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00:00Wildfires that have burned dozens of mountain homes near Los Angeles slowed on Thursday with
00:05cooler temperatures, but authorities warned that the blazes still threatened suburbs.
00:10Driven by triple-digit heat, gusting wind, and tender, dry vegetation,
00:15the three fires burned at speeds firefighters have never witnessed, scorching over 44,000 hectares.
00:22Massim Cournet reports.
00:24The firefighters have made some significant progress on them in the past 24 hours or so.
00:31You mentioned the line fire, 21% contained. That is pretty much a done deal. Firefighters
00:35confident they will be able to put it out in the next few hours and days. The airport fire,
00:405% contained. And of course the bridge fire, that is the largest of them all,
00:44right now still burning out of control at 0% contained. In fact, tonight the latest news
00:49is that areas under an evacuation order have now been expanded, so encompassing a larger swath
00:54of the region. It's really rare to have three major fires burning around Los Angeles at the
00:59same time. In fact, the bridge fire, as we just mentioned, really exhibited some very unusual
01:04explosive behavior. It started off Sunday, slowly burning for two days, and then on Tuesday,
01:09it exploded to nine times its initial size within just a few hours. In fact, Tuesday morning,
01:15I woke up knowing that there was a small fire, and then by just a few hours later,
01:19I was driving in my neighborhood, and I saw in the distance what I thought was a major
01:23thunderstorm cloud, and it turns out it was that plume of ash and smoke from that bridge fire.
01:28I couldn't believe my eyes. And the fire sped upslope, thanks to some very strong winds
01:33threatening a popular ski resort in the region. Staff that was about to evacuate were forced to
01:39turn on snowmaking machines to humidify vegetation. That ski resort has now been saved. Elsewhere,
01:45unfortunately, dozens of homes have been lost, 13 people injured,
01:48one resident southeast of Los Angeles in the airport fire, describing what's left as a moonscape.