This information comes from Brian Humphrey of the Los Angeles Fire Department:

Right now, wind gusts in Malibu are up to 59 miles per hour and strike teams from all over Southern California are on scene doing their best to once again battle flames. It seems like yesterday we were in this same area, battling these same type of flames.

When the last fire was finally out, we noted the dry ground, grasses and brush that still remained in much of the Santa Monica Mountains. Now, the winds and fire have come back and they have come before the rains.

These pictures come from our satellite technician Eric Graychock as the crew makes their way to Malibu from our office in Los Angeles, about 15 miles away. He will be sending me updated pictures and notes as we watch more homes burn and more lives threatened. Here are his first two pictures.

The latest numbers are this…2,200 acres, 35 homes and 65 strike teams on the fire. This is from the Fire Captain’s briefing at 9:40am pst. Right now the fire is burning near Latigo Canyon and burning south and west. The fire is burning down canyon. Pepperdine University is once again the fire headquarters.

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….

It’s 1am, Wednesday. We are on the road back up the hill to cover the Lake Arrowhead fire. We’ve seen it up close already and it’s a monster.

Late yesterday, we made our fifth fire in one day. When we arrived on ‘Rim of the World’, the street name along the ridge-line, smoke sat amongst the trees like a low tulle fog.

This is a different fire than the four previous we’ve been to (Malibu, Ranch, Magic & Val Verde fires). The trees here atop the San Bernardino Mountains are tall pines, not the low lying scrub brush we’ve seen so far. Like the others though, it is extremely dry, warm and windy. The Bark Beetle infestation has also killed a significant number of trees providing the near perfect fuel.

While driving the rim we pass homes still sizzling and smoldering, the thick smoke, red from the glow of the fire, which has split into two heads, provides an eerie Halloween effect. It drifts amongst the trees and nearly shuts down visibility at times.

We see fire racing up towards a ridge and two beautiful two-story mountain homes are in its path. Air tankers hit the fire from above and ground crews are stationed in front of homes, seemingly facing an enormous enemy. Keith is driving, Ron and I crammed in. We are in our fire gear, with face protection and making sure we are no where near in the way. Just observers of a massive firefight.

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.

From Malibu to Castaic and Saugus … now on to Lake Arrowhead.

We got back into Los Angeles, and I walked into my home, staying just long enough to pack a bag and cram back into Keith’s SUV. My knees aren’t too happy about it, but it’s a small price to pay when I consider all the people who have lost their homes and even livelihoods in these fires.

Right now, we are on the 10 freeway headed east. To our north, we passed plumes of smoke and helicopters loaded down with water. Now in the basin, the smoke is a thick blanket. It pours into LA from all directions.