Richard Arnold: US Correspondent on the Los Angeles fires, Donald Trump response, mayor and fire chief conflict

Major wildfires are still burning in Los Angeles, as the death toll rises to sixteen.

Conflicts are erupting between the mayor and the fire chief, and incoming President Donald Trump is adding his two cents about what he believes to be ‘incompetent’ leadership.

US Correspondent Richard Arnold joins the show to provide an update.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:09):
You're listening to a podcast from News Talks'd be follow
this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio.
Yes to the US with Richard Arnold.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
Good morning, Good morning, Jim Well.

Speaker 1 (00:20):
The one story dominating the news that's the fires, isn't it.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Yeah, They're not over. And even with sixteen people known
to have been killed and twelve thousand plus homes and
other buildings destroyed, many parts of La remain under threat
right now. And the winds. The winds are set to
pick up again in a few hours and on until Thursday,
your time, So no one really knows what's going to happen.
California's Governor Gavin Newsom saying.

Speaker 3 (00:42):
The challenge is the winds. We've got these winds coming back.
We're going to see fifty plus mile an hour GUS
subject to change. So now we're prepositioning assets.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
Yeah, trying to predict where winds are going to go?
Can anyone do that? Clearly they are trying to protect
endangered areas, including Encino and Brentwood, another enclave for the
wealthy in the city. What they call a fire NATO
was spotted along the coast a few hours ago. A
tornado made of flames. This is a rare thing that
because only in the most intense situations. When the fires began,

(01:12):
there were winds up to two hundred and sixty kilometers now,
so hurricane or cyclone strength winds, whipping fire through populated
areas and sending burning embers flying for kilometers. Firefighter Scott
Casigro says, I've been on.

Speaker 1 (01:24):
The job for thirty six years and I've never seen
weather like that. It was a hurricane force wind with
fire involved. It was indescribable.

Speaker 2 (01:35):
Yeah, you can't stop a fire tornado with a garden hose.
And there were water problems as well, as you've been hearing,
with low water pressure and one vital water tank offline.
Here's how one homeowner fed with the garden hose.

Speaker 1 (01:47):
We're just sprang the water. There was no water pressure,
there was nothing.

Speaker 2 (01:50):
Yeah, she lost her home. Fire Chief Kristen Crowley says,
Ila was left in some ways unprepared.

Speaker 3 (01:56):
When a firefighter comes up to a hydrant, we expect
there's gonna be water. We don't control the water supply.
Our firefighters are there to protect lives and property, and
it makes sure that we're properly trained and equipped well.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
The Los Angeles Mayor Karen ban says conflicts between herself
and the fire chief will be sorted in private. No,
there needs to be public accounting, but not right now.
The incoming president, Donald Trump has been posting his usual
storm of invectives. The incompetent polls have no idea, he says,
why to blazers out yet, as he raises the prospect
that the federal government might not help in restoration, calling

(02:29):
the governor new scum instead of Newsom.

Speaker 3 (02:32):
We don't give him the money to put out his fires.
He's got problems.

Speaker 2 (02:35):
He's a lousy governor threatening five victims. Very helpful. Not
Newsom is calling on Trump to visit California and take
a look for himself. Meantime, the fire is still a
roaring through the areas. Newsim.

Speaker 3 (02:46):
You are fourteen thousand people work in the line right now.
We double the National Guard. We have sixteen hundred and
eighty out there helping on the justtic side. I was
just with folks from Mexico, seventy three folks. I'll be
relieving some of our hand crews. We've got nine states
that are now providing under this EMACS system support. So
We've got the resources, but we have more important said this,

(03:07):
we have the winds.

Speaker 2 (03:08):
So how's that. Firefighters from Mexico, the people they wanted
to port, are being brought in to help save the city.
Newsom says this is likely to be the most expensive
natural disaster this country has seen.

Speaker 3 (03:19):
Think it will be in terms of just the costs
associated with it.

Speaker 2 (03:22):
No one has a realistic number as yet. We also
do not know how these fires started, six within just
a few hours on the worst possible day. Was it arson?
They don't know, say fire officials.

Speaker 1 (03:33):
We are not going to leave any rock un turn.
If this is a criminal act.

Speaker 2 (03:39):
Was someone trying to wipe out La what a question. Meantime,
some one hundred and fifty three thousand current evacuees have
been allowed back into some of them anyway, allowed back
into the burn areas, says one woman.

Speaker 1 (03:50):
Could it's really good. It's hard to grasp the reality
of it.

Speaker 2 (03:57):
Yeah, And as you hear this woman also lost everything.

Speaker 3 (04:02):
Pretty grim stuff.

Speaker 1 (04:03):
Hey, thanks Richard, that's Richard Donald in the US. For
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