 All right, good morning everyone. Thank you for being here. I'm Mark Gillard, UGM, the Director of the Governor's Office of Emergency Services. Welcome to the State Operations Center. Again, today's briefing is going to focus on updating all of the latest efforts happening this week and right now from across the state and the western states to assist those who have been impacted by the wildfires. Let me start off by saying on behalf of the Governor and all of us that we express our thoughts and prayers for those who have been affected, we know it's a difficult time, but we're going to get through it together. Our priority is today, firefighting and life-saving, taking care of the thousands that have been evacuated and hurting and looking at what's needed for the long haul in the recovery process. This includes individuals, businesses, tribal community groups, and everyone else that has been affected by the disaster. We need to tell all those who that are in this right now we understand what the complexities are. We hear what the issues are and we are working through it. You also need to know that we're working hard to get as much resources into the impacted area as possible. And an example of that, just behind me, there are hundreds of people working on the state's response from all the state agencies and departments to support our local governments and to support the communities that have been impacted in addition to what's happening at the local level. Since the early hours of the emergency, we've put in motion tens of thousands of resources to support the growing needs. That's pushing out everything from meals to food to communications to firefighters, etc. This has been a nonstop operation here from the State Operations Center and will continue until the situation is mitigated. The mutual aid system in California is second to none and the system is operating as designed. We're also reaching, though, across state lines for resources and additional support. As of today, we received amazing support from the states of Nevada, Washington, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, North and South Carolina, Oregon, and Arizona. And we're deeply appreciative of those assets and we also are working on coordination of some international assistance. We're on our fifth day of response and for many of these incidents, we're not slowing down any of the operations. In addition to the firefighting resources, we have 640 law enforcement officers and more than 8,000 firefighters, 650 fire engines from across California, and AGs and 170 engines from our supporting states. In addition, we currently have about 4,800 people in evacuation centers as of last night. There are 42 shelters that have been set up statewide for these incidents and we're supplying over 2,000 special needs, COTS, and other kinds of services for those shelters. At least 40,000 meals have been served and more than 60,000 liters of water have been deployed through our strategic staging areas. 77 cell towers were damaged in the fires and as of today, 64 of those cell towers have been restored to establish, re-establish communications in the burned area. I want to say again that we are not out of this emergency. We're not even close to being out of this emergency. We're continuing to address the current and future needs. This includes those most at risk such as the elderly, the very young, and those with access and functional needs issues. For those near and around the fires, please, I can't underscore this enough. Listen to your local emergency services for possible notices of more evacuations, shelter updates, or road closures. That's important information for you and your family to know in the event that you get noticed for an evacuation. And even if you are not in the areas that have been impacted, driving around our state, you will see fire trucks and resources and convoys of vehicles moving around our roadways. Please make sure to give them the thoroughfare, be concerned about that, and careful as you're driving. They need to get to the fires as quickly as possible and get to work. So with that, I'm now going to turn it over to Chief Kempenma from Cal Fire, who will give us the fire update. Thank you, Director Gilarducci. Yes, this morning we are working on 21 large fires. That's down one from 22 yesterday only because we've merged two fires into one. A number of these fires as they grow are actually growing together. Since the beginning of the siege, late Sunday evening, 191,437 acres have burned just in these fires. Sadly, the fatality count for these incidents has grown to 24. And as we've talked about every day, we continue to work very closely with local law enforcement to work and help them identify, match up, unaccounted for persons and get access to the fire areas as it's rendered safe so they can continue to adjudicate that. But again, 24 persons to date. The last several days has not been filled with a lot of good news and as Director Gilarducci indicated that we are a long way from being done with this catastrophe. But I do want to share some good news this morning and some significant work has been done on what's called the Wind Complex. That's the series of fires over in Nevada, Yuba, and Butte counties. Those fires are becoming significantly contained. We have significant improvements in containment. For example, the Cascade fire is 45% contained this morning and the McCourtney fire in Nevada County is 89%. That's very, very good news. As those fires are wrapped up, those firefighting resources will very quickly be redeployed to other priority fires within the state. We're also looking at the Mendocino Lake complex and that's really made up of the Sulphur fire near Clear Lake Oaks and the Redwood Valley fire there in southern Mendocino. Sulphur fire is 45% contained this morning. Very good progress there. And again, as we work through containing that, we'll make those resources available. And the Redwood Valley fire in southern Mendocino, although large at 32,100 acres this morning, they're making very good progress on containment and continue to work well to get that done. Even on our large fires within the Central Lake Napa complex is the Tubbs fire, fire that obviously burned down into Santa Rosa. It's 34,270 acres this morning, but I'm happy to report it's 10% contained and all that may not sound like much compared to the others. That fire had 0% containment for several straight days. So firefighters are working very hard to get in and around that fire. The other fire, large fire in the southern Lake Napa complex is the Atlas fire. That's the fire burning down through Napa County and now burning down into Solano County. It is 43,762 acres this morning and only 3% contained. Continued very active fire behavior on that fire. So again, with all that said, good progress. All of these incidents are feeling the effect of these resources coming into the state. Every incident this morning reported a large influx of fire engines, hand crews, and other firefighting equipment and personnel getting folks relieved that have been out there from the beginning, getting them the rest they need so they can get back out. We continue hour by hour more resources pour in from around California and as Director Gillarducci said from around the country and internationally. Fire weather conditions, that's the less favorable piece for us right now. Right now we are looking at fire weather warnings and watches for critical fire weather throughout all of these fire areas through the weekend. And now we have added that same element to portions of Southern California from Santa Barbara to Ventura and Los Angeles County for the weekend. So this means over much of the state we'll have critical dry humidity and windy conditions throughout the weekend. What this means is our fires are going to continue to burn erratically. They have the potential to shift in any direction at any time. Our incident management teams are taking all of this into account as they build their contingency planning and organize the efforts on these fires. While our focus is certainly on the ground getting perimeter control and trying to contain the fires, our number one priority is always going to be life safety. And so what we are a number of high priority areas on these fires that they're looking at but in particular today what we're watching very closely are the communities of Calistoga. Sanoma, Middletown and Geyserville. There are trigger points established should fires hit certain areas that will trigger evacuation warnings, evacuation of all the various types of evacuations. But these, all of these communities, certainly everybody in the fire areas need to pay close attention. But certainly in these communities folks need to be very attentive to social media to websites, to local news and fire information that's being posted. The situation is very dynamic and often times can change by the minute or by the hour. So for those that may not have heard two additional fatalities reported from Mendocino County bringing the total for this siege to 26. So we're taking all this weather, we're taking this fire activity into consideration and from the beginning this is not about fighting the fire that we have, we are constantly anticipating the fires that may come. And so we are constantly leaning forward and getting very deep into the system to order resources in anticipation of the next event or in anticipation of what these fires may need. So we've been leaning very far forward. We are ordering numerous additional fire engines today from many of the states that Director Gilarducci indicated. Those resources will come into the state and either be deployed directly to fires or be put in areas in critical locations in the state where they can respond to new fires. Understand the night that these fires broke out, we had almost 100 fires. I believe 91 fires had started in the state that day. So there's lots of fires that go on in California and they're being put out. So we've got to have resources available not only for these fires but for new fires. So we will continue to keep that as a priority as well. We're also looking at requesting additional federal resources from our federal partners and we're working on that right now and bringing more of those resources in to support the potential new fires that could occur. And certainly and General Baldwin will certainly discuss but we're working very closely with our military partners even now looking at our federal military assets in Southern California with our partners at the Navy and Marine Corps and standing up some aviation assets. So again I want to emphasize making progress long way from being out of the woods. Our focus is on fighting these fires, protecting lives and getting ahead of the next set of events, ensuring public safety, getting the information out so folks can evacuate safely and help us get there. Lots of work going on on investigating the fires. We get lots of questions there. I want folks to know that that is occurring. There isn't anything we can talk about there right now because those are active investigations. We all want to get to the bottom of what caused the fires but at the end of the day right now they need to do their job and we needed the job of putting these fires out and that's going to be our focus. Thank you with that. Introduce Warren Stanley acting commissioner of the California Highway Patrol. Thank you chief. As we continue to work together on this fire from the CHP, our perspective, what we've been doing, we have just a little less than 300 personnel assigned to this fire in various capacities. Traffic control, general law enforcement, prevention of looting, escorting and some other duties. Last night we assisted the sheriff in Sonoma County with the evacuation of parts of Sonoma and other places there. We brought over 100 additional officers from here in the Sacramento area, the coastal area and in the central valley and from the Bay Area and we used those 100 officers to assist in the evacuation. Those 100 officers they were able to knock on 7,000 doors and let people know that they needed to evacuate. So I'm very appreciative of our officers' efforts but I'm very appreciative of the public for listening and moving out of those areas so we can get them to someplace safe. One of the other things that we did yesterday, we assisted the Sonoma Developmental Center with moving some of their patients and their staff from a middle school to the Dixon Fairgrounds to put them in a safer location and working along with the Department of Developmental Services and the National Guard. We have CHP personnel there and also National Guard personnel there at the Fairgrounds to provide them safety and security and any assistance that they may need. I'd just like to re-emphasize what Director Gilard Ducci said and Chief Pimla said. We just asked the public to continue to monitor your social media, the social media websites that are out there, pay attention to what's going on because things are changing so fast. We want you to be able to keep up with it and be able to get you accurate information. And with that, I'll turn it over to General Baldwin from the National Guard. Thanks, Commissioner. The California National Guard continues to provide a broad spectrum of military support to help people in both the affected and the threatened communities. We currently have over 1,600 personnel that are in the area with more on the way. Last night, we mobilized and deployed a 500-person infantry battalion from Southern California, some of whom that flew into Moffitt Federal Airfield late last night and are now on their way into the impacted area. The balance of that organization is moving up by truck and bus from Southern California and should arrive sometime soon today. In addition to the ground troops that we have engaged, we have 27 California National Guard and Nevada National Guard aircraft engaged in supporting this operation, running up spectrum of missions from firefighting to damage assessment to transportation and fire mapping. In addition, we are doing a broad spectrum of other missions that include aerial firefighting, shelter support, we're providing tents, we're providing evacuation support, we're providing fuel for first responders, we're providing security, damage assessment and communication support. As mentioned earlier, we are in very, very close communication with our federal partners from the Department of Defense, the United States Navy, the United States Marine Corps, and the National Guard of Surrounding States to bring in additional assets as the need arises. I'll be followed by Director Gil Ducci. Thanks, Chairman Baldwin. As you can see, this is an all-hands-on-deck effort at every level of government and also, let me just say, our private sector partners in the Grocer's Association and a number of other private companies have also leaned forward. Utilities, telecommunications groups, all coming together to work with us in a comprehensive effort to respond to this incident. With that, let me ask any questions. So, right now, the focus has really been on the firefight. Of course, the governor did ask for a presidential declaration which was granted by the White House. FEMA, who has been a tremendous partner with us through this whole process, is engaged with us step-by-step as an integrated component. And so, right now, we're not really looking at that aspect, but we're focusing on together responding to the incident. Well, certainly, the President of the United States will support anything we need to do on that. Yeah, we've been working on Australian firefighters and fire management personnel. We have used the Australian firefighters here in California in the past, in past fires. We do have an ongoing training and working relationship with them, and so we're working on bringing those assets in. Statewide registry, is there a way for people to come at this from a statewide perspective? It seems to be sort of getting missed depending on which county. We are working closely with the county sheriffs and the local emergency management organizations to coordinate that information. Each county is, of course, operating to identify and do the search operations to determine the status of those missing persons, and that all gets rolled up here to the state at which we then, again, loop back around and provide any support to the various local governments. Do we have a statewide number? Yeah, and is there a statewide database or something where, again, it seems to be hitting this county, is there a statewide effort to... When you say statewide effort, really, we are supporting the local authorities with any resources that they need. The State Operations Center behind me then takes all of the information that we have on reports from the sheriff on fatalities and missing persons and we coordinate the effort. When you say statewide, it is a statewide effort in the sense that we are supporting the local authorities in their effort to do the search and rescue operations. I heard you somewhere where the public can see it where they can look on statewide data. Yeah, I don't have that answer to you right now. I'll follow back up with you. I think she was first. When it comes to informing people to evacuate, why isn't there a system like an ambulance in place that will alert your phone a lot more often than we were talking to? Didn't you perceive any that you smoked? Well, local authorities have the responsibility of pushing out messaging for evacuation orders and they use a variety of means, emergency alert system. They use different kinds of social media, reverse 911. They also use programs like called NICSAL. These are ways of getting out, but in addition to that, local law enforcement, the Highway Patrol, others go in and actually do door-to-door knocking to notify people about evacuations. And those are the programs that are used and that information is pushed out. And to my knowledge, they were used and have been being used. Right now, I think the focus is just making sure we can get the messages out and then we can come back and talk about improvements down the room. I was wondering, with regard to the missing, the people who are unaccounted for two questions. One is, do we have a statewide total? And the other is, with 463 still unaccounted for in Sonoma County, should we be preparing for a high death toll out of this? Higher than? Well, second part of the question first, it's hard to speculate. Look, this was a massive fire that came through fast. The effort is to adjudicate the missing numbers. And so that kind of speaks for itself. I can't really speculate on the number that we're going to get. It's a bad situation and so we know that there are fatalities involved. The statewide numbers are what we're just reported by Chief Pemmott. We have 26 fatalities associated with this incident. We're talking to all the counties on missing persons and that's where those numbers come in. The same numbers that we're reporting. We just started this fire. Can you request some of those? Chief Pemmott. And I do understand some information by employees who were put in the press. Those are things that we're investigating the fires. And there's a lot of discussion, a lot of things in papers, a lot of rumors. Investigators are going right to the cause in the areas where these fires started and conducting their investigation using all the tools at their disposal. We're going to just continue down our path to do that regardless of what's being said out there. That's all speculation, all rumor. The facts will come out when the investigations are done and those are brought forward. Until that time, we're letting the investigators do their job unimpeded while we focus on getting these fires put out. Chief, question. You mentioned that you're requesting more support. Is this a site from yesterday's request? That is correct. That is correct. We're putting additional orders in as we speak to get additional folks on the road, on the state level and at the federal level. Do we have some numbers? We can get those back for you later. We're currently working with states to see what they can provide and we'll have some numbers later. Thank you. Thanks for today. It's going to be nice. Are you ready for that? We'll continue going and through? Yes, and that was how I led things off there with all of the incidents are anticipating erratic wind conditions, shifting winds all weekend. And as you might imagine, the wind shifts, it puts pressure on a different part of the fire line and so they're doing their best to anticipate where those are and that's where they put resources and try to shore up the fire lines. It's also where they look at where critical evacuations may need to occur and those things. All that are part of their contingency plans on the existing incidents, absolutely. In the big picture, we're absolutely anticipating what the potential impacts of this critical fire weather could be statewide, which is why we're leaning very far forward to get additional resources deployed where they need to be in anticipation of new fire starts. Again, looking at predicted weather conditions, proximity to infrastructure, population, et cetera, and then trigger points. And we focus on 12, 24, 36 hour windows constantly to see where the fire is going to be, which gives us an indicator of where to focus those potential evacuations. What do you mean by trigger points? So if a fire reaches a certain ridge line, reaches a certain road, that tells us that within such amount of time it's going to hit a community. And so when it hits that trigger point, that's when we turn on the evacuation, allowing time for residents to evacuate. So we are encouraging everyone to pay close attention and you're within a fire area. We always encourage everyone to leave ahead of an evacuation, orderly leave, find a place to go safely and get out, absolutely. We're going to take one more question and then we're going to call you. Yes. Well, certainly the cell phone towers are critical assets and the fact that we lost so many was a factor in people getting information and communicating. It's been a top priority working with the utilities to get those cell towers back up or in many cases we've put portable cell towers in place to be able to, until we can get those cell towers back up. In addition, it was a little complicated because the fiber lines, it's beyond the cell towers, but the fiber lines that carry data were damaged and so that also needed to be addressed. In some cases the fiber lines that were damaged were in active fire areas so it was complicated that you couldn't get crews in immediately to fix those fiber lines that were damaged because there was active fire going on. As the fire was mitigated and as soon as we could get crews in we moved those crews in place to be able to repair the fiber lines. As of yesterday they've made a lot of progress in repairing fiber lines and as I mentioned many of the cell sites are coming back up. We've restored cell coverage to many parts of like downtown Napa and areas in Sonoma. So the reality is in these kind of fire situations it's not like maybe a disaster where it happens you can get in immediately because the fire is so active we need to work with the fire officials to be able to coordinate that recovery. Thank you for coming.