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Laura Coates Live

CNN Covers The California Wildfires; Laura Coates Interviews Sebastian Harrison And Livia Pillmann; L.A. Mayor Karen Bass Under Scrutiny; Laura Coates Interviews Rabbi Daniel Sher; Firefighters Face Unprecedented Conditions. Aired 11p-12a ET

Aired January 09, 2025 - 23:00   ET

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

[23:00:00]

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN ANCHOR AND SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: The president-elect's appeal to his conviction is still pending, and it is working its way through appeals courts.

Thank you very much for watching "NewsNight." "Laura Coates Live" starts right now.

UNKNOWN (voice-over): This is CNN Breaking News.

LAURA COATES, CNN HOST AND SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Good evening, everyone, and welcome to "Laura Coates Live." Tonight, yet another fire is spreading in the Los Angeles area. This one is near the border of L.A. and now Ventura County. It's called the Kenneth Fire, and you're looking at it right now. It's inching closer to homes in the area after rapidly growing in just the last few hours.

And that makes five, five active blazes in the Los Angeles area. Seven people are now confirmed to be dead, but officials say that actual toll is likely higher because they still can't even get to several neighborhoods. Weather conditions overnight could make some of those fires even worse.

The powerful winds that helped fuel the flames earlier this week are picking back up, and they are not expected to be as destructive as Wednesday, but they will bring gusts up to 60 miles per hour. That's especially worrying for the firefighters who are battling the Palisades and Eaton fires, which are still 0% contained. Both have destroyed thousands of structures.

I mean, just take a look. This is a neighborhood in Pasadena before the fires. This is it after. Rows of houses. Homes reduced to ash. Here's a view of above the Pacific Palisades when it was fully intact. Here it is now. The L.A. County Sheriff says it looks like an atomic bomb was dropped. It's the views from above that seem to really highlight this vast devastation from the fires. And it is incredibly heartbreaking to even think about, let alone to see.

Even more heartbreaking is hearing residents describe exactly what they've lost. The homes that gave them shelter, where priceless memories were made, the pictures, the keepsakes from mothers and fathers and grandparents and brothers and sisters, all of it, gone. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNKNOWN (voice-over): There's nothing --

YVETTE ANDERSON, LOS ANGELES RESIDENT, LOST HOME IN WILDFIRE: There's nothing. There's nothing left. I literally just have the clothes on my back. There's nothing. I left valuable stuff here. You know, pictures. Just really the pictures that's, you know, I can't replace. Things that my grandmother gave me. My granddaughter, she's always making me something, and I put it in a frame. You know, I don't have those anymore. Last night, I couldn't sleep, and I just sat there on the side of the bed and just cried.

LONNIE WITTENBERG, LOS ANGELES RESIDENT, LOST HOME IN WILDFIRE: It's my children's history, their lives in that house. And we don't have the photos. We don't have their diplomas. We don't have, you know, anything. And, you know, my mother had recently passed away in April, and I had some of her things now at my house, and that's all gone. That's all gone now, too. And it's, like, I just can't sleep at night, just thinking about everything.

RAYA REYNAGA, LOS ANGELES RESIDENT, LOST HOME IN WILDFIRE: I tried to save my house because that's all I have. Everything I've ever worked for my entire life was there. My work equipment, my brother's ashes, my daughter's momentums, my keepsakes, my deceased mother's photos and belongings that she passed down to me. It's all I have. I have nothing. I can't even teach. And I'm a first responder. I teach people to save lives, and I couldn't even save my house. And I'm just shattered.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: My God. The pain is even worse for those who have lost the most irreplaceable thing of all, their loved ones. Kimiko Nickerson stood in front of the charred remains of her own childhood home where her father had stayed behind.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KIMIKO NICKERSON, LOS ANGELES RESIDENT, LOST HOME AND FATHER IN WILDFIRE: This is where we've been our whole life. And my son tried to get him to leave and my neighbors and myself. And he said he'll be fine. I'll be here when you guys come back. And he said his house would be here. His house is here, and he was here, too. He was in his bed when I found him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: I want to go right now to CNN's Bill Weir, who is in Big Rock, a neighborhood just east of Malibu. Bill, this is day three of this excruciating nightmare.

[23:05:00]

And these fires, they are still mostly uncontained. What are you seeing this hour? BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: Well, we're not seeing much because it is pitch-black along the powerless Pacific Coast Highway. I don't know if you can tell, but the Pacific is right behind me, and then in a brighter, better day, this would be a row of multimillion-dollar oceanfront properties here, but they're just burned to ash with cars sort of marking where different driveways were before.

This is the result of that ember fire, ember blizzard, essentially, coming over these hills. As you were saying, I guess 48, 60 hours, I'm losing track of the math now, but basically, anything that could have served as fuel caught fire and burned so hot it melted. And you can see sort of the aluminum sculptures that were once car tires melting into these rivulets around us here.

This is part of the Palisades Fire. It's -- by itself, it would probably rank with the Woolsey Fire from five years ago, which devastated the other side of Malibu. But this is part of this massive Palisades Fire that remains uncontained.

We're also up in the canyons today where there was an active fire crews really holding the line in Topanga Canyon to try to save this little village there. This is sort of midway up the canyon, and very anxious locals watching nervously but grateful that they were getting dumps from above with helicopters, fixed-wing aircraft, boots on the ground. It's all a matter of resources on where to move things around.

But tonight, it's so eerie here, Laura. Without an occasional passing first responder. We've seen them from around the state of California. We saw an ambulance from Las Vegas recently. But there are no lights and just this thick, acrid smoke in the air. It is just heartbreaking. The way the sunset today -- just utter devastation that will change the Malibu coast for a very long time.

COATES: I mean, Bill, you're no stranger to seeing areas devastated by natural disasters. Frankly, by war. You actually had an L.A. sheriff saying this looked like an atomic bomb had been dropped in these areas. And you just think about the pace. This has been three days and the devastation so extensive. When you are there and just -- take us to this, where you are, and what the scope of this feels like, and the likelihood to salvage or rebuild any of it.

WEIR: That's a massive question. You know, the California Coastal Commission, the sensitivities about building where we are --

COATES: Uh-hmm.

WEIR: -- it's -- you can't even imagine how they're going to tackle this right now. That's for another day. Right now, it's proof of life. It's looking for actual, you know, maybe fatalities in some cases, confirming the worst. That is going to take a long time because the fire is still not contained. What was happening up in the Palisades last night was gobsmacking compared to what I've seen in Lahaina, to Paradise, but 9,000 buildings there, estimating just from this one fire, this doesn't even count the poor folks up in Altadena, what's going on there. So, it's hard to say. And this, of course, is the result of an overheating planet, drought, a huge fuel load that was built by this whiplash of too much water last year, not enough in recent months now. And the world just not being built for that. The first responders not being built for that. You know, hydrant systems not being built for this new reality. So, these are really, really, really painful lessons in real time, and I think people are figuring it out in real time.

COATES: It's ongoing for so many. Bill Weir, thank you so much for bearing witness.

WEIR: I think I lost Laura.

COATES: I hear you, Bill. We're going to come back to you, bearing witness to this excruciating moment on the West Coast. Let's hear for more of the fury of these wildfires in the Los Angeles area. It looked like something out of a horror movie. My next guest, unfortunately, is playing a starring role. Something that he is, frankly, used to as an actor. But this harrowing experience is just -- it's all too real. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEBASTIAN HARRISON, ACTOR: So, I'm still hiding behind the boulders. Sparks coming. So, I have to duck behind these rocks here. I'm ready to jump into the ocean. All the firemen, they got the hell out of here. They evacuated quickly. I should have followed suit. Right now, I'm here. And the phone doesn't really work. No one knows where the hell I am.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[23:10:00]

COATES: Thankfully, he is with us tonight. Sebastian Harrison and his wife, Livia Pillmann, join me now. Just watching that moment, Sebastian, your heart just sinks, hoping that you're okay. And thank goodness that you're both here. Sebastian, following the evacuation orders, you decided to go back to your home, your sanctuary, to do everything you could to try to protect it. And when the fire began to spread in your direction, can you tell us what you tried to do?

HARRISON: You know, oftentimes, when we get an evacuation order, it's a little bit -- my mind is a little bit premature. And, unfortunately, I've been through this a couple of times. So -- and I've seen a lot of my friends and even family, that they have stayed behind when they've been evacuated, and they've been able to put out fires, small fires coming from fly members from even, you know, hundreds of yards and miles away. So that was my initial intent, if that were to happen.

But, you know, you always have to have a plan B. So, if it's a whole mountain of or curtain of fire, then you begin to leave. So, when I saw that there was a curtain of fire, I left, but I went across the street. And my plan B was I'm going to see if it goes through the property and perhaps maybe a structure or two still survived, is going to survive, because my father lives next to me. He had five structures. We had seven. And, you know, I thought maybe I'll be able to put out one if it goes through. The problem is, at a certain point, I saw the fire trucks just quickly leave --

COATES: Hmm.

HARRISON: -- and I thought, oh, that's not a good sign. So, I tried to get in my car, it wouldn't start. I got back out and I saw just this whole hurricane of embers going toward me, and I thought, you know, I'm doomed. So, I started heading down by the ocean where there are big boulders and, unfortunately, I couldn't see because there was embers and smoke and clouds and flying debris and all sorts of, you know, things flying in the air. So, I was covering my head, I fell down, hurt myself a little bit, but I was eventually able to hide behind some boulders.

And these messages that you heard from before were all messages that I was trying to send to my wife, Livia, who had no clue where I was. We hadn't been in contact for --

LIVIA PILLMANN, LOS ANGELES RESIDENT, WIFE OF SEBASTIAN HARRISON: Two hours.

HARRISON: -- two hours. But I was sending her messages on WhatsApp. But they didn't go through. But, um, yeah --

COATES: My God, Livia -- hold on. I can't imagine what you were feeling, just knowing that he was trying to give these messages to you. You could not reach, you know, your love. What were you thinking when you saw these, when you're sitting here having him describe it?

PILLMANN: You know, I was -- I left him at 4:30. You know, we couldn't get back in with the car, so I was parked on PCH where they stopped the traffic.

COATES: Uh-hmm.

PILLMANN: And his son was in the fire. So, the mother of his son called him and said, I see the flames coming up on the property, help Roman out, just help, just come. So, I looked at him and I -- I pushed him. I said, you go get everyone out, I'm going to stay behind. So, this was at 4:30 in the afternoon, on Tuesday.

COATES: Uh-hmm.

PILLMANN: And the next thing I know is his father and his stepmom, you know, they got out safely. So, I drove them to a safe location, you know, because they were just also not making any clear thinking and it was just very -- everything happened very quickly, you know.

So, then I came back at 5:30, and I had no idea where he was, you know. And I kept calling him, calling him. The phone was not going through. And then -- and then at 6:30, I received this video message that I think -- I think you guys see it, saying that our property is burning on fire. And he's on the other side of the road, on the ocean side. And that was my last message from him. And then I tried to call him right away. I said, get out, get out, just get out, you know. And I couldn't reach him, you know.

COATES: Oh, my God.

PILLMANN: So, I was standing on -- near the gas station, near Dukes, and I was praying. You know, I didn't know what was going on. I didn't know what to do. I just hoped for the best first. And an hour went by. I still never -- I kept calling him, you know. And then I called 911, and I said, please go check on my husband because he's at this address, I know that he's there, I had a message from him. I begged, you know, the fire department. I said, please, please just go and check on him, you know. He's there somewhere around, you know. And then an hour and a half went by, no message. And so, I was panicking.

[23:14:56]

COATES: Of course. I mean, I can't imagine what that would have felt like, to be -- trying to reach him, and Sebastian, on your end, knowing that she was looking for you and wondering where you were. And then you mentioned you have your father, who also had structures near your property. You actually helped to evacuate him. He's 89 years young. How is he?

HARRISON: You know, he was saying how happy he is that he's going to spend his last years, good years of his life. You know, he's very pragmatic, to put it that way. He bought a new T.V., a 95-inch screen T.V. So, I'm happy to be here, I don't want to go anyplace, I'll just watch TV. And he was, you know, content.

PILLMANN: So, when he received this message from the mother of his son, come dad -- she said that the flames are coming at our -- at me and you need to rescue your son. So, I called his dad, and I said, Richard, you need to get out. And he said, no, I'm fine.

COATES: Wow.

PILLMANN: I'm okay. You know, there is nothing here. He was so calm. He said, just come, be with us. I'm watching T.V. And I said, Richard, you need to get out, you need to get out. And he said, no.

HARRISON: He said, we'll talk about it. Come, we'll talk about it.

PILLMANN: So, the first thing I did, I called 911. I called -- I called 911, and I told them, please, go to this address, you need to rescue these two people, you know?

COATES: Hmm.

HARRISON: Yeah.

PILLMANN: And basically, they were able to send the police. I tried to rescue them as well because I couldn't get back.

COATES: Of course.

PILLMANN: So, I told the police, like, you need to rescue six people. You know, we had some of our tenants on the property, you know, who stayed behind, and they tried to leave also. So, it was just in a brief moment. Everything happened so quickly. I tried to halt from this side of the road, but I couldn't get back in, you know. And so, I did everything that I could.

After 90 minutes not hearing from Sebastian, I saw the sheriff, you know, and I ran up to them. You know, they were at the gas station. And I said, I'm sorry, guys. I need your help, like, my husband is there, and you need to rescue him. This is how he looks like. I showed a picture. I said, I'm 100% sure he's in. This was the last message. Please go find him.

COATES: Yeah.

PILLMANN: And they said, no. Everybody laughed. It's impossible. And I said, no, no. no. I know for a fact. He's very stubborn, you know. He tried to, you know -- I mean, he tried to save the house.

COATES: Well, it was possible because I'm so glad to see the two of you together right now, knowing that, Sebastian, you are back with Livia and your father, and your family is safe because --

PILLMANN: Yeah.

COATES: -- what you've described tonight, I can only imagine multiplying it by every person in your area who was experiencing something similar. I'm just so glad that you're both okay, and we are just praying for the very best for the community. Sebastian Harrison, Livia Pillmann, thank you both so much.

I want to get an update now from Los Angeles Fire Department public information officer, Captain Adam Van Gerpen. Thank you so much for being here, captain. We are hearing stories of families separated, trying to get back together, not knowing where their property was or one another. And I know that firefighters are racing to contain even a new wildfire that's threatening homes now near Calabasas, the Kenneth Fire, as it's called. We're hearing reports of this fire being investigated as an arson case. What do you know?

ADAM VAN GERPEN, PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICER, LOS ANGELES CITY FIRE DEPARTMENT: So, yeah, we -- I'm out of the Palisades Fire right now, but we do know with the Kenneth Fire, it had a very rapid growth rate. So, right now, the forward progress of the Kenneth Fire has been stopped, but at our Palisades Fire, we're just at under 20,000 acres. We have about 2,300 firefighters on scene.

And yeah, the stories that you're talking about, about people who are looking for family members, I can say I was on scene from the very beginning at this incident, and we -- this fire was happening so fast. It was so erratic. We had winds at 90 miles an hour, up to 99.

COATES: Hmm.

VAN GERPEN: It was very erratic. And, at times, our number one priority is life safety. So, as your viewer was describing, you know, we -- our firefighters were putting people inside fire engines. Myself, personally, I saw somebody walking in the -- in the blackout smoke conditions carrying her two cats. I put them in my PIO vehicle. So, you know, what you're -- what they're being described is something that we're seeing all over this fire. This was a very erratic fire.

COATES: I have to wonder emotionally what it's like for you. Obviously, you have confronted blazes before. You were a captain. But the emotional devastation must be so extreme given the scope of this. What is it like to see people in such desperation?

VAN GERPEN: Well, and we're just at the beginning stages of this. So, you know, people are -- when something like this happens, something tragic like this, the number one priority is life safety.

[23:20:01]

So, we send out alerts early. We pre-deploy. We have fire companies ready to go. We knew this was going to be a wind event. We were putting warnings out. But I don't think anybody could have predicted these 99-mile-an-hour winds.

COATES: Yeah.

VAN GERPEN: And, uh, you know, how we racked this was -- we're used to having Santa Ana wind conditions out here. This is something that we train for. This is something that we have on a regular basis. But how erratic these were with the winds changing conditions, people had only minutes to get out. And that's -- that's what makes this fire very unique.

COATES: So, what is your most pressing need right now? I mean, there's a -- there has been a brief reprieve from those harrowing winds, but they're starting to pick back up, we're warning about. What is the most pressing need right now to try to confront it?

VAN GERPEN: Well, right now, we're still under extreme fire conditions. So, we have a red flag warning until 6:00 tomorrow. So, we're through the worst of it but, you know, even though we had a lull and that's -- when we have a lull like this, it's not a time for people to relax and for people to not be vigilant and not be paying attention, because while we had this break in our extreme wind, we had -- we had multiple other fires break out. I'm hearing reports right now of another one going on in the valley.

COATES: Hmm.

VAN GERPEN: So, even when we have these breaks in wind, this is still under red flag extreme weather conditions.

COATES: Do you feel like you have -- I know there are firefighters coming from other parts of the country as well, but do you feel like you have the resources to be able to confront what's happening? I mean, obviously, the wind is an extraordinary impediment, the erratic nature of the flier and the flames, but are you hindered in any way in your resources being able to fight these fires?

VAN GERPEN: Well, right now, we have about 2,300 firefighters just at the Palisades Fire. So, we have firefighters coming in from all over the state. We have -- we have fixed wing aircraft available to us. We have our helicopters. And right now, you know, the forward progress of this fire, we were hitting hotspots, we're making sure that this doesn't spread, and that we do have another wind event or flare up that we're able to quickly respond.

So, right now, we -- you know, we still have resources coming in, and we're going to be on this fire for a long time still. And this is still -- we're only 6% contained on this fire, at the Palisades Fire.

COATES: Is that range -- is that range -- I mean, I'm trying to get a sense of -- I mean, earlier, there was zero containment. We're day three in. I mean, are you yourself shocked that the containment is taking so long?

VAN GERPEN: No, this is because of how widespread this is, because of how many structures have been lost. Six percent, that's -- and we're still under red flag conditions. So, we'll start to see an increase in the containment numbers after our red flag conditions are over. And then we're going to have to be prepared because we're hearing some weather reports from National Weather Service that there might be some more red flag conditions coming up next week. So, that's -- this fire is far from over. You know, containment number means that we have completely down to the soil, that there are no embers, no possibility of a rekindle. So --

COATES: My God.

VAN GERPEN: -- it's going to be -- it's going to be some time before we have 100% containment.

COATES: Adam Van Gerpen, please stay safe. Thank you for what you're doing.

VAN GERPEN: Thank you.

COATES: Still ahead tonight, widespread destruction across Los Angeles County as local officials warn evacuees that it's still too dangerous to return home. CNN's Natasha Chen standing by live in hard-hit Altadena with what she has been seeing. Plus, L.A. Mayor Karen Bass under heavy scrutiny tonight as residents question the city's preparedness and the current response. One of the members of the L.A. City Council joins us ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[23:25:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COATES: We are following the catastrophic wildfires ravaging the Los Angeles area. Let's go right to CNN's Natasha Chen in Altadena. Natasha, the Pasadena mayor is begging residents to not return to their homes until the evacuation order is lifted. What are you seeing there tonight?

NATASHA CHEN, CNN U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Laura, there's a lot of desperation right now. We're seeing a big difference between last night and tonight, just in the last 24 hours. We're in pretty much the same neighborhood where we spoke to you just one night ago. But now, the roadblocks are enforced pretty heavily. So, we saw a lot of people trying to come into the area to try and see their homes. They're really not letting people through unless it's very extreme circumstances. And so, we are seeing very, very quiet streets now, especially because the fire has moved on past this area. There are no flames to be seen. It is just completely gutted streets here.

And we're now hearing, of course, of those devastating stories of people who have realized their loved ones have died here in this fire, including one woman who told "The Washington Post" that her father was an amputee who used a wheelchair, and he was found next to the bed of his son who had cerebral palsy. She said that her father would have never left his side, and they were found together like that, Laura.

COATES: Oh, my God. That's just an unbelievable story to think about, the choices people were having to make and just the thought of people perishing that way. And we can't forget -- I know you have been out there, you've been reporting, and people forget this is also -- you live in the L.A. metro area, Natasha. This is not just a story, this is your home.

[23:30:00]

What is it like for you and what have you heard from people that you know?

CHEN: Yeah, this is really unprecedented for such a large metro area where you have all these fires so large coming in from all sides, really. The West Coast by the ocean here in the northeast, and then you had the Hollywood Hills last night, and now even further north. So, you have a lot of people in this metro area where it feels as if everyone knows someone who has been affected.

And that happened to me today. We were covering the story from an evacuation center in Pasadena, talking to people who had evacuated, and I ran into my friend, we take dance class together, and Kimiko told me that she lost her house, that I had no idea. Here's what she told me.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHEN (voice-over): Do you want to rebuild there?

KIMIKO WARNER-TURNER, EATON RESIDENT, LOST HOME IN WILDFIRE: Oh, my gosh. It's so hard to say. I mean, we thought it was going to be our lifelong home. We thought we were never going to move. So, I don't know. But it would be nice. But who knows?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHEN: There are so many people like her. We actually know of 1,200 people who are staying at that shelter today. But there were hundreds more like Kimiko who were coming during the day just to look for resources. They're lucky enough to have somewhere to stay tonight. But they were looking for a toothbrush. They're looking for some extra shirts. They left with just the clothes on their back, in some cases. And they're looking for information. How did they even begin to comprehend the process of filing claims? They were hoping to get some answers. This is going to be a very long road ahead, Laura.

COATES: Oh, my God. Natasha, what now for so many people? And I'm just still thinking about that father not leaving his son behind. Natasha Chen, thank you so much.

You know, as fire crews continue to battle the flames surrounding Los Angeles tonight, earlier today, some people did start to return to their fire-ravaged neighborhoods.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNKNOWN: Just pure devastation. I've never seen anything like this before. This is the second time I've had to evacuate since I moved here 10 years ago, but this just blows everything out of the water.

UNKNOWN: I ran through these neighborhoods. I've said hello to these people. They don't deserve this. Nobody deserves this, to be honest with you. But this is -- you can't quantify this. This is crazy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: Who has the words to try to even describe this and this devastation as it is continuing to sink in for so many people? Many have been growing frustrated, to say the least, with city leaders for what they say was a lack of preparation, mismanagement ahead of these wildfires, and a lot of that wrath is directed at the L.A. mayor, Karen Bass, who did earlier today promise accountability.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR KAREN BASS, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: When we are safe, when lives have been saved, and homes have been saved. We will absolutely do an evaluation to look at what worked, what didn't work, and to correct or to hold accountable anybody, department, individual, etcetera. But my focus right now is on the lives and on the homes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: Well, joining me now, Los Angeles City Councilwoman Traci Park. Thank you, councilwoman. I can't imagine what it's like to see your communities suffering in this way. What would you like to say to your fellow Angelenos who are frustrated about how the city has handled these fires?

TRACI PARK, COUNCILWOMAN, LOS ANGELES CITY: Thank you for that and for having me this evening. You know, as the L.A. City councilmember who represents the Pacific Palisades, these last several days have been horrifying, terrifying, and traumatic. The scene on the ground is apocalyptic. These aren't just my constituents. These are also my friends and my neighbors. And I do hear their frustrations loud and clear. And in many circumstances here, they're not wrong about this. You know, the Pacific Palisades is in the very high fire severity zone. This is a community that is no stranger to fires. We have similar problems when we have these instances. For example, we already know that when we have a fire event, our communication systems go down, we already know that it's difficult to communicate evacuation and other orders to people when those systems are down, we know that there are particular bottlenecks when it comes to evacuating.

[23:34:56]

And so, to see those same issues repeat in what has now become the most devastating disaster in Los Angeles history is incredibly frustrating. And it is indicative of chronic underinvestment in critical infrastructure as well as in public safety, for example, at the L.A. Fire Department. We have the same number of fire stations and firefighters that we had 50, 60 years ago.

COATES: Hmm.

PARK: But our calls for service have tripled. We have about a hundred fire engines and ambulances sitting at (INAUDIBLE) because there aren't enough mechanics to fix them. During last year's budget, I fought to retain those positions, and I was successful in doing so, but it is only a drop in the bucket.

Just in late December, we received the Standard of Cover report in which Chief Crowley indicated we are not prepared for major emergency events. We know from that report that in many cases, we are so understaffed, that our response times are twice the national standards.

COATES: Hmm.

PARK: We also know from that report that the city of Los Angeles needs at least 62 new fire stations to serve our average daily demand. The strains and the underinvestment in our public safety in Los Angeles is absolutely untenable.

And so, I think that our residents and constituents are right to be angry. I am glad to hear Mayor Bass's commitment to accountability. I have committed to my constituents that once these fires are out and we've stabilized the area, we will convene as many top leaders in as many town halls as it takes to get residents the answers they deserve about what happened here.

COATES: Well, councilwoman, I know we have to go, but it just begs the question. If all of this was known before in a report and beyond, then why would a listening session do anything to placate the residents who will be frustrated that nothing was done about what was known?

PARK: Well, you know, they have the right to have answers from their local government, but we're also going to have to put a lot of resources into what is inevitably going to be a very long road to recovery and rebuilding. I have thousands of constituents now who don't have homes, who are going to have to begin the process of replacing critical documents, filing insurance claims -- COATES: Of course.

PARK: -- and they are going to need all layers of government on hand to help us through this process. And I think making those resources available, as well as leadership to answer questions, so we can diagnose where did things go wrong. And as we rebuild, how do we prevent this from ever happening again? How do we incorporate infrastructure that can support a community like this?

COATES: We'll have to see how this all plays out. The frustration palpable and the flames continuing. Traci Park, thank you so much, councilwoman, for joining us tonight.

PARK: Thank you for having me.

COATES: Much more ahead tonight, including a rabbi who lost his home and whose kids have lost their school. He's standing by to share his story. And later, a closer look at what firefighters are facing on the front lines, some working 48 hours straight. We have insight from someone who has done the job.

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[23:40:00]

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COATES: We are continuing our live coverage of the California wildfires. My next guest is a rabbi at a temple in the Pacific Palisades. The synagogue has roots in the community going all the way back to 1950. And today, miraculously, it is still standing. But the same miracle is not true for this rabbi and many others in the community. Here is what his house looked like just a few days ago. And today, it looks like this. Ash. With only some of the brick walls even still standing.

Rabbi Sher of Kehillat Israel joins me now. Rabbi, thank you for being with us. I can't imagine what it has been like to try to guide and lead your faith community, knowing the devastation. It's just not your home that's gone, but two other rabbis in your synagogue, they've also lost their homes. How is your community doing tonight?

DANIEL SHER, RABBI, LOST HOME IN WILDFIRE: You know, hundreds of members of our community lost their homes. And when you talk to people on one of the worst days of their life, and each call is the worst day of someone's life, while you on the other end of the phone are having one of the worst days of your life, it might sound like it's too much to bear.

But what we found is that there is something incredibly powerful about how you show up for people you love when you're in pain. And everyone is simultaneously feeling that pain and also trying to show up for their community. There's a sense of true care and compassion when they ask, how are you, what about your home, while also holding back those tears.

COATES: Hmm.

SHER: And I've been in so many of these homes. I've hung sacred Jewish items of the mezuzah on their doorpost. I've said blessings in their dining rooms.

[23:45:01]

Our kids have played together. This is a true community. And when something like this happens, there's no manual. There's no instruction. There's no how we should be coping with it because devastation at this vast level is unfathomable and yet our tradition still has answers for it.

COATES: I wonder for you when the reality of all this is setting in. I mean, just the -- I'm struck by the community, the spirit, the empathy is shared, even in spite of one's own personal struggle. But is it hitting you yet, the devastation?

SHER: The devastation comes in waves, and it's going to. The way we grieve as people comes in waves. We don't get to tuck each piece into a nice little box and move forward. We have to be okay with waves. I have cried a hundred times. And at 2:30 in the morning, my daughter woke up with an ear infection last night. And my wife and I decided I would go to the store to get the Motrin, which is fine. That's parenting.

But when I'm at the store at 10-minute drive, because it's two in the morning, I broke down and cried because a day earlier, that Motrin was 20 steps from my bed. And it's going to hit in those kinds of waves. And that's just part of the experience that we're going to go through. And all of us going through that together is going to both make us mend stronger, but it's not going to in-authenticate any of our own experiences.

The way we pray for healing in our tradition is actually a communal prayer. It's not a prayer of healing, it's a prayer of community. And we use that prayer to focus on the idea of healing those in our lives who are in need of healing. Healing works best when we're healing as a community. And so even though we're not ready for that comment, and I truly am getting ahead of myself by saying it, we know that that is going to happen.

And so many of these people, when I asked, how are you, what happened with your home, they would say the home is gone. But what about our synagogue? And when we were able to say the synagogue still stands, you heard the first audible breath that they took. And it was powerful.

COATES: Unbelievably poignant. Thank you so much, Rabbi Daniel Sher. Thank you so much. It's devastating to think about even the little details that the rabbi described as a parent and what it's like to think about that children are watching us as adults, wondering how they should feel about something and will. Unbelievably heavy to think about the consequences of this.

And up next, shining a light on the unsung heroes of this disaster, the brave firefighters who have been working literally around the clock. Many facing unprecedented conditions with no signs of any relief coming anytime soon. A closer look at what they themselves are facing, next.

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[23:50:00]

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COATES: The firefighters in Los Angeles have been dealing with unimaginable conditions since the Pacific Palisades fire broke out on Tuesday morning. The L.A. County Fire Union telling CNN that many have been working nonstop, carrying up to 100 pounds of gear. Some of these men and women have been on the job for 40 to 48 hours before they were sent to the initial fire. And many stayed on duty for another 24 to 48 hours until additional crews were able to arrive. Anderson Cooper was on the front lines of the Pacific Palisades fire with California fire earlier today.

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ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Well, you've had at least two helicopters dropping water just on that spot fire, but that has restarted, so they're going to have to try to bring in more assets. Other thing I want to point out, you have fire crews on that ridge line. Those are -- they're wearing orange uniforms. Those are inmates who have volunteered to learn firefighting skills. They're playing an integral role here as well. I mean, it is all hands on deck.

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COATES: Joining us now to talk about the fire fight, private wildland firefighter Ryan Bellanca. Ryan, can you tell us about the conditions that these fighters are going through right now?

RYAN BELLANCA, REGISTERED PROFESSIONAL FIREFIGHTER: Oh, gosh, these guys are definitely pushing the limits of their abilities at this point. I think that more reinforcements on their way are going to really help with all of this.

COATES: Do you think that Cal Fire was caught flat-footed here?

BELLANCA: Well, you know, we're in a down draw time. There's not a lot of fire that goes along in California, even though it has become year around. A lot of folks are not brought on with Cal Fire until sometime in May to really up the bolster, the numbers. So, I don't think they're caught flat footed. I think that we're just in a time that's usually reserved for prevention work and doing the work that needs to be done outside of fighting fire.

COATES: What do you think is to blame for the size, the scale of these fires? It's unbelievable, Ryan.

BELLANCA: You know, it is and it isn't. There's Santa Ana winds that are a natural-occurring event that come through that area. And, you know, we really have to be prepared for these sorts of things by really learning at this point how to rebuild correctly.

[23:54:59]

I think a lot of Firewise is going to go into these communities as they get rebuilt. A lot of hardened homes are probably going to end up having to be rebuilt by California law. And so, I think it's going to come back bigger and stronger and better and more resilient. That's the hope at this point.

COATES: There has been a lot of backlash online against people who have tried to hire even private firefighters to protect their property. You think people should be able to do that if they have the means to do so?

BELLANCA: Yeah. I'll firmly stand by my beliefs that there is a place for private firefighting. And prevention is, you know, the answer to that. A lot of the private firefighters do throughout the year work on client's property to do those prevention projects. That's kind of what our main idea is with our business and with others as well. I think it gets lost somewhere along the way sometimes with what the differences between private and insurance operators and some other things. So, yeah, I believe there's a spot for that.

COATES: Well, truly all hands on deck. Private, public, everyone is shipping in. Thank you so much for helping us understand what's going on there. Thank you, Ryan.

BELLANCA: Thank you.

COATES: There's much more live coverage out of Los Angeles County straight ahead. Stay with us.

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