Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
California wildfire disaster plans from the White House to the Pentagon,
And let's bring on from the ABC News State Department.
Her correspondent the State Department, Shannon Kingston, joining us now
and Shannon, welcome to the show. So what are we
looking at here? What do we got?
Speaker 2 (00:17):
The Pentagon is already surging assets to fight the inferno
in southern California, and it's standing by ready to send
even more Cexary Fluydolph instead. They're in a press conference
in Germany that there's been few requests from California so far,
but the Pentagon has a lot more capability that can
be deployed. The major rate limiting step here is the
(00:37):
high wind sweeping through southern California. That's grounding military and
civilian aircraft that are used to fight fire from above.
It's also, of course, contributing to the spread of the fire.
Those winds are expected to get even worse this evening.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
Yeah, when you look at this whole situation, and certainly
most of America, I would imagine has been watching over
these last couple of days, and you see where fires
are jumping across big you know, drive streets, if you will,
concrete streets and so on where the fires are jumping
that because of the winds and so on, and it
just looks like, as you watch this the footage of it,
(01:14):
it looks like there is no stopping this. It is.
It's crazy that they can't get it under control, and
certainly the conditions are part of that or what have you.
So hopefully something like this they can get this stuff
into and with those conditions, like the wind conditions you
kind of mentioned there, you can't really use aircraft and
so on. It becomes too dangerous for them. It seems like.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
That's right, And as of this morning, a lot of
the major fires were at zero percent containment, So it
really shows you what these firefighters are up against. A
potential game change would be if modular air firefighting systems
they're called NAFF are able to be deployed and actually
be used effectively and over and over again get consistently,
(01:59):
because what the these are these systems that can convert
C one thirties into basically you know, a fire trucks
in the sky. They're able to draw fire, retard it
on large areas and you know, make a difference bringing
that zero percent up. But with the wind sweeping. It's
hard for anybody to predict whether they're going to be
able to be used.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
So that's something that they are looking at and kind
of almost having at the ready. If the conditions will
warrant that they will begin using that. And it sounds
like something like that of that magnitude could start to
maybe kind of get a handle on this because I'm
seeing that too, Shannon, Like, when I'm watching the news,
I'll see zero percent containment and they'll show, you know,
(02:40):
a specific it'll be a live shot of some and
I'm just like, every single live shot says zero percent containment.
I'm like, oh my gosh. There. They can't get this
under control, and it feels like it's going to burn
the whole state up.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
It's bizarre, right, And the federal authorities are they are
doing with their kin. They're trying. There are helicopters that
have been to with water buckets, but a fire of
this magnitude those water buckets there really is like a
drop in the bucket because they're just not doing enough
to make a difference. So really getting those major assets out,
But there are manpower problems of course. Two that the
(03:14):
US military is looking to back up. They have deployed
about two hundred guardsmen, and these are not just you know,
any guardsmen. These are guardsmen who serve on highly trained
teams that work with cal Fire as part of Task
Force Rattlesninak especially trained two eliminated fires like these, as
well as four hundred military policemen, and they can help
(03:35):
with anything from evacuations to maintaining law and order through
California as they deal with this emergency.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Yeah, I'm seeing there's like looters unfortunately becoming part of
this story as well. Then, kind of to what you
were just talking about, Shannon, I saw. I believe Nevada
and Arizona, maybe even another state that maybe Idaho, I
can't remember exactly. They named some states where there were
there's help coming of the fire fighters men and women
(04:02):
in that in that aspect that we're going to be
coming and hopefully helping here giving some relief with I'm
sure very exhausted firefighters in that area.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
That's right, And a lot of those seats have received
help from California firefighters in the past, because you know,
really cal Fire is the top of its game when
it comes to combating fire, big fires like these and
that's because California unfortunately has so much experience, you know,
in dealing with this, but an urban area like this
and just the absolute magnitude, you know, it's something that
(04:35):
many of these firefighters have just never seen something that
compares to it.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
Yeah, very good. Shannon Kingston, ABC News State Department correspondent,
Thank you very much for the latest time this. Appreciate you.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
All right, we'll see you watching this whole thing. Also,
did you see and I don't have it right in
front of me, but there were you know, you start
breaking down what kind of money was taken away from
fire in the state of California and given to what preserving?
(05:07):
What kind of fish was the smelts? Yes, yeah, smelt
so you saw that to you familiar with.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
Also Los Angeles, the City of Los Angeles, their new
budget just eliminated seventeen point six million dollars from the
fire department while allocating extra money like fourteen point six
more in the budget for I think the library system
or something.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Yeah, I know. Yeah. Did you so you see the
post and immediately when you see a post like from
from President elect Trump, you see a post about how
Gavin Newsom is at the he's at the unfortunately at
the nucleus of this problem that is happening. Did you
see when he was on with Rogan that was obviously
(05:54):
before the election, that he was talking about this and
the problems that exist in the state of California. People
are speculating. Who wasn't It was Henry Winkler who said,
didn't he say something?
Speaker 3 (06:07):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Yes, I mean people are speculating because they're going the
Hollywood Hills now have who did you see some of
the where is that? Where did that go?
Speaker 3 (06:16):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (06:16):
Some of the celebrities there, Holmes reduced to ash Adam
Brodie and Leyton Measter, Anna Farris, Billy Crystal, Eugene Levy Man.
I love Eugene Levy. I love that guy, John Goodman,
Paris Hilton, Lost Holmes, James Woods, Mark Hamill. That's the one.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
I heard his story and talking about the little niece
or whatever offering her piggy bank to help him rebuild,
and that just that got me, Misty, It really did that.
I mean, I'm sure that whatever insurance is illegal to
have in California, they've got and they've got plenty of money,
but still your life, you know, your Academy Awards, so whatever,
(07:01):
all that kind of stuff, man, that's that's your history,
and it's burnt to the ground, and that's that's just
got to tear the heart out of you, no matter
how many resources you have at your disposal.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
He was. He even having a conversation this morning. You know,
Josephine was sitting there with me when I was kind
of looking over stuff getting ready for the day, and
you know what we're going to talk about, and all that.
She goes, You know, Dad, though they have a lot
of money. I said, let me stop you right there.
I said, honey, think about this. Let's say that we
were rich and our house burned down. Would you feel
(07:33):
better because we have money? I said, think about Look
over there on the bookshelf. See those pictures are you
and your brother, See the pictures of Jasmine, See the
pictures of you know, all of our different family loved
ones and all that gone. Think about all those ornaments
that we've collected amassed over the years for our tree,
and how special those are made. You and Stone made those.
(07:56):
When you're growing up little kids, you're making ornaments out
of popsicles, sticks and glue on them and writing Merry
Christmas and I love you Mom, and I love you
Dad and all of this. Now, you know, these people
are no different. Yeah, they have a few more zeros
in their bank at the end of their bank account numbers.
But look, they're they're losing everything. And you know, look,
(08:18):
you got to set politics aside. I mean, people even
if they're mean or they hate Trump or they hate
people who support Trump or whatever, and we're all human first.
And I know we kind of talked about a little
bit yesterday, but when you look at this list, and
this is just a short list, I would imagine there
are a lot more celebs who have loved When you
(08:38):
start talking about the Hollywood Hills, that's where most of
them live. And it's really sad the way that this
is unfortunately playing out. It just is.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
And the insurance companies, if they're covering them for anything,
I guarantee you insurance companies will be in backing out
even more than they already have in the state of
California because there's nothing out there that's not at least
six million dollars oh I know, So the payout is
going to be extreme.
California wildfire disaster plans from the White House to the Pentagon,
And let's bring on from the ABC News State Department.
Her correspondent the State Department, Shannon Kingston, joining us now
and Shannon, welcome to the show. So what are we
looking at here? What do we got?
Speaker 2 (00:17):
The Pentagon is already surging assets to fight the inferno
in southern California, and it's standing by ready to send
even more Cexary Fluydolph instead. They're in a press conference
in Germany that there's been few requests from California so far,
but the Pentagon has a lot more capability that can
be deployed. The major rate limiting step here is the
(00:37):
high wind sweeping through southern California. That's grounding military and
civilian aircraft that are used to fight fire from above.
It's also, of course, contributing to the spread of the fire.
Those winds are expected to get even worse this evening.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
Yeah, when you look at this whole situation, and certainly
most of America, I would imagine has been watching over
these last couple of days, and you see where fires
are jumping across big you know, drive streets, if you will,
concrete streets and so on where the fires are jumping
that because of the winds and so on, and it
just looks like, as you watch this the footage of it,
(01:14):
it looks like there is no stopping this. It is.
It's crazy that they can't get it under control, and
certainly the conditions are part of that or what have you.
So hopefully something like this they can get this stuff
into and with those conditions, like the wind conditions you
kind of mentioned there, you can't really use aircraft and
so on. It becomes too dangerous for them. It seems like.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
That's right, And as of this morning, a lot of
the major fires were at zero percent containment, So it
really shows you what these firefighters are up against. A
potential game change would be if modular air firefighting systems
they're called NAFF are able to be deployed and actually
be used effectively and over and over again get consistently,
(01:59):
because what the these are these systems that can convert
C one thirties into basically you know, a fire trucks
in the sky. They're able to draw fire, retard it
on large areas and you know, make a difference bringing
that zero percent up. But with the wind sweeping. It's
hard for anybody to predict whether they're going to be
able to be used.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
So that's something that they are looking at and kind
of almost having at the ready. If the conditions will
warrant that they will begin using that. And it sounds
like something like that of that magnitude could start to
maybe kind of get a handle on this because I'm
seeing that too, Shannon, Like, when I'm watching the news,
I'll see zero percent containment and they'll show, you know,
(02:40):
a specific it'll be a live shot of some and
I'm just like, every single live shot says zero percent containment.
I'm like, oh my gosh. There. They can't get this
under control, and it feels like it's going to burn
the whole state up.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
It's bizarre, right, And the federal authorities are they are
doing with their kin. They're trying. There are helicopters that
have been to with water buckets, but a fire of
this magnitude those water buckets there really is like a
drop in the bucket because they're just not doing enough
to make a difference. So really getting those major assets out,
But there are manpower problems of course. Two that the
(03:14):
US military is looking to back up. They have deployed
about two hundred guardsmen, and these are not just you know,
any guardsmen. These are guardsmen who serve on highly trained
teams that work with cal Fire as part of Task
Force Rattlesninak especially trained two eliminated fires like these, as
well as four hundred military policemen, and they can help
(03:35):
with anything from evacuations to maintaining law and order through
California as they deal with this emergency.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Yeah, I'm seeing there's like looters unfortunately becoming part of
this story as well. Then, kind of to what you
were just talking about, Shannon, I saw. I believe Nevada
and Arizona, maybe even another state that maybe Idaho, I
can't remember exactly. They named some states where there were
there's help coming of the fire fighters men and women
(04:02):
in that in that aspect that we're going to be
coming and hopefully helping here giving some relief with I'm
sure very exhausted firefighters in that area.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
That's right, And a lot of those seats have received
help from California firefighters in the past, because you know,
really cal Fire is the top of its game when
it comes to combating fire, big fires like these and
that's because California unfortunately has so much experience, you know,
in dealing with this, but an urban area like this
and just the absolute magnitude, you know, it's something that
(04:35):
many of these firefighters have just never seen something that
compares to it.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
Yeah, very good. Shannon Kingston, ABC News State Department correspondent,
Thank you very much for the latest time this. Appreciate you.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
All right, we'll see you watching this whole thing. Also,
did you see and I don't have it right in
front of me, but there were you know, you start
breaking down what kind of money was taken away from
fire in the state of California and given to what preserving?
(05:07):
What kind of fish was the smelts? Yes, yeah, smelt
so you saw that to you familiar with.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
Also Los Angeles, the City of Los Angeles, their new
budget just eliminated seventeen point six million dollars from the
fire department while allocating extra money like fourteen point six
more in the budget for I think the library system
or something.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Yeah, I know. Yeah. Did you so you see the
post and immediately when you see a post like from
from President elect Trump, you see a post about how
Gavin Newsom is at the he's at the unfortunately at
the nucleus of this problem that is happening. Did you
see when he was on with Rogan that was obviously
(05:54):
before the election, that he was talking about this and
the problems that exist in the state of California. People
are speculating. Who wasn't It was Henry Winkler who said,
didn't he say something?
Speaker 3 (06:07):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Yes, I mean people are speculating because they're going the
Hollywood Hills now have who did you see some of
the where is that? Where did that go?
Speaker 3 (06:16):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (06:16):
Some of the celebrities there, Holmes reduced to ash Adam
Brodie and Leyton Measter, Anna Farris, Billy Crystal, Eugene Levy Man.
I love Eugene Levy. I love that guy, John Goodman,
Paris Hilton, Lost Holmes, James Woods, Mark Hamill. That's the one.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
I heard his story and talking about the little niece
or whatever offering her piggy bank to help him rebuild,
and that just that got me, Misty, It really did that.
I mean, I'm sure that whatever insurance is illegal to
have in California, they've got and they've got plenty of money,
but still your life, you know, your Academy Awards, so whatever,
(07:01):
all that kind of stuff, man, that's that's your history,
and it's burnt to the ground, and that's that's just
got to tear the heart out of you, no matter
how many resources you have at your disposal.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
He was. He even having a conversation this morning. You know,
Josephine was sitting there with me when I was kind
of looking over stuff getting ready for the day, and
you know what we're going to talk about, and all that.
She goes, You know, Dad, though they have a lot
of money. I said, let me stop you right there.
I said, honey, think about this. Let's say that we
were rich and our house burned down. Would you feel
(07:33):
better because we have money? I said, think about Look
over there on the bookshelf. See those pictures are you
and your brother, See the pictures of Jasmine, See the
pictures of you know, all of our different family loved
ones and all that gone. Think about all those ornaments
that we've collected amassed over the years for our tree,
and how special those are made. You and Stone made those.
(07:56):
When you're growing up little kids, you're making ornaments out
of popsicles, sticks and glue on them and writing Merry
Christmas and I love you Mom, and I love you
Dad and all of this. Now, you know, these people
are no different. Yeah, they have a few more zeros
in their bank at the end of their bank account numbers.
But look, they're they're losing everything. And you know, look,
(08:18):
you got to set politics aside. I mean, people even
if they're mean or they hate Trump or they hate
people who support Trump or whatever, and we're all human first.
And I know we kind of talked about a little
bit yesterday, but when you look at this list, and
this is just a short list, I would imagine there
are a lot more celebs who have loved When you
(08:38):
start talking about the Hollywood Hills, that's where most of
them live. And it's really sad the way that this
is unfortunately playing out. It just is.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
And the insurance companies, if they're covering them for anything,
I guarantee you insurance companies will be in backing out
even more than they already have in the state of
California because there's nothing out there that's not at least
six million dollars oh I know, So the payout is
going to be extreme.
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