Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
NTSB Releases Updates On Midair Collision In Washington, D.C.; Medivac Jet Crashes In Densely Populated Area In Philadelphia; Two Deadly Plane Incidents In 48 Hours Raise Safety Concerns; Trump Signs New Tariffs On Mexico, Canada And China; Trump Administration Mandates Top FBI Leaders Resign, Retire, Or Lose Their Jobs; Palisades And Eaton Fires Now 100 Percent Contained; "Kobe: The Making Of A Legend" New Episode Airs Tonight At 9PM ET/PT On CNN. Aired 7-8p ET
Aired February 01, 2025 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[19:01:27]
JESSICA DEAN, CNN HOST: You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Jessica Dean in Washington.
And we begin this hour with new developments in two deadly plane incidents, both happening within 48 hours of each other. A medevac jet crashing in a densely populated neighborhood in northeast Philadelphia last night, killing all six people on board and at least one person on the ground there. Officials now asking the public for help in finding the recorder, which could help explain what exactly went wrong.
Also, we just got a new series of updates on the midair collision just outside Washington, D.C. This as rescue teams continue to work to recover the remains of all 67 people who died in that tragic accident.
Let's go straight to CNN's Brian Todd, who's at Reagan National Airport.
Brian, you were there monitoring the NTSB in the last hour. Bring us up to speed on what we know.
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jessica, I think the headline that you can take from that NTSB briefing a short time ago was that, according to Todd Inman of the NTSB, the pilot of the passenger plane may very well have attempted a last second move to try to evade collision.
Todd Inman says that at the time of impact, at the time -- at the moment of the collision, the passenger plane was at 325 feet above the ground, plus or minus about 25 feet. There was a bit of a discrepancy as to the height of the helicopter, which we're not going to necessarily get into now because that can be confusing. But at the at the time of impact, the passenger plane was at 325 feet.
He was asked that -- whether just before that moment, whether there was an attempt by the pilot of the passenger plane to pull up, and he said there was a change in pitch, which would indicate -- a change in pitch is an indication that a pilot is making a maneuver with trying to, you know, maybe pull up or down the nose of the plane. So he did say there was a change in pitch, but again indicating that that was at the very last second. So a collision was basically unavoidable, I guess.
You know, and the other headline here is that the very quick timeline of how all of this unfolded, really in a matter of seconds, basically at about 8:43 p.m., they were told, the approaching passenger plane was told to switch runways to Runway 33. Now that is not uncommon. But then just a few minutes later, this really rapid sequence of horrible events occurred at about 8:47, 39, he said the helicopter was asked whether the plane was in sight. Just a couple of seconds later, the helicopter was asked to pass behind the passenger plane. Then at 8:47, 58, they heard a visible reaction from the crew of the passenger plane. They heard the sound of the impact one second later, and then the recording ended.
Jessica, that was really -- those two were the two items that really stood out in the news conference, that there may have been a maneuver by the passenger plane's pilot to try to avoid collision, but it was at the very last second.
Also, just very quickly, there were five controllers in the control tower at the time of the collision. One of them was handling both helicopter and plane traffic. The others were ground traffic controllers, assistant controllers and supervisors. But there was one controller handling both plane and helicopter traffic at the time of impact -- Jessica.
DEAN: And Brian, I understand you're also getting some new information on the recovery efforts. What are you learning about that?
TODD: That's correct, Jessica. This is from Unified Command, which comprises all the local and federal first responders who are at the scene right now at the point of recovery, where the fuselage is of both the plane and the helicopter.
[19:05:07]
They said that rescue crews have recovered 42 sets of remains. That's an increase from yesterday where they had 41. They have now recovered 42 sets of human remains. They have identified 38 of those sets of remains. But that means that 25 sets of remains have yet to be recovered. They said today crews conducted dive operations. They utilized side scan sonar. They canvased shorelines. They used aerial assets in the search.
Last night, they said, this is interesting, that the Black Hawk helicopter was briefly stabilized by a crane, but it was not able to be lifted out of the water. They have divers from a salvage company surveying the wreckage. Teams from the Army Corps of Engineers and the Navy Diving Division are also on hand to do that. More barges were expected to arrive today. They need those barges and the cranes to lift the fuselage out of the water.
They've said they cannot recover any more bodies until the fuselage has been lifted out of the water -- Jessica.
DEAN: Just thinking about those families and those friends tonight.
Brian Todd, thank you so much for that reporting.
I now want to take everyone to Philadelphia, where that medevac crash happened. CNN's Danny Freeman filed this report from the scene.
DANNY FREEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. An absolutely heartbreaking weekend here in Philadelphia after that terrifying crash back on Friday evening. And there are still so many challenges ahead to finding out exactly what happened here and what went so wrong. The process of just recovering and removing all the debris from that plane crash is expected to take days, if not weeks, after so much destruction in this residential neighborhood behind me here in Philadelphia.
So here's what we know so far. A medevac jet carrying six people took off from northeast Philadelphia airport at around 6:00 p.m. on Friday evening. The plane was headed to Missouri and then ultimately Mexico, where everyone on board that plane was from. Now on that plane where two pilots, a doctor, a paramedic and a pediatric patient and her mother. That child had been receiving care at Shriners Children's Hospital in Philadelphia.
And the girl and her mother, they were heading home to Mexico. But the NTSB confirmed Saturday the plane was only in the air for just about a minute before it came crashing down. The NTSB also said that plane did not reach out to air traffic control in that minute. All six on board unfortunately killed. And then we learned on Saturday, a seventh person who was in a car on the street was also killed as a result of that crash.
At least 19 people were injured, and local officials worry the ultimate casualty number may go up in the coming days.
Now, the NTSB also said Saturday that they have not yet located the cockpit voice recorder. This could be crucial in terms of understanding what happened in the moments before that crash. They said it is likely damaged, but they're actually asking for the public's help who live in this specific area to stay vigilant, saying if people are able to find parts of the plane which may include parts of this cockpit voice recorder, the NTSB says that it's very good at fixing broken recorders like this. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JENNIFER HOMENDY, NTSB CHAIRMAN: We have an incredible team at our headquarters, our office of research and engineering, who have significant expertise on repairing damaged cockpit voice recorders and flight data recorders. In fact, we're known throughout the world. Other countries send their black boxes to us to fix. And so hopefully once we can find it, that's the biggest question right now, we can take that back to our lab and evaluate it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FREEMAN: Now, Jessica, all day Saturday we saw local, state and federal officials and investigators combing the area, searching for debris, cleaning things up. This crash site, so massive cars were hit. Homes were impacted as well. And the hope now just to keep those casualty numbers down -- Jessica.
DEAN: Danny freeman in Philadelphia, thank you very much.
Joining us now, the president of the National Association of Air Traffic Controllers, Nick Daniels, and CNN transportation analyst Mary Schiavo. Mary, also the former inspector general at the Department of Transportation.
It is great to have both of you here with us.
Nick, I want to start first with you. We have seen these two incredibly tragic accidents within 48 hours. Walk people through, there's a lot of attention on air traffic controllers now. Walk people through what -- how are they, what role do they play in helping prevent incidents? Obviously the one in Philadelphia very different, but especially with the one in D.C. But what are air traffic controllers doing to prevent incidents like this? What is their job?
NICK DANIELS, PRESIDENT, NATIONAL AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS ASSOCIATION: Well, thanks, Jessica, for having us. First of all, it's very sad it's under these conditions. And the controllers around the country are devastated. The aviation community devastated to deal with this. But when aircraft go airborne, they're usually talking to an air traffic controller.
We are responsible for every passenger on every plane and ensuring their separation depends -- the separation standards depending on the type of airspace they're in and how congested that airport is.
[19:10:06]
But one way or the other, we're giving them instructions at all times and using some form of separation with many of the aircraft. Almost all the aircraft in the sky.
DEAN: There's been a lot of discussion, too, about, are there enough air traffic controllers? Do they have the resources that they need? Do they have the access to the training that they need? Did we lose a lot in COVID that were never brought back? There's just a lot of questions about, are there essentially enough air traffic controllers, and can they do the job that they need to do? Where do you come down on that?
DANIELS: Well, I'm here to tell you there are not enough air traffic controllers, and we absolutely have to continue addressing it. We do thank Secretary Duffy, he did lift the hiring freeze on air traffic controllers now, but there's only 10,800 certified controllers in the entire country right now. We are supposed to be at 14,335.
DEAN: That's a big difference.
DANIELS: It's a rigorous training process. So it's not like today we could go out and hire the 3,600.
DEAN: Right.
DANIELS: It takes two to three years to get a controller from being qualified initially just to enter the job. And there are multiple points where they can fell out of being an air traffic controller. Everything from academy to simulation, training locally and then eventually talking to aircraft on their own.
DEAN: And how -- and so how do you think this gets solved in terms of getting you more air traffic controllers? I mean, obviously, you noted that the hiring freeze has been lifted, which helps a lot, probably, but what else can be done? Is it more funding?
DANIELS: It is absolutely staying on funding, appropriating. There is, you know, a bipartisan support. It was passed an FAA reauthorization, the maximum hiring of air traffic controllers for five years. But we need to keep the focus on it and make sure it is funded appropriately. And then that goes into the modernization.
We also want to work with President Trump on the recruitment of the best and brightest, as he stated, is that then we have to talk about the stresses of this job. We're on six-day workweeks currently to make up many of these losses of air traffic controllers that are out there. 60 hours in that workweek, which introduces stress and fatigue. And we want to work on the pay benefits and the stresses that go along with this job with this administration.
DEAN: And Nick, talking more generally, Mary, I want to get to some specifics with you, too, about what we've been learning in the last hour about this D.C. crash, which is, I think, several things. But one thing we've kind of zeroed in on, zeroed in on is this last -- I mean, literally last second pitch on the part of the American Airlines flight, essentially them trying in that last second to pull up.
MARY SCHIAVO, CNN TRANSPORTATION ANALYST: Well, that's right. And there really wouldn't have been a lot of opportunity for the aircraft to see and avoid the helicopter. And they couldn't do that anyway. They were under positive air traffic control. They were on a controlled descent. They must stay right on their glideslope. They must stay at their altitude and they must line up with the runway.
And so -- and especially once they had turned in to Runway 33, they would be making a left hand turn. The helicopter was coming in from the right. So it didn't surprise me that they did not see it until literally, you know, the last second of the crash. But, you know, a passenger, a commercial passenger service jet just can't climb that fast. I mean, let's face it, I mean, a rocket couldn't climb that fast. A fighter jet couldn't.
But they did see them at the very last second. And that was revealed today. But with their controlled approach and all of the data that they gave us, it sounded like the aircraft was exactly where it was supposed to be. On the right path to the runway, right altitudes, right descent rate. But there was nothing that they could do at the last second.
DEAN: The other thing was this discrepancy, and it's all still, I think we have to put a big star next to this when we're talking about it, that it's still preliminary. They're still -- the NTSB is still working this out. They've said they feel very confident from the black box, knowing that the American Airlines flight was at 325 feet, plus or minus 25 feet. Where it starts to get confusing, is that the -- what they were seeing in the air traffic controllers area. Was it -- with the helicopter was at 200 feet, which people are confused as to then how did they hit each other, right?
SCHIAVO: Right. Well, and obviously we know that that number, well, one of the numbers is wrong.
DEAN: Is wrong. Right.
SCHIAVO: But I think the NTSB made it clear and there's a lot of equipment in a commercial passenger jet. You have a lot of different checks and redundancy and equipment. So I heard them to say, and it would be my opinion, too, that the American Airlines flight readout was probably -- is correct because of so much redundancy. But the question will be now and, you know, the air traffic controllers and the policy for them, very important.
You know, what is the equipment? Why was the discrepancy? What's the calibration? And you know, in our country we have a lot more equipment that we could deploy at airports all over the country because there's a big regional difference, and there's a difference among our airports.
[19:15:06]
Not all airports have all of the same wonderful modern equipment. And we have to decide as a country what is our transportation policy? Are we going to have the best equipment and our best air traffic controllers? Because right now we don't. There's huge differences between the top 30 to 50 airports. By the way, the shortages are not the same all over the country either. Some airports have far more shortages than others. They try to move them around, but there are government rules on that. And so I think our policy as a nation has to be to get the best equipment for the best air traffic controllers.
DEAN: That's something everyone can agree on. Yes?
DANIELS: I couldn't say it better than that, but I absolutely agree. Bringing a funding structure and some type of funding reform to ensure that we have the necessary tools and equipment, especially the American workers serving the American people out there each and every day to bring the best service of air traffic control in the entire world.
DEAN: Make sure everyone stays safe. Well, thank you to both of you. I really appreciate it.
DANIELS: Absolutely.
DEAN: Still ahead, breaking news, President Trump announcing those new tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China. We're going to tell you what happens next and when you might start seeing prices rise. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:20:58]
DEAN: We are following breaking news from the White House tonight. President Trump keeping a campaign promise, signing stiff new tariffs on America's neighbors and biggest trading partners. 25 percent on goods imported from Mexico and Canada, with a lower 10 percent rate on Canadian energy, and an additional 10 percent tariff on China. It is a move economists warned will likely mean higher prices for Americans.
I spoke with former Treasury secretary Larry Summers earlier tonight. This is how he described it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LARRY SUMMERS, FORMER TREASURY SECRETARY, CLINTON ADMINISTRATION: This is a stop or I'll shoot myself in the foot kind of threat policy. It defies economic logic. It means higher prices for consumers. It means much more expensive inputs for American producers.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DEAN: CNN's Alayna Treene is live in West Palm Beach, Florida, and Alayna, the president signing these tariffs tonight, making good on a campaign promise. I just spoke with Ontario's Premier Rob Ford in the last hour. He says Canada is planning to move forward with retaliatory tariffs.
What more are you hearing about how this will all play out?
ALAYNA TREENE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, and I thought that interview was fascinating, Jessica. And look, I mean, it's clear that with these tariffs, the president is likely to be open and really wage a trade war with these other countries, and one that isn't exactly about trade itself, but one that is actually being waged as a weapon to enact Donald Trump's domestic policies. Mainly, you know, trying to stem the flow of undocumented migrants as well as drugs from coming in from the northern and southern borders.
Now, I do want to play some of that interview you did with the Ontario Premier Doug Ford, where he talked about potential retaliatory tariffs, but also about how he felt offended that the president was lumping Canada in with Mexico and China when it comes to drugs. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DOUG FORD, ONTARIO PREMIER: There will be retaliatory tariffs and the prime minister will announce that shortly. And what's really disturbing when President Trump is using fentanyl as a reason, lumping us in with Mexico and China. We have a strong relationship with the U.S. Customs. Our customs officers work collaboratively with them, working with the DEA, our RCMP is working collaboratively. I can tell the American people Canada is not the problem. The problem is the Mexican border and China. That's where the problem is.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TREENE: Now, Jessica, one thing that I would want to note in response to what Ford said there is that in these tariffs, there is a retaliatory clause. I'm going to read you some of what it says in the fact sheet. It essentially says that these orders have a retaliatory clause, and tariffs could rise if and really when, as he pointed out, that these different countries try to slap tariffs back on the United States as a response.
So again, we could really be seeing this broader trade war breaking out because of these actions and ones that could start, you know, pretty much immediately. We do know that these tariffs that Donald Trump had imposed today are expected to take effect on Tuesday. Unclear when we might see some of this other action from the countries that he is imposing these on -- Jessica.
DEAN: Yes, there's just more to come on this. Alayna Treene, thank you so much for your reporting from West Palm Beach tonight.
So for a lot of people, the question is how might this impact your wallet, right? CNN economics and political commentator Catherine Rampell is here to talk about that piece of it for us.
Catherine, good to have you. I do think a lot of people are wondering, will this actually impact me?
CATHERINE RAMPELL, CNN ECONOMICS AND POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, it won't happen immediately most likely. A lot of firms already have inventory. And in fact, we saw companies stocking up on various kinds of imports in anticipation of this in the last couple of months.
[19:25:00]
You know, buying more orders of goods from China or inputs from various countries that they thought might get slapped with tariffs. So I think it's unlikely that you'll see a big shock in prices immediately. That said, for goods that are not particularly durable, things like produce that we get from Mexico, that could hit a little bit sooner. I think the hope is that there will be some face saving agreement in the next few days, maybe, and that Trump basically withdraws this tariff announcement and that we won't actually see the costs for consumers.
Because even though Trump claims that it's foreigners who pay these tariffs, it's very clear that even he is worried about the tariffs being passed along to American consumers. Just look at the fact that he basically exempted Canadian oil from the higher tariffs. And they're only at 10 percent rather than 25 percent. Why would he do that unless he was concerned about higher gas prices at the pump and consumer backlash?
DEAN: Right. And potentially higher heating bills. And when it's still the winter, things like that, that could really impact people the longer this goes on. As Alayna was just talking about, I spoke with the Ontario premier just in the last hour. He said that Canada plans its own retaliatory tariffs and she was making the note that the president says if that happens, they'll slap more tariffs on Canada. How concerned are you about this turning into some sort of trade war?
RAMPELL: I think that would be a terrible outcome. Like I said, maybe there is some off-ramp where Trump announced these tariffs, but everyone will get together and say, hey, we've decided on a fentanyl task force or something relatively meaningless that allows us to back down from all of that. The worst outcome, of course, is basically what you have described, which is that we impose tariffs. Canada imposes retaliatory tariffs, as would Mexico, as would presumably China.
And we've had lists released of what those tariffs might target, in many cases very politically sensitive goods in the United States, Florida orange juice, Kentucky peanut butter and so on. And then we raise tariffs even further. And, you know, an eye for an eye leaves everyone blind.
There was a version of this that happened in the 1930s, when the United States initiated a series of global trade wars. It's called Smoot-Hawley. And it is widely believed by economists to have worsened the Great Depression because when you put in place these beggar thy neighbor policies, nobody wins. You get higher prices, you get lost jobs, you get lost economic output. And there's just really no upside.
The challenge, I think, for all of this, you know, before getting into that offramp type scenario that I was just describing is that it's not really clear even what Donald Trump wants in all of this, right? He's talked about fentanyl. What actually does he want, for example, the Canadians to do on all of this? By the way, Donald Trump recently pardoned, gave an unconditional pardon to the guy who founded Silk Road, which is -- which was a major drug trafficking site.
So how much does he actually care about any of this? And what are the objectives here? And if he doesn't know the objectives, I don't know how our counterparties, how these other countries negotiate with him. It's very hard to negotiate with someone who doesn't know what they want.
DEAN: All right. Catherine Rampell, as always, thank you very much. We appreciate it.
RAMPELL: Thank you.
DEAN: Still ahead, senior FBI leaders ordered to retire, resign or be fired by Monday. And it stems from their involvement in investigating January 6th and or any investigation around President Trump. What the purge means, that's ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:32:24]
DEAN: Thousands of FBI agents could be fired in the coming days, and over a dozen Justice Department prosecutors have been terminated. And it all stems from their involvement investigating both President Trump in January 6th. To put it another way, my next guest says Trump has redecorated the Justice Department with a baseball bat. And for more, were joined by that CNN legal analyst and former federal prosecutor, Elie Honig.
Elie, it's always good to see you on a Saturday night. There is a big difference between reforming an agency, which a lot of people say is not a problem, go ahead reform versus a full on purge and targeting just agents across the entire agency. What's your take on all of this?
ELIE HONIG, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Yes, Jessica, so, here's what Donald Trump has done in his first two weeks that is wholly different from anything we've seen from any president over the last half century or more. And I include Republicans in that, I include Democrats in that. I even include Donald Trump's first term as president in that.
It is normal, you will always see a new administration replace the political appointees -- the attorney general, the solicitor general, the deputy attorney general. That's how it's supposed to be. Nothing wrong or irregular with that.
But what's happened this last two weeks is that Donald Trump's new administration has reached in and fired career employees, nonpolitical people, career FBI agents, people who worked on the line as trial prosecutors at DOJ. That is different in kind from anything we've seen before.
And I think the message that it sends to the rank and file and DOJ is a very damaging one that essentially, if you're not on board with the political interests of the president and the administration, you could be personally punished. It could cost you your career.
DEAN: And what are you hearing, Elie? Because obviously you come from the justice world. What are you hearing from people you're talking to?
[19:35:14]
HONIG: So anytime there's an administration change, there's always some upset, some concern, some uncertainty. You're going to have, well, who's going to be the new attorney general? Who's going to be the new US attorney? What are the enforcement priorities going to be? Nothing unusual about that. But what I'm hearing now from friends who are DOJ alums and there right now is fully different from what I've heard before.
People are dismayed by this. People are fearing for their own futures. I've had people ask me, should we take the voluntary termination offer that went around to all federal employees? I'm telling them, no, you should not. You should stay put and do the job.
But this is different. The type of fear and lack of stability that I'm hearing about right now is way different, even far different from when Donald Trump won the first time.
DEAN: At what point do purges like this begin to affect these agencies ability to do their job? Because it takes a while to then retrain and get new people in there, right? HONIG: Right, well there's two levels to it. First of all, you're losing valuable, experienced FBI agents and prosecutors. People who've been doing these jobs for 15 to 20 years. I know firsthand you're not as good on day one as you are after five, ten years, you get better, you get more experience.
So, that's one practical loss. But the other practical loss is just the message that this is sending. And the notion that people have in the back of their heads now, which they shouldn't have to deal with of -- boy, if I follow this investigative lead, if I follow this thread, is it going to lead somewhere that could get me in trouble? You should never have to think about that. DOJ prosecutors, one of the best things about the job is you don't have to think about that.
But now, people do and I think, there's a practical problem here, there's also a morale problem.
DEAN: And so, what happens now? What kind of both -- what happens in terms of a chilling effect. Like what you're talking about and then just practically what happens next.
HONIG: So, I want to see first of all how deep do these cuts go. Is there sort of an initial list that is being gone through now? Have we seen the most of these firings or are there more to come? How deep are they going to cut? How far are they going to go beyond the political employees in terms of firing or reassigning people? That's going to be really, really important to watch.
I should also notice we could see lawsuits resulting out of all this. The people who've been fired, many or all of them, have some form of civil service rights, which means the way it's supposed to work is before you get fired, you have a hearing, you have the right to notice. There's all these bureaucratic hoops, and then you can get fired at the end of that if things don't go your way.
What Donald Trump's administration has done here is they've flipped it. They just said, you're out the door and if you want to sue us, go ahead. You can hire a lawyer, you can deal with your union, whatever. But they're firing first and then dealing with the sort of procedural aspects of it later, if ever.
DEAN: And just to note, before we let you go, these agents didn't choose this. They were assigned to these cases. They were just doing their jobs.
HONIG: Yes, that's the way it works. Certainly with the FBI, to a lesser degree with the US attorneys. When you're talking about prosecutors, like I was, you do have some input in what type of work you do, what DR you're going to go to. Am I going to accept this detail? But the FBI tends to be a bit more formalistic about it. And so, yes.
Well, two things I want to say. First of all, they didn't have a choice in it. Second of all, no one's alleging that these agents or prosecutors did anything wrong. Typically, when you get fired, in order to get fired, you have to have committed malpractice or done something unethical. The only reason that's been given for these people being fired is, and it was put in a letter by the acting attorney general, you participated in a prosecution of Donald Trump. We don't trust you. You're gone. And so again, the message there, I think is corrosive.
DEAN: All right, Elie Honig, as always, thanks so much. Good to see you.
HONIG: Thanks, Jess. All right.
DEAN: We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:43:41]
DEAN: After nearly a month of crews working relentlessly, the Palisades and Eaton Fires are now a hundred contained, but the work is not done. LA's Emergency Management is warning burnt debris contains hazardous toxic materials.
CNN correspondent, Julia Vargas Jones has more on the efforts to clean up.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JULIA VARGAS JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Sifting through Altadena's ashes. What were once homes, now piles of toxic waste. The cleanup after the deadly Eaton Fire is just beginning.
HARRY ALLEN, ON-SCENE COORDINATOR, EPA: So we put a white X mark that we've checked it, and it doesn't have anything dangerous in it.
JONES (voice over): Weeks after flames decimated thousands of homes and businesses, crews in hazmat suits roam the ruins. The Environmental Protection Agency, carrying out what they call phase one, a painstaking process, removing all that is hazardous in the fire's aftermath.
ALLEN: They're common goods from your house, paints from your shop. They may be oils from your garage, propane from your grill. These are the kinds of materials were looking for and will remove if they haven't been burned.
JONES (voice over):Harry Allen has been with the EPA for more than 20 years and helped in the recovery after major wildfires.
ALLEN: In Napa, Sonoma, Woolsey Fire here in LA, Lahaina. Yes, this one is larger than those.
JONES (voice over): But this time around, another danger lurking amidst the rubble, partially damaged batteries.
[19:45:09] ALLEN: Inside that battery, it can get hot and the gas can ignite and cause a fire.
JONES (on camera): Just on its own.
ALLEN: On its own, and if you watch videos of this, they look like little roman candles. If you're familiar with that firework, and the fire comes out like a jet from the battery, and it can be very harmful.
JONES (voice over): Once EPA crews remove these dangerous items and dispose of them safely, phase one is complete.
JONES (on camera): What happens after that?
ALLEN: Once that phase one is fully completed. Phase two can start, which is either public or private contractors will come in and remove the debris from each property.
JONES (voice over): The scope of the disaster and the magnitude of the work ahead now coming into focus. On these blocks, gas and power just starting to come back online. Beyond them, thousand more residences await.
JONES (on camera): How long to complete all of the Eaton Fire area? I mean, this is -- it's the whole community.
ALLEN: We don't know how long it's going to take, but we've gotten a lot of pressures and direction to complete the work faster than we normally would. And so, we are ramping up our staffing to try to meet those goals.
JONES (voice over): For those displaced and who are ready to start rebuilding, those goals can't come soon enough.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
JONES (on camera): And Jessica, that ramp up is looking like about 1,000 employees from the EPA here on site by this weekend. That will clear the way for volunteers to start doing their work as well.
We're hearing from one organization here in Altadena that they've completed the training for hazardous sites for 175 people, members of this community and beyond, skills that will be much needed in the weeks and months to come.
DEAN: All right, Julia Vargas Jones, thanks so much.
We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:51:34]
DEAN: Tonight's new episode of "Kobe: The Making of A Legend" follows Kobe through the creation and transformation of a new alter ego for himself, the Black Mamba. Here's a preview.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JACKIE MACMULLAN, SPORTSWRITER AND NBA COLUMNIST: The Black Mamba alter ego got him through probably the darkest time of his life, and then became just part of his aura.
SCOOP JACKSON, SPORTS JOURNALIST: Post-Mamba Kobe had a lot to do with him learning how to use hate to become his power.
GARRY VITTI, LAKERS ATHLETIC TRAINER: There's nobody had rage like him. Nobody.
He was like a dragon coming through. The angrier he gets, the more he's going to douse you.
JACKSON: There's a lot of stuff that happened to this guy. Once he embraced hate, and the Mamba just showed up. To me, the greatest was the 62 point game against Dallas. At the end of the third quarter, he had 62. The Dallas mavericks had 61. One man outscoring an entire team. The next month, he did 81, he came back with that.
In 2008, he is the leader of the redeem team that recaptures the gold medal for the United States.
KOBE BRYANT, AMERICAN PROFESSIONAL BASKETBALL PLAYER: Incredible feeling, we've been waiting for this for a while. USA is back on top. This is what it's all about.
JACKSON: He won his first championship without Shaq. Once he became the Mamba, he won his second championship without Shaq. Once he became Mamba, he finally won an MVP, once he became the Mamba.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DEAN: And joining us now to discuss is performance coach Todd Herman. Todd, thanks so much for being here. I know you met Kobe at a time when he needed help working through a lot of deep pain and anger. What was that moment in time like?
TODD HERMAN, PERFORMANCE COACH: Well, it was desperation. It was something that he wasn't used to and when he came to me, his comment was, I feel like I'm losing my edge. And my comment back to him was, no, you're going through an ego death which immediately clicked for him because someone finally gave kind of words to the experience. Losing my edge wasn't enough and that's what started us down the road of building this identity.
DEAN: That is such a profound way to say it. You helped him then create his Black Mamba alter ego. So what was that process like?
HERMAN: Well, initially when we started diving into it and what was really his main concerns and worries about the season coming up ahead, I mean, I wasn't going to be able to tackle any of the stuff that was happening off the court. But what we could do was start to protect that incredible champion that he'd already developed as a skill within himself.
And one of the big issues that he had had was he was worried and concerned about what other people were going to be saying to him throughout the season.
And so, automatically someone who wasn't worried about what other people thought was now worried about these things entering his head and that's what kind of brought us down the pathway of choosing a snake as an alter ego.
DEAN: I think sort of sports psychology and just creating a championship like mind like that for excellence is so fascinating. And what do you just remember about -- what was unique about him? Because so many of these athletes have to develop kind of this resilience. But this was beyond that.
HERMAN: Well, I mean, the pressure was so intense on Kobe. But the things that really stood out about him was really very much his commitment to practice, not just the court stuff, but all of the necessary skills that he needed in order to truly become a legend in his sport.
The other one was his intelligence. He had really a lot of fun playing with this idea because it flicked a bunch of different kind of intellectual switches in him and then massive creativity. I mean, I would never have guessed that Kobe would have ended up building the career that he ended up doing after the game was over. But it makes a lot of sense because he was so creative through the process.
DEAN: Just an incredible kind of process to watch unfold. And we all got the benefit of getting to witness it.
Todd Herman, thank you so much. We really appreciate it.
HERMAN: Thanks for having me.
[19:55:43]
DEAN: "Kobe. The Making of A Legend". New episode airs tonight at 9:00 PM Eastern and Pacific only here on CNN.
I want to thank you so much for joining me this evening. I'm Jessica Dean. I'm going to see you again tomorrow night. We're going to start at 4:00 Eastern.
HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher" is up next.
Have a great night, everyone.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:00:00]