Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is Gary and Shannon and you're listening to KFI
AM six forty, the Gary and Shannon Show on demand
on the iHeartRadio app. Well, the news today, I would
say good news. It's better news. How about that? Not
a lot of good news floating around the entire area
this week. But firefighters have begun to slow the spread
of these fires. The ferocious winds have died down. Thank god.
(00:24):
We are still in a wind event. Unlike we heard
from the press conference, it is not still a historic
wind event according to Karen Bassett's what it was, it
is not. We're dealing with wins that are more reminiscent
of a typical Santa Ana wind event.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Yeah, the behavior, the fire behavior we're going to see
today is not the unprecedented kind that we saw on
Tuesday afternoon. This is the better of the two scenarios where, yes,
we still do have red flag conditions. The fire still
could behave erradically, but not explode like we saw over
the last couple of days. Quick updates the Palisades fire.
(01:01):
They said this morning seventeen two hundred and thirty four acres.
It is moving slowly, it's still growing, and in fact
it's actually growing way out into the mountains. It's no
longer gone from the hills to the ocean. It's moving
back deeper into the hillsides, which means that it is
moving east towards the four or five slowly and north
(01:23):
up and over the hill towards the valley.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
So they are going to be working in that.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
But in terms of the damage, they said probably into
the thousands the number of structures damaged or destroyed. And
then in the Eaten fire over in Altadena, the acreage
has held steady at about ten thy six hundred, and
the good news was La City Fire said most of
the growth in that fire has stopped. There are still
homes and businesses, other structures that are on fire at
(01:48):
the very least smoldering. Over a thousand structures, they said,
damaged or destroyed by the Eaten Fire.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
The animals cannot be overlooked from this one. There are
animals suffering from burns looking at the eat and fire
in particular in Altadena right now, Kevin McManus works for
Pasadena Humane Society joins us now with the state of
Affairs there, and we're talking about large animals, Kevin, as
(02:17):
well as pets, right that's correct.
Speaker 4 (02:20):
Yeah, we took it. We have taken in nearly three
hundred and fifty animals since the fire broke out, everything
from dogs and cats to we helped to evacuate a
lot of horses, with a pig here on site right now, chickens.
So yeah, any kind of animal in our area we're
(02:41):
trying to help.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Have you gotten animals that appeared abandoned or that we're
just kind of running through neighborhoods, or are these people
who have had their homes they had to evacuate and
they needed a place to get them.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
Overwhelmingly it's been people bringing their own animals into us,
which is the better case scenario there. Uh So, people
evacuated safely with their pets found that they could not
bring their pets to the particular shelter they were going to,
or you know, couldn't bring them wherever they they were headed.
So we're caring for those animals until you know, people
(03:15):
can get back on their feet find out if they
still have a home to go back to. We did get,
starting maybe mid afternoon yesterday, handful of clearly like stray animals,
and you know, we don't know to whom they belong,
but a lot of those did have evidence of injuries,
you know, some burned victims, some smoke anhalation. So so
(03:36):
we've been caring for those, uh, the harder cases. Here
at the shelter, we have a dedicated veterinary team and
they're they're working hard to make sure that everybody's safe.
Speaker 5 (03:46):
Are you equipped to deal with that?
Speaker 1 (03:47):
I mean, do you put I'm envisioning and I'm not
trying to be cute here because I just don't know,
but envisioning like little oxygen masks over the little faces.
I mean, are you equipped to deal with like mass
injuries to animal I mean, maybe not mass, but dozens
of injuries to animals at your locations?
Speaker 4 (04:05):
We are, I mean we have we have five veterinarians
on staff and a whole host of veterinary like r
vts and veterinary technicians, and we do have a lot
of high tech equipment. So those asked oxygen masks, we
do have those, and we have oxygen chambers where we
(04:26):
have a couple of cats in right now to make
sure that they that they can still breathe.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
And then if people want to help, are you taking volunteers?
Are you taking donations. I know sometimes humane centers look
for you know, clean fresh sheets or towels or what
have you. Do you need anything or volunteers or anything
like that.
Speaker 4 (04:45):
Well, our highest party right now is money. To be honest,
monetary donations help us to you know, get the very
specific care that these animals need. But if people have
in kind donations that they'd like to bring our way,
of course we're accepting.
Speaker 6 (04:59):
Everything we do.
Speaker 4 (05:01):
Our kind of priority list right now as wet and
dried dog and cat food, and that will be used
to help people who are in the community who have
their pets who just like they maybe left without their
pet food, that kind of thing. New crates are also
super helpful or you know, very clean, well not well
(05:23):
used cranes, clean blankets, clean towels, those are kind of
our priority like in kind items that we're looking for.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
I have a small, little soft crate that I might
be able to donate that he didn't use it. Oh, interesting,
Just a general question.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
If people see animals that are still I mean still,
there's gonna be other animals that are still wandering around
trying to find you know, trying to find home or
owners that were burned out of their own places. Do
you get the majority of them? Are they micro chipped
when you see them, or what kind of percentage are
we looking at in terms of being able to place
them and find the owners.
Speaker 7 (06:01):
Well.
Speaker 4 (06:02):
Of the handful of stray animals that have come in
over the last twenty four hours, a handful of them
are microchips, and so we're attempting to get in touch
with those folks or with those pets.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
Folks.
Speaker 4 (06:16):
A lot unfortunately don't have any kind of identification, which
is a really good reminder for everyone to make sure.
Speaker 6 (06:23):
Your dog has a collar and your cat.
Speaker 4 (06:25):
Has a collar and tags and microchipping is so so
important to help, not only just in crises like this,
but just in general. If your pet ever gets out,
microchip is the easiest way to get them back home
to you.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
All right, Kevin, thank you for your time. We appreciate it.
Good luck today.
Speaker 4 (06:43):
Thank you so much. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
You've met Kevin McManus, their prcom manager for Passaging a
Humane Society.
Speaker 5 (06:48):
All right, coming up next, not out of the woods
just yet.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
We will get a meteorologist on to tell us what
we can expect today as well as next week. The
forecast does call for more so we'll get an update
on that as well as.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
The sun Rose.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Today we got even more images of the destruction from
the different fires burning throughout La County. The wind event
itself is starting to taper off. We are still under
red flag warning conditions because of the very low humidity
and because of the winds that are higher than normal
(07:23):
for this time of year.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
As much as the Palisades has just been reduced to ashes,
there is still quite a bit of active flame which
is why you're seeing still zero percent containment there, not
just specific Palisades, but Malibu as well. Still worried about
areas outside the Palisades as you get into Santa Monica,
Brentwood areas. This thing has reverse course. Don't know if
(07:48):
it was backfire was set to have it moved back
up the mountain, but that is definitely the focus today.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
We are going to go back to Michael Monks a
little bit later. He's out in the Altadena fire area,
the Eat and Fire, talking with some of the people
and looking at some of the destruction there in the
Altadena neighborhood. We can always take your talkbacks, if you
have comments about what's been going on. You can always
leave us a message on the talkback feature on the
iHeart app. Just sit that little microphone button while you're
(08:17):
listening and you can send us a message. But we
wanted to get back to Max Siparis, News Nation meteorologist
we spoke with yesterday, and Max we talked about the
peak of the winds happening late Tuesday night into Wednesday morning.
Last night things died down significantly and as of right
now it seems pretty calm. When do we see the
(08:41):
end of this wind event coming?
Speaker 6 (08:44):
Looks like it will take us into tomorrow afternoon when
we have that wind advisory letting well. Rather, the wind
advisory ends later today, but we're still going to see
those elevated winds through Thursday, through parts of Friday in
the morning, and then by the afternoon. So by tomorrow afternoon,
I think we're only seeing gus ten to twenty miles
per hour, which of course is much lower than what
(09:05):
we saw yesterday morning, even much lower than what we
saw this morning too. But obviously the saving grace here
that the winds have dropped low enough that we're starting
to see, yes, those planes out dropping the suppressants, those
choppers dropping the water hitting those rurals not rural, but
more hard to get to areas in the canyons and
in at the peaks. So it is improvement, but still
(09:29):
a very challenging situation. Of course. At last Teck, the
total acreage burned among those five fires that are still burning,
the largest of which are out of control, as you
mentioned zero percent containment is at twenty nine thousand acres,
which is nearly half the size of Washington we see,
just to put that into perspective for our listeners, So
(09:50):
it is a massive amount of area. It's more area
that's burned than the Mountain Fire in Ventura County in
November and the Franklin Fire in Malibu last month combined,
and that took weeks for those fires to spread that much.
This I'm only taking forty eight hours or so. So again,
those winds really a worst case scenario to fan these
(10:12):
flames and spread the embers a lot more quickly than
if they were lighter. So again, by tomorrow afternoon, the
winds will I'm not going to stay be calm, but
they'll be certainly much more manageable.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
And then as we look to next week, I heard
the winds will be back early next week.
Speaker 6 (10:29):
Yeah, but I'm hoping that another weaker weather system that'll
miss us to the south will bring it the humidity
up a little bit.
Speaker 5 (10:36):
So still too.
Speaker 6 (10:37):
Early to say if we're going to see another issuance
of the elevated, critical or extreme wildfire weather risk that
that Noah had issued preceding this event as well. So
if it does pan out that we are seeing the
recipe shape back up, they'll be served to issue as
(10:57):
much notice as possible for folks to because again, just devastating,
but at least there was notice. If there's any sort
of silver lining here, you know.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
Yeah, great, Max Suparis, News Nation Meteorologist, thanks for checking
in with us today.
Speaker 6 (11:11):
Yeah, you're welcome. Thinking about you guys.
Speaker 5 (11:12):
Thanks, you appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
I was just going to say, you know, we were
talking about rebuilding and how long it's going to take
to rebuild areas like Altadena and the Palisades, and you know,
something that not a lot of people are talking about
is the fact that the Olympics are upon us. The
Olympics are going to be here in twenty twenty eight,
and you think about what goes into the Olympics. A
lot of infrastructure, Sure, one of the reasons we were
(11:36):
picked is because we already have a lot of infrastructure
with arenas and fields and things of that nature. However,
a lot needs to be built when you're talking about
just the rudimentary things that go along with the Olympics,
and it's going to be unconscionable really to proceed at
the pace they're going to need to proceed at to
build all of that to get ready for the twenty
(11:58):
twenty eight Olympics, while people in the Palisades, for example,
or waiting, you know, five years for building permits.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
And I think that I think some of that stuff
is going to be if politicians have any amount of
intelligence and concern for the people that they say they're
going to serve, they're going to do away with some
of that stuff because they need to get that rebuilding
done quickly.
Speaker 5 (12:20):
Right, they should be cutting all that red tape.
Speaker 3 (12:22):
They should be.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
The other thing is, and I think about it when
you were saying that, I'm thinking of the again, not
to get into the poetry, but there's an allegory of
when fire sweeps through a forest, it's it's a rebirth.
It's a rebirth, right, it's a continuous cycle it's what happens.
That's how that's how mother nature has been for a
(12:45):
long time. This is different, obviously because we're talking about
people's homes. But in an economic sense, there is something
that grows out of this. There is something that comes
out of the other side of a disaster like this,
which is the rebuilding, the reconstruction.
Speaker 6 (13:03):
The.
Speaker 5 (13:04):
Money that's made locally.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Yes, yeah, the economic reinvestment in these neighborhoods as they
begin to rebuild, which I think is you know, we're
months and a couple of years away from seeing the
true benefit of that, but that the opportunity is there.
This is not this is one of those things where, yes,
we will rebuild, these neighborhoods will regrow. I don't know
what they're going to look like in the future, but
(13:27):
that they will come back, and that that kind of
you know, the I don't even want to say silver
lining because it's too much of a trope, but there
is something on the other side of it that can
be good. There can be opportunities for people to re
energize their own economic health through something as devastating as this.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
Yeah, I think one of the main examples that I
can remember is Hurricane Katrina and the way that New
Orleans was able to rebuild and the great stories that
came out of that after just the utter devastation in
there alongside that.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Unfortunately, there are a holes who will try to take
advantage of peak, of course, so I mean we.
Speaker 5 (14:06):
Will take them out back and shoot them.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
Sheriff Luna said today that the arrests there have been
over twenty arrests of people who have been looting, and
I don't know why, even tongue in cheek, he doesn't
say you're putting your life at risk because I have
ordered the deputies to shoot you twice.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
Once in the hand and then once in the heart.
Speaker 5 (14:26):
The hand first, just to make you bleed and feel
pain a little.
Speaker 8 (14:29):
Yeah, hey, Gary and Shannon Lisa here, just curious. Have
you guys heard of any charities or support groups that
are sending food to the firefighters and police officers and
even the newscasters that are out there giving us all
this information. Let us know, thanks guys, You.
Speaker 3 (14:45):
Bet newscasters are fine.
Speaker 6 (14:48):
Well.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
In fact, David Muir doesn't want any more food because
he used a clothes pin to tighten the waste of
his turnout.
Speaker 9 (14:56):
If you have not during his live shot yesterday. If
you have not seen the image David, who's been on
our show and he's great at what he does. But
here's the thing. You've got to think about the audience.
You got to read the room, you got to think
about what's going on. We both done television.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
We both know at times what they'll do is they'll
take a clothes pin to the back of your jacket
or your shirt or your dress or whatever because it'll
peer boxy on TV.
Speaker 5 (15:20):
So they'll do that.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
But if you're out on a fire scene wearing firefighter turnouts,
probably forego the clothes pin to give yourself a waste.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
It gave him a waste. It kept the turnout tight
across his chest, right. I mean, the guy works out.
If you see him do the evening news on ABC,
looks great. He does that thing where he leans on
his right arm and it's like he's got his biceps
flecked the entire time a moment.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
I do so.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
Anyway, back to Lisa's point, Yes, there are a couple.
In fact, they mentioned one of them today in that
news conference this morning, and it was the LA Fire
Department Foundation, the Los Angeles Fire Department, foundation specifically for
LA Fire Department, but there's also a statewide fire foundation
called the California Fire Foundation. Both of them are five
(16:08):
to one C three's both of them. You can search
on the internet very quickly. We will throw links up
for you, so that is easy. You can just click
through and get those. But yeah, there are plenty of
fire foundation style charities that will be raising funds to
help support some of these firefighters that have been out
(16:30):
on the lines for so long.
Speaker 5 (16:32):
I don't know how to feel.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
I'm conflicted on all the coverage about the celebrities who
have lost their homes or were evacuated.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
It's fine. I just saw that too.
Speaker 5 (16:41):
It is notable.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
It is something to talk about, but not something to
give more attention to than everybody else.
Speaker 5 (16:49):
I don't think I feel awful.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
They've lost their home, and some of them, I think
Billy Crystal and his wife lost their home and they've
been there for decades. Sure, okay, yes there's but what
about for every Billy Crystal or Jamie Lee Curtis.
Speaker 5 (17:03):
There's a Billy Johnson or Jamie Jones.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
Yeah, probably twenty five thirty of them. For every celebrity
that lost their house, somewhere else, so let's keep our
foot off the gas when it comes to bast My
car was covered with ash in the parking garage.
Speaker 5 (17:24):
Because you were closer to the entrance. Yes, but still
I mean it was I did not notice it.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
Yeah, it was really it was really weird considering it
was underground, right, but the.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
Way it blows into those underground garages like that.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
Sometimes we will always take your talkback messages. Let us
know what it is that you're thinking about. When you're
listening on the iHeart app, you just hit a little
microphone button that's right there, a little picture of it,
and he leaves us a message that comes right here.
If you're listening on an enabled device and elect enabled device,
all you have to do is say, hey, send a
(17:58):
message to KFI and then she'll record or he'll go. However,
you guys would do it, and don't make that every
time I bring her up, you, my wife, every woman
I know, they just get that face.
Speaker 5 (18:09):
Well, it's annoying.
Speaker 3 (18:11):
Go on. It's again a common refrain.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
I don't like that there's another woman in the house.
You can change the voice constantly. I don't think he'd
want to change her voice. I think he likes her
voice the way it is.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
Maybe that's more about you. Oh really, Oh boy.
Speaker 10 (18:28):
Shannon, I just want to say thank you for what
you said. You took the words right out of my mouth.
Speaker 6 (18:35):
Gosh.
Speaker 10 (18:35):
I had the same thoughts, and I thought that I
was just wrong about it, but you validated my feelings.
So thanks for speaking for many of us that feel
action is the way forward and that the funny stuff
isn't what everyone wants to hear right now.
Speaker 3 (18:50):
Thank you. In terms of the poetry at those news conferences.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
The other thing is, and I think that's an important
point to make as well, is if you're not to
directly even if you're not I should say, directly affected
by the fires, your house has not been damaged or
destroyed or been evacuated for a couple days, or your
powers out or something. If you're one of the other
millions of people who is not directly impacted by this,
(19:15):
don't just go off I feel bad. Do something about it.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
I mean, and it could be anything that you want.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
Maybe it's you donate to the LA Fire Foundation or
the California Fire Foundation, or you donate like I did,
or like I said. The you know that empty pet crate,
the dog crate to the passad In a humane society,
it's the action is the way to move through this,
not not.
Speaker 3 (19:36):
There's time for poetry and art later on.
Speaker 5 (19:39):
So Peter wasn't into his crate.
Speaker 10 (19:40):
Huh?
Speaker 5 (19:41):
What if he needs to be transported, don't you have
to put him in the crate.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
I have a bigger crate that he sleeps in.
Speaker 5 (19:46):
Okay, that could be used for transport.
Speaker 3 (19:49):
No, that would be way too big.
Speaker 5 (19:51):
Well, then what's the deal with the crate that you
were going to do?
Speaker 3 (19:53):
Where am I going to transport him?
Speaker 5 (19:54):
Well, when he guests has to go to the vet, I.
Speaker 3 (19:56):
Put him in the car. That's how we travel.
Speaker 5 (19:59):
Really, Yeah, it doesn't seem safe.
Speaker 6 (20:01):
Why not?
Speaker 3 (20:01):
It's a five minute drive to the vet.
Speaker 5 (20:04):
There may become a time in Peter's life when he
needs a crate.
Speaker 3 (20:07):
There could be a time in Peter's life when he
needs a crate.
Speaker 5 (20:09):
You should probably keep the crate, is all I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (20:11):
I have a different one. That's why I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
It's a why have one that he used maybe twice
and then I got a slightly larger one nice because
he grew.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
So he's one of those babies that just has everything.
Speaker 3 (20:22):
All the time.
Speaker 11 (20:23):
Gary Shannon, what's going on?
Speaker 3 (20:26):
Nothing?
Speaker 11 (20:28):
This is big j from Compton A. Shannon. I'm going
to say this. You are a G for almost cursing.
Yeah on the air. You know what a G is
A straight gangster. And yeah, people stop voting for the
same people that's not doing you right.
Speaker 5 (20:50):
Yeah, straight G, straight G A high praise.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
The updates that we got this morning about the fires
were as good news as we could probably get in
that the Pacific Palisades fire has slowed significantly, and then
over in Altadena and Pasadena, the Eaten Fire has most
of the growth has been significantly stopped, but in its
wake just uttered devastation in some of those areas.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
Michael Monks has eyes on that devastation right now with
the Altadena fire. Joins us from the corner of El
Molina and Mariposa and Michael, I've seen some images come
out from around your area of people just collapsing in
tears over what they're seeing today in the light of day.
Speaker 12 (21:37):
I just walked past that scene in person of a
woman being comforted by someone else as she just fell
to her knees, bent over, looking at a distance at
a building that is no longer standing, And so you
can imagine the impact the emotional wallop that that packed
when you see finally what you feared the most, that
(21:58):
everything you've poured yourself into is now gone. And another
very sad image that I just saw, a man had
rescued a cat from up in the mountains nearby. And
this poor kitty had been placed in a milk crate
and covered up and covered in black and was just
screaming in distress. And this guy on a bike was
(22:20):
racing to get him somewhere to where that cat can
get some help. There are so many smoldering pieces of
fire around this neighborhood. Still the worst appears to be
over as far as the fire, but the devastation has
still not been processed. I just talked to a family
who has been here for generations. He was staring at
his grandmother's former home that is now a pile of rubber.
(22:43):
Excuse me, rebel. They had fled the area and came back,
not sure if they still had a house, but they did,
and they grabbed a few things that are now walking
on foot because the police and the fire department they're
not letting people drive in this area obviously, so folks
are parking pretty far away and having to hike it
(23:04):
up here in order to see what they can salvage. Fortunately,
that family lives on Madison Avenue, and I spoke to
some folks here who are still hard at work on
their block, which miraculously still stands. But it's not just
a miracle that has these houses looking like they did
even last week, except for a little bit of damage.
One of the cars has gone up in flames aside
(23:25):
of one of the walls. This group of neighbors together
and tended to every single property that they could while
fires raged around them. One of the ladies here says
that they even used the almond milk out of the refrigerator,
the perrier, they had in their garage, anything they had
at their disposal, and they were racing from home to
(23:47):
home to put out the flames as best they could.
Also on this block is a historic Victorian home that
is known as the Woodbury story House, and it was
the home of Captain Frederick Woodbury, who's one of the
founders of this city. All of this land once belonged
to that estate, and so much of it now is
(24:09):
ground again. But that nineteenth century Victorian mansion still stands
on Madison Avenue because of the work all of the
neighbors put in here.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
Who's are people driving around? I can hear vehicles in
the background, but who's who's out? What's They're just people
kind of lookie lose. I mean, you mentioned the woman clearly.
It sounds like she had lost property, lost her home
or something.
Speaker 12 (24:31):
But you are seeing mostly emergency vehicles. You might have
even heard a horn there. You are also seeing some
stilly and some members of the like me. I just
took a long walk around the business district of Altadena
to take it in get.
Speaker 3 (24:45):
Some post of post on social media. It is at
that station.
Speaker 12 (24:48):
Everywhere there aren't a lot of people walking around. I
don't know if that's because they're doing a good job
of keeping people out. You don't have business here. This
is the type of scene that I can imagine people
wanting to take in in person, just out of curiosity
or to share in the sense of loss. But there
aren't a lot of regular joes walking around. I've only
(25:09):
seen a dozen, maybe a little more than that, walking around.
I've not seen a lot of civilian vehicles. It's mostly
emergency vehicles or vehicles that are servicing those emergency vehicles
like fuel trucks. Otherwise, it is just a scene of
absolute destruction here all across the business district, you know,
Altadena right here, especially in this part of it. It's
(25:30):
one of those places in this major metropolitan area where
you can kind of forget you're in a major metropolitan area.
You can kind of lose yourself in the small town
charm of a place like Altadena, and all of that
is just wiped.
Speaker 3 (25:42):
Away right now, all right, Michael, thank you, my pleasure.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
Guys, Michael Monk's there in the midst of some of
the destruction from the Eton fire out there in Pasadena
and Altadena.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
Thousand people are under evacuation orders or warnings as these
wildfires continue to burn for big ones zero percent containment.
The wins have died down, which we anticipated, and that
has become a reality, and that hopefully will give the
firefighters some time to get ahead of these things, because
(26:17):
that certainly wasn't the case.
Speaker 5 (26:18):
Is they took off Tuesday and yesterday.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
Gene Smart, the actress, just won a Golden Globe for
hacks made a plea for networks and TV streaming companies
to reconsider airing award shows in the next couple of weeks.
And actually, so you can't. I don't think you can't, No,
she said, with all due respect during Hollywood Season of celebration,
(26:45):
I hope any of the network's televising upcoming awards would
seriously consider not televising them. She said last night on
X They should donate the or and donate the revenue
they would have garnered to the victims of the fire
slid firefighters.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
Why don't they have a go old fashioned telethon? Do
people do that anymore? Bring the celebrities out that would
be at the award shows and just have them in
playing clothes and not glam squatted up, and bring out
real people and have a telethon and have the kind
of numbers, at least more numbers nationwide than you would
for this sort of thing.
Speaker 3 (27:18):
Well, and think about the option.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
I mean, we talked a second ago, not too long ago,
about the this is not the celebrities are going to
make headlines, obviously, but it's not all about them.
Speaker 5 (27:30):
But they could be instrumental in helping the effort.
Speaker 2 (27:32):
They could be Imagine if you had the people in
the Pacific Palisades, whose homes or whose names you would
recognize who lost their homes, standing in front of their
homes or what's left and saying, hey, this am I
got the same thing as Joe blowout in Pasadena. We're
in the same position now and we need help.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
Well, there are no finer firefighters, and you're going to
find in La City, La County.
Speaker 5 (27:58):
They're just the best in the business.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
They have the experience, they have the heart, and I've
got to believe they've been super frustrated with being against
a wind event of an unprecedented nature like we saw
blow in here Tuesday morning, with those mountain waves just
crashing into communities. La Fire Department David Ortiz's Fire Departments.
(28:21):
David Ortiz joins us now and David seems like the
frustration is palpable at this point when it comes to
what y'all have been up against all week.
Speaker 7 (28:32):
That is true, it's been very frustrating for our firefighters. Typically,
firefighters tend to be people that are highly motivated and
they put their heart into what they do, and we
live in these communities where we're fighting these fires, and
it is just heartbreaking to see the amount of a
devastrate and a devastation and destruction that this Calisates fire
(28:55):
has caused.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
We know that we have crews coming in from other states,
from all over northern California as well. How does it
work in terms of getting some of those people on
the lines to give a break to the people who've
been working since Tuesday afternoon.
Speaker 7 (29:12):
What we have in the state of California, and you
mentioned the state nutel aid program is something that the
City of Los Angeles and our local area coordinator, which
is Ali County Fire Department, is something we participate all
year round. Our firefighters are part of the system, and
we send resources all over the state of California, particularly
(29:36):
in the spring and the summer. We have fire engines
in Northern California, our strike teams, and we help them
when their fire season starts earlier in the year, and
then in the fall in the winter when we need resources,
they reciprocate and they send their crews out here. So
we integrate very well. We practice and this is all
(29:56):
since the nineteen thirties nineteen forties, after the bell Or Fire,
we learned that no single fire department can stand on
its own, and we need each other and so we
have basically practiced and trained together with all these other
agencies so that we can act as one large firefighting army,
(30:20):
and the commanding control and the communications and logistics, everything
you could think of our firefighters are participated in and
we can all switch and wear different hats and fill
in the spots where we need to fill in the.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
Spot Daniel Politics aside, has water been an issue.
Speaker 7 (30:41):
Water has been an issue in certain areas, and it's
been frustrating to see people with their garden hoses wetting
down their rooftops and their vegetation. Our firefighters are out
there and they need that water. The system, which is
the gravity fed system in the Palace aids fills up
(31:01):
a tank at the top of the hill and then
gravity pulls that water down to hydrants. That's where the
firefighters connect. And what happens is in the morning. People
get up in the morning, they shower up, and they
start dipping into that tank that sits at the top
of the hill using water, watering their lawns, et cetera.
(31:22):
And as the day progresses, the amount of water that
is in that tank starts to drop. Throughout the day.
Night time, people go to bed, and those tanks are
refilled again with water, and so that cycle is circumvented
when the amount of water, the demand of water exceeds
(31:43):
the design and capability of that system. We were drawing
on four times the capacity of that water system, and
so we were we were seeing some dry hydrants up
in the upper hills above pH where they needed them,
and yeah, it was very frustrating for our firefighters. So
(32:06):
they had to basically develop an alternate plan and put
some heart suction and use pools and use other water
sources to be able to gain water. But it was
very challenging for them to rely on tank trucks to
come in and bring them water because, as you know,
firefighting is a very time sensitive operation and the moment
(32:29):
you need the water, it needs to be there.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
The conditions appear to be better today and not quite
as frantic as we saw on Tuesday night into Wednesday morning.
What are some of the challenges that are facing firefighters today.
Speaker 7 (32:45):
The challenges remain with the vegetation. The field that's out
there is dry. It's been dry because of a drought
we had for over ten years. A lot of that
vegetation is dead. It doesn't come back to life when
it rains. We had rains, a lot of rain two
years ago, and the benefit of that rain was as
(33:08):
a new crop of grass which has cured and dried
out and has become a very receptive bed to any spark.
So that in combination with the fuels and now the
low humidity and high winds, a lot of people are
having a false sense of security that well, the winds
(33:29):
are not as strong and we're we're doing a lot better. Yeah,
we are doing a lot better than we worked two
days ago. But we're still in red flight conditions. And
that means that any new fire that starts is going
to burn with a lot of energy, and if it's
in alignment with a hill or a slope, it will
have some speed behind it, even if the wind is
(33:51):
not pushing it. So we've seen topographic fires in the
Palistates area when it's even when you have to do
when you when you have whole the weather, when you
have the ocean ocean breeze coming in. We've had a
fire two years ago, the Palisades fire two or three
years ago. My brain is not working. It's been going
(34:15):
without sleep. But we had a fire with the Palisaates
fire a couple of years ago, and it was cold,
it was damp, and the fuel still burned because there
was a vegetation that had not burned in fifty years
and we were able to stop it from progressing. Well.
Where we stopped it, that vegetation remained there and it's
(34:35):
there in very inaccessible areas that cannot be cleared out
and it's still liable to burn. And we are not
the only area that that scenario continues to be a
threat a menace. All our partners throughout the region have
very similar scenarios with low humidity, with these Santa Ana winds,
(34:59):
with red Flagh conditions, and they're being challenged as well.
We had two fires breakout last night, one in Hollywood
Hills and another one in Studio City, both next to
a lot of dry, dense vegetation, and we had the
use of the helicopters and the winds were just not
(35:20):
in alignment and that made a world of difference to
be able to hit it hard, hit it fast, and
get control and extinguish those fires. That's that that happens
and that's available to us when we have the right formula. Unfortunately,
two days ago we did not have for you know,
everything we had the opposite. We had everything that came
(35:41):
into alignment to have the perfect firestorm, and we still
have good conditions for a fire. Well not good for us,
but good conditions for a fire that are is going
to be for rapid fire growth here in southern California.
So we're asking people, please, please, please please be careful.
(36:03):
Now is not the time to cut your vegetation with
a metal blade device because that can spark and throw
rocks and start a new fire. People with vehicles driving
over dry grass, please, you know, think about those things.
Your hot exhaust touching hot grass is going to start
a fire. People throwing out their cigarettes out the window,
(36:23):
that can start a fire because the vegetation is one
hundred percent receptive. That means that anytime you have a cigarette,
anything with heat that touches the fuel, it will one
hundred percent catch fire. We've all tried to start a barbecue,
and there's times where it's difficult or impossible to get
(36:45):
your barbecue going. So we squirt all that lighter fluid
on that right now, you don't need any lighter fluid
to get any fire going. It will ignite, it will go.
Speaker 1 (36:54):
David thank you so much. Appreciate your time and explaining
all of that. I really had never had that explain
to me how fire hydrants work. It was fascinating. David
Ortiz there, La County Fire excuse me, La City Fire Department.
Appreciate your time, David.
Speaker 7 (37:07):
Thank you for having us.
Speaker 2 (37:08):
You bet, don't forget you miss any part of our show.
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