LOS ANGELES — A Los Angeles firefighter testified in a newly released deposition that he told colleagues the ground was still smoldering from a brush fire days before authorities say it reignited into the most destructive blaze in city history.

Scott Pike, a firefighter with the Los Angeles Fire Department, said he told colleagues the ground was still hot when he was sent in to help clean up a New Year’s Day brush in the hillsides near the scenic Pacific Palisades neighborhood. Pike’s comments came in a sworn deposition taken in a lawsuit that was filed by fire victims. The deposition and those of other fire officials were made public this week after city attorneys had moved to keep it confidential for a month.

“I could feel the heat coming off of it, and I didn’t even want to use my gloved hand because it was hot, so I just kicked it with my boot to kind of expose it. And there was like red hot, like coals,” Pike said in the deposition. “I even heard crackling.”

Pike said he was working an overtime shift and mentioned it to other firefighters who were out in the field, but they didn’t seem to think much of it. He said he told a supervisor there were still hot spots, but it wasn’t his job to challenge orders.

“I felt like I got kind of blown off a little bit,” Pike said. “I saw something, I said something.”

Alexander Robertson, an attorney for the fire victims, said he obtained a court order to depose a dozen firefighters tasked with mopping up the Jan. 1 fire. Pike was the only one who indicated fire officials had been warned the blaze had not been fully extinguished when they packed up and left the scene, Robertson said.

The fire, which left 12 dead in the hillside neighborhoods across Pacific Palisades and Malibu, was one of two blazes that broke out on Jan. 7, 2025, killing more than 30 people in all and destroying over 17,000 homes and buildings while burning for days in Los Angeles County.

Authorities have said the blaze was a reignition of the New Year’s Day fire, which federal prosecutors say was started by a man who lived in the area. They charged Jonathan Rinderknecht in October with starting the Palisades fire. Rinderknecht has pleaded not guilty, and his attorney says he’s being used as a scapegoat for the Los Angeles Fire Department’s failure to fully extinguish the earlier blaze.

Alleged fire department failures are at the center of the lawsuit by Palisades fire victims against the city. The lawsuit also alleges the city’s water department failed to provide adequate water resources for firefighting.

An interim LA fire chief previously said such fires linger in root systems and can reach depths of 15 to 20 feet (4.6 to 6.1 meters), making them undetectable by thermal imaging cameras.

Pike’s testimony was offset by the account of Los Angeles Battalion Chief Martin Mullen, who said in his deposition that he personally walked the perimeter of the Jan. 1 fire’s burn area four times throughout the day with different assistant chiefs in a process called “cold-trailing,” where firefighters look for hot spots, ember cast and smoke or heat emanating from the ground.

Earlier in the day, he identified a hot spot that he reported to the captain. When he returned later, it was fully extinguished, he said. He said he did not find any hot spots or issues during any of his other walks and by the time he left the scene the fire was “absolutely” extinguished.

“It was a great mop up they did because if they didn’t, I’d still be there,” he said.

Robertson, the plaintiff’s attorney, said the fire department and Mayor Karen Bass’s office have engaged in a “cover-up to conceal and suppress the truth about the Palisades Fire.”

“We will hold them accountable,” he said.

Yusef Robb, an adviser to Bass, said these revelations are alarming. Bass has directed the fire department to commission an independent report on the handling of the New Year’s Day fire.

“For more than a year, Mayor Bass has been extremely public about her demand for transparency and accountability to inform ongoing Fire Department reforms, and because those affected deserve nothing less,” Robb said in an email.

Los Angeles Fire Department Chief Jaime Moore, who was appointed in October, is concerned about the differences in the firefighters’ testimonies, the department said in an email.

“That concern underscores why the ongoing independent investigation is so important, and why the Chief is fully committed to providing complete cooperation on behalf of himself and the Department,” the email said.

In a darkened airport hotel ballroom room, a bevy of California Democrats sought to distinguish themselves from the crowded field running for governor in 2026.

It was not an easy task, given that the lineup of current and former elected officials sharing the stage at the Sunday morning forum agreed on almost all the issues, with any differences largely playing out in the margins.

They pledged to take on President Trump, make the state more affordable, safeguard immigrants and provide them with Medi-Cal healthcare benefits, and keep the state’s over-budget bullet train project intact.

There is not yet any clear front-runner in the race to run the nation’s most populous state, though former Orange County Rep. Katie Porter has had a small edge in recent polling.

Aside from a opaque dig from former state Controller Betty Yee, Porter was not attacked during the debate.

They were joined onstage by former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra, California Supt. of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. State Sen. Toni Atkins, who was supposed to participate, dropped out due to illness. Wealthy first-time political candidate Stephen J. Cloobeck withdrew due to a scheduling conflict.

The forum was sponsored by the National Union of Healthcare Workers, in partnership with the Los Angeles Times and Spectrum News. It was held in Los Angeles and moderated by Associated Press national planning editor Lisa Matthews, with L.A. Times California politics editor Phil Willon, Spectrum News 1 news anchor Amrit Singh and Politico senior political reporter Melanie Mason asking the questions.

Sen. Alex Padilla and businessman Rick Caruso have also both publicly flirted with a bid for the state’s top office, but have yet to make a decision.

Two major GOP candidates, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco and conservative commentator Steve Hilton, are also running for California governor, but neither were invited to the debate because they did not complete an endorsement questionnaire from the union.

With Prop. 50 in the forefront, a lack of attention on the race

California’s June 2 gubernatorial primary is just eight months away, but the horde hoping to replace Gov. Gavin Newsom has been competing for attention against an extraordinarily crowded landscape, with an unexpected special election this November pulling both dollars and attention away from the race for governor. To say nothing of the fact that the race had been somewhat frozen in place for months until the end of July, when former Vice President Kamala Harris finally announced she would not be running.

The candidates reiterated their support for Proposition 50, the Newsom-led November ballot measure to help Democrats win control of the U.S. House of Representatives next year by redrawing California congressional districts. Newsom pushed for the measure to counter efforts by Republican-led states to reconfigure their congressional districts to ensure the GOP keeps control of Congress.

“This is not a fight we actually wanted to have,” Yee said. “This is in response to a clear attempt to mute our representation in Washington. And so we have to fight back.”

A focus on immigrant backgrounds, and appeals to Latino voters

The candidates repeatedly focused on their families’ origins as well as their efforts to protect immigrants while serving in elected office.

Thurmond raised his upbringing in his opening remarks.

“I know what it is to struggle. You know that my grandparents were immigrants who came here from Colombia, from Jamaica? You know that I am the descendant of slaves who settled in Detroit, Mich.?” he said.

Becerra highlighted his support for undocumented people to have access to state healthcare coverage as well as his successful lawsuit protecting undocumented immigrants brought to this nation as young children that reached the Supreme Court.

“As the son of immigrants, I know what happens when you feel like you’re excluded,” he said.

Becerra and Thurmond addressed the diverse audience in Spanish.

Yee, who spoke about sharing a room with her immigrant parents and siblings. also raised her background during a lightning-round question about what the candidates planned to dress up as on Halloween.

“My authentic self as a daughter of immigrants,” she said.

Differing opinions on criminal justice approaches and healthcare

The debate was overwhelmingly cordial. But there was some dissent when the topic turned to Proposition 36, a 2024 anti-crime ballot measure that imposed stricter penalties for repeat theft and crimes involving fentanyl.

The ballot measure — which undid key parts of the 2014 criminal justice reform ballot measure Proposition 47 — sowed division among California Democrats, with Newsom and groups including the ACLU strongly opposing it. Its passage marked a turning of the tide in Californians’ attitudes about criminal justice reform and response to crime, following years of support for progressive policies that leaned away from punitive prison sentences for lower-level crimes.

First, Villaraigosa contended that he was the only candidate on stage who had supported Proposition 36, though Porter and Becerra quickly jumped in to say that they too had supported it.

But Porter also contended that, despite her support, there were “very real problems with it and very real shortcomings.” The measure should have also focused on prevention and incarcerating people for drug offenses doesn’t make anyone safer, she said.

Thurmond strayed sharply from the pack on the issue, saying he voted “no” on Proposition 36 and citing his career as a social worker.

“Prop. 36, by design, was set up to say that if you have a substance abuse issue, that you will get treatment in jail,” Thurmond contended, suggesting that the amount of drugs present in the prison system would make that outcome difficult.

As governor, he would more money into treatment for substance abuse programs and diversion programs for those who commit minor crimes, he said.

When the candidates were asked to raise their hands if they supported a single-payer healthcare system, Porter and Villaraigosa did not, while Becerra, Yee and Thurmond did.

The need to build more housing

Issues of affordability are top of mind for most Californians, particularly when it comes to housing.

Thurmond said he would build two million housing units on surplus land on school sites around the state and provide a tax break for working and middle class Californians.

Villaraigosa also focused on the need to build more housing, criticizing bureaucratic red tape and slow permitting processes.

Villaraigosa also twice critiqued CEQA — notable because the landmark California Environmental Quality Act was once held seemingly above reproach by California Democrats. But the law’s flaws have become increasingly accepted in recent years as the state’s housing crisis worsened, with Newsom signing two bills to overhaul the the law and ease new construction earlier this year.

Porter said that if she were governor, she would sign SB 79, a landmark housing bill that overrides local zoning laws to expand high-density housing near transit hubs. The controversial bill — which would potentially remake single-family neighborhoods within a half-mile of transit stops — is awaiting Newsom’s signature or veto.

After decades of debauchery and an untold number of conceptions, revelers at Burning Man celebrated a rare birth at Black Rock City on Wednesday morning, after a festivalgoer unexpectedly went into labor on the Playa.

“It’s an absolute miracle,” said new father Kasey, 39, of Salt Lake City, who asked that only the family’s first names be used to protect their privacy. “Had I known [about the pregnancy], that’s the absolutely last place on this planet I would have been.”

His wife, Kayla, 36, had no symptoms and wasn’t showing when she suddenly went into labor in their RV just before dawn, the new father said. Doctors believe baby Aurora was about a month shy of her due date when she arrived minutes later, weighing a little over 3½ pounds.

“I just started yelling for anyone to come help me,” Kasey recalled through tears. “In a matter of minutes we had an [obstetrician], a NICU nurse, a pediatrician in there — I don’t know where they all came from, they just came.”

As luck would have it, a dream team of medical professionals had pitched their camp just next door. The obstetrician was still in his underwear as he and the ersatz labor and delivery crew scrambled to tend to the newborn and her mother, scrounging for clean blankets, saline and other emergency medical supplies in the dusty and mud-caked camp.

The family was transported to the festival’s official medical tent, where mom Kayla held her tiny naked daughter to her bare chest while they waited for a helicopter to take her to a neonatal intensive care unit in Reno. They made the wrenching decision to send Aurora alone after learning there wasn’t space for either parent to travel with her.

“The medical staff at Burning Man grabbed me and just hugged me and said he’s not going to let her out of her sight,” Kasey said. “He kept reassuring me she’s going to be OK.”

But the family’s odyssey was just beginning. The drive to Reno took hours. Kayla was treated and released from the hospital on Thursday. But baby Aurora remains in the NICU and could face an extended stay, family said.

“Since this is their first child and the pregnancy was completely unexpected, my brother and his wife don’t have anything prepared — no baby supplies, no nursery, nothing at all,” the infant’s aunt Lacey Paxman wrote in a GoFundMe appeal for the family.

“Most people get nine months to prepare,” she said. “They became parents in a blink of an eye.”

For now, the family is stranded in Reno, though they hope to get baby Aurora transported to a hospital closer to home.

“She’s just going to light up my sky,” Kasey said of the fragile newborn, whom he held for the first time on Friday. “She’s going to be my everything.”

Surprise deliveries are uncommon but far from unheard of, experts say. About 1 in every 500 pregnant women discovers she’s expecting more than 20 weeks along — a phenomenon known as “cryptic pregnancy.”

Cryptic pregnancies are more common among very young mothers, as well as those who may have other health conditions that mask pregnancy symptoms such as nausea, exhaustion and even missed periods. Like Kayla, a subset of such parents only discover they’re pregnant when they go into labor.

“It was absolutely 100% a cryptic pregnancy,” Kasey said. “No signs, no morning sickness. She wasn’t even showing.”

Pregnant women, young children and even babies are a regular feature of the nine-day Burning Man festival, which draws tens of thousands of people each year to a desolate strip of the Nevada desert about 120 miles north of Reno.

Still, births are all but unheard at the celebration of “community, art, self-expression and self-reliance.” Some longtime Burners have dubbed Aurora “Citizen Zero.”

Her unexpected arrival occurred just hours after a white-out dust storm brought incoming traffic to a halt as festivalgoers streamed in and attempted to set camp on Monday.

The dramatic weather recalled torrential rains that flooded the camp in 2023, leaving thousands stranded in deep, sticky mud. More inclement weather is expected heading into the weekend.

“It’s a miracle, because it was crazy weather,” Paxton said. “Had she come an hour or two earlier or an hour or two later, they wouldn’t have been able to get her out.”

Restaurateur Tommy Fello was driving from his Ohio establishment to his house on Christmas Eve when he started veering off the road. Fello, then 71, had been awake since 4 a.m. local time preparing a holiday buffet for his family. He chalked the disturbance up to a flat tire. Driving slowly and relying on the vehicle’s autocorrect feature, he was able to complete his journey home safely.

But when Fello stepped out of the truck, he couldn’t get his balance. 

“I finally realized it wasn’t the truck that was veering. It was me that was veering,” Fello said. He went indoors and talked to his wife and daughter, who said he looked unwell. About five minutes later, they called 911. Paramedics took him to an area hospital, where he lost all movement in his left arm and leg. 

“They were literally just like appendages on me. I could not feel them and could not do anything,” Fello said. 

A clot-busting drug reversed the stroke, but the numbness on the left side of his body, including his face, remained. He struggled to swallow, eat or drink. Physical and occupational therapy produced only minor improvements. 

Dr. Sharon Covey, Fello’s occupational therapist and the founder of the Center for Stroke and Hand Recovery, Inc., told CBS News that his arm was essentially stuck in a bent position with his fingers curled when he met her in January 2024. The position and tension in the limb caused Fello constant pain. Working in his restaurant was out of the question.  

“It was very scary. You take for granted so many of the things you do, and even the common, simplest things become like a chore,” Fello said. “We mark all these small victories … Being able to lift up your arm or pick up a cup is a gigantic accomplishment. Those little accomplishments are gigantic to a stroke victim. They encouraged me to keep going on. But there was always a thought in the back of my mind: ‘Is this as good as it’s going to get?'” 

A “first-of-its-kind technology”  

One day, another recovering stroke patient suggested Fello look into an implant called the Vivistim System. The FDA-approved implant, developed by the medical device company MicroTransponder Inc., uses vagus nerve stimulation during rehabilitation to improve hand and arm function for stroke victims. The vagus nerves are the body’s longest cranial nerve, with one on each side of the body, according to the Cleveland Clinic. They regulate the body’s involuntary functions. 

The Vivistim Therapy system involves a physical or occupational therapist sending wireless signals to the device. That signal delivers a brief, gentle pulse to the vagus nerve while the stroke patient performs rehabilitative tasks. The stroke patient also does at-home exercises. 

Dr. Erez Nossek, a neurosurgeon and director of the cranial bypass program at NYU Langone, told CBS News that the vagus nerve stimulation can enhance the brain’s ability to rewire itself, known as neuroplasticity. That increased neuroplasticity can result in “greater and faster improvements in motor function for stroke survivors,” Nossek said in emailed remarks. 

“There is no other FDA-approved technology proven to boost neuroplasticity for stroke survivors, creating new connections in the brain, which is theirs to keep, even after the device is no longer in use,” Nossek said. “This is (a) first-of-its-kind technology that is redefining what is possible for this patient population.” 

A 108-person trial published in The Lancet in 2021 found that the device generated two to three times greater improvement in hand and arm function for stroke survivors when compared with just rehab. Stroke patients who have limited hand and arm function six months or more after their stroke and are considered to have “moderate to severe deficits” qualify for the device, the company said in a fact sheet.

Implant aids in recovery

Fello turned to the Cleveland Clinic, where he met cerebrovascular neurosurgeon Dr. Mark Bain. He studies stroke recovery, especially in the cases of patients like Fello, whose rehab progress has plateaued months after the stroke. Bain determined that Fello was a candidate for the Vivistim System. Fello became the first Cleveland Clinic patient to receive the implant on April 29, 2025. 

“It didn’t really scare me to try and do it. I was anxious to see how it worked,” Fello said. 

The device was placed during an hour-long procedure. The vagus nerve sits just below the carotid artery, so Bain and his surgical team made a small incision to place the leads of the implant and hid the scar in a fold of Fello’s neck. The key-fob sized implant was placed under Fello’s clavicle. Bain said the procedure itself is low-risk, with “less than 1% chance of any complications.” Two weeks after the surgery, the device was turned on and Fello returned to his rehabilitative work with Covey. 

Covey said Fello has made huge progress since the device was implanted four months ago. She said he has no pain or tension in the limb, and is beginning to practice using his left arm to carry items. The task is difficult, she said, but isn’t “something he could have done before.” Fello, now 72, said he’s been thrilled by the progress he’s made in a short time.

“I’m very, very happy to do it, very proud to do it, and I’m glad I did it,” he said. 

“The sky’s the limit”

About 800,000 people in the United States experience an ischemic stroke each year, Bain said. Vivistim and other new technologies may offer hope to the patients like Fello who struggle to recover with just rehabilitation, Bain said. 

“I think over the next probably five to 10 years, what you’re going to see is an explosion of procedures, devices and things in rehab that will help people, once they’ve had strokes, to get their lives back,” Bain said. “In the future, I think the sky’s the limit for what we can expect for stroke recovery.” 

At the time of his conversation with CBS News, Bain had given seven other stroke patients a Vivistim implant. Covey said at her practice, there are eight patients with the implant receiving the paired therapy course. MicroTransponder Inc. declined to say how many patients have received the implant, but shared a map that shows dozens of surgeons and rehabilitation therapists that provide the therapy. 

“I think this is the newest, most effective strategy for people getting their affected limbs back,” Covey said. “This is the first real technique that has been available, at least in the last 20 years, for stroke rehab. The theories that we use as practitioners to increase somebody’s use of their affected arm are 50 to 75 years old. So this is a new technology that’s really going to turn the stroke recovery world upside down.” 

Passengers on an American Airlines flight from the United States to Italy were forced to take a bus to their final destination after their aircraft was forced to land 140 miles away because it was too big to land at the original destination.

American Airlines Flight 780 left Philadelphia International Airport at 7:42 p.m. local time on Monday and was supposed to land in Naples, Italy, at 10 a.m. local time, according to FlightAware.

However, the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft was off the coast of Italy, about halfway between Rome and Naples, when it abruptly turned around over the Tyrrhenian Sea and turned back to the Italian capital.

American Airlines told CBS News that the aircraft was forced to divert to Rome Fiumicino Airport “due to operational limitations.” 

Historical flight data shows that American Airlines usually flies a Boeing 787-8 to Naples, about 20 feet shorter than the 787-9.

After the flight landed in Rome, passengers were bused to Naples – a roughly 3-hour journey.

“We apologize to them for this disruption to their journey,” American Airlines told CBS News in a statement.

Business Insider was the first to report the news.

Lucia I Suarez Sang

Lucia Suarez Sang is an associate managing editor at CBSNews.com. Previously, Lucia was the director of digital content at FOX61 News in Connecticut and has previously written for outlets including FoxNews.com, Fox News Latino and the Rutland Herald.