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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees

Winds Expected to Intensify, "Extreme Fire Danger" Until Wednesday; More than 15K First Responders Working on LA County Fires; Strong Winds Returning As Crews Battle Fires; Death Toll Now 24; Sean Penn On The Scope Of Devastation From The Fires; Wildfire Misinformation And Conspiracies Spread Online. Aired 8-9p ET

Aired January 13, 2025 - 20:00   ET

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

BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: ... could afford the bill by fixer uppers up here and create a real community here. We're going to need a lot of imagining about the future, Erin, in places like this. But the core, the soul of these communities that cannot be burned.

ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: No, it can't. Some of those homes and Altadena are so beautiful, so much history.

Bill Weir, thank you very much in Altadena and good night from us in Malibu.

Thanks for joining us. AC360 starts now.

[20:00:33]

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, "ANDERSON COOPER: 360": And good evening. Thanks for joining us.

We're coming to you from a staging ground in the Pacific Palisades where fire crews, law enforcement personnel have been using as a base of operations for the battle that is underway, the race against the clock and against the potential wind that is expected to pick up tomorrow.

We have been seeing -- we've been out there in the hills or in the Pacific Palisades today, seeing about 5,300 firefighters up and down these mountainsides, putting as much water, putting as much fire retardant down as they possibly can, clearing as much brush as they possibly can in anticipation of these winds tomorrow.

I want to show you the map, the wind map. The Weather Service has said the potential is about as bad as it gets. The areas in purple which stretch now from east of Pasadena, all the way west and north through the San Fernando Valley into neighboring Ventura County, nearly as far north as the resort town of Ojai. The purple on the map, they say, could experience wind gusts up to 70 miles an hour.

Now, if that is the case, if that actually happens and we'll see how long those wind gusts, if they do happen, maybe, but that would make it very difficult to get aircraft in the air to put water down. And that wind could pick up these hidden hotspots underneath the ground just below the surface of the ground.

And I want to show you exactly what we are talking about with these hidden hotspots. I spent the day just driving around in this area here in the Pacific Palisades and this is what we came upon. I want to show you in particular one area that we were in, watching about 30 firefighters go up and down these mountainsides looking for these hidden hotspots. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER (voice over): The battle to save homes in Mandeville Canyon in Brentwood Heights has been intense.

On Saturday, one home in Mandeville was consumed by flames, but firefighters fought back hard. On the ground and from the air, they poured thousands of gallons of water and fire retardant to stop the fire from spreading.

Brentwood Heights, with its homes perched on a ridge overlooking Mandeville Canyon, was also saved, but two days later, the danger remains.

Around 11:00 AM Monday, we found a strike team assembled. Some 30 firefighters armed with hand tools, chainsaws and gas cans to run them. They're working 24-hour shifts, and there's still so much to be done.

FIREFIGHTER: We're going to push in and we're going to -- we call it mopping up. We're going to mop up the fire, 300 feet off the line to make sure this section of the line today is contained.

COOPER (on camera): So, is there already a line around the entire Palisades Fire?

FIREFIGHTER: No, there's not. They're still -- the crews are still actively working on getting that in. This is a pretty steep country. So, the hand crews are putting in a lot of work where the dozers can't push that containment line in.

COOPER (voice over): The strike team, made up of two hand crews, fanned out. They carefully walked down the mountain side toward Mandeville Canyon, searching the ground as they went.

FIREFIGHTER: They're going down right now, and they're going to stir the dirt a little bit and look for anything that's hot down there. And then if somebody finds it, they'll hold the line until it's taken care of, and then they'll move forward.

COOPER (on camera): It's crazy that you have to go over every inch of ground in this entire. I mean --

FIREFIGHTER: Yes, within our containment lines, yes. We check everything, make sure it's all out. COOPER (voice over): From the house on the ridge, a spotter watch for smoke. A sudden shift of wind, a new fire could endanger the firefighters below.

COOPER (on camera): So, there's some shrubbery here which is burnt on the top of it. There could still be embers there?

BRENT PASQUA, CAL FIRE, CHIEF: That's right, and a good indicator is when you see around the base is all white, really ashy. When its black like this, you can tell, you know it's cold or someone's already been here and put water on it, but you'll see a lot of white ashy spots along the hillside. Those are the key targets we want to focus on. That's the hidden heat that were looking for.

COOPER: The Palisades fire is anywhere from 14 to 16 percent contained right now. Can you just explain what that means? Because I think a lot of people think, well, does that mean there's more than 80 percent of this place still on fire?

PASQUA: It does sound a little misleading. Like where's the other 85 percent burning. It's not that.

I've driven around this fire for the last two days, and it's hard to find any smoke anywhere. This is the most active fire what you're seeing behind me.

And as you can see, there's no smoke, no flames. We just don't call it contained yet because we haven't had crews come in and mop it up thoroughly.

COOPER (voice over): For this strike team, working down to the canyon took much of the day.

COOPER (on camera): Given all the devastation you see, it must feel good to look over there and see those houses which you guys saved on Saturday.

AUSTIN LIUZZI, CAL FIRE: It is a good feeling, but then its you're humbled real quick when you drive these streets and you see the devastation and the unfortunate loss for those.

It's a good feeling. But, you know, obviously very firefighter's wish is that devastation didn't happen.

COOPER (voice over): The work was tedious and tiring, moving up and down mountainsides, but with the chance of winds increasing, they knew there's no time to spare.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER (on camera): And that's just one spot where we had. As I said, there are 5,300 or so firefighters just in the Pacific Palisades area working to try to find these hotspots. And again, the concern of the wind tomorrow.

I want you to meet Kenny Kane. Kenny, your house was just over there.

KENNY KANE, LOST HOME IN PALISADES FIRE: Yes, about two miles from here.

COOPER: You have a gym in Santa Monica. Your house was destroyed. How is your family doing?

KANE: Our family is doing okay at this point. I mean, the first inventory that you take is, is everybody safe? And it was pretty scary the day of, but once we all got together, that's the first thing that you just --

COOPER: Your kids were in school when this happened, right?

KANE: Kids were in school. My wife got several calls, and I was working pretty far from here and she went to go get them, picked them up in an auditorium where the kids were screaming and she could see the fire visibly moving towards Marquez Elementary, where kids go to school.

Got them in the car, started driving and got stuck in basically a traffic jam with --

COOPER: As so many people did.

KANE: So many people were trying to get out and I think the spook was in her, after seeing the fire move towards the school and she started seeing the fires, jumping from tree to tree, house to house as they were stuck in the traffic jam. So, she pulled the car over and got the kids out, and they ran a mile and a half back to our house.

COOPER: They ran back to the house, and then --

KANE: And then I was coming back and one of my coaches at the gym picked my wife, the boys and our eight-month-old daughter up and got them to safety.

COOPER: I know you went back. You got some things from the house. You also scared off some people who were trying to loot.

KANE: So, I rendezvoused with them, and then we realized there were still some things that were missing. And so, my buddy and I decided to go back into the neighborhood.

And as we were driving in, we just noticed, you know, a couple of looters at one house. We drove past that. Then we got onto my block and, as we drove in, we noticed that a couple of guys were taping a RING doorbell across the street.

And so, we got out and we, you know, pretty forcefully got them out of there. And I went into the house and it was -- at that point it was 4:00 or 4:30 PM, and the smoke, the huge black plumes of smoke just coming in.

And, you know, it's one of those crazy paradoxical moments in our humanity where you've got your -- you're married and your wife is on the phone telling you what to get. And then I'm on the inside and it's just one of those rather comedic moments, because my buddy who was with me was shouting from the outside, "Kenny, the house next door is on fire."

So, then my wife is trying to tell me what to get and I'm like, "Babe, I think we need to go." And he's screaming at me like, "We've got to get out here." And so, we went out and put that fire out.

COOPER: Your gym is okay, but you had a gym that got destroyed in the Tubbs Fire years ago.

KANE: Yes.

COOPER: And right now, your gym is kind of a hub for a lot of folks who have lost their homes. How many people do you know who have lost their homes?

KANE: Yes, so we've got 16 people as of now that have lost their homes from the gym. Another 15 or so are not completely out of the woods, but it looks like they're going to be out of the woods. They'll be displaced for some time. So its 30 plus people that are homeless for sure, and some without any home whatsoever.

COOPER: What do you want people to know about and what you're going through?

KANE: Well, I think the bottom line is this, is what we're realizing in my gym community is that just the sheer humanity and love that we have for each other is something that we really focus on at our gym, we have this concept called VUCA and this idea is that the world is volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous.

And it's like literally something that we train from a mindset perspective. And it just -- in moments like this, are you prepared not just physically, but mentally and emotionally?

[20:10:08]

And so, what happens in a moment like this is that, you know, these little micro communities step up so much and, you know, there's some of us that have been making our way back into the gym and just starting to move again and just -- it's pretty profound because you just you -- you know, you get the love of people who've been through it and then you get the people who aren't affected just taking you in and caring for you.

And, that's this whole thing, to me that, like, what I want people to know is that like that there's just so much beauty in the caretaking of human beings, and there's these micro elements of the thugs that were trying to loot our neighborhood or whatever and so there's this coexistent thing that's in all of our humanity. There's so much goodness and just a touch of badness.

But what I'd like everybody to know is that, like, there's so much goodness in all of this. And despite the devastation, there's a lot of love.

COOPER: You said there's a GoFundMe you've set up. Is that right?

KANE: Yes, it's GoFundMe. There's two, one for the members of our gym and then one for my wife and I.

COOPER: How do you find that?

KANE: I actually don't know the one for that -- set up by other people, so.

COOPER: Let's try to put it on screen.

KANE: Yes.

COOPER: What's the name of the gym?

KANE: The name of the gym is Oak Park, Los Angeles.

COOPER: I wish you the best. I'm so sorry.

KANE: Thank you, Anderson. I really appreciate it. Thank you for your time.

COOPER: There's a lot more ahead. I want to check in with Derek Van Dam just to get a sense of this wind and what to expect for tomorrow. Derek, what are you seeing?

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, subtle change in the wind direction is going to bring the most extreme fire risk to new areas. Starting at 4:00 AM tomorrow morning, lasting right through the day on Wednesday, we have red flag warnings that are in place in the hardest hit areas. Remember, anywhere you see this shading of pink, that is where there is a high risk of rapid fire growth.

But the National Weather Service in Los Angeles has issued these two areas, called a Particularly Dangerous Situation. To give you an idea just how rare these are, they've only issued six of these in the past five years, four of which have been issued in the past three months.

Last week's Particularly Dangerous Situation, we all know what happened with the Palisade Fire as it exploded in size.

So, basically what this means is that the conditions are ripe for extreme fire behavior and extreme fire growth in new locations.

So this expansion and consolidation of this purple area you see here, including the San Fernando Valley, into central and eastern sections of Ventura County, that's new because they're seeing this subtle change in the wind direction, bringing the most extreme fire threat to those particular areas.

So, what has been a northeasterly wind will be more of an east to northeasterly wind. So this is going to be crucial in who experiences the most volatile extreme potential, at least in terms of fire behavior. The fire danger there, there's not predicting where the fires will actually occur. It's showing you that the conditions there are ready for fire development and behavior.

So, these are the current fires. Eaton Fire and into the Palisades Fire where, Anderson was actually walking with the firefighters earlier today is in an area called Brentwood Heights that's within this region.

And what you're noticing here is the evacuation warnings and orders with a shade of yellow and pink. Those have crossed the 405. They're encroaching on the UCLA campus and getting ever so close to the Brentwood area here.

So we'll see how the Palisades Fire actually unfolds here in the coming days, especially with this change in the wind direction -- Anderson.

COOPER:. Derek Van Dam, I appreciate it, thank you so much.

It's so fascinating to me. I mean, you think that, you know, there are not active fires burning right now even though its only 16 or so percent contained herein the Palisades. But it's these hotspots underneath the ground that are so much concern right now. And if the wind comes, it will it will move off some of that dirt, that cover and something that smoldering in the root underneath some shrubbery could become an ember that goes up into the air and starts a new fire. That's why the wind is of such concern and it would hamper aerial assault on any fire from aircraft.

I want to check in with our Nick Watt, who is in the Palisades.

Nick, what have you been seeing today and hearing?

NICK WATT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Anderson, while you've been up there with the firefighters getting ready for the next wave, we've been down in the Palisades Village and it has been just eerie today.

There are 200 National Guard soldiers now deployed here, along with Sheriff's Deputies, police officers to keep out the looters.

You know, end of last week into the weekend, the police were bringing people who used to live here in because these people wanted to see if there was anything left of their homes. They've had to stop that because they don't want the danger of looters coming in here and stealing what's left.

[20:15:01]

So we've seen County Fire officials walking around going house by house, assessing the damage and taking photographs, uploading those photographs so that people who can't come in they can at least see if there's anything left.

Once they've inspected the house, they hang a little pink tag outside the house and move on. I'm looking at a pink tag just over there. There is nothing left of this house to hang a pink tag on, so the tag is on the charred tree stump that is out front.

You know, a lot of those people are now beginning this long, laborious -- it's going to be a painful process of trying to get insurance, trying to figure out what they do next.

Twenty four dead, six people still unaccounted for as we wait for the potential next wave of this fire to hit Los Angeles.

You know, along with those firefighters who you were with trying to prepare, trying to make sure that they're in the best position possible to fight the next fire. They're also going to increase the fire patrols, Anderson.

So they've got eyes on anything. And, you know, the one thing that is giving me some optimism is, you know, when this fire broke out last week, there were like 250 firefighters here fighting it.

You know, as you said, there are now 5,000 firefighters just on this one fire area. And they are pre-positioning getting ready for the potential next wave.

But, you know, I'm hearing from people down in Santa Monica, in Brentwood that they are anxious. They are worried for what's going to happen in the night when those winds pick up again.

And, you know, there's still a whole lot more fuel out here in Los Angeles, even in the burned areas, there are pockets.

But elsewhere, you know, we had this wet, wet winter last winter, no rain in the summer. I mean, all that stuff up in the hills, I mean, people are still concerned. I mean, you know, and a friend of mine was at church here yesterday and he said that the message was very much, you know, you can destroy our homes, but you can't destroy our community.

I mean, I hope he's right. I hope he's right -- Anderson.

COOPER: Nick Watt, I appreciate it. Thank you.

Nick's been doing extraordinary work now for a very long time, from the beginning, the first night when all of us watched what was happening.

Now, we're going to take a short break. We're going to take a short break and talk to the Sheriff about arrests that had been made, also about missing persons at this point, a lot more ahead. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:21:27]

COOPER: Hey welcome back. Joining me from a staging area along the Pacific Coast Highway near the Pacific Palisades, I'm here with Sheriff Robert Luna of LA County Sheriff's Department.

Just talk a little bit about what, in terms of what your officers are doing, looking for missing, looking for those who have died.

ROBERT LUNA, LA COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT, CHIEF: Yes. So first of all, I'm really proud to represent all the men and women of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. They are doing amazing work, working long hours. So we are very appreciative.

So, we've got several missions between evacuations, road closures, ingress and egress, humanitarian missions. And we're out there working and we're unfortunately -- we're doing what we call looter suppression.

Because when people don't want to leave their house under evacuation orders, they're afraid that people may break into their homes. So we are out there trying to ensure that people's homes are safe. So, that's a primary mission.

COOPER: Are you seeing a lot of, I mean, how many arrests have you made on looting?

LUNA: As of last night, we have had a total of 34 arrests, but not all of them are for either burglary or looting. There are a variety of charges in there.

There is a curfew in effect. I think we're going into our third night tonight of a curfew from 6:00 PM to 6:00 AM, so a lot of the arrests are for curfew violations. But interestingly enough, in these impacted areas, we tell people, don't come in here, you cannot come in here.

But we have people that we stop. They have narcotics on them. We've had a couple of arrests where people with guns and they're in an area they're not supposed to be in.

COOPER: And in terms of the death toll and the missing, what are you seeing for LA County?

LUNA: For LA County, which is our jurisdiction for the LA County Sheriffs, unfortunately, as of this morning, were at 21 deaths. And that's at the combination of both the Palisades Fire and the Eaton location.

But currently we have search and rescue recovery operations that are being conducted. Basically, what that is, is you have a combination of LA County Search and Rescue, LA County fire, and the LA County Coroner's Office with cadaver dogs doing grid searches.

In the last two days, they've searched over 900 residences, and unfortunately, they've come up with remains. So then the Coroner's Office processes them, and then the Coroner's Office has to identify and then notify the next of kin, very tragic.

COOPER: So you're essentially -- you divide up neighborhoods by grid and you're doing systematic grid searches block by block, house by house on some of these areas.

LUNA: Yes, that's exactly what we're doing. And by the way, that correlates to the frustration from some of the residents who want to get back to their houses and we'd like to get them back into their houses.

COOPER: But that's one of the holdups, is you've got to do these searches?

LUNA: Yes, one of the holdups is that we need to do these searches. We need to do them right, so we can hopefully give the families that are waiting, the news that -- the unfortunate news at times. But we can't allow people going in and out.

COOPER: Do you have a sense of how much more of a grid search is like? How long do you have grid searches ahead of you?

LUNA: As of last night, when I got my last numbers, I want to say we had only done maybe 10 to 15 percent of the areas that we still need to do. It's going to take several days to do this and do it right.

COOPER: Right, well, Sheriff Luna, I appreciate all your efforts and you coming out here. I know your officers have been working around the clock. Thank you.

LUNA: Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Thank you.

COOPER: Sheriff Luna with the LA County Sheriff's

Gary Tuchman today went into the Pacific Palisades with an old family friend of his to look at what this family has lost, let's take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Eighty-nine-year-old Sam Bachner walking up his driveway with his daughter, Jen, about to see for the first time with the Palisades Fire did to his home.

This video shows what it looked like from the outdoor deck on Sam's Pacific Palisades house on Tuesday night. And hours later, after he evacuated this video from outside his house.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wow, if anyone knows this house, just a huge house. There's embers and it looks like there's a gas line back there. We're going to tell the firefighters.

JEN PORTER: Just go slow.

TUCHMAN (voice over): As Sam walked in his home, he saw little damage on the right side of the house. But it turns out the fire raged through the left side.

SAM BACHNER: Just check to your left. That's my office. That's where I work.

TUCHMAN (voice over): Many portions inside and outside the house destroyed. Sam and his late wife, Arlene (ph) raised three daughters here. And I know this all quite personally, because Sam was and is best friends with my dad. They've been friends since kindergarten. That's Sam on the right, my dad on the left when they were both 16 year sold in Chicago in 1951. SAM BACHNER: There are people less fortunate, more ravaged, more displaced. We have a family that stays together and sticks together, and we started supporting each other. These are material things that are not as important to anybody living things are most important.

TUCHMAN (voice over): Sam's three children and their families all live close to each other in mandatory evacuation areas. Jen and her husband, Damon, raised four children in their home.

DAMON PORTER: Thank god our house is here.

JEN PORTER, BRENTWOOD RESIDENT: We're so lucky.

TUCHMAN (voice over): Damage here and her sister Lori's house, very limited.

JEN PORTER: This is the only neighborhood I've ever known in my whole life. I've been here for 56 years. A mile apart from my sisters and my parents. It's surreal, for sure.

TUCHMAN (voice over): But it's a drastically different situation for the third sister, Dana, and her husband Rick, who have also come to see their house for the first time since the fire started raging.

RICK RIVERA: Oh my God, babe.

TUCHMAN (voice over): Dana and Rick's Pacific Palisades home of 32 years has been destroyed. A total loss for the parents of four grandparents of six.

They are here with two of their sons and their daughter-in-law.

RICK RIVERA: Oh, give me a hug, baby. Oh my God.

TUCHMAN (voice over): This is what their house looked like just a few days ago. And this is video, a neighbor sent them of the wildfires that started burning their house and taking over the neighborhood.

Four years ago, their son Luke, married Brianna and the wedding party was in the house.

LUKE: Careful, sweetie.

BRIANNA: Oh, my God.

TUCHMAN (voice over): They are profoundly sad. But like Sam, the patriarch of the family, Dana and Rick say they realize how fortunate they still are.

DANA RIVERA, PACIFIC PALISADES RESIDENT: We raised our four children here under this roof for 32 years, and it had magic in it.

TUCHMAN (voice over): And they have a guiding philosophy.

TUCHMAN (on camera): What do you do next?

RICK RIVERA: Do you want me to go?

DANA RIVERA: Yes. You go.

RICK RIVERA: Because she always says, are we going to be okay? And the answer is always yes.

TUCHMAN (voice over): As for Sam.

TUCHMAN (on camera): You're grateful for what you've gotten.

SAM BACHNER: Grateful for what I -- standing here, what I got on my back right now, and being here and being able to talk to you and being able to go forward tomorrow morning. That's God's gift.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: And Gary Tuchman joins us now.

It's so extraordinary to see what people are going through here.

TUCHMAN (on camera): It's really sad. And right now, all three of them, Sam and his daughter Dana, her husband Rick, they're all staying in a hotel. Dana and Rick have three large dogs who are staying with them. Their goal is to rebuild back their houses, but it's going to take a long time for them and so many other people do.

COOPER: Yes, for people even figuring out what the next step is, it is difficult.

Gary Tuchman, thank you so much.

As I said, were at a staging area here or firefighters, law enforcement personnel and people are coming by. I want you to meet Jay Leno. You came by to drop off some supplies?

JAY LENO, COMEDIAN: We're cooking for the for the crew, and well, you guys, if you're hungry, we've got a big barbecue going. And because, you know, they're all getting boxed lunches and we figure, let's get some hot food.

So, it's kind of fun. I drove a 1941 American Lafrance Firetruck, so the guys got --

COOPER: You brought your own fire truck?

LENO: I brought my own fire -- it's good to have your own fire truck when you live in L.A. And --

COOPER: So it's a 1941 fire --

LENO: 1941, yes, yes. So, but anyway, so we've got it loaded up, and we cooked yesterday in Pasadena at the Rose Bowl for the crew there, and we're here today, and we'll be at some of the other locations in the next two or three days, yes.

COOPER: How, for you, seeing this, I mean, you're a long-time resident here.

LENO: You know, it's unbelievable. It's the biggest natural disaster. Not that 9/11 was a natural disaster, but it's literally on that scale. I mean, it's 10,000 buildings. I mean, you can't even -- if you drove all day, you couldn't see 10,000 buildings.

I mean, you get on that hill, and you look for miles, and there's nothing. It looks like Hiroshima or just some horrible thing. But, you know, the sense of community, neighbors meeting neighbors never met before, and people all pitching in, I mean, I try to look at the bright side of things, you know.

COOPER: It is true, though. I mean, you see -- I mean, the sheriff was just on talking about, you know, the arrest for looters of some 30 or so in L.A. County. But what you hear of more, I mean, obviously, that's an awful thing. What you hear of more is neighbors helping neighbors, people who didn't even know each other before.

LENO: Right. I mean, it's a shame it has to come to that. I mean, the last time a member was 9/11, I remember President Bush, we all had to get together. And the sense of community, for three or four days, everybody put aside their political beliefs and who's on your lawn on a sign and all that nonsense.

And it's happening here today. I mean, it's a shame that's what it takes, but --

COOPER: It's interesting you say that, because, you know, next week there's, you know, the inauguration and everything. I don't even want to go back to the world of politics. I mean, what's happening here is so real and so pure and so important of people connecting and loving each other and remembering that we are all part of a community.

LENO: Yes, I think that's really true. I mean, it's an entire city wiped out. I mean, Pacific Palisades, it doesn't exist and probably won't exist the next five, six years. I don't know how you rebuild from this.

It's $160 billion. There's no insurance company in the world have that much money. I mean, the problems will be insurmountable, but we'll get through it. We always do.

COOPER: Well, I love what you're doing. It's really a pleasure to see you.

LENO: Good to see you.

COOPER: Yes.

LENO: I'm sorry for these circumstances.

COOPER: Yes, me too. Me too.

LENO: Yes, God bless everyone.

COOPER: Nice to see someone else with some white hair. Yes. LENO: Yes.

COOPER: We're going to take a short break. We'll have more from here.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:36:42]

COOPER: And welcome back to our continuing coverage. I want to bring in Trevor Kelley. Trevor's mom, Earline Louise (ph) Kelley, who was 83 years old, died in the Altadena fire. Trevor, I appreciate you being with us. I'm so sorry it's under these circumstances. Tell us about your mom. How long had she lived in Altadena?

TREVOR KELLEY, MOTHER DIED IN EATON FIRE: My mom lived in that residence since 1968.

COOPER: Wow. I know she -- you wanted her to evacuate. I know -- talk about when it was you last communicated with her and what was that like trying to get her to leave?

KELLEY: Well, actually, I just want to be clear. I didn't try to get her to evacuate at all. The problem is, is I live in Eaton Canyon. At that time, the fire started around, over there, around 6:00. So I went outside and I began filming this fire.

My mother was actually watching the fire from her home, but there was no -- actually, there was not even a fire in Altadena. So about 9:00, my daughter calls me, she lives in Altadena with my mother. She said, dad, we're going to evacuate, but the fire is not over here, it's over there.

I said, OK, so why are you evacuating? Well, my husband is not from this area and is not used to mountain fires. And it just didn't make any sense why they would leave, but they did. So she told me, hey, you should probably just go check on her.

I said, you know what? I will, but they're doing voluntary evacuations at my place at Eaton Canyon, but let me run up there and check on moms. When I got there, going up Lake Street, there was no fire, no fire trucks.

Everyone was moving as usual because the fire was over at Eaton Canyon. So when my daughter left, they still had power. When I arrived at my mom's house, the power was off. I walked in the house. It was pitch black. She was in her room sitting there with a flashlight and another big flashlight looking at her phone.

So she said -- I said, mom, all of them left. And she said, yes, they packed some of their stuff like they was moving. And she laughed. I said, I don't even see your fire around. And she said, I know we've been through all these fires all these years, which I agree.

And I said, you know, you can come to our house. She said, well, didn't you just say that they're doing voluntary evacuation? I said, yes, but at least we have power. You can come with us. She said, I'll be fine.

I said, OK, you sure? She says, God is in control. And I agreed with it. When I walked out of her house, I looked up at the top of Lake Street and I saw a small fire from where I was at, just looked like an open barbecue pit.

So I took a small fire from where I was at, just looked like an open barbecue pit. So I took a picture.

[20:40:10]

And then unfortunately, if we would have had phone services, because there was no service, you'd have to go eight blocks down the street to get phone services. So I said, you know, I felt confident. There is no fire.

When I got down eight blocks, I got a call. I got a call from my wife stating that Eaton Canyon mandatory evacuation. How's your mom? I said, mom is up there relaxed, chilling because there is no fire up there.

So where are we going to go?

COOPER: Yes.

KELLEY: She said, we can't find anything local. We're going to have to go to Ontario. And I said, wow, I wish you would have told me that. If I would have had service at my mom's house, I would have just stayed at mom's house because I didn't feel like fighting that evacuation traffic.

COOPER: And Trevor, I know -- Trevor, I know at a certain point you got word that your mom had evacuated and I know you thought she had and then learned the sad news that she hadn't in the end. I got to wrap it up, Trevor, but I just want you to know, I'm thinking about you and I appreciate you taking the time to speak with us. There are so many stories like yours.

We were in Altadena the day of the fires. It was just stunning. And so many people were just shocked. They didn't expect the Eaton fire to end up sending embers over in the wind to Altadena.

Trevor, thank you for your time. I wish you the best. And I'm so sorry for the loss of your mom.

There's a number of groups that are working to try to do what they can. I want to bring in Sean Penn, who's got a relief organization, CORE, which you started back in, I mean, you worked in Haiti. You and I have done a lot of stuff in Haiti on -- back in Katrina as well. Explain what you're doing with CORE right now.

SEAN PENN, CO-FOUNDER, CORE: Well, Bryan Lourd and Natalie Tran, the CAA Foundation, put together a coalition called SoCal Fire with LAUSD Education and the Entertainment Industry Fund. And the -- we're going to -- we were on the ground day one, working in the principal shelter, the Pasadena Civic Center, addressing immediate needs, which is going to be cash assistance in particular.

There are two kind of categories up there, those who can apply and need navigation on the application. And then there are those who don't have Social Security numbers for various reasons that we can then apply some of our funds to --

COOPER: So you're trying to get cash in hand for people because in a situation like this, I mean, they don't, in some cases, they don't even have their ATM cards or anything.

PENN: Yes, I mean, it just takes a slow closing of one's eyes to think out what it would mean if all of a sudden everything's gone. And so that, you know, along with, of course, the emotional trauma of it. So yes, cash is a necessary freedom to just get day by day.

COOPER: You've worked in a lot of places where terrible things have happened. And I don't compare one disaster to another, but just -- could you just talk about some of the things you have seen and heard over the last couple of days. I mean, what -- it's -- this is your community. This is where you live.

PENN: Yes. You know, this has kind of been a worst case scenario concern of everyone in the area for a long time. We know that there are going to be wildfires in this area. I don't prescribe too much to the conversations of complaint in terms of reaction.

In fact, I thank every last firefighter. We have great firefighters from Cal Fire to L.A. City, L.A. County, and all of those that have come in. But when you have the kind of winds that we had, I don't think mankind has come up with a solution to that. Mother Nature is bigger and more powerful than us. So people do make a choice.

I mean, this area. But for the people living in particular, Palisades and Altadena and so on, this is so unexpected. It's sort of, you know, it's Gaza West up there. I know you've been up. It's just really something to see an entire legacy of a community.

I think of these nine-year-old kids who every day would meet each other on the corner on their bikes, knowing every corner and every store and shop owner, and it's all gone. And so it's more personal in that sense.

You know, I'm very immediately familiar. I'm not going to have to grow to be familiar with this area. So many people that we all know and care about lost their homes. And thank God, not, you know, the number of life loss like we had in Port-au-Prince, right?

COOPER: Yes. Essentially, I was talking to some firefighters up today up in the Palisades area. And one of the things that they were saying is just what totally -- what they did not expect was just the winds and the strength of the winds and just the weird way the winds were acting.

I mean, there were hurricane force winds at times. So it was a fire with the strength of the winds and just the weird way the winds were acting. I mean, there were hurricane force winds at times. So it was a fire with hurricane force winds.

[20:45:10]

They generally, you know, these firefighters are incredible. They know how fire moves. They can tell you how it's going to move up a mountain. But with these kind of winds, they were like, we can't predict how it's going to move.

PENN: Right. And then when you do get into an urban setting, you have to win deflection. So you have -- you've got things bouncing in different directions and vacuums happening and it becomes such -- it's so chaotic. It's -- and fueling it the whole time.

COOPER: Right.

PENN: So, you know, I think if we're being -- if we want to take responsibility, we should start with, that there is a human impact on this climate and these kinds of events are getting worse.

COOPER: We're putting on the screen the info on CORE and how people can get involved in and what you're all are doing. It's coreresponse.org/southerncaliforniawildfires.

PENN: Southern California -- SoCal fire fund which is the coalition.

COOPER: The SoCal fire fund.

PENN: Yes, that's the coalition we're working as a team, so I think I don't remember new website address.

COOPER: But that's on -- that we're putting that up as well. Listen, we meet in a lot of strange places, but it's -- I appreciate your time.

PENN: Great to see you.

COOPER: All right. Take care. Thanks for all you're doing.

There's a lot more ahead. We're going to take a short break and our coverage will continue in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

[20:50:44]

COOPER: The work here is incredibly difficult. It is hard, it is dusty, and it is a lot of long hours for these firefighters, but it is vitally important. They are going over every inch of ground in the section in the grid where they are now working looking for any hotspots that may be under the ground that -- gust of wind could flare up and turn into another fire.

(END VIDEOCLIP) COOPER: And that's the real concern for this, the high wind event that's expected starting early tomorrow. If winds -- there's been some estimates could get as high as 70 miles per an hour when gusts not sustained, not only would that be it make it difficult for aircraft to fly, helicopters fly to put water on the ground but it could kick up that -- kick up some soil in any of the embers, the stuff that's still burning, still smoldering underneath the ground that could become airborne, could become an ember and spread the fire.

Misinformation is also spreading just as Facebook has decided to stop fact-checking and go to community notes, I guess they're calling it. Donie O'Sullivan takes a look at some of the misinformation that's out there right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

MEL GIBSON, ACTOR AND DIRECTOR: California has a lot of problems that sort of baffled the mind as far as why they do things.

DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Mel Gibson on Fox News primetime after losing his home in the California fires.

GIBSON: And then in the events like this, you sort of look, oh, is it on purpose, which it's an insane thing to think. But one begins to ponder whether or not there is a purpose in mind. What could it be, you know? I don't know. Do they want the state empty? I don't know.

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): Conspiracy theories spreading like wildfire.

DEANNA LORRAINE, HOST, STEW PETERS NETWORK: This is an obvious land grab. They get them out of their homes this way and then they can build whatever they want to build.

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): From the common refrain that it's all part of a government class --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is siege by design.

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): -- to suspected AI generated video and images falsely showing the fires approaching the iconic Hollywood sign. Fact- checkers working for Meta have been debunking some of the misinformation on Facebook and Instagram.

MARK ZUCKERBERG, META CEO: Hey everyone.

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): But last week, Mark Zuckerberg announced this.

ZUCKERBERG: We're going to get rid of fact-checkers and replace them with community notes.

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): Replacing fact-checkers with community notes, a form of crowdsource fact-checking that is used on X. But critics say Zuckerberg shouldn't be trying to emulate X, pointing to viral misinformation on that platform that goes unchecked. Like this post viewed almost half a million times baselessly claiming DARPA, a wing of the Department of Defense, started the fires.

ELON MUSK, TESLA CEO: I'm here with the fire command team at the Palisades fire.

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): Indeed, X's owner Elon Musk has spent the last week elevating conspiracy theories about the fires.

MUSK: What about water availability?

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): Responding to a post from disgraced conspiracy theorist Alex Jones that the fires are part of a globalist plot. Musk responded, "True".

(END VIDEO TAPE)

COOPER: And Donie O'Sullivan joins us now. In a situation like this, I mean, it always happens, but it seems particularly acute right now.

O'SULLIVAN (on-camera): Absolutely. And look, one, the big issues particularly which we saw last year at hurricanes Helene and Milton and also before that the Maui wildfires is that a lot of this misinformation makes people, people who need support from government agencies whether it be local agencies or FEMA distrust. That's something we particularly saw after the hurricanes.

We're seeing less of that here right now. But what we are seeing is -- and of course that there is a political debate to be had about the policies here in California, but it has gone beyond that. We've seen the president-elect coming in with just straight-up false claims about policies here.

And then of course, Elon Musk, the owner of X as you saw in that piece, they're engaging with really wild conspiracy theories in terms of that this is a planned event. It's not, but also then really leaning into this set of culture war stuff about DEI, diversity and inclusion policies and everything else like that.

So it's really just a pretty toxic stew online right now. And on top of that, you know, we're seeing changes that matter coming soon must removing these fact-checkers.

[20:55:07]

COOPER: Yes. Donie O'Sullivan, thanks very much.

We're going to take a short break. We'll have more from the fire lines. We'll be right back

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: And welcome back. I'm here with L.A. County Fire Captain Sheila Kelliher. We've been talking to pretty much every night that we've been here. Appreciate you being back with us again.

CAPT. SHEILA KELLIHER, LOS ANGELES COUNTY FIRE DEPT.: Good be back. Yes. COOPER: A couple things to get to. Let's talk about the winds first. Anticipated winds tomorrow, kicking up tomorrow morning. Obviously, that's a big concern all across this area. We're putting up on screen sort of where the winds may be worse. What are your concerns?

KELLIHER: Just know this -- if this is an incident wasn't going on, we'd be all preparing for a red flag warning right now. So the rest of the county that hasn't been impacted by these fires, that's what they're up against.

So not only can that flare up what we have going here. We've got a lot of people in place. They're ready. They've got their game plan and their mission how to keep that from exacerbating. But the rest of the county really is ready for red flag missions (ph).

COOPER: So it's not even just the areas where the fire has already been that it might kick up --

KELLIHER: That's correct.

COOPER: -- something from the ground that would become an ember, it's fresh areas that have not been burned from the fire.

KELLIHER: Right, because they still all have that very low fuel moisture, low humidity, those high winds coming through the 101 corridor, Santa Clarita. They're all susceptible to that type of fire behavior as well.

COOPER: Right. We're seeing number of -- actually quite a long line of police cars driving here on the Pacific Coast Highway. I'm not sure what that's about. You also want to talk about -- there's so many people, you know want -- obviously, want to get and see their homes to see what happens.

KELLIHER: Yes.

COOPER: People aren't -- have not been able to actually go physically to their homes. There's a number of reasons for that concerns over safety law enforcement concern about looting. There's a website that you think can help.

KELLIHER: Yes, recovery.lacounty.gov. And what's amazing about that is you can pull up that map for the Palisades and click on the houses that have already been searched and taking pictures up. And you can kind of see the status of what your home looks like. It's invaluable -- at least it give you a sense of what you're up against.

COOPER: What -- that's L.A. -- what is the website again?

KELLIHER: Recovery.lacounty.gov.

COOPER: OK.

KELLIHER: Yes. So, yes.

COOPER: That's -- the -- I mean, how do -- overall, how do you think -- how do things feel to you?

KELLIHER: I feel like right now, we've had two days of low winds. So we've really gotten a lot of work in and we've gotten our arms around a big part of this fire and we've set up some great perimeter control.

COOPER: The facts of the winds have died down for the last two days, that's given firefighters -- and there's 5,300 firefighters in --

KELLIHER: Yes.

COOPER: -- the Palisades alone.

KELLIHER: Alone, 500 engines, 115 crew camps, all of that. So we've got a ton of work going on as we speak right now. They're going to work all night long. Anytime. The wind is low like this. Our air assault, our air attack has just been --

COOPER: It's been incredible.

KELLIHER: It's been relentless.

COOPER: I mean, we were watching --

KELLIHER: I honor them with this hat because they are relentless and they haven't stopped.

COOPER: I watched it Thursday and Friday up around Topanga just unbelievable. The air ass is just coming in one after the other after the other.

KELLIHER: They're the best at what they do and it's amazing to watch, but boy that sure has helped us. And then like the --

COOPER: But if the winds pick up big tomorrow, that's -- I mean, that's going to be a real --

KELLIHER: That's a concern.

COOPER: -- that's a real problem.

KELLIHER: And so they do that by looking at the ridge that they're on and they've really taken care of that. But they look a couple ridges ahead and they start pre-painting those with fire retardant.

COOPER: Yes.

KELLIHER: So they're -- you know, in case, those assets can't get up for a while. They've kind of preset themselves up.

COOPER: Captain Sheila Kelliher as always, thank you --

KELLIHER: It's a pleasure to be here.

COOPER: -- so much. Appreciate it.

KELLIHER: Thank you for having us. COOPER: If you want to know how you can help, you can check out CNN.com/impact for a number of information on organizations that are doing good work here in the Los Angeles area. That's CNN.com/impact.

That's it for us. Kaitlan Collins and The Source starts now.