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Thousands Flee Wildfires Ravaging Australia; Family of Stabbing Victim Says We Just Want to Feel Safe; FDA Announces Ban on Most Flavored E-Cigarette Cartridges; CNN Looks Forward to Events In 2020. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired January 02, 2020 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00]

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: The next 24 hours are critical for parts of fire ravaged Australia. Ferocious winds, extremely hot and dry weather conditions are all fueling these massive wildfires there. One danger zone fire officials are especially watching the southern coast of New South Wales. People forced to evacuate by Saturday.

More than 14 million acres have burned, that is nearly the size of West Virginia. More than a dozen U.S. firefighters are on the fire lines and more are coming just to help them out.

CNN's Anna Coren reports from along the southern border town of Nowra.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANNA COREN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is what a mass evacuation looks like. Thousands and thousands fleeing the areas worst hit by the deadly bush fires that have swept across the southeastern coast of Australia. A mandatory evacuation for tourists before catastrophic conditions return on Saturday. But some went ahead the opposite way.

TREVOR GARLAND, DAUGHTER STRANDED BY FIRE: My daughter is stuck in Sussex Inlet with friends down there.

COREN: Trevor Garland's 16-year-old daughter Haley is stranded in one of the hardest hit region with some friends. She told him she's safe but he's not taking any chances.

GARLAND: Been here for quite a while trying to see if I get down there and get here out. But beware because it's one road in, one road out.

COREN: It's dangerous but Trevor is not alone.

XANTHIA WALSH, FAMILY HOUSE BURNED DOWN: At the moment we're just focused on trying to get family back together.

COREN: Xanthia Walsh and her family were away when fire struck the family home in Conjola 3 hours south of Sidney. They all escaped unharmed but their house was completely destroyed. WALSH: It was a family that actually built the house. So it's hit a

lot of people quite hard. It used to be a holiday house prior to us living in it. So all of our family has stayed in there at some point or another.

COREN: Walsh and Garland are but two of the many stuck around and inside some of the areas hardest hit by bush fires across the states of Victoria and New South Wales. Dozens of roads have been cut off and some communities remain isolated.

Stranded residents dependent on the Australia military for the most basic of supplies. It's part of the Australian government's efforts to deal with the crisis but for some it's too little, too late.

The Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, who has been heavily criticized for his lack of leadership during this crisis, and his government's inaction on climate change was heckled by residents during a visit to Cobargo.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You won't be getting any votes down here, buddy.

COREN: A large part of the town was destroyed during the New Year's Eve bush fires and residents say the government has not done enough.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is not fair. We are totally forgotten about down here.

COREN: The Prime Minister left without responding.

Conditions have improved slightly in the past few days allowing the countless men and women who continue to battle the flames a temporary but very limited reprieve, and just enough time to say good-bye to one of their own. Firefighter Jeffrey Keaton was honored for bravery at his funeral. The medal given to his young son.

Just one of the many victims of a nightmare with no end in sight that is expected to worsen in the coming days -- Anna Coren, CNN, Nowra, Australia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: And with me now, Angela Burford, spokeswoman for the New South Wales Rural Fire Service. Angela, I know you've been with RFS for several years. It is summertime where you are. It is hot. Can you just first talk about the size of the fire and have you in your years ever seen anything like this?

ANGELA BURFORD, SPOKESWOMAN FOR THE NEW SOUTH WALES RURAL FIRE SERVICE: No, I certainly haven't seen anything like this before. And I know some of my colleagues who have been around longer than I have certainly haven't seen anything like this either. This fire season in New South Wales is something that is certainly unprecedented.

Already we're only just into 2020 and we've already burned to over 3.4 million hectares, that is a huge area. Typically in the fire season we'll see sort of 280,000 hectares burnt over the last couple of years, though we have blown that out of the water, and we've seen very devastating impacts from these fires. So it has been a hard season and we've still got a long way to go.

BALDWIN: Right. Which over here is roughly the size, as we said, of West Virginia. We've been monitoring Twitter, Angela, and Australia's Bureau of Meteorology in Victoria tweeted out that fire-nados are making conditions even more dangerous. What is a fire-nado?

BURFORD: So we have seen some serious implications from some of these fires particularly on New Year's Eve was a great example. We saw down the south coast of New South Wales where these fires were putting out smoke flames that are what we call pyro-convective where essentially, they create their own weather system which can have devastating impacts as it causes havoc for firefighters on the ground.

[15:35:00]

Unfortunately, due to one of those fires, where this was the case, the down burst and the winds that were as a result of that weather event ended up causing one of our fire trucks to be literally turned on its head and unfortunately one of our own firefighters lost his life in that accident. So it is very dangerous conditions that we find ourselves facing sometimes where we have these really bad weather days.

BALDWIN: I am so sorry about that. It is truly extraordinary when you watch everyone running to get out of town and you have these firefighters, these brave men and women running toward the flames. Part of the issue, what I read, Angela, is that there's so many of these small towns in this area that oftentimes it's one road in, one road out. So how are evacuations, how is that process even going?

BURFORD: That's right and the area of concern, for us, particularly this again down at south post of New South Wales, a lot of those towns are as you say one road in, one road out and those roads are surrounded by bush. And over the last few days a lot of those roads have been impacted by fire, and even once the fire has passed through, the repercussions of that is dangerous trees that may still be alive or dead and then end falling on the roads.

So a lot of the roads have been cut off essentially leaving those people stranded in those locations. So it's been a massive effort over the last couple of days not only to remove the trees but to make safe the area so we can allow people to relocate from those areas to a safer spot, ahead of worsening conditions yet again tomorrow.

BALDWIN: And lastly, you see these people who have lost absolutely everything. They are angry. They are angry with the Australian government. We just saw this one woman in the piece. She would only greet the visiting Prime Minister if he pledged for funding for your department. Do you feel like you have all the resources you and the Rural Fire Services need?

BURFORD: Yes, the New South Wales Rural Fire Service is very well resourced. However of course this fire season being unprecedented has certainly stretched our resources. Our firefighters are tired. We've certainly been using everything we have, we're throwing everything that we have at these fires, as it's just nonstop. It's been absolutely relentless.

So any support we can get is obviously very welcomed. And with regards to the community being angry, of course, they would be angry. These people have seen absolute devastation in some parts of New South Wales. In some cases, parts of towns wiped out, and, of course, the horrible fact of the matter that we have lost lives this year is a very hard pill to swallow, of course.

For our firefighters, who are doing an incredible job to protect life and property wherever they can but unfortunately, we just can't save every home.

BALDWIN: Our hearts go out to all of these families and especially that one firefighter's family. All of their families. Angela Burford we'll let you go. You have a big job to do. Thank you for coming on.

We are hearing for the very first time from the family of an elderly Jewish man wo was severely injured in that stabbing attack inside that rabbi's home. Their emotional message about the increase in anti- Semitic attacks, next.

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(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: An emotional plea today from the family of a man who is fighting for his life in the hospital. Josef Neumann is one of the five victims attacked during that Hanukkah party at the home of their rabbi. Neumann was stabbed over and over. And the family says the knife went through his skull and directly into his brain. The family says doctors have told them he may never fully recover but they also want his ordeal to send a message.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NICKY KOHEN, STABBING VICTIM'S DAUGHTER: Guys, I'm begging you, if you are watching this, please, stand up and stop this hatred. It cannot keep going on. We want our kids to go to school and feel safe. We want to go to our synagogues and feel safe. We want to go to groceries and malls and feel safe.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: CNN national correspondent Brynn Gingras is live there in Suffern, New York. I mean what a poignant message from this woman and what's the update? We know he just went through surgery. How is he?

BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right. He was undergoing surgery today, Brooke, so doctors could help him eat and breathe. He has not woken up from his coma since he went into it after this attack. And doctors say even if he does wake up, as you sort of laid out for the viewers, it's not a good prognosis. He would have severe brain damage. And so the family really isn't keeping -- they're trying to keep hope

but they are also tempering their hopes at this point. And that's why they've sort of turned their attention saying they hope their dad really is a symbol of what needs to happen now. There needs to be a change.

Now, they made, as a family, a very, you know, a decision that couldn't have been easy, and that was release a picture of their father inside the hospital bed. I want to show it to you and warn our viewers that it's very graphic. But they show -- it shows Joseph Neumann with the, you know -- I don't want to the say scars. It's not scars. I mean the wounds.

BALDWIN: The wounds.

GINGRAS: I mean they're just pretty traumatic. Exactly, I mean they're traumatic looking at that but they had a very poignant reason why they wanted to do this. Take a listen to that.

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KOHEN: When people ask, is he awake yet? Is he talking to you guys? And all I want to do is yell, do you understand the prognosis right now is that he really may never, ever speak again? Or wake up or walk or -- they just don't have hope, as a family, we do have hope.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GINGRAS: Yes, and they said, that they wanted to show how serious this is and it kind of is a bigger picture as well, Brooke. I mean we know about 15 attacks against the Jewish community just in the last month, all across the state of New York. And that's what they are trying to highlight in their grief. We're going to get an update from town officials here at 4:00 , also an update again from the family. So we will see how he did throughout the surgery.

But certainly this family not in a great place and it definitely brings a different level to this entire incident that happened over the weekend -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: Now for the family, for this daughter to show that photo of her father, we can't look away. We cannot look away. Brynn Gingras, thank you very much.

In just the last couple of hours the Trump administration officially announced a ban on most flavored e-cigarette cartridges. We'll explain what it applies to, and why it may not be permanent.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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BALDWIN: The Trump administration is following up on a New Year's Eve hint about banning the sale of flavored e-cigarettes cartridges. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The flavors will come off. They're going to be checked. We want to make it -- people have died from this. They've died from vaping. We think we understand why, but we're doing a very exhaustive examination. And hopefully, everything will be back on the market very, very shortly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: That was Tuesday evening. And just a little while ago, the FDA finalized a policy to ban the sale of most flavored e-cigarette cartridges here in the U.S. Under the new policy vape companies have 30 days to stop manufacturing, distributing or selling any cartridges flavored with anything other than tobacco or menthol.

The new regulations do not apply to tank vape systems. Some none too thrilled about these changes. Just moments ago, the President's motorcade in Florida drove by some pro-vaping demonstrators who were literally standing there with signs that said, we vape, we vote.

CNN's senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen has more on what exactly this ban covers. And, Elizabeth, we know the vaping epidemic, it's been huge, especially over the last few years, especially for high school, middle school kids. You were told a policy was coming within weeks back in September. So, why has this taken so long?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right, that policy was supposed to come back in September. Now we're in January. You know, maybe they were working on the details, Brooke. And as we know, the devil is in those details.

And that's where some anti-smoking advocates and pediatricians are very upset, because they say, look, OK, so you're going to pull these cartridges, which is one type of vape but you're going to allow these fruity-tutty deserty kinds of flavors for another type of vape. It's sort of a different kind of mechanism but it's still a vape.

So what are you doing? And so let's see what the American Academy of Pediatrics just put out within the past hour. A statement saying -- the bottom line is that children are at nearly at the same level of risk now as they were before this guidance came out -- referring to the Trump guidance -- and that is a shame.

Because, Brooke, we know nicotine is addictive. So you take away one nicotine product. People who are addicted, they're going to find another nicotine product. If it's available, they'll use it.

BALDWIN: So why have two policies for two kinds of vape? Like why not one policy across the board?

COHEN: You know, the only reason that people I've talked to can think of is that it's really from Trump. Trump has said, he said on Tuesday night, we need to protect the vaping industry. Those words came out of his mouth. He said that we need to protect the industry. It's a big industry. So he wants to protect the vaping industry for reasons that are

unclear. Maybe he also wants the votes for those voters who are protesting there. So he is trying to make the vaping industry happy. He's trying to make people who vape happy. What he's not doing, is he's really not making children happy. They will still be at risk because they will still have access to the flavors that they love and nicotine is addictive.

BALDWIN: It is. Elizabeth Cohen, thank you for the update there.

COHEN: Thanks.

BALDWIN: We are also getting a look inside today at the destruction at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. And now the Iranian-backed militia that caused this had damage is demanding that Iraq kick U.S. forces out of the country. Just ahead, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee joins CNN live with what he sees as the way forward.

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(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: All right. New year, let's talk about what we have to look forward to. 2020 I know has become synonymous with this upcoming election. But this year also has nonpolitical highlights and I just wanted to share those with you.

So in the sports world the Tokyo Olympics kick off this summer with new events like karate and skateboarding and surfing. Plus you have two major international soccer championships happen to fall in the same year.

Then in August -- this is so cool, I would love to go -- the Yankees and the White Sox meet in Iowa to play in the "Field of Dreams" inspired game. We are also getting remakes of classic movies and video games in 2020 like "Top Gun" and "Mulan". There is also new music coming in from Rihanna, Lady Gaga, Cardi B, Ozzy Osbourne and Justin Bieber, just to name a few.

And finally, space geeks like me have kind of a fun year ahead. NASA's rover mission to Mars launches this summer. And remember how we all went crazy over the eclipse back in 2017. So a new one is coming to South America in December of OK little Brookie 2020. All happening, all this next year.

So thank you for choosing CNN to bring you coverage of all of this and so much more. I'm Brooke Baldwin. It's great to be back. Let's go to Washington. "THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper is starts right now.

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