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California Officials Provide Update on Wildfires. Aired 11- 11:30a ET

Aired January 08, 2025 - 11:00   ET

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

[11:00:42]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: Well good morning to you. You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

I'm Pamela Brown in Washington.

And we have some breaking news out of California. Out-of-control wildfires are raging across parts of Los Angeles. We're waiting an update right now from officials. They're going to be talking to us any minute. We want to learn more about these fires and the windstorm. What is happening there in California? It's a very dynamic situation.

And, going to be honest with you, we don't even fully have our arms wrapped around just how widespread, how bad this is and how many have been injured and how many could be dead at this hour.

This -- let's go straight to the press conference right now.

KATHRYN BARGER, LOS ANGELES COUNTY, CALIFORNIA, BOARD OF SUPERVISORS: ... in real time.

So I want to thank the city of Pasadena, who's opened up the Pasadena Convention Center for those impacted by the Eaton Canyon fire. I also want to acknowledge our faith-based partners. All Saints has opened up their church for those that are evacuating the Pasadena area.

But, again, it's important for us to recognize that, while the firefighters are there to protect structures, life is first and foremost front line. We need to make sure that people heed the advice of our first responders.

With that, I'm going to introduce our L.A. County fire chief, Anthony Marrone, to give you an update on what is going on. But I just want to thank Chief Marrone, as well as Chief Crowley, for the work that they are doing to make sure that our first responders have all the resources necessary.

Chief Marrone.

ANTHONY MARRONE, LOS ANGELES COUNTY, CALIFORNIA, FIRE CHIEF: So, good morning. Thank you, Supervisor Barger. My name is Anthony Marrone. I am the County of Los Angeles fire chief

and I'm also the Region One coordinator for fire and rescue resources. I'm going to be giving an update on the Palisades Fire, in addition to the Eaton Fire, although I am aware that we have four large fires burning in L.A. County at this time.

The Palisades Fire is located in both L.A. City and L.A. County. We are in unified command with the city of Los Angeles Fire Department in addition to Cal Fire. We have well over 5,000 acres that have burned and the fire is growing. We have no percentage of containment.

We have an estimated 1,000 structures destroyed and also no reported fatalities and a high number of significant injuries to residents who did not evacuate, in addition to first responders who are on the fire line. We have over 1,000 personnel assigned, and the cause of the fire is unknown. However, it is under investigation.

For the Eaton Fire, it is located in both the Angeles National Forest, the Altadena area of L.A. County and Pasadena. L.A. County is in unified command with both the Angeles National Forest and the Pasadena Fire Department.

We have over 2,000 acres burning at this time and the fire continues to grow with zero percent containment. We have over 500 personnel assigned. And, unfortunately, we have two reported fatalities to civilians. Unknown cause at this time, and we do have a number of significant injuries.

We have over 100 structures destroyed and the cause of the fire is unknown and under investigation. I will ask that L.A. City fire chief, Kristin Crowley, update you on the Hurst Fire after I am finished with my remarks.

The L.A. County Fire Department operational area consists of 29 separate fire departments in L.A. County and all of those fire departments are at drawdown with no fire apparatus or additional personnel to spare. As the Region One coordinator, I have requested mutual aid from the five counties of Orange, Los Angeles, Ventura, Santa Barbara, and San Luis Obispo counties.

[11:05:08]

Additionally, last night I contacted the state Office of Emergency Services and requested 50 engine strike teams; 50 engine strike teams is composed of 250 fire engines and over 1,000 personnel.

We have also requested resources from out of state, as well as Northern California. Thank you to the first responders from Nevada, Oregon, and Washington state that are already on the road coming to L.A. County to assist.

Lastly, the National Weather Service has predicted a continued red flag weather event with strong winds and low humidities, placing all residents of Los Angeles County in danger.

To all of our viewers, please prioritize your safety, as well as the well-being of those around you as we come together to continue to get through this widespread disaster. Los Angeles County firefighters will remain on the front line until we reach full containment. And we ask that you keep all of Los Angeles County in your thoughts and prayers.

I would now like to invite up Los Angeles City Fire Chief Kristin Crowley to give her briefing. Thank you.

KRISTIN CROWLEY, LOS ANGELES CITY, CALIFORNIA, FIRE CHIEF: Good morning, everyone. My name is Kristin Crowley, Los Angeles City Fire Department fire chief.

I'd like to start with just a moment, if we could, of gratitude, a moment of gratitude for our first responders, our boots on the ground that are battling this intense and multiple jurisdiction and a number of fires. So, gratitude to those who are doing the work since yesterday through the night.

And like Chief Marrone said, we're going to continue to work hard to ensure that we save people, lives, and property.

With that, we touch in on a couple major points. With the Pacific Palisades Fire, we know that it continues to demand a significant amount of resources and attention. A second major brushfire now referred to as the Hurst Fire has erupted in the Sylmar area of Los Angeles.

Now, together, these fires are stretching the capacity of emergency services to their maximum limits. The Los Angeles City Fire Department is battling these two major fires while also maintaining -- I want to focus on this as well -- 911 services for the city's approximate four million residents. Now, despite the severity of the conditions, our department remains fully committed to safeguarding lives and property.

Next, I want to focus on what we have done over the last 24 hours. And with that, even within the city of Los Angeles, with these two major brushfires, our department has responded to 3,624 911 calls for service.

And to put that in perspective, our average is just under 1,500 calls in a 24 hour period. Over the last 24 hours, we have also responded to an additional 32 structure fires within the city. We have treated and transported an extensive number of medical emergencies, while extending our normal 650 transports to the local hospitals.

When it comes to the Pacific Palisades Fire, as Chief Marrone had said, this is over 3,000 acres at this point and continues to grow. We will confirm the exact acreage later, so we will make sure that we also communicate that to the community and to the media.

Last night, as of 1930 hours, all aircrafts were grounded due to high winds. Aircrafts are continued to be able to resume their water drops and acreage mapping today when the weather allows us to do so.

A total of 3,398 civilians and 15,105 structures are in the evacuation zone. And, again, the evacuation zones are the following, north of PCH, west of Kenter Avenue and San Vicente Boulevard, south of Mulholland Drive and east of Topanga Canyon Boulevard.

There are multiple evacuation centers which are supported by the American Red Cross. Injuries. Of course, there's a lot of interest in injuries. We have several firefighters and civilian injuries that have been reported and all patients have been treated and transported to the local hospitals.

[11:10:06]

Damage assessments. Chief Marrone did speak about a specific number. We are still vetting that through on the city side, so more information to come and we will message that as soon as we can validate that.

Approximately 400 LAFD firefighters have been deployed to the Palisades Fire. We have many hundreds of law enforcement officers, our partner agency responders and public works members engaged in supporting our overall operations.

We are going to be transitioning to Cal Fire this morning to manage this incident at 0800 hours. Next, I'd like to talk briefly about our Hurst Fire, which is located in Sylmar.

Last night, at approximately 10:10 p.m., the fire erupted in the Sylmar area of Los Angeles, adjacent to Los Angeles National Forest. The fire has rapidly expanded to over 500 acres, prompting the emergency evacuation of more than 3,000 residents.

This fire is burning within the footprint of the historic Saddleridge Fire. Now, despite the extreme winds and significant risks -- and that's what we're going to be talking about from today and probably throughout the next few days, there's always that significant risk of life and property. We will continue to focus on saving lives and protecting property.

The exact acreage at this point will be confirmed later and we will make sure that we communicate that to you as well. Lastly, we want to make sure that everybody understands we are absolutely not out of danger yet. With the strong winds that continue to push through the city and the county today,

I would tell you and we are all committed to our first responders, our firefighters will remain focused on protecting lives and property. The LAFD is extremely proud to stand with all of the entities behind me. Our top priority will continue to be life safety, ensuring that safe evacuation in the rescues of our residents that are in harm's way. It will continue to be our primary focus in this wind-driven fire event as it continues.

Thank you for your cooperation, your support, and your diligence. And, today, we will continue to stand with our partners to protect everyone.

Next up, I would like to introduce Sheriff Luna.

All right, sorry, sorry. All right, next up -- oh, we moved it, OK. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, we're just moving around, having L.A.

Unified Superintendent Alberto Carvalho.

ALBERTO CARVALHO, SUPERINTENDENT, LOS ANGELES UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT: Thank you very much. Good morning everyone.

Thank you, Chair Barger, county and city leadership, in addition to the leadership of our first responders and our great community, for the very, very important work you continue to do to protect our community, protect the assets and first and foremost the health and well-being and lives of members of our community.

Los Angeles Unified is the second largest school district in the nation, representing the interests of 540,000 students and 75,000 committed employees. We make decisions regarding closure of schools in a very methodical and science-driven manner.

So, after a great deal of consultation overnight, with experts looking at the data and considering the fact that air quality conditions deteriorated significantly overnight, we have made the decision to shut down a number of schools, particularly in the eastern part of our school system.

I will define what those boundaries are. School communities, beginning with leadership, work force and families, have been informed about these areas. And as of now, those schools within the boundaries of the area that I will define are closed.

This accounts for about 10 percent of our total schools in our district, about 100 schools out of 1,000 schools. The areas that I'm speaking about are schools located north of Manchester Boulevard, Firestone Boulevard, east of 10th Avenue, west of I-710, and south of Highway

134. Any school within that area -- and that accounts, again, for the eastern part of our district -- where the air quality met or exceeded levels that are not appropriate for employees or students to be around are effectively shut down. We will be making decisions about what will happen in those schools going into tomorrow by 4:00 p.m. today, based on the evolution of conditions.

In fact, since we made the decision to shut down those schools, air quality conditions have improved significantly, despite the fact that they worsened significantly overnight.

[11:15:02]

I want to speak specifically about schools surrounding the Palisades area. As of last night, we had to shut down five schools as a result of mandatory evacuation conditions. Those were Kenter Canyon elementary school, Canyon Elementary School, Marquez Elementary School, Palisades Charter Elementary School, Revere Middle School, and Topanga Elementary School, in addition to Palisades High Charter High School.

We have reports that Palisades High sustained significant damage as a result of the fire. We are working with state and federal entities to quickly access resources to address the issues facing this community.

I want to very briefly address our work force. We know today is not going to be a perfect day. A number of schools are shut down. However, localized conditions may make it difficult for our work force or parents and students to access schools.

Air quality conditions may vary, and, in fact, may not necessarily be appropriate beyond the area where we close schools. Please use your discretion. We will utilize grace and be flexible regarding attendance and for students and employees alike, specifically students and employees who face chronic respiratory conditions or other health issues. We will be flexible regarding these individuals.

We will provide additional updates later on today regarding conditions of schools going into tomorrow. For the schools that are open, recognizing the work force needs of the parents of our children, Beyond the Bell activities, care for children in those schools will continue to be provided today.

Today is not a typical day. We need flexibility, patience and grace, and we shall extend that to our work force and certainly our parents and students in our community.

Once again, our hearts go out to those who have been impacted and our internal gratitude to the first responders of our community for the fantastic, difficult work they have done over the past 24 hours.

Thank you very much.

ROBERT LUNA, LOS ANGELES COUNTY, CALIFORNIA, SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT: Good morning.

A lot of information to pass on, but please know this. This is a very difficult and challenging situation, but we're surrounded here by people who really care, and we're going to get through this together. That means with all of you as partners in our community.

Our top priority continues to be the safety and well-being of our impacted residents, first responders, and all of the individuals involved. But understand that this is a very fluid situation, specifically in the Altadena area, and a lot of our personnel, our deputy personnel, are involved in lifesaving measures as we speak now.

We are working very closely with local, state, and federal agencies to provide necessary resources and support. We have been in constant communication with both our fire and law enforcement partners across L.A. County and beyond to ensure that all available resources that are needed are being deployed strategically and effectively, but we are prioritizing life over everything else.

There are over several hundred sheriff department personnel working around the clock to evacuate residents in danger, assist with road closures, and respond to multiple missions that are given to us, and they do change periodically depending on that life mission.

To ensure that everyone is going to be safe or safe as possible, additional personnel will likely be assigned to this fire as this continues to go. And you heard from our fire partners that there is no containment here.

I do want to split it up into two. I want to start talking about the Eaton Fire first. Currently, there are evacuation orders in Pasadena, Altadena, and Sierra Madre. Evacuation orders, there are approximately 32,500 residents under evacuation orders and approximately 13,186 structures that we deem at risk, and that could grow.

Evacuation warnings. Approximately 38,600 residents are under evacuation warnings and approximately 14,342 structures are at risk. At 4:00 a.m. this morning, the evacuation orders did expand to parts of the city of Duarte, Monrovia, and La Canada. And again, we continue to assess that. That's evolving. That's going to change.

[11:20:04]

So I encourage you to consistently pay attention to all sources of information so you're ready to go when you are given that order if that does come.

As information is changing, even as I was driving up here, even as I'm walking up to this podium, I'm getting messages about several of our employees who are -- have lost their homes in the last several hours. I don't know how many because we are still gathering that information, but like all -- we all live here in Los Angeles County.

So we are impacted, so we're going to make sure that, within our department we're wrapping our arms around our employees just like we do with community members. Again, as I was coming up here, I did find out that we did have two fatalities in this area. I don't have any specifics. There is a lot of damage out there.

We're still in the process of doing these assessments, trying to still save lives. So this information is going to change. The Altadena sheriff's station itself was evacuated, and it was at least limited on fire. There was some fire at the Altadena station, but we did have to clear out all of our employees out of there.

I'm hearing some miraculous stories, and they're now -- they're just barely coming in of our deputies who were trying to evacuate the Altadena station, and then residents were running up from different locations around there, asking them for assistance in getting them out of their structures. And from what I understand, they were barely able to get people out before these structures started burning.

There's just heroic stories of what our deputies are doing out there from last night and this morning. I want to make sure people know deputies are working to assist residents who are evacuating and continuing to make evacuation notices as we're speaking. They are securing areas that are evacuated.

And it's always sad when I have to say this, but part of our responsibility is to make sure that no one loots or steals from our residents, our community members who are already being impacted. And I'm sad to report we made two arrests this morning for looting already.

So if you are thinking about coming into any of these areas to steal from our residents, I'm going to tell you something. You're going to be caught, you're going to be arrested, and you're going to be prosecuted. Don't do that. Stay out of these areas. It's only for emergency workers and people who live there.

We are at this point unable to clearly determine the extent of damage at this point, because the conditions are rapidly evolving, and the destruction needs to be assessed as the daylight hours have come forward. I do know that I have lost at least one sheriff's black and white to a fire.

Thank God that the deputy is OK, but deputies continue to be on patrol throughout the road closure areas to ensure evacuation areas remain closed to the public. All schools in the Pasadena Unified School District are closed.

There are -- there is a road closure at Altadena Drive from Allen to New York Drive. For those in need of shelter, please head to the Pasadena Convention Center located at 300 East Green Street in the city of Pasadena. And we're working with them in unified command and in partnership as well.

For animals, there are established shelters at large animal shelter Rose Bowl Stadium at 1001 Rose Bowl Drive in Pasadena, small animal shelter, Pasadena Humane Society at 361 South Raymond Avenue in Pasadena.

I'm going to switch gears now to the Palisades Fire that we have been heavily involved in with our partners, again, with LAPD and L.A. City Fire and everyone else that's up there working. As of this morning, the fire was still burning in that area. That's impacting our residents.

Evacuations are in effect, continuously in effect for the city of Calabasas, the city of Malibu, Los Angeles City, Pacific Palisades, and Unincorporated Area of Los Angeles County and Topanga Canyon. Evacuation orders are approximately 37,000 residents under evacuation orders and approximately 15,000 structures at risk.

Again, that's specifically for the Palisades Fire. Evacuation warnings, approximately 20,000 residents are under evacuation warnings and approximately 6,500 structures are at risk. There have been minor injuries and our partners at the fire department have talked about those and several, unfortunately, structures that have been lost. And we're still assessing those.

Bear with me. I'm almost there. There's a lot of information, very important information. There are several road closures which can change rapidly. The 10 Freeway at Lincoln Boulevard, Southbound PCH at Las Flores Canyon, Southbound PCH at Topanga Canyon, Coastline Drive at Southbound PCH, Westbound PCH to Entrada to eastbound closed from PCH and Malibu Canyon.

[11:25:17] We have established shelters up for that fire in the following locations, Westwood Recreation center, which is at 1350 South Sepulveda Boulevard in Los Angeles, Pasadena Convention Center, which I already mentioned. We can go there, 300 East Green Street in the city of Pasadena.

And El Camino Real Charter High School, 5440 Valley Circle Boulevard in Woodland Hills. Animal shelters, large animals, L.A. Equestrian Center at 480 West Riverside in Burbank, large animal shelter, Pierce College, 6201 Winnetka Avenue in Woodland Hills.

Large animal shelter, Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena. Small animal shelter, Agoura Animal Center. And small animal shelter, Pasadena Humane Society as well. We have got to take care of our pets.

As I wrap up, a reminder, and you have heard it from several of us, you need to be prepared. If you are in a warning area, make sure you have your essentials, your important paperwork, your medications, things that you can take, your phone charger, to survive for at least a week.

But if you are told to evacuate and given an order, there is nothing worth your life. Please listen to the police and fire officials that are out there and be prepared to evacuate. If you have more questions or there's -- about evacuations, evacuation centers or road closures, go to LACounty.gov/emergency or our sheriff's department social media.

Now it's my honor to introduce my partner, the chief of the Los Angeles Police Department, Jim McDonnell.

JIM MCDONNELL, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, POLICE CHIEF: Thank you very much.

And as you look at the group assembled behind me this morning, each of those and everybody we represent who's out in the field all have families. Many are impacted directly by the fire, but they leave those families to come and try and be able to help everybody else who's out there. So I owe a debt of gratitude to everybody who is putting it all in the line for everyone else.

This is a tragic time in our history here in Los Angeles, but a time where we're really tested and see who we really are. And it's critical that at these times we be patient, that we come together, that we focus on saving lives and to be able to do the very best job we can, so when we look back on this, we know that we did what we could for others.

I look at the people who were out there on the line last night. The winds were like something that I have never seen before. Firefighters, police officers, deputies, they're out there sheltering in their vehicles, their trucks in their cars, so that they don't end up getting burned from the fire that was being driven by 75-plus-mile-an- hour winds.

They were there until they could get out of the car and go back to doing their work, as you can imagine, a very difficult circumstance to deal with. These are, as I mentioned, unprecedented conditions, but also unpredictable.

As the fire continues to spread and pop up in different locations, none of us know where the next one is going to be. So I would ask you to be vigilant, to look at your neighborhood, to talk to your neighbors, to have everybody on board, so that if they see something start up, that we get on it very quickly, we get fire resources out there as soon as we possibly can, because, with these winds, once it starts small, it'll be very big very quickly.

And so I would ask for everybody's help, cooperation and vigilance in that role. As you have heard before about evacuation, that makes the difference between living and not. And so I would ask you to take these warnings, these orders to evacuate very seriously.

As you have heard over and again, be ready to go, pack what you need up, but then please comply with these orders. We don't give them, put them out lightly. When we believe that you're in the path of the fire, we're going to order that evacuation. And we really, really need your compliance on that, because if we have to send people in to try and make rescues, those people are putting their lives on the line directly for something that could have been avoidable.

Sheriff Luna mentioned looting. That's something that we also have to watch out for. That is incredible that we'd even have to talk about that during these tragic times. But we are going to take that also extremely seriously, and we will follow up with that in the strongest way possible.

As far as traffic goes, that's something that we're used to dealing with here. This will be an extra test of gridlock in many places due to people not having access to their normal routes.

I would say that, if you have an ability to be able to stay out of the West Side today to commute -- or to work from home, as long as your employers are good with that, to take advantage of that.