January 7, 2026 • 36 mins
Who is to blame for the LA Wildfires? In the finale, we conclude our journey by hearing what happened to Andy Ulloa and his home…and we reveal who is to blame for the wildfire catastrophe. Powered by The Licorice Guy...the best licorice in America.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
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Red Pilled America.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
We had a reservoir. It was empty.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
He's got a really big NFC.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
All hell was breaking loose at the bottom of the hill.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Get out of your car if you want to live.
Speaker 4 (00:47):
Caruso could not only make a city a work of art,
but could also clean it up as well.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
Rick Caruso had proven to be a force for good
in Los Angeles, and now he wanted to take on
the job of cleaning up the city.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
Karen Bass turned her attention to a far off land.
Her top priority appeared to be Africa. Well, I'm in
Congress now is so that I can work on Africa issues.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
She argued that Rick Caruso was not really a Democrat.
Speaker 5 (01:13):
The Associated Press declaring Bass the winner.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Los Angeles chose its new leader. I'm Patrick Carelci and.
Speaker 4 (01:23):
I'm Adriana Cortes.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
And this is Red Pilled America, a storytelling show.
Speaker 4 (01:29):
This is not another talk show covering the day's news.
We're all about telling stories.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Stories. Hollywood doesn't want you to hear stories.
Speaker 4 (01:37):
The media mocks stories about everyday Americans at the Globalist ignore.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
You can think of Red Pilled America as audio documentaries,
and we promise only one thing, the truth. Welcome to
Red Pilled America. We're at the finale of our series
(02:06):
of episodes entitled The Reckoning. We're looking for the answer
to the question who's to blame for the twenty twenty
five LA wildfires by telling the story behind the city
where it happened. So to pick up where we left
off in twenty twenty two, the people of Los Angeles
were faced with the choice who would they pick to
lead them. Would it be the real estate developer at
(02:27):
Crusoe or the community organizer Karen Bass. Caruso had served
as the president of both the Board of Police Commissioners
and the Board of Water and power. He had saved
the reputation of Los Angeles' most prestigious institution and biggest
private employer, USC and he beautified the city with his
magnificent outdoor shopping experiences. Karen Bass, on the other hand,
(02:50):
was an activist that had spent the last decade plus
focused on Africa. It should have been an easy choice,
but Karen Bass successfully branded her opponent a Republican. When
election day arrived, Los Angeles chose the community organizer.
Speaker 4 (03:05):
Mark my words, we will get big things done together.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
In her rise to the LA Mayor's office, she made
a campaign promise to Angelino's she would quote.
Speaker 4 (03:15):
Not travel internationally. The only places I would go would
be DC, Sacramento, San Francisco, New York in relation to
Los Angeles.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
But just two years into her term, she would break
that promise.
Speaker 6 (03:31):
LA Mayor Karen Bows is headed to Ghana for the
African nation's presidential inauguration. She's part of a delegation chosen
by President Biden to attend the January seventh ceremony.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
The headline was that she was attending a presidential inauguration,
but the real draw to the event was the swearing
inn of Ghana's first female vice president, Mayor Bass left
her city to indulge in gender politics.
Speaker 4 (03:59):
January seventh, twenty twenty five, was a big day for
the African nation of Ghana.
Speaker 7 (04:04):
Congratulations vice here.
Speaker 4 (04:08):
But it was also a critical moment for Los Angeles
because while Mayor Bass was playing gender politics, seven thousand
miles away, the city she was responsible for overseeing was
on the precipice of a disaster. Mayor Bass flew to
Ghana on January fourth, but the city she was leaving
was bracing for a historic event. The day before her flight,
(04:30):
the National Weather Service issued a fire weather watch for
Los Angeles. It warned that between January seventh through January tenth,
the city would be hit with massive windstorms. The alert
would eventually saturate local news.
Speaker 8 (04:46):
These are Santa Ana winds that would be blowing through
southern Californias.
Speaker 9 (04:49):
But we could be looking at you know, fifty sixty
mile Prayer Wins, eighty mile Praier Wins, and some of
the higher elevation areas.
Speaker 10 (04:54):
Fire concerns are going to be the main story for
us weatherwise.
Speaker 8 (04:57):
This is a strong event where we look at the
scale of how strong Santa Na's could be this one's
between strong and destructive. You could see some wind guys
at times up to hurricane velocity.
Speaker 11 (05:09):
We do need to just be aware that these wins,
very strong, very damaging, fire concerns will be up.
Speaker 4 (05:22):
It was no secret an incredible weather event was headed
towards Los Angeles. One spark and the brush covered hills
of La La Land could go up in flames, putting
property and lives in peril. Mayor Bass, no doubt knew
of this risk. It was her job to know. She
could have canceled her trip, or at the very least
(05:42):
when the weather forecast cemented the situation, she could have
immediately returned home because she wasn't the only American representative
at the inauguration.
Speaker 7 (05:52):
The US President, Mister Joe Biden, has announced a presidential
delegation to attend the inaugration of Ghani's President's elect, mister
John Muhamma on January seventh, twenty twenty five, in a club.
In an official statement from the White House, President Biden
designated the Director of the United States Office of Management
(06:14):
and Budget, Shalan da Young, to lead the delegation. At
the members of the delegation, a US Ambassador to Ghana,
Madame Virginia Palmer, Mayor of Los Angeles, California, Karen Bass,
and Special Assistants to the President and Senior Director for
African Affairs at the White House National Security Council, Frances Brown.
Speaker 4 (06:38):
The delegation was an all female cast of Americans. Mayor
Bass could have returned immediately to prepare Los Angeles for
the worst, but instead she rolled the dice. The problem
was that Los Angeles was running out of luck because
it had been dodging bullets for months.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
The first came in mid November twenty twenty four, when
a fire broke out in the Pacific Palace.
Speaker 5 (07:00):
Aids Hopscott Riferer seven were Pacific. We had a fire
break down in the brush here about ten o'clock this morning.
City Fire responded quickly.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
As the helicopter camera zoomed out from the area, no
more than one hundred feet from the fire stoodn't empty.
Santa Ynez Reservoir the same one hundred and seventeen million
gallon basin constructed in the late nineteen sixties to fight
Palisades wildfires.
Speaker 5 (07:22):
The helicopters have been making drops now for about the
last ten to fifteen minutes. I think they're going to
be released. It looks like they're getting the upper hand
on this. There was some concern in that Palisades Highlands area,
but for the most part, they've knocked us down. Structure
protection is in place, but we have not heard of evacuation.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
The fire was quickly contained. The Los Angeles Fire Department
or LAFD, got lucky. It could have gotten out of
hand quickly. But what was perhaps most troubling was that
even with the reservoir visibly empty, According to Fire Chief
Kristin Crowley, the fire department was not aware that the
reservoir was out of commission, as she would later confess,
(08:00):
were you aware that there was no water there?
Speaker 10 (08:02):
No, oh, we weren't aware of that.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
They don't have to advise you, not that I'm aware
of now. The empty reservoir, juxtaposed with the brush fire,
was an ominous site, and that's because the twenty twenty
four winter was turning out to be a noticeably dry one.
Lacking rainfall, the brush covering the hills of Los Angeles
became bone dry, creating thousands of acres of fuel blanketing
(08:25):
the city. To compound the problem, the LAFD was dealing
with limited resources.
Speaker 4 (08:31):
Earlier in the year, Mayor Karen Bass had drastically cut
the department's budget. About a month after dodging that first bullet,
firefighters sounded the alarm at a Los Angeles Board of
Fire Commissioner's meeting, LA Firefighters Union president delivered a warning
to city leadership the mayor's budget cuts were going to
lead to a disaster.
Speaker 12 (08:52):
Freddy Escobar and I'm proud to serve as a newly
re elected president representing the best firefighters and paramedics in
the country. U FLAX supports the fire chiefs proposed budget
for ex Chier's fiscal year encourages this commission to join
us in fighting for LAFD funding levels that reflect the
needs of our city and our firefighters.
Speaker 4 (09:12):
In July twenty twenty four, Mayor Bass cut the lafd's
budget by nearly eighteen million dollars. The reduction was a
devastating hit. LA Fire Chief Kristin Crowley wanted the department's
budget replenished in twenty twenty five, so, in a mid
December twenty twenty four Board meeting of Fire Commissioners, Firefighters
(09:36):
Union president Freddie Escobar provided some contexts to the dire
situation the department was facing.
Speaker 12 (09:42):
As you have now seen in the Chief Standard of
cover letter, there are some truly shocking findings with the
current state of the LAFD. In nineteen sixty our city
population was two point five million and we had one
hundred and twelve fire stations. In twenty twenty, our city
population was three point nine million and we had one
hundred and six stations. That's one point four million more
(10:05):
people and six fewer fire stations. In nineteen sixty nine,
the LAFD responded to one hundred and one thousand emergency incidents.
In twenty twenty three, we responded to five hundred and
five thousand emergency incidents. That's five times the number of calls.
With fewer fire stations and fewer firefighters. We have fewer
(10:27):
resources today we did in the nineteen sixties when our
population was fifty seven percent what it is now. This
is simply unacceptable.
Speaker 4 (10:37):
The union president was not a fan of Mayor Bass
in the twenty twenty two mayor's race. He and his
union backed real estate developer Rick Caruso. Mayor Bass's budget
cuts were hitting the same group that endorsed her opponent.
Speaker 12 (10:51):
I'm going to say what people can't say. If we
cut one position, if we close one station, if we
close one resource, the residents of Los Angeles are going
to pay the ultimate sacrifice and someone will die. And
we want to work with you guys to prevent that
from happening. And we have the facts to back it up.
Speaker 4 (11:11):
The firefighting community was desperately waving a red flag. Trouble
was coming, and just as twenty twenty five kicked off,
the city would dodge another bullet. At around midnight on
New Year's Eve, residents of the Pacific Palisades heard something alarming.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
Allowed bang, and saw a white flash to my backside.
Someone lit fireworks and it started fire.
Speaker 4 (11:34):
A brush fire ignited near Skull Rock, the popular boulder
in the Palisades Hills. The LAFD quickly arrived on the scene.
Winds were blowing at only fifteen miles per hour. By
four forty five am, the blaze was fully contained. Assistant
Fire Chief Joe Everett says his crew conducted what's called
a cold trailing operation, where firefighters feel for any lingering
(11:58):
heat along the edge of the burn site. They duck
out every hot spot to ensure members could not flare up. Later,
he says his crew spent the next thirty six hours
monitoring the area. According to the assistant chief, the fire
was completely dead. Firefighters exhaled a sigh of relief, but
they knew the conditions were still ripe for a disaster.
(12:21):
All of this is to say that the city officials
were given ample warning, but even with the red flags,
they weren't prepared for what.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
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Speaker 1 (14:00):
Welcome back to Red Pilled America. The morning of January seventh,
twenty twenty five, as Mayor Karen Bass was on a
trip to Africa, she promised she wouldn't take the Palisades
wildfire erupted.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
Okay, that he's got a really big head ofc is
heading forward. Starbel Drive. We have the significant houses, significant
brush in that area. I'm going to guess it at
Danager's medium. The heavy brush with about a forty mile
an hour wind blowing towards the ocean. Got it home center.
(14:32):
We're starting leers up here. A man wants to issue
an EBAC warning for that area, for all the fountains area.
How guys he copied the e back warning for the
whole area were at issue that evacuation noticed now.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
Palise's resident, Andre Ulloa, was forced to evacuate at roughly
five PM, and as he drove down the only escape
route out of his neighborhood, he drove into armageddon.
Speaker 11 (14:58):
And no one knew what was going on, right, Like
authorities were telling us, yes, just go, but not really
giving us, you know, escape routes or anything.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
There's just like go, go go.
Speaker 11 (15:08):
And once you got into that ravine, I mean they're
smoldering ground happening all over you. You got in there
and you were hitting into like deep smoke. And then
when I got to Palace Hits Drive at sunset, it
was really apocalyptic because they had abandoned probably three hundred
cars or so it looked like, and they were all
(15:30):
up the hill.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
But by the time Andre arrived, the LAFD had already
taken some drastic steps.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
This dozer is just moving these vehicles out of the way.
Speaker 13 (15:41):
Fortunately, it's an emergency situation and this is what they
have to do.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
This looks like a movie set. Unfortunately this is real
La County fire. They have to do what they have
to do.
Speaker 5 (15:51):
They need to clear a path.
Speaker 11 (15:53):
Again, Andre Uyoa, and at that point they had bulldozed
a lot of the cars, so they were kind of
in this jigsaw puzzle, and then it looked like one
side of the car had been burned.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
It just looked like a bomb site kept getting worse
and worse.
Speaker 11 (16:08):
It felt like sort of like going into the heart
of darkness. You're just like thinking, Okay, well, when am
I gonna get out of the other side of this,
and just keeps getting worse and worse.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
Andre got to the bottom of the hill and made
a left onto Pacific Coast Highway or PCH, a road that,
as its name says, travels down the Pacific Ocean coast.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
And that's when it just gets just horrific.
Speaker 11 (16:28):
You see palm trees on fire on the beach side
of it, and then on the residential side of it,
where they have a series of trailer home parks and
those are completely on fire. You use certain things on
PCH to like know where you are, and those things
are gone now, and then visibility almost got to zero.
(16:50):
The only thing that was lighting my way was the
actual fire, and you're close enough to it where the
car is completely sealed up. I've got my industrial quality
mask and so I'm not smelling anything per se, but
i can feel the window on the driver's side and
it is hot. You're literally that close to it. This
(17:12):
is where you have to have agency as a civilian
because at this point, like there's no one there to
help you. The few people that were left were left
to themselves. Like you were, like, no one's guiding us
out of here. We're getting out of here ourselves. There's
a lot of fear right there. In that particular moment.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
Andre carefully drove through the darkness. It wasn't sure when
or if you would emerge. But then as quickly as
things got bleak, the sky opened.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
It ended in a stark transition.
Speaker 11 (17:50):
I mean it was like literally you went from this
fire and all this stuff, and then once you got
past there's a lifeguard tower.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
I think they call it the Baywatch Lifeguard Tower. Once
you got past that tower. It was clear again.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
Andre didn't know if his home survived, but he'd soon
join his family. The Uyoahs were all safe. But when
the dust settled, an inevitable question arose who was to
blame for this catastrophe.
Speaker 4 (18:21):
As for the fire origin in the Palisades, many believed
it was human caused, and the Internet came up with
a possibility. On the morning of the fire, artist and
photographer Kai Cranmore says he and a few of his
buddies were hiking to Skull Rock, that massive popular boulder
in the Palisades. Cranmore would later tell several outlets that
(18:41):
while meditating near the rock, someone in the group smelled smoke.
According to Cranmore, they jumped up, put their shoes on,
and climbed down the boulder. He would later tell the
Associated Press what happened next, turned.
Speaker 13 (18:58):
Around and there was a plume of smoke just like
rolling over the mountain, like right behind us. It was
probably only about fifty feet away from us.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
And we we quickly like got our stuff, ran down
from the rock. Well climb.
Speaker 13 (19:14):
We climbed down from the rock and we had to
climb up to get to it. And as we got
to the bottom of the rock. We started to hear
the fire crackle like right behind us, and the wind
was started to pick up really fast, and like we
we got our things and completely booked it as fast
as we could away.
Speaker 4 (19:33):
Cranmore then says he hit record on his phone while
his group began their descent down the Palisades Hill, running
for their lives.
Speaker 13 (19:41):
Wait, we're in a fire right now, guy, We got
to go up.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
Let's go up.
Speaker 10 (19:44):
Let's go up.
Speaker 3 (19:45):
Yo.
Speaker 4 (19:51):
As Cranmore and his buddies first began running down the hill,
there didn't appear to be anyone else around them. Once
out of immediate harm's way, the group stopped to marvel
at the flames it had already engulfed the very place
they'd just left.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
Wait, you were right behind it.
Speaker 5 (20:09):
God, Oh my god.
Speaker 4 (20:13):
We gotta go.
Speaker 11 (20:15):
You gotta get out of here.
Speaker 13 (20:17):
As long as we're by the river, we're probably good.
Speaker 4 (20:19):
Well, Cranmore caught appeared to be the beginnings of the blaze,
but the internet got suspicious. Shortly after the Palisades wildfire
broke out, one of Cranmore's buddies, a guy named Benny Orrin,
posted on social media a video clip of their escape.
People immediately began asking questions, partly because the hikers seemed
(20:42):
jovial in their escape, but also because by posting the video,
they placed themselves at or near the origin of the fire.
A few social media users asked Cranmore point blank if
anyone from his group had been smoking. The response from
a social media account bearing Cranmore's name stated that they
were not smoking and that none of them were smokers,
(21:06):
but that appears to be untrue. Red Pilled America reviewed
Cranmore's social media footprint, and it shows Cranmore and his
friends smoking, sometimes in the wilderness, and in one case,
Cranmore captured a friend smoking in nature while on a
rock climbing expedition with sixty mile per hour winds blowing
in Malibu, similar to the conditions on the day of
(21:29):
the Palisades wildfire. There were also video clips that show
Cranmore playing with fire, even in nature. At one point,
he even throws a lit firework indoors. None of the
videos proved that the hikers had anything to do with
the start of the Palisades fire, but they are all
troubling red flags that authorities should pursue. We contacted Kay
(21:54):
Cranmore for comment, but he didn't respond. Benny Orn publicly
denied lighting the blaze, and as of January fourteenth, twenty two,
twenty four, he claims he hadn't been contacted by authorities.
This is all to say that there are theories that
the fire was human caused, but even if it was,
(22:17):
so many other things went wrong that turns the fire
into what's been called the biggest disaster in Los Angeles history.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
So what's the Los Angeles Fire Department to blame for
the destruction? A fire did erupt near the same location
on New Year's Eve. Several news outlets, including The Washington Post,
have suggested embers still smoldering from that blaze could have reignited,
but several experts have knocked down that theory, including Assistant
Chief Joe Everett of the LAFD, who oversaw the Pacific Palisades.
(22:58):
He insists that his men thoroughly patrolled the site for
thirty six hours.
Speaker 7 (23:03):
The fire was dead out.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
If it is determined that was the cause, it would
be a phenomenon.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
Assuming he's right. Some still criticized the LAFD for not
pre deploying personnel to the area given the high wind forecasts.
The LAFD responded, claiming that they couldn't possibly know where
a fire would start in the vast Santa Monica Hills.
Deploying to the wrong place could have left them vulnerable,
and they were also spread thin due to budget cuts
(23:31):
and other fires that flared up in the Hollywood area
earlier that morning. Some also criticized the lack of mobile
water tankers on site, including Andre Uyoa.
Speaker 11 (23:40):
There were even tankers of water that were accessible to
these fire trucks, but the fire department is not authorized
to have them follow them into the scene because they
aren't trained in what to do in those situations.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
And that could have helped when the unthinkable occurred.
Speaker 8 (24:02):
Hampering the fire fight has been a lack of water
at hydrants on the Palisades.
Speaker 9 (24:06):
Fire firefighters were complaining last night that some of the
hydrants in the Pacific Palisades region were running out of water.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
It turns out that it's true.
Speaker 9 (24:14):
City officials, explaining what happened in a press conference, they
save the demand on their water supplies was unprecedented, which
is hard to comprehend really, given that all the warnings
that they had in advance of this.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
The LAFD is not responsible for the water infrastructure in
the Pacific Palisades area that falls to the Los Angeles
Department of Water and Power, or LADWP, so were.
Speaker 4 (24:38):
They to blame for the catastrophe. Janis Ki Jounez, the
CEO and chief engineer of the LEDWP, would later confirm
that the tanks providing pressure to the hydrants did in
fact go dry at the height of the blaze.
Speaker 14 (24:52):
We have three large water tanks, about a million gallons each.
Speaker 10 (24:57):
We run out of water and the.
Speaker 14 (24:59):
First thing got about four forty five pm yesterday. We
ran out of water on the second tank about eight
thirty pm, and the third tank about three am this morning.
Speaker 4 (25:09):
With the hydrants running dry, many turned to the glaring
fact that the Sanaanez Reservoir was empty when the Palisades
community needed it most. The reservoir was built to protect
the Palisades from wildfires. It's managed by the LADWP and
was empty for about a year due to a repair
(25:29):
to its cover. A cover of the community had long opposed.
When the Sanainez Reservoir first went into operation in nineteen seventy,
it was just an open body of water. In nineteen
eighty eight, due to water purity regulations, the DWP proposed
the installation of a cover. Residents fought its installation, fearing
(25:50):
that it would be an iesore prone to vandalism. The
cover idea was shelved, but in the early two thousands,
the EPA issued stricter water regulations, so in two thousand
and eight a project was commenced to cover the reservoir
with a floating rubber membrane. It was completed four years
later and was supposed to have a twenty year lifespan. However,
(26:11):
in twenty twenty two the cover required repairing. It was
quickly patched up, but just two years later, in January
twenty twenty four, an LAEDWP property manager noticed a tear.
The cover was meant to stop bacteria and algae build
up from animals and debris contaminating the water. According to
the LA Times, two days after the tear was first noticed,
(26:35):
it appeared to have grown. LEDWP policy manuals required tears
to be addressed within forty eight hours. In late January
twenty twenty four, the department performed a test on the
water and according to an internal email, no bacteria was found.
The DWP wanted to keep the reservoir active while devising
(26:55):
a plan for repairs, then briefly taken out of commission,
but have it back up and running by April twenty
twenty four. However, an engineer from California's Water Resources Control
Board relayed to the LEDWP that they were quote not
supportive of allowing the reservoir to continue operation without being repaired. So,
(27:15):
according to internal emails reviewed by The La Times, the
LEDWP began the long process of draining the reservoir. In
April twenty twenty four, a bid went out to repair
the tear. Only one company responded to the bid, the
same company that originally installed the cover. A contract for
the one hundred and thirty thousand dollars repair wasn't finalized
(27:38):
until November twenty twenty four. In other words, regulations, red tape,
and poor decision making left the sana in As reservoir
dry when it was needed most.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
This points to poor management leading to the Pacific Palisades wildfire,
placing the blame for the catastrophe at the steps of
the mayor's office. Karen Bass. He was over seven thousand
miles away playing gender politics when our city needed her most.
She was the person that cut the LAFD budget. She
appointed a commissioner to the ladwp's waterboard, a commissioner who
(28:17):
was the lead liaison between the department and the Mayor's office.
If a major fire prevention resource was down, the commissioner
should have reported that to the mayor, but instead, the
commissioner's top goal for the LADWP was to advocate for
the LADWP to reach one hundred percent carbon neutral power
by twenty thirty five. The infrastructure preparedness and disaster response
(28:40):
all falls at the feet of the Mayor of Los Angeles,
and Karen Bass failed miserably. So is that the answer
was it Karen Bass's fault or others to blame? Andre
Ulloa contemplated this question shortly after evacuation, and he came
to a surprising conclusion.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
How did we let this happen? You know?
Speaker 11 (29:01):
And as somebody that takes so much responsibility in his life,
which is really the cornerstone of being a man and
being a father and being a leader in your community, right,
I let passively the people occupy positions of power in
my municipality, in my local community, in the state that
(29:22):
I live, where my kids live. I let them sort
of exist, and I just sort of said, well, I'll
deal with it. California's beautiful, I'll pay the taxes, I'll
deal with it.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
But obviously that.
Speaker 11 (29:38):
Was the wrong choice, right I'm not putting the shoulders
of the state on the yoke that I'm wearing. But
I hope that there's many many other people that feel
the same way that I do right now, because that's
the only way we're going to effectuate change in this place.
Speaker 1 (29:52):
Andre u Yoa is, of course, not responsible for the
Palisades disaster or for Karen Bass being elected mayor of LA.
He was, without question not a Bass voter. I've known
Andre for over twenty years. His wife helped plan our wedding,
and he has been right of center long before Adrianna
and I had a political awakening. After the Butler assassination
(30:15):
attempt on Donald Trump, Andre concluded he needed to do
more than just throw money behind the former president. So
he put his life on pause and decided to go
door to door in Arizona to drum up votes for
Donald Trump.
Speaker 11 (30:28):
I heard that Charlie Kirk was putting people up in
hotels and his organization Turning Point USA was essentially giving
people the framework to go out there and knock on
doors and convert these people that were low propensity voters
into early voters.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
And that's what I did.
Speaker 11 (30:48):
I went out there, I did three days on the ground,
and I knocked on a whole bunch of doors.
Speaker 1 (30:55):
This was not a man that voted for Karen Bass,
and neither did his neighbors. The Pacific Palisades voted overwhelmingly
for Rick Caruso, and they were onto something because one
of the few structures still standing after the fires is
Crusoe's Palisades Village Mall.
Speaker 15 (31:11):
Now a lot of people have been noticing that the
Palisades Village is beautiful white structure at the corner there
in the Palisades is pretty much unscathed, and then directly
across the street completely demolished.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
Rick Caruso would eventually explain how this came to be.
Speaker 16 (31:29):
So because of us being prepared, because of us building
with noncombustible materials, because we had fire retarding out there,
because we had our own water trucks mount water from
the city putting water on it. We saved eight residences
where families lived, We saved the village, We saved businesses,
(31:49):
we saved thousands of jobs. I wish the city would
have been as prepared as we were.
Speaker 1 (32:07):
What andre U Yoa meant by taking some ownership in
the Palisades disaster is that he hopes Angelinos have a
reckoning over their politics. Perhaps conservatives in the area should
begin to turn their focus to their local cities so
they don't fall into the hands of community organizers like
Karen Bass. And more importantly, maybe the liberals of Los
(32:27):
Angeles should get past the brainwashing they've endured for decades
and begin voting for the best managers instead of falling
for labels like Democrat or Republican. That's the only way
problems will get solved.
Speaker 11 (32:40):
The concept of like a fire, I understand that it
might be an environmental factor that catalyzes it, but it
ends with us right, like humans end it right, and
humans end it with their ingenuity and the tools that
we've built since the industrial age.
Speaker 1 (32:59):
A resident that lost her home also recognized this reckoning
that Angelos are facing.
Speaker 10 (33:04):
How would anyone feel if you were standing there watching
the fire ravage your house and knowing that the call
hasn't been made to fill up fire hydrants, or that
there isn't enough water to fight this fire that I've
paid tax dollars for. So now my tax dollars went
for an airplane ride from LA to West Africa versus
(33:25):
where are my fire hydrants full? That's going to be
the question in the next selection. One hundred percent, and
there have to be consequences here.
Speaker 1 (33:33):
A year after the fires, only one Palisades home has
been rebuilt, and the Santa Ynez reservoir that was empty,
and the day the fire struck what had to be
drained again at the end of twenty twenty five to
repair the cover, which leads us back to the question
(33:54):
who's to blame for the LA wildfires. The answer is clear.
It's not the Los Angeles Fire Department. It's not the
led w P, although they made some big mistakes. It's
not even the fault of Mayor Bass, who was obviously
derelict in her duties. The blame resides with the brainwashed
(34:14):
voters that put Karen Bass in office. The mayor indeed
failed the people of the Palisades, but Karen Bass was
put in the mayor's office by Angelino's and at some
point the people must take responsibility for who they choose
to manage their cities. Los Angeles was given a stark
choice for mayor, the builder with experience not only in
(34:35):
law enforcement and cleaning up systems, but also with experience
dealing with one of the city's most vital resources, water.
When the mother of all blazes came to the Palisades,
one of the few structures left standing was Rick Crusoe's
beautiful Palisades Village. Because he was prepared. Instead of choosing
this manager, brainwashed voters in La La Land voted for
(34:56):
Karen Bass, the Africa obsessed community organizer who'd never managed
anything near the scale of the city. Angelino's rejected Caruso
solely because he was branded a Republican. Now they must
have a reckoning over their politics. In the end, the
Ulloa family's home survived the fire. They were able to
return to it in December twenty twenty five.
Speaker 11 (35:17):
We're La and we're La to stay even through this nightmare.
Now we got to stay here and make this happen.
Speaker 1 (35:22):
And they will need all the support they can get because,
besides the Palisades Village, one of the few things that
hasn't burnt to the ground in Los Angeles is its ideology.
Speaker 11 (35:32):
As our house was burning, I thought, where are all
the firemen.
Speaker 10 (35:35):
People are really unhappy, and I just think this is
climate change.
Speaker 4 (35:42):
Red Pilled America is an iHeartRadio original podcast. It's owned
and produced by Patrick CARELCI and me Adrianna Coortez for
Informed Ventures.
Speaker 5 (35:49):
Now.
Speaker 4 (35:50):
You can get ad free access to our entire catalog
of episodes by becoming a backstage subscriber. To subscribe, just
visit Redpilled America dot com and could join in the
top menu. Thanks for listening.
This is Red Pilled America. Hey fambam, just a quick
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Red Pilled America.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
We had a reservoir. It was empty.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
He's got a really big NFC.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
All hell was breaking loose at the bottom of the hill.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Get out of your car if you want to live.
Speaker 4 (00:47):
Caruso could not only make a city a work of art,
but could also clean it up as well.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
Rick Caruso had proven to be a force for good
in Los Angeles, and now he wanted to take on
the job of cleaning up the city.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
Karen Bass turned her attention to a far off land.
Her top priority appeared to be Africa. Well, I'm in
Congress now is so that I can work on Africa issues.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
She argued that Rick Caruso was not really a Democrat.
Speaker 5 (01:13):
The Associated Press declaring Bass the winner.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Los Angeles chose its new leader. I'm Patrick Carelci and.
Speaker 4 (01:23):
I'm Adriana Cortes.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
And this is Red Pilled America, a storytelling show.
Speaker 4 (01:29):
This is not another talk show covering the day's news.
We're all about telling stories.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Stories. Hollywood doesn't want you to hear stories.
Speaker 4 (01:37):
The media mocks stories about everyday Americans at the Globalist ignore.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
You can think of Red Pilled America as audio documentaries,
and we promise only one thing, the truth. Welcome to
Red Pilled America. We're at the finale of our series
(02:06):
of episodes entitled The Reckoning. We're looking for the answer
to the question who's to blame for the twenty twenty
five LA wildfires by telling the story behind the city
where it happened. So to pick up where we left
off in twenty twenty two, the people of Los Angeles
were faced with the choice who would they pick to
lead them. Would it be the real estate developer at
(02:27):
Crusoe or the community organizer Karen Bass. Caruso had served
as the president of both the Board of Police Commissioners
and the Board of Water and power. He had saved
the reputation of Los Angeles' most prestigious institution and biggest
private employer, USC and he beautified the city with his
magnificent outdoor shopping experiences. Karen Bass, on the other hand,
(02:50):
was an activist that had spent the last decade plus
focused on Africa. It should have been an easy choice,
but Karen Bass successfully branded her opponent a Republican. When
election day arrived, Los Angeles chose the community organizer.
Speaker 4 (03:05):
Mark my words, we will get big things done together.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
In her rise to the LA Mayor's office, she made
a campaign promise to Angelino's she would quote.
Speaker 4 (03:15):
Not travel internationally. The only places I would go would
be DC, Sacramento, San Francisco, New York in relation to
Los Angeles.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
But just two years into her term, she would break
that promise.
Speaker 6 (03:31):
LA Mayor Karen Bows is headed to Ghana for the
African nation's presidential inauguration. She's part of a delegation chosen
by President Biden to attend the January seventh ceremony.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
The headline was that she was attending a presidential inauguration,
but the real draw to the event was the swearing
inn of Ghana's first female vice president, Mayor Bass left
her city to indulge in gender politics.
Speaker 4 (03:59):
January seventh, twenty twenty five, was a big day for
the African nation of Ghana.
Speaker 7 (04:04):
Congratulations vice here.
Speaker 4 (04:08):
But it was also a critical moment for Los Angeles
because while Mayor Bass was playing gender politics, seven thousand
miles away, the city she was responsible for overseeing was
on the precipice of a disaster. Mayor Bass flew to
Ghana on January fourth, but the city she was leaving
was bracing for a historic event. The day before her flight,
(04:30):
the National Weather Service issued a fire weather watch for
Los Angeles. It warned that between January seventh through January tenth,
the city would be hit with massive windstorms. The alert
would eventually saturate local news.
Speaker 8 (04:46):
These are Santa Ana winds that would be blowing through
southern Californias.
Speaker 9 (04:49):
But we could be looking at you know, fifty sixty
mile Prayer Wins, eighty mile Praier Wins, and some of
the higher elevation areas.
Speaker 10 (04:54):
Fire concerns are going to be the main story for
us weatherwise.
Speaker 8 (04:57):
This is a strong event where we look at the
scale of how strong Santa Na's could be this one's
between strong and destructive. You could see some wind guys
at times up to hurricane velocity.
Speaker 11 (05:09):
We do need to just be aware that these wins,
very strong, very damaging, fire concerns will be up.
Speaker 4 (05:22):
It was no secret an incredible weather event was headed
towards Los Angeles. One spark and the brush covered hills
of La La Land could go up in flames, putting
property and lives in peril. Mayor Bass, no doubt knew
of this risk. It was her job to know. She
could have canceled her trip, or at the very least
(05:42):
when the weather forecast cemented the situation, she could have
immediately returned home because she wasn't the only American representative
at the inauguration.
Speaker 7 (05:52):
The US President, Mister Joe Biden, has announced a presidential
delegation to attend the inaugration of Ghani's President's elect, mister
John Muhamma on January seventh, twenty twenty five, in a club.
In an official statement from the White House, President Biden
designated the Director of the United States Office of Management
(06:14):
and Budget, Shalan da Young, to lead the delegation. At
the members of the delegation, a US Ambassador to Ghana,
Madame Virginia Palmer, Mayor of Los Angeles, California, Karen Bass,
and Special Assistants to the President and Senior Director for
African Affairs at the White House National Security Council, Frances Brown.
Speaker 4 (06:38):
The delegation was an all female cast of Americans. Mayor
Bass could have returned immediately to prepare Los Angeles for
the worst, but instead she rolled the dice. The problem
was that Los Angeles was running out of luck because
it had been dodging bullets for months.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
The first came in mid November twenty twenty four, when
a fire broke out in the Pacific Palace.
Speaker 5 (07:00):
Aids Hopscott Riferer seven were Pacific. We had a fire
break down in the brush here about ten o'clock this morning.
City Fire responded quickly.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
As the helicopter camera zoomed out from the area, no
more than one hundred feet from the fire stoodn't empty.
Santa Ynez Reservoir the same one hundred and seventeen million
gallon basin constructed in the late nineteen sixties to fight
Palisades wildfires.
Speaker 5 (07:22):
The helicopters have been making drops now for about the
last ten to fifteen minutes. I think they're going to
be released. It looks like they're getting the upper hand
on this. There was some concern in that Palisades Highlands area,
but for the most part, they've knocked us down. Structure
protection is in place, but we have not heard of evacuation.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
The fire was quickly contained. The Los Angeles Fire Department
or LAFD, got lucky. It could have gotten out of
hand quickly. But what was perhaps most troubling was that
even with the reservoir visibly empty, According to Fire Chief
Kristin Crowley, the fire department was not aware that the
reservoir was out of commission, as she would later confess,
(08:00):
were you aware that there was no water there?
Speaker 10 (08:02):
No, oh, we weren't aware of that.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
They don't have to advise you, not that I'm aware
of now. The empty reservoir, juxtaposed with the brush fire,
was an ominous site, and that's because the twenty twenty
four winter was turning out to be a noticeably dry one.
Lacking rainfall, the brush covering the hills of Los Angeles
became bone dry, creating thousands of acres of fuel blanketing
(08:25):
the city. To compound the problem, the LAFD was dealing
with limited resources.
Speaker 4 (08:31):
Earlier in the year, Mayor Karen Bass had drastically cut
the department's budget. About a month after dodging that first bullet,
firefighters sounded the alarm at a Los Angeles Board of
Fire Commissioner's meeting, LA Firefighters Union president delivered a warning
to city leadership the mayor's budget cuts were going to
lead to a disaster.
Speaker 12 (08:52):
Freddy Escobar and I'm proud to serve as a newly
re elected president representing the best firefighters and paramedics in
the country. U FLAX supports the fire chiefs proposed budget
for ex Chier's fiscal year encourages this commission to join
us in fighting for LAFD funding levels that reflect the
needs of our city and our firefighters.
Speaker 4 (09:12):
In July twenty twenty four, Mayor Bass cut the lafd's
budget by nearly eighteen million dollars. The reduction was a
devastating hit. LA Fire Chief Kristin Crowley wanted the department's
budget replenished in twenty twenty five, so, in a mid
December twenty twenty four Board meeting of Fire Commissioners, Firefighters
(09:36):
Union president Freddie Escobar provided some contexts to the dire
situation the department was facing.
Speaker 12 (09:42):
As you have now seen in the Chief Standard of
cover letter, there are some truly shocking findings with the
current state of the LAFD. In nineteen sixty our city
population was two point five million and we had one
hundred and twelve fire stations. In twenty twenty, our city
population was three point nine million and we had one
hundred and six stations. That's one point four million more
(10:05):
people and six fewer fire stations. In nineteen sixty nine,
the LAFD responded to one hundred and one thousand emergency incidents.
In twenty twenty three, we responded to five hundred and
five thousand emergency incidents. That's five times the number of calls.
With fewer fire stations and fewer firefighters. We have fewer
(10:27):
resources today we did in the nineteen sixties when our
population was fifty seven percent what it is now. This
is simply unacceptable.
Speaker 4 (10:37):
The union president was not a fan of Mayor Bass
in the twenty twenty two mayor's race. He and his
union backed real estate developer Rick Caruso. Mayor Bass's budget
cuts were hitting the same group that endorsed her opponent.
Speaker 12 (10:51):
I'm going to say what people can't say. If we
cut one position, if we close one station, if we
close one resource, the residents of Los Angeles are going
to pay the ultimate sacrifice and someone will die. And
we want to work with you guys to prevent that
from happening. And we have the facts to back it up.
Speaker 4 (11:11):
The firefighting community was desperately waving a red flag. Trouble
was coming, and just as twenty twenty five kicked off,
the city would dodge another bullet. At around midnight on
New Year's Eve, residents of the Pacific Palisades heard something alarming.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
Allowed bang, and saw a white flash to my backside.
Someone lit fireworks and it started fire.
Speaker 4 (11:34):
A brush fire ignited near Skull Rock, the popular boulder
in the Palisades Hills. The LAFD quickly arrived on the scene.
Winds were blowing at only fifteen miles per hour. By
four forty five am, the blaze was fully contained. Assistant
Fire Chief Joe Everett says his crew conducted what's called
a cold trailing operation, where firefighters feel for any lingering
(11:58):
heat along the edge of the burn site. They duck
out every hot spot to ensure members could not flare up. Later,
he says his crew spent the next thirty six hours
monitoring the area. According to the assistant chief, the fire
was completely dead. Firefighters exhaled a sigh of relief, but
they knew the conditions were still ripe for a disaster.
(12:21):
All of this is to say that the city officials
were given ample warning, but even with the red flags,
they weren't prepared for what.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
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Speaker 1 (14:00):
Welcome back to Red Pilled America. The morning of January seventh,
twenty twenty five, as Mayor Karen Bass was on a
trip to Africa, she promised she wouldn't take the Palisades
wildfire erupted.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
Okay, that he's got a really big head ofc is
heading forward. Starbel Drive. We have the significant houses, significant
brush in that area. I'm going to guess it at
Danager's medium. The heavy brush with about a forty mile
an hour wind blowing towards the ocean. Got it home center.
(14:32):
We're starting leers up here. A man wants to issue
an EBAC warning for that area, for all the fountains area.
How guys he copied the e back warning for the
whole area were at issue that evacuation noticed now.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
Palise's resident, Andre Ulloa, was forced to evacuate at roughly
five PM, and as he drove down the only escape
route out of his neighborhood, he drove into armageddon.
Speaker 11 (14:58):
And no one knew what was going on, right, Like
authorities were telling us, yes, just go, but not really
giving us, you know, escape routes or anything.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
There's just like go, go go.
Speaker 11 (15:08):
And once you got into that ravine, I mean they're
smoldering ground happening all over you. You got in there
and you were hitting into like deep smoke. And then
when I got to Palace Hits Drive at sunset, it
was really apocalyptic because they had abandoned probably three hundred
cars or so it looked like, and they were all
(15:30):
up the hill.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
But by the time Andre arrived, the LAFD had already
taken some drastic steps.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
This dozer is just moving these vehicles out of the way.
Speaker 13 (15:41):
Fortunately, it's an emergency situation and this is what they
have to do.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
This looks like a movie set. Unfortunately this is real
La County fire. They have to do what they have
to do.
Speaker 5 (15:51):
They need to clear a path.
Speaker 11 (15:53):
Again, Andre Uyoa, and at that point they had bulldozed
a lot of the cars, so they were kind of
in this jigsaw puzzle, and then it looked like one
side of the car had been burned.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
It just looked like a bomb site kept getting worse
and worse.
Speaker 11 (16:08):
It felt like sort of like going into the heart
of darkness. You're just like thinking, Okay, well, when am
I gonna get out of the other side of this,
and just keeps getting worse and worse.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
Andre got to the bottom of the hill and made
a left onto Pacific Coast Highway or PCH, a road that,
as its name says, travels down the Pacific Ocean coast.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
And that's when it just gets just horrific.
Speaker 11 (16:28):
You see palm trees on fire on the beach side
of it, and then on the residential side of it,
where they have a series of trailer home parks and
those are completely on fire. You use certain things on
PCH to like know where you are, and those things
are gone now, and then visibility almost got to zero.
(16:50):
The only thing that was lighting my way was the
actual fire, and you're close enough to it where the
car is completely sealed up. I've got my industrial quality
mask and so I'm not smelling anything per se, but
i can feel the window on the driver's side and
it is hot. You're literally that close to it. This
(17:12):
is where you have to have agency as a civilian
because at this point, like there's no one there to
help you. The few people that were left were left
to themselves. Like you were, like, no one's guiding us
out of here. We're getting out of here ourselves. There's
a lot of fear right there. In that particular moment.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
Andre carefully drove through the darkness. It wasn't sure when
or if you would emerge. But then as quickly as
things got bleak, the sky opened.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
It ended in a stark transition.
Speaker 11 (17:50):
I mean it was like literally you went from this
fire and all this stuff, and then once you got
past there's a lifeguard tower.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
I think they call it the Baywatch Lifeguard Tower. Once
you got past that tower. It was clear again.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
Andre didn't know if his home survived, but he'd soon
join his family. The Uyoahs were all safe. But when
the dust settled, an inevitable question arose who was to
blame for this catastrophe.
Speaker 4 (18:21):
As for the fire origin in the Palisades, many believed
it was human caused, and the Internet came up with
a possibility. On the morning of the fire, artist and
photographer Kai Cranmore says he and a few of his
buddies were hiking to Skull Rock, that massive popular boulder
in the Palisades. Cranmore would later tell several outlets that
(18:41):
while meditating near the rock, someone in the group smelled smoke.
According to Cranmore, they jumped up, put their shoes on,
and climbed down the boulder. He would later tell the
Associated Press what happened next, turned.
Speaker 13 (18:58):
Around and there was a plume of smoke just like
rolling over the mountain, like right behind us. It was
probably only about fifty feet away from us.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
And we we quickly like got our stuff, ran down
from the rock. Well climb.
Speaker 13 (19:14):
We climbed down from the rock and we had to
climb up to get to it. And as we got
to the bottom of the rock. We started to hear
the fire crackle like right behind us, and the wind
was started to pick up really fast, and like we
we got our things and completely booked it as fast
as we could away.
Speaker 4 (19:33):
Cranmore then says he hit record on his phone while
his group began their descent down the Palisades Hill, running
for their lives.
Speaker 13 (19:41):
Wait, we're in a fire right now, guy, We got
to go up.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
Let's go up.
Speaker 10 (19:44):
Let's go up.
Speaker 3 (19:45):
Yo.
Speaker 4 (19:51):
As Cranmore and his buddies first began running down the hill,
there didn't appear to be anyone else around them. Once
out of immediate harm's way, the group stopped to marvel
at the flames it had already engulfed the very place
they'd just left.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
Wait, you were right behind it.
Speaker 5 (20:09):
God, Oh my god.
Speaker 4 (20:13):
We gotta go.
Speaker 11 (20:15):
You gotta get out of here.
Speaker 13 (20:17):
As long as we're by the river, we're probably good.
Speaker 4 (20:19):
Well, Cranmore caught appeared to be the beginnings of the blaze,
but the internet got suspicious. Shortly after the Palisades wildfire
broke out, one of Cranmore's buddies, a guy named Benny Orrin,
posted on social media a video clip of their escape.
People immediately began asking questions, partly because the hikers seemed
(20:42):
jovial in their escape, but also because by posting the video,
they placed themselves at or near the origin of the fire.
A few social media users asked Cranmore point blank if
anyone from his group had been smoking. The response from
a social media account bearing Cranmore's name stated that they
were not smoking and that none of them were smokers,
(21:06):
but that appears to be untrue. Red Pilled America reviewed
Cranmore's social media footprint, and it shows Cranmore and his
friends smoking, sometimes in the wilderness, and in one case,
Cranmore captured a friend smoking in nature while on a
rock climbing expedition with sixty mile per hour winds blowing
in Malibu, similar to the conditions on the day of
(21:29):
the Palisades wildfire. There were also video clips that show
Cranmore playing with fire, even in nature. At one point,
he even throws a lit firework indoors. None of the
videos proved that the hikers had anything to do with
the start of the Palisades fire, but they are all
troubling red flags that authorities should pursue. We contacted Kay
(21:54):
Cranmore for comment, but he didn't respond. Benny Orn publicly
denied lighting the blaze, and as of January fourteenth, twenty two,
twenty four, he claims he hadn't been contacted by authorities.
This is all to say that there are theories that
the fire was human caused, but even if it was,
(22:17):
so many other things went wrong that turns the fire
into what's been called the biggest disaster in Los Angeles history.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
So what's the Los Angeles Fire Department to blame for
the destruction? A fire did erupt near the same location
on New Year's Eve. Several news outlets, including The Washington Post,
have suggested embers still smoldering from that blaze could have reignited,
but several experts have knocked down that theory, including Assistant
Chief Joe Everett of the LAFD, who oversaw the Pacific Palisades.
(22:58):
He insists that his men thoroughly patrolled the site for
thirty six hours.
Speaker 7 (23:03):
The fire was dead out.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
If it is determined that was the cause, it would
be a phenomenon.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
Assuming he's right. Some still criticized the LAFD for not
pre deploying personnel to the area given the high wind forecasts.
The LAFD responded, claiming that they couldn't possibly know where
a fire would start in the vast Santa Monica Hills.
Deploying to the wrong place could have left them vulnerable,
and they were also spread thin due to budget cuts
(23:31):
and other fires that flared up in the Hollywood area
earlier that morning. Some also criticized the lack of mobile
water tankers on site, including Andre Uyoa.
Speaker 11 (23:40):
There were even tankers of water that were accessible to
these fire trucks, but the fire department is not authorized
to have them follow them into the scene because they
aren't trained in what to do in those situations.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
And that could have helped when the unthinkable occurred.
Speaker 8 (24:02):
Hampering the fire fight has been a lack of water
at hydrants on the Palisades.
Speaker 9 (24:06):
Fire firefighters were complaining last night that some of the
hydrants in the Pacific Palisades region were running out of water.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
It turns out that it's true.
Speaker 9 (24:14):
City officials, explaining what happened in a press conference, they
save the demand on their water supplies was unprecedented, which
is hard to comprehend really, given that all the warnings
that they had in advance of this.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
The LAFD is not responsible for the water infrastructure in
the Pacific Palisades area that falls to the Los Angeles
Department of Water and Power, or LADWP, so were.
Speaker 4 (24:38):
They to blame for the catastrophe. Janis Ki Jounez, the
CEO and chief engineer of the LEDWP, would later confirm
that the tanks providing pressure to the hydrants did in
fact go dry at the height of the blaze.
Speaker 14 (24:52):
We have three large water tanks, about a million gallons each.
Speaker 10 (24:57):
We run out of water and the.
Speaker 14 (24:59):
First thing got about four forty five pm yesterday. We
ran out of water on the second tank about eight
thirty pm, and the third tank about three am this morning.
Speaker 4 (25:09):
With the hydrants running dry, many turned to the glaring
fact that the Sanaanez Reservoir was empty when the Palisades
community needed it most. The reservoir was built to protect
the Palisades from wildfires. It's managed by the LADWP and
was empty for about a year due to a repair
(25:29):
to its cover. A cover of the community had long opposed.
When the Sanainez Reservoir first went into operation in nineteen seventy,
it was just an open body of water. In nineteen
eighty eight, due to water purity regulations, the DWP proposed
the installation of a cover. Residents fought its installation, fearing
(25:50):
that it would be an iesore prone to vandalism. The
cover idea was shelved, but in the early two thousands,
the EPA issued stricter water regulations, so in two thousand
and eight a project was commenced to cover the reservoir
with a floating rubber membrane. It was completed four years
later and was supposed to have a twenty year lifespan. However,
(26:11):
in twenty twenty two the cover required repairing. It was
quickly patched up, but just two years later, in January
twenty twenty four, an LAEDWP property manager noticed a tear.
The cover was meant to stop bacteria and algae build
up from animals and debris contaminating the water. According to
the LA Times, two days after the tear was first noticed,
(26:35):
it appeared to have grown. LEDWP policy manuals required tears
to be addressed within forty eight hours. In late January
twenty twenty four, the department performed a test on the
water and according to an internal email, no bacteria was found.
The DWP wanted to keep the reservoir active while devising
(26:55):
a plan for repairs, then briefly taken out of commission,
but have it back up and running by April twenty
twenty four. However, an engineer from California's Water Resources Control
Board relayed to the LEDWP that they were quote not
supportive of allowing the reservoir to continue operation without being repaired. So,
(27:15):
according to internal emails reviewed by The La Times, the
LEDWP began the long process of draining the reservoir. In
April twenty twenty four, a bid went out to repair
the tear. Only one company responded to the bid, the
same company that originally installed the cover. A contract for
the one hundred and thirty thousand dollars repair wasn't finalized
(27:38):
until November twenty twenty four. In other words, regulations, red tape,
and poor decision making left the sana in As reservoir
dry when it was needed most.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
This points to poor management leading to the Pacific Palisades wildfire,
placing the blame for the catastrophe at the steps of
the mayor's office. Karen Bass. He was over seven thousand
miles away playing gender politics when our city needed her most.
She was the person that cut the LAFD budget. She
appointed a commissioner to the ladwp's waterboard, a commissioner who
(28:17):
was the lead liaison between the department and the Mayor's office.
If a major fire prevention resource was down, the commissioner
should have reported that to the mayor, but instead, the
commissioner's top goal for the LADWP was to advocate for
the LADWP to reach one hundred percent carbon neutral power
by twenty thirty five. The infrastructure preparedness and disaster response
(28:40):
all falls at the feet of the Mayor of Los Angeles,
and Karen Bass failed miserably. So is that the answer
was it Karen Bass's fault or others to blame? Andre
Ulloa contemplated this question shortly after evacuation, and he came
to a surprising conclusion.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
How did we let this happen? You know?
Speaker 11 (29:01):
And as somebody that takes so much responsibility in his life,
which is really the cornerstone of being a man and
being a father and being a leader in your community, right,
I let passively the people occupy positions of power in
my municipality, in my local community, in the state that
(29:22):
I live, where my kids live. I let them sort
of exist, and I just sort of said, well, I'll
deal with it. California's beautiful, I'll pay the taxes, I'll
deal with it.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
But obviously that.
Speaker 11 (29:38):
Was the wrong choice, right I'm not putting the shoulders
of the state on the yoke that I'm wearing. But
I hope that there's many many other people that feel
the same way that I do right now, because that's
the only way we're going to effectuate change in this place.
Speaker 1 (29:52):
Andre u Yoa is, of course, not responsible for the
Palisades disaster or for Karen Bass being elected mayor of LA.
He was, without question not a Bass voter. I've known
Andre for over twenty years. His wife helped plan our wedding,
and he has been right of center long before Adrianna
and I had a political awakening. After the Butler assassination
(30:15):
attempt on Donald Trump, Andre concluded he needed to do
more than just throw money behind the former president. So
he put his life on pause and decided to go
door to door in Arizona to drum up votes for
Donald Trump.
Speaker 11 (30:28):
I heard that Charlie Kirk was putting people up in
hotels and his organization Turning Point USA was essentially giving
people the framework to go out there and knock on
doors and convert these people that were low propensity voters
into early voters.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
And that's what I did.
Speaker 11 (30:48):
I went out there, I did three days on the ground,
and I knocked on a whole bunch of doors.
Speaker 1 (30:55):
This was not a man that voted for Karen Bass,
and neither did his neighbors. The Pacific Palisades voted overwhelmingly
for Rick Caruso, and they were onto something because one
of the few structures still standing after the fires is
Crusoe's Palisades Village Mall.
Speaker 15 (31:11):
Now a lot of people have been noticing that the
Palisades Village is beautiful white structure at the corner there
in the Palisades is pretty much unscathed, and then directly
across the street completely demolished.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
Rick Caruso would eventually explain how this came to be.
Speaker 16 (31:29):
So because of us being prepared, because of us building
with noncombustible materials, because we had fire retarding out there,
because we had our own water trucks mount water from
the city putting water on it. We saved eight residences
where families lived, We saved the village, We saved businesses,
(31:49):
we saved thousands of jobs. I wish the city would
have been as prepared as we were.
Speaker 1 (32:07):
What andre U Yoa meant by taking some ownership in
the Palisades disaster is that he hopes Angelinos have a
reckoning over their politics. Perhaps conservatives in the area should
begin to turn their focus to their local cities so
they don't fall into the hands of community organizers like
Karen Bass. And more importantly, maybe the liberals of Los
(32:27):
Angeles should get past the brainwashing they've endured for decades
and begin voting for the best managers instead of falling
for labels like Democrat or Republican. That's the only way
problems will get solved.
Speaker 11 (32:40):
The concept of like a fire, I understand that it
might be an environmental factor that catalyzes it, but it
ends with us right, like humans end it right, and
humans end it with their ingenuity and the tools that
we've built since the industrial age.
Speaker 1 (32:59):
A resident that lost her home also recognized this reckoning
that Angelos are facing.
Speaker 10 (33:04):
How would anyone feel if you were standing there watching
the fire ravage your house and knowing that the call
hasn't been made to fill up fire hydrants, or that
there isn't enough water to fight this fire that I've
paid tax dollars for. So now my tax dollars went
for an airplane ride from LA to West Africa versus
(33:25):
where are my fire hydrants full? That's going to be
the question in the next selection. One hundred percent, and
there have to be consequences here.
Speaker 1 (33:33):
A year after the fires, only one Palisades home has
been rebuilt, and the Santa Ynez reservoir that was empty,
and the day the fire struck what had to be
drained again at the end of twenty twenty five to
repair the cover, which leads us back to the question
(33:54):
who's to blame for the LA wildfires. The answer is clear.
It's not the Los Angeles Fire Department. It's not the
led w P, although they made some big mistakes. It's
not even the fault of Mayor Bass, who was obviously
derelict in her duties. The blame resides with the brainwashed
(34:14):
voters that put Karen Bass in office. The mayor indeed
failed the people of the Palisades, but Karen Bass was
put in the mayor's office by Angelino's and at some
point the people must take responsibility for who they choose
to manage their cities. Los Angeles was given a stark
choice for mayor, the builder with experience not only in
(34:35):
law enforcement and cleaning up systems, but also with experience
dealing with one of the city's most vital resources, water.
When the mother of all blazes came to the Palisades,
one of the few structures left standing was Rick Crusoe's
beautiful Palisades Village. Because he was prepared. Instead of choosing
this manager, brainwashed voters in La La Land voted for
(34:56):
Karen Bass, the Africa obsessed community organizer who'd never managed
anything near the scale of the city. Angelino's rejected Caruso
solely because he was branded a Republican. Now they must
have a reckoning over their politics. In the end, the
Ulloa family's home survived the fire. They were able to
return to it in December twenty twenty five.
Speaker 11 (35:17):
We're La and we're La to stay even through this nightmare.
Now we got to stay here and make this happen.
Speaker 1 (35:22):
And they will need all the support they can get because,
besides the Palisades Village, one of the few things that
hasn't burnt to the ground in Los Angeles is its ideology.
Speaker 11 (35:32):
As our house was burning, I thought, where are all
the firemen.
Speaker 10 (35:35):
People are really unhappy, and I just think this is
climate change.
Speaker 4 (35:42):
Red Pilled America is an iHeartRadio original podcast. It's owned
and produced by Patrick CARELCI and me Adrianna Coortez for
Informed Ventures.
Speaker 5 (35:49):
Now.
Speaker 4 (35:50):
You can get ad free access to our entire catalog
of episodes by becoming a backstage subscriber. To subscribe, just
visit Redpilled America dot com and could join in the
top menu. Thanks for listening.
Hosts And Creators
Adryana Cortez
Patrick Courrielche
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