Top Story with Tom Llamas - Monday, January 13, 2025

Episode Date: January 14, 2025

Tonight's Top Story has the latest breaking news, political headlines, news from overseas and the best NBC News reporting from across the country and around the world.

tonight a special edition of top story coming to you live from the pacific palisades a dangerous wind event putting all progress on the wildfires here at serious risk the national weather service issuing its most severe fire warning saying conditions are quote as bad as it gets thousands of firefighters racing against the clock to contain two major wildfires and prevent more from breaking out the new details into what could have sparked the flames as officials warned the death toll is expected to rise. The communities on high alert tonight. A nightmare scenario unfolding as thousands now have nowhere to go, wildfire victims desperately searching for new housing options only to find rents skyrocketing amid low supply. We speak with celebrity real estate broker Jason Oppenheim, who claims landlords are using this disaster to fleece homeless residents. Also tonight, the confirmation battle gearing up on Capitol Hill. President-elect Trump's pick for defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, facing a make-or-break moment. The embattled nominee expected to be pressed on allegations of sexual assault and alcohol

abuse, the Senate preparing to vet a dozen cabinet picks in just a week. Is a hostage deal within reach? New momentum as a ceasefire negotiation between Israel and Hamas makes significant progress, what we're learning about the terms of the agreement, and the hopes for a deal before President Biden leaves office. And remembering Bama Dee, the beloved. 95-year-old grandmother, one of the victims of the Eaton Fire, the actress part of old black Hollywood in the 1950s, featured in movies like the Blues Brothers and the Ten Commandments.

We speak with her granddaughter about her life and legacy. Plus dozens arrested for looting fire-ravaged neighborhoods. The warning from officials tonight. Top story starts right now. We begin again tonight from the Pacific Palisades, where wildfires are on a collision course with a dangerous weather situation. Just behind me here, this was a supermarket in the Palisades, and nobody wants a repeat of what happened last week. Right now, crews are working tirelessly to get two major wildfires under control, but strong and potentially hurricane force winds could unravel that progress. The greater Los Angeles area on edge, as these intense winds could stoke the flames and even fuel new fires. The Palisades Fire, which tore through this community, is currently 14% contained, and the Eaton Fire currently located roughly 45 miles northeast of where we are tonight, is 33% under control.

This is new video from the height of the firestorm as the Eaton Fire broke out last week. These are similar to the whipping winds forecast for the region tonight. At this hour, we're learning more about what might have sparked these initial fires. New video of investigators on the scene of the possible site of where the Palisades Fire broke out. out. NBC News just learning that an early investigation indicates it could be human cost, adding that it could involve fireworks or people camping in that area. Officials are also looking into whether electrical wires started the Eaton Fire, an Altadena resident taking this video of flames. You can see him there erupting near power lines.

The Los Angeles DA releasing this new ring cam video showing looters entering a home in Mandeville Canyon that's just 10 miles northwest of Beverly Hills. The neighborhood was under evacuation orders at the time. Also ticking up at this hour, more than 94,000 customers without power, and that number could rise as winds increase. Tonight, our team of reporters is spread across the fire zone as thousands reel from this ongoing tragedy. Many in the region anxious for what the next 24 hours holds. Fire crews working nonstop, waging an all-out battle from the air and the ground, as they brace for the worst of those punishing Santa Ana wins. The National Weather Service warning conditions to be as bad as it gets, with the potential for hurricane force winds over the next 48 hours. 13 million are under red flag warnings stretching north of Santa Barbara to San Diego County.

With more than 8,000 firefighters now on the front lines, officials insist they're better prepared with more ground and air resources this time around. Just behind us here, you can see a massive burn scar. There's no more smoke, no more fire, but there's still. a danger. And that's why there are lines of firefighters right now with cutting tools like chainsaws and axes, clearing all the brush, making sure there's no fuel in case those winds pick up and carry embers. We were with Cal Fire as they worked to clear brush before those dangerous winds hit burn zones. So you're worried about this area because there's still brush here and it's so close to those homes right there. That's correct. Firefighters lined up on cliffs,

scaling canyons, and on the lookout. They're putting their lives on their line to get out in front something that most people wouldn't get in front of. Over the weekend, California's National Guard dropping flame retardant on hot spots in the Palisades fire. After flare-ups, forced new evacuations in Encino and Brentwood, triggering this eerie firenado. The Eaton and Palisades fire is still mostly uncontained, with speculation on the origins of the inferno's running rampant.

The ATF now leading a newly formed task force to investigate the cause of the Palisades fire. As multiple law enforcement sources tell NBC News that a possible human cause is an early focus in this case. They're identifying cause and origin for each of these separate fires. There's so many of them. There are none of been ruled out of arson. The death toll has now reached 24 and expected to rise, including 95-year-old Delis Mama D. Curry of Altadena. That was her refrigerator. This is where she would be. Her grandda. Her grand dog, looking for her remains in what's left of her home. Mama Dee, are you here?

Officials today urging residents to stay out of evacuation zones. People are saying, I just want to go look at my house and I want to see what's left. We know that, but we have people literally looking for the remains of your neighbors. Law enforcement in the region announcing more than 70 arrests, including looting and burglary charges. The FBI says unauthorized drones over the fire. Are now well into the double digits, as they search for the drone pilot that crashed into a Canadian super scooper last week, grounding the aircraft for days. Today, the Los Angeles Unified School District reopened most of its 1,000 campuses, giving students some return to normalcy. I've been pretty scared coming here, but as long as the doors are open, I feel safe.

Schools damaged by the fires or inside the evacuation zones remain closed. Tens of thousands push from their homes now forced to start over. One estimate says the insured losses are already at least $30 billion. Right now I'm trying to just keep it together to find us a place to live for us, temporary living for our family and my parents. Andrea Hindale lost her family home, as did her parents. So a lot of people are saying, oh, well, we're going to go to my parents' house. We can't do that.

So both houses are gone, but I'm very grateful that they're safe. It is tough. There's millions of people looking at millions of different places, and so we just have to figure out one step at a time how we're going to handle it. And as so many in these communities are faced with the impossible question of what's next, I want to get to my colleague Gotti Schwartz, who joins us tonight from Malibu and has been on the ground with residents for the past week. Gotti, what are they telling you tonight and how are they getting ready for these strong winds? Well, Tom, it's not just here in Malibu. All across Los Angeles is the

Wins start to pick up. People are packing their bags. They are getting ready to evacuate if they have to. But there are many who are also getting ready to try to defend their homes. We've seen people putting sprinklers on their roofs over the last few days, preparing their yards. It's not something that firefighters say people should do, and yet it's something that we've seen over and over throughout the week. Take a look. For days, so many across Los Angeles faced off against apocalyptic wildfires. Some homeowners define the evacuation orders, choosing to protect their properties amid the hellscape. We need a water drop. We need a water drop. Sprinklers, hoses, generators, pumps. And tonight facing new red flag warnings, some Angelinos say they are preparing for round two. In wealthy enclaves, rows of water trucks and private firefighters standing at the ready.

Right here we see one, two, three, four, five, five different water trucks. another three down the way. Those in the evacuation zones who lived to tell the tale of how they saved their streets say they did what they could with high-pressured hoses. So we were in all of our neighbors backyards and lugging our hoses around. In Altadena, Felipe Carrillo saving two houses on his street with a garden hose. I caught on fire a couple of times. You caught on fire? Yes. And so what I started doing is every once in a while, I would just spray myself with a garden hose. Just soak myself with the garden hose and continue to fight. Fire officials say those who stay to fight the fire are putting their lives at risk.

66-year-old Victor Shaw died in the Eaton fire. His remains found holding a garden hose. Right along the coast, owners of this row of homes had their own fire hoses ready and some willing to risk their lives. There's another hot spot that just started up. So we're up our fire hoses again to Put it down before the wind starts again. When the fire rolled in, Clayton Colbert and his friends stood their ground, tapping into the hydrant and saving six homes. Do you have any firefighting experience? I do now.

Yeah. What do you think would have happened if you and your neighbors weren't here? Oh, my house would have been gone in a matter of minutes. Tonight, Steve Foster's home is still standing, but most of the surrounding community is gone. It's been difficult, but we're getting through it. Would you leave? I'm not leaving. I've been here the whole time. I have no intentions of leaving until my neighbors are back. Gotti Schwartz joins us once again live from Malibu. So Gotti, what are authorities saying about those who are staying behind to fight these fires despite those evacuation orders?

Well, Tom, it's really interesting. Technically here in California, it's a misdemeanor to ignore those evacuation orders. However, enforcing that and all that chaos is difficult. We haven't seen. seen it enforced during these fires. And so people have been choosing to stay in their homes and to try to defend their property. The second thing that people keep talking about is looting. They don't want to leave right now because they won't be able to get back in through the roadblocks. And even if the fire danger has passed from a certain area, we do see, and even on the way over here, we saw LAPD swarming a house and going to check out what looked like a looting call. One of the gentlemen that you just heard from actually chased three looters out of his street. Down the way here on PCH, he says that one person was arrested

wearing a firefighter's gear, firefighting outfit, for looting as well. So it's a difficult situation. Again, technically illegal and bottom line, firefighters say every moment of theirs when they are actively engaged in a firefight is precious. And if somebody has to be taken off that fire line, firefighters have to respond to go save someone who shouldn't be there, then it not only jeopardizes their lives, but also potentially the entire community. Tom? Gotti Schwartz tonight from Malibu. Godi, we thank you for that.

For the very latest on this firefight, I do want to bring in Brent Pasqua. He's a battalion chief with Cal Fire. Brent, we thank you so much for joining us. We've been spending a lot of time with you over the last week. Chief, I do want to ask you, I know we're worried about the winds tonight. They haven't picked up just yet, but you still have to be careful, right? That's right. We can't let our guard down.

The winds haven't surfaced just yet, but crews are working. around the clock to make sure that any hidden heat or heat that we didn't get put out yet is extinguished before these winds come. You know, when people hear the stats and they say 14% contained, they may think, wow, these wildfires are still raging. But we were out there. And for the most part, there's no flames, there's not even smoke, but there's hot spots. Explain why you have to sort of say the fire is contained and it's not under control. Right. So that number is kind of misleading. That 14% of the fire is a part where we feel comfortable where if we walked away and these winds came, there would be no re-ignition of a fire or any hazard that we have to worry about.

The other parts of the fire, even though they're out, there's no smoke, there's no flames, there's still heat in there, and we're not comfortable walking away from that until it's fully mopped up. The heat is completely gone, and the line is cut, so there's no possible way of a re-ignition threat to the, or a threat to the community. And when we say the line is cut, you mean the brush, right? Because that soil is still so hot from all the ash. That's right. We have hand crews in there separating the unburned brush from the burned brush, and then you get a fire line. We also plummet with fire hoses. You guys have been working nonstop. We had a conversation up on the canyon today with a fire captain who

he was on a 24-hour shift. I know a lot of these guys worked 48 hours, 60 hours straight. How are the firefighters holding up? Yeah, they're doing a lot better than the first four or five days of this fire where they were just taking naps on the fire line. We got those really helpful reinforcements, so the work rest cycle has gotten a lot better, and the crews are a lot more fresh now. How is the sort of reality that when you guys needed the water from the fire hydrants, it wasn't there for you to protect some of these neighborhoods, to protect the palisades? What does that do to sort of, I don't know, what does it do to the firefighters, knowing that they were ready to go, they were there, and they didn't have the resources?

You know, speaking to those firefighters, it was a really frustrating experience, that's for sure. You can only imagine. But since then, we've had the... the water we've needed. We've had the aircraft we needed. So it's been, we've been heading in the right direction, turning a corner on this fire. We just have to keep our guard up for these winds. Talk to me about the aircraft, right? It's been incredible to watch them up close. I mean, you have helicopter pilots that are, they almost look like daredevils. And then you have those pilots from the big DC-10s who are coming in with that fire retardant, and they're flying so low into the canyon, but they have it all under control. That's right. It's a really choreographed

dance between the crews on the ground and the crews in the air. We've got the fire retardant to slow the fire down. We have the helicopters to pinpoint targets of heat that they can drop water on. And then we're following it up with the hand crews and the hose lays off the engines to combine a product to put this fire out. And we see it right here. And that's the big issue with the winds, right? Chief, if the winds are so strong, you can't get the air assets in the air.

Right. Normally we don't see that, but we did on the first two days. So now that we've been able to use it, the last three days, we've hit this fire really hard. Thousands of gallons of retardant, thousands of gallons of water from the sky. Chief Pasqua, it is a pleasure to talk to you live. We've been talking almost every day here at the fires. I know we're going to hear from you a little bit later. You did some good work with the dog named Oreo, but we'll talk about that later, Chief.

Thank you very much. Great to talk to you. Okay. And for those who have lost everything, another crisis has quickly emerged as the demand for housing has surged. So has the cost, with some landlords accused of price gouging, making the already desperate search more difficult. Morgan Chesky has this one. We're going to find house, I promise. I promise for a new home.

Ashley and Tim Paul Mateer are now fighting to keep amid a disaster that's ignited a citywide housing crisis. The family of five, six, including their pup Apollo, one of dozens, packing an open house. After watching Flames approach, then in Gulf, their beloved Palisades home. Wednesday afternoon, we saw footage that our entire neighborhood had burned down. With more than 12,000 structures destroyed and potentially more to come, the demand for L.A.'s rental market exploding overnight. You call and you're like, hey, can I come see it? And they're like, nope, it's rented. You call another one.

Hey, can I come see it today? Nope, it's rented already. Ashley says she's looked into 50 properties over the last several days. In some cases, people driving hours. Yeah, I mean, just to find a home. Yes, yes. L.A. realtor Tanya Staski says fewer options are already leading to price gouging. We have greedy landlords who are increasing, spiking up the prices, and we also have a bidding war as well.

A check on Zillow for one property near the Palisades, three days after the fires began, shows rent jumping $10,000. It's since been removed, but officials warned price surges are growing. The governor declared a state of emergency. last week, which means any price hike over 10% on essential goods, including rental housing, is illegal under California law. Price gouging is sick, it's wrong, it's illegal. These scams taking advantage of victims and revictimized in them. They say if you see or are a victim of price gouging, report it immediately to local law

enforcement or state authorities. Then we'll find another one. We'll just keep looking. For the palm of tears, it's not just about getting a place to live. live. They've also got to get their kids back in the classroom after their schools burned to the ground. How are you all staying sane amidst all this? Just taking it one step at a time. Our friends have been amazing. Our community across the country has been amazing. Morgan Chesky joins us tonight from the site where the Palisades Elementary Charter School

once stood not too far from where we are. So Morgan, what's the plan for those students now? Yeah, Tom, tonight. A parents are giving officials a lot of credit because they say less than a week after this school was burned to the ground, they have already made plans for the entire student body to be absorbed into a Los Angeles campus that's doing just fine. The current plan is to have them start classes on Wednesday. Those parents tell me that they are so excited about giving their kids a chance to get back around friends also going through this same hardship just because it'll be some sort of normalcy. the first bit of regular life that they'll have since this horrific tragedy took place.

Dom? Morgan Chesky for us tonight. Morgan, we thank you. For more on the housing crisis in Los Angeles and the challenges for people just looking for a place to live after losing everything. I want to bring in Jason Oppenheim. He's the president and founder of the real estate brokerage, the Oppenheim Group. And you probably know him as one of the stars of the Netflix show Selling Sunset. He also announced he will be donating $100,000 to the Los Angeles fire.

and police department. Jason, thanks for joining Top Story tonight. You are in the real estate business, right? So high prices would be good business for you, but you're sickened by what you're seen out there. Explain to our viewers why. So we offered our services for free to anyone that had been displaced by the fires. You know, we've received dozens of people calling us and emailing us from Altadena to the Palisades. So I was on the MLS, you know, search for homes for people, and I kept seeing these up arrows, and I never see up arrows. It was not a strong rental market. You don't have people increasing their rent. And I couldn't believe it. So I started taking screenshots and posting them on social media. And then I did

some research, and it was pretty obvious that they were breaking the law. I mean, there's a penal code out there. The government created a state of emergency. So since then, I've just been trying to get some press to let landlords know that what they're doing is not only immoral, also illegal and they need to stop. Officials are calling it sick, they're calling it gross. Talk to me about the percentage increases you were seeing. First, I don't want to paint everyone as taking advantage of the situation. Most landlords, and a lot of my clients have called and offered to put their properties

in the market at or below market to increase supply. But there absolutely were some bad apples. Some of the ones that I posted were, you know, someone was asking in Altadena $4,500, and then the next day it was $6,000 when they couldn't get $4,500 a month previously. I sent a client to a property that was asking $13,000 a month. He offered $20,000 a month because there were so many people at the house. He offered to pay six months in advance. And the landlord came back and asked for $23,000 a month.

But when I heard that, I don't know, I went. I went ballistic, you know, I just couldn't believe it. We're out here with a hard enough job representing hundreds of displaced families, and we have very few properties, and we have to deal with greedy land. It just, I couldn't take it. How hard is it for your clients that are looking for a place out there? I've spoken to a lot of families who say they look at a property, and they're 50 people all bidding for the same property,

and then they're asking very personal questions. They want people of high incomes to be renting these homes now as well. I mean, it's very difficult out there. It's almost impossible. You know, we have clients competing against other clients right now. Every house that comes on the market, if it even comes on the market, gets 15 applications in the first day. You know, I mean, the unfortunate truth is that a lot of people that want to live in the communities where they grew up in the communities where their children are good for school, they're not going to be able to.

We need to increase supply. And unfortunately, we haven't even seen the people come off the sidelines yet. that are in hotels and haven't even been able to receive authorization from their insurance companies so they can go out into the marketplace. It's going to actually get worse. You're an expert in real estate. You know Los Angeles may be better than anyone. What do you think happens? You know, for the people that aren't insured, I don't even want to just, I mean, it's just, it's too heartbreaking to even discuss. But for those that are insured, I'm not sure that a lot of these people want to rebuild their homes. I mean,

These are people in their 60s, 70s, a dentist, a nurse. These aren't contractors. These people aren't equipped or prepared to spend three years their life managing a complicated build project. But the truth is, we're going to need to probably have developers buy the land from people who have already lost their homes. And honestly, it's the job of the real estate agents now to make sure that they get very fair prices for their land. And we do not represent people that are trying to take advantage of people that have already lost their homes. But it's going to be difficult. We will rebuild.

I have no question. Yeah, before you go, I do want you to mention why you decided to donate so much money to the police and firefighters. The effort they've done here has been incredible. It's not so much money, but I appreciate that. I mean, the truth is that we've been underfunding the very departments and organizations that we need to protect our citizens. You know, we spend billions of dollars on these high-speed trains from Bakersfield to Merrick. said that will be outdated with autonomous vehicles by the time these things are built in 15 years. And yet we're cutting budgets of the most important institutions and departments to keep

us safe. It's frustrating. I want to draw attention to it. And I, you know, I'm just doing what I can, I guess. Jason Oppenheim, we thank you for taking the time coming on Top Story. And I'm sure those first responders will appreciate that donation. The real estate market here is going to be possibly in a crisis mode very soon. We thank you for. for your expertise. So many concerned about the fire danger over the next few days. Let's get right to NBC News meteorologist Bill Cairns. Bill, we want to turn the coverage back to the winds now. We've been out here all day. I've got to tell you, it was a little windy in the morning, not too bad. It's sort of calmed down since then, but what can we expect?

Yeah, Tom, this is different. The areas that were windy last time are likely not going to be that windy this time. So let me explain. So here's the red flag warnings from Ventura County, all the way down to outside of San Diego. Notice down Los Angeles. The city proper is not the downtown area in this at all. This hashed area is what we call a particularly dangerous situation. This is the fourth time this has happened in the last four months. And why is that important? The other three times, we all had evacuations and we all had structures burn. Of course, one was last week, but we also had one of those in November and December, too. Remember the Franklin fire near Malibu? That one also destroyed properties. So we're hoping it doesn't happen again, but if it does, conditions are ripe

for explosive fire growth. But not so much in Los Angeles. Look, Los Angeles has no wind right now. per hour. But we're already getting gust to 36 by Santa Clarita. In the Angeles National Forest, we have 48 mile per hour gust. So the strong winds are arriving, but they're not in the same spot as last time. They're not 80 to 100. We do think by tomorrow morning they're going to be up here 66 to about 65. So that 50 to 70 mile per hour range. And this makes it extremely difficult for aircraft to fight in these regions. But this is not Los Angeles. This is not near Pasadena and Altadena. This is not near Santa Monica and heading towards the Palisades fire. So the big concern is if a new fire forms, Tom, that's where the problems would be, if it's in this windy area.

If no fires form in the next 24 hours in these areas, we're great. Then we move on and hope that we get rain eventually. All right, Bill Cairns for us tonight. Bill, we thank you for that. We'll have much more of the deadly wildfires here in California. As firefighters brace for those dangerous high winds expected to pick up tonight, they've been doing all they can on the ground and in the air, planes dropping fire retarded on homes in the danger zone, cloaking nation. neighborhood after neighborhood and a striking pink powder. And we're also following other major headlines tonight, including the confirmation battles for President Elect Trump's

Cabinet. We'll have the latest from Washington. That's next. Welcome back to a special edition of Top Story live from the Pacific Palisades. We're going to have much more from the fire zone in a moment, but there's breaking news from Capitol Hill as the confirmation hearings are set to start for President Trump's Cabinet nominees. Here's a look at some of the nominees going before Senate committees in just the next three days, one prominent Republican senators saying the hearings could be, quote, a little bit of a train wreck with 12 on tap this week alone. All eyes will be on Trump's in battle choice to lead the Pentagon, Pete Higgseth, whose hearings start tomorrow morning. I want to go right to

NBC News senior Capitol Hill correspondent Garrett Hake tonight, who joins us from Capitol Hill. So Garrett, top Senate Republicans have signaled they know Hegsett's nomination is going to be a fight. Do we know right now if he has the votes? We don't, Tom. Really, this hearing is going to be critical tomorrow in a way that some of these hearings are not usually. Hague's set that's going to have the spotlight all to himself tomorrow in a way that might be pretty uncomfortable.

I think Republicans, generally speaking, and they're who matters here in terms of getting the votes, probably want to get D.S. on Hegset. There are very few who want to openly defy Donald Trump. That Hague said is going to have to convince folks that these complaints about his personal life, the things about drinking, the accusations of sexual assault, all of which he has denied, are really non-issues and are behind him and that his management skills are up to snuff. It will be an ugly hearing, I suspect,

but one that if he can navigate will go a long way to get him to that 50 votes that he needs. And Garrett, I also want to touch on the special counsel report just released in the investigation into President Biden's son Hunter. And I understand the special counsel, David Weiss, had a pretty powerful response to Biden pardoning his son. Yeah, that's right. These reports are mandated by the statute that, governs special counsels. They don't usually provide much new information about the work that

the special counsel did. But in this case, the special counsel kind of excoriated President Biden for the way in which he pardoned Hunter Biden, saying that the president has the right to pardon anyone he wants, but that he doesn't have the right to rewrite history or to malign the work of the prosecutors and the investigators who originally investigated and began the prosecution of Hunter Biden. Some pretty harsh words on the way out the door by this special counsel. All right, Garrett Hake for us tonight. Garrett, we appreciate that. We do want to turn overseas now to the Middle East

and the growing optimism surrounding a possible ceasefire in Gaza and hostage release. With President Biden saying today a deal may finally be coming to fruition. For more on the negotiations, I want to bring in Richard Engel, who's been following this closely. Richard, what do we know about these talks? Tom, a senior Arab negotiator tells me this is the most progress they've made in months

and that it comes after intense efforts from the Prime Minister of Qatar and President Elect Trump's personal envoy. Two U.S. officials tell us that 48 hours after the deal is signed, potentially this week, Hamas would start to release a large number of the hostages and that ultimately all of them would be set free. In exchange, Israel would end major combat operations in Gaza, and Israeli troops would pull out of major population centers after a war that has killed, according to local officials, nearly 47,000 Palestinians. And those officials tell us that some of the hostages, Tom, are, quote, in pretty bad shape.

That's terrible news. Okay, Richard, hopefully they can strike a deal. We do want to turn to the latest also in the Russia-Ukraine war. Officials in South Korea now saying about 300 North Korean soldiers have been killed in Ukraine while fighting for Russia, and 2,700 more have been hurt. Ukrainian forces now beginning to interrogate the ones they've captured. NBC's Janice McEugh-Frayer spoke to a couple of former North Korean soldiers about their training and the expanding war. Tonight, the first North Korean soldiers Ukraine says it is captured alive. Seen in this video being questioned by Ukraine's military with help from South Korean intelligence. One telling interrogators, he thought he was going to Russia for training, not war.

The soldiers providing a rare glimpse into how. North Korean troops are fighting with Russian forces in Kursk, where U.S. officials say they're taking heavy losses. Roy Seng-Hun was a North Korean soldier until 2019, when he ran across the demilitarized zone to freedom in South Korea. Honestly, it's not easy to capture North Korean soldiers. Why is it not easy? Before captured, they succeeded themselves. They training like that. He says every recruit learns a song about saving their last bullet for themselves. to avoid capture. Interviews with several former North Korean soldiers

reveal one of the world's largest standing armies lacks regular training in modern warfare. I think I only fired three bullets per year. When I moved to a special force, we do have more than like 20 bullets. Most months, they say, spent on farming and construction. For Li Chul Yun, who swam six hours to escape, The main enemy was hunger.

Grass, potatoes, even tree bark, he says. You ate tree bark. There's no rule for the kind of meal, sir. President Zelensky now making an offer to Kim Jong-un to swap his soldiers for Ukrainian prisoners in Russia. The captives living proof, he says, of the widening war. Janice McAfreyer, NBC News, Seoul. We thank Janice for that report.

When we return our live coverage of the California, California wildfires continues. Tonight, we're remembering the victims of this tragedy, including Mama D. We speak with the 95-year-old's granddaughter about the legacy she leaves behind and why it's so important. Stay with us. Gas will be back on nothing. And there's no communication that I've heard that tells us any kind of agenda or timeline for when we can come home and when my family can come home. Nothing.

We are back now with our special coverage of the Los Angeles wildfires. That resident you saw right there in Altadena, one of so many frustrated with the government's handling of this crisis. And that's where we find our Ellison Barber tonight who has been covering the devastation there in the wake of the Eaton fire. So, Alison, I know you've been speaking to emergency crews carrying outsearch and recovery missions there in Altadena. What are they telling you tonight? Yeah, I mean, look, this is some of the groups that have just gotten back from doing that difficult and what they have just, described fire officials have described as that grim task of carrying out search and recovery missions is what they're calling it now because they say the reality is what they're doing

is they are looking for the remains of people who lived in this community. This is day three of what they have described as a grid search where they go out and they go into these communities. They have three different sections, kind of squares of teams, each of them working off of grids to go sort of line by line through these neighborhoods to check for people or at this point, in the homes that have been left behind. We can walk a little across this way so you get a sense of really what they're dealing with as they go through some of these pockets of neighborhoods

where it is just nothing but flattened ground. They tell us that they are really prioritizing in their search and recovery efforts right now, going to areas where they had what they call incomplete 911 calls. They say we're someone called 911 seemingly in distress the night when the fires were really at their peak. and then that call disconnected.

They're going to places where they had those incomplete 9-1-1 calls to search for remains and also to areas where people have reported loved ones, family members, as missing. They say the reality is oftentimes in this case they will be looking for people their remains in bathtubs and also in pools because when people are surrounded by fire, they typically try to go towards what may be the safest place, which in many cases may have been a body of water like a pool. According to officials, they expect that to rise in the coming days, and a lot of the buildings look like this. So these teams that are going out, search and rescue teams, they're coming with rakes, with picks, all sorts of different devices to break down this debris,

to try to get to the bottom of buildings and homes to see if there are any people or remains still in them. Tom. So dark to think about those people's final moments like that in the bathtub or their pool. I know you were with firefighters today. 30 seconds. Tell me about what they're doing there in Altadena because I know that's not in the clear yet. Yeah, right. I mean, just up the road we saw today a building a hot spot turn into a flame. That is a constant battle, particularly in this area for firefighters because these buildings, when they collapsed, many of them have basements. The floor is pancake on top of

each other. Their heat and concrete, the concrete and brick holds heat underneath them. It allows hot spots to develop and that can reignite into. additional flames, and we've seen them constantly battling that, having to go back to buildings that looked like they were okay and put out those fires yet again. Tom? Ellison Barber and her team tonight there in Altadena. Ellison, we thank you for that. As search and rescue efforts continue, we are thinking of the families, getting those devastating calls or knocks on the door, and we are remembering the lives lost to these deadly wildfires. One of them we mentioned earlier in the broadcast,

Delis Curry, she was known as Mama Dee, an Altadina resident who died when the Eaton fire tore through her neighborhood and burned down her home. Mama Dee was part of Old Black Hollywood in the 1950s and worked as an actor in Los Angeles for decades, appearing in films including The Ten Commandments and the Blues Brothers. Mama Dee was 95 years old. And joining us now is her granddaughter, Delise Kelly, who shares a name with her and so many good memories, I'm sure.

Delis, thank you for joining Top Story tonight. First of all, how is your family holding up? Our souls are broken. We are not holding up well. We are distraught. And like you said earlier, it is so hard to look at all of this devastation and wonder what her last moments were.

She didn't deserve this. We're hurting. Yeah, I don't think anyone deserve this. Yeah, terrible. No one deserved this, especially not a 95-year-old woman. When the news first broke, when the fires broke out, did anyone in your family have any idea of what was going on? Was anybody able to reach your grandmother, or was it just complete chaos?

It was complete chaos. The Altadena Sheriff's Department, the busy signal is all I got. So I called 911, and I asked someone to go do a wellness check to make sure that she was okay, that we were told that there was a 3.30 evacuation call. And apparently this was just sent via text. And as much as I tried to get Mama Dita get into her cell phone, elderly people just don't get into cell phones, not her. And unfortunately, she possibly did not get an evacuation cell phone text message. that's the remains of her house. I had to look at her bike, her stationary bike, because she was

very healthy. I lived there, you know, part-time as her caregiver, but she was, she didn't have Alzheimer's. She didn't, she was, she was strong and in good health and didn't need to live with her family. She loved her home and out to Dina. She loved out of Dina. She loved that city. She loved that little cottage that the Valencia family had built, and she will be forever missed. What a loss. That was what her home used to look like. She loved her flowers and her independence. And I don't know where to go and what to do from here.

I just know that I'm not pleased with the emergency response. Like, we have to do something else. I thought that that would evacuations would, you know, include, like knocking on the doors, Not just a message. When I took her home there at midnight from being in the hospital all day, she was exhausted, and it didn't look like danger, evacuation. There was a fireway northeast in the mountains, but I had no idea that the winds would come all the way down to the residential areas and destroy the entire city of Alta Dina. Can you talk to our viewers about the legacy your grandmother leaves behind because she had such a strong legacy, not only in that community, but in the entertainment world here in Los Angeles? Her godmother was Madame Salte Juan, which was the first black female actress that had a contract with big movie studio.

She was a silent film actress. So that tells you how long ago that was. But that was her god. who helped her get an audition with the Ten Commandments, and she worked with Pearl Bailey, and she did a lot of shows. She was an actress. She did theater, she did theater, dance, she sang. She was absolutely incredible. She was our superstar. It was such a little part in Ten Commandments, but it was big to us. And she was just an incredible grandmother. I mean, I always felt like I was special because my grandmother still lived, and she can tell you Everybody from Madame Sautei Wan to Pearl Bailey, to Billy Holiday, to Red Fox, there were just a countless stories of celebrity, her life and her legacy. And we were extremely proud of her.

And she was just a wonderful soul. Delise Kelly, we thank you so much for coming on tonight. I know this has been incredibly hard for your family, for that immense loss. but we thank you for telling your grandmother's story and also reminding viewers of how important she was not only to your family but to that community here in Los Angeles as well. Thank you, Tom. And we're going to be right back.

We're back now with our special coverage of the L.A. wildfires. Just behind me here was a supermarket in the Palisades and we wanted to give you a closer look at what it looks like inside, what these wildfires did to these communities. and to these neighborhoods, because even though we didn't live here, we see this every single day that we've been here, and it never gets normal. It is terrifying, it is horrific, and for the people that lived here and grew up here, they have to see this every single day, and they're not sure what they're going to come back to.

Amid all this devastation, there has been just a little bit of positive news. A man who lost his home in the Palisades Fire reunited with his rescue dog, Oreo, who survived the nights in the charred rubble, are Liz Kreutz and and her team caught the emotional roller coaster on camera. That was it. I couldn't go past the salary. We first met Casey Colvin amidst the chaos of evacuations. My boss is actually calling me saying, is everything okay in the Palisades?

I said, I'm in the city. I don't know. The Pacific Palisades resident raced back, even renting a bike, trying to get home to his two dogs inside, but couldn't get past the roadblock. I literally rescued him off the street. They deserve better than this. I'm so sorry. How do I get to my house?

A firefighter offered to go for him. knocking down his door, rescuing one of his two dogs. But the other Oreo was still missing. Got the dog? Yeah, this is my daughter. The behavioral dog, he ran out of the house. Later that night, the Palisades fire reduced Casey's home to rubble, but is only concerned, Oreo. For five days, he was missing.

Then Casey got a call. Oreo spotted in the neighboring property. How's the fire? Oh, honey! Oh, honey! Oh, my God. It's the happy ending Casey prayed for.

And there's one person he really wanted to thank. This guy saved your life. And you look like a Ken doll. Calfire Battalion Chief Brent Pasquot. If that dog could talk, he would have a story to tell.

He would have a national bestseller. Had he not knocked down that door, both dogs would have been trapped inside. Casey, what do you want to say to Brad? When I first met you, I was in the middle of crisis. I was in the middle of a firestorm. My dogs would have died, if not for you. Just an incredible reunion there. And Tom, I am outside Casey's house right now where all of this happened.

We're told that some folks had spotted little Oreo over the past few days sleeping in the rubble of a neighbor's home. And another person apparently was able to put some food and water out. that firefighters then say they saw him eating, so that may have helped him survive. Just an incredibly happy ending through all this devastation, Tom. Yeah, and it's incredible that he survived. Liz, we thank you for bringing us that story.

We'll be keeping our eyes out for that bestseller on Oreo story. Our coverage of the California wildfires continues, though. Tonight, a father and daughter duo choosing to stay behind in the evacuation zone, just as flames burnt down their neighbor's homes. Now they're using their position inside the blockade to help others, notifying them if their home is still standing. We'll speak with them and what they found next.

That's the Skull Rock Trailhead. It's a popular hiking trail just on the north side of the Palisades and it is here that we see those ATF officials along with other investigators and they came up here in some off-roading vehicles and what they're looking at is a possible initiation point for the Palisades fire. Now at this point it is all of still investigation. So we do not know how this fire began. And that's exactly what investigators are trying to figure out. And that was NBC Los Angeles Chopper reporter, Eliana Moreno, late this afternoon. As you saw, their authorities are still working to determine the cause of the deadly wildfire here in the Pacific Palisades. But as questions keeps whirling, one father and daughter

are in a search for answers in another place. Vanessa Prada, her father of Luzio, and her mother, Maria, Vanessa's mother, Maria. Join us now. they're live in Altadena and have decided to stay behind in the fire zone. They've been sending updates to their neighbors who are desperate for word on whether or not their homes were spared. So thank you all for joining us tonight. Vanessa, I'm going to ask you, you and your family packed up some of your belongings, but decided to stay back. Why did you make that decision not to evacuate? Correct. There was a lot of fires going on at the time. And as you've heard from multiple people, they're just not enough personnel for all of the fires everywhere.

Right? Altadena, the Palisades. So a lot of us stayed behind to help any way that we could the night of the fires. And then, Aluzio, if you can explain to me, you know, many of your neighbors, yeah, were not spared. So what made you sort of go into the other houses and how were you guys able to do that? Because it had to be incredibly dangerous. Well, we are fortunate. The block where we leave, we didn't have any fires. The fire is north of where you are.

The next block, we, during the night, you know, early morning of Wednesday, we were able to put up some fires there, small fires. So we kept on driving with our car and doing whatever we could. Oh, everybody does what they can to help, right? That's how it works. Right. Vanessa, I know you've checked on dozens of homes, and for many of them, you know, we've seen the pictures from Altadena.

It is not good news. How do you tell the family that? It's difficult, right? The main thing is just trying to get the photos as quickly as possible to the families because these people aren't sleeping. They're concerned about their homes, what the status of their homes are.

So we take the picture, I send it, and I say, I'm so sorry for your loss. And if it's positive news, I tend to not say anything at all in those cases. And everybody has been extremely, extremely happy that they received a photo, and a lot of them found out that their homes burned from me directly. And those were the most devastating to break the news. Yeah, I can't imagine.

Maria, what do you think is going to happen in Altadena in your community? You were asking me? Yes. Well, right now, Maria, what do you think is going to happen? What do you think the future? The future, we think. The future is very hard to see because most of Autodina is gone. So hopefully they're going to rebuild and people here are very strong.

Hopefully it will be okay in a few years. My best friend lost her house up the street. Vanessa, what do you think is going to happen? Do you think people will rebuild? My hope is that they do. We have a very strong community. People, from what I've seen from what's going on now, people are really coming together, doing everything they can.

This is our part behind the barricades of what we can do to help. And it seems like everybody's doing what they need to do in order to open up the border as soon as possible that's blocking everybody from coming to see their homes. And I think we have a strong community, and I think it's possible to rebuild what we had before. for it. Real quick, because we don't have a lot of time,

if there's another fire threat, are you guys going to stay or are you going to evacuate? Yes, we're going to stay. Yes. We're going to stay here until they kick us out. Yes, sir. You know, you don't abound a bunch of the ship, right?

Yeah. Okay, please be safe there. We thank you so much for joining Top Story tonight. We really appreciate you opening up and sharing to your neighbors what you've found so far. And we thank you tonight for watching this special edition of Top Story. I'm Tom Yamas, reporting from the Pacific Palisades. Our coverage of the Los Angeles Wildfires is going to continue right after this

and will throughout the week. We thank you for watching.