Original subtitles

Come on, guys!

We gotta go!

Get in the car!

I

don't

want you to get burned, man.

It's back.

No, we gotta go. We can't do this.

Please protect this house in Jesus' name.

My name is Jeffrey Koo. I live in Altadena with my wife, Cheryl.

We're close enough to the city, downtown LA.

You can get there in 20 minutes, but yet it's far enough away so that you have

some peace and quiet.

We just like being close to the mountains.

It's just, you know, really beautiful up there.

So the wind had picked up.

You can hear it, you can feel it, you can sense it. It was just really blowing

hard. Fox 11 Weathers. High wind warnings are in effect in this yellowish

for most of Southern California.

That's in effect for Tuesday and Wednesday.

Gust at times could be over 60 miles per hour. Extreme fire weather conditions

expected with it. The National Weather Service is labeling this a particularly

dangerous situation.

Oh, hello.

Hi. Hi, so if you guys haven't met, this is Amy.

Hi. She does whatever she wants to just avoid me or whatever.

My name is Peter Mathieu. I live in Altadena, California with my wife, Amy,

my daughter, Kaylin.

Mr. Milo Waffle.

Yeah.

Our Altadena home has been in our family for coming up on 40 years now.

I'd be lying if I didn't tell you that the weather people were crazy.

Because every time they said we were about to get heavy winds, heavy rain,

everything. But,

oh, yeah, it wasn't lying this time.

Man, this one is causing all sorts of anarchy.

Oh, man.

Them Santa Anas are no joke. Be safe out there today.

My name is Jonathan Bigliotti. I'm a national correspondent with CBS News.

Leading up to January 2025,

the last measurable rainfall had been eight months prior.

You had vegetation that had been dried out during the summer. It becomes the

perfect tinder for a fire.

You suddenly have all of the ingredients for the perfect storm.

At any moment, something could spark.

But I had no idea.

the scale of this disaster I was about to cover.

Hey, it's Amanda Starantino.

I am trying to get information about a fire in Malibu. I'm Amanda Starantino,

and I'm a reporter for CBS News Los Angeles.

We had no idea what we were driving into, and we just followed the smoke.

We are in Pacific Palisades where a fire just started. You can see just how

intense the smoke is.

You can see people are quickly, quickly evacuating.

It literally looked like a movie scene, and people just yelling at each other,

we got to go, we got to go, we got to go.

It was not okay, and you knew something bad was happening.

You can see the smoke on the ridge here. I mean, here's a closer look. You can

see just how much is going.

We're going to go back to the other side, keep an eye on this fire.

People started evacuating out, and the fire department said it was okay for us

to stay.

This fire moving very, very quickly in this area.

The smoke overtakes your throat. It literally

feels like you're burning, but you're not even touching it.

The conditions of the wind was completely unprecedented.

And with how dry it was,

The area was just a tinderbox ready to go.

It was about an hour into the Palisades fire.

Me and my producer, we made our way up the street trying to find a perfect live

shot, trying to find a place that really hits home the trauma and tragedy that a

community is going through.

This home is going to go up in flames. There are not firefighters around here.

They're simply stretched too thin.

You can't even see through the smoke. This entire mountainside is covered in

flames. The wind pushing them up to 50 feet into the sky.

This neighborhood under threat right now. At least five homes destroyed. And

you've got people in panic as they're trying to evacuate.

We have 23 ,000 people that live in the Palisades.

The fire is closing in around them on all sides.

There's a fire, Dad. You see it?

Where's the fire? Right here. Look to your right, Dad.

There's one of the fires.

My name is Aaron Sampson.

My dad, he wasn't doing so well. He was kind of bedridden for the last week and

a half.

Are you okay?

That's really close to my house.

We just got in the car and, you know, Tried to get out of there.

Fires everywhere.

Right here there's a fire just a few feet from us.

Another one right there.

You realize, oh my God, now we're actually surrounded.

In the neighborhood, it also includes the western section of Sunset Boulevard.

So this area has gotten doubled in size.

It's on fire right where we're driving.

It also looks like it's extended down to paint. Police officers started yelling

at everybody, get out of your vehicles, go, go, go.

We've just been evacuated.

This is crazy.

We're having to walk.

We got to, no, not that way, Dad, Dad.

Okay.

Dad.

Hey, I got you. He's very wobbly.

Which way do I go? This way, Dad, to the sidewalk. To the sidewalk, Dad.

Let me get the walker. No, no, I'll get the walker, Dad. Just get to the

sidewalk.

Where's the sidewalk?

Over here, Dad.

No,

no, this is a car. Come here, Dad. I know it's a car. I'm trying to get in

of it.

They've just kicked us out of our car.

Okay, just walk alongside the car.

Grab this pole.

Grab this pole. Thank you. Thank you. I'm going to get your walker, Dad. Hold

to that, okay?

I was feeling real fear.

It was mayhem. It was mayhem.

Okay,

Dad. Turn around.

Dad, we got this.

Turn around.

We got this. We got this. Come on. Turn around.

You got it, Dad. Keep walking down the hill.

Let's go.

They're taking us out.

We got it, Dad. We got

it.

The smoke.

It's okay. It's okay.

We got this.

We got this guy.

Slow down, man. Slow down.

Look at this. I got him in the wheelchair.

I can't do this.

If it turns out...

He was incredibly selfless in that moment.

And it was never an option to ever leave him. I couldn't.

You're just thinking, you know, it's like visceral.

primal you're just thinking gotta get out of the the the flame

i

can't

do at that point i was wheeling him my arms were hurting

and i couldn't the one thing i knew is i could not leave him And that's when I

saw some other car turn around.

He's like, hop in.

I'm in another Good Samaritan's car, Andrew.

All right, thanks so much. Is it in the trunk?

Yes, it's in the trunk.

At that moment, the gravity hit.

We just barely made it through.

It was very, very scary.

We could have died.

By 2 p .m., the fire had already swelled to

over 750 acres and had crossed Palisades Drive.

These are the areas that have the most population throughout Southern

California. Britta, when you think about this, you think about where people

live. Millions of people. Exactly. Millions of people. Just the San

Valley alone is 1 .8 million.

You have people evacuating their cars, fleeing on foot, creating roadblocks

prevented fire crews from gaining access to the very threat that was rapidly

spreading throughout town.

I can't believe that you're pouring fire.

My name is Tanner Charles, and I am a professional storm chaser.

I'm on top of Temesco Canyon here. We have flames just licking the ridge over

here, and it doesn't look like the fire is slowing down at any point.

Oh, my God.

I went out there with my friend Orly.

We wanted to document.

What was going on?

Oh!

That is pretty close.

It got literally right next to it.

Time to go.

Things can go from zero to 60 really fast.

If you just go to Orly's house right down the street, it's in the Palisades.

This is the first time that I really saw that there was homes on fire.

I was like, okay, yeah, this is really real. I pray and hope that people are,

you know, safely.

Flames are getting really close.

You know, we had a hose in the front, hose in the back.

Like, you know, showering down everything.

The fire behind me is literally burning out.

It's bad.

By now, it's getting darker.

Everything's on fire. The house behind us is on fire.

We've got to get out of here. Carter, you're not seen, are you? No, God no.

at that.

It just felt literally like a war zone, like we're at war with nature, and it's

winning.

Me and Orly got in his car. We went back to Orly's place.

Alright, we're good.

Yeah, let's get out of here.

We tried.

We tried, bro. I'm sorry.

We tried our best.

Yeah, when this tree falls, it's over.

I'm sorry, bro.

We gotta get out of here.

There's nothing we can do now, bro.

Please protect this house in Jesus' name.

When you're seeing thousands and thousands of embers, you begin to

how fast these fires can spread. And it feels really defeating. It feels almost

impossible to really be able to fight this thing properly.

I was very well aware of what was happening at the Palisades.

I thought there's a possibility that we might have run into the same problem,

but I think I was just trying to tell myself, you know what, there's a much

bigger problem in the Palisades. It's probably just going to stay there.

That particular night, the winds were probably one of the strongest I've ever

experienced.

By the time that we saw the fire, the base of an electric tower was already

engulfed in flames.

It was straight out of a bad dream. It was like a dragon about to blow

down the hillside.

We have fires in the Palisades, which is far, far west of us. We now have fires

in the mountainside, and all I could think of was, they're going to converge.

They're going to meet. There's fires in every direction.

As minutes lapsed, it just became more and more horrific.

No!

No!

Having the fire breathing down upon us, it kept you.

I couldn't breathe anymore.

My eyes started to water and burn.

There was a feeling of terror.

No!

No!

By then, the sky had turned like it was daylight out.

Armageddon was upon us.

I had not seen Santa Ana winds this bad. Their 100 -mile -an -hour wind with any

kind of flame is the worst nightmare.

No!

I'm afraid of...

Spray the roof down.

What if we get trapped and there's flames all around us and now we can't

out? And so, for me, we should get everything we need to get and let's get

as fast as we can.

Please, God.

Please, God, save us. Save our house.

Please, God, please.

Let's go.

Let's go.

Okay.

Let's go. Let's go. We're going.

It's a myriad of emotions.

When we were leaving the home, our home, we thought this is it. We may not see

our home ever again, but we've got to get out.

And moments like that, you really start to focus on what's most important.

Get out safely.

You have the Palisades fire, and then all of a sudden you have this fire in

Altadena, Pasadena, in a completely different area.

It was very hard to grasp what was happening.

The wind is continuing to pick up, and that's up to 100 miles per hour.

It's the equivalent of a Category 4 hurricane where the wildland meets the

neighborhood.

We saw this wall of fire coming down almost like a river of flames from the

Santa Monica Mountains.

30, 40 feet tall.

It was enough to create a fire tornado.

As a journalist that covers disasters, it was unlike anything I've ever seen

before in my career.

No,

that's not going to do any good anyway.

My name is Richard Snyder.

I live in Pasadena, California.

Where I live is about a mile and a half from the mountains.

I looked out the window and I saw the orange glow.

Police car came down the street announcing to evacuate.

Now. Now.

I'll go.

One of my neighbors, he's elderly and sometimes doesn't understand things when

you're talking to him.

Hey, we gotta get out of here.

Greg!

No, no, Greg. Your house is on fire.

Greg, Greg, you hear me?

Hey, hey, help, help!

Come here right now.

No, no, Greg. Your house is on fire. No.

One of my neighbors, Greg, was just confused.

And I grabbed him and started pulling on him.

My garage is on fire. I know.

There's nothing we can do.

We need to get him out of here.

Wait. I'll get in my car.

No, your car is on fire. It's on fire?

Mind my health. It looks like my car.

I need to post this vehicle and put him in it and take him out.

Come on, Greg. Greg!

Put him in the front seat of the van and drive him away.

I know, Greg. I told you a while ago that we had to get out.

So I handed him over. I trusted that firefighter that he was going to get on

him, and I went back to putting the fires out.

Yeah. They're all out.

The fires just kept coming.

And when you put that 100 mile an hour wind on it, you're not going to stop it.

What I thought.

We're not going to make it.

Lord, with your hands, forgive us for our sins.

Please help us fight this fire.

Please help the winds die down.

Most importantly, save us, Lord.

It was a helpless situation.

Yeah, it was tough.

But I'm a man of faith, and I couldn't have done this alone.

And I praise God for that.

This is my neighbor Dave.

He and his family live there.

Luckily, they got out.

That's my neighbor Greg.

Both houses are gone.

Very sad.

At this point, the fire was really just starting to grab hold of the Altadena

community.

I am here live in the community of Altadena.

These are not going to be the largest wildfires in California's history, but

they are going to be the most destructive because of the communities

victim to these very fast -moving fires.

There are not enough first responders to meet the threat.

The system stretched too thin, neighborhood after neighborhood going

I'm Nani Nam.

I live in the Pacific Palisades with my dogs.

I'm seeing the fire coming down closer to my house.

I thought, okay, now it's time to bail.

My main goal was to just help and get people out.

So I'm just sitting in my truck getting hit by all these embers, and all of a

sudden, banging on my window.

Hey, I need help. I need help.

You okay?

No. What happened? My car won't stop because of the hybrid.

He told me to get my dog to sit in my garage.

It was just intense.

I felt like a pressure on my heart, and I thought I was going to die that day

alone with my dog.

Where are you? Right there. How far up? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I got you.

I was mentally all in from the moment I saw her just because if that was my mom,

I would want someone to do the same.

Okay. At that moment, I only thought about what I loved, and that was my dog.

Is this your house that's on fire?

You have everything you need?

Yeah. Okay, let's go quick.

Go quick. Go, go, go, go, go.

Go inside.

Got it? Ow.

I'm burning. Sorry.

One, two, three.

There we go.

Sit. Sit.

You good?

It's okay. No, stay here. It's okay. You're a good boy.

All right, let's go.

Oh, my God. Oh, my God.

Oh,

my God.

Oh, my God.

He

was,

like, driving blind, basically.

The car's blowing up right and left.

They were our beacon.

I'm just so big that I'm alive. I thought I was going to die.

God,

this happened so fast.

Thank you so much.

I got you. No problem.

When we passed sunset, That's when I relax. That's when I'm like, okay, my

are here. We're safe.

She was

amazing. We kind of both helped each other out.

It really shows you how crazy these acts of nature are. Everything can really be

gone in an instant.

Even though that happened, I still feel blessed that Caleb was there and I got

my four dogs out. I was so grateful to him.

My name is Leandro Carrasquero. I live in Pacific Valley. For over 19 years,

when I saw the first plane, I saw people getting stuck in the house,

people asking for help.

The fire was flying on the air, and the flame was sticking on

the houses.

So I was helping my neighbors.

I'm on scene of a whole street, about two dozen homes fully engulfed. My name

is Brandon Taylor.

I'm a stringer journalist, kind of a run -and -gun type operation. We go in and

we film news as it's happening.

I see this guy.

He was just trying to help people. And I just instinctively just hit record and

started walking and following him.

Hey, you're not going to be able to put that out.

Hey, that's not going to do anything.

He's holding like a little garden hose that's fairly spraying out water. And

like, what the heck? You can feel the flame, the hotness.

Like a micro one.

I don't want you to get burned, man.

Hey, that's not going to do anything.

I see this guy running into the fire, grabbing a little garden hose, no gear

no nothing.

I don't want you to get burned, man.

Everything was orange.

In one second, I was watching myself running out.

And I said, go, go, go, go, go, go.

You need to evacuate.

I was so desperate.

That's when I realized, maybe I'm dead.

The fire's coming in. It's on all sides.

That thing changed too fast.

My jacket was.

melted, I guess.

On my hand was dirt.

At some point, when you need to choose between helping your neighbor and your

life is not worth it.

So... There was so much

destruction already through the city and everyone thought, this can't get worse.

But then overnight, it did.

The wind picked up. They were relentless.

Dude, the whole mountainside is on fire over there.

Oh, my God.

This is getting a little real now.

In Altadena, our evacuation notice came early morning.

And at that point, I felt every emotion hit me all at one time.

We've been prone to having evacuation warnings. We've never actually had to be

evacuated.

Our daughter was asleep.

Number one priority at this point is make sure we get out of here.

It's almost 4 in the morning, and we've officially been told we have to

evacuate. So we are getting up out of here, and all we can really

ask right now is God to look after our house and pray for everybody that's

helping get this under control.

Even when we left, I blessed the house.

And it's something I've never done before.

And I just said,

God, please look after our home.

Oh, my God.

Oh, man.

Oh, my God.

Oh, my God.

This is crazy.

Our main concern was... Make sure the kid's okay. Make sure the dog is okay.

So at this point, we were out of danger.

We were okay.

But just leaving the area at that point, something didn't feel right.

Part of me felt like I was never going to see the home again.

I am Delise Kelly. My grandmother,

Delise Curry, she arrived into Los Angeles in 1939 and

was a Hollywood actress for a great portion of her life.

She ended up retiring and out to Dena, California.

She just fell in love with that city.

She is just a lovely person.

Very loving and kind.

The wind was blowing, but...

You know, we're kind of used to Santa Ana winds here.

The fire, it was way east of where she lived on the west side of Altadena.

And in Southern California, we have a lot of fires.

So we did not feel like there was any imminent danger.

Around midnight, I'm driving her home.

I just dropped my grandmother off and then...

I had to drive 30 miles home.

I text a community text group that we had, and I said, if there's an

notice, let me know.

I thought, she'll be fine and she'll be safe.

I woke up to a text message that said, Did anybody get Dee Dee?

And I started to panic.

I'm about 30 miles from her. I just drove as fast as I could, and I just see

clouds and just the smoke.

It was just so much smoke. I mean, it was dark like night.

I need to get up that hill and go get my grandmother.

God, it's black smoke.

They won't let me up. To go get my grandmother.

My name is Caitlin Doran, and I grew up in Pacific

Palisades. We have a whole, whole family in the Palisades.

My dad was in the backyard.

My brother was on the side yard trying to protect the back of the house.

The water stopped working around 10 or so.

We're going out.

Water.

No water.

No water.

You have no water. You have...

You're done. You're done.

We couldn't save our house.

It's just, it's heartbreaking.

I'm driving to get to Altadena to go find my grandmother.

Y 'all please pray for me right now, my grandmother.

They won't let me go up to do a check on her and I don't know what to do.

I talked to a news reporter and she told me that the National Guard was there.

Oh my God.

And finally, because I wouldn't take no for an answer, one of the female

National Guard members said, I'll take her.

Thank you.

You're welcome, ma 'am.

It's like a bomb exploded on Altadena.

Okay, Mama D, are you here?

Mama D?

Her name is Delise Curry.

Delise? Well, we call her Mama D. Mama D, can you hear me?

her refrigerator.

That was the refrigerator.

This is her door.

That Sunday evening, I got

a call from the L .A. coroner's office and he said that he found remains, human

remains at my grandmother's house.

I just don't know why this happened to her.

I'm very traumatized.

All I can see is her walking in and her out.

I wish I would have taken her home with me.

We'll just forever cherish the memories I have with her as being the world's

best grandmother and the most fabulous grandmother, because she was.

The scope of destruction from these fires was so large. We lost 29

lives throughout the fires, and more than 200 ,000 people were forced to

the place they called home.

Early afternoon, we drove back up to Altadena.

The one place in the world that we felt safe was now gone.

Man, I can't believe it.

Bless it.

There's our house.

It's officially gone.

I can't believe this.

I just can't believe this.

We went through something very, very traumatic.

It definitely brought us closer.

But the trauma of it all. We got so bad, within three months of the fire, he

passed away.

The stress of the fire, the trauma.

I wish he never had to go through that and lose the house, especially in that

old age.

The fire was growing to become the costliest in U .S. history.

I think of a city like Los Angeles as immortal.

It is the capital of the wildfire West.

What we learned was LA, just like everywhere else, very much

is mortal and vulnerable.

Suddenly a new reality sets in and a new fear because of how big this giant was

that fell.