CA Fires At ‘Zero-Containment,’ Schwarzenegger Says

As wildfires continue to rage across parts of Southern California, I sat down with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, R-Calif., this afternoon and asked him how his state is coping with the mounting crisis.

"It’s zero-containment right now," he told me. "This has been a very fast moving fire, as it is usually at this time of the year with the Santa Ana conditions, with the winds kicking up. Last night for instance, we had 60 to 70 mile per hour winds. It means that while the fire departments try to put out a fire over here, fires jump and go a mile and a half away and start new fires. So it’s very fast spreading."

The Governor, who declared a state of emergency earlier today, went on to explain "tonight there will be more winds kicking up…we just have to be very careful and have enough aircrafts down there and also helicopters to dump water and fire retardants so it doesn’t spread that quickly and hopefully we will see some progress very soon. But over 100 homes have already been destroyed and these are really high-end homes also and so it’s really a very beautiful area."

To hear the Governor’s view on how the fires will impact the California budget, his take on a bailout of the auto industry, and his thoughts on the future of the GOP tune in to This Week on Sunday.

–George Stephanopoulos