I shot this standing next to my live shot at Lake Arrowhead. There are two fires burning up here and 400 homes have been destroyed. As I get more information I will post. In the meantime, I have some good news from the Malibu fire we left yesterday.

Firefighters tell us that it is 70% contained and basically that means no flames, just smoldering and they need to watch for any wind caused flare ups.

Here is the raw video….

This video I shot right before sundown! I will have a wrap of what we saw this evening in Lake Arrowhead, our fifth fire in one day. The scenes were dramatic, no better way to explain it. Here a helicopter grabs water from a pool to try and douse the nearby flames that were marching up a ridgetop and destroying nearly every home in it’s path.

We could feel the SUV shake as wind gusts barrel through the canyons and over the ridges of Malibu. As we drive up Las Flores Canyon, we notice many firefighters have gotten the chance to come off the hills and get some sleep.

I was crammed, with a seatbelt, in the back of Keith’s SUV. We are scouting locations for our lives and all around the Carbon Canyon area where the fire battle continued for most of the day; we see embers smoldering here and there. It looks like a thousand campfires left smoldering after people have gone to bed. Unfortunately, it’s these burning logs and brush, where small flames flicker, that can turn into a raging wall of flames in a matter of minutes, thanks to these winds and arid conditions.

Our spot this morning overlooks Las Flores Canyon in Malibu; we are one canyon to the east of our location yesterday. Thankfully, even with the wind gusts, the situation looks much better this morning. In one direction, I can look towards Santa Monica and the lights of the south bay. The view is stunning and even in this early morning and smoke haze can be seen enveloping the west side of Los Angeles. If I turn 180 degrees, I can see flames flaring up on the ridge. No homes are directly threatened as of now, but not far away some massive dwellings are lit up like an airport. I can see people walking on their decks and likely worried about the flames in the distance. This picture is of the flare up.

As I mentioned before, the credit to the firefighters both on the ground and in the air cannot be overstated. With these winds, it can be described as nothing other than life threatening every time they face the flames. So far, we’ve seen Anaheim firefighters make a stand on a multi-million dollar home perched above Carbon Canyon. They saved the home not once, but twice.

We’ve also seen firefighters from San Luis Obispo save homes along Rambla Pacifico in Malibu. Flames sometimes seem to spring out of the ground with no warning, areas that are smoldering will all of a sudden erupt in fire. Thick smoke drowns any fresh air and burning embers spray open lands and homes like a sprinkler attacks a lawn.

As we get some time to sleep and regroup, we try to stay out of the sun and hydrated. In my pack, besides a camera and a few things needed for my live reports, I keep a mask for my face and also a handkerchief. I also keep eye protection, eye drops, water, a first aid kit, a light jacket, bottled water and a utility knife. All stuff that comes in handy in situations like this.

We are heading back out early again on Tuesday. We’ll leave around 1:15 am local time, which will give us time to scout out a live location and at the same time get safely into place by the time “FOX & Friends First” starts at 6:00 am ET (3:00 am local time). Our crew again tomorrow is Keith Railey (photographer), Ron Ralston (producer), Eric Graychock and Rich DeAnda (satellite technicians). These are the guys behind the scenes that make the pictures possible and show the men and women doing their best fighting these horrendous fires!

This is morning video shot with my hand held camera from our live location down inside Carbon Canyon in Malibu.

Firefighters continue to extinguish hot spots and flames are sporadically igniting along the hillsides around these homes. Back in the fire of 1993, more than 120 homes were lost in this area, this time it appears only one has been lost, but the Santa Ana winds are starting to pick up.