Speaker 1: Out front tonight, the breaking news out of control. A major fire now rapidly tearing through Southern California again. The city already in crisis. Look at those images on your screen. Officials warning it could be about to go, quote, nuclear. These are live pictures of what is now being called the Hughes fire, a new fire at this hour, now consuming a football-sized area every two to three seconds. I remember the last time we told you numbers like that. We were standing on the ground in Los Angeles. More than 8,000 acres already gone up in flames with the Hughes fire, towering clouds of smoke and ash over Los Angeles. Powerful wind gusts right now providing that fuel, pushing the flames closer to crowded neighborhoods. To give you a sense of how dangerous we understand this situation is right now, you see those flames. Look at that, right over the highway. Those highways have been closed. There's evacuation notices receiving fast and furious. But just look at that fire and that black smoke. Winds in Southern California are actually expected to get much worse as we go through tonight. According to the National Weather Service, hurricane-strength gusts are possible, which is why so far already 20,000 additional people now under mandatory evacuation orders. As firefighters are desperately trying to curb those flames, you see those now painfully familiar red fire retardant lines on the hillside. The flames are extremely stretched tonight. It's now been almost a month of straight fires in California, still working to control those Eaton and Palisades fires, which started more than two weeks ago, have already burned thousands of acres. Veronica Miracle and Natasha Chen are both standing by. Let's start with you, Veronica. Where you're standing, you can see that smoke behind you, that toxic air, the fire quickly endangering homes just where you're standing. So what exactly are you seeing?

Speaker 2: Well, Erin, when we arrived here a little over an hour ago, we were to the north of us, and the flames were just licking this hillside that was in a park area, the Cascade Park, just next to the lake. And we have been following it and tracking it, and it's been moving quickly this way. We've had such a hard time keeping up with the flames just because the winds have been so strong. It's a little windy now, but the gusts have been very strong over the last hour or so. And the firefighters, they just descended here because there are so many still who have been, you know, assisting with the Eaton fires and the Palisades fires. So there were so many that came through. And all of the flames, like you can see here, actually came up very close to this RV park. Firefighters came to these residential areas. And actually, if you want to turn, Mike, just up there, you can see the helicopters flying up above. So a lot of activity over here. The helicopters, we've seen the big air tankers. And then, of course, those firefighters making sure that residential areas like this RV park, as well as apartments that are just on the other side of us, are okay. We have seen hotspots come flaring up all over the hillside there, and including just right behind us. And firefighters are working very quickly because these winds are just so strong and they have been kicking up some of the embers very quickly, pushing this fire very quickly.

Speaker 1: Erin. Veronica, some of these embers, when we hear about the Palisades fires, as big as your palm, giant balls, firefighters talking about flying through the air. You're talking about winds now, just like as those fires were spreading so explosively. The images, Veronica, that you have, that we're looking at of those ridges, we see the smoke, but also when we look at the fire up and down the ridge, it looks like some sort of an inferno, like a volcano, honestly, in some of those images. This one that we're showing now. What are they telling you about the speed with which this fire is spreading?

Speaker 2: Yeah, it's moving very quickly because of these winds. And an interesting point, actually, when we were coming in, Erin, we weren't actually able to access and get close up to the flames, that the initial start point, because we were told by CHP officer that it was the source of an arson investigation. It was a crime scene. So that is still under investigation, but the flames have been moving very quickly, and we have been watching firefighters move very quickly all throughout this area, trying to make sure that it doesn't get to homes. When we were driving up, we did see huge plumes of smoke, white smoke, which is a good thing. I'm sure, as you remember, when we see lighter smoke, that means it's trees and brush, but it's when you see that dense, dark, black smoke, that typically means that a residence is on fire, a car, and we have not heard of any residences going up in flames yet. We have also not seen any thick, black, dark smoke here. So that's the good news, Erin.

Speaker 1: Well, it's the good news where you are, and thank God for that. We'll see what happens over this next bit. But as we're looking here at the images on the screen, and obviously these images are not exactly where Veronica is, but you see this KABC footage, you can see that is entirely black smoke. It is completely black. And when we look at the ridges, where I was talking about that volcanic ring of fire looking image, that also is covered in black smoke. So unclear exactly what's burning there and what will happen as it spreads when the KABC chopper takes a step back here, you can get a bigger perspective. Some of that white smoke that Veronica's talking about, also visible, but now areas of that dense black smoke. So we don't know exactly what structures are burning and where they are, but let's go to Natasha Chen because Natasha, Veronica mentioning that they were looking at an initial site there already for possible arson. And the officials are saying that these fires could go nuclear. But you're in a moment where this has been nonstop weeks covering fires being fought, firefighters on nonstop duty. How are they managing a massive new fire like this right now?

Speaker 3: Well, Erin, it does feel like this Metro area just can't catch a break. Now, the good news is Veronica's talking about a lot of aggressive attack on the Hughes fire. We already had a lot of resources in town, people who had come from other states, from Canada even, to help out with those Palisades and Eaton fires. So there are a lot of people here ready to go help. So that's the good news. Now, as far as the rest of the community, I think you would see that a lot of people throughout the Metro area are now extremely sensitive to evacuation orders, evacuation warnings. A lot of people who are not near the fires that happened a week or two ago do have bags packed at home. It does feel like any part of LA could catch fire at this point, given the high winds and the dry conditions. And so it looks like today the Castaic area is next. And from where we're standing in the Northeast part of the Metro is where I am. Looking across town, we can see that plume of smoke over where Veronica is. So this is just very nerve wracking for a lot of people. And we already mentioned thousands under evacuation orders and warnings. So again, a very aggressive attack here and people being extra careful right now, at least I hope they are, trying to get out very quickly and having those bags packed, taking no chances here because everyone has seen what is possible with the devastation on the West side, the Palisades on the East side in Altadena. And unfortunately, the winds are expected to pick up again tomorrow. So we are also waiting to hear more about what this means, the dry fuel and a press conference coming up in about an hour, Erin.

Speaker 1: All right, well, we're gonna be watching for that. Natasha, thank you very much. And everyone, as we're looking at these images and we're gonna be following this through the hour because it is just touch and go, evacuation orders coming in. As Natasha was just speaking a second ago, I'm seeing the alert here for Bitter Canyon, Paradise Ranch, Romero, all of these areas now under evacuation order level three, go. And that is what's happening in California right now. So we're gonna be monitoring these fires, as we said, every few minutes here, burning through multiple football fields of a massive fire.