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Wind Gusts Up to 100 mph Fueling Deadly LA-Area Wildfires; Pasadena Fire More Than Triples to 10,000 Acres, 0 Percent Contained. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired January 08, 2025 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: You are looking now at live pictures out of Los Angeles County. Just unbelievable, and it gives you a sense of the powerful winds that have been pushing the Eaton Fire in the Pasadena and Altadena area to more than 10,000 acres.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: We're also getting a look at the destruction being left behind by the Palisades Fire, one that's exploded to nearly 12,000 acres just today. Neither fire is currently contained.

CNN's Stephanie Elam is in Pacific Palisades. Stephanie, what are conditions like right now? Still very windy, it appears.

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Still very, very windy. And with that wind makes it very impossible for firefighters to try to contain this blaze. That's why they're not even focused on that right now. They're still making sure that people are getting away safely and that they are protecting property as they can.

This is a very difficult series of conditions to fight fire in because not only do you have these winds that are hurricane force, and it feels like some massive creature is trying to pick up and toss our cars while we're sitting in them -- let the firefighters do their jobs there -- but just that wind alone, it is really difficult to work in because it's hard to see out here while you're doing all this. And on top of it, in these small canyons back up in this area, it also makes it very hard if fire gets in there to stop it.

We have been out here almost all night long and through in the morning, and I can tell you this black smoke is not what you want to see. That means something is burning in this area. We have over 10,000 acres burning in just this area, let alone the other fires that are burning, taxing resources.

[15:35:00]

So we have the National Guard now coming down to help. Governor Gavin Newsom also sending resources down here to help. They've also deployed firefighters from different regions of the state to come help because things are so dire.

So much of the county and the area is on fire. And keep in mind, I know we've talked about other wildfires that have burned maybe 10,000 acres, 20,000 acres. The difference with this one, though, is that this is a densely populated area, and that is why this is such a scary fire and these are such scary circumstances that people are up against here battling this blaze and people are waiting to see if their homes are OK.

KEILAR: Stephanie Elam, thank you so much for the latest there.

The intensity of those Santa Ana winds, coupled with nearly a year of dry brush, are driving the rapid spread of these fires. In these images from CAL FIRE, you can hear, just listen there, that is the fury of the winds that have been carrying embers all around and starting fires.

Joining us now is climate scientist Michael E. Mann. He is the director of the Penn Center for Science Sustainability and the media at the University of Pennsylvania. He's also the author of "Our Fragile Moment, How Lessons from Earth's Past Can Help Us Survive the Climate Crisis."

And, Michael, I wonder when you're looking at this, how does climate change contribute to this perfect firestorm?

MICHAEL E. MANN, CLIMATE SCIENTIST: Yes, hi, Brianna. It's good to be with you, although I wish it was under better circumstances. We're certainly seeing a tragedy play out.

And when we see these sorts of events, these massive wildfires, 15 of the worst 20 wildfires have occurred during the last 15 years in California. And so there's a clear trend towards these faster spreading, hotter burning, more destructive, more deadly wildfires. And as is always the case, there's an underlying factor and there's an immediate factor. And it's the interaction between those two that give you these extreme events.

The underlying factor is, as you already alluded to, profound drought, very dry conditions, an extremely late start to the winter rainy season. It basically hasn't started and we're already into January.

And there's a key meteorological variable that we look at, which is called the evaporative demand. It's basically how dry and thirsty the atmosphere is. And that correlates highly with wildfire potential. And we're seeing very high levels of evaporative demand, precisely in those regions where these wildfires have broken out.

Now, the immediate factor, these winds, the Santa Ana winds, and we can't say those are caused by climate change. It's a natural occurrence, but it's the synergy between that natural occurrence, the Santa Ana winds, that immediate factor, and the underlying dry conditions that are definitely related to a trend of drier conditions in California, the Western U.S., caused by human-caused warming, due primarily to the burning of fossil fuels.

KEILAR: So, you know, this has become a bit of a political issue, as certainly the wildfires in California do when it gets bad there. And I wonder if you can explain or kind of fact-check for us, because we are hearing from President-elect Trump, who is blaming Governor Gavin Newsom and saying that this is about water policy to protect threatened species. And really, that is the culprit for what we're seeing.

Is that part to blame here? What do you see?

MANN: Yes, no, it's really unfortunate to see, you know, the president-elect engaging in what can only be characterized as disinformation and politically moted disinformation. We know what's going on here. This is part of a larger trend.

Hotter, drier conditions due to the warming of the planet, and that's the reason that we have seen, again, the most destructive, the fastest-spreading, the most deadly wildfires in California history in recent years. And, you know, the fact that we're seeing wildfires like this in the middle of winter, during what is supposed to be the dry season, is testament to the fact that there's a new ingredient. There's a new meteorological ingredient here, and that's climate change.

And what the president-elect appears to be trying to do is to deflect attention away from the fact that his incoming administration, his priority is going to be to essentially dismantle all climate and clean energy programs in the United States that are our effort to actually deal with the underlying problem and instead double down on fossil fuels, the very factor that is underlying this trend in terms of warming conditions and more damaging and deadly weather extremes, including these wildfires that we're seeing play out right now.

[15:40:05]

KEILAR: Michael, thank you so much. Obviously, it's so important to get a look at the big picture here, and you always help us do that. We appreciate it.

MANN: Thank you.

KEILAR: And let's head now to Altadena, California. That is where Anderson Cooper is, where the Eaton Fire is burning. Anderson, tell us about this scene behind you.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, we're at the corner of Harriet and Glen, and I've got to tell you, it is -- we've been here for about 40 minutes. This whole area is just engulfed in flames. This house really just kind of exploded in flames that went up to this tree for embers.

(INAUDIBLE)

All right. Which, with these winds, even though, Brianna, the winds have died down, the wind has just taken these embers from the tree. They're all over the block, and they are moving to other houses, and you see new fires being created from these embers.

This house is gone. I mean, just look, all these houses are gone here. There's a fire crew here. I was talking to the captain earlier. They ran out of water here on this street about 30 minutes ago. They hooked up the hydrants. They turned them on. The water ran out. So now they're just moving on to another area.

What they did -- when they don't have water is they try to create defensive perimeters around houses that they think they can save, and those houses are houses that don't have a lot of bushes, hedges, plantings in front of them or around them. Or if it does, they try to rip -- they've spent like the last hour just trying to clear debris from houses to try to maybe save it.

But it's a matter of luck or misfortune where these embers land, where the flames hop. This area over here I want to show you, I mean, this house is completely gone. We've watched this entire house burn down.

The house next door, the car that you see over here, we watched that -- the flames jumped from the house onto the car. There was a small explosion as the gas canister blew.

But look, Brianna, see, there's two houses on fire. The third house down now, the roof has caught fire. The fire captain was telling me they watch for the attics. Once the attic -- once you see smoke billowing out of the attic and the attic is on fire, that house may be -- it may be a lost cause.

But it's like this. I mean, it's not just on this block. We just drove to Altadena and just happened upon this block, got out, and I imagine it is like that. I mean, you hear these explosions. There was an explosion that I caught, I put it on Instagram about 20 minutes ago from a house right down there, just heard an explosion, and that is, you know, gas canisters, propane tanks go off.

So you hear these steady booms off in the distance or sometimes uncomfortably close. But look, see, that's the crew I was talking to before. They've now moved down. They're scoping out -- you know, Alysa, well let's walk over. They're looking at these houses, I'm assuming.

If they're going to stop here, maybe they would have decided these are defensible houses and they're going to try to do what they can. There was a woman who lives in that house, that second house down there, about five minutes ago, we saw her on her lawn, and she looked very confused. And, I mean, I'm no expert, but I said to her, like, I think you should leave, and she did. She had actually come back to just get some stuff.

But when this house exploded, and it was quite loud, I think that freaked her out and made her realize maybe she should get out. Anyway, she got in her vehicle. She got her cat. She's gone.

But it looks like this fire truck now, it looks like they're just going somewhere else. It's an extraordinary thing. You know, 30 minutes from here in, you know, Hollywood or West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, there's coffee shops open, and you can see smoke in the air. You get in your car, you come here. These areas are blocked off, but it's so close to where regular life is continuing. And for the people on this block, their lives now are forever changed.

Look, this fire is now spreading down this block. We've been watching this. Here's what happened on this block. This house was on flames.

Let's walk over here. There's a down cable line, so we just want to be careful about that. Let's go around it.

OK, so now the house next door caught. This tree exploded into flames. You can see up in the palm trees now. Those embers made those trees go on fire. I don't know if you can see through the smoke behind the palm trees. There are now these very tall vertical trees. I don't know much about shrubbery. I don't know what they're called, but they're huge, tall trees.

[15:45:00]

They are now just like flames shooting up into the air. This second house now, I mean, that is just gone. That car, I believe that's the explosion we heard a short time ago that I recorded. But now, look, it's spread down.

This is new. Yes, we've been watching. It then spreads from these trees. Look at all these embers. I don't know if you can pan up, but look at all these embers just flying up. You see them in the smoke. All of that.

The winds have died down here, but those can just get picked up by winds for miles. And they can go for miles and light down, you know, fall on somebody's roof, and a whole new fire will pop up.

So this house is gone. This house is now underway. The left side of this house is ignited, and also now the house nearby it.

But, I mean, these embers are like snowflakes. So they're falling all around us. The sun -- I mean, this is so crazy -- you can't even see the sun. It is completely blacked out.

You can't even see this house, but inside that smoke is another house. It is sandwiched between two houses completely ablaze. There's no way that house is going to survive.

And then just down the block, you know, you see smoke, but you don't see fires. But there's a lot of houses which have already been destroyed down there. But this is very active. This is recently caught. I mean, this is now completely engulfed.

OK, yes, and now you see it. Now this house, which was relatively untouched, now this house is being destroyed.

The fact that the crew here left, there was no water coming out of the hydrants, obviously that's a huge concern. As you guys have been reporting, you know, in the Palisades, that's been a real issue through the night. There was more of a gravity issue in terms of the way water is actually able to get pumped up through hydrants into the hills. I'm not sure what the issue down here is, if it's the same issue. They do obviously have water tanks that they try to bring to a number of locations, but I haven't seen any in this area, and there weren't any for the crew that was right here trying to do what they can.

And it's really tough for these firefighters. I mean, they, you know, want to save everything. They want to stop this thing, but there's only so much you can do. Authorities have put out.

No, actually, I mean, look, we're actually on the side of the street. That's what's so surreal. I mean, that side of the street, it's blazing hot. This side of the street, it's cool. No houses on fire. There's a firefighter right over there.

You know, it's -- this is not -- you can operate in this area. We obviously wouldn't be here if -- we would get out. We have been in this location for about an hour just watching the, I mean, it is a sickening thing to watch the strategy of the fire, if you will, not that it has thought, but how it jumps from one house to another. It jumps into the trees, and then the embers move. You literally see it happening in real time. And, I mean, for homeowners who are watching this, it is just -- it's just devastating.

Now, potential issue, which we may move -- I think we're going to move now, because this car -- let's walk over here a little bit. This car from this house, I can see the trunk is now caught on fire. So it's, if that car goes -- yes, so look, you can see the back tires are aflame. So it's very possible there will be some sort of ignition from that, from the gas. So we'll move a little bit more over here. These cars have already exploded.

But it's so strange. I mean, there's cars parked on the street that have not been touched and hopefully won't be. But, yes, it's -- the size of this is obviously something that, you know, look, people in Los Angeles, in this area, they're used to fires. They've seen this before. This is something that they have not seen. It may be, I don't know, you know, we'll have to look at the historical records, but it is certainly up there with some of the worst fires.

And the fact that there are, you know, there's this fire. There's obviously the Palisades, which is the larger fire. I mean, this was called the smaller fire. And in terms of damage so far, it probably is. There's, I believe, 1,000 structures, they've said, in the Palisades. I don't know at this point what the count is.

And, frankly, any count that authorities give you, as you see, I mean, it's changing by the minute at the whim of these flames and the whim of these embers.

[15:50:00]

SANCHEZ: Anderson, this is Boris Sanchez. I'm just kind of concerned for your safety. I mean, these are very serious images behind you, and you are very close to flames.

You spoke about sort of the process of getting to where -- COOPER: Let's go over here.

SANCHEZ: You spoke about the process of getting to where you are and how eerie it was, that it seemed like life was just going by like another day not far from where you are. And we'd spoken to residents not far from where you are now who discussed difficulty that they had in getting out.

I do wonder, is there a safe passage of egress from where you are? Would you be able to get out safely? Would residents, like that woman that you spoke to, be able to get out without issue?

COOPER: Yes. There are streets -- I mean, the fire is spreading in a certain direction, so there are streets.

We have a lot of people who are watching this. We obviously have teams who are very experienced in this. I do not include myself in that, but we have much smarter people around me.

But there are ways to get in and out. Yes, there are, in answer to your question. So, you know, this is obviously -- there's police here. There's fire personnel here. And this actually, you know, I mean, it's strange to say, this corner is now better than it was in terms of safety for anybody on it than it was 30 minutes ago.

That location, even that location where we were five minutes ago, you know, that's a much less safe location now, just in the last few seconds, because now the winds have picked up and that whole area is just completely blackened. And you can hear that crackling.

But a number of these houses, I mean, look, we've been watching very carefully this north side of the street on Harriet and Glen, mainly these houses on Harriet and a couple of them going a little bit northward on Glen and so far, they are untouched.

And that's obviously a great blessing for all those folks. They have also evacuated, thankfully. But it's a real question of just what happens over here, particularly without water. I mean, that's obviously a huge concern for firefighters.

KEILAR: Yes, it certainly is. And the scene has just changed and gotten so much darker from all of the smoke in just the minutes we've been speaking with you. Anderson, we are going to get in a quick break. Please stay safe. It looks like conditions there are getting very severe. Thank you for the incredible report. We do appreciate it.

We'll be back with much more on the wildfires burning, not wildfires, the fires that are burning now in neighborhoods there in Los Angeles County.

[15:55:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: We are covering, of course, these wildfires that are scorching Los Angeles. Joining us now is Jeff Gross. He's the owner of Mickey Fine Pharmacy and Grill in Beverly Hills, which is trying to help people who have been impacted by the fires.

Jeff, first, tell us, what is the biggest problem that you're seeing now for evacuees?

JEFF GROSS, OWNER, MICKEY FINE PHARMACY AND GRILL: A lot of people just really weren't prepared. You know, they say to get your papers first. Well, family, obviously, and pets. And then your paperwork and then your medication. We've had several patients who took their medication but forgot their refrigerated medication. So that's definitely been a challenge.

Another patient needed pet medication, and the chain pharmacies wouldn't fill it because it wasn't sent electronically. So we're helping them. And, you know, the community pharmacy really is just there for the community. So we're here to help everybody make sure that they get the medications that they need.

SANCHEZ: And how have you been able to stay open, Jeff?

GROSS: Thankfully, the fire is on the other side of the 405. But like the Palisades, Beverly Hills is a small community. We are open and we deliver seven days a week. And a lot of our clients actually have been affected by the fires.

And a little shout out to my friend, James Woods, who posted, I just sent him a text, told him I was thinking of him because I knew that his house was in the fire zone. And I said, just let you know if you or anybody needs medications. We open at 7:30 in the morning. So we were here for patients who got out with their lives but didn't have their medications with them, unfortunately.

KEILAR: It's interesting you mentioned him, Jeff, because I noticed in that interview that he did with our Pamela Brown, one of the things he said was, you know, he didn't bring out much, but he has, of course, his family. He has his pills. And I thought, of course, that is what people need to remember to bring.

You -- your house is in LA County. Is it OK? Do you have preparations just in case?

GROSS: We are not -- like most people, we're not as prepared as we should be. We also do live in one of the canyons north of Beverly Hills. And about a year or so after we first moved into our house, there was a fire nearby.

And we couldn't figure out where the fire was. And it's just very -- you just lose your stomach. So yes, we have our medications and our pets and we have all the carriers ready to go.

Last night, I actually backed my car in, just never knowing, you know, if an ember were to jump over, we're about four miles, five miles from where the fire is. So yes, it's a very uneasy, uneasy night.

SANCHEZ: Jeff Gross, we're glad that you are OK and able to help others.

[16:00:00]

We hope that that continues as this situation rapidly develops. Jeff Gross, thank you so much.

GROSS: Thank you very much. And shout out to all the community pharmacies across the country. We are there for our patients and for the team.

So thank you very much and have a wonderful rest of your day.

SANCHEZ: Thanks, Jeff.

Stay tuned to CNN. We have more of our coverage of the fires in Los Angeles on "THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper starting right now.

END