November 7, 2024 • 34 mins
Mountain Fire Officials Presser. Latest on Mountain Fire; 20,485-acre Mountain fire in Ventura County. Firefighters report that the #MountainFire has destroyed 132 structures and damaged 88 others. Dean Sharp, The House Whisperer on inheriting someone else's mistakes.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's KFI AM six forty and you're listening to the
Conway Show on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Through and identify all the houses and all the conditions
that they may be in that it could be undamaged,
damage or destroyed. This is a slow process because we
have to make sure that the properties are safe. That
means the gas lines and the electrical and all our
hazards have to be can have to be secured before
the teams enter onto the properties. Currently, the teams have
(00:29):
completed two hundred and ninety eight inspections. Of this the
teams discovered eighty eight were damaged and one hundred and
thirty two were destroyed. This is ongoing process. It's going
to take time for us to get through all the properties.
Are intent to be as transparent as possible and keep
(00:50):
you updated with this information as we move forward. We've
had a busy day on the fire line today and
I would like to now bring up our operations chief.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
All right, good evening.
Speaker 4 (01:04):
My name is Nick Cleary, Combatani chief of Innterura County
Fire working as day operations on the Mountain fire. So
not having a map, I recommend that you guys go
to any of the websites to look at the map
those and talking and describing it stuff, you can kind
of reference it back as I'm talking about it. So
we'll go into Camerao Proper, which we're calling Branch one.
That's the Camerio Heights. No significant growth in the perimeter today,
a very good day of mop up around the structures.
(01:26):
There's a lot of unburned islands of fuel in there
that didn't ignite during yesterday's wind event, and so crews
had to get back in there and cut those out
using hand crews and engine companies. They also had to
go kind of house to house, road to road in
some of the areas. I've opened a fuel line and
put direct handlines. So the perimeter didn't grow, but lots
of calls for service in that area. Good work was
put in by all the engine companies. Is going to
(01:47):
continue for multiple days. There's a lot of houses that
need to be mopped up completely, because if we don't
do that, then there's potential for that to extend any
of the houses that weren't affected. But good, it was
a good day in Branch one today was we're calling
Cameero Heights and we'll be continue in that for the
next plan tomorrow, getting branch which is that's the southern
area South Mountain that's where the moficant uhur today. And
(02:10):
the most branch five, which is the Sohma's area. That's
the southern area of South Mountain. That's where the most
significant action occurred today and potentially the most is going
to get growth. So we'll talk about Stockton Road, Waters Road,
Bigsby Road, that's all in the east southeast corner of
the main body of fire. The fire hooked around and
got established. With that northeast wind, we were able to
(02:32):
get cruise. We even pulled some from the fire stations
today to engage off Waters Road to protect structures. We
use dozers, fixed wing, rotor wing and hand crews to
put direct handline in working from Stockton Road north towards
South Mountain Road, which is in the Santa Clair River.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
South of Fillmore City.
Speaker 4 (02:49):
Cruise at the end of the shift had direct handline
basically going from Stockton Road all the way to South
Mountain Road, which is cutting off the most.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
Eastern section of the fire.
Speaker 4 (02:58):
As we get into this transition from a north east
east wind event to an onshore wind event, we do
have about three quarters percent of the line working from
Stockton from the south to the north line with retardan
and dozers. And as I was coming in here for
the briefing, cruiser engaging from South Mountain Road working south
to connect the dots to that doser line. So we
should have a good anchor point that's going to be
able to hold that fire from progressing.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
Any further to the east.
Speaker 4 (03:21):
Walking around on the south side Branch five a Salono
Verde Somis area, no significant growth, lots of calls for service,
and again as the fire moved through yesterday with that
northeast wind, there was a lot of unburned areas of
fuel and so today some of those pockets of fuel
had opportunities to burn in between orchards and so cruise
engage any hot spots within the structures the orchards and.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
Any of the unburned islands.
Speaker 4 (03:42):
Coming around on the Venturas City side Wells Road one
twenty six. Santa Clair River Bottom, no significant growth. The
fire continued to back down into the Santa Clair River
bottom and we did have a few spots in the
Santa Clair River bottom that we were able to engage
with crews and dozers, but most of the fires holding
on the South Mountain Road, working all the way east
to Sanchitano Road where the cruis are going direct back
(04:03):
to Stockton Road.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
That's the end of the report. Thank you.
Speaker 5 (04:06):
So we talked about on those two.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
Good to be this one good evening.
Speaker 6 (04:12):
My name is doctor Ariel Cohen, and I'm the meteorologist
in charge of the National Weather Service in Los Angeles, Oxnard.
First of all, on behalf of the entire National Weather Service,
our hearts go out to everyone who has been adversely
impacted by this fire. We're continuing to work round the
clock with all of our partners in the fire agencies
and emergency management to ensure that everyone has the information
(04:36):
that they need to be able to effectively combat the
fires and also support the relief and recovery efforts. At
this point, in this major, very strong Santa Ana wind event,
it's on the decrease at this time. Winds are subsiding
over the lower elevations while remaining still gusty across the
higher elevations. Only a few days ago, we issued our
(04:58):
first particularly Dangerous Situation PDS red flag warning since the
year twenty twenty.
Speaker 7 (05:05):
That indicate its the.
Speaker 6 (05:06):
Most extreme of volatility of weather parameters coming together to
support explosive fire development and the development of very large fires. Unfortunately,
this came to fruition, and we see this with a
mountain fire.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
At this time.
Speaker 6 (05:21):
Now all pds again particularly dangerous situation Red flag warnings
have been cleared across our jurisdiction of SO Southern California.
In fact, in addition, red flag warnings for the entire
area have also expired as of top of the hour,
except for the.
Speaker 8 (05:39):
Mountains SO Santa Divanna Mountains.
Speaker 6 (05:41):
Red flag warning, the more traditional type, remains in effect
into the overnight hours and through eleven am on Friday,
as we do expect the continuation of gusty northeasterly off
offshore winds in the twenty five to thirty five mile
per hour range, with gusts to fifty miles per hour
through the overnight hours. Again those northeast to east northeast
(06:03):
offshore winds continuing gusts up to fifty miles an hour
in the mountains. By the time we get to eleven
am tomorrow, the winds will further subside across the region
and we are not expecting any red flag warnings to
be in effect for the area. Now, we're still going
to have dry conditions settle over the region. However, by
later tomorrow, especially after one or two o'clock, we're going
(06:26):
to get reversal of that flow and onshore winds begin
to kick in and then all begin to spread a
weak marine layer on shore a bit bring relative humidities
up and also have the potential to redirect any ongoing fire.
So that'll be something to keep in mind as we
go forward. When we get into the daytime on Saturday,
that onshore flow is going to have a much wider
(06:48):
impact across southern and central Ventura County, and we would
expect that that will also moisten the area as well.
Looking further ahead, unfortunately, we are looking at the potential
for another week to perhaps moderate Santa Ana wind event
to bring the potential for critical fire weather conditions as
we head into the early and mid midweek.
Speaker 9 (07:08):
Timeframe of next week.
Speaker 6 (07:10):
So we encourage everyone to continue to monitor the latest
information from the National Weather Service.
Speaker 10 (07:15):
Thank you, Ventura County Sheriff Jim Freihoff. Good evening, everyone,
and thank you for being here. I want to start
my remarks by addressing the fact that today is the
six year anniversary of the Borderline shooting that we had
(07:36):
in Thousand Oaks here in Ventura County, same as the
six year anniversary of the Woolsey and hillfires that had
much devastation for our area. I want to take a
moment to ont to remember the lives lost, specifically Sergeant
Ron Helis, and that all the other families that were
victimized that evening let us keep their memories close as
(07:57):
we move forward together. We standard are night. We are
in the second night of the Mountain fire. Earlier today,
I had the opportunity to see the impact firsthand and
speak to homeowners who have lost everything with the exception
of their lives. The devastation is absolutely heartbreaking, and our
thoughts and prayers continue to go out to all those
that are impacted. I would like to thank Governor Newsom
(08:19):
for coming a tour in the area today and signing
the emergency proclamation declaring inter County as State of emergency
to give us some much needed assets and resources that
we need. I urge everyone to stay out of the
areas that are impacted. The fire is still very dangerous.
The winds have not completely deceased. We have numerous firefighters
out it's now dark. I don't want any of our
(08:41):
first responders getting hurt, so please stay out of the area.
On the injuries, we've had ten confirmed injuries from the fire,
most of which were smoke inhalation and otherwise non life threatening.
Today we've evacuated over four hundred homes, two hundred and
fifty residents choosing to stay and protect their homes, and
(09:01):
there were eight hundred homes that no one was home
so assuming they had either left before we arrived, were
at work, or otherwise.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
Out of town.
Speaker 10 (09:09):
I want to commend our deputies for the heroic actions
ensuring the safety of our community during this difficult time. Yesterday,
several of our deputies helped to evacuate four patients and
two caregivers from a senior care facility and Camerio. My deputies, volunteers,
and search and rescue teams continue to be dedicated and
showing incredible courage going into areas that are extremely dangerous
(09:31):
to evacuate those in danger. At this point, we have
not started to repopulate the area. We still have significant
work to do. Before we can do that, we need
to ensure that we are cooperating with so CAL Edison
and soakl Gas to make sure the areas are safe
for repopulation, and once those are clear of all firefighters
and other first responders, then we can start the repopulation process.
(09:55):
We have deputies that are heavily patrolling the areas that
have been evacuated. We will not talk rate any looting
of any kind. Please continue to stay vigilant and follow
all evacuation orders enclosures on VC emergency dot Com for
the most up.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
To date information.
Speaker 10 (10:12):
We remain fully committed to deploying every resource we have
to fight this and we look forward to the end
of this event altogether.
Speaker 5 (10:18):
Thank you, good evening. My name is Tonyachapentee Battalion chief
with the Ventur County Fire Department and one of the
unified incident commanders with the Mountain incident.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
In addition, we're in.
Speaker 5 (10:34):
Unified command with CalFire Incident Management Team five in the
Ventor County Sheriff's Office. I just want to take a
minute to recognize the aggressive, full suppression strategy and effort
put forth by the ground resources out there the last
forty eight hours. Cruiser diligently and aggressively working to bring
resolve to this incident as quickly as they possibly can,
and that's what we'll continue to do in the coming
(10:55):
days until we're able to safely and effectively get folks
back into their homes and back to what we would
recognize as our safe spaces. I want to recognize the
partner agencies that have been supportive, not just here in
the operational area, but throughout the entire state of California.
They expediently came to provide assistance in a time of need,
(11:17):
and we're extremely fortunate that the mutual aid system within
the state of California is what it is. Moving forward,
we'll continue to find every opportunity to provide effective, expedient
and putting in information to keep you as informed as
we possibly can and understand we're doing everything possible to
get you back in your homes as soon as safely possible.
Speaker 8 (11:46):
Okay, good evening, everybody, dustin Gardner County Fire Chief. I
want to reiterate a couple of things. One, I want
to say thank you to all our responders, our mutual
aid system, and all of our partners. As the sheriff said,
the Governor came down today and with the Governor came
the Director of Californa and his entire executive staff, and
it showed the strength and partnership we have being a
contract county here in Ventura accepting responsibility for the state
(12:10):
or the SRA, the State Responsibility Area Watershed. As the
Ventur County Fire Department, we act as a contract county
for cal Fire when incidents like this get up and
going and expand the capacity of the Ventur County Fire
Department cal Fire. As you saw our unified I see
up here with Team five. They do not hesitate. They're
here with us instantaneous, an entire Type one I am
(12:31):
t mobilized by this morning with a call yesterday afternoon,
which is an amazing partnership, and I want to acknowledge it.
We've got. Our working relationship with cal Fire has never
been better. We appreciate your support being here, We appreciate
all our Team five members being here, and we look
forward to the next few days of getting this under control.
We will remain in unified command with cal Fire. We'll
(12:52):
have embedded I sees as you just all up here
and unvetted ops chiefs and the sheriff will stay embedded
with his staff, so you will see your community firefighters
out there along with all of our mutual aid partners
for those in our impact areas. I was with the
sheriff today and the governors. We drove around and saw
the devastation, and it is truly devastating, and our hearts
absolutely break and go out to you. Over the next
(13:15):
few days, as you repopulate, you will see yellow Ventre
County Fire Department pickup trucks driving around those areas. You'll
see lots of fire trucks, but you'll see specifically small
pickup trucks with two firefighters in them. Those are community
Liaison's community representatives out there to assist you if you
need help.
Speaker 9 (13:31):
Grab them.
Speaker 8 (13:31):
If you're going through your house and want help lifting something, moving, something,
sifting through, something dealing with damage. Grab them there for you.
We want to show that we're out there, we want
to be there with you. As we were there yesterday,
we'll be we're here today, we'll be there again tomorrow.
So we will stay with our community until the very end.
And through this all I want to thank all our firefighters,
(13:54):
as Chief TWOPENI said, and Chief clearly said it was
a significant thirty six hour firefight. We had many firefighters
that they were out on the line until this evening.
They fought fire for thirty six straight hours, which is
as a that's a feat of human strength, and it
is it's dangerous, it's damaging, and it shows their commitment.
(14:14):
I want to thank them. Tonight, you'll hear and you'll see,
much like last night, we're gonna fly all of our
heavy helicopters again tonight. That's a very unique opportunity we
have here in Ventor County. We partner with Southern California, Edison,
Los Angeles County, Orange County, and myself on a QRTH
called a Quick Reaction Force helicopter force, and they fly
at night and they drop retardant in Unison's three thousand
(14:36):
gallons at a piece, along with our fire hot helicopter.
So while the wind dies down, we'll take full advantage
of the weather, we'll take full advantages of the lower temperatures,
and we'll continue to put as much fire as we
can out. And with that, I will end by part
and we'll start taking questions.
Speaker 3 (14:50):
Anny.
Speaker 11 (14:52):
You're listening to Tim Conway Junior on demand from KFI
AM six forty, I am.
Speaker 7 (15:00):
It is the Conway Show.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
We're putting Dean Sharp off until six thirty five. And
when Dean Sharp's gonna be great, he comes on every Thursday.
Ye he's gonna have some great information on how to
protect your home because we are. We just heard from
Ventura County and you know all the devastation up there
(15:22):
in oxnarda, Ventura. One hundred and thirty two homes destroyed,
completely leveled, one hundred and thirty two. An additional eighty
eight homes were damaged. That's over two hundred two hundred
homes either burned to the ground or damaged. The winds
(15:43):
are going to continue, and one of the fire chiefs
that came on from Ventura, I'm warned everybody, this isn't
the end. We have another San Ana event coming in
next week. So if you're in Riverside, Samo, you know
the Inland Empire, If you're up in Saugust, I don't know.
(16:10):
You know the San Fernanza Valley, all these areas where
the wind comes racing through Seami Valley, Moore Park again
in cam Rio, Oxnard, Ventura. You've got to be acutely
aware that This is going to happen again next week.
So if you have trees that need to be trimmed,
(16:30):
if you have to clear a house of brush around it,
please do it this weekend. This is going to repeat
next week. Hopefully there's no fires, but we're going to
have another wind event and this will continue. It happens
every October and November every year we get big winds.
They're going to fly the helicopters tonight with fire retardant
(16:55):
and water three thousand gallons in these big helicopters. That'll
be a huge plot, a huge advantage. And also some
of these firefighters, especially the ones Mutual Aid CalFire, that
have gone up to Oxnard, Camillo, Ventura.
Speaker 9 (17:12):
To help fight this fire.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
There's a thousand of them right now, one thousand and
a lot of these kids, and I say kids because
a lot of these firefighters in their twenties and thirties.
They've been working and fighting these fires for thirty six
straight hours. Thirty six straight hours. It's impossible for a
(17:33):
lot of people I know to just stay awake for
thirty six hours. That's a day and a half. That's
waking up at If you woke up at six am.
That's all the way until six am the next day,
that's twenty four and then till six pm that day.
So if you wake up Monday at six am, you
(17:55):
fight fires until Tuesday at six pm, thirty six hours.
Speaker 7 (18:01):
That's what they were doing.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
An entire day, an entire night, and an entire day
fighting these fires and not sitting down, fighting these fires
on your feet, smoke in your face, wind in your face,
fire in front of you, constantly moving with shovels or
hoses or moving equipment for thirty six hours, thirty six hours,
(18:29):
and you don't really hear these guys complaining at all.
Speaker 9 (18:32):
That's what they do.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
So thank god there are people out there that still
do that, that still have that stamina, still have that energy,
and still have that fight in them, because without them,
there could have been another one hundred and thirty two
homes destroyed, another eighty eight damage. We could have been
looking at hundreds of homes destroyed. So I thank god
(18:53):
that those guys and gals are up there.
Speaker 7 (18:56):
Thank God. We'll wa come back. We'll talk to Dean Sharp.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
He's on every weekend here every Saturday and Sunday on KFI,
and we'll pick his brain about how we can help
our homes from becoming victims of these winds and these fires.
Because when you lose a home, it's very difficult to
recover emotionally, mentally, financially. It's a long process. Sometimes it
(19:27):
takes three, four five years. Sometimes it takes a lifetime.
So we have to all be vigilant on our homes
and how to protect him will go back, We'll talk
to Dean Sharp.
Speaker 11 (19:38):
You're listening to Tim Conway Junior on demand from KFI
AM six forty Am.
Speaker 7 (19:44):
I am at six forty Conway Show.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
We've got a rough week up in Ventur, our neighbors
up and Ventur, horrible, horrible week with this fire. Dean
Sharp is with us on this station every Saturday, every Sunday,
and Dean, welcome to the program.
Speaker 9 (20:01):
I say hear your voice, bub Hey, Tim, good to
be here, Bud Hey.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
I'm I'm shocked that in twenty twenty four there's homes
still burning like this, one hundred and thirty two homes burned,
eighty eight destroyed, one thirty two burned to the ground.
I'm shocked that homes still catch fire like this, that
we haven't been able to solve that problem, so and
make them fire proof.
Speaker 9 (20:27):
Well, yeah, here's the thing. We have in a large
part been able to stop that, but not every homeowner
follows through and has got a home in which they've
made all of those choices. The code currently keeps homes,
generally speaking, pretty dang fire resistant. These days, we're talking
(20:51):
about requiring fire resistant roofing material, fire resistant out exterior sheathing,
and by sheathing, I mean whether you got sighting or
stucco or whatever is on the outside of your walls,
those kinds of things. If you live in an open
space and a high fire danger zone, then your city, undoubtedly,
(21:12):
especially in Southern California, but all through Southern all through California,
requires you to have fire resistant windows and doors, fire
resistant windows, and so if everything is in play and
you're clearing your defensible zones, it's actually not easy for
a fire, a wildfire to get to a house and
(21:36):
cause it to burn to the ground. But there are
usually some weakness under the shell. There's usually an achilles
heel somewhere, and that's the kind of stuff that we're
always counseling people on.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
You know, we had a fire captain on a couple
of years ago from Orange County, and I don't remember
the man's name, but he said that in his history
with Orange County fire that if a house has sprinklers,
he's never seen one burned down.
Speaker 9 (22:06):
Never. That is generally a true statistic across the country
if a house has fire sprinklers. And the mortality rate,
by the way, let's just let's talk about the important stuff.
The the mortality rate for homes that are equipped with
fire sprinklers is less than I think one tenth of
(22:27):
one percent of homes that are in which a fire occurs. Okay,
and then the property damage is very very very low.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
And what is the what is the drawback? Is it
just the expense of installing them and retrofitting them for sprinklers?
Speaker 9 (22:43):
Yeah, I mean I think it's it's even though it's
not all that expensive when you consider it when you
weigh it against the value of your home. But yeah,
there is an expense right now, a new construction expense
fire sprinklers, which are required by the way for all
new construction and may remodels down in California, are you know,
between one and two dollars a square foot if you're
(23:05):
retrofitting the system into your home. It may be you know,
three or four dollars a square foot, and you know
that can be pricey if you have a larger home.
But again, you weigh that against losing the family home,
and it's something that is well worth putting near the
top of your priority lists.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
I imagine though, you're going to get a pretty significant
reduction in your home insurance if you can prove to
the insurance company you have sprinklers.
Speaker 9 (23:30):
Especially in a state in which insurance companies are running
from wildfire and earthquake risks all the time. So yes,
you're absolutely right.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
And one more question about sprinklers. The old fashioned way
was if one goes off, they all go off, and
that would destroy a home in and of itself. But
now that's not the case.
Speaker 9 (23:50):
Is that right? Yeah, Actually, the old fashion way and
now is still pretty much the same way. And that
whole thing is a myth propagated by TV sitcoms. Is
that right?
Speaker 3 (24:00):
Okay?
Speaker 5 (24:01):
Yeah?
Speaker 9 (24:01):
Reality is this your fire sprinklers. A standard fire sprinkler
system is what we call a wet system, meaning that
there is water in those pipes all the time. Okay,
they're ready to rock and roll. The only thing that's
holding the water back from running through a sprinkler head
is not some kind of activated valve. It is that
(24:22):
if you look up and you see it's remember when
you sat in school and you stared up at the
fire sprinkler. You saw that little red vial, that little
red piece of glass. Inside that piece of glass is
a liquid that is designed to expand at a particular temperature,
and when it expands, it bursts, and when it bursts,
(24:42):
it allows that sprinkler valve to float just that valve,
head for head for head throughout the house. So yeah, exploding.
Kind of the myths here that the whole system is
going to go off at once, not true. It's not
going to be activated by you know, burning the toast
and the toaster or burning something on the stove. It
(25:04):
has zero things to do with smoke. It is not
smoke related at all. It is room temperature, air temperature
around that head that makes individual sprinklers go off. And
it's a very very simple, but we would say, very
rudimentary system, but it's a brilliantly simple system and it
works amazingly well.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
Dean Scharvis with us the house whist where every Saturday
and Sunday here on KFI. I'm a lunatic when it
comes to fire extinguishers. I have one next to my bed.
I put one next to my daughters, my wife's, we
all have one next to the place where you sleep.
But I also have them in the kitchen. I got
them near the fireplace. I look like a retired you know, firebug.
(25:46):
But I also notice that they expire. Should I honor
that expiration date or sort of gamble?
Speaker 9 (25:54):
No, you should always on it. You should honor it.
You should always. You should always and only buy a
fire extinguisher that has a gauge on the side so
that you can actually tell whether the pressure is, whether
it's in the green zone, whether it's good to go,
and you should always always honor it as you go. Hey, Tim,
you know, one of the things that I wanted to
share with everybody tonight are the things that they can
(26:16):
do if they're under threat right now or expect to
be under threat. I don't know if we have time
for you. Can you stay with us?
Speaker 7 (26:23):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (26:24):
Sure, okay, all right, let me put you on hold.
Dean Sharper is with us. If you're under threat of
a fire, we're gonna come back and Dean's gonna help
you out, maybe save a life or a home.
Speaker 3 (26:32):
Here.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
When we come back, we have another Santa Ana Win
event coming next Tuesday and Wednesday here in southern California.
So you want to listen to this, and if you
live in any of the fire prone areas with the
Santa Ana Wins, you'll want to stay on KFI right
now listening to Dean Sharp, Broom Kuback.
Speaker 11 (26:47):
You're listening to Tim Conway Junior on demand from KFI
AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
KFI AM six forty Conway Show. This segment's being brought
to you by Advanced There one day treatment, life changing results.
Make your appointment today advancedare dot Com. We continue with
Dean Sharp. We're in fire season, we have sant Ana
Wins right now. We have another event coming up next
week next Tuesday and Wednesday. I believe Dean, what can
(27:13):
you do when the fire is approaching? How can you
help your family and your own home?
Speaker 9 (27:18):
All right? So I'm going to divide this up into
maybe three sections here. If the fires aren't threatening you
right now, if you have some time, and if you
don't have much time at all, Okay, okay, if the
fires aren't threatening you. You have got to seriously take
a look at your home and think about do are
we up against open space? Are we anywhere near open space?
And do we have we upgraded our windows and doors
(27:41):
that face the open space to fire rated windows and doors,
tempered glass instead of annealed glass. That's basically what that
comes down to. I know that's a kind of a
remodel upgrade. All right. That's if you've got time and
you're not being threatened right now, but you need to upgrade. Also,
as we preach every single year, ember proof attic vents
(28:02):
to keep embers out of your attic. Now, this is
for you if you live anywhere within two or three
miles of an open space where a wildfire could affect you.
Because we know this, eighty percent of the homes that
burn during a wildfire are not burning because they were
on the fire line. They are burning because the attics
(28:23):
sucked up some embers which travel up to two miles
and still remain hot and ignitable, especially during the Santa
Ana wind conditions. So emberproof vents, now, that's that. If
you've got time, if you have a little bit of time,
please clean up the trees and the garbage in the backyard.
(28:43):
Clear your defensible zone if you live up against an
open space. If you haven't done that yet and you
are being negligent about it, then you get on the ball,
because you know what, here's the thing. A wildfire, flame
that's coming down in a brush fire can stand thirty
and during sant Ana wins thirty or forty feet tall.
(29:04):
That is a wall of flame that is emanating over
one thousand degrees. How far away from that wall of
flame do you think firefighters actually need to stand to
defend your home against it? But I have the average
esthingmate to stay away from that thirty foot thousand degree
(29:24):
wall of flame. They need three to four times the
height of those flames to stand back, and that means
easily one hundred plus feet. That's where they need to
stand in order to effectively hold those flames back from
getting into people's backyards. So clear the defensible zone that
your h aay and your city has told you to clear. Finally,
(29:47):
if you don't have much time, okay, get stuff away
from your house. If you think you're about to be
called into an evacuation possibility, get stuff away from your house.
Don't have stuff leaning up against your house, any thing
that is possibly ignitable. Number Two, if you can't ember
proof your vents, because if the fires are coming, okay,
(30:09):
then tape up those vents. I don't care a tape them,
close up, seal up your attic. Your attic is not
going to suffer by being taped up for you know,
three or four days. But I tell you what, we
do not want embers getting into your attic. So just
grab some duct tape or whatever you've got, tape them
over so that you don't run the risk of those
(30:30):
embers coming in. And finally, here's a product that a
lot of people need to hear about. Not a sponsor
here on KF I wish they were barricade. Fire gel okay.
Fire gel is a is a liquid. It stores in
one and five gallon containers. You can keep it long term.
It's a one time purchase. You can keep it long
(30:51):
term sitting in your garage. It's totally safe because you
know it's non flammable, and it's the kind of thing
that hooks up to your garden hose right and mix
with water. And what a fire gel does is a
fire gel creates this foamy spray out of your garden hose.
And this is when you've been given an evacuation order.
You take a half an hour and you grab the
(31:12):
hose and instead of trying to stand there and wait
for the flames to come and defend them with your
little garden hose, which is not a good idea, you
take your garden hose and you spray this gel over
all of the stucco and the sighting and the windows,
and just completely cover the house and the eve with it.
And if you have any leftover, you spray down the patio,
furniture and trees and foliage. It sticks, it clings, It's
(31:37):
very very sticky stuff and it will hold on there
for twenty four to forty eight hours and fire cannot
get through it.
Speaker 7 (31:45):
Wow.
Speaker 9 (31:46):
And when you are done, when the evacuation is over
and people are like, well what if I have to
be evacuated for multiple days, Well, here's the thing. It
hangs for twenty four to forty eight hours. If the
fire line actually approaches your house, it's going to move
by in minutes.
Speaker 7 (32:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 9 (32:00):
Right, So that's what you need by way of protection.
And when you come back home, when your house is
safe and sound, you get the garden hose out again
and you just rinse it all off and you're done.
Oh it just comes off like that. Huh, it just
comes off. Okay. So a fire gel for an average
size house, Uh, it's going to set you back enough
(32:21):
to cover it properly. It's going to set you back
about seven hundred dollars. And again it's a one time
purchase that can sit for decades in your garage until
the day that you need it, and it could make
all the difference.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
Right, And those purchases, you know, the fire gel and
fire extinguishers, you know, and an and a generator. You
think that they might be a lot of the time,
but if you ever have to use any of them,
it'll be worth a billion times what you paid for.
Speaker 9 (32:48):
Absolutely, no question whatsoever. And by the way, for anybody
who's looking, you can go to firegel dot com and
you can see exactly what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
I saw a guy being interviewed up in Ventura, I
think it was last night or this morning, and when
the fire approached, he had a bunch of fire I
mean patio furniture in his backyard. He threw everything in
the pool and split.
Speaker 9 (33:10):
Yeah, not a bad idea. Get rid of anything that
could possibly, uh, you know, allow that fire to leap
frog closer to the house.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
And why do we have I'm sure for ventilation, but
do we need the vent i for the attic you know.
Speaker 9 (33:27):
That's a it's a it's a longer answer than than
we have time for. But uh, in the very very
near future, I think we're going to see something that
is called conditioned attic space, which is catching on in
desert areas and starting to move across the country. I
think we're going to be within the next decade, You're
you're going to see the going away of of at
(33:51):
events completely. But in order to do that, we have
to insulate attics differently, and that's why it's a little
bit more of a complex. But yes, with standard insulation
you need add events.
Speaker 1 (34:02):
Buddy, I appreciate you coming on and we'll talk to
you next week.
Speaker 9 (34:05):
Sounds good bye.
Speaker 7 (34:06):
Thank you.
Speaker 9 (34:06):
Dean Sharp.
Speaker 1 (34:07):
Every Saturday and Sunday here on KFI, go to fire
jail dot com.
Speaker 7 (34:10):
That might save your home.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
Fire Jael, you get it and you spray it on
your home, could save your life, could save your home.
Speaker 9 (34:16):
It's got to be worth it. I we have got
to get out of here.
Speaker 1 (34:20):
Moe Kelly is coming up next right here on KFI
AM six forty Conway Show on demand on the iHeartRadio app. Now,
you can always hear us live on KFI AM six
forty four to seven pm Monday through Friday, and anytime
on demand on the iHeartRadio app
It's KFI AM six forty and you're listening to the
Conway Show on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Through and identify all the houses and all the conditions
that they may be in that it could be undamaged,
damage or destroyed. This is a slow process because we
have to make sure that the properties are safe. That
means the gas lines and the electrical and all our
hazards have to be can have to be secured before
the teams enter onto the properties. Currently, the teams have
(00:29):
completed two hundred and ninety eight inspections. Of this the
teams discovered eighty eight were damaged and one hundred and
thirty two were destroyed. This is ongoing process. It's going
to take time for us to get through all the properties.
Are intent to be as transparent as possible and keep
(00:50):
you updated with this information as we move forward. We've
had a busy day on the fire line today and
I would like to now bring up our operations chief.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
All right, good evening.
Speaker 4 (01:04):
My name is Nick Cleary, Combatani chief of Innterura County
Fire working as day operations on the Mountain fire. So
not having a map, I recommend that you guys go
to any of the websites to look at the map
those and talking and describing it stuff, you can kind
of reference it back as I'm talking about it. So
we'll go into Camerao Proper, which we're calling Branch one.
That's the Camerio Heights. No significant growth in the perimeter today,
a very good day of mop up around the structures.
(01:26):
There's a lot of unburned islands of fuel in there
that didn't ignite during yesterday's wind event, and so crews
had to get back in there and cut those out
using hand crews and engine companies. They also had to
go kind of house to house, road to road in
some of the areas. I've opened a fuel line and
put direct handlines. So the perimeter didn't grow, but lots
of calls for service in that area. Good work was
put in by all the engine companies. Is going to
(01:47):
continue for multiple days. There's a lot of houses that
need to be mopped up completely, because if we don't
do that, then there's potential for that to extend any
of the houses that weren't affected. But good, it was
a good day in Branch one today was we're calling
Cameero Heights and we'll be continue in that for the
next plan tomorrow, getting branch which is that's the southern
area South Mountain that's where the moficant uhur today. And
(02:10):
the most branch five, which is the Sohma's area. That's
the southern area of South Mountain. That's where the most
significant action occurred today and potentially the most is going
to get growth. So we'll talk about Stockton Road, Waters Road,
Bigsby Road, that's all in the east southeast corner of
the main body of fire. The fire hooked around and
got established. With that northeast wind, we were able to
(02:32):
get cruise. We even pulled some from the fire stations
today to engage off Waters Road to protect structures. We
use dozers, fixed wing, rotor wing and hand crews to
put direct handline in working from Stockton Road north towards
South Mountain Road, which is in the Santa Clair River.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
South of Fillmore City.
Speaker 4 (02:49):
Cruise at the end of the shift had direct handline
basically going from Stockton Road all the way to South
Mountain Road, which is cutting off the most.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
Eastern section of the fire.
Speaker 4 (02:58):
As we get into this transition from a north east
east wind event to an onshore wind event, we do
have about three quarters percent of the line working from
Stockton from the south to the north line with retardan
and dozers. And as I was coming in here for
the briefing, cruiser engaging from South Mountain Road working south
to connect the dots to that doser line. So we
should have a good anchor point that's going to be
able to hold that fire from progressing.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
Any further to the east.
Speaker 4 (03:21):
Walking around on the south side Branch five a Salono
Verde Somis area, no significant growth, lots of calls for service,
and again as the fire moved through yesterday with that
northeast wind, there was a lot of unburned areas of
fuel and so today some of those pockets of fuel
had opportunities to burn in between orchards and so cruise
engage any hot spots within the structures the orchards and.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
Any of the unburned islands.
Speaker 4 (03:42):
Coming around on the Venturas City side Wells Road one
twenty six. Santa Clair River Bottom, no significant growth. The
fire continued to back down into the Santa Clair River
bottom and we did have a few spots in the
Santa Clair River bottom that we were able to engage
with crews and dozers, but most of the fires holding
on the South Mountain Road, working all the way east
to Sanchitano Road where the cruis are going direct back
(04:03):
to Stockton Road.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
That's the end of the report. Thank you.
Speaker 5 (04:06):
So we talked about on those two.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
Good to be this one good evening.
Speaker 6 (04:12):
My name is doctor Ariel Cohen, and I'm the meteorologist
in charge of the National Weather Service in Los Angeles, Oxnard.
First of all, on behalf of the entire National Weather Service,
our hearts go out to everyone who has been adversely
impacted by this fire. We're continuing to work round the
clock with all of our partners in the fire agencies
and emergency management to ensure that everyone has the information
(04:36):
that they need to be able to effectively combat the
fires and also support the relief and recovery efforts. At
this point, in this major, very strong Santa Ana wind event,
it's on the decrease at this time. Winds are subsiding
over the lower elevations while remaining still gusty across the
higher elevations. Only a few days ago, we issued our
(04:58):
first particularly Dangerous Situation PDS red flag warning since the
year twenty twenty.
Speaker 7 (05:05):
That indicate its the.
Speaker 6 (05:06):
Most extreme of volatility of weather parameters coming together to
support explosive fire development and the development of very large fires. Unfortunately,
this came to fruition, and we see this with a
mountain fire.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
At this time.
Speaker 6 (05:21):
Now all pds again particularly dangerous situation Red flag warnings
have been cleared across our jurisdiction of SO Southern California.
In fact, in addition, red flag warnings for the entire
area have also expired as of top of the hour,
except for the.
Speaker 8 (05:39):
Mountains SO Santa Divanna Mountains.
Speaker 6 (05:41):
Red flag warning, the more traditional type, remains in effect
into the overnight hours and through eleven am on Friday,
as we do expect the continuation of gusty northeasterly off
offshore winds in the twenty five to thirty five mile
per hour range, with gusts to fifty miles per hour
through the overnight hours. Again those northeast to east northeast
(06:03):
offshore winds continuing gusts up to fifty miles an hour
in the mountains. By the time we get to eleven
am tomorrow, the winds will further subside across the region
and we are not expecting any red flag warnings to
be in effect for the area. Now, we're still going
to have dry conditions settle over the region. However, by
later tomorrow, especially after one or two o'clock, we're going
(06:26):
to get reversal of that flow and onshore winds begin
to kick in and then all begin to spread a
weak marine layer on shore a bit bring relative humidities
up and also have the potential to redirect any ongoing fire.
So that'll be something to keep in mind as we
go forward. When we get into the daytime on Saturday,
that onshore flow is going to have a much wider
(06:48):
impact across southern and central Ventura County, and we would
expect that that will also moisten the area as well.
Looking further ahead, unfortunately, we are looking at the potential
for another week to perhaps moderate Santa Ana wind event
to bring the potential for critical fire weather conditions as
we head into the early and mid midweek.
Speaker 9 (07:08):
Timeframe of next week.
Speaker 6 (07:10):
So we encourage everyone to continue to monitor the latest
information from the National Weather Service.
Speaker 10 (07:15):
Thank you, Ventura County Sheriff Jim Freihoff. Good evening, everyone,
and thank you for being here. I want to start
my remarks by addressing the fact that today is the
six year anniversary of the Borderline shooting that we had
(07:36):
in Thousand Oaks here in Ventura County, same as the
six year anniversary of the Woolsey and hillfires that had
much devastation for our area. I want to take a
moment to ont to remember the lives lost, specifically Sergeant
Ron Helis, and that all the other families that were
victimized that evening let us keep their memories close as
(07:57):
we move forward together. We standard are night. We are
in the second night of the Mountain fire. Earlier today,
I had the opportunity to see the impact firsthand and
speak to homeowners who have lost everything with the exception
of their lives. The devastation is absolutely heartbreaking, and our
thoughts and prayers continue to go out to all those
that are impacted. I would like to thank Governor Newsom
(08:19):
for coming a tour in the area today and signing
the emergency proclamation declaring inter County as State of emergency
to give us some much needed assets and resources that
we need. I urge everyone to stay out of the
areas that are impacted. The fire is still very dangerous.
The winds have not completely deceased. We have numerous firefighters
out it's now dark. I don't want any of our
(08:41):
first responders getting hurt, so please stay out of the area.
On the injuries, we've had ten confirmed injuries from the fire,
most of which were smoke inhalation and otherwise non life threatening.
Today we've evacuated over four hundred homes, two hundred and
fifty residents choosing to stay and protect their homes, and
(09:01):
there were eight hundred homes that no one was home
so assuming they had either left before we arrived, were
at work, or otherwise.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
Out of town.
Speaker 10 (09:09):
I want to commend our deputies for the heroic actions
ensuring the safety of our community during this difficult time. Yesterday,
several of our deputies helped to evacuate four patients and
two caregivers from a senior care facility and Camerio. My deputies, volunteers,
and search and rescue teams continue to be dedicated and
showing incredible courage going into areas that are extremely dangerous
(09:31):
to evacuate those in danger. At this point, we have
not started to repopulate the area. We still have significant
work to do. Before we can do that, we need
to ensure that we are cooperating with so CAL Edison
and soakl Gas to make sure the areas are safe
for repopulation, and once those are clear of all firefighters
and other first responders, then we can start the repopulation process.
(09:55):
We have deputies that are heavily patrolling the areas that
have been evacuated. We will not talk rate any looting
of any kind. Please continue to stay vigilant and follow
all evacuation orders enclosures on VC emergency dot Com for
the most up.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
To date information.
Speaker 10 (10:12):
We remain fully committed to deploying every resource we have
to fight this and we look forward to the end
of this event altogether.
Speaker 5 (10:18):
Thank you, good evening. My name is Tonyachapentee Battalion chief
with the Ventur County Fire Department and one of the
unified incident commanders with the Mountain incident.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
In addition, we're in.
Speaker 5 (10:34):
Unified command with CalFire Incident Management Team five in the
Ventor County Sheriff's Office. I just want to take a
minute to recognize the aggressive, full suppression strategy and effort
put forth by the ground resources out there the last
forty eight hours. Cruiser diligently and aggressively working to bring
resolve to this incident as quickly as they possibly can,
and that's what we'll continue to do in the coming
(10:55):
days until we're able to safely and effectively get folks
back into their homes and back to what we would
recognize as our safe spaces. I want to recognize the
partner agencies that have been supportive, not just here in
the operational area, but throughout the entire state of California.
They expediently came to provide assistance in a time of need,
(11:17):
and we're extremely fortunate that the mutual aid system within
the state of California is what it is. Moving forward,
we'll continue to find every opportunity to provide effective, expedient
and putting in information to keep you as informed as
we possibly can and understand we're doing everything possible to
get you back in your homes as soon as safely possible.
Speaker 8 (11:46):
Okay, good evening, everybody, dustin Gardner County Fire Chief. I
want to reiterate a couple of things. One, I want
to say thank you to all our responders, our mutual
aid system, and all of our partners. As the sheriff said,
the Governor came down today and with the Governor came
the Director of Californa and his entire executive staff, and
it showed the strength and partnership we have being a
contract county here in Ventura accepting responsibility for the state
(12:10):
or the SRA, the State Responsibility Area Watershed. As the
Ventur County Fire Department, we act as a contract county
for cal Fire when incidents like this get up and
going and expand the capacity of the Ventur County Fire
Department cal Fire. As you saw our unified I see
up here with Team five. They do not hesitate. They're
here with us instantaneous, an entire Type one I am
(12:31):
t mobilized by this morning with a call yesterday afternoon,
which is an amazing partnership, and I want to acknowledge it.
We've got. Our working relationship with cal Fire has never
been better. We appreciate your support being here, We appreciate
all our Team five members being here, and we look
forward to the next few days of getting this under control.
We will remain in unified command with cal Fire. We'll
(12:52):
have embedded I sees as you just all up here
and unvetted ops chiefs and the sheriff will stay embedded
with his staff, so you will see your community firefighters
out there along with all of our mutual aid partners
for those in our impact areas. I was with the
sheriff today and the governors. We drove around and saw
the devastation, and it is truly devastating, and our hearts
absolutely break and go out to you. Over the next
(13:15):
few days, as you repopulate, you will see yellow Ventre
County Fire Department pickup trucks driving around those areas. You'll
see lots of fire trucks, but you'll see specifically small
pickup trucks with two firefighters in them. Those are community
Liaison's community representatives out there to assist you if you
need help.
Speaker 9 (13:31):
Grab them.
Speaker 8 (13:31):
If you're going through your house and want help lifting something, moving, something,
sifting through, something dealing with damage. Grab them there for you.
We want to show that we're out there, we want
to be there with you. As we were there yesterday,
we'll be we're here today, we'll be there again tomorrow.
So we will stay with our community until the very end.
And through this all I want to thank all our firefighters,
(13:54):
as Chief TWOPENI said, and Chief clearly said it was
a significant thirty six hour firefight. We had many firefighters
that they were out on the line until this evening.
They fought fire for thirty six straight hours, which is
as a that's a feat of human strength, and it
is it's dangerous, it's damaging, and it shows their commitment.
(14:14):
I want to thank them. Tonight, you'll hear and you'll see,
much like last night, we're gonna fly all of our
heavy helicopters again tonight. That's a very unique opportunity we
have here in Ventor County. We partner with Southern California, Edison,
Los Angeles County, Orange County, and myself on a QRTH
called a Quick Reaction Force helicopter force, and they fly
at night and they drop retardant in Unison's three thousand
(14:36):
gallons at a piece, along with our fire hot helicopter.
So while the wind dies down, we'll take full advantage
of the weather, we'll take full advantages of the lower temperatures,
and we'll continue to put as much fire as we
can out. And with that, I will end by part
and we'll start taking questions.
Speaker 3 (14:50):
Anny.
Speaker 11 (14:52):
You're listening to Tim Conway Junior on demand from KFI
AM six forty, I am.
Speaker 7 (15:00):
It is the Conway Show.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
We're putting Dean Sharp off until six thirty five. And
when Dean Sharp's gonna be great, he comes on every Thursday.
Ye he's gonna have some great information on how to
protect your home because we are. We just heard from
Ventura County and you know all the devastation up there
(15:22):
in oxnarda, Ventura. One hundred and thirty two homes destroyed,
completely leveled, one hundred and thirty two. An additional eighty
eight homes were damaged. That's over two hundred two hundred
homes either burned to the ground or damaged. The winds
(15:43):
are going to continue, and one of the fire chiefs
that came on from Ventura, I'm warned everybody, this isn't
the end. We have another San Ana event coming in
next week. So if you're in Riverside, Samo, you know
the Inland Empire, If you're up in Saugust, I don't know.
(16:10):
You know the San Fernanza Valley, all these areas where
the wind comes racing through Seami Valley, Moore Park again
in cam Rio, Oxnard, Ventura. You've got to be acutely
aware that This is going to happen again next week.
So if you have trees that need to be trimmed,
(16:30):
if you have to clear a house of brush around it,
please do it this weekend. This is going to repeat
next week. Hopefully there's no fires, but we're going to
have another wind event and this will continue. It happens
every October and November every year we get big winds.
They're going to fly the helicopters tonight with fire retardant
(16:55):
and water three thousand gallons in these big helicopters. That'll
be a huge plot, a huge advantage. And also some
of these firefighters, especially the ones Mutual Aid CalFire, that
have gone up to Oxnard, Camillo, Ventura.
Speaker 9 (17:12):
To help fight this fire.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
There's a thousand of them right now, one thousand and
a lot of these kids, and I say kids because
a lot of these firefighters in their twenties and thirties.
They've been working and fighting these fires for thirty six
straight hours. Thirty six straight hours. It's impossible for a
(17:33):
lot of people I know to just stay awake for
thirty six hours. That's a day and a half. That's
waking up at If you woke up at six am.
That's all the way until six am the next day,
that's twenty four and then till six pm that day.
So if you wake up Monday at six am, you
(17:55):
fight fires until Tuesday at six pm, thirty six hours.
Speaker 7 (18:01):
That's what they were doing.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
An entire day, an entire night, and an entire day
fighting these fires and not sitting down, fighting these fires
on your feet, smoke in your face, wind in your face,
fire in front of you, constantly moving with shovels or
hoses or moving equipment for thirty six hours, thirty six hours,
(18:29):
and you don't really hear these guys complaining at all.
Speaker 9 (18:32):
That's what they do.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
So thank god there are people out there that still
do that, that still have that stamina, still have that energy,
and still have that fight in them, because without them,
there could have been another one hundred and thirty two
homes destroyed, another eighty eight damage. We could have been
looking at hundreds of homes destroyed. So I thank god
(18:53):
that those guys and gals are up there.
Speaker 7 (18:56):
Thank God. We'll wa come back. We'll talk to Dean Sharp.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
He's on every weekend here every Saturday and Sunday on KFI,
and we'll pick his brain about how we can help
our homes from becoming victims of these winds and these fires.
Because when you lose a home, it's very difficult to
recover emotionally, mentally, financially. It's a long process. Sometimes it
(19:27):
takes three, four five years. Sometimes it takes a lifetime.
So we have to all be vigilant on our homes
and how to protect him will go back, We'll talk
to Dean Sharp.
Speaker 11 (19:38):
You're listening to Tim Conway Junior on demand from KFI
AM six forty Am.
Speaker 7 (19:44):
I am at six forty Conway Show.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
We've got a rough week up in Ventur, our neighbors
up and Ventur, horrible, horrible week with this fire. Dean
Sharp is with us on this station every Saturday, every Sunday,
and Dean, welcome to the program.
Speaker 9 (20:01):
I say hear your voice, bub Hey, Tim, good to
be here, Bud Hey.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
I'm I'm shocked that in twenty twenty four there's homes
still burning like this, one hundred and thirty two homes burned,
eighty eight destroyed, one thirty two burned to the ground.
I'm shocked that homes still catch fire like this, that
we haven't been able to solve that problem, so and
make them fire proof.
Speaker 9 (20:27):
Well, yeah, here's the thing. We have in a large
part been able to stop that, but not every homeowner
follows through and has got a home in which they've
made all of those choices. The code currently keeps homes,
generally speaking, pretty dang fire resistant. These days, we're talking
(20:51):
about requiring fire resistant roofing material, fire resistant out exterior sheathing,
and by sheathing, I mean whether you got sighting or
stucco or whatever is on the outside of your walls,
those kinds of things. If you live in an open
space and a high fire danger zone, then your city, undoubtedly,
(21:12):
especially in Southern California, but all through Southern all through California,
requires you to have fire resistant windows and doors, fire
resistant windows, and so if everything is in play and
you're clearing your defensible zones, it's actually not easy for
a fire, a wildfire to get to a house and
(21:36):
cause it to burn to the ground. But there are
usually some weakness under the shell. There's usually an achilles
heel somewhere, and that's the kind of stuff that we're
always counseling people on.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
You know, we had a fire captain on a couple
of years ago from Orange County, and I don't remember
the man's name, but he said that in his history
with Orange County fire that if a house has sprinklers,
he's never seen one burned down.
Speaker 9 (22:06):
Never. That is generally a true statistic across the country
if a house has fire sprinklers. And the mortality rate,
by the way, let's just let's talk about the important stuff.
The the mortality rate for homes that are equipped with
fire sprinklers is less than I think one tenth of
(22:27):
one percent of homes that are in which a fire occurs. Okay,
and then the property damage is very very very low.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
And what is the what is the drawback? Is it
just the expense of installing them and retrofitting them for sprinklers?
Speaker 9 (22:43):
Yeah, I mean I think it's it's even though it's
not all that expensive when you consider it when you
weigh it against the value of your home. But yeah,
there is an expense right now, a new construction expense
fire sprinklers, which are required by the way for all
new construction and may remodels down in California, are you know,
between one and two dollars a square foot if you're
(23:05):
retrofitting the system into your home. It may be you know,
three or four dollars a square foot, and you know
that can be pricey if you have a larger home.
But again, you weigh that against losing the family home,
and it's something that is well worth putting near the
top of your priority lists.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
I imagine though, you're going to get a pretty significant
reduction in your home insurance if you can prove to
the insurance company you have sprinklers.
Speaker 9 (23:30):
Especially in a state in which insurance companies are running
from wildfire and earthquake risks all the time. So yes,
you're absolutely right.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
And one more question about sprinklers. The old fashioned way
was if one goes off, they all go off, and
that would destroy a home in and of itself. But
now that's not the case.
Speaker 9 (23:50):
Is that right? Yeah, Actually, the old fashion way and
now is still pretty much the same way. And that
whole thing is a myth propagated by TV sitcoms. Is
that right?
Speaker 3 (24:00):
Okay?
Speaker 5 (24:01):
Yeah?
Speaker 9 (24:01):
Reality is this your fire sprinklers. A standard fire sprinkler
system is what we call a wet system, meaning that
there is water in those pipes all the time. Okay,
they're ready to rock and roll. The only thing that's
holding the water back from running through a sprinkler head
is not some kind of activated valve. It is that
(24:22):
if you look up and you see it's remember when
you sat in school and you stared up at the
fire sprinkler. You saw that little red vial, that little
red piece of glass. Inside that piece of glass is
a liquid that is designed to expand at a particular temperature,
and when it expands, it bursts, and when it bursts,
(24:42):
it allows that sprinkler valve to float just that valve,
head for head for head throughout the house. So yeah, exploding.
Kind of the myths here that the whole system is
going to go off at once, not true. It's not
going to be activated by you know, burning the toast
and the toaster or burning something on the stove. It
(25:04):
has zero things to do with smoke. It is not
smoke related at all. It is room temperature, air temperature
around that head that makes individual sprinklers go off. And
it's a very very simple, but we would say, very
rudimentary system, but it's a brilliantly simple system and it
works amazingly well.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
Dean Scharvis with us the house whist where every Saturday
and Sunday here on KFI. I'm a lunatic when it
comes to fire extinguishers. I have one next to my bed.
I put one next to my daughters, my wife's, we
all have one next to the place where you sleep.
But I also have them in the kitchen. I got
them near the fireplace. I look like a retired you know, firebug.
(25:46):
But I also notice that they expire. Should I honor
that expiration date or sort of gamble?
Speaker 9 (25:54):
No, you should always on it. You should honor it.
You should always. You should always and only buy a
fire extinguisher that has a gauge on the side so
that you can actually tell whether the pressure is, whether
it's in the green zone, whether it's good to go,
and you should always always honor it as you go. Hey, Tim,
you know, one of the things that I wanted to
share with everybody tonight are the things that they can
(26:16):
do if they're under threat right now or expect to
be under threat. I don't know if we have time
for you. Can you stay with us?
Speaker 7 (26:23):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (26:24):
Sure, okay, all right, let me put you on hold.
Dean Sharper is with us. If you're under threat of
a fire, we're gonna come back and Dean's gonna help
you out, maybe save a life or a home.
Speaker 3 (26:32):
Here.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
When we come back, we have another Santa Ana Win
event coming next Tuesday and Wednesday here in southern California.
So you want to listen to this, and if you
live in any of the fire prone areas with the
Santa Ana Wins, you'll want to stay on KFI right
now listening to Dean Sharp, Broom Kuback.
Speaker 11 (26:47):
You're listening to Tim Conway Junior on demand from KFI
AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
KFI AM six forty Conway Show. This segment's being brought
to you by Advanced There one day treatment, life changing results.
Make your appointment today advancedare dot Com. We continue with
Dean Sharp. We're in fire season, we have sant Ana
Wins right now. We have another event coming up next
week next Tuesday and Wednesday. I believe Dean, what can
(27:13):
you do when the fire is approaching? How can you
help your family and your own home?
Speaker 9 (27:18):
All right? So I'm going to divide this up into
maybe three sections here. If the fires aren't threatening you
right now, if you have some time, and if you
don't have much time at all, Okay, okay, if the
fires aren't threatening you. You have got to seriously take
a look at your home and think about do are
we up against open space? Are we anywhere near open space?
And do we have we upgraded our windows and doors
(27:41):
that face the open space to fire rated windows and doors,
tempered glass instead of annealed glass. That's basically what that
comes down to. I know that's a kind of a
remodel upgrade. All right. That's if you've got time and
you're not being threatened right now, but you need to upgrade. Also,
as we preach every single year, ember proof attic vents
(28:02):
to keep embers out of your attic. Now, this is
for you if you live anywhere within two or three
miles of an open space where a wildfire could affect you.
Because we know this, eighty percent of the homes that
burn during a wildfire are not burning because they were
on the fire line. They are burning because the attics
(28:23):
sucked up some embers which travel up to two miles
and still remain hot and ignitable, especially during the Santa
Ana wind conditions. So emberproof vents, now, that's that. If
you've got time, if you have a little bit of time,
please clean up the trees and the garbage in the backyard.
(28:43):
Clear your defensible zone if you live up against an
open space. If you haven't done that yet and you
are being negligent about it, then you get on the ball,
because you know what, here's the thing. A wildfire, flame
that's coming down in a brush fire can stand thirty
and during sant Ana wins thirty or forty feet tall.
(29:04):
That is a wall of flame that is emanating over
one thousand degrees. How far away from that wall of
flame do you think firefighters actually need to stand to
defend your home against it? But I have the average
esthingmate to stay away from that thirty foot thousand degree
(29:24):
wall of flame. They need three to four times the
height of those flames to stand back, and that means
easily one hundred plus feet. That's where they need to
stand in order to effectively hold those flames back from
getting into people's backyards. So clear the defensible zone that
your h aay and your city has told you to clear. Finally,
(29:47):
if you don't have much time, okay, get stuff away
from your house. If you think you're about to be
called into an evacuation possibility, get stuff away from your house.
Don't have stuff leaning up against your house, any thing
that is possibly ignitable. Number Two, if you can't ember
proof your vents, because if the fires are coming, okay,
(30:09):
then tape up those vents. I don't care a tape them,
close up, seal up your attic. Your attic is not
going to suffer by being taped up for you know,
three or four days. But I tell you what, we
do not want embers getting into your attic. So just
grab some duct tape or whatever you've got, tape them
over so that you don't run the risk of those
(30:30):
embers coming in. And finally, here's a product that a
lot of people need to hear about. Not a sponsor
here on KF I wish they were barricade. Fire gel okay.
Fire gel is a is a liquid. It stores in
one and five gallon containers. You can keep it long term.
It's a one time purchase. You can keep it long
(30:51):
term sitting in your garage. It's totally safe because you
know it's non flammable, and it's the kind of thing
that hooks up to your garden hose right and mix
with water. And what a fire gel does is a
fire gel creates this foamy spray out of your garden hose.
And this is when you've been given an evacuation order.
You take a half an hour and you grab the
(31:12):
hose and instead of trying to stand there and wait
for the flames to come and defend them with your
little garden hose, which is not a good idea, you
take your garden hose and you spray this gel over
all of the stucco and the sighting and the windows,
and just completely cover the house and the eve with it.
And if you have any leftover, you spray down the patio,
furniture and trees and foliage. It sticks, it clings, It's
(31:37):
very very sticky stuff and it will hold on there
for twenty four to forty eight hours and fire cannot
get through it.
Speaker 7 (31:45):
Wow.
Speaker 9 (31:46):
And when you are done, when the evacuation is over
and people are like, well what if I have to
be evacuated for multiple days, Well, here's the thing. It
hangs for twenty four to forty eight hours. If the
fire line actually approaches your house, it's going to move
by in minutes.
Speaker 7 (32:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 9 (32:00):
Right, So that's what you need by way of protection.
And when you come back home, when your house is
safe and sound, you get the garden hose out again
and you just rinse it all off and you're done.
Oh it just comes off like that. Huh, it just
comes off. Okay. So a fire gel for an average
size house, Uh, it's going to set you back enough
(32:21):
to cover it properly. It's going to set you back
about seven hundred dollars. And again it's a one time
purchase that can sit for decades in your garage until
the day that you need it, and it could make
all the difference.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
Right, And those purchases, you know, the fire gel and
fire extinguishers, you know, and an and a generator. You
think that they might be a lot of the time,
but if you ever have to use any of them,
it'll be worth a billion times what you paid for.
Speaker 9 (32:48):
Absolutely, no question whatsoever. And by the way, for anybody
who's looking, you can go to firegel dot com and
you can see exactly what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
I saw a guy being interviewed up in Ventura, I
think it was last night or this morning, and when
the fire approached, he had a bunch of fire I
mean patio furniture in his backyard. He threw everything in
the pool and split.
Speaker 9 (33:10):
Yeah, not a bad idea. Get rid of anything that
could possibly, uh, you know, allow that fire to leap
frog closer to the house.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
And why do we have I'm sure for ventilation, but
do we need the vent i for the attic you know.
Speaker 9 (33:27):
That's a it's a it's a longer answer than than
we have time for. But uh, in the very very
near future, I think we're going to see something that
is called conditioned attic space, which is catching on in
desert areas and starting to move across the country. I
think we're going to be within the next decade, You're
you're going to see the going away of of at
(33:51):
events completely. But in order to do that, we have
to insulate attics differently, and that's why it's a little
bit more of a complex. But yes, with standard insulation
you need add events.
Speaker 1 (34:02):
Buddy, I appreciate you coming on and we'll talk to
you next week.
Speaker 9 (34:05):
Sounds good bye.
Speaker 7 (34:06):
Thank you.
Speaker 9 (34:06):
Dean Sharp.
Speaker 1 (34:07):
Every Saturday and Sunday here on KFI, go to fire
jail dot com.
Speaker 7 (34:10):
That might save your home.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
Fire Jael, you get it and you spray it on
your home, could save your life, could save your home.
Speaker 9 (34:16):
It's got to be worth it. I we have got
to get out of here.
Speaker 1 (34:20):
Moe Kelly is coming up next right here on KFI
AM six forty Conway Show on demand on the iHeartRadio app. Now,
you can always hear us live on KFI AM six
forty four to seven pm Monday through Friday, and anytime
on demand on the iHeartRadio app
Tim Conway Jr. on Demand News
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