*Collection centers have been crucial for those who have their belongings
*Firefighters and authorities will have to overcome expected strong winds
*Firefighters and authorities will have to overcome expected strong winds
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NewsTranscript
00:00And we now move on to other topics.
00:15In the United States, fires continue to rage in Los Angeles as people try to protect their
00:20belongings and homes.
00:22Let's take a closer look with our colleague Luis Gutierrez.
00:27This man works as a janitor at this building in Pacific Palisades, the hardest hit by the
00:32fires in California.
00:34He stayed behind to watch the place and managed to keep it from catching fire using garden
00:38hoses and the support of firefighters.
00:42But it actually had spread to the property of the building next door, so I was just putting
00:47as much water down onto the bottom as I could and just actually doing a decent job of tamping
00:53it down.
00:55For Ridgway, it was a necessary mission.
00:59I felt like it was a duty to at least make sure that was attempted to be saved, if possible.
01:05And also, you know, even if it didn't come here, none of this really had happened, there
01:10still would have been the possibility of outsiders coming in and looters and stealing and stuff.
01:16And so if I...
01:19The collection centers have been crucial for those who have lost their belongings or remain
01:23evacuated amidst uncertainty for their homes.
01:26The street I live on, everybody on one side of the street, all their houses have been
01:30wiped out. And on my side of the street, starting with my house and a few neighbors down,
01:37maybe about four houses stood up and everybody else lost their homes.
01:41And my house is standing, yes, but we don't know.
01:47We don't know what condition it's in.
01:51So, yeah, we haven't been able to go back to check.
01:55They won't let us.
01:57For firefighters, putting out fires in high winds has become a difficult task.
02:02Some days are harder than others.
02:04How hard?
02:04After the first day, many people that I've known for a long time in base camp barely
02:08recognized me. My phone didn't recognize me to turn on.
02:11Just dirty, tired.
02:12But today will be not so bad.
02:15Steep, a good hike, but we'll pace ourselves and drink lots of water and be ready for a
02:20long haul of work here and the next fire.
02:23But it's January. We're not supposed to be the fires in January.
02:26It's an honor and a privilege to be here, serving the community, paying my debt to
02:30society, just giving back to the people of the community.
02:35That's lost a lot.
02:37But returning Los Angeles to their previous state will cost time and resources.
02:43It's going to cost tens of billions of dollars to get Los Angeles back to where it
02:49was. So we're going to need Congress to step up to provide funding to get this done.
02:55And we're going to get that done.
02:56God willing.
02:59Firefighters and local and national authorities will be put to the test as they must
03:03navigate the strong winds that are expected.