Reid Butler: Nine News US Correspondent on the strong wind forecast impacting the LA wildfires

There are fears fire crews will see setbacks in the efforts to contain the LA wildfires, with strong winds forecast in the hours ahead. 

Thousands of firefighters are battling the Palisades, Eaton, and Hurst fires, which have now burnt through an area larger than Hamilton. 

At least 24 people have died and dozens are missing, with the death toll expected to rise. 

Nine News correspondent Reid Butler told Tim Beveridge fire crews have made significant gains, but that could easily be undone by the winds. 

He says it'll be especially bad if the helicopters can't fly, as existing fires could spread and new fires could start. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:09):
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Speaker 2 (00:16):
Yes, seven past seven, the Los Angeles death toll has
climbed to twenty four. Conditions are set to dramatically worsen
with one hundred and twelve kilometer in our winds expected.
Hundreds of thousands of people have been evacuated at more
than twelve thousand homes and businesses I thought to have
been lost, and Channel nine US correspondent Read Butler joins
me now from LA Read good morning.

Speaker 3 (00:37):
Good morning, a die conditions forecast here, which is the
lasting firefighters one? Unfortunately?

Speaker 2 (00:44):
Yeah, what can they do when those wins are sort
of how does it affect the firefighting effort when those
winds are ripping through there in terms of what they
can get in the air.

Speaker 3 (00:54):
So, yeah, that's crucially what it is to be that
if these really strong winds pick up and do hit
those gusts of one hundred and twelve kilometers an hour,
that is really works against the firefighters in terms of
getting those aerial appliances in the air which have been
so crucial in making these gains which we have seen
over the past two days. So the worst of the

(01:15):
two are the worst of the three fires currently burning
here in Los Angeles, the specific Palisades Fire and the
Eaten Fire. They now have significantly improved. The Palisades Fire
is now at fourteen percent containment, which is a big improvement,
and then the Eaten Fire, which is the deadliest of
these fires, is now at thirty three percent contained. So
they're really they're healthy numbers. They're getting better. But if

(01:37):
these winds whip up as expected later today and in tomorrow,
there is the chance that that good work could be undone,
and especially if those aerial appliances can't get in the
air to dump that water, then we could see some
really big issues with those fires spreading or potentially new
fires starting. So to try and prevent that kind of
thing from happening, we've seen those aerial appliances dumping fire

(02:01):
retardant on homes that are in potential danger zones here,
which is like this pink sort of dusty material which
is now blanketing streets to try and stop more fires
from breaking out there in those in those areas that
could be of a concern. But these winds, just to
give you an idea, of of this. How the scale
of the area that could be affected by these these

(02:23):
really extreme winds later today. It goes from sort of
northwest of Santa Barbara, north of Los Angeles, all the
way down to San Diego south of Los Angeles. So
it is about eight million Americans I think, in that
danger zone. So everybody crossing their fingers that it's going
to be okay. The firefighters here on the ground are saying, look,
they've got the resources. At the moment, things are good

(02:44):
from a resource perspective. They've finally got enough Cruise boots
on the ground planes to fight these fires. What they
just need is a break from mother nature. That is
the problem here, and unfortunately that break is not coming
anytime soon. It's only going to get more treacherous for
everybody involved. And that's that's one of many issues that
Cruise are facing here. There's a big issue here at

(03:05):
the moment with looting. Unfortunately, more than six thirty people
now have been arrested, some masquerading as firefighters to get
in and get into these evacuations zones where residents aren't
even allowed to return briefly to try and find pets
and get medication and cooks are taking advantage of that
and coming in and trying to steal everything they can,
so they're expected to be charged later today. Trying to

(03:27):
make an example out of them. But there are a
lot of problems here on the ground that Cruise are battling,
and you just think these booters, there's the last their
issues that they need to be dealing with right now.

Speaker 2 (03:35):
Yeah, Hey, we really appreciate your time this morning. Look
after yourself. That is read Butler. He's a channel on
US correspondent.

Speaker 1 (03:43):
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