Firefighters Working Non-Stop to Contain California Wildfires
ALLEN: Six massive wildfires are raging across southern California this hour. They force more than 190,000 people from their homes, and destroyed hundreds of home and other buildings since Monday. Officials say the dry conditions and winds are making the situation worse.</s>HOWELL: Currently, the Thomas fire in largest in region. That fire is so far, it has burn more than 57,000 hectares. So now the big question, is there any relief in sight? Let's bring in our meteorologist Derek Van Dam to talk about that. Derek, these fires look so intense and the wind is a big exacerbated to this. What is the situation?</s>DEREK VAN DAM, CNN'S METEOROLOGIST: Believe it or not, Natalie and George the Santa Ana winds never reached their full predicted capacity yesterday. We are expecting wind gusts in excess of 120 kilometers per hour. Here is the wind gust we found some of the highest on Thursday and there was a real distinct reason why this didn't happen. The area of high pressure responsible for winds in Southern California kept the strongest winds at the ridge top level. So the top parts of the mountainous terrain. It never really have mixed down to the valleys and floors below. You can see the wind gusts there next to calm at the moment. Doesn't mean it's not difficult for firefighters to battle these blazes, because they're dealing with a different type of a problem here. That is the topography, the steep angles there. Any time you double or add a ten degree angle to the slope of a hill, you double the speed of the fire as it travels uphill. It is quite amazing and that is what is leading to this rapid spread of the Thomas fire for instance, the one in Ventura County that is already burned to over 115,000 acres. We will get a low in the Sta. Ana winds for the next 24 hours, but they'll pick up once again through the course of the weekend easily gusting over 50 to 60 kilometers per hour. Here's the six major fires that are burning out of control across Southern California. The new lilac fire outside of San Diego, and the Thomas fire that you mentioned, this is incredible. A satellite image taken from 12 kilometers from above us, actually picturing that smoke that is traveling 1,000 miles across the Pacific Ocean that is roughly the distance from New York to Miami. That is just incredible once you think about it. Now you can also think about how this hampers the air quality index in southern California as well. We actually have the worse levels of pollution than Beijing. That is typically something we talk about this time of the year. Beijing burns a lot of coal during the course of the winter to keep their houses warm. The air quality index forecast for Southern California, very unhealthy and great for sensitive groups like Asthmatic, elderly and young. The critical fire danger continues into the weekend. George, Natalie?</s>ALLEN: Unreal. All right. Thank you Derek. Californians who see the flames that they are driving try to stay away from them.</s>HOWELL: That is right. Jeanne Moos has the story of one man who got out from the car and risked his life for a rabbit.</s>JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Instead of pulling a rabbit out of a hat, he pulled one out of a California wildfire. It happened on highway 1, when this unidentified man got out of his car to try and rescue a panic rabbit. The man seem to panic, franticly gesturing as he watched the bunny heading into the flames, begging it to come to him. Finally getting down on his knees and reaching for the wild rabbit, at last managing to scoop it up. The accolades on social media starting breeding like rabbits. And just like that, my faith in humanity is restored read a typical tweet. From 0.2 seconds read another some tweeted on behalf of their pets. Our bunny and kitty approve of this young man. Naysayer, wild animals do not need to be save from fires. Saying the man could have been injured, as well come to his rescue. But most paid tribute. Bunnies need heroes too, they have one in this man. Adding to the halo around this guy is the fact that he declined the photographer's request for an on camera interview. As one poster put it, and he didn't want to be on camera in L.A.? Obviously this is Jesus himself in shorts and a hoodie. Take it from Jefferson Alplane. But he didn't fall, he just walked away from the flames holding the bunny, destination unknown. Leaving this video of a rabbit saved from a wildfire to spread like one. Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.</s>HOWELL: I mean, he just got in there and did what it felt he needed to do.</s>ALLEN: That is our hour for CNN newsroom. Thank you for watching. After a quick break, more news at Max Foster in London. See you later.</s>HOWELL: Have a great day.