CNN reporter Nick Watt narrowly escaped injury while covering the deadly southern California wildfires blazing out of control in several areas including the Pacific Palisades, where he was working late Tuesday night.
“Jesus! Whoa!” Watt said into his microphone while broadcasting from the heart of Palisades Village. “Sorry, I nearly got hit by something there.”
CNN’s cameras were focused on a nearby burning apartment building when Watt can be heard dodging danger. Speaking to anchorman Polo Sandoval in CNN’s Manhattan studios, Watt indicates he should reconsider where he’s positioned.
“A little part of that building nearly hit me there,” he explained.
Watt then points out burning embers flying around him. He said that flammable detritus is being caught up in winds reaching 100 mph and spreading to other locations.
“That’s what’s been happening all day and will continue to happen all night, because the wind is only going to get worse,” he said.
The flames did indeed get worse through the night and into Wednesday morning. Officials reported no word of containment by noon. More than 1,000 buildings were impacted in the Pacific Palisades alone by morning. Fires also spread in three other parts of Southern California Wednesday. At least two people were killed.
“How do you fight a fire like that?” Watt asked rhetorically. “It’s almost impossible.”
Safely tucked behind a desk, Sandoval thanked Watt and his camera crew for their efforts, but advised caution.
“[If] at any point you have to bail, completely understandable,” the host said.
The National Guard joined rescue efforts in the Los Angeles area Wednesday afternoon. Fire officials said the flames had consumed more than 11,000 acres of Pacific Palisades property at that point.