Wildfires burn 100,000 acres across Southern California; State of Emergency declared

news at 6:00. Thank you so much for being with us. I'm Marla. And I'm Alex Michaelson. We begin with breaking news once again. Sky Fox over the airport fire that currently spans two counties. More than 10,000 structures in Riverside and Orange County currently in danger. The good news is we see a lot of white smoke. The bad news is we see a lot, lot, lot of smoke there. There are three major wildfires currently burning in southern California. There's the line fire in San Bernardino County, which has been burning for nearly a week. Then there is the airport fire in Orange County's Trabuco Canyon. Thousands of homes in both Orange and Riverside counties are under mandatory evacuations, but the bridge fire in the Angeles National Forest has exploded in the last 24 hours. It is now the largest in the whole state. Crews at the bridge fire are bracing for another night of unpredictable fire weather. We begin in Wrightwood with Fox Eleven's Susan Hirasuna Live for us there on the ground. Susan Yes, and we can tell you right now that this is a situation that is so common in the Wrightwood Big Pines area, where you see active flames and what looks like, well, could be a campfire. Bring on the marshmallows. Except that all it takes is a good gust of wind or a tree that burns well enough that once, once it wants to come down, it comes down and then catches other areas on fire as well. In fact, we just missed a big flare up here where they called in a fire engine to put some water on it. But these are situations that we're seeing all over and on the mountain between here and over that direction towards Mount Baldy. Now I'm going to bring in U.S. Fish and Wildlife, John Miller, to give us a sense for what's going on. Do you think it will be as bad tonight as it was last night? Yeah actually, you know, it is cooler. The humidity has come up. We haven't seen the winds that we've experienced. You know, the challenge with a fire this size is the fact that you have several, several different microclimates. The conditions along the 210 are a lot different than they are here on the desert front. And then at the higher elevations, so you can have fire conditions change on the various portions of the fire. So it's really hard to say. Well, it's going to be windy because it might be calm, you know, down along the Mount Baldy area. And as we saw last night, 50 mile an hour gusts here in Wrightwood. And what's so confounding is the terrain as well. When we talk about Mount Baldy, if you wanted to go from here in Wrightwood to Mount Baldy, that's an hour plus drive around, basically around the mountain. That's where you had 20 structures that went down in this area. 13. Are you worried about more structure damage or destruction here? Well, until we have full containment, absolutely. We're going to be on our toes. If you've noticed, around town, we're bringing in firefighters from all over the Southland. They're coming from out of state. It's a matter of balancing those resources between the bridge. Fire the line fire and the airport fire. And so far, I think we're making progress on all fronts. But you can never, ever let your guard down. Absolutely. Now, I know this is anecdotal, but somebody told me that by the time they got back up here because they wanted to protect their home, there was really not very many people out here at all. In fact, his brother came down from Fresno and was the first on scene yesterday. So at what was there a point where there was no there weren't very many resources here at all yesterday? Well, it has been a challenge with three large fires in southern California. There's only so many firefighters, fire trucks, crews, dozers, aircraft to go around. And you know, between the three counties, the federal government, the state and the cities, you know, we try to balance that out and help each other out. You would be amazed how much sharing has gone on exchanging, just last night, you know, one of the neighboring counties is saying, hey, I can free stuff up to send up here. And as you noticed, you know, Beverly Hills Fire Department is right here in Wrightwood as we speak. And so many other units as well. Now, one thing I did notice, no air support in this area is that more for the line fire and the other fire. Well, you know, those are tactical decisions. And, you know, they move the aircraft around. Right now, I can hear the helicopters working in the background. Earlier air attack was flying around this area, you know, identifying issues, targets. And as the firefighters on the ground, determine what their needs are, they'll communicate it to operations and bring those tactical assets in as, as needed. Needed. John Miller, thank you very much for the information. And so that's the status right here in the Wrightwood. Big Pines area. So they're bracing for another big night, but hopefully fingers crossed won't be as bad as it was last night. Reporting live in Wrightwood. I'm Susan Hirasuna Fox 11 news. Susan, thank you and some breaking news. We just want to pass on that. Governor Newsom has just declared a state of emergency in LA and San Bernardino counties in response to the bridge fire and in Orange and Riverside counties in response to the airport fire. The governor in Highland today talking about all of this. And now we want to go to this, Marla. 0% containment in the swift moving airport fire. Nearly 23,000 acres have burned in both Orange and Riverside counties. Fox 11, Hailey Winslow joins us now live from Lake Elsinore with more on that fight to stop the flames. It's a brutal one. Hailey It sure is. And it's probably a lot bigger than those 23,000 acres, but it's simply too dangerous for them to get an updated estimate. We do know that there have been more evacuations. This doubled in size overnight. And you have to remember, this started just less than 50 hours ago. It grew from nothing to 23,000 acres. It was an accidental fire called the Airport Fire because it's close to the remote control airport. And there have been 12 injuries, ten of those firefighters, their minor injuries. There was one woman burned, and then there was a medical issue that happened during these evacuations. We do have some homes damaged and destroyed, but we don't have a number on that yet either. Again, something that's too dangerous for them to go in and count right now. But I do have Captain Paul Holiday with me again from Ocfa. He has been a champ out here with us, keeping us updated. What would you say? Right now about how hard it is to tackle these conditions? And with I mean, you have a thousand firefighters on the ground and in the air. Yeah. So we're working right now really hard to keep this fire in check. The fire made a big run yesterday over doubled in size, today we had favorable weather conditions. But now this evening, we got that Elsinore effect. And we're doing what we call we're ground truthing the fire. When this wind pushes down the canyon, we're going to see what that hard work that the firefighters did today. If it pays off because that wind, wind shifts direction now it's blowing those hot fire lines down into the green unburned. And our firefighters have been working all day to secure those lines and put out those hotspots. So we'll see with this win if that hard work is going to hold. But as of now, the wind's been blowing for about an hour, hour and a half and it's holding really well. We've got helicopters in the area watching, monitoring it, but as of right now, this fire line going down into the Elsinore communities is holding. So we're going to keep an eye on that throughout the night, also fires burning up in the Orange County side. Same same factors other than the Elsinore Wind in the Santiago Peak area. And as you mentioned earlier today, you know, being out here, you can't help but reflect on the lives lost in the 50s and the Decker Fire, which was right here in the path of this fire as well as the 343 firefighters who lost their lives in nine over 11. You have ten firefighters injured, right now. How are they doing? Yes, we've had ten firefighter injuries on this fire, they've all been minor injuries. They've all been treated and evaluated and released either back to duty or home, so that that's good news. We've had a couple civilian injuries as well, but yeah, like you talked about, it's kind of a somber day for us. 911 is always a day to remember the sacrifice that all those guys made, it could have been any one of us in our communities. Or if we were there at that time, so we take we take a moment of silence and just remember them. And then even more so on this fire, the decker Fire in 1958 that killed a hotshot crew out of El Cariso, and the fire burned through their memorial. And where they were that day. So we came on scene today and we all kind of paused a moment to, to reflect on them and their sacrifice. And it gave us all kind of a heightened sense of awareness. And, as we went into today's fight, thank you guys for risking your lives, you know, all over southern California, battling more than 100,000 acres burning right now in Southern California. I know that you're going to be out here for a couple of weeks to get a handle on this. Still 0% containment, 23,000 acres burning in orange and Riverside counties, reporting live here, overlooking Lake Elsinore. I'm Hailey Winslow, Fox 11 news. Hailey. As far as we understand, captain Holiday can hear us right now. And, sir, if you can, our question is, Alex just reported that Governor Gavin Newsom, he just declared a state of emergency that would help you and your fire fight against the airport fire. What does that mean to you? Yeah, that means a lot to us firefighters that we're getting support from all levels of government, all the local government officials, city, county and now state and federal officials really supporting us on the ground. It means it means a lot to us as public servants that that the people that we've elected to, to look out for the citizens are doing that. So it's really it really means a lot to us that our hard work is not going unnoticed, and that even in the work of the community, listening to the evacuation orders, they're part of our team fighting this fire. We couldn't do it without the community there. So it just shows that the teamwork that American spirit of all levels of government and community coming together and a testament to how severe these fires are. Absolutely. It shows that at all levels, people are recognizing that this is a serious this is a serious event and it's affecting our communities. And it's affecting our neighborhoods. Please pass on our thanks to your men and women for the hard work that you all are doing out there. We appreciate it and we want to take you back to Skyfox right now. A live picture above the airport fire and you see some of that work happening right now as he speaks. Let's check in now with our chief meteorologist, Adam Kruger. The weather obviously so important to these firefighters. Yeah, we of course had the serious heat wave which is leading to these serious fires in some spots. And as far as our overall weather conditions related to the fire improvement. And we're feeling that cooler air, also, humidity levels will start to increase gradually. The next couple of days. I still want to mention though, there is a fire weather warning, also known as a red flag warning for this magenta area right here. We of course have these three big fires. This is where the winds will be the biggest concern for the bridge. Fire winds actually are expected to increase in speed as we go later into the night. Tonight those winds from the west about 10 to 20mph, with maybe some gusts up to 30mph. And then you go north of there into the high desert. A wind advisory is in effect until 11 a.m. tomorrow, as gusts there could reach 35 to 55mph. Now again, our temperatures quite a bit cooler. Now we've made it past the heat wave. We don't see anything hot coming our way for at least the next two weeks or so. Look at all the 70s on the map. Even as you get inland. We do have a couple spots, though, a little farther inland into some 80s right now, but overall it's been a substantial change in our temperatures. You're certainly feeling it if you're out there. Tomorrow is going to be a lot like today, temperature wise. So many 70s even into the L.A. basin, Pasadena, maybe up around 80 degrees. We'll get into the Inland Empire with some 80s there, and then you go towards the low desert places like Rancho Mirage right there, palm Springs still reaching about 100 degrees. And of course, with these fires, the three big ones we've been talking about, we have reduced air quality in some spots. Here's a look at current air quality sensors across the area. We've got a cluster of those orange dots out east which represents unhealthy for sensitive groups air conditions right now. And it's going to be kind of the same situation again tomorrow. Alex All right Adam, thank you so much. Marla. Over to you. Okay. Thank you both. Norco man is now under arrest. Here's a look at him. Accused of deliberately starting the massive line fire that's burning in San Bernardino County. 34 year old Justin Wayne Rosenberg is being held on $80,000 bail. Almost 35,000 acres have gone up in flames since this fire started September 5th. Containment is at 14%. Three firefighters in this one have been injured. More than 10,000 people have evacuated, more than 65,000 structures. Both homes and businesses are threatened. The sheriff says. Investigators are gathering more information on the arson suspect. It's my belief that as time goes on and we allow them to do the critical work that they're doing, that we will actually find out this suspect may have been responsible for other fires in addition to the arson suspect, two men are also under arrest after being found with burglary tools in an area of running springs that had been evacuated. They are