of the things that are vol neribilities for her. from scranton. the constitution does not forbid them from serving more than two terms. really? you have to teach me what that means. margaret john thank you very much. news here for you this morning. officials are scouring the shores of reunion island in hoeps of finding clues. experts in france are said to begin testing on a wing part found on a wing in the remote island. malaysian officials say the debris belongs to a boeing 777. they are working to confirm if it belongs to mh 370. a state of emergency in california where two dozen wildfires are raging right now. the largest is called the rocky
16. california 16. what they want to do is contain the fire so it doesn t jump across the road. a lot of back fires built on the back side. as you look at the active fire here you can see the wind is pushing it. that is a big part of the problem. when there is this much wind and low humidity this is the perfect fire. this is the perfect environment for the fire that has ballooned as quickly as that. let s go to meteorologist derek van dam. good morning, john and christine. we have over 20 fires raging across california as we speak. we focus in on the rocky fire. look at the terrain across the area. almost 3,000 firefighters having difficult time navigating the steep cliffs and getting at the individual spot fires.
as firefighters rotate in and out to fight the flames round-the-clock. they are making progress. the rocky fire is 12% contained after exploding in size over the weekend. many say they can t recall ever seeing a fire grow so big so fast but such are the conditions here in california s fourth year of drought. at one point the fire grew 20,000-acres in just five hours. cal fire officials say that is unprecedented. since it started on wednesday the rocky fire has chewed up more than 60,000-acres of brush and chaparral and 26 homes and outbuildings. more than 6,000 homes are under some time of evacuation order. fortunately no one has been injured. across the state, 8,000 firefighters are battling flames. 21 active fires in california in all. they will get a couple of air support from military c-130s,
speaks to the power obama sees in making this move luke. indeed. tears in his eyes. alex thank you for that report. folks in california can t catch a break. 21 wildfires burning throughout the state this afternoon. 90 square miles. roughly issize of baltimore engulfed right now. dozens of homes destroyed. thousands more are at risk. nbc s joe fry yaer with the latest on the fire fight. reporter: the rocky fire continues to grow at an unprecedented rate. it is now burned 60,000 acres, over the weekend. it tripled in size. but firefighters are starting to gain the upper hand. they now have it 12% contained. and improvement from over the weekend when it was just 5% contained. flames are largely burning in a more remote area away from homes but they know in the hot, dry conditions things change in an instant. the winds have been unpredictable with a number of challenges. two dozen homes burned in the
some barns were destroyed as it went through mainly farmland and unfortunately some of the cattle there was also impacted by this particular tornado. but stunning images coming from a local resident. and that is a clean depiction and the balance and the twists there. it s called a rope tornado. a rope tornado. there you see it. derek van dam. we ll see you again next hour. thanks. at least 21 wildfires have forced 12,000 people to evacuate in california. take a look at the rocky fire in the northern part of the state. it has been spreading very quickly. scorching 47,000 acres. the state itself is suffering from a four-year drought creating the perfect climate for fires and a similar situation down in australia. there firefighters are battling massive bush fire in the blue mountains.