Fires. They are potential crime scenes. There is suspicion that the fires burns around san diego are no accident. And yet, also, another confirmed deadly virus. Can officials contain it before it becomes a pandemic. Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to the lead. Im jake tapper. At this hour were keeping a very close eye on the massive fires burning in the san diego area. Tens of thousands of area citizens evacuated, hundreds of structures in peril. The images, just insane. Well go live to california in just a moment. But first, it is nothing short of a scandal. Our nation promised them health care. That was the deal. And we did not deliver. Sick veterans have died while waiting for care at the v. A. Today, after a long and damning cnn investigation, allegations of a secret waiting list and coverups, as our nations heroes died. Finally, after months of refusing to answer cnns questions, Eric Shinseki finally got behind microphones to answer questions. Drew . Reporter its true that Eric Shinseki is not going to resign but its also clear that many senators dont believe he has a full grasp of the scope of this crisis. Do you believe that youre ultimately responsible for all of this . I am. Reporter at his first congressional hearing since the v. A. Wait list scandal broke, Eric Shinseki tried to handle a crisis that now seems beyond his control. Any allegation, any adverse incident like this makes me makes me mad as hell. Reporter facing senators that are demanding not only immediate changes at the v. A. But are also raising the possibility that its time for the fbi to be called in. Isnt there evidence here of criminal wrongdoing that is falsifying records, false statements to the federal government . Thats a crime under the it should be, yes. Reporter the latest crisis of the v. A. Took off when cnn investigated the hospital in phoenix where 40 veterans died waiting for care, according to sources. Those same sources say many of the vets were on a secret list, designed to hide the vets. They were waiting for months for a bed. People cooking the books, is that a problem within the Health Care System . Im not aware other than in a few isolated cases. But the fact that there is evidence that there is a couple of cases behooves us to take the look. Reporter they are investigating allegations in at least half a dozen states and whistle blowers have come forward from across the country saying their v. A. s manipulate wait times as well. The v. A. Admits that 29 people in nine states have died because of the delayed care. Many of them veterans who were forced to wait too long for simple tests, like col colonoscopies. Could you tell me why you should not have to resign . Well, ive come here to make things better for veterans. That was my appointment by the president. Reporter how long that appointment will last, we will wait and see. Its clear that the senators are growing impatient. Dennis mcdonough is joining me. Thanks for being here. Obviously general shinseki served his country honorably. But these people have died. You heard what he had to say. Hes mad as hell about this. Nobody is as mad as the present and i have the scars to show it given his reaction to it since you and i talked about it. But shinseki has shown over the six years now his commitment to our veterans. Weve seen a dramatic expansion of 16 more vets and 14 increase in spending in the system and dramatic expansion of education benefits through the g. I. Bill, 40 billion for our vets who have given us so much to make sure that they have the opportunity that they deserve. Rick is going to get to the bottom of this. The president is demanding that and thats what well do. But this is what happened. There was a new order put out by sh shinseki saying that any new applicants for primary care need to be seen within 14 days and a lot of critics wondered if the v. A. Was capable of that and what all of these hospitals did was cook the books. That was under shinseki. Im not saying he didnt do other good things. But that was under him. People didnt tell his underlings the truth. Why is he not accountable for it . You see him travel the country every day to talk to vets and their families. He holds himself accountable to his men and women with whom he served, whom he led for decades. Let me tell you a little bit else about what hes done. Take this question about the backlog on claims. We have seen a dramatic expansion in the number of people seeking claims because of decisions, brave decisions that shinseki made. If you have pts, will you have a presumption of making your claim whole. If you had gulf war illness or exposure to asian orange, that increases the number of veterans trying to get compensated for the disaster that they have lived through. Right. Eric shinseki is the first one that said not only am i going to hold myself to these tough decisions but hes going to finish this before the end of 2015. And you know what hes doing . Hes dramatically reducing that. Its 50 less than it was ands that because he cares deeply about these vets as does the president. Were not going to get involved in a political they say federal crimes may have been involved. Senator blumenthal said we need to bring in the fbi to make sure no evidence is destroyed. I referred you to the igms. They are investigating this, taking a hard look at it. Thats right where it should be. Lives are on the line and this is not new. Anyone who reads the papers now in 2011, there was an outbreak of legions air disease in the v. A. In pittsburgh and what happened there, the individual running the hospital, even though i think five or six veterans died as a result of that outbreak, there was no accountability. The person who ran the hospital got a perfect review with no mention of legions air disease and the regional director got a bonus. What can be done to stop this culture of no accountability in the v. A. System . You heard what rick said to the Senate Committee today. Theres been more than 250 cases of people who have been held accountable for their actions. He can explain that in great detail. The president , as soon as he heard about the latest, outrage in phoenix, he said, i need to know what happened, i need to know the Accountability Measures that you have and that you can institute and if its not enough, then lets change it and make sure we hold people accountable. That happened in 2011 under secretary shinseki and that person was not held accountable. The person got a Perfect Performance review. Im telling you, that same Health Care System, we have dramatically expanded access because thats what our vets have earned and thats what well continue to do. This letter from the chairman of the House Veterans Committee from one year ago warns of dramatic problems at the v. A. A perfect illustration of the lack of accountability permeating the patient care issues. This was sent to president obama in may 2013, according to congressman miller. His office got no response from the president. It was referred to general shinseki who, according to them, sent back a boiler plate. This was a year ago. Whether it was a year ago, yesterday, or tomorrow, the president is dedicated to making sure that our vets get the care that they have earned. We work with chairman miller, chairman sanders and all of the members of the house and senate to make sure that they have it. Thats why the president has seen dramatically expanded investments in Veterans Administration operations over the course of the last five years. Year on year, historic increases in that budget. At a time, by the way, when we see budgets under intense pressure. How many stories like this, how many letters like this, how many dead veterans do you need before somebody asks the question within the white house, maybe this guy isnt the best steward of these veterans . That question, jake, are we doing everything we can every day to get the veterans the care and opportunities . But you are not. This letter was sent a year ago. And we have been working aggressively to make sure that not only is health care expanded, opportunities made more ready to our vets but that people are held to account as rick is doing in this case. We will continue to do that. Last question, sir. That is, i appreciate you being here and appreciate you coming and facing these questions live on television. Drew griffin has been trying to get an interview with general shinseki for months. He was the reason why there was a hearing today. Why does the v. A. Corner itself off from lawmakers and the public but the press . Doesnt there need to be a bigger cultural change there . I think what you just saw today, rick sat down for a threehour hearing, stay in the hearing to hear the Veterans Service organization testify. After he was done, he could have gotten up and left. Hes not only going to held himself to account to the press to drew, your colleague, or to anybody else but what hes doing day in and day out is sitting down with their families and making sure that they get what they need. Thats what we owe them. Thats what they will get. It is what we will owe them. Denis, thank you for coming and answering these questions. Fires are burning in san diego and now a criminal investigation is being opened. Were these fires intentionally set . Plus, the gm recall. What took so long . Our money lead is ahead. All stations come over to mission a for a final go. This is for real this time. Step seven point two one two. Verify and lock. Command is locked. Five seconds. Three, two, one. Standing by for capture. The most Innovative Software on the planet. 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Know better sleep with sleep number. Welcome back to the lead. Youre looking at live pictures from kswb. The fires turning san diego into a giant, charcoaled mess. Eight separate fires burning all at once. Sources tell our affiliate kgtv that all but one of them have a suspicious ignition point. The images are unearthly, looking like a firenado starting to form here in san marcos. Yes, firenadoes, i did not make that up. One bureau chief cannot remember it being this hot, this dry for this long, making conditions the perfectly wrong kind of situation to create these fastmoving fires, wrong for us, that is. Forecasters say it may be the hottest of the whole week with highs between 98 and 106 degrees. Heres a look at the spots and frames around the san diego area. Nearly 10,000 acres burned so far, which is more than 15square miles. The fire so massive you can even see the smoke from space. Look at this photo, showing from nasa, massive clouds blowing out to the pacific. Southern california, of course, is no stranger to massive fires like these but eight all at one time . Officials suspect it may be more than just bad luck this time. Ill leave it up to the investigators. I just think that theres too much of a coincidence here. Weve had extraordinary numbers of started fires and each fire will be treated as a crime scene until its proven to be accidental. Perhaps no community has been impacted more than carlsbad, california. The ofaffluent resort city know as the village by the sea. Names there destroyed at least four homes and several units of an apartment building. Even lego land, the theme park in carlsbad, had to be cleared out. Even though its back open today. Our own dan simon is there. Dan, what are you seeing around you . Reporter you can see giant plumes of smoke behind me here in san marcos. Thats where the active fire is at this moment. But here in carlsbad, they really got hit hard. You can see a couple of homes leveled to the ground. This home right here where fire crews have been continuing to put out some of the hot spots all day long and then right next to this house you can see another home leveled to the ground. You know, you had nine fires going at once. One county official telling me hes never seen anything like it. And hes questioning and you talked about it earlier, questioning whether these fires were intentionally set. They are treating these fires, all of them, basically, at the crime scene and no evidence of arson. This is supposed to be the hottest day, jake. Were expecting triple digit temperatures and the winds are continuing to pick up and thats what is basically fueling the fire there in san marcos. Youve got a couple dozen military aircraft dumping water and firefighters on the ground. Youve got a lot of resources battling this thing and it goes to show you when you have the Drought Conditions combined with the wind, it really creates a lethal mix, jake. Dan simon, thanks. Lets bring in the mayor of carlsbad. The mayor is taking it so hard. Based on the evidence that youve seen, do you believe the fires in your community and elsewhere in the Southern California area are a product of arson . We dont have any knowledge of that yet and our primary focus right now is just fighting the fires and trying to keep both our citizens safe and as little damage to our community as possible z so just hypothetically speaking, much of the fire zone, including your city, is considered relatively affluent. Does that, in general, make your citizens targets for things like arson . One can make that assumption but we really have no knowledge of that. Im sure people who are thinking about that, i would just ask people to keep focus on what were having to deal with today and everybody have patience as we work our way through this. And this has actually grown far greater than carlsbad. The real focus is in san marcos and how that thing is really flaring up here in the last hour. Fair enough. Can you give us an update, how much of the fire is contained in carlsbad . How many structures have burned . In carlsbad, its been about 400 acres burned. In the last hour there were 300 flareups, including an 18unit apartment complex, four homes, two commercial buildings, six other homes damaged. Two vehicles. And thats about the what we know at this moment in time. Mayor hall, most importantly, how are the citizens of carlsbad . Right now i think everybody is calm and i know everybodys anxious to get back into their homes. We have reenergized the homes in the area that were that took the brunt of the fire and were hoping to try and get people back later today. But as the winds are playing games with us right now and with these flareups, our primary focus is safety. Our thoughts and prayers are with you and the citizens of carlsbad. Mayor, thank you so much. Tens and thousands in the san diego area had to pick up and flee at a moments notice. Many are in shelters or staying with loved ones right now. One of those individuals is dr. Dave walker who was across the country for her daughters graduation from law school. Gay walker is joining me on the phone. Shes staying with a friend. Dr. Walker, are you okay . We understand your familys not with you right now . Im doing as well as can be expected. No, my familys so where in new mexico by now, i think. And you were only home for about three hours when the police came through . What did they say . They were on a loud speaker and they were telling us we had about five minutes so i grabbed my cats, threw in carriers and grabbed my suitcase full of clothes that had not been unpacked yet and dashed out. Describe the scene in your neighborhood. Was it a traffic jam . One of those apocalyptic scenes in movies when theres a disaster . It was an orderly evacuation but it was reminiscent of something apocalyptic. Cars were lined up bumper to bumper getting out of the neighborhood but it was reasonably orderly. Everybody was polite and Going Forward pretty quickly. Do you have any way of knowing what is happening with your home . Im sure youre very concerned about its status. My eyeballs have been pretty well glued to the news and as nearly as i can tell, my areas of homes has not been hit by the fire yet. Im kind of nervous right now with the fire spreading to harm me grove, were directly below that. If the winds keep blowing out of the east, we could be in trouble. Theres obviously no time frame yet for your possible return to your home. Whats the earliest th