Return to Transcripts main page
Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees
Death Toll In LA County Fires Rises To 25, High Winds; New CA Wildfires, Return Of Dangerous Winds Expected Overnight; LAFD Among the Most Understaffed In America; Debate Over Private Firefighters Battling CA Wildfires; Widower Loses Memories Of His 67 Years Of Marriage In Wildfire; FEMA Announces Assistance To Pay For Emergency Supplies. Aired 8-9p ET
Aired January 14, 2025 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: As we are live here in Southern California, it is dusk here. The sun is setting. These winds anticipated to rise where we are right now at the San Gabriel mountains behind us, one of the areas they are so deeply concerned about with embers and hotspots potentially sparking more massive urban fires.
Tonight, they are on high watch. This next hour is so crucial. Thanks for joining us. Let me hand it of now to my colleague also here in Southern California -- Anderson.
[20:00:34]
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, "ANDERSON COOPER: 360": Good evening.
We are coming to you tonight from Altadena at the corner of West Harriett and Glen Avenue. There is destruction from the Eaton Fire everywhere you turn at this intersection and in many places in Altadena.
We broadcast from this spot six days ago. We spent about six to eight hours give or take walking up and down these streets around this intersection doing live reports as you're seeing. And this program as well, we documented this neighborhood being destroyed.
There were explosions. There were burning cars. That car right behind me, the trees were burning, embers flying everywhere, spreading from house to house, tree to tree. The winds were high, which were also keeping firefighting aircraft grounded.
On this block just up the block. I talked to a captain of the fire department two minutes after the hydrant stopped working for that team.
Tonight, thankfully, neither the Eaton Fire nor the Palisades Fire is behaving that way now. You won't see flames in the Palisades or Eaton. We drove around in the Eaton area today.
Firefighters are still searching the ground as we showed you last night in the program in the Palisades, and even in some places in Eaton for those hidden hotspots under the ground. That's where the work is right now in the mountains, smoldering vegetation under the ground that, if exposed, could become flaming embers picked up by wind, which would then create new fires elsewhere.
Now, the wind today, thankfully, has been somewhat lighter than forecast, than expected. Those extreme red flag fire warnings that we talked about last night, they are still in force. You can see them there, the purple on the map. The wind is still a serious threat, say forecasters, who now expect the worst of it to be in the early morning tomorrow morning, 3:00 AM and on into the day.
Fire officials are warning that new evacuations could be ordered at any time. Two new fires did crop up today, one in Riverside to the East, another in Oxnard, both of them small, but a sign of just how vulnerable this area still is.
Right here on this corner in Altadena, the terrible fact is, most of the houses have already burned. Only a handful remain in sight right now. The damage is done. Los Angeles County has set up a website for people to check on the state of their homes. All of those red houses you see in the map, there are almost too many to count there, are homes and buildings that have sustained more than 50 percent damage.
Inspectors from Cal Fire are doing the damage assessment. This is video they shared on social media of a damage inspection team doing their work in neighborhoods across the fire zone.
They're trying to assess with each structure exactly the nature of the damage. We spent the day, though, with search and rescue teams looking for the remains of anyone who may have died. The death toll stands at 25, but the fear which LA County Sheriff Robert Luna expressed on the program last night, is that more victims may still be discovered. Here's what my team and I saw today.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER (voice over): While firefighters in the mountains look for hotspots in Altadena, search and rescue squads go through what the fires have left behind.
COOPER (on camera):This is a regional task force of search and rescue crews from different departments, but they are all working together here, combing over every inch in a property that's been destroyed. They identified where the kitchen is. They look at the abandoned vehicles that have been burned out.
They're literally sifting inch by inch through the rubble to see if there are any human remains.
COOPER (voice over): They move carefully through the ashes of a home using tools and sometimes their hands to see what lies beneath.
COOPER (on camera): Do you ever get used to it?
JOSEPH WALLS, REGIONAL TASK FORCE 2 SEARCH AND RESCUE, CAPTAIN: I don't think any of us get used to it. I think you develop coping mechanisms and a way to process things that are very difficult to see, and to be around.
COOPER (voice over): Captain Joseph Walls has been doing this for 18 years.
WALLS: What fuels everyone here working on this joint effort is the knowledge that what we're doing is providing answers and closure to families amidst a disaster.
Yes, we can go ahead because it's we got a destroyed property up here. So --
COOPER (voice over): In all, there are 400 men and women deployed here in Los Angeles tasked with search and rescue.
WALLS: We're utilizing a piece of software that was built from the ground up specifically for this purpose. So this aids us in being able to organize our search efforts and be a lot more efficient.
We have a base of operation, and they're remotely monitoring all of our activities. They're able to see live updates and direct us to the highest priority areas.
[20:05:15]
COOPER (on camera): So that's where you are on the map.
WALLS: This is us right now. We're looking at the parcels. We're able to place markers on each one of those and place notes with images and really catalogue in a very specific way. What the current conditions are at that site.
COOPER (voice over): They find nothing on this block, but elsewhere in Altadena, another team has smelled something. They've called for a cadaver dog.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We don't want neighbors coming home and finding neighbors.
COOPER (voice over): Riley is a Belgian Malinois, a rescue abandoned in the desert. He's now a trained member of this rescue team.
He works the ground quickly. There are some dead chickens, but thankfully no human remains.
Peter Sellas is Riley's handler.
COOPER (on camera): So you keep the booties on?
PETER SELLAS, FEMA URBAN SEARCH AND RESCUE: He's nice and will keep them on and not eat them so he can go back in his crate and rest with them and then were ready to go on the next one.
We started doing the booties in Maui because the ground was so hot just from the island that they were burning their feet, and it just made it better. And he likes his booties. He's got tender feet.
COOPER (on camera): And how sensitive is his sense of smell?
SELLAS: Fires are the hardest things that we work for human remains. It's cooked off and its cooked off with other things around it. So it's harder for the dog to separate, disseminate and do. But they're pretty accurate as long as you've trained for and they've been trained accurately for burnt human.
COOPER (on camera): What's it like for you doing this work?
SELLAS: I'm working my K-9 and I have a relationship with my K-9, so I tend to emotionally separate myself and work my K-9 because I lost my house in the oh-three wildfires. So I kind of know the feeling here and what it's like to come home to a totally gone house. So I kind of separate from it and just, I have this great relationship with this wonderful dog.
COOPER (on camera): It may take a week before all the burned down structures here have been gone through. There's many more blocks still to search.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: With me here is Kevin Cooley. He's a photojournalist who's made a career out of documenting fires like this one in homes that are destroyed, what's different this time, painfully, is that one of the homes that was destroyed was his here.
You were actually shooting the fires in the Palisades when your wife gave you a call. Did you have any expectation that this could happen here?
KEVIN COOLEY, LOST HOME IN EATON FIRE: No, not at all. I mean, I was shocked, and I knew the second she sent me the photograph, I could tell from -- it was from our house and how far away the fire was --
COOPER: Your house about, you said a mile away?
COOLEY: It's about a mile from here and about two miles from there. Eaton Canyon is where the fire started, and I knew immediately that it was time to get back.
COOPER: Wait, this is a video of your home. Did you -- I mean, you've seen this through work. You've seen this through a camera lens. I can't, it's got to be -- I can't imagine what it's like to have it --
COOLEY: It doesn't really prepare you for it being your own home.
COOPER: It doesn't.
COOLEY: I mean, I've seen a lot of evacuations, and I thought I would do better myself evacuating. I mean, I got my family out. That's what's important of course. When I grabbed important documents. All my hard drives, et cetera. But everything else --
COOPER: Your camera equipment, your negatives.
COOLEY: I had what I had with me for documenting the other fires.
COOPER: How is your -- you have a ten-year-old, I think. COOLEY: Yes.
COOPER: How is your ten-year-old doing?
COOLEY: He's doing okay, I guess. Three quarters of his class have lost their homes from the latest count I've heard. So they're all unsure what's going to happen next, but we want to keep them all together.
COOPER: What do you what do you do? What is the next step? I mean --
COOLEY: I don't know, I have an Airbnb for about a week, and then I'm not really sure.
COOPER: Have you looked into sort of, I mean, what's available, FEMA, things like that?
COOLEY: Of course. Yes, I'm working on that. But also, you know, as a as a journalist, I'm still working on documenting my neighborhood.
COOPER: So you're still -- so you're still working.
COOLEY: I'm still actively. I'm trying to balance both. I mean, that's probably my whole story throughout the fire, you know, balancing my role, you know, my family, but also continuing to work because it's important to me.
COOPER: There's a photo that ran in "The New York Times" I think it just was a week ago or --
COOLEY: It was the day after the fire.
COOPER: The day after the fire. I think we have that.
COOLEY: Yes, that one there, yes.
COOPER: I'm not sure how I would respond if this happened. I mean, I've documented like you, I've documented these things, but -- yes. What do you want to know about what's going on here?
COOLEY: Yes, well, my mother lost her house in the '64 Bel Air Fire, and she always, growing up. I always heard about life before the fire and life after the fire. And now I think I'm going to understand exactly what that means.
[20:10:04]
COOPER: How did it -- was that -- that was a milestone in her life.
COOLEY: Sure, yes. I mean, she lost everything. She was away. She just started school, out-of-state and lost everything, she didn't bring with her.
COOPER: I'm so sorry. We're meeting under these circumstances, but I really appreciate you being with us.
COOLEY: Absolutely. Thank you for having me.
COOPER: I wish you the best. Thank you.
It is very strange to be back here. I can't even begin to tell you sort of what it was like to be here. And we're going to show you sort of the before and after in a little bit.
But I want you to meet Ian McFeat. He is the executive director of a transitional kindergarten through 12th grade charter school here in Altadena.
Last week, fire destroyed one of the schools two campuses, as well as the homes of 13 teachers. About 60 school families and his own. Ian McFeat joins us now. Ian, I'm so sorry. Again, we are meeting under these circumstances. What's the damage to your school? How are you doing?
IAN MCFEAT, AVENSON SCHOOL, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: So, yes, thank you for the question. And, well, the damage to the school is, is almost total. Most of the structures are burned down. the garden is gone. You know, the beautiful gymnasium that we had, we had a cafetorium, kind of, you know, where we had a stage that's all gone. Our offices are gone.
My home is gone. Yes, all of it. It's a lot. And we have, you know, families dealing with all of the pain. So, it's a lot.
COOPER: In a situation like this. What is the next step? I mean, how do you figure out there's so many things to figure out? How do you even begin?
MCFEAT: Well, its day by day, you know, hour by hour. We are coming together as a community. It's a lot. We met with faculty on Monday. We came together and we did some writing. We did some reflecting. Like I'm seeing an image of my house right there.
COOPER: That's your home? That is your home?
MCFEAT: Yes. That was, you know, we have two girls. Our girls, we haven't brought them. Obviously, no one can come up there, but we haven't brought them to the space up there. But, we haven't shown them the images, but we talked about what happened. And, you know, I think for us right now, the school community --
COOPER: How old --
MCFEAT: They're 12 and eight.
COOPER: How do you explain this to a child?
MCFEAT: We kind of led with the facts and, sat them down and said, here's what happened and didn't let our emotion be the emotion for them. Let them have their emotions and their -- you know, held space for that, for them.
Our children are pretty amazing, they talked about how -- they weren't the only ones dealing with this, and that that I think is, you know, something that, you know, we've just had to lean into community. I think that the -- I think somebody said it better than me. I was talking to a colleague about this idea of hope. And it's not about being optimistic.
You know, I think hope is a verb, right? And you have to work at it. You have to do things. And so I think that's what we're engaged in.
COOPER: Well, Ian, I wish you the best. And, yes, I hope, I hope your kids are okay. Your kids and your family and your school family as well. Thank you. Thank you for being with us.
MCFEAT: Thanks for having us.
COOPER: Around this area is a story in itself. A couple of minutes ago, I recorded something -- I'm trying to just show you the dichotomy between now and what happened here six days ago. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER (on camera): Six days ago, around the exact same time I was standing on this spot on the corner of Harriet Street and Glen Avenue in Altadena and the house behind me was on fire. This vehicle was on fire, and all of the houses here were on fire, except for one.
I just want to show you what it looked like six days ago at around this exact time.
So this vehicle went up about five or 10 minutes ago. This house has been burning now for quite some time, but the fire has now spread on this block. We're at the corner.
We're at Harriet, in Altadena Harriet Street. The fire has spread now to this house, which is really now engulfed in flames. But, I mean, it's just surreal. I mean, look at this. Even a small thing like this tree is burning from the inside.
[20:15:35]
So, on this block, I count one, two -- I mean, all the houses, all the houses on this side are gone. Now the fire, look --
All these houses were on fire.
Back then, six days ago, this house was not yet on fire. But the house on the other side was -- all the houses around it were on fire. So it was inevitable, given the fact that that the hydrants had no water on this block, sadly, that this house would burn to the ground as well.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Six days ago and now. Next new reporting on why an area that almost uniquely needs firefighters may not have enough and almost certainly has fewer than you'd imagine.
And later, the role that private firefighters are playing here, both the criticism of it and the case for it ahead. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:20:29]
COOPER: Well, even with fire crews hard at work trying to keep tonight's forecasted high winds from doing even more damage to the area. There are all sorts of questions being asked about why this time things got so bad so quickly. Some of the answers, like the near hurricane force winds, a lot of firefighters I've talked to said they just never seen anything like that in the midst of a fire.
That, obviously, is almost self-evident, that kept choppers out of the air and big planes out of the air, dropping retardant and water. But others are less so, such as why such a fire prone and densely populated area is among the most understaffed in America.
You would think Los Angeles, of all places, would have more. But as CNN's Kyung Lah reports, that's not the case.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: At that commission meeting, you said its dire. Someone will die.
FREDDY ESCOBAR, PRESIDENT, UNITED FIREFIGHTERS OF LOS ANGELES CITY: It's eerie listening to your words because that's what occurred. So it's -- Let me just take a minute, sorry.
LAH: Fire Captain Freddy Escobar.
ESCOBAR: You're not supposed to make me cry.
LAH (voice over): Thirty five-year veteran of the Los Angeles Fire Department. Wishes he'd been wrong and this had not happened.
For years, the LAFD Union president warned that a disaster like the Palisades Fire could happen. And while the cataclysmic weather conditions were historic, Escobar also blames something predictable that hurt the fire fight, money.
ESCOBAR: This is a woefully understaffed Fire Department. We're either going to have a fire department that's going to reflect 2025, or we're going to have a fire department that's going to reflect the 1960s.
LAH (voice over): A CNN analysis shows out of the ten biggest cities in the nation, Los Angeles ranks ninth when it comes to the number of firefighters per resident. And it shows millions of dollars in rescue equipment, is just sitting in a lot unused because the Fire Department can't afford to hire the mechanics to repair it.
LA's fire chief said in a recent memo the Fire Department staffing levels were half the size of what they should be.
ESCOBAR: If we cut one position, if we close one station, if we close one resource, the residents of Los Angeles are going to pay the ultimate sacrifice and someone will die. LAH (voice over): Just last month, fire personnel packed an LA Fire commission meeting, begging the city to rethink the budget.
CHUONG HO, UNITED FIREFIGHTERS OF LOS ANGELES CITY, LOCAL 112: These cuts came at exactly the wrong time, with calls for services at an all-time high, and our firefighters are at their breaking point.
TRACI PARK, LOS ANGELES CITY COUNCIL MEMBER, DISTRICT 11: We are straining our department's resources beyond the brink, and we cannot continue on this path.
LAH (voice over): City councilwoman Traci Park was there, too.
TRACI PARK, LOS ANGELES CITY COUNCILWOMAN: There are large swaths of the city with no emergency response resources available.
LAH (on camera): Are we going to be having the same conversation next year and the year after?
PARK: We can't, we can't. I think that people are rightly upset. Not only that this happened, but there is a sense that we as local leaders needed to do more for them.
I feel like I let them down. And I've been screaming about it from the day I came in. And so, I think there is an obligation of us to not let this be for nothing. I think this has to be the wake-up call.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Now, that last image, that drone shot is incredible. Kyung Lah joins us now.
Is there a sense at this point of when or if the Fire Departments budget problem will be addressed?
LAH: Well, I spoke to the union. I also spoke to the City Councilwoman Tracy Park, and they are detecting a tone change as of today. There was a city council meeting, Anderson. And what they're saying is that there is certainly an urgency now to at least try to fix some of these substantive structural issues.
And we have heard Mayor Bass saying, look, just like the firefighters you've spoken with, that this was an unprecedented wind and weather event, and that having firefighters perhaps right here may not have made that much of a difference.
But it does highlight the need to have more fire stations. They estimate they need 62 to be commensurate with other cities of Los Angeles. The size or just per capita keeping up.
And so, they believe that because of this wide ranging disaster, that there has certainly been some change as of today--Anderson.
[20:25:10]
COOPER: Yes and the chief was saying those budget cuts hurt maintenance on vehicles. Some vehicles weren't available. Kyung, appreciate the reporting. Thank you.
Our next guest, Kori Rae, was living in Pacific Palisades at a house. He and his wife were renting from his aunt and uncle. They've got a young daughter and another child on the way soon. They lost all their belongings in the fire.
Kori joins us now. Kori, I'm so sorry for what you're going through. I know your wife is seven months pregnant. You have a two-year-old daughter. Can you just walk us through what happened when you realized you needed to evacuate? How did that went?
KORI RAE, LOST HOME IN PALISADES FIRE: Anderson, first, I would just like to thank you for having me on. And I'd like to give a big thank you to all the first responders and the firefighters that have been true heroes during this whole event.
But to your question, you know, we had received, you know, warnings the day before of a of a red flag warning of an unusual wind event.
And so, I took that pretty seriously and chose to work from home the following day, which I'm so happy I did. And I have that ability to do that. I was finishing up a work call around 10:30 and my two-year-old is knocking on my office door at home saying, "Dad, fire."
And, you know, I chuckled a little bit, not taking it with any seriousness, and ended the call and opened the door and picked her up. And I see that my wife's already packing our stuff, an overnight bag. And she's like, Kori, you should go to the front door. There's smoke coming down our street.
And sure enough, I opened the front door and I can see on the opposite side of the street there's a wall of smoke moving down the mountains. and I knew from that point on it was serious.
COOPER: That's the picture of it right there.
RAE: That is the picture, yes. That's from our front door looking. That would be due west. And so, obviously, I realized the gravity of the situation was kind of frantically looking for any sort of resource or information I could gather, be it online or through our phone, we typically get warnings for these sorts of things and I think because it was so early on, I hadn't received anything yet.
So, eventually we did get a warning and by that time we had already packed an overnight bag for my wife and our two-year-old and sent them off and, you know, I'm glad we were able to do that. They didn't have to sit in the traffic that had occurred with everyone else, trying to leave. So, we got them out pretty early, and I'm so thankful for that.
COOPER: I mean, it's so bizarre to see, you know, these split screen images of your house and then your house not there. I mean, just vanished and just the chimney standing there. I understand you climbed on your roof to get a better sense of how much time you had until the fire reached your home. What went through you mind?
RAE: Yes, so, I probably climbed up there at least a dozen times between the point where my wife and two-year old left and the time I eventually evacuated. I was trying to assess the situation, and I can see you're sharing the shots I took there.
I was trying to get a gauge of the direction that the fire was moving to see if it was actually a threat to us. I noticed, you know, the way the wind was blowing, it was blowing away from the house. So my assumption was we were probably okay.
But as you can see, every time I went up there and from the videos here that there was so much fuel and vegetation on those southeast slopes that despite the fact the wind was blowing away from our house, the fire was advancing towards our house at a rapid pace.
And every time I went up on the roof, I could see that it had moved closer and closer. And eventually determined that it just wasn't safe to be there anymore and I think a lot of our neighbors had realized that, too.
And I'm so happy that people left when they did, because this could have been much more tragic than it ended up being, obviously, it's still a tragedy and there's loss of life, but I think it could have been much worse.
COOPER: Yes, well, Kori, I'm glad you and your family are safe and you were able to get out. Thank you so much, Kori Rae.
Coming up, we're going to take a look at private firefighters, private firefighters, the role that they are filling for those who can afford them and why some have had strong reactions to their presence here. Josh Campbell joins us with that story.
Also tonight, more on the fight against wildfires with the fire chief for Los Angeles County. He joins me here live. We'll be right back.
[20:30:23]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)
[20:33:27]
COOPER: Six days ago here in Altadena, I was standing at this exact spot at the corner of Harriet Street and Glen Avenue, and the house behind me right here was ablaze. It was still standing, but it was ablaze. There was a house. The car over there was ablaze as well.
Take a look what happened.
This house has been burning now for quite some time. We've been watching. It has just spread to that tree. I don't know if you can see. The entire tree is just incinerated in a second. But, the important part is, look at all these embers.
All these embers in the trees, they're now going through the air. They're now flying down the block to a number of houses, which have not yet burned. And those embers -- now, look, those embers have caught in that tree. And that (INAUDIBLE).
A lot of trees on this block. There's a lot of bushes. There's a lot of bombs (ph). Oh, OK. So there's a lot of explosions. Also, obviously as vehicles, as gas tank -- as vehicles ignite, gas tanks explode. That car exploded probably about 20 minutes ago when we first got to this location.
I think this is where the explosion came from that was behind me. I don't know if it's from the vehicle here or something in a structure over there. Some sort of tank or the gas tank in the car. But it's not just this house, it's that house, all these houses here along this block are gone.
(END VIDEOCLIP)
COOPER: Altadena then and now. On top of fears about stronger winds fueling fires in the hours ahead and they're looking at this 3:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. window in the -- early this next morning.
[20:35:11]
There's concern about -- that we just heard about involving the city's fire department funding and manpower issues. In fact, for the last week, we've heard a lot of heroic stories of homeowners who battle fires, sometimes with only a garden hose and a friend or a neighbor assisted with fire crews who are battling flames in their neighborhoods.
There are others battling the flames as well. We should tell you about private firefighters. It's controversial. Josh Campbell has that story.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): An intense firefight on the front lines of the Pacific Palisades fire. But these aren't city or state firefighters battling raging flames and hurricane force winds. Instead, they are private firefighters who we caught up with still at work in the Pacific Palisades.
DOUGLAS LANNON, SENIOR WILDFIRE LIAISON, REDZONE: What we're trying to avoid is to have the fire actually spread over to like the structures here that have not burned.
CAMPBELL (voice-over): The company is called RedZone and it's working to fortify its clients homes before the next fire threat moves in.
LANNON: If we need to spray a fire retardant around native vegetation, if we need to gel a structure, if we need to mitigate by moving combustibles away from structures.
CAMPBELL (voice-over): But these kinds of companies are wedged into a controversy over the fairness of allowing private fire crews to protect specific homes. It started with a post on X, since deleted from a real estate executive in the Pacific Palisades. "Does anyone have access to private firefighters to protect our home? Need to act fast here. All neighbors houses burning. Will pay any amount."
That sparked a strong reaction on social media. One TikTok user commenting, "Whose home gets saved shouldn't depend on their bank account".
CAMPBELL: Now despite the controversy, the private firefighters we met don't work for wealthy homeowners. They work for insurance companies who dispatch them out to try to prevent catastrophic loss.
So what are your thoughts on this notion that private firefighters are only here helping the rich?
LANNON: Well, that's a misconception. And I'm going to speak for my company, the insurance companies don't charge for this service. It's part of their policy. We've got some folks that are well off. We got some folks that are in the medium range. We got some folks all along the spectrum there.
ROSS GERBER, PACIFIC PALISADES RESIDENT: I understand that criticism, but those people are not people in a fire and they don't understand the lack of resource.
CAMPBELL (voice-over): Ross Gerber is not a RedZone client, but he has no problem defending his neighborhood's decision to hire private crews, which he claims saved their block.
GERBER: And so now because we're spending our personal money to protect our neighborhood, it gives resources to the public that can be used right now, that is being used right now.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why was there no water in the hydrants, Governor?
CAMPBELL (voice-over): This viral confrontation with California Governor Gavin Newsom made water resources a key argument in this debate. But the private crews we caught up with, like Capstone Fire and Safety Management, insist they carry their own water. And their use of municipal water is minimal.
JOHN BURNINGHAM, CAPSTONE FIRE AND SAFETY MANAGEMENT: We carry 400 gallons of water on the -- on each of the trucks.
CAMPBELL: So you're not tapping into hydrant service?
BURNINGHAM: We're not tapping into hydrants. We'll find other sources. If houses have swimming pools, we have a pump and we'll pump right from the swimming pool.
CAMPBELL (voice-over): In recent years, the state passed regulations aimed at controlling the actions of private fire crews, the fire marshal says.
CHIEF DANIEL BERLANT, CALIFORNIA STATE FIRE MARSHAL: To ensure that these private crews do not get in the way of the actual emergency response.
CAMPBELL (voice-over): Chief Daniel Berlant says it can be a safety issue and now private crews must be in communication with official response teams.
BERLANT: We've had incidents where we've had to go in and rescue these private entities because they accessed evacuated areas but they were not necessarily trained or have the same support.
CAMPBELL (voice-over): The private crews we met say they're mostly experienced former public firefighters and that they serve as force multipliers for crews on the front lines.
BURNINGHAM: We're all here for the same mission. And, you know, most firefighters are all cut from the same cloth.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
COOPER: And Josh Campbell joins me now. If these private firefighters are in an area where somebody else needs help, I mean, do they help it? What's the -- how does that work?
CAMPBELL (on-camera): Yes. If they see a fire, they try to put it out. And what the firefighters told us is not only is that the right thing to do, but they can make a justifiable business calculation there as well, because if they're assigned to protect one home and the home next to it or up the street is in flames, that could then threaten the home they're assigned to protect.
So they said, yes, they will go and try to douse those flames. And then finally, it's interesting to note that, you know, although there's controversy here specifically regarding equity that you do get a sense that they do serve as forced multipliers.
One of the firefighters told us that on the night all of this kicked off, they were at one home that they were assigned to protect. A local fire engine came by, looked at them and said, hey, you guys got this block. They gave him the thumbs up. Fire truck went on and was able to go to another hot spot.
COOPER: All right. Josh Campbell, thanks very much. I appreciate it.
We are here tonight from Altadena. I'm joined right now by the Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone.
[20:40:03]
Chief, first of all, thanks so much for being with us. I want to talk about what your teams are doing just on these private firefighters. Are they force multipliers, you think?
CHIEF ANTHONY MARRONE, LOS ANGELES COUNTY FIRE DEPT.: Oh yes, I agree with the last guest. I think they are force multipliers. But I'd like to state for all -- every all of your viewers, everybody in L.A. County gets equal fire protection. And it doesn't matter where you live or your socioeconomic standing. COOPER: Yes.
MARRONE: You're going to get great service from the L.A. County Fire Department.
COOPER: I think everybody, over the last six days, has just -- I mean, anybody who didn't understand how tough a job firefighting is and how important it is, just has -- I mean, I have such admiration. I've spent the last days out with firefighters in ways that never have happened before.
MARRONE: Yes.
COOPER: And it's incredible what they're doing. I mean, it is truly, it's moving what they're doing. And they are so committed to what they do. Where -- what are your biggest concerns over the next 12 to 24 hours?
MARRONE: Well, you know, the National Weather Service changed the hours for the extreme red flag event. It's going to begin at 3:00 a.m. this morning for a 12-hour period. So I think that we're all on edge.
We do have a lot of resources here in L.A. County. But you're correct. Firefighting is dangerous and dirty. And just in this neighborhood alone, we have stories of not only tragedy, but of triumph. And the L.A. County Fire Department rose up that night. And the men and women that make up my department, they never gave up.
COOPER: Yes.
MARRONE: And they kept fighting. And I was just over at Fire Station 12. And they're there for the other firefighters that came from out of state, from Northern California. But they're also there for the community. And that's really what this is about.
COOPER: You know, there's so much work being done that, you know, people don't see flames and they think, oh the problem's gone. What I learned yesterday, you know, people talk about containment, 14 percent containment in the Palisades.
I early on thought, oh, that means 86 percent of the Palisades is on fire. That's not the case.
MARRONE: Yes.
COOPER: It's these hot spots under the ground over the last several days. That is the big concern. And fire crews are going out, hunting down. I'm going over every inch of ground, even in these buildings looking for hot spots.
MARRONE: That's right. Because early Wednesday morning when those 70- mile an hour winds kick up, we're going to win test this fire footprint area. We have the -- there's the possibility that ember generators are going to move the fire outside of the containment line --
COOPER: Right.
MARRONE: -- and increase the acreage here. But what I'm most concerned about for this event is a new fire start in an area that isn't adjacent to the Palisades or the Eaton, where we have a lot of resources. I'm worried about a new fire start in L.A. County that's going to, you know, challenge the area like it did here, that's going to challenge us --
COOPER: Yes.
MARRONE: -- to be able to move those resources quickly to a new fire start that's a distance away.
COOPER: Yes. Chief Marrone, I really appreciate it.
MARRONE: Thank you so much. Thank you for telling our story.
COOPER: Thank you. Appreciate it.
Up next, our Gary Tuchman introduces us to a widower, who lost many of the memories he made with his wife of 67 years. He now worries he's too old to rebuild his life.
Plus more on the relief efforts with the president and CEO of the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:47:29]
COOPER: Authorities say about 88,000 county residents are under evacuation orders. Another 84,000 under evacuation warnings. Our Gary Tuchman just met an evacuee and a widower who has now lost almost everything, including cherished memories of his nearly 70 years of marriage.
Here's Gary's report.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The day after Eric Back turned 93 years old, he had to evacuate his Pacific Palisades house as fire approached. And this is what happened to his home.
ERIC BACK, PALISADES FIRE SURVIVOR: It's just a shock. It's hard.
TUCHMAN: I'm so sorry for what you're dealing with.
BACK: My wife and I lost the house. We just lost it.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): What makes this so much harder for Eric is that his wife passed away two and a half years ago at the age of 90.
TUCHMAN: Your wife, Rose.
BACK: Yes.
TUCHMAN: How long were you married for?
BACK: 67 years.
TUCHMAN: 67 years and she --
BACK: Wonderful years.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): Eric and Rose met in their homeland of Germany when they were 17 years old. They both moved to America in the 1950s and got married. They moved into their dream house almost exactly 60 years ago.
BACK: We're lucky we're still together. And --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're very fortunate.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): They had two children, and now there are four grandchildren and five great grandchildren. But there is such a void in the family without Rose. Eric says the first time they met, they danced.
BACK: We kept dancing. We kept dancing until we were 90 years old. Every Saturday night, we went dancing, ballroom dancing. We enjoyed it.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): The destruction of the house is devastating enough. But like so many fire victims, Eric had to leave so much behind, including physical memories of Rose. All the photo albums of their pictures are now gone.
He hasn't been permitted to go back to his home yet. But we got there and found some sentimental mementos, including this decorative statue that was in front of the house of a kissing girl and boy. Every Sunday, Eric says he goes to the cemetery to talk to her, including this past Sunday after the fire.
BACK: I said, I'm sorry, but there was nothing I could do. And so I lost it and naturally you were already gone and I'm happy you didn't have to see what actually happened.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): Eric says he would like to rebuild his home, but doesn't know if he's too old to do so.
[20:50:01]
Before we left his grandson's apartment, we told Eric we had something we wanted to give him.
TUCHMAN: We found this outside your house. This must be you and Rose.
BACK: Yes. Thank you. Yes.
TUCHMAN: I mean, why don't you sit down?
BACK: Yes. OK.
TUCHMAN: I'll put it down so we can look at it together.
BACK: OK.
TUCHMAN: Very nice (ph).
TUCHMAN (voice-over): His wife Rose, forever alive, in Eric's heart.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
COOPER: I mean, Gary Tuchman joins us now. It's nearly 70 years they were married. And to think scrapbook's gone, all that -- I mean, and I guess it wasn't digitized and --
TUCHMAN (on-camera): What can you say about a man who dances with the person he loves --
COOPER: Oh come on.
TUCHMAN (on-camera): -- every Saturday for 60 years.
COOPER: Wow.
TUCHMAN (on-camera): Great man. Still plays tennis, by the way, at 93.
COOPER: Really?
TUCHMAN (on-camera): Just got his driver's license renewed. It's a really good guy, but he's traumatized and he joins thousands and thousands of other people in Southern California who are going through their own personal traumas.
COOPER: Yes, it's incredible. I'm so glad you were able to spend time with him.
TUCHMAN (on-camera): Thanks.
COOPER: What a lovely man. Thank you, Gary.
Next, the mounting challenges to provide food, water, medicine, and more to evacuees. I'll be joined by the President and CEO of the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank with details on what they most need right now.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:55:37]
COOPER: I want to just remind people here now, there are great concerns about any kind of wind gusts and increase in winds. Now it's anticipated. We thought we were going to see that today, we didn't. It was -- the winds were lower than a lot -- forecasters had anticipated, but showing the map there in purple, that is where the -- what they're calling the particularly dangerous situation is going to be. These red flag warnings, they say, between the hours of 3:00 a.m., the -- tomorrow morning up to 3:00 p.m. tomorrow. That is what they're really looking for. And there's going to be -- there's a lot of crews which are pre-positioned, ready for whatever may come. But there's a lot of folks who are very concerned about that.
As we watch for stronger winds and perhaps more evacuation orders, FEMA announced today that assistance to pay for emergency supplies like food and water, medication is now available.
For more in the challenges, though, to provide relief to evacuees, joining us is Michael Flood, the president, CEO of the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank. Michael, thanks for being with us and for all you're doing. Talk about what the biggest needs are right now and what you're doing.
MICHAEL FLOOD, PRESIDENT & CEO, LOS ANGELES REGIONAL FOOD BANK: Yes, the biggest needs are those basic needs. You're mentioning, you know, water. We have a lot of people with water advisories throughout Los Angeles County and adjacent to the burn areas. Ready to eat food items.
You know, on an ongoing basis, we're doing with a lot of produce and fish and meat and dairy items. But when we're talking about people who have been evacuated or don't have power as you were reporting on, we have a lot of households that are adjacent to evacuation areas that don't have power. Those kind of ready to eat food items are very important.
The Red Cross is doing a great job at the evacuation centers. Salvation Army is assisting them with feeding there. But, again, this is going to be not just immediate, but as we all know, kind of a medium and long term response in order to help families and people impacted.
COOPER: You know, I talked to some homeowners in Altadena today who were in their houses. They stayed in their houses and they're staying in their houses now because they're concerned about looters, which they've seen in their neighborhood.
And if they leave, they can't come back. And now they can't even get deliveries and they can't get food items or resupplied or gas. What are you hearing from displaced residents about their biggest needs?
FLOOD: It's a big challenge, you know, not far from where you stand, Anderson. We had a -- one of our agency partner sites burned to the ground. You know, we've had food bank staff and volunteers lose their homes not far from where you are.
I'm at our city of industry distribution center, which is a several miles from where you are. But that's a big, big challenge. Because, you know, this is an ongoing fire disaster -- fires disasters that are happening. And, you know, as you heard earlier with the wind events, and, you know, we're not -- it would be far better if the fires were out, but it isn't because of the winds that we're dealing with. So huge challenges in trying to get food and essentials to people. Again, many will go to the evacuation centers, but as you're pointing out, they're worried about getting back in. So certainly, big challenges for the city, L.A. County and the other first responders involved.
COOPER: Yes, it's just extraordinary. Just some of the images we're watching just -- there's no color in so many of these. What is it like for you to see this in your community? I mean, did you ever anticipate something like this?
FLOOD: No, this is devastating. I'm an L.A. Native and, you know, we've had fires here and some have covered large areas. But, you know, these are like pictures that you see in a war. I just put it out there. It's just --
COOPER: Yes.
FLOOD: -- really incredible. And I think for those of us who, you know -- I've been here whether we're new to L.A. or we've been here a long time. I honestly feel like we're just wrapping our heads around this. You know, I just came off a call with --
COOPER: Yes.
FLOOD: -- Endler (ph) or VOAD (ph) organization focusing on, again, not just basic needs but emotional and spiritual care and other aspects. And we're --
COOPER: Yes.
FLOOD: -- all just girding up for what is going to be an incredible response ongoing.
COOPER: Yes. Well, Michael, I appreciate all you're doing. Michael Flood, really appreciate it.
Before we go, I just want to let you know my new -- a new episode of my podcast on grief and loss, "All There Is", has just dropped tonight. It's available wherever you get your podcasts. You can point out your phone's camera at the QR code on the screen right now.
This week's guest is Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, who remembers her late husband, Dick, who died nearly seven years ago of cancer. You can also watch and listen to all episodes of the podcast, watch videos of the interview at CNN.com/allthereisonline, and the interviews are also on YouTube.
You can also leave comments and share your experiences at CNN.com/all thereisonline. I hope it makes you feel a little less lonely in your grief. And if you'd like to help those affected by the Los Angeles area wildfires, go to CNN.com/impact.
The news continues. The Source with Kaitlan Collins starts now. I'll be here tomorrow. I'll see you then.
