January 6, 2026 • 38 mins
The John Kobylt Show Hour 3 (01/06) - Attorney Roger Behle comes on the show to talk about the latest going on with the lawsuit regarding the Palisades Fire that he is representing victims in. Mayor Bass shared her reflections and regrets with a local tv station one year after the fires.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Can't. I am six forty.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
You're listening to the John Cobelt Podcast on the iHeartRadio app.
We were on every day one until four o'clock and
then after four o'clock. You want the podcast, and you
want it today, I'll tell you that you go.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
You wait till after.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Four and it's on the iHeartRadio app John Cobelt Show
on demand. We talk with Joel Pollock in the one
o'clock hour at length because the California Post is coming
to town. It's going to be the sister publication to
the New York Post, but it's going to cover everything
in California, the news, the politics, the sports, the culture,
and that's going to be a big deal. And in
(00:34):
the two o'clock hour you just heard, we had Jeremy
Patter We're on who's organizing the They Let Us Burn
demonstration in Palisades tomorrow on the anniversary of the fire.
We also had Steve Hilton, one of the leading candidates
for governor, a Republican, who is I tend toified two
hundred and fifty two five oh two hundred and fifty
(00:56):
billion dollars of fraud in the the news of the
administration over the years, so a lot of great conversation
you ought to listen today. I'm want to stop for
just a second before we get Roger Bailey on the
Palisades attorney, because never just reported that Michael Reagan died,
the oldest son of Ronald Reagan. Michael was a radio
(01:19):
talk show host for years. I knew him a little bit,
and he was a really good guy. It was fun
to talk to, and he was a guest on our
show many times. He filled in on KFI many times
some years ago. So I'm sorry to hear about that
and give condolences out to the entire family. Michael Reagan
(01:39):
died at the age of eighty. All right, let's go
to Roger Bailey.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Now.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Roger Bailey is the attorney for thousands of homeowners in
the Palisades who lost their homes, and he has been
providing us constant information as he and his staff and
other attorneys do the investigations as to the origin the fire,
the lack of preparation, the botched execution, the cover ups.
(02:07):
Let's get Roger Bailey on how are you.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
I'm doing well, John, how you doing today?
Speaker 1 (02:12):
Oh, I'm doing good.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Tell me about the drone footage that you have which
smoke shows smoke coming from the exact location that the
fire started. And you've got a state park ranger who
said she saw smoke and didn't report it to flesh
out this story.
Speaker 4 (02:31):
This is new sure, well, you know, every time we
talk we seem to discover yet even more shocking information
than we knew previously.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
And so this all came to light within the last
couple of weeks. We've been taking depositions of the state
park employees that responded to the January one Lackman fire,
and what we learned from those depositions is on January first,
in the early hours of the morning, a state park
ranger went to the Lockman fire site after the firefighters
(03:07):
reported knocking down the fire. She hiked up to the
burn scar and reported seeing smoke coming from the ground.
There were no firefighters around, and after seeing smoke, did
not think to report that to anyone else that there
was still smoke coming from the ground. That was at
(03:28):
eight thirty in the morning on January one. A week ago,
some drone footage surface from a Palisades fire victim who
had flown a drone on January one at the exact
same time, eight thirty in the morning. And this drone
footage depicts the southern end of the lock and fire
(03:49):
burnscar And you can see in the drone footage, and
I supplied that you guys maybe even put it up
on the website, you can see smoke coming from yet
unburn and brush. I mean, you know, it's just billowing
out of the ground. And that, it turns out, is
exactly where six days later, the Palisades fire erupted. According
(04:12):
to the ATF's own analysis of the origin of the
Palisades fire, that plume of smoke you see is exactly
where the Palisades fire ignited on January seventh.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
But the LA Fire Department had already left the area,
correct and they had been pressured off the land by
the State Parks Department.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
Well, yeah, as we talked about last time, the state,
as the owner of Topeka State Park, has restrictions on
some areas of the park where firefighters can't use heavy equipment,
you know, And I think I told you last time,
and if I didn't, I'll tell you now. We also
learned that a State park rep went up on January
(04:58):
one saw what's called the containment line dug around the
edge of the Lochman fire, which is what firefighters will
cut to prevent the fire from spreading. That State Park
rep became concerned that the public would be confused, thinking
it was a hiking trail, and went and got the
firefighters and said, please come back here and put all
(05:20):
of the brush back over the top of the containment line.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
No, no, no, no.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
And cover it up. Yes, yes, he testified, yep. I
was worried people would wander down the containment line, and
rather than putting a trail clothes sign or some yellow tape,
he went and got the firefighters and and there's photographs
that he took over them and I sent them to you.
He has them in there pulling the dry, unburned brush
(05:45):
that they just removed back over the top of the
containment line. And that's right in the spot where the
palistates fire and knights.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
Hey, they put the brush back.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
It had been removed, and they put the brush back,
and that's where the fire reignited.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
Correct, Yeah, you can't. You can't write this stuff.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
No, I was going to say, you can't if you've
if you've read this in a novel or saw this
in a movie.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
Nobody would believe it.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
Yeah, every time we get new information, we're even more
stunned than we were before. This is Uh. It just
keeps getting more bizarre. And this drone footage, like I said, uh,
shows smoke coming out of unburned brush in exactly the
same spot that the ATF confirmed that the Palisades fired ignited.
(06:39):
Now that brush was smoldering for six days and long
after LAFD leaves the state, and it's in its own
policy manual requires that they close the park and that
they go up and they inspect their land to make
sure there are no public safety issues like smoke coming
(07:00):
from the ground. And they didn't do that. They went
up there, you know, were there for a few minutes,
didn't do a complete inspection of the entire burnscar. Had
they done that, had they gone to that southern edge,
they clearly would have seen what's shown in this drone footage,
which a smoke coming out of the ground. They could
have called LAFD back, you know, come back here and
(07:23):
put this out, or they could have called cowfire, but
nobody did anything.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
How could so many people, How could so many people
do so many stupid things, so many things wrong, violating
the protocols in their manuals and violating just common sense.
What any person would do if you saw smoke coming
out of the ground from a fire that was never
put out, well, of course you'd report it. Of course
you would roll over the milk fitch plant to stamp
(07:49):
it out.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
I just don't understand this.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
Every time you come on, you had more characters to
this story, and every new character does something absurd.
Speaker 3 (07:59):
That's exactly right. It is stunning. It is a failure
of the government on multiple levels, not just one failure,
multiple failures.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
How could it be?
Speaker 2 (08:14):
How could it be that everybody screws up about everything
at the same time when it's really not that. It's
not that complicated. Really, when you see smoke to stamp
out the remnants of an old fire, that's that you
don't have to have gone and studied astrophysics to figure
out what you need to do. It's like if you
have a fire in the kitchen and take out a
(08:34):
fire exting whish you're in, blast it right and you
put it out. That's really simple, simple survival mechanisms that
are to be embedded in our biology. How could they
do everything wrong?
Speaker 3 (08:46):
Yeah, we're asking the same question. But we're getting you know,
people said, how did this happen? We're now getting the
answers as to how and why this happened because it
should not have happened. The Power Stakes fire should not
have happened. You have this eight acre brush fire allegedly
started by an arsonist. You know, it's put out within
a few hours, So that should have been the end
(09:08):
of the story. That should have been where everything stopped.
No homes are damaged, no lives are lost. And yet
because people didn't do their jobs, the state didn't manage
its land. And then we know after that Palisades fire starts,
firefighters ran out of water because LADWP had the and
(09:29):
in this reservoir drained for months.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
And the firefighters weren't sent to cover that area in advance.
And you know, the firefighters are sent home and there's
not enough engines, and there's not enough mechanics for the
broken engines. It's like the list goes on and on
and on. It's almost impossible to absorb it all. Can
you hang on line?
Speaker 3 (09:50):
You bet?
Speaker 1 (09:51):
All right?
Speaker 2 (09:51):
We got Roger Bailey on, one of the lead attorneys
for the thousands of Palisades residents who lost.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
Their homes in the fire.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
Also going to talk about the twelve people who lost
their lives because Roger and his law firm are filing
a lawsuit, a wrongful death lawsuit on behalf of the
families of those twelve victims. That's all I had.
Speaker 5 (10:13):
You're listening to John Cobelt on demand from KFI AM.
Speaker 6 (10:17):
Six forty.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
John Cobelt's Show. You can follow us on social media
at John Cobelt Radio at John Cobelt Radio, and you
want to watch our video segments on YouTube. We put
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John Cobelt Show, and everything else is at John Cobelt Radio.
(10:41):
Tomorrow we're going to do a special show. They're having
a demonstration, a rally in the Palisades, Palisades residents and
business owners.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
It's entitled They Let Us Burn.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
And Jeremy Patawer, who we had on the show earlier,
and Spencer Pratt are organizing this They Let Us Burn.
It's at the Palisades Villain corner of Antioch and Swarthmore.
We're going to go there and interview a lot of
people record it and played on the program tomorrow afternoon,
But if you want to go there live, it's ten
thirty in the morning in Palisades Village, and then we'll
(11:14):
run some expert excerpts of our interviews between one and
four tomorrow afternoon.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
They let us burn.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
They're going to have a lot of residents, business owners
and other officials are going to be speaking, and it's
just getting worse and worse, the anger and the resentment,
and really everyone's incredulous because hardly a week goes by
where there's not another bombshell. And we're talking with Roger Bailey,
(11:41):
who constantly brings its bombshells. He's one of the lead
attorneys for thousands of Palisades residents who lost their homes.
And there's another lawsuit that you're involved with, and it's
for the it's the families of the victims who were killed.
There are twelve people died in the Palisades fire, and
talk about this wonderful death lawsuit that's being filed.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
Part of the same case. It's all part of the
same case, John Dee, As you indicated, people not only
lost their homes and property, but more than twelve people
died it. Initially there were twelve that perished in the fire,
and several others have died in the weeks and months
following the fire from their injuries. So last month, in December,
(12:33):
the law changed in California, so we filed on behalf
of all of our clients who lost family members and
loved ones in the fire. We filed what are called
wrongful death cases, and we represent eight families and we
filed those to allow the heirs of the people to
(12:53):
perish to recover for the loss of their loved one,
and those all were filed. They're all part of the
same case. But again this kind of brings back into focus.
This isn't just about the loss of property, which is
bad enough, but so many people perished in this fire,
some doing heroic things trying to rescue neighbors and friends
(13:14):
and then got trapped and didn't get out themselves. So
we need to remember that not only did people lose
their home and property homes and property, but they many
people perished in the fire.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
Going back to.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
What we were talking in the last segment is pinpointing
where the smoldering was going on after the January first fire,
Lockman fire, and it was at the exact spot where
the ATF says the Palisades fire blew up on the
seventh's right, it's on state land and to Banga State Park.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
Correct, that's all right?
Speaker 3 (13:51):
Correct?
Speaker 2 (13:51):
Okay, you wrought to Wes saying that the State Parks
Department is insisting the Lockman fire was not in one
of the avoidance areas, an area where that firefighters have
to avoid because the state parks officials don't want anybody
chomping around on the milk vetch plant. And so you're saying, no,
(14:14):
it was in an avoidance area and that's why the
firefighters were discouraged from putting out the original fire and
the subsequent smoldering. So you're saying it was in an
avoidance area and the State Parks Department is denying that.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
Talk about this dispute here, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
Well it's setting. So the benefit of maps. So the
ATF back in October publicly released their criminal complaint, and
in that criminal complaint, on page twenty one, you can
see a map of to Panka State Park and the
ATF outlines the burn scar perimeter of what's called the
(14:55):
Lockman fire. So we knew where the Lochman fire burned
atf carefully it out. Then when we got these maps
from the state called avoidance maps, there are on those
maps a number of big red circles. And when we
took these depositions, we said, what are the red circles
and they said, well, this is where we have protected
(15:17):
plant species, this is where we have restricted activities for firefighters,
no heavy equipment, you know, no mop up unless you
have an archaeologist on site. So these red circles which
appear on the maps are what they call avoidance areas.
When we heard the State Parks publicly say the Lochman
(15:39):
fire was not in an avoidance area, we quickly went
and overlaid the maps and I sent.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
These I'm looking at all this yet.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
Yeah, So we did an exact overlayer of the Lochman
fire burn scar perimeter and one of these red circles.
When you look to see where the Lochman fire burnscar was,
about ninety five percent of it is squarely within an
avoidance area. And in fact it's its point of origin
(16:10):
with squarely in an avoidance area. So I'm sitting here wondering,
need to send the state parked people maps so that
they can look to see where their avoidance areas are,
because this is clearly where the Lochman fire burn, no question.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
I mean, they're just flat out line that looks like
to me.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
I can see the map, and I could see the
avoidance area that's drawn with a red line, and I
see the yellow spot on the map where the Lochman
fire originated.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
I either that's.
Speaker 3 (16:44):
Crazy, it's identical. And if you look in the upper
left hand corner, just there's a little hiking trail with
a switchback that looks like a W that's what we
use to confirm the matching. And this ATF map matches
up exactly with the area avoidance map from the state
(17:04):
and they're clearly within the avoidance area. And it's also
by the way I mentioned this covering of the containment line.
The State Parks has also said the State Parks did
not influence or interfere with the lafd's mop up. And
I thought to myself, well, wait a minute, do you
(17:24):
mean to say that the LAFD would have dug a
containment line and then on its own said well, let's
an hour later go back and cover it all back up.
Or did the State Park rep go up there as
we know happen then say hey, look, I want you
to go get this brush and put it all back
over the top of the containment line. You just dog.
(17:46):
So they've made these statements that absolutely are false, unsupportable.
Speaker 2 (17:52):
Just one more quick question. When you're deposing some of
these state employees and they're describing what one on do
they seem to express and regret about the way it
was handled?
Speaker 1 (18:12):
Are they No?
Speaker 3 (18:14):
I got to tell you the thing that's most frustrating,
and I'm you're hearing the frustration in the public. Where's
the accountability?
Speaker 6 (18:23):
Nobody.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
Nobody has stepped up to say, you know what, it's
our fault. You know we should have done this. Nobody.
It's just a bunch of finger pointing from one government
agency to another government agency, and it's the lack of accountability.
Somebody step up and say, you know what, we didn't
do a good job. Don't water things down, don't say
(18:45):
you know we were changing or these were unprecedented winds
that would have burned anyway. That's bs. This would not
have happened and should not have happened if people did
their jobs correctly.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
Roger Bailey got to go, You've done more than anybody
trying to explain exactly what happened when it comes to
the Palisades fire and the Lockmin fire. Thank you for
taking the.
Speaker 3 (19:08):
Time here, my pleasure.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
John all right, Roger Bailey.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
When we come back, we got a clip of Heimi Moore,
the LA Fire Department chief, admitting that the LA Fire Department, well.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
Some limitations were exposed.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
A few weeks ago when he took over as the chief,
he was claiming the media was smearing the firefighters. Now
he's admitting that they ran into some challenges. Also going
to play a clip from Channel two. Tom Waite interviewed
Karen Bass about her reflections and regrets. I haven't heard
this yet, so we'll share that experience together.
Speaker 5 (19:46):
You're listening to John Cobel's on Demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
We're on from one until four and then after four
o'clock John Cobelt's show on demand on the iHeart app.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
And we had much direct men today.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
First hour, we had Joel Pollock, who's the opinion editor
for the incoming California Post, which is really going to
shake up the media environment. It's going to be a
daily newspaper, internet news site modeled on the New York
Post sister publication. But it's going to cover only California
stuff and news, politics, sports, culture, and that's what we need,
(20:24):
need that attitude. We need that viewpoint badly in the media.
And so you want to hear that. And we had
Steve Hilton on in the two o'clock hour. We had
he's running for governor. He's found he says two hundred
and fifty billion dollars worth of fraud untroduce him over
the course of his administration. Just had Roger Bailey on
with even more damning information about the fires and the
(20:47):
response by the LA Fire Department and the State Parks Department,
which are the unsung villains in this. We got to
get some names people in the State Parks Department who
chased the LA Fire Department out and told them, I
want to know the name of the guy who had
the LA Fire Department put back some brush that they'd
(21:10):
already dug up. They put back the brush and that's
where the fire, the second fire ignited. Who was that genius?
Because they thought that the bulldozed fire break was going
to be used as a hiking path by people, So
cover up this hiking path with old brush that you
(21:35):
already tore out. A what a dope. We'll talk about that. Well,
you can hear it all on the podcast. I want
to get onto all right. Jimi Moore was the LA
Fire Department chief that was named just a month ago. Right,
they went through Karen Bass had three clowns as fire
chief here in Los Angeles. Con Number one was Kristin Crowley,
(21:57):
and she was the one who sent an entire shift
of firefighters home rather than stay on for a second
shift and then they could have fought the Palisades fire.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
What else you'd do?
Speaker 2 (22:11):
Oh, she'd ever sent She didn't pre deploy any firefighters
or any fire trucks to the hot spot that was
still smoldering, as we know now, incredible incompetence and stupidity.
Then we had Ronnie van Awave as the interim chief,
and we found out through the early times that he
(22:35):
was involved in rewriting the investigative report, the after action report,
so that all the damning criticisms of the fire response
would be watered down, softened, and erased. That was Ronnie
van Awaven. Now we have this third clown, himI Moore.
(22:55):
He gets sworn in his LA Fire department chief. The
first thing he does is claim the media is smearing
as firefighters. No, this is what really happened, and it's
a lot of responsibility. Is not the firefighters per se,
it's management from the fire chief on down, the battalion chiefs,
(23:17):
all of bureaucracy. Well, let's get himimore today. Now he
is admitting that the Palisades and Lockman fires may have
exposed some limitations. Let's play this.
Speaker 7 (23:29):
Please understand, the Palisades and Lockman fires were defining moments
for this department. They unfortunately exposed real limitations, limitations and
distant capacity during periods of extreme demand, including challenges related
to staffing availability, resource placement, and the speed at which
conditions can change during in driven fiery events.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
Stop a second, Stop a second. I hate all the
euphemisms challenges. No yet, a fire chief who didn't pre
deploy firefighters before when they got warnings that they were
going to have terrible wins and her own firefighters had
said that the smoldering was going on, but they got
kicked off and didn't fight back against the state park reps.
(24:14):
What you tell the truth, I'm getting the truth. I
just talked to you, you know, a handful of people
today on the show, and I got a thousand times
more truth than you'd ever get from Heimimore, Kristin Crowley
or Ronnie Vana Wava.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
None of them speak the truth, if they speak at.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
All, They use all these bizarre euphemisms, all the challenges
and the limitations. No, how about incompetence and stupidity, Because
you know, as Jeremy said, he's not in the camp
of thinking that they let it burn on purpose. But
I'm telling you there's a lot of people who do,
(24:50):
and you can't really blame them. Can this many people
be this stupid and this competent this many times in
such a short period, all these trained professionals, How is
that mathematically possible that everybody did something idiotic?
Speaker 7 (25:07):
Play some more, Some resources were delayed so late as
times were longer than we strive for.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
Our surge compacity.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
I know from friends of mine and lost their homes,
the response times about twelve hours, and by then the
homes were all gone. I got several friends whose homes
burned completely and the firefighters didn't show up in those
twelve hours. They may never have shown up. Oh, the
(25:43):
response times weren't as as quick as we strive for
what you strive for what? There was no response, This
was not response.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
Play some more.
Speaker 6 (25:54):
Our surge capacity was overstretched. These are difficult realities.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
Said everybody home.
Speaker 7 (26:00):
Acknowledging them is essential to improving how we operate. To
be very clear, these challenges were not the result of
failures by our firefighters that.
Speaker 6 (26:11):
Were on the line.
Speaker 7 (26:13):
They reflect leadership decisions, legacy systems, and longstanding structural constraints
that must evolve.
Speaker 6 (26:21):
To me today's risk.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
Well, why don't you stay the truth? Karen Bash, Eric
Arcetti and all the city councils of the last all,
I don't know twelve years at least, never funded the
fire department properly. Kept I keep telling you we had
half a fire department. It was fifty percent funded, five
to zero, half funded according to national standards. And all
(26:46):
the city council members they never funded the fire department.
And now the fire department is largely used to put
out bum fires and try to revive mental patient drug
addicts in the streets.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
Play some more. That was it?
Speaker 2 (27:03):
That's enough, all right, we come back, We'll play. Karen
Bask getting interviewed by CBS two reporter Tom Waite, her
reflections and regrets. I haven't heard this. I'm sure, I'm
sure this. So you know, I got to start taking
blood pressure pills while doing this show because that my
head's about to pop off.
Speaker 5 (27:24):
You're listening to John Cobelts on demand from KFI AM.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
Six forty John Cobalt Show, caf I Am six forty
more stimulating talk radio, and after four o'clock the podcast
John Cobelt's Show on Demand and quite a line up today.
We had a lot of big name guests's the day
before the Palisades fire. We had Roger Bailey on earlier
this hour, one of the lead attorneys. He had more
bombshells to drop. We talked to Steve Hilton, the Republican
(27:51):
candidate for governor. He says he's found two hundred and
fifty billion dollars in fraud over the years under the
Newsomb administration. And we had Joel pollakon from the New
York Post. Watch it the California Post. It's a new
publication January twenty sixth, sister to the New York Post.
It's going to cover all a lot of the stuff
that we cover here. And they got a whole team
(28:12):
of reporters. They're going to be doing investigations and exclusives,
and it's politics, it's news, it's sports, it's culture of
California in that New York Post style California post. You
want to listen to the whole show. Quite a bit
of quite a bit of fascinating stuff today. Well, listen
(28:32):
to this before I play the Karen Basque clip. And
this just came over from the Los Angeles Times. We
played you a clip of Heimi Moore, the LA Fire Chief,
who spewed some gobbledegook at a press conference today about
the challenges and limitations of the fire department. Well, the
Times is reporting that Heimi Moore admitted today that his
(28:57):
departments after action report on the Palisades fire was watered down.
You got that. The LA Fire Chief says, yeah, this
report was watered down to shield top brass from scrutiny.
This was the big breakthrough of the Times head over
the holiday. Moore's admission comes two weeks after The Times
(29:19):
found the report was edited to downplay the failures of
the city and LA Fire Department leaders in preparing for
and fighting the January seventh fire. Moore said before the
city's board of Fire Commissioners. It is now clear that
multiple drafts were edited to soften language, reduce explicit criticism
(29:41):
of department leadership, and that final report. This editing occurred
prior to my appointment as fire chief, and I can
assure you nothing of this sort will ever happen again
while I am fire chief. He did not say who
is responsible for the changes to the report. The original
offer was Battalion Chief Kenneth Cook, and he would not endure,
said because they he'd rewritten his reports so extensively. Interim
(30:04):
Fire Chief Ronnie van Noweva was told by Cook that
the version was highly unprofessional and inconsistent with our established standards.
Bass's office is claiming that LA Fire Department wrote and
edited the report, had nothing to do with Bass. Somebody
continues to cover up and continues to lie, and we'll
(30:26):
have more on that tomorrow. I mean, I don't know
how the Palisades survivors and the Palisades homeowners can absorb
all this. All right, let's try this one out. I
haven't heard it. Channel two reporter Tom Way interviewed Karen
Bass about her reflections and regrets. Let's see what this is.
Speaker 8 (30:48):
Ellie Mayor Karen Bass sits down with CBSLA as we
mark one year since the deadly Palisades Fire disaster.
Speaker 6 (30:56):
The mayor is projecting optimism.
Speaker 9 (30:59):
I feel good that there's over four hundred homes that
are under construction right now, that there's over eight hundred
homes that have been approved to be built, That Palisades
High will open up before the month is over, that
hopefully will break ground on the rec Center this month.
That the temporary.
Speaker 1 (31:19):
There's over seven thousands that burnt. I feel good.
Speaker 2 (31:26):
You notice how she's not addressing anything of what happened
in the past, but carry.
Speaker 9 (31:30):
On that the temporary library will be up.
Speaker 8 (31:34):
And while Bass praises the progress, she acknowledges the reality
of the ongoing emotional impact of what happened here.
Speaker 9 (31:42):
I don't care how far they are in the rebuilding process.
Speaker 3 (31:44):
They didn't have a.
Speaker 9 (31:45):
Home to go to over the holidays, so that sense
of loss and that sense of trauma, they never get
a break from it, not until they get the keys
to move back in.
Speaker 6 (31:55):
The days and weeks to second.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
They haven't waived the permit fees promised they would be waived.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
They weren't waived.
Speaker 2 (32:02):
We had Joel Pollakhon before from the California Post cost
people thirty to forty thousand dollars. All that should have
been waived. She promised to do it at the press
conference with Trump. Didn't happen, big whynew some promise too big?
Speaker 1 (32:16):
Why continue?
Speaker 8 (32:17):
In the days and weeks after the fire decimated the Palisades,
Mayor bas promised to streamline the rebuilding process, and part
of that was waving permit fees.
Speaker 6 (32:27):
But that's still in limbo.
Speaker 9 (32:29):
So it became controversial over how much was this going
to cost the city. We predicted eighty nine million, and
now it's a question of maybe it's a quarter of
a billion, and so that's where the difference lies.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
Right now, stop it, stop it.
Speaker 2 (32:42):
So if they went the permit fees, they lose all
this money. But they had never counted on this money
because nobody knew there was going to be a fire
that was going to wipe out almost seven thousand homes.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
They didn't budget for that.
Speaker 2 (32:56):
They're not losing anything because they never expected to get
permit fees for seven thousand rebuilds. I don't understand this.
Apparently the city council doesn't want to give up the money.
It's like, well, that would be a loss of you know,
billions of dollars, so it's not a loss of anything.
Speaker 1 (33:13):
Nobody knew this was going to happen. That wasn't in
the budget.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
They just want to take all this extra bonus money
and blow it a nonsense.
Speaker 1 (33:23):
But a bunch of scumbags.
Speaker 9 (33:25):
Play some more and hopefully the council and the legal
team will resolve it and I will have a law
that I can actually sign.
Speaker 8 (33:32):
About a year Jelisey's fire raged on the night of
January seventh, Mayor Bass was on a diplomatic trip to Ghana.
That decision still haunts her.
Speaker 10 (33:41):
The initial part of the fire, you were accused of
that your perception of leadership was not strong because you
were out of the country when this happened.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
I'm sure wait, stop, stop boay, you talk about a
softening of a question, your perception of leadership. She had
at least four days of warnings about deadly fire, danger,
deadly winds coming and she went to God. Anyway, the
(34:14):
question is, what the hell did you do that play
some more.
Speaker 10 (34:18):
Perception of leadership was not strong because you were out
of the country when this happened.
Speaker 6 (34:23):
I'm curious.
Speaker 10 (34:24):
Now that it's been a year, are you what's your
response to the critics or even potential opponents of the
next election who keep raising this issue that you weren't
here when the city needed you the most.
Speaker 6 (34:36):
You know, to this day, that's devastating to me.
Speaker 9 (34:39):
I mean, the way I describe it to people is
the way you might feel if you're out of town
or out of the country, if somebody that is close
to you is injured or becomes ill. It doesn't matter
where you were, It doesn't matter why you were there.
The point is you weren't there when you were needed.
Speaker 1 (34:57):
Scott the question.
Speaker 6 (35:00):
Wait.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
Ask her why she left after she got four days
of warnings about the winds and the fire danger. Ask
her if she knew whether the reservoir was empty. Ask
her if she knew that the Lackman fire was still
smoldering according to her firefighters.
Speaker 1 (35:21):
Ask her if she knew that.
Speaker 2 (35:23):
The state reps from the State Parks Department had kicked
off the LA firefighters and they didn't put out the
smoldering remnants.
Speaker 1 (35:36):
All right, play some.
Speaker 9 (35:37):
War, and that to me still cuts to the core.
Having said that, though one of the things that I
think has been so disappointing is the way some people
have really just preyed upon confusion deliberately putting out misinformation.
Speaker 2 (35:55):
Says, stop who some people who name names? What confusion?
What misinformation? Who's doing that? I'm not aware of anybody
doing that?
Speaker 1 (36:08):
Who?
Speaker 2 (36:09):
Why do you have veil it in such vague terms?
Go ahead, list the names of people are putting out
confusion and misinformation. Give the detailed misinformation. You, your staff, and
the LA Fire Department management is covering everything up.
Speaker 1 (36:30):
You're the one not answering any questions.
Speaker 2 (36:34):
You're the one who wired up with fifteen lawyers so
you didn't have to explain where two billions of homeless
money went. She is such a fraud. She is such
a colossal failure and fraud. Her and that her twin
Newsome the two of them play some more.
Speaker 8 (36:51):
Bass, says she can take the criticism, but she will
remain laser focused on rebuilding. Yeah, and restoring what was
lost and lifting up Angelina.
Speaker 9 (37:00):
And in the beginning of this year, I'm really excited
about all that faces us.
Speaker 1 (37:04):
I mean, in six months.
Speaker 9 (37:06):
We'll have the world here for the World Cup, and
I think that it's time to rally Angelino's again. We
had such a tough twenty twenty four.
Speaker 8 (37:15):
If some of these crises that have faced the city
over the last year or two even have given her
any fatigue, she says, no.
Speaker 6 (37:23):
She is in this to keep firing because.
Speaker 1 (37:25):
She doesn't care.
Speaker 2 (37:27):
She'd be exhausted if she cared. All the families have
lost their homes. Believe me, they're exhausted. The World Cup.
All the families have lost their homes. They can't live
in the World Cup. They don't give a crap. The
World Cup's come in here. Most people don't care, especially
the people in the Palace Sades. Why would they care
(37:49):
that the World Cup is coming? What possible relevance is
that to anybody's life. What a fool, What a failure,
what a fraud. I cannot even believe she exists. But
we warned you about her, not if people listened. You
think any of this would have happened under Rick Caruso,
(38:10):
Any of it, of course not. Look how he protected
his shopping center in the Palisades. That would have been
all the Palisades if he was mayor. All Right, I'm done.
We're gonna go tomorrow morning to the Palisades to cover
that big rally. Conway's next Michael Kurser is the news
live in the CAFI twenty four hour Newsroom. Hey, you've
been listening to the John Cobalt Show podcast. You can
(38:32):
always hear the show live on KFI AM six forty
from one to four pm every Monday through Friday, and
of course, anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app
Can't. I am six forty.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
You're listening to the John Cobelt Podcast on the iHeartRadio app.
We were on every day one until four o'clock and
then after four o'clock. You want the podcast, and you
want it today, I'll tell you that you go.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
You wait till after.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Four and it's on the iHeartRadio app John Cobelt Show
on demand. We talk with Joel Pollock in the one
o'clock hour at length because the California Post is coming
to town. It's going to be the sister publication to
the New York Post, but it's going to cover everything
in California, the news, the politics, the sports, the culture,
and that's going to be a big deal. And in
(00:34):
the two o'clock hour you just heard, we had Jeremy
Patter We're on who's organizing the They Let Us Burn
demonstration in Palisades tomorrow on the anniversary of the fire.
We also had Steve Hilton, one of the leading candidates
for governor, a Republican, who is I tend toified two
hundred and fifty two five oh two hundred and fifty
(00:56):
billion dollars of fraud in the the news of the
administration over the years, so a lot of great conversation
you ought to listen today. I'm want to stop for
just a second before we get Roger Bailey on the
Palisades attorney, because never just reported that Michael Reagan died,
the oldest son of Ronald Reagan. Michael was a radio
(01:19):
talk show host for years. I knew him a little bit,
and he was a really good guy. It was fun
to talk to, and he was a guest on our
show many times. He filled in on KFI many times
some years ago. So I'm sorry to hear about that
and give condolences out to the entire family. Michael Reagan
(01:39):
died at the age of eighty. All right, let's go
to Roger Bailey.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Now.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Roger Bailey is the attorney for thousands of homeowners in
the Palisades who lost their homes, and he has been
providing us constant information as he and his staff and
other attorneys do the investigations as to the origin the fire,
the lack of preparation, the botched execution, the cover ups.
(02:07):
Let's get Roger Bailey on how are you.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
I'm doing well, John, how you doing today?
Speaker 1 (02:12):
Oh, I'm doing good.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Tell me about the drone footage that you have which
smoke shows smoke coming from the exact location that the
fire started. And you've got a state park ranger who
said she saw smoke and didn't report it to flesh
out this story.
Speaker 4 (02:31):
This is new sure, well, you know, every time we
talk we seem to discover yet even more shocking information
than we knew previously.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
And so this all came to light within the last
couple of weeks. We've been taking depositions of the state
park employees that responded to the January one Lackman fire,
and what we learned from those depositions is on January first,
in the early hours of the morning, a state park
ranger went to the Lockman fire site after the firefighters
(03:07):
reported knocking down the fire. She hiked up to the
burn scar and reported seeing smoke coming from the ground.
There were no firefighters around, and after seeing smoke, did
not think to report that to anyone else that there
was still smoke coming from the ground. That was at
(03:28):
eight thirty in the morning on January one. A week ago,
some drone footage surface from a Palisades fire victim who
had flown a drone on January one at the exact
same time, eight thirty in the morning. And this drone
footage depicts the southern end of the lock and fire
(03:49):
burnscar And you can see in the drone footage, and
I supplied that you guys maybe even put it up
on the website, you can see smoke coming from yet
unburn and brush. I mean, you know, it's just billowing
out of the ground. And that, it turns out, is
exactly where six days later, the Palisades fire erupted. According
(04:12):
to the ATF's own analysis of the origin of the
Palisades fire, that plume of smoke you see is exactly
where the Palisades fire ignited on January seventh.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
But the LA Fire Department had already left the area,
correct and they had been pressured off the land by
the State Parks Department.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
Well, yeah, as we talked about last time, the state,
as the owner of Topeka State Park, has restrictions on
some areas of the park where firefighters can't use heavy equipment,
you know, And I think I told you last time,
and if I didn't, I'll tell you now. We also
learned that a State park rep went up on January
(04:58):
one saw what's called the containment line dug around the
edge of the Lochman fire, which is what firefighters will
cut to prevent the fire from spreading. That State Park
rep became concerned that the public would be confused, thinking
it was a hiking trail, and went and got the
firefighters and said, please come back here and put all
(05:20):
of the brush back over the top of the containment line.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
No, no, no, no.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
And cover it up. Yes, yes, he testified, yep. I
was worried people would wander down the containment line, and
rather than putting a trail clothes sign or some yellow tape,
he went and got the firefighters and and there's photographs
that he took over them and I sent them to you.
He has them in there pulling the dry, unburned brush
(05:45):
that they just removed back over the top of the
containment line. And that's right in the spot where the
palistates fire and knights.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
Hey, they put the brush back.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
It had been removed, and they put the brush back,
and that's where the fire reignited.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
Correct, Yeah, you can't. You can't write this stuff.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
No, I was going to say, you can't if you've
if you've read this in a novel or saw this
in a movie.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
Nobody would believe it.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
Yeah, every time we get new information, we're even more
stunned than we were before. This is Uh. It just
keeps getting more bizarre. And this drone footage, like I said, uh,
shows smoke coming out of unburned brush in exactly the
same spot that the ATF confirmed that the Palisades fired ignited.
(06:39):
Now that brush was smoldering for six days and long
after LAFD leaves the state, and it's in its own
policy manual requires that they close the park and that
they go up and they inspect their land to make
sure there are no public safety issues like smoke coming
(07:00):
from the ground. And they didn't do that. They went
up there, you know, were there for a few minutes,
didn't do a complete inspection of the entire burnscar. Had
they done that, had they gone to that southern edge,
they clearly would have seen what's shown in this drone footage,
which a smoke coming out of the ground. They could
have called LAFD back, you know, come back here and
(07:23):
put this out, or they could have called cowfire, but
nobody did anything.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
How could so many people, How could so many people
do so many stupid things, so many things wrong, violating
the protocols in their manuals and violating just common sense.
What any person would do if you saw smoke coming
out of the ground from a fire that was never
put out, well, of course you'd report it. Of course
you would roll over the milk fitch plant to stamp
(07:49):
it out.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
I just don't understand this.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
Every time you come on, you had more characters to
this story, and every new character does something absurd.
Speaker 3 (07:59):
That's exactly right. It is stunning. It is a failure
of the government on multiple levels, not just one failure,
multiple failures.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
How could it be?
Speaker 2 (08:14):
How could it be that everybody screws up about everything
at the same time when it's really not that. It's
not that complicated. Really, when you see smoke to stamp
out the remnants of an old fire, that's that you
don't have to have gone and studied astrophysics to figure
out what you need to do. It's like if you
have a fire in the kitchen and take out a
(08:34):
fire exting whish you're in, blast it right and you
put it out. That's really simple, simple survival mechanisms that
are to be embedded in our biology. How could they
do everything wrong?
Speaker 3 (08:46):
Yeah, we're asking the same question. But we're getting you know,
people said, how did this happen? We're now getting the
answers as to how and why this happened because it
should not have happened. The Power Stakes fire should not
have happened. You have this eight acre brush fire allegedly
started by an arsonist. You know, it's put out within
a few hours, So that should have been the end
(09:08):
of the story. That should have been where everything stopped.
No homes are damaged, no lives are lost. And yet
because people didn't do their jobs, the state didn't manage
its land. And then we know after that Palisades fire starts,
firefighters ran out of water because LADWP had the and
(09:29):
in this reservoir drained for months.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
And the firefighters weren't sent to cover that area in advance.
And you know, the firefighters are sent home and there's
not enough engines, and there's not enough mechanics for the
broken engines. It's like the list goes on and on
and on. It's almost impossible to absorb it all. Can
you hang on line?
Speaker 3 (09:50):
You bet?
Speaker 1 (09:51):
All right?
Speaker 2 (09:51):
We got Roger Bailey on, one of the lead attorneys
for the thousands of Palisades residents who lost.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
Their homes in the fire.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
Also going to talk about the twelve people who lost
their lives because Roger and his law firm are filing
a lawsuit, a wrongful death lawsuit on behalf of the
families of those twelve victims. That's all I had.
Speaker 5 (10:13):
You're listening to John Cobelt on demand from KFI AM.
Speaker 6 (10:17):
Six forty.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
John Cobelt's Show. You can follow us on social media
at John Cobelt Radio at John Cobelt Radio, and you
want to watch our video segments on YouTube. We put
up one almost every day after the show. YouTube dot com,
slash at John Cobelt's Show, YouTube dot com, slash at
John Cobelt Show, and everything else is at John Cobelt Radio.
(10:41):
Tomorrow we're going to do a special show. They're having
a demonstration, a rally in the Palisades, Palisades residents and
business owners.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
It's entitled They Let Us Burn.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
And Jeremy Patawer, who we had on the show earlier,
and Spencer Pratt are organizing this They Let Us Burn.
It's at the Palisades Villain corner of Antioch and Swarthmore.
We're going to go there and interview a lot of
people record it and played on the program tomorrow afternoon,
But if you want to go there live, it's ten
thirty in the morning in Palisades Village, and then we'll
(11:14):
run some expert excerpts of our interviews between one and
four tomorrow afternoon.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
They let us burn.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
They're going to have a lot of residents, business owners
and other officials are going to be speaking, and it's
just getting worse and worse, the anger and the resentment,
and really everyone's incredulous because hardly a week goes by
where there's not another bombshell. And we're talking with Roger Bailey,
(11:41):
who constantly brings its bombshells. He's one of the lead
attorneys for thousands of Palisades residents who lost their homes.
And there's another lawsuit that you're involved with, and it's
for the it's the families of the victims who were killed.
There are twelve people died in the Palisades fire, and
talk about this wonderful death lawsuit that's being filed.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
Part of the same case. It's all part of the
same case, John Dee, As you indicated, people not only
lost their homes and property, but more than twelve people
died it. Initially there were twelve that perished in the fire,
and several others have died in the weeks and months
following the fire from their injuries. So last month, in December,
(12:33):
the law changed in California, so we filed on behalf
of all of our clients who lost family members and
loved ones in the fire. We filed what are called
wrongful death cases, and we represent eight families and we
filed those to allow the heirs of the people to
(12:53):
perish to recover for the loss of their loved one,
and those all were filed. They're all part of the
same case. But again this kind of brings back into focus.
This isn't just about the loss of property, which is
bad enough, but so many people perished in this fire,
some doing heroic things trying to rescue neighbors and friends
(13:14):
and then got trapped and didn't get out themselves. So
we need to remember that not only did people lose
their home and property homes and property, but they many
people perished in the fire.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
Going back to.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
What we were talking in the last segment is pinpointing
where the smoldering was going on after the January first fire,
Lockman fire, and it was at the exact spot where
the ATF says the Palisades fire blew up on the
seventh's right, it's on state land and to Banga State Park.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
Correct, that's all right?
Speaker 3 (13:51):
Correct?
Speaker 2 (13:51):
Okay, you wrought to Wes saying that the State Parks
Department is insisting the Lockman fire was not in one
of the avoidance areas, an area where that firefighters have
to avoid because the state parks officials don't want anybody
chomping around on the milk vetch plant. And so you're saying, no,
(14:14):
it was in an avoidance area and that's why the
firefighters were discouraged from putting out the original fire and
the subsequent smoldering. So you're saying it was in an
avoidance area and the State Parks Department is denying that.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
Talk about this dispute here, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
Well it's setting. So the benefit of maps. So the
ATF back in October publicly released their criminal complaint, and
in that criminal complaint, on page twenty one, you can
see a map of to Panka State Park and the
ATF outlines the burn scar perimeter of what's called the
(14:55):
Lockman fire. So we knew where the Lochman fire burned
atf carefully it out. Then when we got these maps
from the state called avoidance maps, there are on those
maps a number of big red circles. And when we
took these depositions, we said, what are the red circles
and they said, well, this is where we have protected
(15:17):
plant species, this is where we have restricted activities for firefighters,
no heavy equipment, you know, no mop up unless you
have an archaeologist on site. So these red circles which
appear on the maps are what they call avoidance areas.
When we heard the State Parks publicly say the Lochman
(15:39):
fire was not in an avoidance area, we quickly went
and overlaid the maps and I sent.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
These I'm looking at all this yet.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
Yeah, So we did an exact overlayer of the Lochman
fire burn scar perimeter and one of these red circles.
When you look to see where the Lochman fire burnscar was,
about ninety five percent of it is squarely within an
avoidance area. And in fact it's its point of origin
(16:10):
with squarely in an avoidance area. So I'm sitting here wondering,
need to send the state parked people maps so that
they can look to see where their avoidance areas are,
because this is clearly where the Lochman fire burn, no question.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
I mean, they're just flat out line that looks like
to me.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
I can see the map, and I could see the
avoidance area that's drawn with a red line, and I
see the yellow spot on the map where the Lochman
fire originated.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
I either that's.
Speaker 3 (16:44):
Crazy, it's identical. And if you look in the upper
left hand corner, just there's a little hiking trail with
a switchback that looks like a W that's what we
use to confirm the matching. And this ATF map matches
up exactly with the area avoidance map from the state
(17:04):
and they're clearly within the avoidance area. And it's also
by the way I mentioned this covering of the containment line.
The State Parks has also said the State Parks did
not influence or interfere with the lafd's mop up. And
I thought to myself, well, wait a minute, do you
(17:24):
mean to say that the LAFD would have dug a
containment line and then on its own said well, let's
an hour later go back and cover it all back up.
Or did the State Park rep go up there as
we know happen then say hey, look, I want you
to go get this brush and put it all back
over the top of the containment line. You just dog.
(17:46):
So they've made these statements that absolutely are false, unsupportable.
Speaker 2 (17:52):
Just one more quick question. When you're deposing some of
these state employees and they're describing what one on do
they seem to express and regret about the way it
was handled?
Speaker 1 (18:12):
Are they No?
Speaker 3 (18:14):
I got to tell you the thing that's most frustrating,
and I'm you're hearing the frustration in the public. Where's
the accountability?
Speaker 6 (18:23):
Nobody.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
Nobody has stepped up to say, you know what, it's
our fault. You know we should have done this. Nobody.
It's just a bunch of finger pointing from one government
agency to another government agency, and it's the lack of accountability.
Somebody step up and say, you know what, we didn't
do a good job. Don't water things down, don't say
(18:45):
you know we were changing or these were unprecedented winds
that would have burned anyway. That's bs. This would not
have happened and should not have happened if people did
their jobs correctly.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
Roger Bailey got to go, You've done more than anybody
trying to explain exactly what happened when it comes to
the Palisades fire and the Lockmin fire. Thank you for
taking the.
Speaker 3 (19:08):
Time here, my pleasure.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
John all right, Roger Bailey.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
When we come back, we got a clip of Heimi Moore,
the LA Fire Department chief, admitting that the LA Fire Department, well.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
Some limitations were exposed.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
A few weeks ago when he took over as the chief,
he was claiming the media was smearing the firefighters. Now
he's admitting that they ran into some challenges. Also going
to play a clip from Channel two. Tom Waite interviewed
Karen Bass about her reflections and regrets. I haven't heard
this yet, so we'll share that experience together.
Speaker 5 (19:46):
You're listening to John Cobel's on Demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
We're on from one until four and then after four
o'clock John Cobelt's show on demand on the iHeart app.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
And we had much direct men today.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
First hour, we had Joel Pollock, who's the opinion editor
for the incoming California Post, which is really going to
shake up the media environment. It's going to be a
daily newspaper, internet news site modeled on the New York
Post sister publication. But it's going to cover only California
stuff and news, politics, sports, culture, and that's what we need,
(20:24):
need that attitude. We need that viewpoint badly in the media.
And so you want to hear that. And we had
Steve Hilton on in the two o'clock hour. We had
he's running for governor. He's found he says two hundred
and fifty billion dollars worth of fraud untroduce him over
the course of his administration. Just had Roger Bailey on
with even more damning information about the fires and the
(20:47):
response by the LA Fire Department and the State Parks Department,
which are the unsung villains in this. We got to
get some names people in the State Parks Department who
chased the LA Fire Department out and told them, I
want to know the name of the guy who had
the LA Fire Department put back some brush that they'd
(21:10):
already dug up. They put back the brush and that's
where the fire, the second fire ignited. Who was that genius?
Because they thought that the bulldozed fire break was going
to be used as a hiking path by people, So
cover up this hiking path with old brush that you
(21:35):
already tore out. A what a dope. We'll talk about that. Well,
you can hear it all on the podcast. I want
to get onto all right. Jimi Moore was the LA
Fire Department chief that was named just a month ago. Right,
they went through Karen Bass had three clowns as fire
chief here in Los Angeles. Con Number one was Kristin Crowley,
(21:57):
and she was the one who sent an entire shift
of firefighters home rather than stay on for a second
shift and then they could have fought the Palisades fire.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
What else you'd do?
Speaker 2 (22:11):
Oh, she'd ever sent She didn't pre deploy any firefighters
or any fire trucks to the hot spot that was
still smoldering, as we know now, incredible incompetence and stupidity.
Then we had Ronnie van Awave as the interim chief,
and we found out through the early times that he
(22:35):
was involved in rewriting the investigative report, the after action report,
so that all the damning criticisms of the fire response
would be watered down, softened, and erased. That was Ronnie
van Awaven. Now we have this third clown, himI Moore.
(22:55):
He gets sworn in his LA Fire department chief. The
first thing he does is claim the media is smearing
as firefighters. No, this is what really happened, and it's
a lot of responsibility. Is not the firefighters per se,
it's management from the fire chief on down, the battalion chiefs,
(23:17):
all of bureaucracy. Well, let's get himimore today. Now he
is admitting that the Palisades and Lockman fires may have
exposed some limitations. Let's play this.
Speaker 7 (23:29):
Please understand, the Palisades and Lockman fires were defining moments
for this department. They unfortunately exposed real limitations, limitations and
distant capacity during periods of extreme demand, including challenges related
to staffing availability, resource placement, and the speed at which
conditions can change during in driven fiery events.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
Stop a second, Stop a second. I hate all the
euphemisms challenges. No yet, a fire chief who didn't pre
deploy firefighters before when they got warnings that they were
going to have terrible wins and her own firefighters had
said that the smoldering was going on, but they got
kicked off and didn't fight back against the state park reps.
(24:14):
What you tell the truth, I'm getting the truth. I
just talked to you, you know, a handful of people
today on the show, and I got a thousand times
more truth than you'd ever get from Heimimore, Kristin Crowley
or Ronnie Vana Wava.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
None of them speak the truth, if they speak at.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
All, They use all these bizarre euphemisms, all the challenges
and the limitations. No, how about incompetence and stupidity, Because
you know, as Jeremy said, he's not in the camp
of thinking that they let it burn on purpose. But
I'm telling you there's a lot of people who do,
(24:50):
and you can't really blame them. Can this many people
be this stupid and this competent this many times in
such a short period, all these trained professionals, How is
that mathematically possible that everybody did something idiotic?
Speaker 7 (25:07):
Play some more, Some resources were delayed so late as
times were longer than we strive for.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
Our surge compacity.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
I know from friends of mine and lost their homes,
the response times about twelve hours, and by then the
homes were all gone. I got several friends whose homes
burned completely and the firefighters didn't show up in those
twelve hours. They may never have shown up. Oh, the
(25:43):
response times weren't as as quick as we strive for
what you strive for what? There was no response, This
was not response.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
Play some more.
Speaker 6 (25:54):
Our surge capacity was overstretched. These are difficult realities.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
Said everybody home.
Speaker 7 (26:00):
Acknowledging them is essential to improving how we operate. To
be very clear, these challenges were not the result of
failures by our firefighters that.
Speaker 6 (26:11):
Were on the line.
Speaker 7 (26:13):
They reflect leadership decisions, legacy systems, and longstanding structural constraints
that must evolve.
Speaker 6 (26:21):
To me today's risk.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
Well, why don't you stay the truth? Karen Bash, Eric
Arcetti and all the city councils of the last all,
I don't know twelve years at least, never funded the
fire department properly. Kept I keep telling you we had
half a fire department. It was fifty percent funded, five
to zero, half funded according to national standards. And all
(26:46):
the city council members they never funded the fire department.
And now the fire department is largely used to put
out bum fires and try to revive mental patient drug
addicts in the streets.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
Play some more. That was it?
Speaker 2 (27:03):
That's enough, all right, we come back, We'll play. Karen
Bask getting interviewed by CBS two reporter Tom Waite, her
reflections and regrets. I haven't heard this. I'm sure, I'm
sure this. So you know, I got to start taking
blood pressure pills while doing this show because that my
head's about to pop off.
Speaker 5 (27:24):
You're listening to John Cobelts on demand from KFI AM.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
Six forty John Cobalt Show, caf I Am six forty
more stimulating talk radio, and after four o'clock the podcast
John Cobelt's Show on Demand and quite a line up today.
We had a lot of big name guests's the day
before the Palisades fire. We had Roger Bailey on earlier
this hour, one of the lead attorneys. He had more
bombshells to drop. We talked to Steve Hilton, the Republican
(27:51):
candidate for governor. He says he's found two hundred and
fifty billion dollars in fraud over the years under the
Newsomb administration. And we had Joel pollakon from the New
York Post. Watch it the California Post. It's a new
publication January twenty sixth, sister to the New York Post.
It's going to cover all a lot of the stuff
that we cover here. And they got a whole team
(28:12):
of reporters. They're going to be doing investigations and exclusives,
and it's politics, it's news, it's sports, it's culture of
California in that New York Post style California post. You
want to listen to the whole show. Quite a bit
of quite a bit of fascinating stuff today. Well, listen
(28:32):
to this before I play the Karen Basque clip. And
this just came over from the Los Angeles Times. We
played you a clip of Heimi Moore, the LA Fire Chief,
who spewed some gobbledegook at a press conference today about
the challenges and limitations of the fire department. Well, the
Times is reporting that Heimi Moore admitted today that his
(28:57):
departments after action report on the Palisades fire was watered down.
You got that. The LA Fire Chief says, yeah, this
report was watered down to shield top brass from scrutiny.
This was the big breakthrough of the Times head over
the holiday. Moore's admission comes two weeks after The Times
(29:19):
found the report was edited to downplay the failures of
the city and LA Fire Department leaders in preparing for
and fighting the January seventh fire. Moore said before the
city's board of Fire Commissioners. It is now clear that
multiple drafts were edited to soften language, reduce explicit criticism
(29:41):
of department leadership, and that final report. This editing occurred
prior to my appointment as fire chief, and I can
assure you nothing of this sort will ever happen again
while I am fire chief. He did not say who
is responsible for the changes to the report. The original
offer was Battalion Chief Kenneth Cook, and he would not endure,
said because they he'd rewritten his reports so extensively. Interim
(30:04):
Fire Chief Ronnie van Noweva was told by Cook that
the version was highly unprofessional and inconsistent with our established standards.
Bass's office is claiming that LA Fire Department wrote and
edited the report, had nothing to do with Bass. Somebody
continues to cover up and continues to lie, and we'll
(30:26):
have more on that tomorrow. I mean, I don't know
how the Palisades survivors and the Palisades homeowners can absorb
all this. All right, let's try this one out. I
haven't heard it. Channel two reporter Tom Way interviewed Karen
Bass about her reflections and regrets. Let's see what this is.
Speaker 8 (30:48):
Ellie Mayor Karen Bass sits down with CBSLA as we
mark one year since the deadly Palisades Fire disaster.
Speaker 6 (30:56):
The mayor is projecting optimism.
Speaker 9 (30:59):
I feel good that there's over four hundred homes that
are under construction right now, that there's over eight hundred
homes that have been approved to be built, That Palisades
High will open up before the month is over, that
hopefully will break ground on the rec Center this month.
That the temporary.
Speaker 1 (31:19):
There's over seven thousands that burnt. I feel good.
Speaker 2 (31:26):
You notice how she's not addressing anything of what happened
in the past, but carry.
Speaker 9 (31:30):
On that the temporary library will be up.
Speaker 8 (31:34):
And while Bass praises the progress, she acknowledges the reality
of the ongoing emotional impact of what happened here.
Speaker 9 (31:42):
I don't care how far they are in the rebuilding process.
Speaker 3 (31:44):
They didn't have a.
Speaker 9 (31:45):
Home to go to over the holidays, so that sense
of loss and that sense of trauma, they never get
a break from it, not until they get the keys
to move back in.
Speaker 6 (31:55):
The days and weeks to second.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
They haven't waived the permit fees promised they would be waived.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
They weren't waived.
Speaker 2 (32:02):
We had Joel Pollakhon before from the California Post cost
people thirty to forty thousand dollars. All that should have
been waived. She promised to do it at the press
conference with Trump. Didn't happen, big whynew some promise too big?
Speaker 1 (32:16):
Why continue?
Speaker 8 (32:17):
In the days and weeks after the fire decimated the Palisades,
Mayor bas promised to streamline the rebuilding process, and part
of that was waving permit fees.
Speaker 6 (32:27):
But that's still in limbo.
Speaker 9 (32:29):
So it became controversial over how much was this going
to cost the city. We predicted eighty nine million, and
now it's a question of maybe it's a quarter of
a billion, and so that's where the difference lies.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
Right now, stop it, stop it.
Speaker 2 (32:42):
So if they went the permit fees, they lose all
this money. But they had never counted on this money
because nobody knew there was going to be a fire
that was going to wipe out almost seven thousand homes.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
They didn't budget for that.
Speaker 2 (32:56):
They're not losing anything because they never expected to get
permit fees for seven thousand rebuilds. I don't understand this.
Apparently the city council doesn't want to give up the money.
It's like, well, that would be a loss of you know,
billions of dollars, so it's not a loss of anything.
Speaker 1 (33:13):
Nobody knew this was going to happen. That wasn't in
the budget.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
They just want to take all this extra bonus money
and blow it a nonsense.
Speaker 1 (33:23):
But a bunch of scumbags.
Speaker 9 (33:25):
Play some more and hopefully the council and the legal
team will resolve it and I will have a law
that I can actually sign.
Speaker 8 (33:32):
About a year Jelisey's fire raged on the night of
January seventh, Mayor Bass was on a diplomatic trip to Ghana.
That decision still haunts her.
Speaker 10 (33:41):
The initial part of the fire, you were accused of
that your perception of leadership was not strong because you
were out of the country when this happened.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
I'm sure wait, stop, stop boay, you talk about a
softening of a question, your perception of leadership. She had
at least four days of warnings about deadly fire, danger,
deadly winds coming and she went to God. Anyway, the
(34:14):
question is, what the hell did you do that play
some more.
Speaker 10 (34:18):
Perception of leadership was not strong because you were out
of the country when this happened.
Speaker 6 (34:23):
I'm curious.
Speaker 10 (34:24):
Now that it's been a year, are you what's your
response to the critics or even potential opponents of the
next election who keep raising this issue that you weren't
here when the city needed you the most.
Speaker 6 (34:36):
You know, to this day, that's devastating to me.
Speaker 9 (34:39):
I mean, the way I describe it to people is
the way you might feel if you're out of town
or out of the country, if somebody that is close
to you is injured or becomes ill. It doesn't matter
where you were, It doesn't matter why you were there.
The point is you weren't there when you were needed.
Speaker 1 (34:57):
Scott the question.
Speaker 6 (35:00):
Wait.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
Ask her why she left after she got four days
of warnings about the winds and the fire danger. Ask
her if she knew whether the reservoir was empty. Ask
her if she knew that the Lackman fire was still
smoldering according to her firefighters.
Speaker 1 (35:21):
Ask her if she knew that.
Speaker 2 (35:23):
The state reps from the State Parks Department had kicked
off the LA firefighters and they didn't put out the
smoldering remnants.
Speaker 1 (35:36):
All right, play some.
Speaker 9 (35:37):
War, and that to me still cuts to the core.
Having said that, though one of the things that I
think has been so disappointing is the way some people
have really just preyed upon confusion deliberately putting out misinformation.
Speaker 2 (35:55):
Says, stop who some people who name names? What confusion?
What misinformation? Who's doing that? I'm not aware of anybody
doing that?
Speaker 1 (36:08):
Who?
Speaker 2 (36:09):
Why do you have veil it in such vague terms?
Go ahead, list the names of people are putting out
confusion and misinformation. Give the detailed misinformation. You, your staff, and
the LA Fire Department management is covering everything up.
Speaker 1 (36:30):
You're the one not answering any questions.
Speaker 2 (36:34):
You're the one who wired up with fifteen lawyers so
you didn't have to explain where two billions of homeless
money went. She is such a fraud. She is such
a colossal failure and fraud. Her and that her twin
Newsome the two of them play some more.
Speaker 8 (36:51):
Bass, says she can take the criticism, but she will
remain laser focused on rebuilding. Yeah, and restoring what was
lost and lifting up Angelina.
Speaker 9 (37:00):
And in the beginning of this year, I'm really excited
about all that faces us.
Speaker 1 (37:04):
I mean, in six months.
Speaker 9 (37:06):
We'll have the world here for the World Cup, and
I think that it's time to rally Angelino's again. We
had such a tough twenty twenty four.
Speaker 8 (37:15):
If some of these crises that have faced the city
over the last year or two even have given her
any fatigue, she says, no.
Speaker 6 (37:23):
She is in this to keep firing because.
Speaker 1 (37:25):
She doesn't care.
Speaker 2 (37:27):
She'd be exhausted if she cared. All the families have
lost their homes. Believe me, they're exhausted. The World Cup.
All the families have lost their homes. They can't live
in the World Cup. They don't give a crap. The
World Cup's come in here. Most people don't care, especially
the people in the Palace Sades. Why would they care
(37:49):
that the World Cup is coming? What possible relevance is
that to anybody's life. What a fool, What a failure,
what a fraud. I cannot even believe she exists. But
we warned you about her, not if people listened. You
think any of this would have happened under Rick Caruso,
(38:10):
Any of it, of course not. Look how he protected
his shopping center in the Palisades. That would have been
all the Palisades if he was mayor. All Right, I'm done.
We're gonna go tomorrow morning to the Palisades to cover
that big rally. Conway's next Michael Kurser is the news
live in the CAFI twenty four hour Newsroom. Hey, you've
been listening to the John Cobalt Show podcast. You can
(38:32):
always hear the show live on KFI AM six forty
from one to four pm every Monday through Friday, and
of course, anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app
The John Kobylt Show News
Host
John Kobylt
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