January 9, 2025 • 49 mins
Altadena Press Conference // Michael Monks on the evacuation centers // Michael Monks – Fires will cost estimated $52 billion / Tax relief
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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 (00:07):
I'll staying on the one Atenies found it moves nicely
all the way to the four oh fire.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
We're going to head out to Pasadena now for an
update on the Eaton Canyon fire.
Speaker 4 (00:16):
That our thoughts and prayers are with those who have
lost their home and even their lives here in Pasadena
as well as in Altadena and the Palisades. On behalf
of all residents of Pasadena and the leaders that you
see behind me, we will certainly have all those individuals
(00:37):
and their families and friends in our thoughts and prayers.
We have experienced state tremendous tragedy here in our community.
To date, we have over one hundred thousand people under
mandatory evacuation. We've had five fatalities, and then we have
(00:58):
close to another one hundred thousand people who have been
warned to evacuate because they are on a danger zone.
Hundreds of homes have been lost. I'll let the police
chief and the fire chief talk about that. But this
is an opportunity for us as a community, as a
people to band together and work to support one another,
(01:21):
whether you're affected or not. Please take the opportunity to
help a neighbor, help a friend, check in on friends
and neighbors, and certainly check in on family members. Here
with me today our council Member Jason Lyon, Council Member
Justin Jones, Council Member Jessica Rivas, my colleagues on the
(01:45):
test the city Council.
Speaker 5 (01:47):
Also with us today is City.
Speaker 4 (01:50):
Manager Miguel Marquez, our supervisor, LA County Supervisor Catherine Barger,
congress Member Chudy Chew, States Ender Sasha Perez, Assembly Member
John Harribedian, the superintendent of the Passada Unified School District,
Doctor Blanco, the president of Passida City College, Doctor Jose Perez,
(02:16):
a representative from the Humane Society. Also with us today
our neighboring assembly members, Assembly Member Closa, assembly Member and
assembly Member Nick Schultz. You'll also hear from Fire Chief
Chat Augustine and Police Chief Jean Harris. So again, I
(02:38):
just want to assure people that Pasadena is working in
conjunction with our neighboring jurisdictions, including the County of Los Angeles,
particularly the County of Los Angeles. We Supervisor Barger and
I had the opportunity to sit down with the Governor
(02:58):
of California this afternoon not too long ago, maybe an
hour ago, and the Governor has assured us that he
will provide whatever assistance that we may request and so on.
Behalf of Supervisor Bargaert and I I'd like to thank
the Governor for coming, seeing for himself the devastation and
(03:20):
committing the Guard and other resources to Pasadena, and so
we will certainly be in touch with that.
Speaker 5 (03:29):
Let me and.
Speaker 4 (03:31):
I'll go over these points in Spanish at the end
as well. Let me turn it over to City Manager
Miguil Marquez.
Speaker 5 (03:43):
Good afternoon. My name is Miguel Marquez.
Speaker 6 (03:46):
Excuse me, Miguel spelled m I g u e L
Marquez m A r qu e Z. I am the
city manager for the City of Pasadena. It's been a
brutal twenty two hours here in Pasadena.
Speaker 5 (03:59):
Heart for all who lost.
Speaker 6 (04:01):
Their homes, their memories, and their sense of security. About
twenty two hours ago, we first learned of a fire
in Eaton Canyon, as they always do, and despite the dangers,
our first responders rushed to the scene. They found darkness,
they found fire, and they found eighty mile per hour winds.
Their support was not possible under those conditions. Our first
(04:24):
responders did all they could under those brutal conditions to
put out the fire, putting their own lives at risk
to save others.
Speaker 5 (04:32):
They battled through the night, with more and more joining
the fight.
Speaker 6 (04:36):
As the night wore on, our police officers went door
to door ensuring as many residents as possible were evacuated
to safety, including many seniors and those with mobility limitations.
They saved many, many lives in the last twenty two hours.
Their efforts were heroic, our first responders, our public the
(05:00):
Works Department who cleared the streets, Pasadena Water and Power
who kept the power on and the water flowing throughout
the night. Public servants from so many different agencies came
together in the last twenty two hours to keep as
many people safe as possible. Together, many many lives were saved.
(05:20):
The battle continues, as does our resolve. We will put
out the fire and then it will be time to rebuild.
In this community, we may get knocked down, but we
always pick ourselves up. Many thanks to our first responders,
our city staff, our city council, our county, state and
(05:41):
federal partners, our education partners, our nonprofit partners, our business partners,
our partners in the media, and most of all, our residents.
Thanks to all for once again stepping up and doing
what needed to be done to keep people as safe
as possible in the face of danger. We will not relent,
(06:02):
We will hill, we will rebuild. These last twenty two
hours didn't bring us down. They made us Pasadena strong.
Speaker 5 (06:11):
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (06:15):
Next, I'll invite La County Supervisor and our supervisor, Katherine Berger.
Speaker 7 (06:23):
As I was standing here, one of our Alden residents
came up to me who is very active in the
rotary and he lost his home. I'm hearing this time
and time again. And as the mayor told you, you went
up and took a tour, and it is surreal. It
is without words that I can even explain to you
what is taking place, especially in my district in Altadena,
(06:44):
but also in the bordering area of Pasadena. My heart
is heavy, but I have to say, and the mayor
is absolutely correct. We met with the governor, who also
met with the President, and resources, both financial but also
resources for boots on the ground are here and we're
(07:04):
to continue to fight this fight. But I would ask people, please,
please please, if you don't need to be in the area,
we don't need you in the area. Recognize that when
we drove up there, these are fires that are actively
taking place as we speak, and there are many people
that don't live in the area that just wanted to
go out and take a look.
Speaker 5 (07:25):
We have fire personnel.
Speaker 7 (07:26):
That is fighting this blaze, not only in alf Dina,
but also in the Palisades area.
Speaker 8 (07:33):
We need you all.
Speaker 7 (07:34):
To work with us and to the most people that
want to go up and loot, the full weight of
the county will come down on you.
Speaker 5 (07:46):
And that's going to.
Speaker 7 (07:47):
Start with the District Attorney, who's issuing a press release
and is going to make sure the full sense of
the law is played out if you are caught looting
in any area impacted by this fire. But I want
to think think our first responders, who many of which
have been on the line for over twenty four hours,
and I think it's important for us to know that
(08:08):
the chief the La County Fire has asked for resources
outside the state with the goal to let them go
in and begin to fight the fires so that our
firefighters can take a break.
Speaker 5 (08:20):
And then start again.
Speaker 7 (08:22):
But again, I want to thank our first responders, but
I also want to thank our state and federal partners.
Congress Member two, Congressman White Sides, who represents Santa Creta area.
It's very reassuring to know that we have an all
hands on deck, both at the state and at the
federal level, and we will rebuild. And my friends out
(08:47):
there that have lost their homes, we are here for
you as we look forward to what we are going
to do to help you rebuild your life. So with that,
thank you.
Speaker 5 (09:03):
Next, congress Member Judy Chu, Well, I'm.
Speaker 9 (09:10):
Congress Member Judy Chu and I just got off the
plane from Washington, DC. My heart goes out to those
who've lost their homes and their businesses. I've had friends
tell me that they've lost their homes and I can't
believe the destruction that this fire is causing. But I
want to tell you that this morning I was on
(09:31):
the phone with the White House and with FEMA, and
President Biden has declared this a national disaster. So now
the mechanics are set for people to get assistance for
recovery from FEMA. And also FEMA was asked last night
by the state of California to declare less eligible for
(09:54):
the fire management grants, and indeed it is all the
expenses that we see for fighting this fire will be
reimbursed by the federal government. And also are spoken to
Supervisor Torres of the San Gabriel Mountains. He's asked for
help from Washington d C. To close the forest area.
(10:16):
So I do want to urge everybody please stay away
from the forest area, and I just urge everybody to
make sure that you obey the evacuation orders and that
also you take advantage of the shelters that are available
at the Pasadena Civic Center as well as the Arcadia
(10:37):
Community Center. Our office is going to be ready to
assist you in the recovery from these fires, and we
know that there will be assistance from Small Business Administration,
which has emergency loans, and there will be grants from FEMA.
(10:57):
But right now, the most important thing is to be safe.
So that's why I say to everybody, please stay out
of these areas, Please make sure you obey the evacuation orders,
and please stay safe.
Speaker 5 (11:16):
Next State Senators Sasha Reneper is.
Speaker 10 (11:25):
Good evening, everyone.
Speaker 11 (11:26):
I think this is a really difficult moment for many
of us in the community, especially for those of us
that have grown up in the San Gabriel Valley and
who have come to know and love this community. As
the supervisor said, we're receiving many calls from friends and
community members letting us know that they've lost their homes,
(11:47):
they've lost their businesses. This is a really devastating time.
We just toward the site and there are still fires burning,
and I want to emphasize to people, if you are
told to evacuate, please evacuate. Please take these warnings seriously.
I have family members that have evacuated, they have left
their homes. I understand how difficult of a decision this is,
(12:11):
but this is about safety and safety.
Speaker 10 (12:13):
First.
Speaker 11 (12:14):
We want to make sure that you all are taken
care of, that you're taking care of your families. This
is what is most important right now. It is incredibly
dangerous for individuals to be up there during the time
and there's fires like this. This is a very very
dangerous time, So please evacuate, get somewhere safe, make sure
(12:36):
that your family is safe.
Speaker 5 (12:38):
Also, if you receive an.
Speaker 11 (12:39):
Evacuation warning, please make sure if you have elderly neighbors,
pick up the phone and let them know We've seen
a lot of senior citizens just here at the Senior
Center that have been evacuated, and someone taking a moment
to knock on the door and make sure that they
were informed so that they're getting out of their home
is so critical and makes such a difference. We know
(13:00):
right now that there's a lot of folks that are
struggling to have cell service when they're up in the foothills.
Right now, we know power lines are down and these
fires are continuing to rage on. So you know, the
state's doing everything that it can right now to make
sure that we're allocating resources. We're removing firefighters from northern California,
from Central California to come here to fight this fire.
(13:23):
There's firefighters coming from out of state and so resources
are coming. We're going to get this thing contained, but
it is going to take time, and so make sure
that you're staying away letting our public safety officers do
what they need to do so that we can get
this contained.
Speaker 4 (13:39):
Thank you, Next assembly Member John here Abedium, Thank you
Mary Gordo.
Speaker 8 (13:52):
For anyone who is a believer of any faith, please
we need your prayers, We need your your thoughts of
healing and anything that you can do to help our community.
Many of our neighbors, our loved ones, and members throughout
our community lost their lives today and we are with you,
(14:17):
we see you, we feel you, and we are going
to help you get through this. As part of the
State of California, along with our governor, our federal and
local officials. Our main mission now is to keep people safe,
minimize any further devastation. And for those of you who
lost your homes, who lost your property, who lost your
(14:41):
loved ones, we are going to help you rebuild. We're
going to do everything we can to fight for you
every day now, this week, over the next couple months
and years to make sure you get your life back.
And that is my promise, that is the promise of
everyone behind us. But please stay diligent, heed the warnings
of our public safety officers, and please stay out of
(15:06):
harm's way. Thank you to our men and women on
the front lines, our first responders. We are not out
of this. It is all hands on deck and it's
going to be a long couple nights still, So thank
you to everyone who's helping these efforts, and please pray
for us.
Speaker 7 (15:22):
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (15:23):
Next Superintendent of the passing the Unified School District, Doctor.
Speaker 12 (15:28):
Blanco, good evening, and I want to echo the sentiments
that our heart goes out to all of our families,
our staff, our employees who have suffered losses during this
devastating event. Behind me, you see the power of us,
the city, the mayor, the city manager, our leader from
(15:53):
PCC all came around the school district to help us
provide for our families and our students. I saw many
of my families here today who have lost their homes
along with their staff. Thank you for being here with
them and thank you for supporting them. Our schools are
going to remain closed for the rest of the week.
(16:15):
We are continuing to assess the damages at our school.
Our maintenance and Operation team, along with our police department,
the sheriffs, and our fire department have been assessing our buildings.
Our preliminary assessment results show that the fire has substantially
damaged five campuses, while most of them are in good condition.
(16:40):
We have confirmed these five campuses in Alsadina. Elliott's Arts
Magnet School is damaged. Franklin Elementary, which was closed in
twenty twenty as damage of about eighty percent. Three campuses
that house. Other schools have sustained damages Edison, Loma, Alta,
(17:02):
and Noise. Please note this information is preliminary. The fire
is not contained and some of our schools still remain
in the path of the fire. We're working together with
our city partners to do everything we can to preserve
our schools, Our next steps, our recovery. We're planning for
(17:24):
recovery as we respond to the emergency. As we know
our families are dependent on us. Public education is the
bedrock of democracy. We learn that in COVID and we
will be here to help our families and our staff
get through what is happening in our city.
Speaker 13 (17:43):
Thank you.
Speaker 12 (17:44):
We're deeply grateful for everything that you all have done
to help and support us.
Speaker 4 (17:52):
Next President of Passion City College, doctor joseigelmers.
Speaker 14 (18:00):
Hi.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
I'm jose A Gomez, jos A Gomez Gomez. Over the
last twenty four hours, our hearts have been broken by
what has transpired.
Speaker 5 (18:15):
We have lost our peace.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
Although Pasadena City College has sustained minor damage, our hearts
and our prayers and our thoughts are with our greater community.
We are so grateful at Pasadena City College for the
incredible leadership that the City of Pasadena and all of
our legislators and all of our elected officials have provided
(18:45):
not just to our college, but also to our community.
The campus will be closed and we will not be
having classes until next Monday. We will resume regular schedule
and classes on Monday if possible. Of course, it's a
(19:07):
very fluid situation. But more importantly than that, we have
activated much of our campus community and support of our
partners and our greater Pasadena San Gabriel Valley family. Our
emergency Management Response team has been deployed here to the
(19:30):
Convention Center to help the city. We have our nursing
staff who will be arriving soon to help our city
Department of Public Health, and in partnership with our Superintendent
of pasading A Unified School District, doctor Elizabeth Blanco, we
(19:54):
are also serving meals to our PUSD families at Pasadena
City co. We are here to help in any way possible,
and we of course appreciate all of your support and
all of your help. Pasadena in the San Gabriel Valley
has been an amazing partner to PCC, and we are
(20:19):
here to be an important and critical partner to the
communities that we serve. Thank you.
Speaker 5 (20:28):
Next from the Humane Society Divernit.
Speaker 14 (20:35):
I'm Da Divernitt, President and CEO of Pasadena Humane. We're
a nonprofit animal welfare organization and shelter serving Pasadena and
tents surrounding areas, including Altadena, which has been very hard
hit by this fire, and our hearts really go out
to all the people who have lost their homes and
(20:56):
their pets in this disaster. We recently just heard from
one of our board members who lost her home with
her two cats in it. I'm sure we're going to
be hearing more stories like this in the coming hours
and days. But our primary focus has been over the
past twenty four hours to assist people who have been
(21:16):
safely evacuating with their pets and need a place for
their pets to go. So we've taken in over two
hundred and fifty pets in the past twenty four hours,
and we have been working today to coordinate with shelters
throughout the state to help take the animals that are
in our shelter to make room for more animals who
are coming in. I want to really thank all of
(21:40):
I want to really thank everyone who has offered assistance,
including the shelters around the state and people who we
see in our community who are rescuing neighbors pets and
bringing them to us. It really has been heartwarming to
see even our staff members who have been evacuated and
(22:01):
are losing their homes coming to the shelter to shelter
with their pets and take care of other people's pets.
It's going to take a real community effort to recover
from this. We've had lots of inquiries from people wanting
to help. We're taking names of those who would be
interested in fostering animals as we get more animals in
(22:23):
Right now, our primary need is monetary donations so that
we can provide emergency services to pets that have been
impacted by the flyers. We are also providing food and
other pet supplies if anyone is in need, and we
really encourage you. If you are evacuating, please make sure
your pet has identification, take pet supplies with you, and
(22:50):
if possible, please try to stay with family or friends
who can accommodate you and your pet. As the shelters
are really becoming quite stressed in the situation, and I
want to give a few concrete resources because they have
been rapidly evolving for those in the foothill areas who
(23:13):
have horses in need of shelter. Right now, the fair
Plex and promonas taking them the Industry Hills Equestrian Center,
and soon LA County will be opening the Anealope Valley
fair Grounds. We've heard that the La Equestrian Center, where
horses have been kept are is currently being evacuated. We
(23:35):
have recently started to see the first injured animals coming in.
We've had a cat and some wildlife coming in. If
you do find an injured wildlife, we'd like you to
call our Weld Wildlife Helpline at six two six three
four four one one two nine. We're very thankful to
our skilled veterinarians who are providing care to these animals,
(23:58):
and we'll continue to provide care around the clock to
animals and need in our community.
Speaker 8 (24:05):
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (24:10):
Next, because this is still an active fire with very
little if any containment, I think it's important to hear
from the fire chief, and our fire chief is here
with us, Chief Chad Augustine.
Speaker 7 (24:25):
Than.
Speaker 10 (24:28):
Good afternoon.
Speaker 15 (24:29):
My name is Chad Augustine, your Pasadena fire Chief, Chad
au g us t I N I'd like to give
you a current sits down on our Eating fire. We
can confirm that the Eating Fire is now over ten
six hundred acres as zero percent containment. I'd be remissed though,
if I didn't highlight some of the heroic actions last
(24:50):
night by your public safety, police and fire who literally
save lives, pulling people out from burning buildings, getting them
out of streets and vehicles where they had no ways
to evacuate. Our death count today would be significantly higher
without their heroic actions. We currently have sixty strike teams
(25:12):
requested and seven hundred and fifty firefighters working on this incident.
Speaker 5 (25:17):
We're in a unified command.
Speaker 15 (25:18):
With multiple agencies to include law, LA County Fire, LA
County Sheriff, and Angelus National Forest along with Pasadena Fire.
We have strike teams committed from all over the state
and as far as Arizona come into assist us. Multiple
structures have been damaged or destroyed as this wind driven
(25:41):
fire had wing us of seventy plus miles per hour.
We had spotting of embers two to three miles ahead
of the fire. I can confirm tonight that we have
in five hundred structures damaged or lost.
Speaker 5 (25:55):
We really need.
Speaker 15 (25:56):
As it becomes safe to do so and we get
a better handle on this, we're going to be able to.
Speaker 5 (26:01):
We need to come in and be able to.
Speaker 15 (26:02):
Survey the damage to get an exact total number of
structures that have been damaged or completely lost. We continue
to be in red flight conditions and we expect that
to be through Thursday with variable and high wind speeds, Thankfully,
not as strong as what we saw last night. We
(26:25):
are encouraging people to stay updated as the weather can
continue to change very rapidly. Please, if we issue an
evacuation order, heed our request, be prepared, have your go
bag and immediately evacuate. Thankfully, the current forecast allow us
(26:47):
today to start getting aircraft in to fight this fire.
Since around ten am we've had aircraft doing water drops
with the goal of limiting the fire spread. We will
come behind those waters drops with hand crews and fire
engines to get a containment line around this fire. We expect,
with favorable conditions over the next couple of days to
(27:08):
start making good progress on this fire. And with that
I'll turn it over to the police chief.
Speaker 16 (27:14):
Chief we take our question, that's the current in the situation.
Speaker 5 (27:18):
When you have in your fire fires.
Speaker 16 (27:21):
How are they holding up?
Speaker 3 (27:21):
To listen to an update on the Pasadena.
Speaker 15 (27:27):
We need those reinforcements coming in. But they've done incredible
work where they've you know, an example with crews that
that fought fifteen house fires over a twenty eight hour period.
They didn't save any of them, but they prevented two
or three blocks away from burning down. So great work
not just from your Pasadena fire but throughout this entire regions.
Speaker 5 (27:51):
Strike teams.
Speaker 13 (27:52):
What's the status of that?
Speaker 6 (27:53):
How long would be.
Speaker 15 (27:54):
As great question. So we have multiple strike teams that
have arrived. We're in the about in the early fifteen
ish strike teams, and we expect over the next twenty
four hours we'll get we'll be close to fifty even
some of our Arizona strike teams should be here by
this evening.
Speaker 13 (28:11):
Jim, can you talk about your resources?
Speaker 6 (28:13):
Great stretch to know that this morning out of the
trumps and fires, there were maybe one or two firefighters
on scene, alif because you appeared not to have the
reset everybody stretching unit talk about that?
Speaker 15 (28:25):
Yeah, sure, I would be kidding all of you if
I said we didn't have resources stretched yesterday. Rights, it's
a rarity that you have two major brush fires in
La County like we did yesterday with the fire and
the Palisades let alone the multiple other fires.
Speaker 10 (28:42):
That we saw.
Speaker 15 (28:43):
So we had an extreme draw down from UH with
La County fire, and they are our biggest partner. Even
with their draw down, they sent us a lot of
resources last night, which was really helpful. It's unfortunate with
the wind gusts that we had up to seventy mile
an hour wins they had to ground their aircraft last night.
But we really relied on all of La County to
(29:06):
bring us resources and then with a mutual aid requests
from up and down the state.
Speaker 10 (29:10):
Did that answer your question?
Speaker 5 (29:12):
Thank?
Speaker 16 (29:12):
You want to answer to r Inside the fire zone
and multiple residents the top todopping, the lack of water
press or a lack of water at all, trying to
pro fight the fliers.
Speaker 8 (29:23):
And there's a similar situation we're going how we say
it's going.
Speaker 17 (29:26):
There's a time about water pressure here in that height
no water at one time?
Speaker 2 (29:31):
Is this what we're seeing?
Speaker 18 (29:33):
What was the situation there?
Speaker 16 (29:34):
Are we saw first fans as well? Why was the
same case this is going to be in trouble a problem.
Speaker 15 (29:42):
Yeah, when you have multiple fires, multiple city blocks on
fire with I'll throw a number out, one hundred fire
engines flowing water. We're gonna we are going to stretch
our water system. Were on top of that, we had
a loss of power temporarily which impacted our water system.
(30:02):
But I'll be clear, we could have had much more
water with those wind gus. We were not stopping that
fire last night, those erratic wing gus. We're throwing embers
for multiple miles ahead of the fire, and.
Speaker 10 (30:17):
That's really what caused the rapid spread of this fire.
Speaker 5 (30:21):
Specific the fire start the most.
Speaker 12 (30:25):
Specific because it's a beach taken up six last night, Like.
Speaker 9 (30:33):
That's form a fire in our right annual.
Speaker 15 (30:37):
That's correct. The time that is correct, and around six
point thirty was when the fire came in in the
Altadena area. It was actually in La County, but right
on the border. We had both Pasadena and La County
resources arriving almost simultaneously, and then of course the fire
quickly moved into the Pasadena city limits.
Speaker 4 (30:58):
So the ten six hundred pature is on fires, zero presentiment,
tagent bones destroyed.
Speaker 5 (31:08):
Yeah, handle on this.
Speaker 15 (31:10):
Yeah. What what gives me hope is when I look
at the trees and bushes around here. Last night was incredible, right,
it was like something that most of you have probably
never seen. Tonight, we have very mild wind conditions where
we can get aircraft and a ton of additional resources
(31:32):
getting their hands around this fire. That's what gives me
confidence that we're going to get a handle on this fire.
Speaker 4 (31:38):
What before, why don't we bring the police chief up
and then we'll then you can ask questions of bull chiefs.
Can we talk about the pots of the fire and
you know that there's a fire or any.
Speaker 14 (31:50):
Of these nets?
Speaker 15 (31:54):
The cause You're gonna love my generic answer, But the
cause is under investigation.
Speaker 5 (31:58):
Right.
Speaker 15 (31:58):
We have multiple fire investigators as well as far and
arson investigators from Elie County and local resources investigating that,
and we need to let them do their good work
so that we can come up with an accurate cause
and origin.
Speaker 5 (32:13):
We'll ask the chief to stay here for more questions.
Speaker 4 (32:16):
But in the meantime, you know, because this also involves
a public safety situation and neighborhoods that have been evacuated
in homes, The message I want to reiterate is don't
even think about it. Don't think about coming to loot
any of these properties in Pasadena or Altadena, because the
(32:39):
Passing and Police Department, as well as the La County
Sheriff and resources from the state of California will be
out there patrolling and protecting these neighborhoods. With that, I'll
turn it over to our police Chief, Eugene Harris, to
provide you more facts and details.
Speaker 5 (32:55):
It's very sure.
Speaker 18 (32:59):
My name is Jean har I am the police chief
for the City of Pasadena, Genus G. E. N. E.
Last name is Harris, H. A. R. I. S. Last night,
at the beginning of this incident, first responders from the
City of Pasadena responded to the area of this event
primarily on a safety mission, but when they got there,
they rapidly found an escalating fire that was growing rapidly
(33:22):
with the wind gusts, and it turned into a rescue
evacuation scenario. Those first responders active heroically by going in
and either evacuating or rest I'm sorry, evacuating or rescuing
numerous folks that are now housed in this building behind me.
It was nothing short of heroic and as they got there,
(33:42):
it rapidly turned into that type of mission. So we
had people from our police department, our fire department certainly
reached out into our area CE partners, local, state, and
county folks that came to assist, and it took all
night to get folks rescued or evacuated from their homes,
and that was robust in that end. We also reached
(34:03):
out beyond our county into other counties. We had some
other agencies assets to us that could help us solve
this problem, and they are still unseen at our command
post as we speak. As you heard said, this is
an active scenario from a law enforcement perspective. You've heard
all of the fire circumstances and issues. I'm going to
talk a little bit about what we in law enforcement
(34:24):
are doing in this incident.
Speaker 13 (34:26):
You're listening to Tim Conway Junior on demand from KFI
A six forty.
Speaker 18 (34:33):
As I said, it started out as a evacuation restaurant.
Speaker 17 (34:36):
You've been listening to a press conference with the fire
in Pacity. It's live Frompacity in the Altadena fire, and
we learned a lot there is you know, you can
hear the desperation a lot of the people's voices there.
They didn't have enough water, they didn't have enough manpower.
The winds were too ferocious. It just it was a
(34:58):
perfect storm out in Alta, DA. A lot of people
in Altadena. You live in the flat lands. I live
in the flats in the valley here in the San
Fernando Valley, and we have a false sense of security
that everything's gonna be okay because we live in the flats.
And the people who have their house burned, they live
in Big Bear, they live in the mountains, they live
in Mammoth, they live in this and the Sierras, they
live in Malibu, throw up in the mountains. That's not
true anymore. That's not true with these winds. Altadena one
(35:20):
of a beautiful place. I pass it, you know, a
couple of times a week on the way out to Arcadia.
It's a beautiful community, a great place, old school and
and I love that place. And that fire came all
the way down, I think, just adjacent to the two
ten freeway, which is a long, long distance. We're gonna
(35:42):
take a small break and then we're gonna come back
and talk to Michael Monks and and we can continue here. Okay,
let's continue, all right, Michael Monks. Is whether it's how
you bought nice to see them.
Speaker 10 (35:51):
I'm good.
Speaker 19 (35:52):
I just saw on a value an estimate from ACI Weather. Right,
they anticipate that these fires will cost or cause about
fifty two to fifty seven billion dollars in.
Speaker 10 (36:02):
Damage, Is that right?
Speaker 7 (36:03):
Oh?
Speaker 10 (36:04):
My god? And a lot of that.
Speaker 17 (36:06):
First of all, we don't have that kind of money
in this state. You know, we're broke to begin with,
and they're going to lose a lot of tax revenue,
you know, because if you own a five six seven
million dollar home in Malibu out out of the Palisades,
you're going to ignore that next tax bill. What are
they going to do? Come get your home? It's gone?
And so I think what the mayor has to do.
(36:27):
I think what Mayor Bass has to do immediately, because
she's in a lot of trouble here, a lot of heat,
you know, going in her direction. I think she's got
to immediately say to people, if you're in the fire zone,
if you've your house burned down, or even if it didn't,
you're getting an immediate tax break on your next property tax.
Speaker 19 (36:47):
The county tax assessor has come out today and has
encouraged people to apply for this calamity option so that
they can have their homes assessed basically at what the
market value might be after this dist production, and it
can save them about ten thousand dollars. So they've asked
folks who have suffered any damage in these fires to
(37:08):
go to the website and apply.
Speaker 10 (37:10):
And the county Assessor's office.
Speaker 19 (37:11):
Is closed all week, but they have some sites set
up at various spots, so you can go there, or
you can go to their website and value and investigate that.
Speaker 10 (37:20):
Why are they closed all week?
Speaker 19 (37:21):
I think because a lot of workplaces, including iHeart, you know,
are just saying, why don't we just stay home for
a day or two, because, you know, keep people off
the roads, keep it open for emergency vehicles. And it's
been true. I've been out today and around and the
freeways are not what they usually.
Speaker 10 (37:38):
They're empty. Yeah, damn, people are staying home.
Speaker 17 (37:40):
This is like an earthquake ap and you know, the
north Ridge quake was like this a couple of days after.
COVID reminds me of this as well. There's a lot
of traffic lights out and people don't know how to
operate with traffic lights, so they just fly through the intersection.
A lot of people are in danger, but if you
have an eight million dollar home, and that's not unusual
from Alaboum. Eight million dollar home pretty taxed one hundred
(38:00):
thousand dollars a year. You're gonna pay one hundred thousand
dollars and they don't even they'd even like attempt to
save your home.
Speaker 10 (38:07):
That's outrageous.
Speaker 17 (38:08):
I think people are gonna get really, really pissed off
after they after the sadness subsides, and I think that's
gonna be quick. I think that's gonna be the next
day or two, maybe a week max. And then people
are gonna be absolutely livid with what happened here because look,
we're we're sitting right next to an ocean that has
hundreds of quadrillion tons of water. Why have we not
(38:32):
figured out how to take the water from the ocean
and put it on these fires.
Speaker 10 (38:35):
It's unbelievable.
Speaker 17 (38:37):
And I don't know whether it's environmentalists that say you
can't put ocean water on the land, or if there's
just no real quick way to do it.
Speaker 10 (38:44):
I don't know. But it's out there. You know, you
go to look at the ocean, you can't see the
edge of it. It's that vast.
Speaker 17 (38:50):
It goes for thousands of miles even before you get
to Hawaii, and we can't take that water and put that.
Speaker 10 (38:55):
On this fire. We haven't figured out how to drink
it either. I mean, you know, it's just we just
know we got to.
Speaker 17 (39:00):
We got to figure that out, all right. So you've
been at the evacuation center. I have never seen anything
this sad in my life. Where there's a couple of them.
There's two facilities in Altadena, actually what in Altadena and
one in North Pasadena that happen to be evacuated because
of these fires. So you have these people at the
(39:21):
at end of life care in these nursing homes, in
these in these facilities where people take care of them
twenty four hours a day. They had to evacuate two
of those. So they pushed these people out, sometimes in
their hospital bed, sometimes in a wheelchair, and they put
them in the parking lot of a seven eleven. So
you wake up, you know, you go to bed, you
have your you know, your pea soup, you're watching you know,
(39:42):
old reruns of Brady Bunch, you have no idea where
you are, and then you wake up in a seven
to eleven parking lot with a guy breathing on you, saying, hey,
we got to get you into this van. You got
to get you into this van, and and you just
don't know what to do. So they take these people,
they take them to the convention center, and now they're
sitting in the convention center in wheelchairs. People have to
come get them. And a lot of them don't have relatives,
(40:04):
and a lot of them have homes that they've been
taken out of and they don't know if their homes
are there. That's exactly right.
Speaker 19 (40:10):
And today I was in the Westwood Recreation Center where
a lot of folks who had to evacuate the palisades
were hanging out. And it was a lot of older people,
a lot of older people in wheelchairs, walkers, couples still together.
Some of them seemed confused, lost, waiting for any loved
one to come pick them up and take them somewhere else.
But folks were turning to that evacuation center because they
(40:33):
needed it. Remember, just a little while back, in the
Malibu fire, they opened some evacuation center. Some people went,
but it wasn't a big deal. People were not planning
to sleep there. They were just waiting out the bulk
of the fire. This was different. People were sleeping, people
were in need of the food and a lot. In fact,
nearly everybody I spoke to had no idea what was
going on with their specific properties, and that was the
(40:54):
scary thing for them.
Speaker 17 (40:57):
Can you stay with us, Yeah, Okay, we're gonna take
a break here and then we'll come back. We've been
watching these fires. We're going to be wall to wall
with these fires. We've got all the information.
Speaker 10 (41:06):
We come back. Five people have passed away. That's horrible news.
Speaker 17 (41:10):
Ten thousand plus acres have burned in Pasadena alone, just
in the Pasadena area. Another ten to I think twelve
thousand out in the Palisades Malibu area. And then we've
got this another another fire that popped up here. We
had the one in Silmar, and then we have one
right off the four or five freeway in the Woodleigh
(41:31):
Park area. Another pop up popped up just a little
while ago.
Speaker 13 (41:36):
You're listening to Tim Conway Junior on demand from KFI
Am six forty.
Speaker 10 (41:43):
You know, Bellio told me this.
Speaker 17 (41:46):
The two nursing homes that were evacuated last night in Altadena,
both of them, you know, completely evacuated. Everybody was taken
out into the parking lot of seven to eleven, and
you know that's that's where they are. In twenty twenty five,
you're in a parking lot of a seven to eleven.
Both of those nursing homes burned to the ground, both
(42:07):
of them gone. And thank God there were people enough
people had to get you know, I imagine, you know,
there's those places are not stacked with pete with employees
and volunteers all night. I imagine people came in off
the street or loved ones or neighbors came in to
help them evacuate. And then God bless those people for
doing that. During the press conference, I heard one of
(42:28):
the council members or maybe a city representative, but I
heard him say, God bless everybody, and keep people in
your prayers so he'll be gone. Can't do that anymore, right,
can't pray for people anymore. So, just a matter of
time before he's gone. But monks, you got more information
(42:48):
for us. You've been out there all day. You got
my information on these property tax as well.
Speaker 19 (42:52):
Yeah, the county assessor we talked about this briefly just
moments ago. I might have jumbled the info a bit,
so just to clarify. According to the Assessor's office, property
owners whose homes or buildings were damaged or destroyed by
the fires or the windstorms, you could qualify for temporary
tax relief. It's called the Misfortune and Calamity Property tax
Relief Program. You can receive temporary tax relief adjustments made
(43:16):
to reflect the reduced value of that property until the
repairs or rebuilding are complete.
Speaker 10 (43:21):
So that could be years.
Speaker 19 (43:23):
Yeah, So if you're if your property is on the
ground like this for two or three years, you would
only be assessed at the value of the property as
it sits.
Speaker 10 (43:32):
Right, So the land, yeah, yeah, but the land is
still valuable. It is I think.
Speaker 17 (43:37):
I think the most valuable thing of any piece of
property in southern California is the land. You know, even
in Malibu. You know, that's very expensive property. So let's say,
you know, you have a four million dollar house in
the Palisades, and that's not unusual, and it's been destroyed
by the fire. That land might might still be worth
(43:57):
a million and a half or two million dollars, so
you still have to pay you know, one and a
quarter percent on two million dollars is thirty thousand dollars a.
Speaker 19 (44:06):
Year unless you live in a historic home and it's
quite old, and then you get the benefit of very
low property taxes.
Speaker 14 (44:14):
Is that right?
Speaker 7 (44:15):
Yeah?
Speaker 10 (44:15):
And what qualifies one hundred years?
Speaker 19 (44:17):
It's it's I think to qualify for historic technically to
be like on the register.
Speaker 10 (44:22):
I think it's just fifty.
Speaker 19 (44:23):
Oh really, but I don't know what the years are
exactly in the City of Los Angeles code. But like
all the buildings downtown, if you buy a condo downtown
for a million, two million bucks, you're only assessed at
like two three hundred thousand.
Speaker 10 (44:36):
Is that right? Yeah?
Speaker 17 (44:37):
Come on, I got to look into that because the
house we live in and built nineteen thirty eight, and
you're in Burbank, I mean Burbank.
Speaker 10 (44:44):
Yeah, yeah, we got to change the rules in Burbank.
Speaker 5 (44:47):
All right?
Speaker 17 (44:47):
What else is going I know you've been out there
all day covering information. Unfortunately, have five people who have
passed away, a thousand plus structure destroyed in the Palisades fire.
Speaker 10 (44:56):
What else do you know that we don't hear?
Speaker 19 (45:00):
Let me tell you this, and this is something that
I know you can comment on, because you know, I'm
so relatively new here. I'm hearing from everybody. It's never
looked like this before.
Speaker 10 (45:07):
Never, it's never been like this. I've been here sixty years,
it's never been like this. And it's just breathtaking.
Speaker 19 (45:14):
I drove out this morning from downtown, first waking up
downtown and opening a window and smelling like a campfire, right,
I mean you could smell it downtown. There were ashes
black soot on the windshield and that was weird. It
was very calm and quiet even yesterday, even in the evening,
you could tell people were starting to kind of clear
out and hunker down for whatever was about to happen.
(45:36):
Then drove out to west Wood to check out this
evacuation center, talk to some of the people who had
to flee the Palisades and then leaving there to come
back here. You know, you hop on the four or
five and then you see the Palisades fire, and then
you get on the one O one and you see
the fire and Alta Dina. Yeah, it's really really breathtaking
to have the city surrounded like this. I can smell
it in Burbank and I how about this for a time.
(46:00):
This never works my favor, but on Sunday, you know,
I think a lot of people. And I noticed this
when I went to the second hand store, the Goodwill.
A lot of people after New Year's one of those
year's resolutions to get rid of the crap in your
house and give it to somebody else so they can
put it in their house. And so you take it
to Goodwill and people rummage through your crap and they
and they take it home and they put it in
(46:20):
their home. And one of the things that I was
getting rid of, and they took everything. They took clothes, books,
a lamp, you know, an old you know, dresser table.
They took everything, except they didn't take the Hepa air
filter that I had.
Speaker 10 (46:34):
And I said, this has a brand new filter.
Speaker 17 (46:36):
And I just bought this filter, you know, a week ago,
so I could give it away and somebody could use it.
And it actually works. There's a brand new thirty dollars
filter in this thing. She said, no, we don't take those,
and I said, okay, and I threw it back in
the car. And I'm glad I did, because now I
brought it in the house and it helps, you know,
keep the smokeout. But that never works in my favor,
that it ever works. My favorite this is something. Also,
(46:56):
we're watching Channel five right now, Channel four, there's a
channel eleven. There's a Bank America on fire, live, Bank
America on fire, and God only knows how.
Speaker 10 (47:07):
Much money is going up in that in that bank
right now.
Speaker 17 (47:12):
The Eton fire six ten, six hundred acres blamed for
five deaths, and we have this Bank of America completely
engulfed right next to a Chase Bank as well. And
I've been to that Bank America, so anyway, so this
is something that bothers me. I'm looking at Channel five.
There's a home probably worth two three four million dollars,
(47:32):
very well landscaped, and then you look and they go
into the backyard.
Speaker 10 (47:36):
The home is leveled.
Speaker 17 (47:37):
The chimney's the only thing standing, and the pool is
filled with water. That water could have been put on
that house to save that house, if somebody had bought
a pump and had put all that water on, you know,
because fire only comes by for three to nine minutes.
They say a fire comes by for three to nine minutes,
then it moves on, and it was three to nine minutes.
(48:00):
If your house catches on fire, that's where the fire
stays and burns your house to the ground. If you
could if you could fight it off for those three
to nine minutes as it flies by your neighborhood, you
could save your home. If you had a They cost
about five or six thousand dollars. They pump four or
five thousand, you know, gallons per hour. I don't know
what that is per minute. But you can literally take
(48:21):
that entire pool and throw it on top of that
house in about three minutes and save your home.
Speaker 19 (48:26):
You've got the ocean, you've got the pools, that's right.
How do we get this water on the fire?
Speaker 17 (48:30):
I don't know how we don't fill the big water
tanks up in the hills where you know we draw from,
and the big reservoirs, I don't know how we don't
fill them with ocean water in emergencies.
Speaker 10 (48:40):
I don't know how.
Speaker 3 (48:40):
We don't remember Hawaii last year, yeah, right, exactly, surrounded
by water, right, It's surrounded by by water for three
thousand miles in every direction, every direction, and they could
and they didn't have enough water to put on that fire.
Speaker 17 (48:54):
We have got to rethink how we fight fires in
this city. And this is this can never happen again.
This can never happen again. There has to be as
a matter of fact, when we come back. I have
a solution for this that I think will work. And Monks,
thank you for coming in. We'll check back with you.
And I know you got up awfully early, so thank
you for coming in. Thank you, great information, a right
(49:15):
real live. It's Conway Show Live on CAFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (49:18):
It's KFI Am six forty and you're listening to the
Conway Show 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 (00:07):
I'll staying on the one Atenies found it moves nicely
all the way to the four oh fire.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
We're going to head out to Pasadena now for an
update on the Eaton Canyon fire.
Speaker 4 (00:16):
That our thoughts and prayers are with those who have
lost their home and even their lives here in Pasadena
as well as in Altadena and the Palisades. On behalf
of all residents of Pasadena and the leaders that you
see behind me, we will certainly have all those individuals
(00:37):
and their families and friends in our thoughts and prayers.
We have experienced state tremendous tragedy here in our community.
To date, we have over one hundred thousand people under
mandatory evacuation. We've had five fatalities, and then we have
(00:58):
close to another one hundred thousand people who have been
warned to evacuate because they are on a danger zone.
Hundreds of homes have been lost. I'll let the police
chief and the fire chief talk about that. But this
is an opportunity for us as a community, as a
people to band together and work to support one another,
(01:21):
whether you're affected or not. Please take the opportunity to
help a neighbor, help a friend, check in on friends
and neighbors, and certainly check in on family members. Here
with me today our council Member Jason Lyon, Council Member
Justin Jones, Council Member Jessica Rivas, my colleagues on the
(01:45):
test the city Council.
Speaker 5 (01:47):
Also with us today is City.
Speaker 4 (01:50):
Manager Miguel Marquez, our supervisor, LA County Supervisor Catherine Barger,
congress Member Chudy Chew, States Ender Sasha Perez, Assembly Member
John Harribedian, the superintendent of the Passada Unified School District,
Doctor Blanco, the president of Passida City College, Doctor Jose Perez,
(02:16):
a representative from the Humane Society. Also with us today
our neighboring assembly members, Assembly Member Closa, assembly Member and
assembly Member Nick Schultz. You'll also hear from Fire Chief
Chat Augustine and Police Chief Jean Harris. So again, I
(02:38):
just want to assure people that Pasadena is working in
conjunction with our neighboring jurisdictions, including the County of Los Angeles,
particularly the County of Los Angeles. We Supervisor Barger and
I had the opportunity to sit down with the Governor
(02:58):
of California this afternoon not too long ago, maybe an
hour ago, and the Governor has assured us that he
will provide whatever assistance that we may request and so on.
Behalf of Supervisor Bargaert and I I'd like to thank
the Governor for coming, seeing for himself the devastation and
(03:20):
committing the Guard and other resources to Pasadena, and so
we will certainly be in touch with that.
Speaker 5 (03:29):
Let me and.
Speaker 4 (03:31):
I'll go over these points in Spanish at the end
as well. Let me turn it over to City Manager
Miguil Marquez.
Speaker 5 (03:43):
Good afternoon. My name is Miguel Marquez.
Speaker 6 (03:46):
Excuse me, Miguel spelled m I g u e L
Marquez m A r qu e Z. I am the
city manager for the City of Pasadena. It's been a
brutal twenty two hours here in Pasadena.
Speaker 5 (03:59):
Heart for all who lost.
Speaker 6 (04:01):
Their homes, their memories, and their sense of security. About
twenty two hours ago, we first learned of a fire
in Eaton Canyon, as they always do, and despite the dangers,
our first responders rushed to the scene. They found darkness,
they found fire, and they found eighty mile per hour winds.
Their support was not possible under those conditions. Our first
(04:24):
responders did all they could under those brutal conditions to
put out the fire, putting their own lives at risk
to save others.
Speaker 5 (04:32):
They battled through the night, with more and more joining
the fight.
Speaker 6 (04:36):
As the night wore on, our police officers went door
to door ensuring as many residents as possible were evacuated
to safety, including many seniors and those with mobility limitations.
They saved many, many lives in the last twenty two hours.
Their efforts were heroic, our first responders, our public the
(05:00):
Works Department who cleared the streets, Pasadena Water and Power
who kept the power on and the water flowing throughout
the night. Public servants from so many different agencies came
together in the last twenty two hours to keep as
many people safe as possible. Together, many many lives were saved.
(05:20):
The battle continues, as does our resolve. We will put
out the fire and then it will be time to rebuild.
In this community, we may get knocked down, but we
always pick ourselves up. Many thanks to our first responders,
our city staff, our city council, our county, state and
(05:41):
federal partners, our education partners, our nonprofit partners, our business partners,
our partners in the media, and most of all, our residents.
Thanks to all for once again stepping up and doing
what needed to be done to keep people as safe
as possible in the face of danger. We will not relent,
(06:02):
We will hill, we will rebuild. These last twenty two
hours didn't bring us down. They made us Pasadena strong.
Speaker 5 (06:11):
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (06:15):
Next, I'll invite La County Supervisor and our supervisor, Katherine Berger.
Speaker 7 (06:23):
As I was standing here, one of our Alden residents
came up to me who is very active in the
rotary and he lost his home. I'm hearing this time
and time again. And as the mayor told you, you went
up and took a tour, and it is surreal. It
is without words that I can even explain to you
what is taking place, especially in my district in Altadena,
(06:44):
but also in the bordering area of Pasadena. My heart
is heavy, but I have to say, and the mayor
is absolutely correct. We met with the governor, who also
met with the President, and resources, both financial but also
resources for boots on the ground are here and we're
(07:04):
to continue to fight this fight. But I would ask people, please,
please please, if you don't need to be in the area,
we don't need you in the area. Recognize that when
we drove up there, these are fires that are actively
taking place as we speak, and there are many people
that don't live in the area that just wanted to
go out and take a look.
Speaker 5 (07:25):
We have fire personnel.
Speaker 7 (07:26):
That is fighting this blaze, not only in alf Dina,
but also in the Palisades area.
Speaker 8 (07:33):
We need you all.
Speaker 7 (07:34):
To work with us and to the most people that
want to go up and loot, the full weight of
the county will come down on you.
Speaker 5 (07:46):
And that's going to.
Speaker 7 (07:47):
Start with the District Attorney, who's issuing a press release
and is going to make sure the full sense of
the law is played out if you are caught looting
in any area impacted by this fire. But I want
to think think our first responders, who many of which
have been on the line for over twenty four hours,
and I think it's important for us to know that
(08:08):
the chief the La County Fire has asked for resources
outside the state with the goal to let them go
in and begin to fight the fires so that our
firefighters can take a break.
Speaker 5 (08:20):
And then start again.
Speaker 7 (08:22):
But again, I want to thank our first responders, but
I also want to thank our state and federal partners.
Congress Member two, Congressman White Sides, who represents Santa Creta area.
It's very reassuring to know that we have an all
hands on deck, both at the state and at the
federal level, and we will rebuild. And my friends out
(08:47):
there that have lost their homes, we are here for
you as we look forward to what we are going
to do to help you rebuild your life. So with that,
thank you.
Speaker 5 (09:03):
Next, congress Member Judy Chu, Well, I'm.
Speaker 9 (09:10):
Congress Member Judy Chu and I just got off the
plane from Washington, DC. My heart goes out to those
who've lost their homes and their businesses. I've had friends
tell me that they've lost their homes and I can't
believe the destruction that this fire is causing. But I
want to tell you that this morning I was on
(09:31):
the phone with the White House and with FEMA, and
President Biden has declared this a national disaster. So now
the mechanics are set for people to get assistance for
recovery from FEMA. And also FEMA was asked last night
by the state of California to declare less eligible for
(09:54):
the fire management grants, and indeed it is all the
expenses that we see for fighting this fire will be
reimbursed by the federal government. And also are spoken to
Supervisor Torres of the San Gabriel Mountains. He's asked for
help from Washington d C. To close the forest area.
(10:16):
So I do want to urge everybody please stay away
from the forest area, and I just urge everybody to
make sure that you obey the evacuation orders and that
also you take advantage of the shelters that are available
at the Pasadena Civic Center as well as the Arcadia
(10:37):
Community Center. Our office is going to be ready to
assist you in the recovery from these fires, and we
know that there will be assistance from Small Business Administration,
which has emergency loans, and there will be grants from FEMA.
(10:57):
But right now, the most important thing is to be safe.
So that's why I say to everybody, please stay out
of these areas, Please make sure you obey the evacuation orders,
and please stay safe.
Speaker 5 (11:16):
Next State Senators Sasha Reneper is.
Speaker 10 (11:25):
Good evening, everyone.
Speaker 11 (11:26):
I think this is a really difficult moment for many
of us in the community, especially for those of us
that have grown up in the San Gabriel Valley and
who have come to know and love this community. As
the supervisor said, we're receiving many calls from friends and
community members letting us know that they've lost their homes,
(11:47):
they've lost their businesses. This is a really devastating time.
We just toward the site and there are still fires burning,
and I want to emphasize to people, if you are
told to evacuate, please evacuate. Please take these warnings seriously.
I have family members that have evacuated, they have left
their homes. I understand how difficult of a decision this is,
(12:11):
but this is about safety and safety.
Speaker 10 (12:13):
First.
Speaker 11 (12:14):
We want to make sure that you all are taken
care of, that you're taking care of your families. This
is what is most important right now. It is incredibly
dangerous for individuals to be up there during the time
and there's fires like this. This is a very very
dangerous time, So please evacuate, get somewhere safe, make sure
(12:36):
that your family is safe.
Speaker 5 (12:38):
Also, if you receive an.
Speaker 11 (12:39):
Evacuation warning, please make sure if you have elderly neighbors,
pick up the phone and let them know We've seen
a lot of senior citizens just here at the Senior
Center that have been evacuated, and someone taking a moment
to knock on the door and make sure that they
were informed so that they're getting out of their home
is so critical and makes such a difference. We know
(13:00):
right now that there's a lot of folks that are
struggling to have cell service when they're up in the foothills.
Right now, we know power lines are down and these
fires are continuing to rage on. So you know, the
state's doing everything that it can right now to make
sure that we're allocating resources. We're removing firefighters from northern California,
from Central California to come here to fight this fire.
(13:23):
There's firefighters coming from out of state and so resources
are coming. We're going to get this thing contained, but
it is going to take time, and so make sure
that you're staying away letting our public safety officers do
what they need to do so that we can get
this contained.
Speaker 4 (13:39):
Thank you, Next assembly Member John here Abedium, Thank you
Mary Gordo.
Speaker 8 (13:52):
For anyone who is a believer of any faith, please
we need your prayers, We need your your thoughts of
healing and anything that you can do to help our community.
Many of our neighbors, our loved ones, and members throughout
our community lost their lives today and we are with you,
(14:17):
we see you, we feel you, and we are going
to help you get through this. As part of the
State of California, along with our governor, our federal and
local officials. Our main mission now is to keep people safe,
minimize any further devastation. And for those of you who
lost your homes, who lost your property, who lost your
(14:41):
loved ones, we are going to help you rebuild. We're
going to do everything we can to fight for you
every day now, this week, over the next couple months
and years to make sure you get your life back.
And that is my promise, that is the promise of
everyone behind us. But please stay diligent, heed the warnings
of our public safety officers, and please stay out of
(15:06):
harm's way. Thank you to our men and women on
the front lines, our first responders. We are not out
of this. It is all hands on deck and it's
going to be a long couple nights still, So thank
you to everyone who's helping these efforts, and please pray
for us.
Speaker 7 (15:22):
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (15:23):
Next Superintendent of the passing the Unified School District, Doctor.
Speaker 12 (15:28):
Blanco, good evening, and I want to echo the sentiments
that our heart goes out to all of our families,
our staff, our employees who have suffered losses during this
devastating event. Behind me, you see the power of us,
the city, the mayor, the city manager, our leader from
(15:53):
PCC all came around the school district to help us
provide for our families and our students. I saw many
of my families here today who have lost their homes
along with their staff. Thank you for being here with
them and thank you for supporting them. Our schools are
going to remain closed for the rest of the week.
(16:15):
We are continuing to assess the damages at our school.
Our maintenance and Operation team, along with our police department,
the sheriffs, and our fire department have been assessing our buildings.
Our preliminary assessment results show that the fire has substantially
damaged five campuses, while most of them are in good condition.
(16:40):
We have confirmed these five campuses in Alsadina. Elliott's Arts
Magnet School is damaged. Franklin Elementary, which was closed in
twenty twenty as damage of about eighty percent. Three campuses
that house. Other schools have sustained damages Edison, Loma, Alta,
(17:02):
and Noise. Please note this information is preliminary. The fire
is not contained and some of our schools still remain
in the path of the fire. We're working together with
our city partners to do everything we can to preserve
our schools, Our next steps, our recovery. We're planning for
(17:24):
recovery as we respond to the emergency. As we know
our families are dependent on us. Public education is the
bedrock of democracy. We learn that in COVID and we
will be here to help our families and our staff
get through what is happening in our city.
Speaker 13 (17:43):
Thank you.
Speaker 12 (17:44):
We're deeply grateful for everything that you all have done
to help and support us.
Speaker 4 (17:52):
Next President of Passion City College, doctor joseigelmers.
Speaker 14 (18:00):
Hi.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
I'm jose A Gomez, jos A Gomez Gomez. Over the
last twenty four hours, our hearts have been broken by
what has transpired.
Speaker 5 (18:15):
We have lost our peace.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
Although Pasadena City College has sustained minor damage, our hearts
and our prayers and our thoughts are with our greater community.
We are so grateful at Pasadena City College for the
incredible leadership that the City of Pasadena and all of
our legislators and all of our elected officials have provided
(18:45):
not just to our college, but also to our community.
The campus will be closed and we will not be
having classes until next Monday. We will resume regular schedule
and classes on Monday if possible. Of course, it's a
(19:07):
very fluid situation. But more importantly than that, we have
activated much of our campus community and support of our
partners and our greater Pasadena San Gabriel Valley family. Our
emergency Management Response team has been deployed here to the
(19:30):
Convention Center to help the city. We have our nursing
staff who will be arriving soon to help our city
Department of Public Health, and in partnership with our Superintendent
of pasading A Unified School District, doctor Elizabeth Blanco, we
(19:54):
are also serving meals to our PUSD families at Pasadena
City co. We are here to help in any way possible,
and we of course appreciate all of your support and
all of your help. Pasadena in the San Gabriel Valley
has been an amazing partner to PCC, and we are
(20:19):
here to be an important and critical partner to the
communities that we serve. Thank you.
Speaker 5 (20:28):
Next from the Humane Society Divernit.
Speaker 14 (20:35):
I'm Da Divernitt, President and CEO of Pasadena Humane. We're
a nonprofit animal welfare organization and shelter serving Pasadena and
tents surrounding areas, including Altadena, which has been very hard
hit by this fire, and our hearts really go out
to all the people who have lost their homes and
(20:56):
their pets in this disaster. We recently just heard from
one of our board members who lost her home with
her two cats in it. I'm sure we're going to
be hearing more stories like this in the coming hours
and days. But our primary focus has been over the
past twenty four hours to assist people who have been
(21:16):
safely evacuating with their pets and need a place for
their pets to go. So we've taken in over two
hundred and fifty pets in the past twenty four hours,
and we have been working today to coordinate with shelters
throughout the state to help take the animals that are
in our shelter to make room for more animals who
are coming in. I want to really thank all of
(21:40):
I want to really thank everyone who has offered assistance,
including the shelters around the state and people who we
see in our community who are rescuing neighbors pets and
bringing them to us. It really has been heartwarming to
see even our staff members who have been evacuated and
(22:01):
are losing their homes coming to the shelter to shelter
with their pets and take care of other people's pets.
It's going to take a real community effort to recover
from this. We've had lots of inquiries from people wanting
to help. We're taking names of those who would be
interested in fostering animals as we get more animals in
(22:23):
Right now, our primary need is monetary donations so that
we can provide emergency services to pets that have been
impacted by the flyers. We are also providing food and
other pet supplies if anyone is in need, and we
really encourage you. If you are evacuating, please make sure
your pet has identification, take pet supplies with you, and
(22:50):
if possible, please try to stay with family or friends
who can accommodate you and your pet. As the shelters
are really becoming quite stressed in the situation, and I
want to give a few concrete resources because they have
been rapidly evolving for those in the foothill areas who
(23:13):
have horses in need of shelter. Right now, the fair
Plex and promonas taking them the Industry Hills Equestrian Center,
and soon LA County will be opening the Anealope Valley
fair Grounds. We've heard that the La Equestrian Center, where
horses have been kept are is currently being evacuated. We
(23:35):
have recently started to see the first injured animals coming in.
We've had a cat and some wildlife coming in. If
you do find an injured wildlife, we'd like you to
call our Weld Wildlife Helpline at six two six three
four four one one two nine. We're very thankful to
our skilled veterinarians who are providing care to these animals,
(23:58):
and we'll continue to provide care around the clock to
animals and need in our community.
Speaker 8 (24:05):
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (24:10):
Next, because this is still an active fire with very
little if any containment, I think it's important to hear
from the fire chief, and our fire chief is here
with us, Chief Chad Augustine.
Speaker 7 (24:25):
Than.
Speaker 10 (24:28):
Good afternoon.
Speaker 15 (24:29):
My name is Chad Augustine, your Pasadena fire Chief, Chad
au g us t I N I'd like to give
you a current sits down on our Eating fire. We
can confirm that the Eating Fire is now over ten
six hundred acres as zero percent containment. I'd be remissed though,
if I didn't highlight some of the heroic actions last
(24:50):
night by your public safety, police and fire who literally
save lives, pulling people out from burning buildings, getting them
out of streets and vehicles where they had no ways
to evacuate. Our death count today would be significantly higher
without their heroic actions. We currently have sixty strike teams
(25:12):
requested and seven hundred and fifty firefighters working on this incident.
Speaker 5 (25:17):
We're in a unified command.
Speaker 15 (25:18):
With multiple agencies to include law, LA County Fire, LA
County Sheriff, and Angelus National Forest along with Pasadena Fire.
We have strike teams committed from all over the state
and as far as Arizona come into assist us. Multiple
structures have been damaged or destroyed as this wind driven
(25:41):
fire had wing us of seventy plus miles per hour.
We had spotting of embers two to three miles ahead
of the fire. I can confirm tonight that we have
in five hundred structures damaged or lost.
Speaker 5 (25:55):
We really need.
Speaker 15 (25:56):
As it becomes safe to do so and we get
a better handle on this, we're going to be able to.
Speaker 5 (26:01):
We need to come in and be able to.
Speaker 15 (26:02):
Survey the damage to get an exact total number of
structures that have been damaged or completely lost. We continue
to be in red flight conditions and we expect that
to be through Thursday with variable and high wind speeds, Thankfully,
not as strong as what we saw last night. We
(26:25):
are encouraging people to stay updated as the weather can
continue to change very rapidly. Please, if we issue an
evacuation order, heed our request, be prepared, have your go
bag and immediately evacuate. Thankfully, the current forecast allow us
(26:47):
today to start getting aircraft in to fight this fire.
Since around ten am we've had aircraft doing water drops
with the goal of limiting the fire spread. We will
come behind those waters drops with hand crews and fire
engines to get a containment line around this fire. We expect,
with favorable conditions over the next couple of days to
(27:08):
start making good progress on this fire. And with that
I'll turn it over to the police chief.
Speaker 16 (27:14):
Chief we take our question, that's the current in the situation.
Speaker 5 (27:18):
When you have in your fire fires.
Speaker 16 (27:21):
How are they holding up?
Speaker 3 (27:21):
To listen to an update on the Pasadena.
Speaker 15 (27:27):
We need those reinforcements coming in. But they've done incredible
work where they've you know, an example with crews that
that fought fifteen house fires over a twenty eight hour period.
They didn't save any of them, but they prevented two
or three blocks away from burning down. So great work
not just from your Pasadena fire but throughout this entire regions.
Speaker 5 (27:51):
Strike teams.
Speaker 13 (27:52):
What's the status of that?
Speaker 6 (27:53):
How long would be.
Speaker 15 (27:54):
As great question. So we have multiple strike teams that
have arrived. We're in the about in the early fifteen
ish strike teams, and we expect over the next twenty
four hours we'll get we'll be close to fifty even
some of our Arizona strike teams should be here by
this evening.
Speaker 13 (28:11):
Jim, can you talk about your resources?
Speaker 6 (28:13):
Great stretch to know that this morning out of the
trumps and fires, there were maybe one or two firefighters
on scene, alif because you appeared not to have the
reset everybody stretching unit talk about that?
Speaker 15 (28:25):
Yeah, sure, I would be kidding all of you if
I said we didn't have resources stretched yesterday. Rights, it's
a rarity that you have two major brush fires in
La County like we did yesterday with the fire and
the Palisades let alone the multiple other fires.
Speaker 10 (28:42):
That we saw.
Speaker 15 (28:43):
So we had an extreme draw down from UH with
La County fire, and they are our biggest partner. Even
with their draw down, they sent us a lot of
resources last night, which was really helpful. It's unfortunate with
the wind gusts that we had up to seventy mile
an hour wins they had to ground their aircraft last night.
But we really relied on all of La County to
(29:06):
bring us resources and then with a mutual aid requests
from up and down the state.
Speaker 10 (29:10):
Did that answer your question?
Speaker 5 (29:12):
Thank?
Speaker 16 (29:12):
You want to answer to r Inside the fire zone
and multiple residents the top todopping, the lack of water
press or a lack of water at all, trying to
pro fight the fliers.
Speaker 8 (29:23):
And there's a similar situation we're going how we say
it's going.
Speaker 17 (29:26):
There's a time about water pressure here in that height
no water at one time?
Speaker 2 (29:31):
Is this what we're seeing?
Speaker 18 (29:33):
What was the situation there?
Speaker 16 (29:34):
Are we saw first fans as well? Why was the
same case this is going to be in trouble a problem.
Speaker 15 (29:42):
Yeah, when you have multiple fires, multiple city blocks on
fire with I'll throw a number out, one hundred fire
engines flowing water. We're gonna we are going to stretch
our water system. Were on top of that, we had
a loss of power temporarily which impacted our water system.
(30:02):
But I'll be clear, we could have had much more
water with those wind gus. We were not stopping that
fire last night, those erratic wing gus. We're throwing embers
for multiple miles ahead of the fire, and.
Speaker 10 (30:17):
That's really what caused the rapid spread of this fire.
Speaker 5 (30:21):
Specific the fire start the most.
Speaker 12 (30:25):
Specific because it's a beach taken up six last night, Like.
Speaker 9 (30:33):
That's form a fire in our right annual.
Speaker 15 (30:37):
That's correct. The time that is correct, and around six
point thirty was when the fire came in in the
Altadena area. It was actually in La County, but right
on the border. We had both Pasadena and La County
resources arriving almost simultaneously, and then of course the fire
quickly moved into the Pasadena city limits.
Speaker 4 (30:58):
So the ten six hundred pature is on fires, zero presentiment,
tagent bones destroyed.
Speaker 5 (31:08):
Yeah, handle on this.
Speaker 15 (31:10):
Yeah. What what gives me hope is when I look
at the trees and bushes around here. Last night was incredible, right,
it was like something that most of you have probably
never seen. Tonight, we have very mild wind conditions where
we can get aircraft and a ton of additional resources
(31:32):
getting their hands around this fire. That's what gives me
confidence that we're going to get a handle on this fire.
Speaker 4 (31:38):
What before, why don't we bring the police chief up
and then we'll then you can ask questions of bull chiefs.
Can we talk about the pots of the fire and
you know that there's a fire or any.
Speaker 14 (31:50):
Of these nets?
Speaker 15 (31:54):
The cause You're gonna love my generic answer, But the
cause is under investigation.
Speaker 5 (31:58):
Right.
Speaker 15 (31:58):
We have multiple fire investigators as well as far and
arson investigators from Elie County and local resources investigating that,
and we need to let them do their good work
so that we can come up with an accurate cause
and origin.
Speaker 5 (32:13):
We'll ask the chief to stay here for more questions.
Speaker 4 (32:16):
But in the meantime, you know, because this also involves
a public safety situation and neighborhoods that have been evacuated
in homes, The message I want to reiterate is don't
even think about it. Don't think about coming to loot
any of these properties in Pasadena or Altadena, because the
(32:39):
Passing and Police Department, as well as the La County
Sheriff and resources from the state of California will be
out there patrolling and protecting these neighborhoods. With that, I'll
turn it over to our police Chief, Eugene Harris, to
provide you more facts and details.
Speaker 5 (32:55):
It's very sure.
Speaker 18 (32:59):
My name is Jean har I am the police chief
for the City of Pasadena, Genus G. E. N. E.
Last name is Harris, H. A. R. I. S. Last night,
at the beginning of this incident, first responders from the
City of Pasadena responded to the area of this event
primarily on a safety mission, but when they got there,
they rapidly found an escalating fire that was growing rapidly
(33:22):
with the wind gusts, and it turned into a rescue
evacuation scenario. Those first responders active heroically by going in
and either evacuating or rest I'm sorry, evacuating or rescuing
numerous folks that are now housed in this building behind me.
It was nothing short of heroic and as they got there,
(33:42):
it rapidly turned into that type of mission. So we
had people from our police department, our fire department certainly
reached out into our area CE partners, local, state, and
county folks that came to assist, and it took all
night to get folks rescued or evacuated from their homes,
and that was robust in that end. We also reached
(34:03):
out beyond our county into other counties. We had some
other agencies assets to us that could help us solve
this problem, and they are still unseen at our command
post as we speak. As you heard said, this is
an active scenario from a law enforcement perspective. You've heard
all of the fire circumstances and issues. I'm going to
talk a little bit about what we in law enforcement
(34:24):
are doing in this incident.
Speaker 13 (34:26):
You're listening to Tim Conway Junior on demand from KFI
A six forty.
Speaker 18 (34:33):
As I said, it started out as a evacuation restaurant.
Speaker 17 (34:36):
You've been listening to a press conference with the fire
in Pacity. It's live Frompacity in the Altadena fire, and
we learned a lot there is you know, you can
hear the desperation a lot of the people's voices there.
They didn't have enough water, they didn't have enough manpower.
The winds were too ferocious. It just it was a
(34:58):
perfect storm out in Alta, DA. A lot of people
in Altadena. You live in the flat lands. I live
in the flats in the valley here in the San
Fernando Valley, and we have a false sense of security
that everything's gonna be okay because we live in the flats.
And the people who have their house burned, they live
in Big Bear, they live in the mountains, they live
in Mammoth, they live in this and the Sierras, they
live in Malibu, throw up in the mountains. That's not
true anymore. That's not true with these winds. Altadena one
(35:20):
of a beautiful place. I pass it, you know, a
couple of times a week on the way out to Arcadia.
It's a beautiful community, a great place, old school and
and I love that place. And that fire came all
the way down, I think, just adjacent to the two
ten freeway, which is a long, long distance. We're gonna
(35:42):
take a small break and then we're gonna come back
and talk to Michael Monks and and we can continue here. Okay,
let's continue, all right, Michael Monks. Is whether it's how
you bought nice to see them.
Speaker 10 (35:51):
I'm good.
Speaker 19 (35:52):
I just saw on a value an estimate from ACI Weather. Right,
they anticipate that these fires will cost or cause about
fifty two to fifty seven billion dollars in.
Speaker 10 (36:02):
Damage, Is that right?
Speaker 7 (36:03):
Oh?
Speaker 10 (36:04):
My god? And a lot of that.
Speaker 17 (36:06):
First of all, we don't have that kind of money
in this state. You know, we're broke to begin with,
and they're going to lose a lot of tax revenue,
you know, because if you own a five six seven
million dollar home in Malibu out out of the Palisades,
you're going to ignore that next tax bill. What are
they going to do? Come get your home? It's gone?
And so I think what the mayor has to do.
(36:27):
I think what Mayor Bass has to do immediately, because
she's in a lot of trouble here, a lot of heat,
you know, going in her direction. I think she's got
to immediately say to people, if you're in the fire zone,
if you've your house burned down, or even if it didn't,
you're getting an immediate tax break on your next property tax.
Speaker 19 (36:47):
The county tax assessor has come out today and has
encouraged people to apply for this calamity option so that
they can have their homes assessed basically at what the
market value might be after this dist production, and it
can save them about ten thousand dollars. So they've asked
folks who have suffered any damage in these fires to
(37:08):
go to the website and apply.
Speaker 10 (37:10):
And the county Assessor's office.
Speaker 19 (37:11):
Is closed all week, but they have some sites set
up at various spots, so you can go there, or
you can go to their website and value and investigate that.
Speaker 10 (37:20):
Why are they closed all week?
Speaker 19 (37:21):
I think because a lot of workplaces, including iHeart, you know,
are just saying, why don't we just stay home for
a day or two, because, you know, keep people off
the roads, keep it open for emergency vehicles. And it's
been true. I've been out today and around and the
freeways are not what they usually.
Speaker 10 (37:38):
They're empty. Yeah, damn, people are staying home.
Speaker 17 (37:40):
This is like an earthquake ap and you know, the
north Ridge quake was like this a couple of days after.
COVID reminds me of this as well. There's a lot
of traffic lights out and people don't know how to
operate with traffic lights, so they just fly through the intersection.
A lot of people are in danger, but if you
have an eight million dollar home, and that's not unusual
from Alaboum. Eight million dollar home pretty taxed one hundred
(38:00):
thousand dollars a year. You're gonna pay one hundred thousand
dollars and they don't even they'd even like attempt to
save your home.
Speaker 10 (38:07):
That's outrageous.
Speaker 17 (38:08):
I think people are gonna get really, really pissed off
after they after the sadness subsides, and I think that's
gonna be quick. I think that's gonna be the next
day or two, maybe a week max. And then people
are gonna be absolutely livid with what happened here because look,
we're we're sitting right next to an ocean that has
hundreds of quadrillion tons of water. Why have we not
(38:32):
figured out how to take the water from the ocean
and put it on these fires.
Speaker 10 (38:35):
It's unbelievable.
Speaker 17 (38:37):
And I don't know whether it's environmentalists that say you
can't put ocean water on the land, or if there's
just no real quick way to do it.
Speaker 10 (38:44):
I don't know. But it's out there. You know, you
go to look at the ocean, you can't see the
edge of it. It's that vast.
Speaker 17 (38:50):
It goes for thousands of miles even before you get
to Hawaii, and we can't take that water and put that.
Speaker 10 (38:55):
On this fire. We haven't figured out how to drink
it either. I mean, you know, it's just we just
know we got to.
Speaker 17 (39:00):
We got to figure that out, all right. So you've
been at the evacuation center. I have never seen anything
this sad in my life. Where there's a couple of them.
There's two facilities in Altadena, actually what in Altadena and
one in North Pasadena that happen to be evacuated because
of these fires. So you have these people at the
(39:21):
at end of life care in these nursing homes, in
these in these facilities where people take care of them
twenty four hours a day. They had to evacuate two
of those. So they pushed these people out, sometimes in
their hospital bed, sometimes in a wheelchair, and they put
them in the parking lot of a seven eleven. So
you wake up, you know, you go to bed, you
have your you know, your pea soup, you're watching you know,
(39:42):
old reruns of Brady Bunch, you have no idea where
you are, and then you wake up in a seven
to eleven parking lot with a guy breathing on you, saying, hey,
we got to get you into this van. You got
to get you into this van, and and you just
don't know what to do. So they take these people,
they take them to the convention center, and now they're
sitting in the convention center in wheelchairs. People have to
come get them. And a lot of them don't have relatives,
(40:04):
and a lot of them have homes that they've been
taken out of and they don't know if their homes
are there. That's exactly right.
Speaker 19 (40:10):
And today I was in the Westwood Recreation Center where
a lot of folks who had to evacuate the palisades
were hanging out. And it was a lot of older people,
a lot of older people in wheelchairs, walkers, couples still together.
Some of them seemed confused, lost, waiting for any loved
one to come pick them up and take them somewhere else.
But folks were turning to that evacuation center because they
(40:33):
needed it. Remember, just a little while back, in the
Malibu fire, they opened some evacuation center. Some people went,
but it wasn't a big deal. People were not planning
to sleep there. They were just waiting out the bulk
of the fire. This was different. People were sleeping, people
were in need of the food and a lot. In fact,
nearly everybody I spoke to had no idea what was
going on with their specific properties, and that was the
(40:54):
scary thing for them.
Speaker 17 (40:57):
Can you stay with us, Yeah, Okay, we're gonna take
a break here and then we'll come back. We've been
watching these fires. We're going to be wall to wall
with these fires. We've got all the information.
Speaker 10 (41:06):
We come back. Five people have passed away. That's horrible news.
Speaker 17 (41:10):
Ten thousand plus acres have burned in Pasadena alone, just
in the Pasadena area. Another ten to I think twelve
thousand out in the Palisades Malibu area. And then we've
got this another another fire that popped up here. We
had the one in Silmar, and then we have one
right off the four or five freeway in the Woodleigh
(41:31):
Park area. Another pop up popped up just a little
while ago.
Speaker 13 (41:36):
You're listening to Tim Conway Junior on demand from KFI
Am six forty.
Speaker 10 (41:43):
You know, Bellio told me this.
Speaker 17 (41:46):
The two nursing homes that were evacuated last night in Altadena,
both of them, you know, completely evacuated. Everybody was taken
out into the parking lot of seven to eleven, and
you know that's that's where they are. In twenty twenty five,
you're in a parking lot of a seven to eleven.
Both of those nursing homes burned to the ground, both
(42:07):
of them gone. And thank God there were people enough
people had to get you know, I imagine, you know,
there's those places are not stacked with pete with employees
and volunteers all night. I imagine people came in off
the street or loved ones or neighbors came in to
help them evacuate. And then God bless those people for
doing that. During the press conference, I heard one of
(42:28):
the council members or maybe a city representative, but I
heard him say, God bless everybody, and keep people in
your prayers so he'll be gone. Can't do that anymore, right,
can't pray for people anymore. So, just a matter of
time before he's gone. But monks, you got more information
(42:48):
for us. You've been out there all day. You got
my information on these property tax as well.
Speaker 19 (42:52):
Yeah, the county assessor we talked about this briefly just
moments ago. I might have jumbled the info a bit,
so just to clarify. According to the Assessor's office, property
owners whose homes or buildings were damaged or destroyed by
the fires or the windstorms, you could qualify for temporary
tax relief. It's called the Misfortune and Calamity Property tax
Relief Program. You can receive temporary tax relief adjustments made
(43:16):
to reflect the reduced value of that property until the
repairs or rebuilding are complete.
Speaker 10 (43:21):
So that could be years.
Speaker 19 (43:23):
Yeah, So if you're if your property is on the
ground like this for two or three years, you would
only be assessed at the value of the property as
it sits.
Speaker 10 (43:32):
Right, So the land, yeah, yeah, but the land is
still valuable. It is I think.
Speaker 17 (43:37):
I think the most valuable thing of any piece of
property in southern California is the land. You know, even
in Malibu. You know, that's very expensive property. So let's say,
you know, you have a four million dollar house in
the Palisades, and that's not unusual, and it's been destroyed
by the fire. That land might might still be worth
(43:57):
a million and a half or two million dollars, so
you still have to pay you know, one and a
quarter percent on two million dollars is thirty thousand dollars a.
Speaker 19 (44:06):
Year unless you live in a historic home and it's
quite old, and then you get the benefit of very
low property taxes.
Speaker 14 (44:14):
Is that right?
Speaker 7 (44:15):
Yeah?
Speaker 10 (44:15):
And what qualifies one hundred years?
Speaker 19 (44:17):
It's it's I think to qualify for historic technically to
be like on the register.
Speaker 10 (44:22):
I think it's just fifty.
Speaker 19 (44:23):
Oh really, but I don't know what the years are
exactly in the City of Los Angeles code. But like
all the buildings downtown, if you buy a condo downtown
for a million, two million bucks, you're only assessed at
like two three hundred thousand.
Speaker 10 (44:36):
Is that right? Yeah?
Speaker 17 (44:37):
Come on, I got to look into that because the
house we live in and built nineteen thirty eight, and
you're in Burbank, I mean Burbank.
Speaker 10 (44:44):
Yeah, yeah, we got to change the rules in Burbank.
Speaker 5 (44:47):
All right?
Speaker 17 (44:47):
What else is going I know you've been out there
all day covering information. Unfortunately, have five people who have
passed away, a thousand plus structure destroyed in the Palisades fire.
Speaker 10 (44:56):
What else do you know that we don't hear?
Speaker 19 (45:00):
Let me tell you this, and this is something that
I know you can comment on, because you know, I'm
so relatively new here. I'm hearing from everybody. It's never
looked like this before.
Speaker 10 (45:07):
Never, it's never been like this. I've been here sixty years,
it's never been like this. And it's just breathtaking.
Speaker 19 (45:14):
I drove out this morning from downtown, first waking up
downtown and opening a window and smelling like a campfire, right,
I mean you could smell it downtown. There were ashes
black soot on the windshield and that was weird. It
was very calm and quiet even yesterday, even in the evening,
you could tell people were starting to kind of clear
out and hunker down for whatever was about to happen.
(45:36):
Then drove out to west Wood to check out this
evacuation center, talk to some of the people who had
to flee the Palisades and then leaving there to come
back here. You know, you hop on the four or
five and then you see the Palisades fire, and then
you get on the one O one and you see
the fire and Alta Dina. Yeah, it's really really breathtaking
to have the city surrounded like this. I can smell
it in Burbank and I how about this for a time.
(46:00):
This never works my favor, but on Sunday, you know,
I think a lot of people. And I noticed this
when I went to the second hand store, the Goodwill.
A lot of people after New Year's one of those
year's resolutions to get rid of the crap in your
house and give it to somebody else so they can
put it in their house. And so you take it
to Goodwill and people rummage through your crap and they
and they take it home and they put it in
(46:20):
their home. And one of the things that I was
getting rid of, and they took everything. They took clothes, books,
a lamp, you know, an old you know, dresser table.
They took everything, except they didn't take the Hepa air
filter that I had.
Speaker 10 (46:34):
And I said, this has a brand new filter.
Speaker 17 (46:36):
And I just bought this filter, you know, a week ago,
so I could give it away and somebody could use it.
And it actually works. There's a brand new thirty dollars
filter in this thing. She said, no, we don't take those,
and I said, okay, and I threw it back in
the car. And I'm glad I did, because now I
brought it in the house and it helps, you know,
keep the smokeout. But that never works in my favor,
that it ever works. My favorite this is something. Also,
(46:56):
we're watching Channel five right now, Channel four, there's a
channel eleven. There's a Bank America on fire, live, Bank
America on fire, and God only knows how.
Speaker 10 (47:07):
Much money is going up in that in that bank
right now.
Speaker 17 (47:12):
The Eton fire six ten, six hundred acres blamed for
five deaths, and we have this Bank of America completely
engulfed right next to a Chase Bank as well. And
I've been to that Bank America, so anyway, so this
is something that bothers me. I'm looking at Channel five.
There's a home probably worth two three four million dollars,
(47:32):
very well landscaped, and then you look and they go
into the backyard.
Speaker 10 (47:36):
The home is leveled.
Speaker 17 (47:37):
The chimney's the only thing standing, and the pool is
filled with water. That water could have been put on
that house to save that house, if somebody had bought
a pump and had put all that water on, you know,
because fire only comes by for three to nine minutes.
They say a fire comes by for three to nine minutes,
then it moves on, and it was three to nine minutes.
(48:00):
If your house catches on fire, that's where the fire
stays and burns your house to the ground. If you
could if you could fight it off for those three
to nine minutes as it flies by your neighborhood, you
could save your home. If you had a They cost
about five or six thousand dollars. They pump four or
five thousand, you know, gallons per hour. I don't know
what that is per minute. But you can literally take
(48:21):
that entire pool and throw it on top of that
house in about three minutes and save your home.
Speaker 19 (48:26):
You've got the ocean, you've got the pools, that's right.
How do we get this water on the fire?
Speaker 17 (48:30):
I don't know how we don't fill the big water
tanks up in the hills where you know we draw from,
and the big reservoirs, I don't know how we don't
fill them with ocean water in emergencies.
Speaker 10 (48:40):
I don't know how.
Speaker 3 (48:40):
We don't remember Hawaii last year, yeah, right, exactly, surrounded
by water, right, It's surrounded by by water for three
thousand miles in every direction, every direction, and they could
and they didn't have enough water to put on that fire.
Speaker 17 (48:54):
We have got to rethink how we fight fires in
this city. And this is this can never happen again.
This can never happen again. There has to be as
a matter of fact, when we come back. I have
a solution for this that I think will work. And Monks,
thank you for coming in. We'll check back with you.
And I know you got up awfully early, so thank
you for coming in. Thank you, great information, a right
(49:15):
real live. It's Conway Show Live on CAFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (49:18):
It's KFI Am six forty and you're listening to the
Conway Show on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
Tim Conway Jr. on Demand News
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