Here’s How Reporters Are Covering the Los Angeles Wildfires (Updated)

The defining moment was seeing the sorrow in him and regret for wanting to have been able to do more. Here’s a man who has built a career fighting fires but has never experienced a fire this close to home.

Stephanie Sy, national correspondent for PBS News Hour
I interviewed a young woman at the main evacuation center in the Palisades. She had been staying at a church-run shelter for a few months to escape an abusive relationship. The Palisades fire reached the church and caught on fire in the middle of the night while she was sleeping. She fled with her backpack and took several buses and got to the evacuation center on foot. She was reading the Bible when I noticed her and seemed at peace. But as she recounted what she had just been through, she just started shaking and sobbing. She asked, when is all this pain going to end? I had no answer. But she said she would keep praying. 

Dan Grossman, national correspondent for Scripps News
The image of a man walking down Iliff Street in the Pacific Palisades with nothing but a trash bag will stick with me for the rest of my life. He walked with a hunch; smoke, ash, and collapsed rubble lining both sides of the street next to him. As he approached, I asked if he lived in the area and if he needed any help. He looked up, eyes streaming with tears, and mumbled “my home” through a broken voice. It’s all he could say as he passed and wept. 

I covered the Lahaina wildfires for 9 days. I rode out Hurricane Ian and covered the aftermath. I reported on the Marshall Fire in Colorado the night it broke out, but nothing broke me like this one encounter. There is something about witnessing an event’s darkest moments at the same time those affected are experiencing them that is tragically beautiful. It’s the human experience in its rawest state. It’s what makes these stories matter. It’s what connects us all.

Michelle Fisher, co-anchor ABC7 Eyewitness News
As my photographer Tommy Harris and I drove down Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu late Tuesday night, the apocalyptic scene was unlike anything I have ever reported on. It was overwhelming in many ways, to not only see the burning homes, cars, and power poles on both sides of the highway, but also to feel the intense heat from the flames, through our news van. When I felt the heat, that’s when my adrenaline spiked, and I felt uneasy. 

Watch behind the scenes footage from ABC News’ wildfires coverage

Kayna Whitworth, anchor for ABC News Live
The conditions are challenging, but it’s important for us to be in them and share with people what’s going on. The Eaton fire was specifically a challenge because winds kept pushing embers toward us.