This is CBS I on the World. I'm John Batchelor, special edition.

Tonight on the show, Jeff Bliss joins me late because a fire that didn't much account for

or than a dot on the map of California, sometime in the mid-afternoon, California time,

and late afternoon, New York time, has turned into what

appears to be a potential monster. Let's call this a monster light right now. It's called the Hughes

Fire. Jeff is here with us to help me understand this geography. I've learned to read the

LA Times map, but I don't have a good orientation. This is the Hughes fire, and it's got a big mandatory evacuation, and all around the rim are people being warned for evacuation.

Jeff, a very good evening to you. I'm all ready to learn about the scale of this fire, but if I got the time right, mid-afternoon, your time,

it was one of several fires that appeared to be contained or easily to containable.

The clay fire at 38 acres, the lilac fire at 85.

The Eaton Fire and Palisade Park, Pacific Palisades Fire, are old, and they're still

threatening, but they're not fresh.

And I think the Hughes Fire was, what, just a few acres?

I don't remember where it started.

Good evening, Jeff.

Good evening, John.

The Hughes Fire kicked off around almost 11 a.m. today, but I didn't really pick up on it on my maps or my feeds until probably 1 or 1.30 Pacific time. And at that time, they were showing there was only about 100 acres. It seemed the winds were low. There was low humidity and there was a problem with a lot of vegetation in the area,

but it seemed that they had enough air assets on it to get it knocked down or at least get

fire retardant around it. So it didn't seem to be a lot of concern. But something happened,

and a lot of it seems to be that there were some wind gusts. That coupled with the extremely dry brush conditions, and the fire just took off.

And like I said, when I first saw it, Cal Fire, which is the state fire agency overseeing it,

we're saying it was 100 acres.

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