September 1, 2025 • 36 mins
A look at how California officials mismanaged the fires in Los Angeles. Still, residents are fighting red tape almost nine months later.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
And welcome to the Big Podcast. Oh yeah, it's Labor Day.
Today is the first day of September, Year of Our Lord,
twenty twenty five. My name is Tom Sullivan. And doing
something a little different on this holiday. Hope you're having
a great Labor Day weekend. But I thought we'd go
(00:43):
back and do a best of show. This is from
a few days after the fires in Los Angeles back
in January. They still are fighting a maze of bureaucracy
and delays and hurdles. There are some people in Los
Angeles predicting that the full economic and physical recovery could
(01:04):
take sixteen to twenty seven years. I believe it. So
I thought, well, we'll pick up from just a couple
of days after the fire, talking about the whole idea
about why things did not work and how mismanaged California is.
(01:25):
So a best of going back to January. That's what
fire hydrants are for, is you know, they're they're not
drinking I mean, you got to drink the water apparently,
but they're fire hydrants. They're there to get the water
to put on fires. And President Biden just gave his
(01:47):
briefing and he said the electricity was cut off brought
me about this water. The electricity was cut off by
cal fire, which meant that the pumps that pumped though
water to the fire hydrants was cut off. That was
That's what Joe Biden just said five minutes ago. So
(02:10):
I mean, that's that's that's a new answer. I haven't
heard that one. I mean people talked about, well, the
water was supposed to be in the containers up in
wherever they have them up at higher elevations, and water
people in Los Angeles said yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. They
were full that we had the water up there. So
why did the water not come out of the fire
(02:32):
hydrants when the LA Fire Department hooked up their hoses?
And people are furious about this. The other weird part
about this is that everybody and their brother was warned
that this was going to be a super high fire
danger this week, and the mayor took off for this
junket in Ghana. Biden delegation. So she gets off the
(02:57):
plane after finding out that LA's on fire. She tries
to find a way back, but she's Africa. It's apparently
sixteen hours to get back, and so she finally got
back and there was a British television crew that met her,
and she gets off the plane onto the jetway and
(03:18):
they basically have her against the wall. She turns and
she won't talk to the guy. He going, do you
have anything to say? She wouldn't say yes, no, maybe,
or anything else. She turned and faced the wall. Then
finally she gets out of there and she goes up
and there's a door that goes out into the onto
the airport, but you can't open that door without setting
(03:39):
off all kinds of alarms. So then they had to
run around and get all kinds of people from the
from the airport to open the door for her without
setting off the alarms. And off she went by herself
down the stairs and Newsom was asked about Hey, what
about the water. He goes out, the local people are
(04:00):
going to figure that out. I don't know. Don't look
at me, go to go talk to the local people.
So that's what's going on with the leadership in California.
This makes you wonder, doesn't it about your fire hydrant?
Speaker 2 (04:15):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
Zibby Owens, one of the homeowners there who lost her
home cut six So she's still processing what's going on.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
Everyone is just so raw, numb and shock. Like I
woke up this morning and was like, wait, maybe it
didn't happen. Maybe it was just a bad dream. But
it's not a bad dream. And I don't know where
anybody goes from here. And I will say, you know,
for so many people, there's such well intentioned advice right
like it's okay, like we're going to rebuild, it'll be
(04:49):
better than ever. And I don't think the people who
have been immediately affected are quite there yet. I think
everybody is in a processing mode, like just trying to
accept what has happened.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
And I think for all those.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
People who want to reach out to friends and loved
ones and the people who have lost their homes, just
to say you're thinking of them, you're here for them
if there's anything they can do. But I think the
optimism and it will come in time, but it is
so new and so raw, and this grief is just yeah,
it's just visceral.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
And so raw.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
And you know, even if we are lucky with our
own home and you know, as I said, I do
live here, this isn't about me as my role in this, right,
It's about everybody else. And you know, firefighters did come
we watched on the nest cam as we saw firefighters
in our backyard putting out the flame. So we are
so indebted to the firefighters and just watching what they've
(05:43):
been doing is so heroic and we are just so thankful.
But this is it's just I can't even believe it.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
Yeah, no, I'm sure, but those people are going to
have to move. I don't know where they're going to go,
but they're going to have to move because nobody's going
to be rebuilding anything on that on that land for
probably a few years. If Laheina is just getting around
(06:10):
a draft of a plan and the government is going
to be very much involved in this, which is going
to slow down the whole process. Phone numbers eight five,
five two nine, five sixty six hundred Sarah, Hi, Sarah, welcome,
thanks for calling.
Speaker 4 (06:27):
Hey, Thanks Tom, yep.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
What's up? So?
Speaker 5 (06:31):
My question is, when I was listening to Biden briefing,
he mentioned that the power was or the water the
power was turned off. I thought he said by the
power company, and that that prevented the pumps from working
for the fire for the fire teams.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
I was, well, hold on one second, Luis, can you
roll back and find that see what see what the
words were that he said? Do you have that? Because
I'm thinking if you yeah, it was about four fifty
(07:18):
we're running in there. Yeah, if you look for that,
we'll talk to Sarah. Will you dig around see if
you can find that. Yeah, Hi Sarah.
Speaker 5 (07:25):
So anyway, I'm yeah, I'm from northern California and we
often will the last seven years, I've had fires up here,
and our power companies often turn off the power because often.
Speaker 4 (07:40):
We'll start fire.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
I've heard about that.
Speaker 5 (07:43):
There's all these people that are stranded without power for
like weeks at a time, and you know, their fridge
food goes bad. They hopefully have generators, but it can
go a long time. And my question was if if
Fiden did and say that it was a power company
that shut off the power because they're worried about more
(08:06):
fires that prevented the firefighters than from doing their job,
did he just im implement or indicate that the power
companies are liable for some of the destruction happening down
in these fires.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
Yeah, well it's a great question. No, it's a great question.
I thought he said cal fire shut off the power
would shut off the pumps for the water to go
to the fire hydrants. But we'll figure out either way.
I don't First of all, if it's CalFire, that's a
state agency, so I don't know if you can sue
(08:41):
them or not. But if it's a prime, if it's
Southern California, Edison or one of the other power companies,
Los Angeles Department of Water and Power is the big
power company in LA, and they I don't know. I mean, yeah,
if you consume.
Speaker 4 (08:59):
Them or not a pickle for them.
Speaker 5 (09:01):
It's a pickle because they're trying to prevent more damage,
but then at the same time prevents or causing damage.
Speaker 4 (09:09):
So it's like, would they be liable.
Speaker 5 (09:12):
There's so many insurance companies that have pulled out of
the state of California.
Speaker 4 (09:16):
You know, so many those.
Speaker 5 (09:16):
People are like no longer insured. So could that fall
to the power company if someone high up made that decision, Hey,
we're shutting all this off to prevent.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
Buyers, which I listen. I lived a long time ago.
I lived in California for many, many years. I don't
know what's happened to that place. You don't have insurance
companies are saying too bad and leaving, and power companies
are turning off your power like you live in Costa Rica.
(09:49):
What kind of third world place is California? What's happened
to that place?
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (09:56):
Yeah, they're trying to more damage.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
Well, no, I'm sorry, we don't get our power cut off.
And and the wims have been blowing here in New
York pretty strong for two days from from actually from
d C up to Boston. We've got really high winds.
And that power companies aren't turning our power off. Why not?
Speaker 4 (10:18):
Yeah, because you underground?
Speaker 1 (10:21):
I don't many of them.
Speaker 4 (10:25):
Yeah, it's just interesting.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
And why don't they put them? Why don't they put
new power lines in or put them underground or do
whatever they got to do, because if they got old,
shoddy power lines, shame on them for not keeping their
their their lines and their products safe. I don't I
do not understand what has happened to They called it,
(10:51):
they used to call it the Golden State. It's a joke.
I'm telling you. People that are watching California, think what
is wrong with you? Why are you even there?
Speaker 5 (11:04):
I know it's really hard, and I think a lot
of these power companies are so big, but they can't
maintain what they are servicing. And they don't know what
to do and they're just standating.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
Things, so they turn your power off. They turn your
power off. Wow. Yeah, I remember my grandmother was born
in the late eighteen eighteen ninety or something like that,
and she was ninety some years old, and she told
me about she remembered when power came to the little
(11:39):
town that she lived in up in the prairies of Canada,
and that was fabulous. That has been the late eighteen hundreds.
You're living like my grandmother did in the late eighteen hundreds,
but the power hasn't come to you yet. It really is.
You're living in bad water country. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (12:03):
I would be really great is if a lot of
these bigger companies bisected or became smaller so that the
people in that area could better maintain those facilities. But
their monopolies and they don't want to lose that power.
They want that money. We also have some of the
highest prices for power.
Speaker 4 (12:24):
In the Yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
Part of that. Part of that is the state passed
laws that require them to buy expensive alternative power, solar power,
wind power, stuff like that, and they just pass through
the utility companies that utility companies didn't want to do. That,
but that takes the fingerprint of the lawmaker off of
(12:46):
your high utility bills. But yeah, you got the highest
taxes in the in the country. You got the highest
utility bills in the country, and they cut your power off,
and and and you're paying through the nose to the
to the state for taxes. See, we've got the highest
gas prices in the country. When are people going to
When are people going to revolt in that state?
Speaker 4 (13:06):
I mean, well, it's starting, I don't know.
Speaker 5 (13:11):
So with all the issues, hopefully people are working up.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
I hope so too, because it was a beautiful place
got to run. But thank you for the call.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
Enjoy our discussion. You seem to be very fair. It's
appreciated that I.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
Just call him like I said him, you're with Tom's Tellom.
We chewed up what President Biden was talking about in
his briefing in the White House about the power being
cut off that stopped the water from the water pumps
from pumping the water to the fire hydrants. Here's here
is what he had to say.
Speaker 6 (13:46):
What I know from talking to the governor that there
are concerns out there that there's also been a water shortage.
The fact is the utilities understandably shut off power because
they are worried the whies that they're they carrying energy,
we're going to be blown down and spark additional fires.
(14:07):
But the Cow fire, when it did that, it cut
off the ability to generate pumping the water.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
That's what cause and lack the water in these hudgies.
All right, there we go, there we go. So it
was she was right. It was the utilities who cut
off the power because they were afraid that if the
lines failed that they would spark another fire. And that
CalFire then was standing there looking around at hey, wait
a minute, we need the pump stuff for our water
(14:36):
to our fire hydrant. So it wasn't CalFire. It was
the utilities. And I'm guessing that's mostly Los Angeles Department
of Water and Power, and there's also Southern California Edison.
I don't know who it is, but yeah, oh, the
lawyers are already drafting the complaint right now. I mean
(14:58):
they you better believe they are, because that's going to
be I mean, this is going to be over a
trillion dollars of damage. I don't think these utility companies
don't have the money to pay that kind of dollars.
They're the ones who cut it off. So after that,
(15:21):
Sea SPAN I was listening during the break, sea SPAN
kept the big briefing session going on at the White House,
and one of some staffer, he wasn't on camera, but
some staffer said that they've been working with FEMA. I
don't know if the guy was from Themare or something.
Were not from FEMA and talking to the state of California.
(15:43):
And we've gotten March, the old March Air Force Base,
which is a decommissioned I believe, but in March Air
Force Base, and we can set up a FEMA housing
in March Air Force Base. And so you're talking about
I don't know, one hundred thousand people plus they're talking
(16:06):
about there's four hundred thousand power outages in Los Angeles.
Does that mean that it's four hundred thousand homes which
is multiply that time three, So that's a million two
when it comes to population, are they going to put
(16:27):
them in FEMA tents out at March Air Force Space?
And if your I just checked on the Google map,
it's about two and a half hours to get from
Pacific Palisades out to March Air Force Space. It's kind
of the high the desert area. It's nothing like it's
like a different country out there south of Riverside and
(16:51):
the Inland Empire is what they call it. That is
just the opposite of living in palace Pacific Palisades overlooking
the ocean of the cool breezes of the Pacific. So
if they're gonna put up FEMA housing out there and
tell people, Okay, that's where you're gonna, you're gonna go.
You want you want help, that's where you're gonna. We
got a house out We got a tent for you
out there at Marsh Air Force Base. I'll tell you
(17:16):
what that. Unless you are really out of everything, you
don't have a dime to your name, I guess you
have to go do that. But otherwise I don't, I
don't know. And so then Biden says, are our Frank
through very much? Uh? I say, I'll just get a
let's get a briefing here on the energy situation. Uh
(17:38):
and the power grid in Los Angeles and uh, let's
talk to our energy secretary Jennifer grand home. Uh, Jennifer,
Uh the grand Home. She I don't saw were Oh
she's not here? Sir, she's on a plane. She's on
a plane to Puerto Rico because they lost all all
(18:00):
the power in the island of Puerto Rico again a
couple of like a week ago. And so she's on
a plane going to take care of the power alleges
in Puerto Rico. And uh so, yeah, that is government.
It's it's it's government at its finest. The Jennifer's on
(18:22):
a plane. People are Puerto Rico. They lose that power,
The whole island loses its power, like on a regular basis.
I don't know they've got it. They've got some power
system out there that's put together by band aids and
spit wise or something. It's always failing and there's so
(18:42):
much corruption. I mean, I don't know, you think you
could be able to build a electrical power system in
Puerto Rico. But that's where she is. They act with
the people in La Prime Time all the time, with
Tom Colliver. I can't believe that that's what they actually
that's their eyea is to cut off the power. That'll
(19:02):
solve it. So good grief eight nine five sixty six hundred.
Joel in Pennsylvania, Hello Joel.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
Here, Tom After hearing out left cut. I am livid
to left cut from the president. Yeah, you're going to
say that they never game planned this out. If there's
a fire, we're going to do X because I believe
on one of the power companies over the summertime, they
got sued for lines going down up in the mountain.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
Yeah, and they were they were a publicly traded company.
I don't know if they still are. It's called Pacific
Gas and Electric. And there they were on the stock
market and you could own a piece of it, and
it was but they Yeah, they got sued by for
a bazillion dollars and more than they had, so they
(19:54):
went bankrupt. And all the people that got stiffed by
the fire being caused by their lines, which apparently the
accusation was they had old lines, they haven't repaired them.
A wind came along, sure enough, they fell out in
the forest somewhere, and the forest caught on fire and
burned a bunch of people's homes, and so they got sued,
(20:16):
couldn't afford it, file for bankruptcy. The people who got
burned out of their homes were given basically, uh, the
short straw. Too bad, we're bankrupt. But they're but they're not.
They're not. They're not in Southern California. They are. They
are a Northern California company, Southern California. They've got two
or three utilities down there, but they're cutting off the
(20:38):
power and the and the and cal Fire can't produce water,
no pumps for their water. Crazy.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
You know, all the volunteer fireman and we used to
game plan places. So if you pull up to a
burning house, you hit the hydroen. If the hydrid doesn't work,
you've got X amount of gallons on the truck. You
call them tankers. You look for streams to do something.
It was all game planned out. These people who are
running that California and are idiots. They really are.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
To get paid lots of money.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
I can't. They're getting a ton of money to do
what So they hire the right kind of people so
they can hire more of my narves. Well, you know, yes,
few people in.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
Yes, the people are not qualified. The lady who hold on,
hold on here, let me see where I can find this.
There's a the lady that is the fire chief. Her
name is Crowley. Second, they've got if you go to
the Los Angeles Fire Department you will find her bio
(21:45):
about Chief Crowley, says Kristin Crowley, nineteen, fire chief the
Los Angeles Fire Department, with her wife and children by
her side. She took the both of office March twenty
fifth of two thousand and two, becoming the first female
and LGBTQ fire chief in the Los Angeles Fire Department.
So that's the first paragraph about her is that's important,
(22:08):
But it goes on about her background and she'd been
with the fire department. She worked her way up from
firefighter up to the boss. But the bottom line on this,
the last paragraph is creating, supporting, and promoting a culture
that values diversity, inclusion, and equity are Chief Prowley's priorities.
(22:28):
So that's her priority. So enough of this business about
game planning things. We got equity to deal with. You know,
it's unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
And the worst part is no one who's going to
take accountability for this. No one's going to get fired.
No one's going to lose their job. No, No, it's
going to go on to happy other little while or ruse.
If they do get fired, they'll get their full pension
and they don't there's no harm. Meanwhile, you have homes.
People lost their homes, they lost to their livelihoods, and
they just don't give.
Speaker 1 (22:59):
A dart, really don't. I'm sorry, I've got to get
back to I got to check my investment account on
my pension plan to make sure that I'm that's what
they're doing. Yeah, her priority is diversity, equity inclusion. It
doesn't say anything about making sure that the system works.
(23:21):
I mean she's been with the fire department her whole life.
And I couldn't care less if the woman is gay
or straight. I really couldn't. Just do the job. That's
all I ask. Are you good at the job?
Speaker 2 (23:34):
Correct, as long as you're qualified. But you know any
other thing what you were saying before, Okay, so we
cut the power. No one thought about, Hey, you know something,
So those pumps run run on electricity. If we cut
the power, will they be all that's hump out water.
I mean, that's common sense. A third grader can figure
that out.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
I would think, so, I don't know. These are the
chief of the fire department makes almost a million dollars
a year. It's pretty good pay. Yeah, no, it is.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
It is. You know, my wife and we bought an
old house and we had well water and a septic system.
And one of the first things we thought about was,
in the event our power goes off, what are we
going to do for water? What are we gonna do
for septic? And you know, so we got a generator. Yeah,
I mean it's again, it's common sense. Yes.
Speaker 1 (24:31):
Have you ever had them purposely cut off your power
your utility? I never have, No, No, we had. I
mean we've lost our power. We've lost our power because
of a storm and a treelium comes down and breaks
some wire somewhere. I do have a generator, and I
(24:53):
wouldn't live without a generator, But I've never had a
power company just shut down the power before. But that
that's what they're doing out in. That's what they do.
That's what they're doing outthing.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
Tom, is that they shut the power knowing that the
pumps run on well electric.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
Duh. I wonder if anybody ever checked, what's the I
wonder if anybody ever checked with cal Fire said hey, hey,
we're gonna cuts the power because we don't want to
be sued again.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
Exactly exactly. I don't get it.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
I don't either.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
I don't know. I don't know how people I don't
know how people live in California.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
I don't either.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
Until meetings any better. But I don't know.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
No, I listen. I loved California. It's a beautiful state.
You got the mountains on one side and the ocean
and the other and uh, but it's being run. It's
being run by third graders. It really is. It really is. Joel.
Always good to hear from you. I appreciate the call.
(25:57):
Let's talk to Mike. Hello, Mike, what's going on? Mike? Hello?
Speaker 5 (26:05):
Are Hello?
Speaker 2 (26:06):
Hi? Hey Tom. Good to be with charter listener from
way way back.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
What's going on today?
Speaker 2 (26:15):
Well, you got a great program, and I just wanted
to call foul on a couple of things. Not you,
but the power company number one. Yeah, I've experienced these
power shut offs about seven years ago. They started in
my area, and all the water utility companies. Guess what,
they bought backup generators. I bought a backup generator from
my house. Uh. The internet companies used to shut it down,
and they bought a backup generator. So I call foul
(26:37):
on the power company or the water companies down there
for not having backup generators to keep the bump.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
Oh number one number that makes sense, Yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
Yeah, and number two is mayor and the rest of
these officials. Okay, this thing was predicted and then in
my organization when I was involved, be careful anyway, So
I call foul on the officials, not you know, leaving
the state, not being there. You've got to be around
when the disaster comes in. And that was predictable. H.
(27:11):
On the aircraft, Am I still with you? Yep? Oh?
And on the aircraft, yeah, retards very effective and it's
limited in some areas, usually the national force. But down
there there shouldn't be any restrictions except in uh maybe
the public drinking water of spreadservoirs. But the Canada, the
Canada air they can inject foam into the water and
(27:35):
they can also inject retarding into it, or they can
just drop water. It's it's it's flexible. Now they're very.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
Oh it's not just good old H two oh good,
well it.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
Is H two oh as a base but and it
can drop it just with water. But they also have
the ability to inject foaming it when they're picking it
up or retardant. So they're an effective tool. But backshow
you the fixed wing aircraft that the cal Fire and
the fens Halper are just as effective.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
It was just it was just too windy for for
for fixed wing or helicopter. But I got to hit
a break. But thank you unfredictable, unprecedented, undenial lift, Tom Sullivan.
I get an email my email addresses on my website
tomsullivan dot com. Carlos sends me this. He says, remember
(28:23):
on the Simpson Show, Dad, just to say why stupid
things that happened to stupid people keep happening to me.
I'm sure democrats here in California are asking the same thing. Yeah,
stupid it is. It's stupid. Let me go through some
of these things. This is great. Yeah, uh, Dennis says.
(28:50):
The fires hi, Tom, He says, uh, yes, fire hydrants
should work. What a lot of people don't seem to
understand is working fire hydrants wouldn't have made much of
any difference. These fires roared in at eighty miles an
hour with single digit humidity. You can't stop a fire
in those conditions. You would be sending firefighters to their
(29:10):
desk if you tried. It was like a tornado. You
don't send first responders into a tornado. That's from Michael
Well Michael. Actually, yes, there was at the top of
the ridges there was really high winds, but the rest
of it, no, The firefighters were driving biased Anderson Cooper
was standing out in front of houses on fire and
the fire fighters drove by. So they didn't have any water.
(29:33):
It wasn't the wind. The wind was strong, but it
wasn't apparently enough to make them from I mean, they
didn't have water to try to put out the fire.
France says, I'm an electrician in California. These pumps are
(29:56):
critical infrastructure. You mean to tell me there's no generator
for backup on critical infrastructure. I built fire stations and
hospitals and all have generator backups. Anything that has critical
infrastructure as a generator. There is several people to blame. Yeah,
(30:17):
So Biden says, the utilities cut it off and cal
water pumps went out, But why didn't CalFire have generators?
Henry Pacific Palisage area is supposed to have a small
lake used to supply water to fire hydrants. By the
second day of that fire, that lake ran out of water.
(30:38):
Then so Cal Ledison cuts the power. These types of fires,
water does little to slow them down. With high winds
I worked on in summers fighting this type of fire.
Extremely dangerous. Been there, done that? Yeah, I know, there's
a lot of the fire moves so fast it was
like a wall of flame.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
I know.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
Sweet, we got a lot of good. Oh, Mike Thompson
always has something good, says They even created an acronym
for these shutoffs, the PSPs that what goes back to
the eighteen hundreds look normalized. Yet we in California will
(31:19):
be fossil fuel vehicle prohibited by twenty thirty five. You
must conform. We are a joke run by clowns. The
PSPs stands for public Service Power Shutoff. Oh that's good.
Make sure and call it public service. That'll make the
people go. Oh okay, Todd says, good afternoon. I'm the
(31:42):
owner of an engineering firm. You can sum up most
of the problems in California and one simple word, regulations.
Everything we need must be built, and the regulations and
permitting in California's completely over the top, out of control.
Just wait until these people decide that they want to
try to rebuild and realize that what they had will
(32:04):
no longer be allowed and that the cost of the
fees are going to be outrageous. Thanks Todd. Yeah, that's
what Adam Carolla was lamenting earlier today. He was went
off on this whole thing about just wait till they
try and rebuild and all the regulations that they're going
(32:24):
to have to try to deal with, They're going to
pull their hair out. It's yeah, here's Reggie says, never
heard of cal fire shutting off power. The electric companies
who are covering their behind shutting off power to prevent lawsuits.
(32:46):
That's why so many people are getting generators. I would
I would definitely get one. Drizzett wants to know what
happened to California. You want to know two words. Gavin Newsom.
I wonder how much see I hear that I hear.
You know, people on the right complained about Gavin Newsom
(33:08):
because he's way over on the left and he's a
big schmoozer, and he's done everything he can to try
to promote himself, and he does. He's very good self promoter.
He's his own PR firm. But I wonder if this
will have any of this will stick to him. When
Anderson Cooper asked him about the water shut off yesterday,
(33:31):
why there wasn't any water coming out of the fire hydrants.
He said, Ah, the local people are you gonna They're
gonna have to figure that out. He washed his hands
of that so fast. He'd blame them, Yeah, blame that.
Don't look at me, and he literally he shrugged his
(33:51):
shoulders and put his hands up to this to his side, like,
I don't know. The local people are the ones that
are gonna have to figure that one out. West sends
me email, says the Coastal Commission in California will probably
stop a lot of building along the coast. Yeah, most
of the homes were not on the coast, but there
(34:15):
is a long, long, long stretch miles of homes, especially
Malibu area, that are right literally there's the highway and
then there's the house, and then there's the ocean. They
literally are homes that are on the beach, and for
them to rebuild those, I think you're right, West. I
(34:37):
think this is they're going to say, you want to
rebuild where I'm sorry, you're not going to be allowed
to do that. So again, prayers for the people southern California.
They've got red flag warnings all the way through tomorrow night.
But we have we have the full comment line band,
(34:58):
But that's because yesterday markets were closed today because of
the federal holiday, the day of Mourning for Jimmy Carter.
That service was pretty interesting today because they had the
five living presidents sitting next to each other, and Trump
was sitting next to Barack Obama and they were chatting,
(35:24):
and Barack Obama kept laughing whatever Trump was telling him,
he kept he was cracking up Obama. And Kamala Harris
was sitting in the row ahead with her husband, and
she turned around and saw Obama and Trump laughing, and
she had a look like a schoolmarm, like she was discussed.
There was no we're not going to put up with
(35:46):
that kind of stuff. This is she did not like
seeing Obama and Trump getting along. They can check the videos.
They're all over the X and YouTube. Kind of funny
on the comment line today, though, we do have this
caller who wonders why there wasn't a backup generator for
(36:06):
the water.
Speaker 7 (36:07):
I think the story about the electricity and the pumps
is a croc. Hospitals have generators. Why wouldn't a water
facility have a backup generator? Knowing that you get fires anglely.
Speaker 1 (36:19):
Yeah, they're not alone now this caller isn't Biden Biden's
excuse for the lack of water.
Speaker 4 (36:25):
I don't get it.
Speaker 2 (36:26):
My home is hooked up to the municipal water supply.
Speaker 7 (36:29):
If we have a power failure, water still comes out
of the faucet.
Speaker 1 (36:34):
There's something fishy here. Yeah, there's little stinky, isn't it.
See you tomorrow.
And welcome to the Big Podcast. Oh yeah, it's Labor Day.
Today is the first day of September, Year of Our Lord,
twenty twenty five. My name is Tom Sullivan. And doing
something a little different on this holiday. Hope you're having
a great Labor Day weekend. But I thought we'd go
(00:43):
back and do a best of show. This is from
a few days after the fires in Los Angeles back
in January. They still are fighting a maze of bureaucracy
and delays and hurdles. There are some people in Los
Angeles predicting that the full economic and physical recovery could
(01:04):
take sixteen to twenty seven years. I believe it. So
I thought, well, we'll pick up from just a couple
of days after the fire, talking about the whole idea
about why things did not work and how mismanaged California is.
(01:25):
So a best of going back to January. That's what
fire hydrants are for, is you know, they're they're not
drinking I mean, you got to drink the water apparently,
but they're fire hydrants. They're there to get the water
to put on fires. And President Biden just gave his
(01:47):
briefing and he said the electricity was cut off brought
me about this water. The electricity was cut off by
cal fire, which meant that the pumps that pumped though
water to the fire hydrants was cut off. That was
That's what Joe Biden just said five minutes ago. So
(02:10):
I mean, that's that's that's a new answer. I haven't
heard that one. I mean people talked about, well, the
water was supposed to be in the containers up in
wherever they have them up at higher elevations, and water
people in Los Angeles said yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. They
were full that we had the water up there. So
why did the water not come out of the fire
(02:32):
hydrants when the LA Fire Department hooked up their hoses?
And people are furious about this. The other weird part
about this is that everybody and their brother was warned
that this was going to be a super high fire
danger this week, and the mayor took off for this
junket in Ghana. Biden delegation. So she gets off the
(02:57):
plane after finding out that LA's on fire. She tries
to find a way back, but she's Africa. It's apparently
sixteen hours to get back, and so she finally got
back and there was a British television crew that met her,
and she gets off the plane onto the jetway and
(03:18):
they basically have her against the wall. She turns and
she won't talk to the guy. He going, do you
have anything to say? She wouldn't say yes, no, maybe,
or anything else. She turned and faced the wall. Then
finally she gets out of there and she goes up
and there's a door that goes out into the onto
the airport, but you can't open that door without setting
(03:39):
off all kinds of alarms. So then they had to
run around and get all kinds of people from the
from the airport to open the door for her without
setting off the alarms. And off she went by herself
down the stairs and Newsom was asked about Hey, what
about the water. He goes out, the local people are
(04:00):
going to figure that out. I don't know. Don't look
at me, go to go talk to the local people.
So that's what's going on with the leadership in California.
This makes you wonder, doesn't it about your fire hydrant?
Speaker 2 (04:15):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
Zibby Owens, one of the homeowners there who lost her
home cut six So she's still processing what's going on.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
Everyone is just so raw, numb and shock. Like I
woke up this morning and was like, wait, maybe it
didn't happen. Maybe it was just a bad dream. But
it's not a bad dream. And I don't know where
anybody goes from here. And I will say, you know,
for so many people, there's such well intentioned advice right
like it's okay, like we're going to rebuild, it'll be
(04:49):
better than ever. And I don't think the people who
have been immediately affected are quite there yet. I think
everybody is in a processing mode, like just trying to
accept what has happened.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
And I think for all those.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
People who want to reach out to friends and loved
ones and the people who have lost their homes, just
to say you're thinking of them, you're here for them
if there's anything they can do. But I think the
optimism and it will come in time, but it is
so new and so raw, and this grief is just yeah,
it's just visceral.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
And so raw.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
And you know, even if we are lucky with our
own home and you know, as I said, I do
live here, this isn't about me as my role in this, right,
It's about everybody else. And you know, firefighters did come
we watched on the nest cam as we saw firefighters
in our backyard putting out the flame. So we are
so indebted to the firefighters and just watching what they've
(05:43):
been doing is so heroic and we are just so thankful.
But this is it's just I can't even believe it.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
Yeah, no, I'm sure, but those people are going to
have to move. I don't know where they're going to go,
but they're going to have to move because nobody's going
to be rebuilding anything on that on that land for
probably a few years. If Laheina is just getting around
(06:10):
a draft of a plan and the government is going
to be very much involved in this, which is going
to slow down the whole process. Phone numbers eight five,
five two nine, five sixty six hundred Sarah, Hi, Sarah, welcome,
thanks for calling.
Speaker 4 (06:27):
Hey, Thanks Tom, yep.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
What's up? So?
Speaker 5 (06:31):
My question is, when I was listening to Biden briefing,
he mentioned that the power was or the water the
power was turned off. I thought he said by the
power company, and that that prevented the pumps from working
for the fire for the fire teams.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
I was, well, hold on one second, Luis, can you
roll back and find that see what see what the
words were that he said? Do you have that? Because
I'm thinking if you yeah, it was about four fifty
(07:18):
we're running in there. Yeah, if you look for that,
we'll talk to Sarah. Will you dig around see if
you can find that. Yeah, Hi Sarah.
Speaker 5 (07:25):
So anyway, I'm yeah, I'm from northern California and we
often will the last seven years, I've had fires up here,
and our power companies often turn off the power because often.
Speaker 4 (07:40):
We'll start fire.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
I've heard about that.
Speaker 5 (07:43):
There's all these people that are stranded without power for
like weeks at a time, and you know, their fridge
food goes bad. They hopefully have generators, but it can
go a long time. And my question was if if
Fiden did and say that it was a power company
that shut off the power because they're worried about more
(08:06):
fires that prevented the firefighters than from doing their job,
did he just im implement or indicate that the power
companies are liable for some of the destruction happening down
in these fires.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
Yeah, well it's a great question. No, it's a great question.
I thought he said cal fire shut off the power
would shut off the pumps for the water to go
to the fire hydrants. But we'll figure out either way.
I don't First of all, if it's CalFire, that's a
state agency, so I don't know if you can sue
(08:41):
them or not. But if it's a prime, if it's
Southern California, Edison or one of the other power companies,
Los Angeles Department of Water and Power is the big
power company in LA, and they I don't know. I mean, yeah,
if you consume.
Speaker 4 (08:59):
Them or not a pickle for them.
Speaker 5 (09:01):
It's a pickle because they're trying to prevent more damage,
but then at the same time prevents or causing damage.
Speaker 4 (09:09):
So it's like, would they be liable.
Speaker 5 (09:12):
There's so many insurance companies that have pulled out of
the state of California.
Speaker 4 (09:16):
You know, so many those.
Speaker 5 (09:16):
People are like no longer insured. So could that fall
to the power company if someone high up made that decision, Hey,
we're shutting all this off to prevent.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
Buyers, which I listen. I lived a long time ago.
I lived in California for many, many years. I don't
know what's happened to that place. You don't have insurance
companies are saying too bad and leaving, and power companies
are turning off your power like you live in Costa Rica.
(09:49):
What kind of third world place is California? What's happened
to that place?
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (09:56):
Yeah, they're trying to more damage.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
Well, no, I'm sorry, we don't get our power cut off.
And and the wims have been blowing here in New
York pretty strong for two days from from actually from
d C up to Boston. We've got really high winds.
And that power companies aren't turning our power off. Why not?
Speaker 4 (10:18):
Yeah, because you underground?
Speaker 1 (10:21):
I don't many of them.
Speaker 4 (10:25):
Yeah, it's just interesting.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
And why don't they put them? Why don't they put
new power lines in or put them underground or do
whatever they got to do, because if they got old,
shoddy power lines, shame on them for not keeping their
their their lines and their products safe. I don't I
do not understand what has happened to They called it,
(10:51):
they used to call it the Golden State. It's a joke.
I'm telling you. People that are watching California, think what
is wrong with you? Why are you even there?
Speaker 5 (11:04):
I know it's really hard, and I think a lot
of these power companies are so big, but they can't
maintain what they are servicing. And they don't know what
to do and they're just standating.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
Things, so they turn your power off. They turn your
power off. Wow. Yeah, I remember my grandmother was born
in the late eighteen eighteen ninety or something like that,
and she was ninety some years old, and she told
me about she remembered when power came to the little
(11:39):
town that she lived in up in the prairies of Canada,
and that was fabulous. That has been the late eighteen hundreds.
You're living like my grandmother did in the late eighteen hundreds,
but the power hasn't come to you yet. It really is.
You're living in bad water country. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (12:03):
I would be really great is if a lot of
these bigger companies bisected or became smaller so that the
people in that area could better maintain those facilities. But
their monopolies and they don't want to lose that power.
They want that money. We also have some of the
highest prices for power.
Speaker 4 (12:24):
In the Yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
Part of that. Part of that is the state passed
laws that require them to buy expensive alternative power, solar power,
wind power, stuff like that, and they just pass through
the utility companies that utility companies didn't want to do. That,
but that takes the fingerprint of the lawmaker off of
(12:46):
your high utility bills. But yeah, you got the highest
taxes in the in the country. You got the highest
utility bills in the country, and they cut your power off,
and and and you're paying through the nose to the
to the state for taxes. See, we've got the highest
gas prices in the country. When are people going to
When are people going to revolt in that state?
Speaker 4 (13:06):
I mean, well, it's starting, I don't know.
Speaker 5 (13:11):
So with all the issues, hopefully people are working up.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
I hope so too, because it was a beautiful place
got to run. But thank you for the call.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
Enjoy our discussion. You seem to be very fair. It's
appreciated that I.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
Just call him like I said him, you're with Tom's Tellom.
We chewed up what President Biden was talking about in
his briefing in the White House about the power being
cut off that stopped the water from the water pumps
from pumping the water to the fire hydrants. Here's here
is what he had to say.
Speaker 6 (13:46):
What I know from talking to the governor that there
are concerns out there that there's also been a water shortage.
The fact is the utilities understandably shut off power because
they are worried the whies that they're they carrying energy,
we're going to be blown down and spark additional fires.
(14:07):
But the Cow fire, when it did that, it cut
off the ability to generate pumping the water.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
That's what cause and lack the water in these hudgies.
All right, there we go, there we go. So it
was she was right. It was the utilities who cut
off the power because they were afraid that if the
lines failed that they would spark another fire. And that
CalFire then was standing there looking around at hey, wait
a minute, we need the pump stuff for our water
(14:36):
to our fire hydrant. So it wasn't CalFire. It was
the utilities. And I'm guessing that's mostly Los Angeles Department
of Water and Power, and there's also Southern California Edison.
I don't know who it is, but yeah, oh, the
lawyers are already drafting the complaint right now. I mean
(14:58):
they you better believe they are, because that's going to
be I mean, this is going to be over a
trillion dollars of damage. I don't think these utility companies
don't have the money to pay that kind of dollars.
They're the ones who cut it off. So after that,
(15:21):
Sea SPAN I was listening during the break, sea SPAN
kept the big briefing session going on at the White House,
and one of some staffer, he wasn't on camera, but
some staffer said that they've been working with FEMA. I
don't know if the guy was from Themare or something.
Were not from FEMA and talking to the state of California.
(15:43):
And we've gotten March, the old March Air Force Base,
which is a decommissioned I believe, but in March Air
Force Base, and we can set up a FEMA housing
in March Air Force Base. And so you're talking about
I don't know, one hundred thousand people plus they're talking
(16:06):
about there's four hundred thousand power outages in Los Angeles.
Does that mean that it's four hundred thousand homes which
is multiply that time three, So that's a million two
when it comes to population, are they going to put
(16:27):
them in FEMA tents out at March Air Force Space?
And if your I just checked on the Google map,
it's about two and a half hours to get from
Pacific Palisades out to March Air Force Space. It's kind
of the high the desert area. It's nothing like it's
like a different country out there south of Riverside and
(16:51):
the Inland Empire is what they call it. That is
just the opposite of living in palace Pacific Palisades overlooking
the ocean of the cool breezes of the Pacific. So
if they're gonna put up FEMA housing out there and
tell people, Okay, that's where you're gonna, you're gonna go.
You want you want help, that's where you're gonna. We
got a house out We got a tent for you
out there at Marsh Air Force Base. I'll tell you
(17:16):
what that. Unless you are really out of everything, you
don't have a dime to your name, I guess you
have to go do that. But otherwise I don't, I
don't know. And so then Biden says, are our Frank
through very much? Uh? I say, I'll just get a
let's get a briefing here on the energy situation. Uh
(17:38):
and the power grid in Los Angeles and uh, let's
talk to our energy secretary Jennifer grand home. Uh, Jennifer,
Uh the grand Home. She I don't saw were Oh
she's not here? Sir, she's on a plane. She's on
a plane to Puerto Rico because they lost all all
(18:00):
the power in the island of Puerto Rico again a
couple of like a week ago. And so she's on
a plane going to take care of the power alleges
in Puerto Rico. And uh so, yeah, that is government.
It's it's it's government at its finest. The Jennifer's on
(18:22):
a plane. People are Puerto Rico. They lose that power,
The whole island loses its power, like on a regular basis.
I don't know they've got it. They've got some power
system out there that's put together by band aids and
spit wise or something. It's always failing and there's so
(18:42):
much corruption. I mean, I don't know, you think you
could be able to build a electrical power system in
Puerto Rico. But that's where she is. They act with
the people in La Prime Time all the time, with
Tom Colliver. I can't believe that that's what they actually
that's their eyea is to cut off the power. That'll
(19:02):
solve it. So good grief eight nine five sixty six hundred.
Joel in Pennsylvania, Hello Joel.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
Here, Tom After hearing out left cut. I am livid
to left cut from the president. Yeah, you're going to
say that they never game planned this out. If there's
a fire, we're going to do X because I believe
on one of the power companies over the summertime, they
got sued for lines going down up in the mountain.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
Yeah, and they were they were a publicly traded company.
I don't know if they still are. It's called Pacific
Gas and Electric. And there they were on the stock
market and you could own a piece of it, and
it was but they Yeah, they got sued by for
a bazillion dollars and more than they had, so they
(19:54):
went bankrupt. And all the people that got stiffed by
the fire being caused by their lines, which apparently the
accusation was they had old lines, they haven't repaired them.
A wind came along, sure enough, they fell out in
the forest somewhere, and the forest caught on fire and
burned a bunch of people's homes, and so they got sued,
(20:16):
couldn't afford it, file for bankruptcy. The people who got
burned out of their homes were given basically, uh, the
short straw. Too bad, we're bankrupt. But they're but they're not.
They're not. They're not in Southern California. They are. They
are a Northern California company, Southern California. They've got two
or three utilities down there, but they're cutting off the
(20:38):
power and the and the and cal Fire can't produce water,
no pumps for their water. Crazy.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
You know, all the volunteer fireman and we used to
game plan places. So if you pull up to a
burning house, you hit the hydroen. If the hydrid doesn't work,
you've got X amount of gallons on the truck. You
call them tankers. You look for streams to do something.
It was all game planned out. These people who are
running that California and are idiots. They really are.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
To get paid lots of money.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
I can't. They're getting a ton of money to do
what So they hire the right kind of people so
they can hire more of my narves. Well, you know, yes,
few people in.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
Yes, the people are not qualified. The lady who hold on,
hold on here, let me see where I can find this.
There's a the lady that is the fire chief. Her
name is Crowley. Second, they've got if you go to
the Los Angeles Fire Department you will find her bio
(21:45):
about Chief Crowley, says Kristin Crowley, nineteen, fire chief the
Los Angeles Fire Department, with her wife and children by
her side. She took the both of office March twenty
fifth of two thousand and two, becoming the first female
and LGBTQ fire chief in the Los Angeles Fire Department.
So that's the first paragraph about her is that's important,
(22:08):
But it goes on about her background and she'd been
with the fire department. She worked her way up from
firefighter up to the boss. But the bottom line on this,
the last paragraph is creating, supporting, and promoting a culture
that values diversity, inclusion, and equity are Chief Prowley's priorities.
(22:28):
So that's her priority. So enough of this business about
game planning things. We got equity to deal with. You know,
it's unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
And the worst part is no one who's going to
take accountability for this. No one's going to get fired.
No one's going to lose their job. No, No, it's
going to go on to happy other little while or ruse.
If they do get fired, they'll get their full pension
and they don't there's no harm. Meanwhile, you have homes.
People lost their homes, they lost to their livelihoods, and
they just don't give.
Speaker 1 (22:59):
A dart, really don't. I'm sorry, I've got to get
back to I got to check my investment account on
my pension plan to make sure that I'm that's what
they're doing. Yeah, her priority is diversity, equity inclusion. It
doesn't say anything about making sure that the system works.
(23:21):
I mean she's been with the fire department her whole life.
And I couldn't care less if the woman is gay
or straight. I really couldn't. Just do the job. That's
all I ask. Are you good at the job?
Speaker 2 (23:34):
Correct, as long as you're qualified. But you know any
other thing what you were saying before, Okay, so we
cut the power. No one thought about, Hey, you know something,
So those pumps run run on electricity. If we cut
the power, will they be all that's hump out water.
I mean, that's common sense. A third grader can figure
that out.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
I would think, so, I don't know. These are the
chief of the fire department makes almost a million dollars
a year. It's pretty good pay. Yeah, no, it is.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
It is. You know, my wife and we bought an
old house and we had well water and a septic system.
And one of the first things we thought about was,
in the event our power goes off, what are we
going to do for water? What are we gonna do
for septic? And you know, so we got a generator. Yeah,
I mean it's again, it's common sense. Yes.
Speaker 1 (24:31):
Have you ever had them purposely cut off your power
your utility? I never have, No, No, we had. I
mean we've lost our power. We've lost our power because
of a storm and a treelium comes down and breaks
some wire somewhere. I do have a generator, and I
(24:53):
wouldn't live without a generator, But I've never had a
power company just shut down the power before. But that
that's what they're doing out in. That's what they do.
That's what they're doing outthing.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
Tom, is that they shut the power knowing that the
pumps run on well electric.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
Duh. I wonder if anybody ever checked, what's the I
wonder if anybody ever checked with cal Fire said hey, hey,
we're gonna cuts the power because we don't want to
be sued again.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
Exactly exactly. I don't get it.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
I don't either.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
I don't know. I don't know how people I don't
know how people live in California.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
I don't either.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
Until meetings any better. But I don't know.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
No, I listen. I loved California. It's a beautiful state.
You got the mountains on one side and the ocean
and the other and uh, but it's being run. It's
being run by third graders. It really is. It really is. Joel.
Always good to hear from you. I appreciate the call.
(25:57):
Let's talk to Mike. Hello, Mike, what's going on? Mike? Hello?
Speaker 5 (26:05):
Are Hello?
Speaker 2 (26:06):
Hi? Hey Tom. Good to be with charter listener from
way way back.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
What's going on today?
Speaker 2 (26:15):
Well, you got a great program, and I just wanted
to call foul on a couple of things. Not you,
but the power company number one. Yeah, I've experienced these
power shut offs about seven years ago. They started in
my area, and all the water utility companies. Guess what,
they bought backup generators. I bought a backup generator from
my house. Uh. The internet companies used to shut it down,
and they bought a backup generator. So I call foul
(26:37):
on the power company or the water companies down there
for not having backup generators to keep the bump.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
Oh number one number that makes sense, Yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
Yeah, and number two is mayor and the rest of
these officials. Okay, this thing was predicted and then in
my organization when I was involved, be careful anyway, So
I call foul on the officials, not you know, leaving
the state, not being there. You've got to be around
when the disaster comes in. And that was predictable. H.
(27:11):
On the aircraft, Am I still with you? Yep? Oh?
And on the aircraft, yeah, retards very effective and it's
limited in some areas, usually the national force. But down
there there shouldn't be any restrictions except in uh maybe
the public drinking water of spreadservoirs. But the Canada, the
Canada air they can inject foam into the water and
(27:35):
they can also inject retarding into it, or they can
just drop water. It's it's it's flexible. Now they're very.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
Oh it's not just good old H two oh good,
well it.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
Is H two oh as a base but and it
can drop it just with water. But they also have
the ability to inject foaming it when they're picking it
up or retardant. So they're an effective tool. But backshow
you the fixed wing aircraft that the cal Fire and
the fens Halper are just as effective.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
It was just it was just too windy for for
for fixed wing or helicopter. But I got to hit
a break. But thank you unfredictable, unprecedented, undenial lift, Tom Sullivan.
I get an email my email addresses on my website
tomsullivan dot com. Carlos sends me this. He says, remember
(28:23):
on the Simpson Show, Dad, just to say why stupid
things that happened to stupid people keep happening to me.
I'm sure democrats here in California are asking the same thing. Yeah,
stupid it is. It's stupid. Let me go through some
of these things. This is great. Yeah, uh, Dennis says.
(28:50):
The fires hi, Tom, He says, uh, yes, fire hydrants
should work. What a lot of people don't seem to
understand is working fire hydrants wouldn't have made much of
any difference. These fires roared in at eighty miles an
hour with single digit humidity. You can't stop a fire
in those conditions. You would be sending firefighters to their
(29:10):
desk if you tried. It was like a tornado. You
don't send first responders into a tornado. That's from Michael
Well Michael. Actually, yes, there was at the top of
the ridges there was really high winds, but the rest
of it, no, The firefighters were driving biased Anderson Cooper
was standing out in front of houses on fire and
the fire fighters drove by. So they didn't have any water.
(29:33):
It wasn't the wind. The wind was strong, but it
wasn't apparently enough to make them from I mean, they
didn't have water to try to put out the fire.
France says, I'm an electrician in California. These pumps are
(29:56):
critical infrastructure. You mean to tell me there's no generator
for backup on critical infrastructure. I built fire stations and
hospitals and all have generator backups. Anything that has critical
infrastructure as a generator. There is several people to blame. Yeah,
(30:17):
So Biden says, the utilities cut it off and cal
water pumps went out, But why didn't CalFire have generators?
Henry Pacific Palisage area is supposed to have a small
lake used to supply water to fire hydrants. By the
second day of that fire, that lake ran out of water.
(30:38):
Then so Cal Ledison cuts the power. These types of fires,
water does little to slow them down. With high winds
I worked on in summers fighting this type of fire.
Extremely dangerous. Been there, done that? Yeah, I know, there's
a lot of the fire moves so fast it was
like a wall of flame.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
I know.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
Sweet, we got a lot of good. Oh, Mike Thompson
always has something good, says They even created an acronym
for these shutoffs, the PSPs that what goes back to
the eighteen hundreds look normalized. Yet we in California will
(31:19):
be fossil fuel vehicle prohibited by twenty thirty five. You
must conform. We are a joke run by clowns. The
PSPs stands for public Service Power Shutoff. Oh that's good.
Make sure and call it public service. That'll make the
people go. Oh okay, Todd says, good afternoon. I'm the
(31:42):
owner of an engineering firm. You can sum up most
of the problems in California and one simple word, regulations.
Everything we need must be built, and the regulations and
permitting in California's completely over the top, out of control.
Just wait until these people decide that they want to
try to rebuild and realize that what they had will
(32:04):
no longer be allowed and that the cost of the
fees are going to be outrageous. Thanks Todd. Yeah, that's
what Adam Carolla was lamenting earlier today. He was went
off on this whole thing about just wait till they
try and rebuild and all the regulations that they're going
(32:24):
to have to try to deal with, They're going to
pull their hair out. It's yeah, here's Reggie says, never
heard of cal fire shutting off power. The electric companies
who are covering their behind shutting off power to prevent lawsuits.
(32:46):
That's why so many people are getting generators. I would
I would definitely get one. Drizzett wants to know what
happened to California. You want to know two words. Gavin Newsom.
I wonder how much see I hear that I hear.
You know, people on the right complained about Gavin Newsom
(33:08):
because he's way over on the left and he's a
big schmoozer, and he's done everything he can to try
to promote himself, and he does. He's very good self promoter.
He's his own PR firm. But I wonder if this
will have any of this will stick to him. When
Anderson Cooper asked him about the water shut off yesterday,
(33:31):
why there wasn't any water coming out of the fire hydrants.
He said, Ah, the local people are you gonna They're
gonna have to figure that out. He washed his hands
of that so fast. He'd blame them, Yeah, blame that.
Don't look at me, and he literally he shrugged his
(33:51):
shoulders and put his hands up to this to his side, like,
I don't know. The local people are the ones that
are gonna have to figure that one out. West sends
me email, says the Coastal Commission in California will probably
stop a lot of building along the coast. Yeah, most
of the homes were not on the coast, but there
(34:15):
is a long, long, long stretch miles of homes, especially
Malibu area, that are right literally there's the highway and
then there's the house, and then there's the ocean. They
literally are homes that are on the beach, and for
them to rebuild those, I think you're right, West. I
(34:37):
think this is they're going to say, you want to
rebuild where I'm sorry, you're not going to be allowed
to do that. So again, prayers for the people southern California.
They've got red flag warnings all the way through tomorrow night.
But we have we have the full comment line band,
(34:58):
But that's because yesterday markets were closed today because of
the federal holiday, the day of Mourning for Jimmy Carter.
That service was pretty interesting today because they had the
five living presidents sitting next to each other, and Trump
was sitting next to Barack Obama and they were chatting,
(35:24):
and Barack Obama kept laughing whatever Trump was telling him,
he kept he was cracking up Obama. And Kamala Harris
was sitting in the row ahead with her husband, and
she turned around and saw Obama and Trump laughing, and
she had a look like a schoolmarm, like she was discussed.
There was no we're not going to put up with
(35:46):
that kind of stuff. This is she did not like
seeing Obama and Trump getting along. They can check the videos.
They're all over the X and YouTube. Kind of funny
on the comment line today, though, we do have this
caller who wonders why there wasn't a backup generator for
(36:06):
the water.
Speaker 7 (36:07):
I think the story about the electricity and the pumps
is a croc. Hospitals have generators. Why wouldn't a water
facility have a backup generator? Knowing that you get fires anglely.
Speaker 1 (36:19):
Yeah, they're not alone now this caller isn't Biden Biden's
excuse for the lack of water.
Speaker 4 (36:25):
I don't get it.
Speaker 2 (36:26):
My home is hooked up to the municipal water supply.
Speaker 7 (36:29):
If we have a power failure, water still comes out
of the faucet.
Speaker 1 (36:34):
There's something fishy here. Yeah, there's little stinky, isn't it.
See you tomorrow.
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