, is that your understanding?

[20:25:03] HUDSON: Yes, but we're advised that some of the pumps that fill the tanks, you know, we did have power outages. So, that depleted the system a little bit or was or is a contributing factor at least, as well as just the amount of water were flowing to fight this fire, it attacks the system. But like I said, with portable water, water tenders, we were able to deploy those where necessary and meet our fire flow of water that we need.

COOPER: And in terms of shifts, I mean, the firefighter I talked to earlier today had been working already 24 hours. What kind of shifts are the folks pulling here?

HUDSON: Yes, as we entered today, many of the resources that remained engaged are still out there. We've been able to relieve some of them as additional resources have responded from out of the area, out of the region, you know, we're currently just over 1,900 personnel.

We have 300 fire engines engaged, and we continue to see them mobilize and deploy. So, rest and recovery is a big deal and it's very important, you know, that our firefighters are able to make good decisions and rest up.

So, as we receive, resources to the scene, they're automatically deployed to the line. And priority is getting those folks that have been on the line for over 24 hours now off the line, fed and rested.

COOPER: I appreciate you taking the time to talk to us. I know how busy you are. Thank you and thank you for all you're doing.

I want to check in with Natasha Chen, who I think is about a mile or so from where I am in Altadena. She's been covering this all day. Natasha, what's the situation where you are?

NATASHA CHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Anderson, we are in front of a Bank of America in the main business thoroughfare in Altadena here that is fully engulfed. You can see multiple engines trying to attack this right now. It's just one example of the many types of businesses we've seen go up in flames along Lake Avenue all afternoon.

Now, the building to its right is no longer standing there. We were actually watching that burn this afternoon just a couple of hours ago, and this Bank of America was fine at the time.

So, you can just see how quickly the winds shift. The embers will float from one building to the next. I can tell you that going north and south on Lake Avenue, where you used to have restaurants and dentists and dry cleaners, not a block was spared. There may be some businesses still standing, but at one point or another, we've seen, every single block, we've seen some flames and explosions all afternoon over the course of the last few hours.

Now, Lake Avenue is just off of a very residential area. So, while you're looking at a Bank of America on fire, I'm standing on a side street and looking at these rows and rows of houses that are no longer here. They've been burned down to their foundations. There is actually one that's actively on fire, and I see some fire crews working on that one.

So, everywhere you turn, 360, there is something on fire or has already been burned and I can just see these crews trying to go from one to the other. It's just a very exhausting work attack for them on one set of flames and another set of flames. We see them racing from this one to that one. And it's been, I'm sure, a very tiresome day. And they're working such long hours, such long shifts.

I also see neighbors who have come back trying to check and see if there's anything left to come home to, if their house is still standing, they're doing whatever they can to protect what's there, and we can see all the way through to peoples lawn furniture and play sets. It's just incredibly tragic -- Anderson.

COOPER: Natasha, we appreciate the reporting. We're going to continue to cover these fires throughout this hour, and obviously, the evening. We're going to take a short break. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:32:40]

COOPER: In Altadena, the fires are still just out of control in so many -- so many areas. This house has been burning out for quite some time. We've been watching. It has just spread to that tree. I don't know if you can see, the entire tree is just incinerating in seconds. But the important part is, look at all these embers, all these embers in the trees, they're now going through the air. They're now flying down the block to a number of houses which have not yet burned.

And those embers, now look, those embers have caught in that tree and that (inaudible) cascading effect. There's a lot of trees on this block. There's a lot of bushes. There's a lot of lawns (ph). Whoa. OK. So there's a lot of explosions. Also, obviously, as vehicles, as gas tank -- as vehicles ignite, gas tanks explode. That car exploded probably about 20 minutes ago when we first got to this location.

That was -- that was earlier today, probably, I don't know, four or so hours ago today, just 20 feet from where I'm standing now. All those houses are gone, that you saw in that video. And these houses now across the street, they -- this one ignited a couple of hours after all those ones burned down. But there's still a couple ones which have not and fire crews are still on the scene. They've wet down the roof of this one.

I want to go to Nick Watt, who's been just doing incredible work since last night in the Palisades. Nick, talk about what you have been seeing and how things are now.

NICK WATT, CNN U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Anderson, the wind appears to have dropped. But listen, I've thought this before over the past 24 hours and then it kicks up again. But what we have seen here, is this row of stores behind me, a beauty salon, a dry cleaners. The fire department has been by and frankly, they're just letting it burn. They have other priorities. Just on this road alone, there's an apartment building, there's a church. There are these stores. They can't fight every fire.

I was here last night, I left at about 10:30 just as the wind was picking up here in Palisades Village. Just to give you an idea of where we are, like we're not in the middle of nowhere. This is the center of Palisades Village. This is the downtown of this very affluent neighborhood on the west of Los Angeles, up against the Pacific Ocean, home to many people in the entertainment industry, many Hollywood stars.

[20:35:00]

So last night, when I left, it was looking bad. The wind was picking up. We actually had to leave because we nearly got hit by some falling debris. Those embers that we've been talking about all day, all yesterday, were just flying. And then look, Syke (ph), if you pan around, Anderson, when I left last night, all of this was standing and now it's not. It's an entire block here in the Palisades.

Now, there's also been a lot of talk about water. In the middle of the night, 3:00 a.m. here, they also lost water from the hydrants. Questions are being asked. Right now, this fire, Anderson, here in the Palisades, 16,000 acres burned. The last fire I covered here, 2021, there was 1,000 acres and we all thought that was a big deal. 16,000 acres and just to think that yesterday morning, we knew something was coming. We knew the Santa Ana winds were going to pick up.

The state was pre-positioning fire trucks and personnel. But no one expected this. I mean, the Palisades, as I say, this affluent, beautiful neighborhood is just destroyed. I was over just a little bit to the west of me, checking on a friend's house. They asked me because they, of course, can't get in. I went to look at the house. Their house is no longer there. Their neighborhood is no longer there, there's nothing. And here downtown, they've lost the library. They've lost the theater. They've lost schools, everything.

COOPER: Yeah. Nick, yesterday, last night, you were telling us about vehicles having to just -- people having to abandon the vehicles. We just talked to two people who -- actually, just the mom had to get out of her vehicle and essentially just try to -- firefighters were like, get out of your vehicles, run for your lives. In the Palisades, in these winding roads, people just got stuck in traffic jams. Were not for those firefighters telling people to get out --

WATT: Yep.

COOPER: -- I mean, who knows what would've happened? It's just -- have you seen anything like that before around here? I mean, people having to flee for their lives. Literally told, run to the beach.

WATT: Anderson. It's a big word to use, but it was apocalyptic. I was driving through my own neighborhood essentially. And it was -- I don't actually live in Pacific Palisades. I live in Santa Monica, which is a whole other story. We're what -- we're getting worried about evacuation orders spreading there. But yeah, it was a crazy scene. We drove down Sunset Boulevard, the fabled Sunset Boulevard, and there are dozens of cars bulldozed out of the way, one of them on fire. It's a surreal experience.

I heard a story this afternoon, a friend of mine texted me and said, I'm desperately trying to get back home. He lives up top of Topanga, which is a canyon here. He said, I'm desperately trying to get home because I know that my elderly neighbors are still in their house. They didn't manage to evacuate. It's hard to evacuate in these narrow roads and the dramz (ph), et cetera.

And my friend was very concerned for his neighbors. Luckily, firefighters managed to get in and rescue them before the fire reached their street. But these firefighters, there are 250 of them here, working these 24-hour shifts, 48-hour shifts. As I say, they drive past a fire like this and they're like, you know what? We just don't have the resources. We've got to prioritize. It's unlike --

COOPER: Yeah.

WATT -- to answer your question, Anderson, this is unlike anything I've ever seen, apart from maybe in a war zone. It looks like a bomb has been dropped on this place.

COOPER: Yeah. Well, which -- and what is -- so you talked about how surreal it is, to be in -- I woke up this morning in a hotel in -- I'm not even sure, I can't even remember where it was. Hollywood, I guess. And I looked out and there's smoke and it's ominous and it's strange. But you look down the street and coffee shops are open, people are concerned, going about their lives.

And then you drive 20 minutes, 30 minutes and it is a hellscape and there's embers falling like snowflakes at one point today on this street. It is surreal, is one way to describe it. Nick, just you and your crew just doing incredible work.

Thank you. I want to check in with two folks, Tanner Charles and Orly Israel. Orly has a house in the Palisades. There's some video of -- I believe it should -- I haven't seen it myself -- of Orly just trying to do what he can to save the house, to water things down. Let's take a look and then we'll talk to them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ORLY ISRAEL, ESCAPED PALISADES FIRE WITH FRIEND: Bro, I don't --

TANNER CHARLES, STORM CHASER/HELPED EVACUATE FRIEND FROM PALISADES FIRE: All right, dude. Yeah. Let's get out of here. We tried. We tried, bro. I'm sorry. We tried our best.

ISRAEL: Yeah, and when this tree falls, it is over.

[20:40:00]

CHARLES: I'm sorry bro. Got to get out of here. Holy (inaudible). Did that tree fall (inaudible)?

ISRAEL: No. Just let it burn and God protect this house, in the name of Jesus, protect this neighborhood, God. In Jesus name, I pray. Amen. CHARLES: This tree is going to kill us.

ISRAEL: There's nothing we can do now, bro. Nothing we can do now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Orly and Tanner are joining us now. How are you? How are you guys doing? I'm so sorry we're talking under these circumstances.

ISRAEL: Every time I watch this video, I got to watch myself running away from the battle of a lifetime. The sound of these fire alarms going off everywhere in the house, every time this video plays is just crazy. And then we fought the fire until we -- my eyes are burnt, my face is burnt. We gave it our all. And also, we stayed there way longer than anyone should have and still lost.

(LAUGH)

ISRAEL: So, I feel like we fought a losing battle, but we fought it, and I'm glad we made it out alive.

COOPER: Where you able to get things out? I mean, things that were important to you?

ISRAEL: Only the most important things. Yeah. This was a great experience in going like, I guess I don't need those suit jackets, those basketballs or signed shoes. We got what we needed and I don't think we'll need the rest.

COOPER: Have -- what was it like? I mean, running out like that? What was like getting out? Because I mean, some of the stories of people having to abandon their vehicles and what was that like?

ISRAEL: You know, we're running out with the -- you can see the sparks in the air. It's like a snow storm, but the snow hurts your skin and your eyes. And I'm running -- Tanner, get in the car because there's two trees on either side of the road that look like they're going to crash into the road. And we are just trying to get out of there as fast as we can by then because it -- that junk is bunk, dude.

COOPER: And Tanner, I understand you're a storm chaser. I know you went over to help Orly. What's this -- what was it like for you?

CHARLES: Yeah. For me, I was just happy and glad to be there, just to help him in a time of need. I don't know -- or I haven't been friends with Orly too long, but I know him enough to know that I just really appreciate who he is as a human and who he is in general. And so, just being in the proper place at the proper time to help him was just, like, this -- like, when natural disasters happen like this, just rallying around community, just like coming around people and just helping people out is just something that I think is kind of like the silver lining when it comes to disasters like this.

COOPER: Yeah. There's no doubt about it. And I've seen -- we've seen that in this community as well. People calling up their neighbors, trying to help in any ways they can. Guys, I really appreciate talking to you. I'm glad you are safe. And Tanner, good on you to help your friend. I wish you the best in the days ahead. Obviously, they're going to be difficult. Thank you.

We're going to take a short break. We're going to have more from the frontlines here of these fires. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:47:45]

COOPER: And look at this, it is -- I mean, it is block after block here. You can see a fireplace in somebody's house and just over here, it's -- as you can see, look, we talked about whether the -- this house soon probably is going to light. Look at this, smoke is now pouring out of this house from the attic space. So, it is only a matter of -- it likely won't be long until this house goes up.

The firefighters I was talking to earlier were saying that one of the things they look for is that smoke pouring out of the attic space and when that -- it's a sign to them that that house is very likely going to go. And obviously, in that case, it did as well. We want to talk to -- actually, I just wanted to just give you -- I want you to hear from the woman who -- she and her husband own this house.

This is the house they came back to when they were first married. They now use it as a B&B, they rent it out. I don't know if it is B&B, but they rent it out. I actually saw the renter earlier here today who came back to try to get some of her stuff. They just came back right before -- literally, two minutes or so before we went on air. Here's some of what she said.

Brenda, so this your house?

BRENDA MATA, LOST HOUSE IN EATON FIRE: This is our house, yeah. We bought it in 2013 and we lived here for 11 years, and we moved last year, but we rented it out as an investment property.

COOPER: This was your retirement?

MATA: This is our retirement. This is our nest egg. This is where we moved in when we got married. This is where our son was born. This was our house and this was what we worked for. This was what we were going to use to retire. That was our investment.

COOPER: You just got here. Did you know that it had --

MATA: We knew that both ends of the street were on fire and we -- our house was still standing as of this morning, along with these and the ones across the street.

COOPER: It was standing until about three hours ago. Yeah.

[20:50:00]

MATA: Yeah. And yeah, so when we heard that it was on fire, we drove over and we heard that the firefighters were trying to put out the fire. And so, we wanted to see for ourselves what the damage was, but it's gone. It's gone. It's a total loss.

COOPER: I'm so sorry.

MATA: Thank you. Thank you.

COOPER: Yeah. And there's a lot of homeowners who have not been able to get back yet to see the level of destruction here. Bill Weir is in the Palisades. I want to go to him. Bill, how are things where you are?

BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: It is unbelievable, Anderson. I know, I'm sorry, the superlatives have been flying through the air from all of you, but it looks like a war zone here in the central village of Pacific Palisades, one of the most picturesque neighborhoods in America. This whole block of small businesses, salons and restaurants, cafes, galleries, completely gutted, bombed out, turned to ash. Anything that isn't brick is ash right now.

Across the street, behind the camera, another complex of doctor's offices, dentist's offices gone, bombed out. The glow of the flames -- in the distance is another art gallery and we've seen these firetruck just driving on by because they have other more pressing concerns. And I keep thinking, Anderson, about lessons learned. This reminds me so much of covering the Paradise Fire up in California over five years ago. Lahaina and Maui over a year ago now. Those lessons, painful lessons in how to defend mountain communities in Paradise, alarm systems in Lahaina, and this is going to be lessons in urban wildfire right now.

This state is already in the middle of an insurance crisis, in which many major insurance stopped writing policies, homeowner policies. The price has gone through the roof for people who call this place home now, and this will only add to that. This is one of the most expensive pieces of real estate, this zip code, anywhere in the United States, and so many of those, over a thousand different structures burned to the ground.

Paradise, over 16,000 smaller, but the kinds of homes here are very different. This is a whole another layer. And you have to also think about adaptation and infrastructure, and how we live with fire on an overheating planet right now, and how to battle these. The big constraint here is the hydrants went basically worthless in the middle of the night last night because this is the end of the water line here in the Palisades.

And so the pipes get smaller as you get further away from the main lines, the pressure gets lower as they have three big one-million gallon tanks that actually provide a lot of that water pressure. But they were tapping it with such speed that it couldn't fill up in time to keep the water pressure going. And so that's what we see. Lots of hands on deck, mutual aid in this state. They've called in crews from five surrounding counties to help out, but there's only so much water in the grid, in the system to go around. And you're learning that, that when you have these big fires everywhere, it saps the entire system in ways that you could knock these blazes down in simpler times. Climate change does not bring these high winds, that's natural. But what we're seeing now is this overlap of Santa Ana wind season with this dry drought conditions, bone dry conditions in January. It's supposed to be the wet season right now, Anderson. And here's what we have. Right now, we've got a little break in winds, giving our eyes and our lungs a little bit of a break right now. That could kick back up. But the big concern tonight is Santa Monica, more densely populated, just closer to L.A. from here. If these winds change, that's the big worry overnight.

COOPER: Yeah, I'm told now there's a fifth fire. But again, the four fires that -- the original fires, those are not contained yet. Bill Weir, appreciate it.

I want to go over to another homeowner who has -- who fled from her home. Natalie Mitchell, who joins us now. Natalie, at, at this point, do you know what has happened to your house?

NATALIE MITCHELL, ESCAPED PACIFIC PALISADES HOME: No. At this point, we do not know the status. We've tried to get as much intel as we can and it looks like the fire is slowly starting to come closer to our house and homes that are up in the Highlands area of the Pacific Palisades. But we just -- at this point, we don't know.

COOPER: We're showing some video, I understand, of you getting out of your house. Can you just talk a little bit about what that experience was like? How -- at what point did you decide we got to go? I got to go.

MITCHELL: It was one of the most harrowing, craziest experiences I've ever had in my life. We just really tried to listen to what the firefighters were telling us, and they have been incredible through this incredibly crazy ordeal.

[20:55:00]

And so in the beginning, there's only one road to get out of the Palisades in the Highlands area where we live, and there is an emergency fire road which was not -- we were not able to get out that way because the fires were also impeding our path to get out that way. So there's only one road to get out. But at the time that we needed to evacuate, there was more fires on that road. So they told us to shelter in place, so we stayed at home and waited it out.

But then, as the afternoon progressed, we saw flames coming on the hillside. We could see it from our bedroom window and that's when we knew we needed to get out. And then in the next 10 minutes, they just started coming closer and closer. So we grabbed whatever we could, we got in our car and we started driving down the hill and it was just like Armageddon. I can't even describe, raining, fire, embers everywhere. The hillside on both sides was completely engulfed in fire. We got down to Sunset, made a right to go down to PCH and everything, I mean, businesses, grocery store, pizza parlor on fire, parking lots, trees falling in front of us. It was completely dark.

By the time we got to Pacific Coast Highway, we just were so scared. We didn't know what was going to happen. My heart goes out to everyone involved in this unbelievable tragedy. I'm just so happy that we got out with our lives.

COOPER: Yeah, Natalie, it's just incredible what you and so many people in your community have gone through and so many of, I mean, in Altadena as well. It's just everywhere. Thank you so much for spending time with us. I'm so sorry for what's going on. I hope your house is OK and I'm glad you are OK, most important of all. Thank you. I appreciate it.

I want to go over Captain Kelliher who we talked to last night about what was going on in the Pacific Palisades. At that point, she was talking about possibly evacuating the place where they were. Captain, appreciate you taking the time to talk to us. What is the situation now in the Pacific Palisades?

CAPTAIN SHEILA KELLIHER, LOS ANGELES COUNTY FIRE DEPARTMENT: Listen, we still have an active firefight. We have 0 percent containment. We're at 15,000 acres, so we are not out of the woods on this one. It's going to take a while to get our arms around this one. The good news is the winds are starting to slow down a little bit that -- they're not gone by any stretch. But compared to last night, what we endured last night from 10 o'clock on, it was brutal.

Those winds were hurricane-force winds and the embers that your guest was talking about, it was like sleeting fire. That's how much it was. And they were just casting off and in every direction, miles down the road. So it has been a long 34 hours for sure.

COOPER: I know you shot some video shortly after we talked. Did you end up having to evacuate your -- the position that you had last night?

KELLIHER: Well, I don't remember if -- because we evacuated two positions. So the first spot was up further up the road.

COOPER: OK.

KELLIHER: And there was so much smoke, but it was still a little daylight. And then we ended up in Will Rogers parking lot that you're showing right there. And that's where we kind of got stuck. So we did have the big parking lot, but those pictures that you're looking at, those were 200- to 300-foot flame lengths, and it just erupted. And it was unreal to watch. And that's when we had all the ember cast that looked like sleet, that was just fire.

So, I stayed in my car and just hunkered down there while it passed through. And then we were able to get out and get into some different positions, and do what we're supposed to be doing. But it's intense. That was for sure.

COOPER: What's the water -- yeah. What's the water situation? I mean, are those hydrants -- are they able to access them now? Or is that what -- what --

KELLIHER: Yeah, a little bit of background -- COOPER: Is it tanking -- water being brought in by tanks?

KELLIHER: Yeah, a little bit of all of that. So, I got a little lesson in what the water systems were in Pacific -- the Palisades and they have tanks. They have three large tanks that hold a million gallons each. Now, those tanks are set up for residential water use and they're not really set up for urban wildland fighting that goes on for 15 hours. So, they definitely drained some of the supplies, but Department of Water and Power came in and put more water back in. So they're really working hard to get those levels back up.

And you can imagine, as water needs pressure going up the hill, it needs more volume. So they're figuring it out.

COOPER: Yeah. Well, Captain, I appreciate your time and all your efforts. Captain Kelliher, thank you.

A new fire video we have, I believe, from the Hollywood Hills that this is the new fire, I believe that's begun. Not sure of the extent, it's Runyon Canyon I'm being told. 10,000 acres was the last estimate I heard for the Eaton Fire, which is where I am.