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Los Angeles Declares State of Emergency as Wildfires Spread; Three Wildfires Now Burning Across Los Angeles County; Trump Lobs Threats, Talks Land Grabs in Wide-Ranging Remarks. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired January 08, 2025 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:00]

MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, a warm welcome to our viewers joining us from the U.S. and around the world. I'm Max Foster.

CHRISTINA MACFARLANE, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Christina Macfarlane. It's Wednesday, January 8th, 9 a.m. here in London, 1 a.m. in Los Angeles, where firefighters are battling fast-moving wildfires fueled by ferocious winds that are only growing stronger overnight.

FOSTER: Three wildfires now burning across L.A. County. The largest fire, nearly 3,000 acres in size, burning around the coastal neighborhood of Pacific Palisades, one of L.A.'s most affluent communities.

MACFARLANE: Tens of thousands of residents have already been ordered to evacuate as the city of Los Angeles declares a state of emergency.

FOSTER: Right now, the Palisades fire isn't contained at all as it burns through five football fields a minute. The flames are being fueled by winds reaching hurricane-force strength. And as they spread, so do the evacuation orders, which have now reached the city of Santa Monica.

MACFARLANE: Well, dozens of drivers abandoned their cars on Tuesday as some chose to flee the flames on foot. Residents who evacuated described a harrowing scene.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You live just right up the hill. Tell us what happened.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, the smoke just got really bad, so I just started packing up all of our stuff, and we got in the car to go. And then all the cars were abandoned, so I had nowhere to go, so I just had to get out of my car and start walking. The smoke is so bad. I have no idea where we're going.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Have you ever seen anything like this?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Never, never. And I've lived in Malibu my whole life, and I've seen tons of fires. This is nothing -- I was scared for my life. It's terrifying. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We were running down. You could see palm trees,

just like random palm trees on fire. So I'm sure leaves are burning and falling down, and it's literally apocalyptic.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: This live stream from LA Beach camera shows smoke and wildfires burning in the distance there.

MACFARLANE: Well, in east Los Angeles County, another fire is spreading rapidly under high winds. The Eaton Fire has now grown to 1,000 acres in just a matter of hours. California's governor is urging residents to heed the evacuation orders and warns these types of events are becoming far too common.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GAVIN NEWSOM, (D) CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR: Hell of a way to start a new year. We were here not too long ago, the Franklin Fire. A few weeks prior to that, the Mountain Fire. November, December, now January. There's no fire season. It's fire year. It's year round.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACFARLANE: Well joining us now on the line is David Acuna, Battalion Chief and Public Information Officer for CAL FIRE. Chief, thank you so much for being with us. Can you at this hour just bring us up to date on these three wildfires that are raging across L.A.? How quickly they are still spreading and how much worse do you expect this to get?

DAVID ACUNA, BATTALION CHIEF AND PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICER, CAL FIRE (via phone): Hi, Max, Christie. Absolutely. So we are dealing with a significant wind event throughout all of Southern California, from Ventura all the way down to San Diego.

And with 60 to 100 mile an hour winds expected to continue all the way through Thursday, we're expecting the firefight to just intensify. In fact, we are having new fires pop up as we speak.

FOSTER: So they are out of control and you're having to focus on saving lives effectively as the fire service.

ACUNA: That is absolutely correct. So while we are, you know, struggling to deal with fires that are moving at 60 to 100 miles per hour, our focus is to maintain the life safety above all else.

MACFARLANE: And as we speak to you, Chief, we are seeing live pictures of ferocious blazes still happening in Los Angeles. What we're seeing here is an apparent house that is up in flames.

I mean, we know, Chief, that there has been zero percent containment. Obviously, you are focusing on rescue efforts, keeping people alive. But in terms of the possibility of containment, what do you need and what hope do you see for that in the hours ahead?

ACUNA: Well, honestly, we need the winds to stop. So once the winds have died down and we're able to secure some lines and we have made sure that all the people are out of the way, then we can devote all of our resources towards containing and then eventually completely extinguishing the fire.

[04:05:00]

FOSTER: I think one of the things that shows how desperate the situation has become for you is these images of the fire service having to bulldoze cars off the road because people are so panicked.

They're abandoning their cars, which is a huge problem for you, isn't it? Because, you know, you need those roads to be clear and a lot of them are really tight.

ACUNA: Indeed, it is a problem for us. And what makes it more of a challenge is we put out the evacuations and evacuation, excuse me, evacuation warnings and evacuation orders as early as possible. But many of these roads leading up to the foothill homes are very narrow and windy. And so it doesn't take more than a couple of cars to really block up the area.

FOSTER: I know that some people have been going to the beach because they don't think that they can get out. Is that good advice?

ACUNA: You know, every situation is unique. And as you mentioned, there are three major fires now burning. The other two are nowhere near a beach. So what I say is to get people out to an area not affected by the fire. And they are able to move out quickly in order to save themselves, their pets and make sure their livestock are also taken care of.

MACFARLANE: What have been your evacuation plans for the vulnerable in particular? I mean, we've seen some really, like, really shocking video, actually, of elderly patients in beds, in wheelchairs, in bare feet, standing out on the street. Presumably, there's going to be many hospitals. How are you handling that?

ACUNA: You know, each fire in each location is unique. And with these three separate fires in three very different locations, even the Palisades fire is amongst a number of jurisdictions. Each one handles it differently.

But the principle is to get everybody who is able-bodied to leave of their own accord during evacuation warning, evacuation order, so that we can devote our medical and fire resources to rescuing those who are unable to leave on their own.

FOSTER: It's always an issue, isn't it, getting people to leave their homes because they value them hugely. And a lot of these homes are extremely valuable. Are you struggling to get people to take your advice?

ACUNA: You know, it is a rather common situation where people wish to stay back and protect their homes. But we consistently let them know that not only is that extremely dangerous and right now futile because at 60 to 100 miles per hour, no one's able to stop those fires. But more importantly, it then takes firefighters away from moving those who are unable or from attacking the fire.

MACFARLANE: And we know California has seen many wildfires in the past. I'm sure you yourself have tackled many wildfires. But where does this stand, Chief, on the scale of, you know, some of the worst fires you've seen? Is this the worst you've seen?

ACUNA: You know, there's a lot of different ways to categorize that. What I would say is this is one of the earliest major fires we've had. We have one of our CAL FIRE incident management teams assigned to the incident. That's only the third time that's happened in January in the last 30 years. So it's definitely a rare event. And now we're just trying to make sure we get as many resources there.

Thankfully, we had many of them pre-positioned from the north part of the state where there is sufficient rain and snow. We moved them down to southern California, and now they're actively engaged.

FOSTER: David Acuna, really appreciate your time and sparing it for us today. Incredible job you guys are doing, and we appreciate the time you've given us to brief everyone.

CNN's Nick Watt has been on the scene following the latest fires. He has this update from LA.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK WATT, CNN U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This is Palisades Village, the heart of Pacific Palisades. This used to be a restaurant. I don't know what that was because there's nothing left. I can't tell what that used to be. But you can feel what the problem is. It's this wind, and the wind is only going to get worse.

It's the wind. Look at these embers, Chris. Look at these embers. Any one of these embers could go and cause a fire somewhere else. Look, we've got this. We've got another spot fire up here.

Just around the corner, an entire apartment building was gone. It's dry vegetation. It's wind.

[04:10:00]

It's a terrible combination. 30,000-plus people evacuated. We have no idea yet how many structures have been lost.

But we have been up in the hills, million-dollar homes we've seen destroyed. We're down here in the village, apartment buildings, restaurants. The question is, just how far is this fire going to go before the wind finally dies down?

Nick Watt, Pacific Palisades, California.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MACFARLANE: It's not just million-dollar homes. It's average residences as well, isn't it? And seen as Natasha Chen, and her crew captured video leaving their location in Santa Monica Tuesday night. She says it was, quote, the most terrifying exit that we've made from any assignment in a long time. Take a look.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NATASHA CHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via phone): We were there from about noon until about just after 6 p.m. local time when we had finished our last live shot. And I guess what we hadn't quite surmised was exactly how bad it had gotten south of us on Pacific Coast Highway. And that's the way we came in to get to our spot to cover the fire.

And we knew that we had heard reports that the flame jumped the highway, but I guess we had not seen with our own eyes just exactly what that meant and what that looked like for us getting out of there. So at the end of the night, you know, we pulled up to a fire truck and kind of waved at a firefighter and said, hey, where do you think is the best way for us to leave, to get out of here? He kind of shook his head at us and said, well, I guess you go south.

And so that's what we did. Pretty quickly realizing that there were flames on both sides of the highway. There were embers flying over the lanes of the highway.

I spotted an emergency vehicle and decided our best bet is to just follow that car, to follow right behind him as closely as possible. If he's driving, then he's probably knowing the best way out.

So as we're driving behind this emergency vehicle, I'm hearing an explosion on my right. There are houses on fire right up against the road on the left. And as I mentioned, embers flying. And so at this point, Rosemary, I'm just holding my breath, and I can feel the heat from inside the car, just watching the embers fly across the windshield. So not ideal.

In that kind of, you know, we get put on a lot of risky assignments, and in this situation we had to make a calculated risk for the best way to leave. And I think, you know, thankfully we got out of there and we got a real look at just the level of destruction and really the fear that a lot of those residents might be feeling if they're looking at those images on the news, if they've evacuated.

I can't imagine. They're wondering if their house is the next one on fire if they have anything to go home to.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Well, you know, we do report every year on these fires, don't we? But, Natasha, and we've heard from so many other people, this is like something they've never seen before. So it's genuinely different.

MACFARLANE: Apocalyptic, yes. And we're also hearing some more news coming into CNN that residents in Malibu have been urged to get ready to evacuate, even though they're not under evacuation orders. And part of the reason for that is that this could actually help avoid traffic congestion and delays if an order is later issued. We've been talking, Max, about, you know, the congestion on the roads, cars being abandoned, so I guess authorities are trying to avoid that sort of situation.

FOSTER: Yes, and I was seeing how, you know, a lot of these are -- when it comes to the beachfront homes, the really expensive ones, the roads are smaller coming out of there to try to get to the highway, so all of those are getting very tightly congested.

MACFARLANE: Yes, they're almost hemmed in, actually, by the Pacific coastline, aren't they?

FOSTER: Yes.

MACFARLANE: Which is part of the problem, I guess, for the teams as well, trying to get in to help with those evacuations, the authorities.

FOSTER: Now, a passenger on a flight captured the flames devastating that area of southern California. Here's what it looks like as they flew from Salt Lake City into LA International Airport. It shows not only the grim conditions but also how far the flames have actually spread.

MACFARLANE: Well, clearly, firefighters are in for a long night with those already extreme wind conditions expected to get much worse. A captain with the LA County Fire Department calls it the perfect storm for a once-in-a-decade wind event. Our meteorologist Chad Myers has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: And we've already had hurricane-force wind gusts in places here in southern California, especially on the mountaintops. But here's what happens in the desert.

Unlike everywhere else in America, when the sun goes down, the winds die off. Here, because of the cold air that's going to sink down into the desert, that cold air is going to splash onto the dirt, and it's going to spread out. Well, where does it spread out? Well, kind of in all directions.

But when it spreads out through the canyons, that's when the winds actually pick up in the dark, which doesn't make any sense for most of you as you're watching this, but it happens here. So red flag warning's still going. Winds were 40 to 60, but they could go 80 overnight.

[04:15:00]

So we're going to have to keep watching this.

Now, bye later on this afternoon, somewhere around 4 o'clock, things are going to calm down. But that is a long time from right now for the highest class here of fire weather, the extremely critical warnings here, Category 3 of 3 here across parts of southern California. The firefighters have a long, long night, and probably a fairly long morning before the winds begin to die off.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: We'll keep bringing you updates on that, but the incoming U.S. president held provocative and wide-ranging news conference on Tuesday.

MACFARLANE: Yes, Donald Trump covered everything from potential territorial conquests to windmills and low-flow toilets to the war in Gaza. And when asked about the hostage negotiations, he issued a dramatic ultimatum.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL-ELECT: If they're not back by the time I get into office, all hell will break out in the Middle East. And it will not be good for Hamas, and it will not be good, frankly, for anyone. All hell will break out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Well, Trump also pushed for American expansionism, refusing to rule out military force to seize the Panama Canal and Greenland, and calling for economic force to make Canada the 51st state. CNN political and national security analyst David Sanger questioned Trump about his territorial intentions.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Can you assure the world that as you try to get control of these areas, you are not going to use military or economic coercion?

TRUMP: No.

SANGER: Are you going to negotiate a new treaty? Are you going to ask the Canadians to hold the vote? What is the strategy?

TRUMP: I can't assure you. You're talking about Panama and Greenland. No, I can't assure you on either of those two. But I can say this. We need them for economic security. The Panama Canal was built for our military.

SANGER: (INAUDIBLE) not going to use the military?

TRUMP: I'm not going to commit to that, no.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MACFARLANE: Well meanwhile, Trump also wants to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico. CNN's Jeff Zeleny reports from West Palm Beach, Florida.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF U.S. NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Less than two weeks before taking office, President-elect Donald Trump made clear he has his eye on a full agenda, both domestically and internationally. Speaking at Mar-a-Lago, his resort, giving his first full-throated news conference of the year, he made clear about the Gaza hostages. He said if they are not released by the time he takes office, all hell will break loose in the Middle East.

He also did not rule out pardoning January 6th defendants. He said that he would still evaluate case by case but made clear that he was sympathetic to the defendants on January 6th over the police.

But it was the international law that drew so much attention on Tuesday here in Florida. When President-elect Donald Trump for the first time said economic security is the reason that he would like the U.S. to acquire Greenland.

TRUMP: People really don't even know if Denmark has any legal right to it. But if they do, they should give it up because we need it for national security. That's for the free world. I'm talking about protecting the free world.

ZELENY: And Danish officials pushed back on that, saying that Greenland is not for sale, is not up for a land grab by Donald Trump or anyone else.

The president-elect also talked about the Panama Canal. Of course, it is one of President Jimmy Carter's biggest accomplishments back in 1977 when a treaty was ratified, effectively giving the canal to Panama.

Now, Donald Trump said that was a mistake. He said it has cost the U.S. billions and even more than that. He said also for national security reasons, that should change.

Now, it is an open question whether any of this actually can happen. Never mind U.S. law. Speaker Mike Johnson in the U.S. House of Representatives said that he has not had any discussions with Donald Trump on this. And it would be a violation of international law. However, that does not mean that this is not going to be more than an obsession for Donald Trump. He's been talking about this repeatedly.

But for the first time on Tuesday, also talking about the Gulf of Mexico. The context, of course, he was really aiming some sharper criticism at President Joe Biden for putting a ban on offshore drilling. But for the first time that Donald Trump said it should be time to rename the Gulf of Mexico.

TRUMP: We're going to be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, which has a beautiful ring that covers a lot of territory. The Gulf of America, what a beautiful name.

ZELENY: A beautiful name, perhaps, but not something the president of the United States can do. One thing is clear. As Donald Trump heads toward his second term in office, the America first isolationist agenda that really encapsulated his first term seems to be changing. American expansionism clearly is on his mind.

[04:20:00]

The question, if it's bluster, a negotiating tactic or an obsession of his.

Jeff Zeleny, CNN, West Palm Beach, Florida.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Panama's foreign minister quickly shot down the suggestion of the U.S. under Trump taking control of the canal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAVIER MARTINEZ-ACHA, PANAMANIAN FOREIGN MINISTER (through translator): The sovereignty of our canal is not negotiable and is part of our history of struggle and an irreversible conquest. The only hands that control the canal are Panamanian, and that will continue to be the case.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACFARLANE: Canada is also shooing away talk of becoming a 51st U.S. state. Outgoing Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau posted: There's not a snowball's chance in hell of that happening. Workers and communities in both our countries benefit from being each other's biggest trading and security partner.

FOSTER: Although he is on the way out.

MACFARLANE: I'm still not entirely sure it's on the cards, is it?

FOSTER: No.

MACFARLANE: Still to come, an update on the devastating fires raging in Southern California and a look at how the weather is fueling that disaster.

FOSTER: And later, goodbye, fact-checkers. Hello, community notes. Facebook, Instagram, threads making major changes to the way they deal with misinformation.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:25:35]

MACFARLANE: Firefighters in Southern California are struggling through a long, windy night battling wildfires. Tens of thousands of people are under evacuation orders. And several out-of-control fires threaten Los Angeles and nearby cities.

FOSTER: The scenes are extraordinary. California Governor Gavin Newsom says this type of disaster is going to be the new normal. He posted this message on social media. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NEWSOM: Here at the Palisades fire, you can see behind me how quickly this has grown. Hundreds and hundreds of personnel all throughout the state of California are here. Coming from Northern California.

We pre-positioned 110 engines. We've got fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, dozers, Water Tenders, specialty personnel putting everything we can to not only suppress this fire, but to prevent additional fires over the course of the next few days.

Unprecedented winds for this time of year. And, of course, this time of year traditionally has not been fire season, but now we disabuse any notion that there is a season.

It's year-round in the state of California.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACFARLANE: Well, here's more now from Natasha Chen on the Palisades fire.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NATASHA CHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We've been seeing flames like this over the hilltop all day. In different spots, hearing explosions, seeing ashes and embers and sand thrown around. As night falls, we are expecting the wind gusts to peak overnight, creating a real problem for firefighters on the ground.

Residents, meanwhile, have evacuated this particular neighborhood, though some are still stuck in there. We talked to many of them who had come down the hill. Unfortunately, this is only one path that they can take out of their neighborhood, so there was a lot of gridlock there.

Some of them have been abandoning their cars and coming down the hill by foot with a suitcase with their pets, telling me they had very little time to put together their bags, seeing how fast this fire was moving. We've now been told that the flames have jumped the Pacific Coast Highway, where we are, just a little bit south of us, and even burned a couple of lifeguard stations.

The firefighters are working through the night. There are hundreds of them working this, and now there are thousands who have been ordered to evacuate or have gotten evacuation warnings to prepare that they could be next to be asked to leave. Though we know a lot of people to the neighboring Malibu, as well as Santa Monica to the south, have seen these orange glows in the distance, and they are starting to move on out, not taking any chances.

Natasha Chen, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Joining us now, Ariel Cohen, meteorologist in charge at the National Weather Service in Los Angeles. Thank you so much for joining us. A lot of people are asking why we weren't warned about these winds.

Just explain how difficult that would have been.

ARIEL COHEN, METEOROLOGIST IN CHARGE, NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LOS ANGELES: We had these winds in the forecast for many days, issuing alerts of destructive windstorms expected all the way from the San Gabriel Mountains to the San Fernando Valley, San Gabriel Valley, as well as the Santa Monica Mountains and everywhere in between. This is an event that had exceptionally long lead times, not only of the powerful windstorm that we anticipated, but also the potential for a particularly dangerous situation, red flag warning, fire weather conditions. This event had significant notification ahead of time.

I know that when we have these wildfires spread rapidly, you know, it's a very horrifying experience for many. It just emphasizes the absolute need to take all of the notifications, all of the emergency alerting from local law enforcement and emergency management personnel seriously, because seconds save lives.

MACFARLANE: We were hearing from California Governor Gavin Newsom there saying that the danger is still not over yet, that there could be worse to come. We know these winds are increasingly erratic. What are your expectations for the hours ahead?

COHEN: We're going to be seeing the peak of these winds continue with gusts upwards of 80 to 100 mph over the high terrain, gusts of 40 to 80 mph over nearby foothills and valleys locations in Los Angeles County.

[04:30:00]

We're expecting the rapid spread and explosive fire behavior to continue as we head over the next several hours into the early morning hours. Afterward, by afternoon, we're expecting the winds to begin to lessen some but bone dry conditions continuing very significant fire weather concerns with rapid spread of wildfires and everyone needs to be at a high state of readiness as we head over the next several hours and beyond as we have the potential for significant fire growth.

FOSTER: There's a problem here, though isn't there? In the response, you were warning that this -- these winds were expected. Also you can't predict fires but, you know, everyone knows there are fires in that area combined with the advice you were giving but no one responded to it and for many people it is too late to save their homes.

COHEN: You know, fires affect so many people and it's heartbreaking to see all of the images that have been coming. You know, when we are dealing with wildfires here in Southern California or anywhere else, we talk about those steps of preparedness, ready, set, go when we're making sure that when the red flag warnings are being issued. And that notifications of powerful windstorms that all of the resources are being pulled together. I'm actually here right now at the Los Angeles County Office of Emergency Management Emergency Operations Center where all of our emergency management partners, fire agencies, they're working together to make sure that all of the resources that are available to keep people safe and respond as effectively as possible are implemented based on the forecasts that we're issuing ahead of time. We all work together as a community to keep people as safe as possible.

FOSTER: Ariel Cohen really appreciate that, thank you so much.

I mean there are going to be questions asked in good time isn't there?

MACFARLANE: Yes.

FOSTER: You know, warnings went out, people weren't evacuated.

MACFARLANE: Yes.

FOSTER: But the fires are so much worse than anyone expected.

Our coverage of those fires continues in a moment. We'll be back.