Return to Transcripts main page
Erin Burnett Outfront
"Very Rapid Fire Spread" Possible, Threatening Life & Property; Hegseth Defiant At Hearing In The Face Of Misconduct Allegations. Aired 7-8p ET
Aired January 14, 2025 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[19:00:35]
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: And OUTFRONT next:
Live from Altadena, California, already devastated right now at the center of new warnings tonight for those winds. Fears of new fires starting right here. This as I meet a firefighter who lost his own home, trying to desperately save others.
In the rubble of his home today, though, a priceless discovery.
And the search for a cause. CNN's spotting investigators combing several hiking trails where one of the fires started. An investigation on the ground is OUTFRONT tonight.
And then a professional soccer player for L.A. Her childhood home burned to the ground days before her wedding. So did she go ahead with it? She's my guest.
Let's go OUTFRONT.
And good evening. I'm Erin Burnett, live from Altadena, California tonight.
And OUTFRONT tonight, we do have the breaking news. These new warnings, we are now in the middle of an extremely dangerous situation here in southern California. Powerful wind gusts are now whipping across the area.
The major fear right now is that the winds will fuel even more destructive fires by carrying embers to areas like this on the edge of Altadena that have not been burned. And you see how green and lush and all of the dry vegetation. Also through this area, critically dry.
It is in these hills behind me where the Eaton Fire started. They are concerned about new sparks for so much of this area to go up in flames and in these coming hours with wind gusts, that is the concern coming down the San Gabriel Mountains.
And this is why, as you can see, we're in a part of town that is under an evacuation order. People, this is you know, you come through National Guard blocked and all day here, there's been fire crews coming through here nonstop. They've been, you know, really scrambling to gain the upper hand and build up this firewall that they're trying to build up ahead of these winds that they anticipate through the night hours tonight.
And as we drove around today, we saw this, you know, the pink fire retardant. We've been showing you drops of that, including homes, cars, yards. But up in the mountains today, we literally saw a line, almost a line of defense over in the mountains behind me that they've been putting to try to prevent where they fear that that fire could try to move down in those winds tonight, areas that, of course, have not seen flame and burn in about 50 years.
Let's just show you some of the pictures here. You can see the pink stretching, as I said, across the hill.
And we also have incredible new video from an air crew, and there you see the remarkable precision of what they are trying to do to drop, in this case, water drop on flames in the Palisades Fire.
And meantime, on the ground, families are sifting through the ashes, trying to look for anything that might have survived the ashes and the fires, things that matter so much in any human life.
I was with a firefighter, Chien Yu, earlier today. He saw the fires, went out on call. Sixteen hours later, he finds out his own home burned to the ground while he had been out desperately trying to save others. And we're going to show you his incredible story in just a moment.
While we were with him, though, we captured a remarkable scene. Chien Yu actually found his wedding ring covered in ash.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: What's that?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let me see.
BURNETT: What's that? That's it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's it?
BURNETT: That's it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's it.
BURNETT: Oh my God.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh my God!
BURNETT: Oh my God!
(CHEERING)
BURNETT: Oh my God. Oh yeah. Oh my God. Oh my God.
(END VIDOE CLIP)
BURNETT: We're going to have more on Chien Yu's story in just a moment. But first though, Bill Weir, Nick Watt and Veronica Miracle are all here with me across southern California. In the midst of these warnings on all sides of these fires, I want to start with you, Bill, in Malibu. What are you seeing and hearing there now?
BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: We're on fire lookout. We drove around Topanga, we went all the way (AUDIO GAP) that auto fire that broke out overnight, but it was quickly contained. It was quenched and it was really quiet. Even the wind gusts we were expecting to see didn't -- didn't produce.
But it looks like they basically shifted this particularly dangerous situation to tomorrow, some 3:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. tomorrow. So they got a little more time to work on those fire lines to try to get these hotspots. We saw some smoldering up here in the hills above Malibu, but let me look. You give you a before and after perspective of this home here on Pacific Coast Highway.
[19:05:00]
We're right by Rambla Pacifica, Duke's famous restaurant is just -- just east of us here.
But that's the before photo. And then this is the after. And this whole strip of homes here, these -- these Pacific side homes, the beaches in L.A. are public up to the, I believe, just above the high tide line, but this narrow strip between Pacific Coast Highway and the ocean is some of the most coveted real estate anywhere in the country, frankly, and so much of it has been gutted. In addition to many of the hillside mansions that are much more opulent because they have more of a -- of a lot space up there.
We saw search and rescue teams for the first time. I don't know when they started. They got they've done thousands of home checks up in Altadena, but it sounded like from the press conference that they just started here and we saw some actually from Mexico search and rescue teams. And they're going through doing the grim work of looking to confirm there were no remains in any of these houses.
And, Erin, oddly, about an hour ago, we got an alert like our phones blew up that Malibu around Las Flores Canyon needed to evacuate. But then they just announced half hour later at the press conference, there are no active evacuations, so they might be another bug in the alert system.
BURNETT: Yeah, yeah. Which and, of course, those alerts caused such fear.
All right. Bill Weir, thank you very much in Malibu.
Let's go to Pacific Palisades where Nick Watt is.
And, Nick, what are you learning?
NICK WATT, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, some pretty good news today, frankly, Erin. There are no active flames around this massive fire, some hotspots around the edges that they're trying to mop up in anticipation of that wind picking up later. But that wind, which we thought was going to be powerful through last night into today, just never really materialized, never really picked up.
You know, last night on the local news, one of the meteorologists was talking about the wind. And he said, basically, people in this area need to be most fearful. That was around where I live. So I've been driving around all last night and today with paintings and a few other things in the back of my truck, just in case.
You know, the longer you cover this fire, the more you believe that the worst can actually happen. When you see that the worst has happened to so many people. Mayor Bass of L.A. meantime, talking about reconstruction already, it's time to look forward, she says. I was driving along Sunset Boulevard just through the Palisades, and you can see all the utility trucks are out there starting some sort of work. It's difficult to know where they can start in just this utter devastation in this nearly 40 square mile burn imprint.
So fears again for tonight just a little bit as those winds might pick up after dark, you know, because what happens is when the land loses temperature, the ocean keeps temperature. And that can help get those winds moving again. So there is a little bit of fear for that. Fingers crossed. By this time tomorrow I'll be feeling a lot happier -- Erin.
BURNETT: All right. Well, we hope so. Of course, we'll see. At that point, you're going to have pass through that that period of incredibly intense wind as the forecast is right now.
All right. Thank you very much, Nick Watt.
Let's go now to the Pasadena Fire chief, Chad Augustin. And he is here with me now.
So you -- we're here obviously, in this moment, you don't have heavy winds, but that is the concern and the fear. Were in that area that you're worried about what can happen here just in the mountains behind us.
So -- so tell me how fast it moves from just, say, a ridge, or coming through that little crevice in the mountains, how fast (AUDIO GAP) so far from this point this way have not (AUDIO GAP).
CHAD AUGUSTIN, PASADENA, CA FIRE CHIEF: Thank you for having me. And if we just go back to the start of this fire when we had 70, 80 mile an hour wind gusts, we had ember cast two plus miles ahead of the fire. So to put that into perspective, that can tell you how quickly with those ember casts, if we had a flare up, how fast that these homes could be threatened.
BURNETT: Right. I mean, because, you know, this is -- this is close.
AUGUSTIN: It's very close.
BURNETT: And the winds, they can just come. So all day I know I've seen a lot of activity. You know, you're worried here. You've had fire trucks coming and going. You've been dropping fire retardant along some of the ridges to try to block it.
How? But, of course, then there's still the great unknown of exactly what and where. But how do you feel about the preparations for this wind that you anticipate really picking up overnight?
AUGUSTIN: Yeah, I would say it's -- it's twofold. We're concerned and there's been so much lost and devastation, we want to prevent that, that the positive thing is we have over 3,200 (AUDIO GAP) incident.
And so we have tons of contingencies of strike teams, of firefighters patrolling this area. We were protecting critical infrastructure.
BURNETT: So when they patrol and we see them here, we see copters up on these ridges. We see what are they looking for?
AUGUSTIN: Two things, they're looking for hotspots. And they're looking for any embers that may be that may be casting that could cause a flare up.
BURNETT: That could already be, could come over and just blow right over, even now, where it seems calm and it lands.
[19:10:01]
AUGUSTIN: That's -- you're exactly right.
BURNETT: All right. So then how do they -- how do they find those? I mean, the sense you look at this and the scale, the scale is so vast.
AUGUSTIN: It is. For -- for some of our aircraft, they can detect heat. For some of our firefighters, they're literally stopping. And as you've seen, they're stopping house to house to make sure there are no hotspots.
BURNETT: That could ignite.
AUGUSTIN: Exactly.
BURNETT: All right. Well, I know this is going to be crucial talking to some of your crews today. You've got everybody on high alert through the night here, right, with this next 3:00, 3:30 a.m. You expect that this potential surge in winds?
AUGUSTIN: That's correct. And we have a whole contingency of additional strike teams on the ready, if need be, to come in and protect this community.
BURNETT: All right. Well, Chief Augustin, thank you very much. I appreciate your time.
AUGUSTIN: Thank you so much.
BURNETT: Good luck tonight with -- with everything that your crews are doing.
AUGUSTIN: Appreciate it. BURNETT: All right. And that's -- that's -- that's what they've been
doing. As he said, walking, checking on the house to house along those ridges, looking for anything stray so they could catch it early.
And the winds are anticipated to pick up significantly, that particularly dangerous warning coming in those early hours through tomorrow. The fear of new fires igniting is dangerously real here.
Firefighter chen, who knows what that fear looks like because he saw (AUDIO GAP) his wife and two boys from their home. He went out on a 16-hour shift to fight fires in his Altadena neighborhood, 16-hour shift. He didn't know until the end of it that his house was gone.
I met up with Chien Yu this afternoon for his first day back at the firehouse. He's on -- on high alert tonight over the night. Everyone at that firehouse is. We visited his home where he found a miraculous discovery, as we were there.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BURNETT: What is it like coming back to work?
CHIEN YU, FIREFIGHTER WHO LOST HOME IN FIRE: I just wanted normalcy. So that's why I came back to work -- but it's never going to be the same for the kids.
BURNETT: Yeah. I mean, how are the kids managing? Because they would have -- I mean, I know your wife packed some stuff, but they're very unrooted.
YU: Yeah, they're -- I think they're doing as best as they can, you know, but they do have (AUDIO GAP) to bed. They've talked about, you know, like, I want to go home. I want to go back to school.
BURNETT: Yeah.
YU: Yeah. You know, and unfortunately, we live right next to the school. So that fire took the school, too.
BURNETT: School is gone.
YU: Yeah, totally.
Yeah. This is my route home. This is how I get home in the morning.
BURNETT: In the morning? Because you usually work in overnight, right?
YU: Yeah, we worked two days, 48 hour shifts.
My bench made it with the concrete.
BURNETT: So its this house right here, Chien?
YU: Yep. Right here.
BURNETT: Oh my gosh. YU: Basketball hoop. The boys asked about the basketball hoop and
they've made it.
BURNETT: Hey, man.
YU: This is my garage.
BURNETT: This is your garage.
YU: Yeah. We are just -- like I said, we had just cleaned it up. Yeah. This was the front door, little porch area. We're sitting right here.
BURNETT: And then where did she see the flames?
YU: You can just see the orange glow over the trees.
BURNETT: Yeah, right over there.
YU: Yeah.
BURNETT: Now, you're not going to take the boys back here, right?
YU: No.
BURNETT: No.
YU: Yeah. We, initially, thought maybe we can come back and give them closure, but I don't think they need any of this.
BURNETT: No.
YU: Yeah.
BURNETT: No, they -- I mean, they know, right?
YU: Yeah.
BURNETT: They --
YU: Yeah. We evacuated so they know. And we told them that that's burned down. Our house is burned down. The school is burned down. So they're trying to figure it out.
BURNETT: How long had you lived here, Chien?
YU: We were here probably, like 7 or 8 years. Yeah.
BURNETT: Do you come back to Altadena? Do you stay in Altadena or?
YU: Yeah. I mean, I grew up around here. I grew up in San Gabriel Valley. So we're not too far. And the plan of now is, yeah, we want to be back. And I think that's the feeling of most everyone on the street.
BURNETT: Yeah.
YU: Oh, this is the baby grand that we had.
BURNETT: Oh, there's a piano.
YU: You can see -- yes.
This is where we had our baby grand. You can see the metal.
BURNETT: Oh, the strings --
YU: With the strings.
BURNETT: You see the strings? Yep. Oh, my gosh.
I mean, you see fire every day, right? You see? Destroyed -- destruction every day. But how is it different now that it's your own life?
YU: Yeah, it's -- I don't know, its just undescribable. I mean, you know, when we go to a house fire, you kind of detach, you know, and you just try to do what's best for the homeowner, and you put the fire out, and we kind of salvage what we can. We pull what we can from them. And hopefully, some of their stuff make it. But this is just -- just gone.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Looking for his wedding ring.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's that? What's that?
[19:15:02]
BURNETT: What's that? What's that?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let me see.
BURNETT: That's it?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's it, that's it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's it, that's it.
YU: Oh my god.
BURNETT: Oh my god. Oh my god.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah, baby. Wow.
BURNETT: Oh yeah. Oh my god. Oh my god.
(CHEERS)
BURNETT: Chien, what's your wife going to say?
YU: She didn't know.
BURNETT: But you hadn't told her. You didn't tell her you lost it. Now she's going to know. YU: Now everybody knows. But we found it.
BURNETT: Yeah, we found it. You're all good. Youre good.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What? Oh my gosh.
YU: We found it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We found it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Something special about that moment and just what they're going through.
You can help the Yu family by donating to their GoFundMe page. Go to gofundme.com and search for Chien Yu, C-H-I-E-N Yu, to find their donation page.
And we're going to take a very brief break. When we come up, come back on the other side, hikers capturing what may have been the start of the fire that leveled the Palisades, even as behind us investigators are saying they're looking at part of the origin of what they think might have been the Eaton Fire. I'm going to talk to one of the leading investigators looking into these origins.
Plus, a professional soccer player loses her childhood home in the flames days before she was set to be married. Her heartbreaking story with a silver lining is next.
And Trump's pick to lead the defense department, grilled today by senators.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. MARK KELLY (D-AZ): Did you take your staff, including young female staff members, to a strip club?
PETE HEGSETH, DEFENSE SECRETAY NOMINEE: Absolutely not. Anonymous smears.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:21:17]
BURNETT: At the breaking news, police have now arrested 14 people in connection with the Pacific Palisades fire. One of the two huge fires raging here comes as investigators are working overtime to figure out (AUDIO GAP) started here, where they're worried about more fires spreading down the San Gabriel mountains, this particular area of fear.
Tonight, even behind us, there's been a lot of investigators down low, looking to see possibly the genesis of the Eaton Fire as they try to figure this out.
Nick Watt is OUTFRONT.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NICK WATT, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We know what sets the scene for these fires. Dry brush, low humidity, high winds. But what about the spark? Bottom line, we are usually to blame.
DAVID ACUNA, BATTALION CHIEF, CAL FIRE: Ninety-five percent of all fires are started by humans. But that's not all arson. It can be accidental.
WATT: A cigarette butt, a campfire, fireworks, or a spark from a power line. It's the infrastructure of human life that's often to blame after the Eaton Fire just devastated Altadena, the electric company already being sued for allegedly starting it by mistake. SoCal Edison denies this. Investigators still do not know.
CHERYLL KU, EVACUATED ALTADENA, CA HOME: We did see the embers flying. It was almost like a snow (AUDIO GAP).
WATT: -- Tuesday, the Ku family doorbell cam captured fire at the base of a power line pylon in Eaton Canyon.
JEFFREY KU, EVACUATED ALTADENA, CA HOME: It was burning bright and it was the base of the tower on fire.
WATT: Above the Palisades, a puff of smoke on a satellite image taken 10:37 Tuesday morning. And this video shot by hikers high on a hillside of trails and bone dry chaparral.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was probably only about 50ft away from us. We started to hear the fire crackle, like right behind us, and the wind started to pick up really fast.
WATT: Arson investigators and sniffer dogs searching for any sign of accelerants here.
Should those trails have been closed when fire danger (AUDIO GAP) --
JOHN LENTINI, PRESIDENT, SCIENTIFIC FIRE ANALYSIS: -- prevent a spark, but when you've got (AUDIO GAP) and this much wind, preventing all the sparks is pretty hard.
WATT: Midnight last night, as winds whipped up the Angeles National Forest was closed to the public. That's more than 1,000 square miles of wilderness, north of the city.
Late Thursday, this man was arrested in Azusa, accused of trying to set a tree on fire. He did not start a major blaze.
LENTINI: California seems to have a large number of crazies who get off on setting fires.
DANIEL BERLANT, STATE FIRE MARSHAL, CALIFORNIA: In fact, just last year we arrested over 150 arsonists who started wildfires intentionally here in California.
WATT: But power lines and equipment are the most common culprit, sparking some of the most devastating fires in the state. The Woolsey camp and Tubbs Fires, live cables get hit by branches and the wind, fault and spark. That's (AUDIO GAP) power shut offs today, which --
CHIEF ANTHONY MARRONE, LOS ANGELES COUNTY FIRE DEPARTMENT: -- are going to prevent our next fire from starting.
WATT: But who or what exactly sparked these current fires?
BERLANT: At this point, it is just too early to determine what that or who that might be.
WATT: And we likely won't know for months.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WATT (on camera): So right now I am in the general area of origin up there on the hill. Investigators trying to figure out the specific. It will take a while. They go pebble by pebble, blade of grass by blade of grass to try and narrow down the exact point of ignition.
I mentioned there, they had dogs sniffing for accelerant, so arson on the table.
[19:25:01]
Those two power pylons up there also an issue. And also there was a fire here, Erin, on New Year's Day early in the morning. And so there's a possibility that some embers, something could have still been burning under the ground that was then reignited by that heavy wind.
It's going to take a while, months, perhaps, before we know what happened up here -- Erin.
BURNETT: All right. Nick Watt, thank you very much.
We've just learned the death toll in these fires has increased to 25. It has been 24.
The governor of California, Gavin Newsom, has indicated he expects that those numbers will go up substantially, but they are going house to house. They have cadaver dogs. They are trying to understand the magnitude of this damage, even as in these hours here with these winds, they are worried about embers and fire over these ridges, igniting more fire.
OUTFRONT now, Jose Medina. He is the acting special agent in charge of the ATF Los Angeles field division. He's leading an elite team that's been deployed to investigate what happened, the cause of that Palisades fire that has changed Los Angeles.
And, Jose, I want to start with the breaking news, 14 people now under arrest in connection with that Palisades Fire, I mean, 14 people is a lot of people and three of them, we understand for arson.
So can you give us any context around these arrests, whether they're related to the cause of the Palisades Fire?
JOSE MEDINA, ATF ACTING SPECIAL AGENT IN CHARGE OF LOS ANGELES FIELD DIVISION: Well, thank you for the question, Erin.
And first of all, our thoughts and prayers are to all the victims of this horrific tragedy. As you know, this is an ongoing investigation, and it's ATF's top priority to give everybody answers. And to the citizens of the southern California, the answers they need. And through a thorough investigation, as it relates to those arrests, I cannot speak on those arrests. Those are our state and local partners. But as of now, it is ATF's top priority to provide the citizens with answers.
BURNETT: Can I ask you just -- and I understand there's only so much you can say in the context of an investigation, but 14 people seems like a lot of people. Is it a lot of people when -- if you're thinking about arrests related to starting a fire just from your experience doing this?
MEDINA: Well, it depends on the type of charges they are arrested for. But that would be with our state and local partners. Like I said, this is an active investigation, an ongoing investigation which ATF and the national response team has responded to.
And we have a lot of experience investigators up in the canyons and up on that mountain investigating.
BURNETT: And in the -- on the ground in the Palisades where you are, I want to ask you about that video that Nick just mentioned in his report. I don't -- I don't know if you heard it, but I know you're well aware of this.
These are hikers in Temescal Canyon, and they captured what may have been -- may have been, Jose, the start of the Palisades Fire. And the hiker who took the video said that by the time they got to the bottom of the canyon, he could hear the fire crackling right behind him, which just -- I mean, that that, as we know, is consistent with how these things spread. You know, they start, they spark, they spread. That's these fears.
How important is a video like that one from the hiker or others, these videos that we see to you when you actually are trying to figure out how it started?
MEDINA: Well, all evidence is important. That video is just some of the evidence we have received from our -- from the citizens, from the 911 calls and from our state and local partners who are investigating this fire with us as part of the national response team. We have media collection specialists that will take that evidence and analyze it.
So, any video, any 911 calls and interviews by any of the 911 callers is very important to this ongoing investigation.
BURNETT: And can -- at this point, are you able to rule out arson or not?
MEDINA: We -- it is early in the investigation and it's ATF's top priority to provide a thorough investigation. We are ruling out nothing at this point. What we want to do is provide facts and answers to the citizens of Pacific Palisades, and that's what ATF intends to do, no matter how long it takes. It's a slow process and we understand everybody's sense of urgency, but we will provide those answers.
BURNETT: All right. Jose Medina, I appreciate your time. Thank you very much, sir.
And next, not far from where we're standing tonight along these ridges that they're so worried about in these coming hours, residents are scrambling to put out spot fires that are popping up because of the heat and the winds. And that is the real concern when you say, where does that next spark come from?
Plus, a professional soccer player watches as her childhood home goes up in flames days before she is set to get married.
[19:30:03]
So what did she do? She's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BURNETT: Welcome back.
And here in Altadena -- let's just -- you see here, National Guard -- a lot more -- National Guard, we understand about 600 National Guard here now on the scene. (AUDIO GAP) palpable, you notice it? They're manning a lot of these checkpoints because this is an evacuation zone, not allowed to come into Altadena.
This is. So they're here checking to make sure who comes in and doesn't come in.
Just take you around their Humvee here because it just shows you the nature of this crisis. They've got fuel, they've got all their bags. They're all around here.
As I said, they -- they check for everyone coming in. And then they also -- you guys are going to sleep out here, right?
Yep. They sleep out here. They're going to sleep in their Humvee. They'll take shifts. As they were explaining, because someone always has to be up. It gets cold out here at night.
But there's not somewhere for them to go. And they're certainly not using hotels because they want to make sure hotels in this area are available for people who have been fleeing the crisis, who have been made refugees.
[19:35:02]
But Lionel will come around at me a little bit, just to -- these guys are working, so I don't want to (AUDIO GAP) they're sleeping in shifts, there's not a lot of space in here.
So this is what they]re going through as they are in this ongoing crisis that has basically continued to be at a sprint pace. They're dealing with a marathon situation and leading into these winds tonight.
But these are the National Guard teams that you see posted everywhere. Again, Altadena evacuated, some of it burned, some of it not burned. This side really essentially not burned, which is why they're so worried about these sparks and winds in this particular area coming off the San Gabriel Mountains.
They've been looking for hotspots throughout the day. So you see the mountains where they think maybe even close to here is where the original fire Eaton Fire may have started. They have been checking these mountains aggressively all day because of fear of fire spreading right into this area, and they've been going throughout looking for hotspots that could ignite an ember. And those embers picked up in these winds overnight that are anticipated with gusts up to 70 miles an hour near where I am in Altadena, where they're looking at those hotspots.
My colleague Veronica Miracle has been (AUDIO GAP) what have you been seeing?
VERONICA MIRACLE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Erin, so much activity today. We are outside of the evacuation zone, but there are still many houses that have completely burned to the ground. We saw a firefighter here checking and assessing the damage earlier in the day, but just across the street, we saw a spot fire actually flare up in one of the homes that has burned down, and we saw neighbors just jump into action. Everyone is so on edge here.
So the neighbors ran across the street with barrels of water, bottle, fire extinguishers, putting it out even before firefighters arrived. And all of these neighbors here, they've been gathered and they were able to see it because now all of these donation sites have popped up.
So this house right here, still standing, even though two houses on this block have burned down. And the neighbor who lives here told me, he said that because his house was still standing, he knew he needed to do something. So on Friday, he called for donations.
And this is what it's turned into. It actually goes all the way around the block (AUDIO GAP) Indiana. And now, they have so much clothing, they're actually asking people to stop bring clothing, and they want now people who have been impacted by the fires to come and take everything that they need.
So a lot of community support here, of course, but people still on edge because of this wind event -- Erin.
BURNETT: All right. Veronica, thank you very much.
And also tonight, Los Angeles professional soccer player Ali Riley, a women's soccer superstar known around the world like everyone who suffered during this horrible traumatic crisis so far, was helpless. She watched helplessly as her childhood home burned to the ground.
Her parents still live there. They were able to get a few things into their car and run like everyone else. Almost everything else lost, and it all happened three days before she was scheduled to get married in Santa Rosa Valley, about 40 miles from the Palisades Fire.
Ali riley is OUTFRONT now a member of the Angel City FC, Los Angeles women's professional soccer team.
And, Ali, thank you so much. I'm so glad to have a chance to talk to you.
I mean, you had to watch just a horrific thing. Your family house burned down where you grew up. You posted a picture of your neighborhood and what had happened there. It looks, you know, there's -- there's almost nothing left there.
Your post was this was our home. How is this real? It can't be real.
Does it even feel real to you now that you've had a few days?
ALI RILEY, PROFESSIONAL SOCCER PLAYER: No, it still doesn't. And thank you for having me. And thank you for keeping us so informed, because I think if I didn't watch the news, I probably wouldn't believe it still.
We obviously feel really lucky that we're all safe and healthy, and our neighbors and everyone, and were regrouping and were able to still celebrate my wedding, but it just feels like a nightmare. Not -- not that I'm able to sleep, but it does. It feels like a nightmare. And it's just never ending.
BURNETT: No, it's just -- it's a -- its a trauma now. And so you're -- you mentioned you had three days before your wedding when this happened. So sounds like you almost answered the question there. But did you go ahead with it? Did you do it?
RILEY: We did. So right when we got confirmation that everything was gone, and that our whole block was gone, and it was my friend who biked into the neighborhood and sent me that confirmation.
And so, I was the one who had to pass that message on to our neighbors. That was a really hard message to send, but the message that I got back Wednesday, Thursday was, at least we have your wedding. So I think we knew what we had to do. And the show and the love and the joy had to go on.
[19:40:02]
And so, of course, I wanted to make sure that my parents felt up to it, and they were just like, we need this. We're going to party so hard, and its going to bring us so much joy, and we're so glad we did it, because, oh, my gosh, the support that we've received. And it gave us an opportunity as well to support our neighbors and our friends who had also lost everything. But we hadn't been able to see them since everyone evacuated. So we
were there together. Some people were in mismatched shoes and borrowed clothing. My dear friend said he was very happy that we -- we made him save his -- his one good suit because he thought about the wedding when he evacuated. So yeah, it was -- I've never felt anything like that.
(CROSSTALK)
BURNETT: That's the choice he made?
RILEY: He grabbed, he grabbed his suit.
I know he had a t-shirt underneath it, but he's never looked better.
BURNETT: That's what I will remember.
So your soccer club, Ali, is selling a shirt that says L.A. Strong on it. The proceeds are going to the Los Angeles Fire Department as well as the Red Cross.
Have you been able to speak to your teammates? Were any of them also affected as dramatically and personally by the fires as you were?
RILEY: Thank goodness. No. I had Calabasas, who were able to return the same day. (AUDIO GAP) who lives in Encino with her family. They're still evacuated, and she -- she came to the wedding. She drove, so she'd be ready to leave if she had to.
There were a few families in that same position, but she was like, I'm not going to miss this. So, yeah, the club, the girls, the players have been so supportive. The staff, everyone has reached out offering, clothing, places to live, like anything we need.
But I think for us, we're very privileged that my parents got out in time. They packed two cars. We have home insurance, and so we really want to -- we have all this love and this energy and support. So we want to focus our energy and our -- our money on people who need it more than we do.
So, yeah, we're going to be volunteering on Saturday and I'm going to work with the club to see what we can do. I know they have some big events planned, but preseason starts on Friday. So, it's a pretty -- a pretty overwhelming week. But, everyone has been all over the world, has been sending messages and just giving us so much love right now.
BURNETT: Well, your -- your -- your -- your marriage, a trial by fire, hopefully an omen for a long and wonderful and wonderful life together.
Ali, thank you so very much.
RILEY: Thank you for having me, Erin.
BURNETT: And next, incredible new images of those deadly flames that tore through this region, captured by a retired firefighter. They are quite stunning. And you're going to see them next.
Plus, Trump's nominee for secretary of defense today facing tough questions about allegations of sexual misconduct, excessive drinking and more.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:47:20]
BURNETT: Our breaking news, we're live in Altadena, California. And those hills behind me is one of the main areas they are focused with fear about those winds picking up overnight, hotspots and igniting potentially massive fires below. That is what they're vigilant for.
The death toll that we are told has risen at this hour, 25 have now been confirmed as killed in this horrific tragedy. A number the governor of California says will go up. L.A. County Fire Department warning tonight of severe fire weather in the coming hours, particularly where I'm standing.
I was with crews today. They were saying, this is where we are so concerned. Checking for hotspots, checking for the fear that an ember could just come over the ridge in the wind and then spread to areas like this on this line in Altadena, where so far there has, they've been spared.
It comes as were seeing these incredible new photos from retired firefighter Todd Sudmeier, who spent three decades fighting fires across southern California himself. He now documents these battles firsthand.
And Todd is OUTFRONT.
And, Todd, you know, we've all seen everyone, I think around the world has seen that a battle is the right way to describe what firefighters do with these fires. You've witnessed hundreds of fires. You've been in hundreds of fires. Have you ever seen anything like this one?
TOD SUDMEIER, RETIRED FIREFIGHTER: Probably the strongest winds I've ever seen or experienced were here with this fire, as well as the loss. You know, I've been on other large loss fires up and down the state, but typically those have been in the hundreds of homes, not thousands. So, this is by far the largest loss that I've personally ever witnessed.
BURNETT: I mean, and we still don't even know the scale of it. And I know, you know, were in the middle of the event. That's the thing. It's not over.
SUDMEIER: Right.
BURNETT: I mean, so you had a video where you're a couple of feet behind firefighters and they're hosing down houses. These houses are totally engulfed. What was that like?
SUDMEIER: Very chaotic. A lot of firebrands that were being carried by the wind that were, you know, pretty large the size of golf balls, tennis balls, softballs.
BURNETT: That's the trunk of an ember? Just -- yeah.
SUDMEIER: Correct. That's on fire. That's burning.
The wind -- the wind gusts, and one of the things that probably, unless you're there and can experience it, you don't really think about is the stream, the water stream that they were spraying onto the unburned home to try to keep it from burning at the height or the apex of the of the wind gust is ineffective, and it pretty much goes straight up into the wind and comes right back into soaking us as we're standing --
BURNETT: Right, because the winds are carrying it. It's ineffectual.
SUDMEIER: Right, right. So probably not something you would think of as a firefighter squirting the hose, but that's in effect what exactly happened. So, yeah, very chaotic, a lot of moving parts.
And, yeah, it's -- it's incredible to see and to feel and to hear. It's very loud. There's a roar. Yeah. Very -- it's incredible.
BURNETT: And you have firefighters at this, sort of, they're frantically running around the way they described it to me.
[19:50:05]
They said, you know, there was nothing, you know, you know, if you think they're going to finger point and say, oh, if we'd had this or this, I haven't heard that from them. I've heard them say no matter what they had, they would have been overwhelmed. But it was the most incredible thing that they had ever seen. When did you realize how bad it was?
SUDMEIER: You know, when I first got to -- when I first got to the incident, and I was coming around on New York street and I could see the magnitude of what was currently burning, plus kind of the flaming front that was -- that was moving to the south. And I knew at that point, this is -- this is moving at a pace, and the flames are big enough that this is something more than, you know, this is something very unusual. This is something with a much larger magnitude.
BURNETT: And. All right. And so, you know, when did -- at what point did you realize, you know, you've been there for hours and hours? I mean, was there a point where you felt like, how big where is this going? A moment of fear.
SUDMEIER: Yeah. I mean, you think about that. And the reason that I think about it is because the things that -- the things that I document or the video that I grab or the photos I grab, I like to be out in front. I -- I try to position myself to be in front of the flaming front so that I can catch the firefighters engaging the fire.
That's the stuff that I like to get. That's the video that I shoot. So that's always on my mind. So where its going and where its going to be in 5 minutes or 15 minutes is always on my mind. BURNETT: Thank you very much for sharing those with us. Maybe just
give us a moment of the incredible sacrifice that every one of those firefighters was willing to make in that moment. Thank you so much.
SUDMEIER: Thank you.
BURNETT: And next, Trump's pick for defense secretary on Capitol Hill, pressed about his past.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BURNETT: As we continue our breaking news coverage from California, we have some major news today also here.
[19:55:03]
Obviously, you know, with -- with these fires from Washington, Donald Trump's pick to lead the Pentagon, Pete Hegseth, under intense questioning on Capitol Hill.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KELLY: December of 2014 at the CVA Christmas party at the Grand Hyatt at Washington, D.C., you were noticeably intoxicated and had to be carried up to your room. Is that true or false?
PETE HEGSETH, DEFENSE SECRETARY NOMINEE: Anonymous smears.
KELLY: Another time, a CVA staffer stated that you passed out in the back of a party bus. Is that true or false?
HEGSETH: Anonymous smears.
KELLY: In 2014, while in Louisiana on official business for CVA, did you take your staff, including young female staff members, to a strip club?
HEGSETH: Absolutely not. Anonymous smears.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: OUTFRONT now, the senator that you just saw questioning Hegseth, Democrat Mark Kelly of Arizona. He sits on the Armed Services Committee. Of course, the center of this decision that is so crucial for this country, whether Pete Hegseth will be the defense secretary for the United States.
Senator Kelly, did Hegseth convince you to vote for him?
KELLY: Well, Erin, I walked into that hearing this morning very concerned about his experience to do the job. Defense Department is a huge organization, $850 billion a year budget, 3 million people. He didn't seem to have the requisite experience to do this.
When I walked out of the hearing I have to say I was more concerned about his transparency. He talks about personal issues without specifying what those were, and then when asked about what I think the personal issues might be, and some of the things he's had to try to overcome, he talks about that these are just smears.
And it can't be, you know, it's got to be -- it can't be both at the same time. So I have significant concerns. I'm going to meet with him tomorrow and talk further with him.
BURNETT: So you're going to have a one on one conversation.
KELLY: Yeah, I am. I want to get back to a couple of the things I brought up today, but also talk to him about some policy. I asked for a second round of questions. I think it would have been appropriate if we did that. This is a very serious position. It affects our national security and our safety for us and our families.
But I've got some specific policy questions I want to talk to him about, too. And I have to say, you know, to give him some credit here. When asked about the policy stuff I thought he was he was pretty good and he seemed to understand it.
But on the personal issues, on the issue that I brought up about being intoxicated in the workplace, taking young female staff members to certain kinds of establishments that he couldn't answer if these things were true or false. And that's a very simple and basic question. He kept coming back to the -- to these were smears. So that concerns me.
BURNETT: So I want to ask you about another thing, though. You talk about policy, and I think you're saying that that he had seemed on more solid footing on that is obviously significant. I know you're going to meet with him tomorrow, but there was an exchange with the Democratic senator, Elissa Slotkin, your colleague who's a former CIA agent who had served three tours in Iraq, right? And Hegseth has said that his time in service is so important to him.
So let me just play this exchange.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. ELISSA SLOTKIN (D-MI): Do you believe there is such a thing as an illegal order, that Joe Biden or any other president, Donald Trump, could give? Is there anything that a commander in chief could ask you to do with the uniformed military that would be in violation of the U.S. Constitution?
HEGSETH: Senator, anybody of any party could give an order that is against the Constitution or against the law, right?
SLOTKIN: Okay, so and are you so are you saying that you would stand in the breach and push back if you were given an illegal order?
HEGSETH: I start by saying I reject the premise that President Trump would be giving any illegal orders at all.
SLOTKIN: I understand. You've done your genuflecting to him. But --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Were you satisfied with that answer?
KELLY: No, no, I'm not satisfied. I don't think anybody on the committee on either side of the aisle should be satisfied with that answer. You know, any president at any time. I mean, first of all, you got to understand the demands of the presidency. And presidents could make bad decisions.
And it could be up to the secretary of defense or other cabinet members to stop him from executing on a bad decision. That's the job of the secretary of defense. And he clearly did not want to answer that question. I think its a pretty simple answer, and it should be, you know, if you're SecDef and the president tells you to do something that's clearly unconstitutional or illegal, you should tell him that and you can refuse to carry out an order of the president.
That's -- that's fine to do. I think the president elect should accept that. And I'm troubled that he could not answer that question adequately.
BURNETT: All right. Well, Senator Kelly, thank you very much for your time. I appreciate it.
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. These next hours are so crucial.
Thanks for joining us. Let me hand it off now to my colleague also here in southern California -- Anderson.
