Welcome to the Beat. I'm Ari Melbert. And we begin with the story that continues to grip the nation,

these worsening, ongoing fire conditions in California. Crews continuing to struggle to contain

what are devastating flames. These have been tearing through the L.A. area for, if you're counting now,

six straight days. The strong winds fueled deadly fires last week, and those

types of wins are now expected to pick up again tonight, which brings with it the possibility

of not only a rapid spread of current fires, but even more fire zones. Officials have confirmed

now 24 people have died, dozens missing. When you count this all up, it is very hard to give people outside of LA a full approximation,

but here's one way to think about the area covered.

These fires have now already scorched 40,000 acres.

And while L.A. is vast, we've been covering the damage of so many homes and communities in this city, it has damaged or destroyed over 12,000 buildings, including many homes residential areas.

There's a video that it was obtained here by the New York Times using a nest camera outside a Palisades home that captures how this works,

how these flames grow and quickly approach these homes.

The homeowners were watching in shock.

Watching that, that footage is devastating to us.

This is the worst case scenario playing out in front of our eyes right now.

That's what people are dealing with. The fire crews made progress in containing what has

been the largest blaze. The Palisades fire is more contained at 14% while they continue

working long, punishing hours battling to contain these blazes before, as

mentioned, those expected high wins may return.

We showed up here yesterday morning about 5 a.m.

You haven't slept?

Not really.

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