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Scramble To Contain The Blaze; TikTok Ban is Closer Than Ever. Aired 4-4:10a ET
Aired January 13, 2025 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
COY WIRE, CNN 10 ANCHOR: Hello, sunshine. I`m Coy Wire. Welcome to CNN 10, your 10 minutes of news where I simply tell you the what, letting you
decide what to think.
It is Monday, January 13th. Hope you had an awesome weekend. And for all of our viewers in Southern California, we are thinking of you and hope you all
are safe.
Fire crews in LA County are still working around the clock to contain four major fires there. Over the weekend, the firefighters started making
progress on containing the Hurst and Kenneth fires, allowing resources to move to help contain the largest one, the Palisades Fire.
Crews were able to keep the Palisades Fire from expanding east over the weekend. The winds calmed enough for firefighters to keep the edge of the
fire from spreading. But the Palisades Fire is only around 11% contained, and it began threatening inland communities moving up towards the Getty
Center and UCLA.
Fire crews have been working nonstop since the fires erupted a week ago and are now scrambling to contain the blazes ahead of high winds picking up
early this week, threatening to undo any progress that`s been made.
But even though the fires are expected to pick up, it could also change the fire`s direction, and that could help keep some fire from spreading east or
inland. More than 150,000 residents are still under evacuation orders, and the L.A. County Medical Examiner sadly raised the death toll from the Eaton
and Palisades fires over the weekend.
The priority for officials right now is to contain the fire, but many agencies are beginning to look at how the fires burning in Los Angeles
County became so destructive. CNN`s Nick Watt lays out some of the factors that likely contributed to the widespread devastation.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NICK WATT, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Did it really have to be this bad? No one was caught unaware it`s here. Strong Santa Ana winds
were forecast, and after months without significant rain, bone dry vegetation was obviously primed to burn.
Number one, were there enough boots on the ground to fight the flames? Easy answer, no.
CHIEF ANTHONY MARRONE, LOS ANGELES COUNTY FIRE DEPARTMENT: We don`t have enough fire personnel in L.A. County between all of the departments to
handle this.
WATT: In a memo two years ago, L.A. City`s Fire Chief Kristin Crowley said more staff were needed with increased risk due to climate change and
increased construction in danger zones. Just last month, Chief Crowley told Mayor Karen Bass that eliminating some civilian positions and cutting $7
million from firefighters` overtime severely limited the departments capacity to prepare for, train for, and respond to large scale emergencies.
Clearing brush, which is basically fuel, is crucial and mandatory. Chief Crowley says budget cuts mean they couldn`t inspect to make sure the
clearing was actually happening.
MAYOR KAREN BASS (D), LOS ANGELES: There were no reductions that were made that would have impacted the situation that we were dealing with over the
last couple of days.
WATT: Number two, was there enough water to fight the flames? Again, easy answer -- no.
LOS ANGELES COUNTY DISPATCH: Multiple homes threatened. I need about two or three water tenders in there were some engines. We got dry hydrants.
WATT: Three huge water tanks help boost pressure in the hydrants around here but --
JANISSE QUINONES, CEO, L.A. DEPARTMENT OF WATER AND POWER: We were not able to fill the tanks fast enough.
WATT: Because demand was overwhelming, and the Palisades is at the end of the city water system with narrower pipes with reduced flow. Some hydrants
ran dry at absolutely critical moments, like 3:00 a.m. Wednesday.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We`ve lost most of the hydrant pressure.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why was there no water in the hydrants, Governor?
GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM (D), CALIFORNIA: It`s all literally --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is it going to be different next time?
NEWSOM: It has to be.
WATT: But experts tell CNN there`s not a city water system in the world that could have flawlessly handled this.
JONATHAN PARFREY, FORMER COMMISSIONER, LOS ANGELES DEPARTMENT OF WATER AND POWER: Now that we`re in the 21st century, I think we have a new climate,
and we need to rethink our infrastructure.
WATT: Number three, are building codes to blame? Yes and no. Anything built after 2008 is subject to some of the strictest fireproofing codes in the
country. But only about five percent of structures around here were built after 2010, according to CAL FIRE. And those codes generally do not require
retrofitting. So the new mall and Palisades Village is OK, and the 100- year-old mall just across the road is gone, and acres of devastation with the odd new build home still standing.
Number four, power line problems. Six years ago, the devastating Woolsey Fire just east of here was lit like many wildfires by sparks from above
ground power lines in a Santa Ana wind.
PARFREY: You could have 80 mile an hour winds, but if there`s no spark, there`s no fire.
WATT: We don`t know what ignited this week`s fires, but according to Whisker Labs, there were multiple power line faults and sparks around the
Palisades, Eaton, and Hurst Fires in the hours before they broke out. If power lines are below ground, they cannot start fires. The town of
Paradise, destroyed in 2018 by fire, right now rebuilding with the power lines underground.
Now, this was, as some officials say, a perfect storm. The high winds meant they couldn`t fight this fire from the air for those first crucial hours.
And in terrain like this, without air assets, you have a hand tied behind your back.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WIRE: Pop quiz hot shot, who is the only U.S. president to serve as a supreme court justice after his presidency? Woodrow Wilson, William Howard
Taft, Andrew Jackson or J. Edgar Hoover?
Answer is William Howard Taft, the 27th president of the United States who served as a Supreme Court justice from 1921 to 1930. Now to the U.S.
Capitol where the fate of TikTok in the United States rests in the hands of the Supreme Court. The app`s parent company, ByteDance, has made one final
appeal to stave off a ban that`s set to take effect on January 19th unless the app is sold.
CNN`s Brian Todd shows us how the oral arguments played out last week and the potential impact a ban could have in the daily lives of users in the
states.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The nation`s highest court tonight on the brink of deciding whether to uphold a controversial ban of
TikTok in the U.S. a ban already approved by Congress and signed into law by President Biden. TikTok arguing a ban would violate free speech.
CARRIE CORDERO, CNN LEGAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: There is a compelling First Amendment issue here, which is that this involves the
access to information on behalf of tens of millions of Americans.
TODD: Specifically, more than 170 million Americans who use TikTok, according to the platform, more than half the U.S. population. But tonight,
it appears a majority of the Supreme Court is likely to uphold the TikTok ban. Some, including Chief Justice John Roberts countering TikTok`s lawyers
free speech argument.
JOHN ROBERTS, CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE SUPREME COURT: It seems to me that you`re ignoring the major concern here of Congress, which was Chinese
manipulation of the content and acquisition and harvesting of the content, which was Chinese manipulation of the content, and acquisition and
harvesting of the content.
TODD: TikTok is owned by a Chinese company that U.S. officials worry could be beholden to the communist government in Beijing and could conceivably
help the Chinese regime spy on Americans.
CORDERO: That the Chinese government could demand data from TikTok and that it is covertly manipulating content that Americans receive.
TODD: TikTok denies that, saying it safeguards users` privacy. President- elect Trump initially supported a ban on TikTok in the U.S. then reversed course and is now seeking to pause the ban.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: We love TikTok. I`m going to save TikTok.
TODD: The TikTok ban in the U.S. could take effect on January 19th, unless TikTok is sold to other owners. Once a ban takes effect, experts say. If
you buy a new phone, you won`t be able to download TikTok. If you already have it on your phone --
CLARE DUFFY, CNN TECH WRITER: If you already have the app on your phone, it`s not just going to disappear but you`ll no longer be able to update it,
which means that eventually it would become buggy. It might have security vulnerabilities and eventually it would become unusable.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WIRE: Today`s story getting a 10 out of 10 is a frosty scientific feat a million years in the making. An international research team drilled and
retrieved an ice core from Antarctica that`s over 1 million years old. The lengthy cylinder of ice is being called a time machine that captures loads
of information from the past.
The team will study the core in sections and the researchers are saying this long piece of ice is an extraordinary archive of Earth`s climate from
the past million plus years. And get this, the cylinder of ice is over 9,000 feet long. That`s longer than six Empire State Buildings.
Snow joke. That`s a lot of ice. Now for the best part of the show, you. We`re giving a special shout out to Lisa West Middle School in Little Rock,
Arkansas. Jaguars, rise up. Let`s dig in and make this a great start to the week. Hope you have an ice day.
I`m Coy Wire. We`ll see you right back here tomorrow on CNN 10.
END
