Firefighters Battle Devastating Los Angeles Wildfires as Winds Calm Somewhat

TIME

Firefighters are battling to control major fires in the Los Angeles area that have killed five people, ravaged communities from the Pacific Coast to Pasadena and caused thousands of people to frantically flee their homes.

Transcript

00:00While we are still facing significant threats, I am hopeful that the tide is turning.

00:06Thank you, Chief Moroney.

00:08Thank you, Chief Crowley.

00:10Yesterday afternoon, as the winds died down, we saw the return of aerial drops and aerial

00:16firefighting, a truly, truly welcome sight.

00:20Today, we expect winds to subside somewhat, which will allow fire crews to increase containment

00:27lines.

00:28However, and I want to be very clear here as well, we are still under red flag warning

00:33with extreme fire behavior possibilities.

00:38Damage assessments are ongoing at the Palisades Fire.

00:42However, preliminary reports estimate the damaged or destroyed structures to be in the

00:48thousands.

00:50It is safe to say that the Palisades Fire is one of the most destructive natural disasters

00:58in the history of Los Angeles.

01:01Evacuations overall for Palisades, Eaton, Hearst, and Lydia fires, the number in both

01:06county and city areas, evacuation orders are impacting 1,000 or 179,783 residents.

01:16That's nearly 180,000 people in Los Angeles County that are currently under evacuation

01:22orders with another close to 200,000 residents that are under evacuation warnings.

01:30At one point, we'll be able to do a more thorough search of these impacted areas.

01:35Some of them look like a bomb was dropped in them, where we will be able to bring in

01:39canines and other things to help us hopefully not discover too many fatalities.

01:47That's our prayer, but this is a crisis and we don't know what to expect, but we're ready

01:52for everything.

01:53And down each one of the blocks I traveled, those houses no longer exist.

01:59They are now basically rubble.

02:02And I haven't seen something like that.

02:03And I've lived here almost over 60 years.

02:07And the entire time I've been here, it looked apocalyptic.

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