January 18, 2025 • 30 mins
Dean talks about his card game with friends last night and separates fact and fiction of fire hardening your home. He re-explains the simplest way how fire interacts with home + who and how to do so. Dean provides the latest on the Palisades and Eaton wildfires in phases. Starting with phase one; removing things, phase two debris removal, and phase three is testing trees and soil for contamination... even undamaged homes.need to go through this process.
Dean advices a caller about his flat roof with seven layers of roof and whether to remove the layers or keep it. Lastly,Dean give advice to a caller who has many things connect into a socket/outlet. and what’s recommended.
Dean advices a caller about his flat roof with seven layers of roof and whether to remove the layers or keep it. Lastly,Dean give advice to a caller who has many things connect into a socket/outlet. and what’s recommended.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
KFI AM six forty. You're listening to Dean Sharp The
House Whisper on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Good Morning, Good morning, Good morning KFI AM six and
live streaming and HD everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Welcome Home, Welcome to Home. I'm Dean Sharp, the House Whisper.
I design custom homes, I build custom homes, and most importantly,
on the weekends, I am your guide to better understanding
that place where you live. Today on the show, well,
it looks like we're getting our arms around these wildfires here.
(00:44):
There are so much, so much to go for the
victims of these wildfires, for the homes and the families
and the lives that have been devastated, so much to go.
It is a hard pill to swallow. That the best
of southern California has to start moving on and continuing
(01:06):
with our lives getting back to normal as it were,
or the new normal for a while. But we are
not going to ignore the fact that there is still
fresh devastation out there and a lot of confusion. So
here's the thing. Today. On the show I Know last weekend,
I spent both shows talking about evacuations, fire hardening, what
(01:30):
to think what to expect in regards to the future
for those victims. How do we rebuild? How do you
rebuild when an entire neighborhood is destroyed? This weekend, as
a result of a lot of questions coming into me
this week a lot, and as a result of me
(01:51):
doing a lot of perusing and on various forms from
social media to major media outlets, and seeing so much
misinformation about what to do next for fire hardening your home.
I'm so concerned about this that I want to take
this weekend and I want to take calls. I want
(02:12):
to clear up confusion, I want to answer questions, and
I'll tell you what. I've got one goal this weekend,
one goal, and that is to number one, help you
understand how a fire interacts with your home. And you
would think, yeah, I know, dand burns it.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Let me just say, if you've got time to listen
this morning, stay tuned. I'm going to talk about it
today and tomorrow. There is a massive amount of very
let me say, potentially expensive ignorance and confusion about what
exactly it means to fire harden a home. I don't
(02:57):
want you to be one of those people all of
Southern California should be seriously, seriously taking a look and
asking the question, how do we fire hard on our home?
How should we get our home ready? If you're not
thinking about it, then that, in one degree or another,
(03:17):
is a result of some of the confusion and the
misunderstanding of what the threat level is. We don't want
another one of these events. I know I'm not going
to be able to stop it from devastating another neighborhood
the next time it happens, but I can stop it
from devastating your home if you're willing to hang with
me and listen through. And that's what we're going to
(03:39):
do right now. What's fast approaching is not a fire
but the fire hardening frenzy, and we need to separate
fact from fiction as we go. Sound good, all right?
Let me introduce you to our crack team. Sam Is
on the board. Good morning's dad, Good morning, dear. How
(04:00):
are you doing today? I'm well, I am well, I'm well.
My friend. I heard you on with Matt Money and
Monks earlier this week pre five o'clock as you guys continued,
and I gotta say you sounded really good, bro, really good.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
Thank you. I appreciated it. It's one of my little
fields of expertise's psychological damage that can happen from traumatic
experiences like this. So I was just glad I could help.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
It's probably why for all these years you've been my
board on.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
On the contrary, you're the one that keeps me sane.
Speaker 4 (04:33):
Dean.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
And let's talk to my buddy Andrew Caravella. Good morning, hey, bud,
doing I'm doing good? All right? What'd you do wrong?
Saturday morning? At six? Uh?
Speaker 3 (04:47):
You know what?
Speaker 1 (04:48):
This was my idea? What oho?
Speaker 3 (04:53):
Everyone's laughing over in the other room.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
Uh, yes, right, because that's not who I am. I
have some things I gotta I gotta run errands this
out afternoon, so I had to do the switch. All right. Well,
you know what, always a pleasure anytime you and I
get to work together.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
I love it. It's one of my favorites.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
Sitting across the table from me. Guess what, absolutely nobody
at the moment. Tina lost badly at cards last night.
I mean badly, and I feel like the humiliation of
that loss as has affected her and she's just decided
to sleep in today. But what card game was it?
We were paying? We were playing spades, with with some friends.
(05:33):
You know, it's a little teen game, and the trash
talking gets a little heavy, and you know she's not
mad at me or any No, it's not because of that, No,
it's just you know, losing is exhausting.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
So anyway, so you say she lost, I'm assuming separate teams.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Yes, she and her partner lost, and and we were.
My partner and I were quite devastating. So okay, I
tell you it was just it was a good night,
good night at the card table.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
It turned out to.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Be all right, y'all. Producer Richie isn't near a mic,
but he is standing by and oh taking calls on
the board. Let me do this real quick. The number
to reach me eight three three two Ask Dean eight
three three The numeral to ask Dean A three three
to ask Dean phone lines or open anything you want
(06:25):
to talk about regarding your home, fire hardening or otherwise.
I'll take as many calls as I can this morning,
and we're gonna do it all. Kay, Bye, Dean Sharp
the house whisper. Hey, whether you live in a condo
or cottage or castle for that matter, it doesn't matter.
I'm here to help you take your home to the
(06:48):
next level. And guess who joined me just now, just now,
welcome home. Well, hello sunshine, good morning to you.
Speaker 5 (06:58):
Good motto.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
I already told everybody the devastating loss at cards last
night probably caused you an extra layer exhaustion, cried yourself asleep.
Yeah it was pretty bad. Yeah, you're feeling okay, you're
just tired, just tired. All right, Well, so glad that
you're here. This is teena everybody, of course. Yay, all right,
(07:29):
here's our plan. As I said this weekend, I'm going
to be separating fact from fiction because here's my problem. Now,
well it's my problem, but it's a problem. I am concerned.
Now that we're turning a corner. Everybody's talking fire hardening,
fire hardening. Yeah. I just took a quick glance on
social media this week at various people saying, oh, check
(07:54):
out this, and they've got some gizmo contraptions set up
to put sprinklers on the top of their roof or
out here or you know what. I'm saying, this kind
of stuff. You're starting to see it everywhere now. Actually,
companies are springing up saying hire us and we will
come out and do this amazing thing, so your house
(08:15):
will never bring I just want you to take a
beat and listen to me this weekend, because there's so
much money, so much money that can be wasted, so
much time, and at the same time for a very
little effect.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
You're talking about putting sprinklers on the top of my
house has little effect.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
Yeah, quite possibly. So I want you to listen very
carefully to me this weekend because we're going to be
talking about separating fact from fiction when it comes to fireheartening.
I am going to re explain yet again in the
simplest way and most direct way. I know how exactly
(09:01):
how fire interacts with your home in a wildfire event.
I know we're getting our arms around the fires fantastic,
but we are not gotten our arms around the ignorance
that abounds throughout the region in terms of who needs
to fire hard in their home and how to do it.
And we're going to address both of those. So you
(09:23):
stick with me now this morning. I want to answer
as many calls as possible, but we're going to start
out with giving you a quick fire status update here.
This is what I understand the latest that has crossed
my desk. Here, the Palisades fire still just under twenty
four thousand acres, coming in at twenty three thy seven
(09:43):
hundred and thirteen, a big jump from yesterday. Yesterday's reporting
now at forty three percent containment. It's not over, but
I tell you what, that is really really good news
in terms of getting control of this fire fire. Five
thousand structures damaged or destroyed, the Eaten Fire fourteen thousand,
(10:08):
one hundred and seventeen acres now seventy three percent containment.
Great news there, and unfortunately even more seven thousand structures
damaged or destroyed. By the way, gives you a perspective
if you're not familiar with the area. The Palisades Fire
at twenty four roughly twenty four thousand acres burnt, five
(10:32):
thousand structures. The Eaten Fire at only fourteen thousand acres only,
But you understand what I'm saying, just a little over
half of the Palisades Fire seven thousand structures, So about
thirty percent more structures burnt in the Eaten Fire at
half of the acreage than the Palisades firre. And that's
(10:53):
simply because the Palisades is a is a larger the
lots are larger, the space is more open, the houses
are larger, fewer houses per acre there. The Eton fire
in Altadena is a very dense area with much smaller homes,
and so seven thousand homes lost in Eton, five thousand
(11:16):
in Palisates. Twelve thousand homes or structures, primarily residences lost
in these two fires. The death toll currently stands at
twenty seven. It is still expected to grow, Ela County
reports The Ela County Sheriff reports that there are currently
thirty one missing person reports between both fires that are
(11:40):
still being followed up on and investigated. Let's hope that
all of those do not turn into additions to the
death toll. Evacuation orders, according to Los Angeles County Fire
Chief Anthony Moroni, it will be at least another week
before some people can begin heading back to their homes
(12:01):
in the evacuated fire zones. Now, to be clear, what
that means is those are evacuation zones that were not
devastated by the fire. Okay, these are homes still standing
in the evacuation zone, but outside the devastation zone. Getting
back into the devastation zone, that's a completely different animal,
(12:24):
and it's going to take quite a while, quite a
while as we discussed on our previous two shows last week,
check those out if you want to understand how an
entire region rebuilds when an entire region has been devastated.
The damage cost estimate currently both fires now rank among
(12:44):
the ten most destructive in California history and the most
costly in US history. Now estimates are starting to vary wildly.
But I'll tell you what those initial estimates that you heard,
this is going to be a fifty billion dollar fire incident. No, no,
it's no, it's not. Many financial experts say the combined costs,
(13:05):
and that is firefighting cost, insurance claims, cleanup, infrastructure repair,
ongoing disruption of business losses will likely be somewhere over
two hundred billion dollars when it's all said and done.
The cleanup very quickly. The Federal Emergency Management Agency FEMA,
(13:26):
working with the Governor's Office of Emergency Services that's called OEES.
They have mission tasked the US Environmental Protection Agency the
EPA to safely remove and dispose of hazardous waste from
homes and structures impacted by the LA fires as soon
as it is safe to enter the affected areas. It
is the OEES and the EPA, who are going to
(13:49):
be doing the initial cleanup on all these fires because
of the toxicity of the waste. Phase one clearing, securing
damage infrastructure, fallen power lines, broken gas and water lines,
damaged roads, all the things that make an initially dangerous
to approach the area. Phase two will be debris removal,
(14:11):
cleaning up household hazardous waste, paint, ammunition, pesticides, propane tanks,
car batteries, all of that kind of stuff. And then
finally remaining structural debris, clearing trees and testing the soil
for contamination. There is no current time estimate for when
residents will be allowed to return to their properties. Even
(14:34):
undamaged homes in the devastation zone will not have full
service utilities for the foreseeable future. All right, there you go,
your quick estimate. When we come back, let's go to
the phones, going to answer some questions, whether they are
geared towards the fire or not. Take as many calls
(14:55):
as I can this morning. You're Home with Dean Sharp
the house whisper.
Speaker 6 (15:00):
Thing to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from KFI
AM six forty.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
KFI AM six forty live streaming.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
In HD everywhere on the iHeart Radio app Dean Sharp
the house whisper with you this morning on this quite
cool Saturday morning here in southern California. I hope you
are safe and warm and dry wherever you are across
our great land. It is a morning that we're going
(15:30):
to take some calls. The number to reach me eight
three three two ask Dean A three three the numeral
to ask Dean. We are live, of course, so give
me a call. Whatever's got you scratching your head about
your home? I want to talk to Steve. Hey, Steve,
welcome home.
Speaker 4 (15:49):
Thanks Stein. I appreciate your show. I really listen to
it a lot. The question I have is I have
a home over in Jefferson Park. It's built in nineteen
twenty four with a flat roof, and I discovered recently
when I put some solar domes in that I don't
(16:09):
think the roof was ever torn off since the very beginning.
And there must be six or seven layers of roofing.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
Yeah, yeah, and.
Speaker 4 (16:20):
The existing roof top is fine. There is a lot
of pondings, so I was considering doing a silicon coat,
but I questioned the whole you know what to do
about it? Because do I really want to coat you know,
a huge layer of roofing there are there aren't any
(16:43):
There isn't any evidence of, like, you know, the house
being pushed down by the load of weight. And also
it provides a really good insulation for the attic.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Oh, I bet it does. I'll bet it does. You's
got like two inches of roofing material up there.
Speaker 4 (17:04):
It's probably like five or six inches almost. It's really thick.
So I was considering the insulation issue, and my attic
itself is very, very small. You can't really get to
most of it at all. You can't even get up there.
So I was going and if I did blow in
insulation on the ad and the ceiling, if it never
(17:26):
got damped, I mean, you could never get it out.
So I'm thinking, just leave it the way it is,
put a silicone code on the roof to protect it
from the ponding, and go on with my life.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
So what do you think, Well, it's hard to argue
against that. It really is. I mean, here's the thing,
if we're talking technicalities. Code allows you to have two
layers of roofing material on your home, and then when
the third layer go, when it's time for a third layer.
The other two layers have to tear off and you
(18:02):
start fresh again. So you're way beyond that. But you
know you didn't do it right. And uh and it's
not leaking. Uh, so I would you know, it's it's yeah,
it's hard to argue with the fact that, hey, my
roof doesn't leak. Uh, and so but I do have
a little bit of ponding, so I would say, probably
get a roofer up there. And uh and who is
(18:24):
good at what they do? I mean really good at
what they do in terms of flat roof and uh
you know, let them kind of free float uh some
silicone into the areas that are dipped low so that
you don't get the ponding effect. And uh, you know,
bide your time for for when it goes. But I
(18:45):
tell you what, when the leak does start to happen,
just know you're gonna have to pull the whole thing
off the next Yeah.
Speaker 4 (18:55):
Okay, well, very good, thank you very much. That's uh,
that's I really wanted to hear that, but I wasn't
sure whether that would be, you know, a good idea.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
So yeah, now, so let me address the legality of it. Okay,
here's the legality of it. If Dean tells you to
put on a whole nother roof layer, then Dean is
telling you to do something against the code that's illegal.
That's not what I'm suggesting. You can take an existing
roof layer whatever your roof may be, pitched, roof tiles, whatever,
(19:29):
and do some repair and touch up work to it.
That doesn't count as putting up another roof layer. So
if you've got a flat roof with some ponding, if
you're not going to recoat the entire roof, okay, that's
a whole other layer, and that's not what I'm suggesting.
But you could definitely do some work to That's why
I said, a roofer who knows what they're doing with
(19:50):
skill in this area, you can definitely do some work
to basically kind of self level and fill in the
ponding areas so that you get adequate drainage everywhere. That
is not a new roof. That is augmentations to your
existing layers. And since you didn't lay the other layers down,
you're well within your rights to do that.
Speaker 4 (20:11):
Yeah. So a complete layer of silicones, I consider it
a layer.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
It's a layer, it's a layer. Yeah, all right, Jerry,
thank you. I appreciate you're welcome. Food for that, my friend.
All right, we're gonna take a break, uh, and then
we'll come back and take some more calls your home
with Dean Sharp the house whisper, Kay you fine, Dean Sharp,
(20:37):
the house whisper, welcome home. Taking some calls this morning.
The number to reach me eight three three two. Ask
Dean eight three three the numeral two, Ask Dean eight
three three two Ask Dean. Not much wind out there
at the moment. That's great, uh, this and very very
cool weather at the moment. This allows our fire teams
(21:00):
to get an even bigger handle on the Eton and
the Palisades fire, which without another major surprising wind event.
And yes, yes, the weather outlook for next week looks
like we've got some more of our classic Santa Anna
is coming, so putting that aside, as long as they
(21:22):
don't stir up more trouble, then it looks like we're
getting the better of these two fires at this moment.
Of course, after they have definitely gotten the best of us,
so there's at least some light on the horizon in
terms of both of these fires. I spent all last
weekend talking about all aspects of these fires, and you're
(21:47):
going to start seeing coverage change and life sort of
try to return to normal for most of southern California
in terms of what's being discussed in the media. But
here is my concern. My concern is that there is
now now kind of a fire hardening frenzy and a
lot of misinformation going around out there. So I want
to take a little bit of time today also answer calls,
(22:09):
like I said, and a lot of time tomorrow over
these two shows to address and separate for you the
fact from the fiction when it comes to what it
takes to fire harden your home. Just a lot of ignorance.
I actually was. I was so impressed with it, was
so impressed upon me just in the first couple of
(22:31):
days of this week that I also spent some time
asking some people just sort of you know, man on
the street kind of stuff, just asking friends, family, and
some coworkers. I'm like, OK, explain to me what you
think the threat of fire is to your home and
how you're going to deal with it or how you
would deal with it. And I got to tell you,
(22:54):
almost everybody got it wrong. And this is a concern.
Plus I've had so many questions in about it that
it's a concern, So I want you to hang with us.
I'm not addressing a ton of it this morning, most
of it on the Big Show tomorrow, but hang with
me owhen Yes, by the way, just a quick announcement.
(23:15):
You heard Andrew say earlier that tomorrow across the state,
Governor Gavin Newsom has a town hall scheduled that we here,
of course, are going to air on KFI. That's going
to happen at nine o'clock, when we normally start the show.
The town hall, though, is scheduled, anticipated to our coverage
(23:37):
of it, to last about a half an hour or so.
So currently the plan is that we'll be starting the
Big Show tomorrow at nine thirty instead of nine. It's
not that Dean is not on the air tomorrow, it's
just that we're making some room to cover this town
hall and then we will get started. So if you
tune in and you find yourself in the middle of
(23:57):
the town hall, don't be dismiss because we will be
doing the show tomorrow. Just a little bit clipped on
the front end. Okay, all right, let's get back to
the phones. How about talking to Peter. Hey Peter, welcome home.
Speaker 5 (24:13):
Hi, Good morning Dean, Good morning Dean. Thanks to you
KFI for all your advice over the years. I just
moved into an apartment and on the wall with the
internet cable and an outlet, I've got a power strip
plugged in with a TV, an external speaker, a firecube,
motorm rater, a combo, and a clock. And since some
of those used transformers, I have another power strip going
(24:35):
from there where I've got a DVD player and a fireplace.
How do you know how much you're taxing these outlets
and what can you do about it?
Speaker 1 (24:47):
How do you know? Well, Okay, here's the thing. Your
outlet is likely a standard fifth amp circuit. Okay. Fifteen
amps is the amount of power that's kind of like
(25:07):
it's kind of like describing how much water can flow
through a pipe. Okay, So a fifteen amp circuit is
the amperage of the electricity, the force of the electricity
moving through. Now, the voltage of our electricity here in
the US is one hundred and twenty okay, and so basically,
(25:32):
hang on just a second here, basically one hundred and
twenty volts fifteen amps, And the question is how can
we determine the wattage? Now, the wattage is what is used,
the amount of energy, that's the quantity used. Okay, so
if we ask the question how to determine, you guys
(25:56):
can look this up here. I want to see. I
want to see how easy this is to find for everybody,
how to determine wattage on a fifteen amp circuit. I
just want to I'm curious. I'm curious how clear this
information is for the average person online. Of course, my
computer just froze up, so it's not clear at all,
(26:20):
is it, Tina. Come on now, come on, now, come on,
give me this, give this to me. Hang on, hang on,
my friend. We're going to find out for you here.
I just want to find I'm curious. Sometimes. Somebody asked
me this week, of some of the questions that you get,
(26:41):
how much of it is easily accessible? And I said, well,
sometimes it's not as accessible as you might think. Oh
my gosh, really, and here I want to do this demonstration,
and my computer froze up on me. All right, fine, fine, fine,
all right, my friend. So here's what it comes down to.
(27:01):
Number one, you usually don't have to worry about it
in terms of what you've got going on, because you've
essentially got electronics hooked up to it. Electronics are very
low wattage equipment, okay, especially things that use transformers. That's
just an indication that there isn't a huge power draway. Secondly,
(27:24):
if you are pulling more energy through a circuit, like
a fifteen AM circuit, than that circuit wants to handle,
that's when the fifteen am breaker at the panel pops
okay and goes off. So the breaker is designed to
protect the wire, the conductor, the size of the wire conductor,
(27:47):
which in the case of a fifteen amp circuit is
a fourteen gauge wire. Now I'm just spewing out numbers
and people are like, I have no idea what you're
talking about. It's essentially this. It's a smaller gauge wire.
It's protected by a appropriately sized breaker, and if that
wire begins to heat up because there's too much electrical
draw through it, the breaker goes off, right, And then
(28:09):
you find yourself you're like, oh, I'm pulling too much
energy through this circuit. I need to disperse it. And
that's the easiest way to figure out whether or not
you're using too much energy or putting too much of
a burden on one outlet. Now here is the more
important subject. Okay, the more important subject is that if
(28:33):
you plug in these tiny, little thin extension cords. Okay,
now it sounds like you you're actually using an actual
you know, multiplug adapter, right, yes, Okay, when people plug
into an outlet a tiny little extension cord, a really
(28:55):
thin one that those little five dollars extent cords that
you get at the and then and they have multiple
outlets on them, and then plug a bunch of stuff
into those. It's not the circuit that you're overloading, it's
the extension cord that you're overloading. And sometimes that will
literally melt down and cause a fire. Not good. But
(29:15):
if you're using a heavy gauge power strip coming out
of that outlet and then dispersing the power from the
power strip, the power strip itself also has a little
breaker device on it. So the point is, I wouldn't
worry about it. I wouldn't worry about it unless you
see the thing dropping constantly or not. And I'm gonna
tell you the result of the search and whether it's
(29:35):
user friendly as soon as my computer comes back online.
But Peter, that's the answer. You have got breakers tech
those circuits, and you're not going to open to it.
Speaker 5 (29:46):
All right, thanks Teine.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
All Right, my friend, stay listening because as soon as
my computer comes back, I'm going to tell you the
result of a of such a search. Until then, let's
get some news from Andrew Caravella. You're listening to Dean Sharp,
The House Whisperer on KFI.
Speaker 6 (30:03):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on Demand from
KFI a M six forty
KFI AM six forty. You're listening to Dean Sharp The
House Whisper on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Good Morning, Good morning, Good morning KFI AM six and
live streaming and HD everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Welcome Home, Welcome to Home. I'm Dean Sharp, the House Whisper.
I design custom homes, I build custom homes, and most importantly,
on the weekends, I am your guide to better understanding
that place where you live. Today on the show, well,
it looks like we're getting our arms around these wildfires here.
(00:44):
There are so much, so much to go for the
victims of these wildfires, for the homes and the families
and the lives that have been devastated, so much to go.
It is a hard pill to swallow. That the best
of southern California has to start moving on and continuing
(01:06):
with our lives getting back to normal as it were,
or the new normal for a while. But we are
not going to ignore the fact that there is still
fresh devastation out there and a lot of confusion. So
here's the thing. Today. On the show I Know last weekend,
I spent both shows talking about evacuations, fire hardening, what
(01:30):
to think what to expect in regards to the future
for those victims. How do we rebuild? How do you
rebuild when an entire neighborhood is destroyed? This weekend, as
a result of a lot of questions coming into me
this week a lot, and as a result of me
(01:51):
doing a lot of perusing and on various forms from
social media to major media outlets, and seeing so much
misinformation about what to do next for fire hardening your home.
I'm so concerned about this that I want to take
this weekend and I want to take calls. I want
(02:12):
to clear up confusion, I want to answer questions, and
I'll tell you what. I've got one goal this weekend,
one goal, and that is to number one, help you
understand how a fire interacts with your home. And you
would think, yeah, I know, dand burns it.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Let me just say, if you've got time to listen
this morning, stay tuned. I'm going to talk about it
today and tomorrow. There is a massive amount of very
let me say, potentially expensive ignorance and confusion about what
exactly it means to fire harden a home. I don't
(02:57):
want you to be one of those people all of
Southern California should be seriously, seriously taking a look and
asking the question, how do we fire hard on our home?
How should we get our home ready? If you're not
thinking about it, then that, in one degree or another,
(03:17):
is a result of some of the confusion and the
misunderstanding of what the threat level is. We don't want
another one of these events. I know I'm not going
to be able to stop it from devastating another neighborhood
the next time it happens, but I can stop it
from devastating your home if you're willing to hang with
me and listen through. And that's what we're going to
(03:39):
do right now. What's fast approaching is not a fire
but the fire hardening frenzy, and we need to separate
fact from fiction as we go. Sound good, all right?
Let me introduce you to our crack team. Sam Is
on the board. Good morning's dad, Good morning, dear. How
(04:00):
are you doing today? I'm well, I am well, I'm well.
My friend. I heard you on with Matt Money and
Monks earlier this week pre five o'clock as you guys continued,
and I gotta say you sounded really good, bro, really good.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
Thank you. I appreciated it. It's one of my little
fields of expertise's psychological damage that can happen from traumatic
experiences like this. So I was just glad I could help.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
It's probably why for all these years you've been my
board on.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
On the contrary, you're the one that keeps me sane.
Speaker 4 (04:33):
Dean.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
And let's talk to my buddy Andrew Caravella. Good morning, hey, bud,
doing I'm doing good? All right? What'd you do wrong?
Saturday morning? At six? Uh?
Speaker 3 (04:47):
You know what?
Speaker 1 (04:48):
This was my idea? What oho?
Speaker 3 (04:53):
Everyone's laughing over in the other room.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
Uh, yes, right, because that's not who I am. I
have some things I gotta I gotta run errands this
out afternoon, so I had to do the switch. All right. Well,
you know what, always a pleasure anytime you and I
get to work together.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
I love it. It's one of my favorites.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
Sitting across the table from me. Guess what, absolutely nobody
at the moment. Tina lost badly at cards last night.
I mean badly, and I feel like the humiliation of
that loss as has affected her and she's just decided
to sleep in today. But what card game was it?
We were paying? We were playing spades, with with some friends.
(05:33):
You know, it's a little teen game, and the trash
talking gets a little heavy, and you know she's not
mad at me or any No, it's not because of that, No,
it's just you know, losing is exhausting.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
So anyway, so you say she lost, I'm assuming separate teams.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Yes, she and her partner lost, and and we were.
My partner and I were quite devastating. So okay, I
tell you it was just it was a good night,
good night at the card table.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
It turned out to.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Be all right, y'all. Producer Richie isn't near a mic,
but he is standing by and oh taking calls on
the board. Let me do this real quick. The number
to reach me eight three three two Ask Dean eight
three three The numeral to ask Dean A three three
to ask Dean phone lines or open anything you want
(06:25):
to talk about regarding your home, fire hardening or otherwise.
I'll take as many calls as I can this morning,
and we're gonna do it all. Kay, Bye, Dean Sharp
the house whisper. Hey, whether you live in a condo
or cottage or castle for that matter, it doesn't matter.
I'm here to help you take your home to the
(06:48):
next level. And guess who joined me just now, just now,
welcome home. Well, hello sunshine, good morning to you.
Speaker 5 (06:58):
Good motto.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
I already told everybody the devastating loss at cards last
night probably caused you an extra layer exhaustion, cried yourself asleep.
Yeah it was pretty bad. Yeah, you're feeling okay, you're
just tired, just tired. All right, Well, so glad that
you're here. This is teena everybody, of course. Yay, all right,
(07:29):
here's our plan. As I said this weekend, I'm going
to be separating fact from fiction because here's my problem. Now,
well it's my problem, but it's a problem. I am concerned.
Now that we're turning a corner. Everybody's talking fire hardening,
fire hardening. Yeah. I just took a quick glance on
social media this week at various people saying, oh, check
(07:54):
out this, and they've got some gizmo contraptions set up
to put sprinklers on the top of their roof or
out here or you know what. I'm saying, this kind
of stuff. You're starting to see it everywhere now. Actually,
companies are springing up saying hire us and we will
come out and do this amazing thing, so your house
(08:15):
will never bring I just want you to take a
beat and listen to me this weekend, because there's so
much money, so much money that can be wasted, so
much time, and at the same time for a very
little effect.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
You're talking about putting sprinklers on the top of my
house has little effect.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
Yeah, quite possibly. So I want you to listen very
carefully to me this weekend because we're going to be
talking about separating fact from fiction when it comes to fireheartening.
I am going to re explain yet again in the
simplest way and most direct way. I know how exactly
(09:01):
how fire interacts with your home in a wildfire event.
I know we're getting our arms around the fires fantastic,
but we are not gotten our arms around the ignorance
that abounds throughout the region in terms of who needs
to fire hard in their home and how to do it.
And we're going to address both of those. So you
(09:23):
stick with me now this morning. I want to answer
as many calls as possible, but we're going to start
out with giving you a quick fire status update here.
This is what I understand the latest that has crossed
my desk. Here, the Palisades fire still just under twenty
four thousand acres, coming in at twenty three thy seven
(09:43):
hundred and thirteen, a big jump from yesterday. Yesterday's reporting
now at forty three percent containment. It's not over, but
I tell you what, that is really really good news
in terms of getting control of this fire fire. Five
thousand structures damaged or destroyed, the Eaten Fire fourteen thousand,
(10:08):
one hundred and seventeen acres now seventy three percent containment.
Great news there, and unfortunately even more seven thousand structures
damaged or destroyed. By the way, gives you a perspective
if you're not familiar with the area. The Palisades Fire
at twenty four roughly twenty four thousand acres burnt, five
(10:32):
thousand structures. The Eaten Fire at only fourteen thousand acres only,
But you understand what I'm saying, just a little over
half of the Palisades Fire seven thousand structures, So about
thirty percent more structures burnt in the Eaten Fire at
half of the acreage than the Palisades firre. And that's
(10:53):
simply because the Palisades is a is a larger the
lots are larger, the space is more open, the houses
are larger, fewer houses per acre there. The Eton fire
in Altadena is a very dense area with much smaller homes,
and so seven thousand homes lost in Eton, five thousand
(11:16):
in Palisates. Twelve thousand homes or structures, primarily residences lost
in these two fires. The death toll currently stands at
twenty seven. It is still expected to grow, Ela County
reports The Ela County Sheriff reports that there are currently
thirty one missing person reports between both fires that are
(11:40):
still being followed up on and investigated. Let's hope that
all of those do not turn into additions to the
death toll. Evacuation orders, according to Los Angeles County Fire
Chief Anthony Moroni, it will be at least another week
before some people can begin heading back to their homes
(12:01):
in the evacuated fire zones. Now, to be clear, what
that means is those are evacuation zones that were not
devastated by the fire. Okay, these are homes still standing
in the evacuation zone, but outside the devastation zone. Getting
back into the devastation zone, that's a completely different animal,
(12:24):
and it's going to take quite a while, quite a
while as we discussed on our previous two shows last week,
check those out if you want to understand how an
entire region rebuilds when an entire region has been devastated.
The damage cost estimate currently both fires now rank among
(12:44):
the ten most destructive in California history and the most
costly in US history. Now estimates are starting to vary wildly.
But I'll tell you what those initial estimates that you heard,
this is going to be a fifty billion dollar fire incident. No, no,
it's no, it's not. Many financial experts say the combined costs,
(13:05):
and that is firefighting cost, insurance claims, cleanup, infrastructure repair,
ongoing disruption of business losses will likely be somewhere over
two hundred billion dollars when it's all said and done.
The cleanup very quickly. The Federal Emergency Management Agency FEMA,
(13:26):
working with the Governor's Office of Emergency Services that's called OEES.
They have mission tasked the US Environmental Protection Agency the
EPA to safely remove and dispose of hazardous waste from
homes and structures impacted by the LA fires as soon
as it is safe to enter the affected areas. It
is the OEES and the EPA, who are going to
(13:49):
be doing the initial cleanup on all these fires because
of the toxicity of the waste. Phase one clearing, securing
damage infrastructure, fallen power lines, broken gas and water lines,
damaged roads, all the things that make an initially dangerous
to approach the area. Phase two will be debris removal,
(14:11):
cleaning up household hazardous waste, paint, ammunition, pesticides, propane tanks,
car batteries, all of that kind of stuff. And then
finally remaining structural debris, clearing trees and testing the soil
for contamination. There is no current time estimate for when
residents will be allowed to return to their properties. Even
(14:34):
undamaged homes in the devastation zone will not have full
service utilities for the foreseeable future. All right, there you go,
your quick estimate. When we come back, let's go to
the phones, going to answer some questions, whether they are
geared towards the fire or not. Take as many calls
(14:55):
as I can this morning. You're Home with Dean Sharp
the house whisper.
Speaker 6 (15:00):
Thing to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from KFI
AM six forty.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
KFI AM six forty live streaming.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
In HD everywhere on the iHeart Radio app Dean Sharp
the house whisper with you this morning on this quite
cool Saturday morning here in southern California. I hope you
are safe and warm and dry wherever you are across
our great land. It is a morning that we're going
(15:30):
to take some calls. The number to reach me eight
three three two ask Dean A three three the numeral
to ask Dean. We are live, of course, so give
me a call. Whatever's got you scratching your head about
your home? I want to talk to Steve. Hey, Steve,
welcome home.
Speaker 4 (15:49):
Thanks Stein. I appreciate your show. I really listen to
it a lot. The question I have is I have
a home over in Jefferson Park. It's built in nineteen
twenty four with a flat roof, and I discovered recently
when I put some solar domes in that I don't
(16:09):
think the roof was ever torn off since the very beginning.
And there must be six or seven layers of roofing.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
Yeah, yeah, and.
Speaker 4 (16:20):
The existing roof top is fine. There is a lot
of pondings, so I was considering doing a silicon coat,
but I questioned the whole you know what to do
about it? Because do I really want to coat you know,
a huge layer of roofing there are there aren't any
(16:43):
There isn't any evidence of, like, you know, the house
being pushed down by the load of weight. And also
it provides a really good insulation for the attic.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Oh, I bet it does. I'll bet it does. You's
got like two inches of roofing material up there.
Speaker 4 (17:04):
It's probably like five or six inches almost. It's really thick.
So I was considering the insulation issue, and my attic
itself is very, very small. You can't really get to
most of it at all. You can't even get up there.
So I was going and if I did blow in
insulation on the ad and the ceiling, if it never
(17:26):
got damped, I mean, you could never get it out.
So I'm thinking, just leave it the way it is,
put a silicone code on the roof to protect it
from the ponding, and go on with my life.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
So what do you think, Well, it's hard to argue
against that. It really is. I mean, here's the thing,
if we're talking technicalities. Code allows you to have two
layers of roofing material on your home, and then when
the third layer go, when it's time for a third layer.
The other two layers have to tear off and you
(18:02):
start fresh again. So you're way beyond that. But you
know you didn't do it right. And uh and it's
not leaking. Uh, so I would you know, it's it's yeah,
it's hard to argue with the fact that, hey, my
roof doesn't leak. Uh, and so but I do have
a little bit of ponding, so I would say, probably
get a roofer up there. And uh and who is
(18:24):
good at what they do? I mean really good at
what they do in terms of flat roof and uh
you know, let them kind of free float uh some
silicone into the areas that are dipped low so that
you don't get the ponding effect. And uh, you know,
bide your time for for when it goes. But I
(18:45):
tell you what, when the leak does start to happen,
just know you're gonna have to pull the whole thing
off the next Yeah.
Speaker 4 (18:55):
Okay, well, very good, thank you very much. That's uh,
that's I really wanted to hear that, but I wasn't
sure whether that would be, you know, a good idea.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
So yeah, now, so let me address the legality of it. Okay,
here's the legality of it. If Dean tells you to
put on a whole nother roof layer, then Dean is
telling you to do something against the code that's illegal.
That's not what I'm suggesting. You can take an existing
roof layer whatever your roof may be, pitched, roof tiles, whatever,
(19:29):
and do some repair and touch up work to it.
That doesn't count as putting up another roof layer. So
if you've got a flat roof with some ponding, if
you're not going to recoat the entire roof, okay, that's
a whole other layer, and that's not what I'm suggesting.
But you could definitely do some work to That's why
I said, a roofer who knows what they're doing with
(19:50):
skill in this area, you can definitely do some work
to basically kind of self level and fill in the
ponding areas so that you get adequate drainage everywhere. That
is not a new roof. That is augmentations to your
existing layers. And since you didn't lay the other layers down,
you're well within your rights to do that.
Speaker 4 (20:11):
Yeah. So a complete layer of silicones, I consider it
a layer.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
It's a layer, it's a layer. Yeah, all right, Jerry,
thank you. I appreciate you're welcome. Food for that, my friend.
All right, we're gonna take a break, uh, and then
we'll come back and take some more calls your home
with Dean Sharp the house whisper, Kay you fine, Dean Sharp,
(20:37):
the house whisper, welcome home. Taking some calls this morning.
The number to reach me eight three three two. Ask
Dean eight three three the numeral two, Ask Dean eight
three three two Ask Dean. Not much wind out there
at the moment. That's great, uh, this and very very
cool weather at the moment. This allows our fire teams
(21:00):
to get an even bigger handle on the Eton and
the Palisades fire, which without another major surprising wind event.
And yes, yes, the weather outlook for next week looks
like we've got some more of our classic Santa Anna
is coming, so putting that aside, as long as they
(21:22):
don't stir up more trouble, then it looks like we're
getting the better of these two fires at this moment.
Of course, after they have definitely gotten the best of us,
so there's at least some light on the horizon in
terms of both of these fires. I spent all last
weekend talking about all aspects of these fires, and you're
(21:47):
going to start seeing coverage change and life sort of
try to return to normal for most of southern California
in terms of what's being discussed in the media. But
here is my concern. My concern is that there is
now now kind of a fire hardening frenzy and a
lot of misinformation going around out there. So I want
to take a little bit of time today also answer calls,
(22:09):
like I said, and a lot of time tomorrow over
these two shows to address and separate for you the
fact from the fiction when it comes to what it
takes to fire harden your home. Just a lot of ignorance.
I actually was. I was so impressed with it, was
so impressed upon me just in the first couple of
(22:31):
days of this week that I also spent some time
asking some people just sort of you know, man on
the street kind of stuff, just asking friends, family, and
some coworkers. I'm like, OK, explain to me what you
think the threat of fire is to your home and
how you're going to deal with it or how you
would deal with it. And I got to tell you,
(22:54):
almost everybody got it wrong. And this is a concern.
Plus I've had so many questions in about it that
it's a concern, So I want you to hang with us.
I'm not addressing a ton of it this morning, most
of it on the Big Show tomorrow, but hang with
me owhen Yes, by the way, just a quick announcement.
(23:15):
You heard Andrew say earlier that tomorrow across the state,
Governor Gavin Newsom has a town hall scheduled that we here,
of course, are going to air on KFI. That's going
to happen at nine o'clock, when we normally start the show.
The town hall, though, is scheduled, anticipated to our coverage
(23:37):
of it, to last about a half an hour or so.
So currently the plan is that we'll be starting the
Big Show tomorrow at nine thirty instead of nine. It's
not that Dean is not on the air tomorrow, it's
just that we're making some room to cover this town
hall and then we will get started. So if you
tune in and you find yourself in the middle of
(23:57):
the town hall, don't be dismiss because we will be
doing the show tomorrow. Just a little bit clipped on
the front end. Okay, all right, let's get back to
the phones. How about talking to Peter. Hey Peter, welcome home.
Speaker 5 (24:13):
Hi, Good morning Dean, Good morning Dean. Thanks to you
KFI for all your advice over the years. I just
moved into an apartment and on the wall with the
internet cable and an outlet, I've got a power strip
plugged in with a TV, an external speaker, a firecube,
motorm rater, a combo, and a clock. And since some
of those used transformers, I have another power strip going
(24:35):
from there where I've got a DVD player and a fireplace.
How do you know how much you're taxing these outlets
and what can you do about it?
Speaker 1 (24:47):
How do you know? Well, Okay, here's the thing. Your
outlet is likely a standard fifth amp circuit. Okay. Fifteen
amps is the amount of power that's kind of like
(25:07):
it's kind of like describing how much water can flow
through a pipe. Okay, So a fifteen amp circuit is
the amperage of the electricity, the force of the electricity
moving through. Now, the voltage of our electricity here in
the US is one hundred and twenty okay, and so basically,
(25:32):
hang on just a second here, basically one hundred and
twenty volts fifteen amps, And the question is how can
we determine the wattage? Now, the wattage is what is used,
the amount of energy, that's the quantity used. Okay, so
if we ask the question how to determine, you guys
(25:56):
can look this up here. I want to see. I
want to see how easy this is to find for everybody,
how to determine wattage on a fifteen amp circuit. I
just want to I'm curious. I'm curious how clear this
information is for the average person online. Of course, my
computer just froze up, so it's not clear at all,
(26:20):
is it, Tina. Come on now, come on, now, come on,
give me this, give this to me. Hang on, hang on,
my friend. We're going to find out for you here.
I just want to find I'm curious. Sometimes. Somebody asked
me this week, of some of the questions that you get,
(26:41):
how much of it is easily accessible? And I said, well,
sometimes it's not as accessible as you might think. Oh
my gosh, really, and here I want to do this demonstration,
and my computer froze up on me. All right, fine, fine, fine,
all right, my friend. So here's what it comes down to.
(27:01):
Number one, you usually don't have to worry about it
in terms of what you've got going on, because you've
essentially got electronics hooked up to it. Electronics are very
low wattage equipment, okay, especially things that use transformers. That's
just an indication that there isn't a huge power draway. Secondly,
(27:24):
if you are pulling more energy through a circuit, like
a fifteen AM circuit, than that circuit wants to handle,
that's when the fifteen am breaker at the panel pops
okay and goes off. So the breaker is designed to
protect the wire, the conductor, the size of the wire conductor,
(27:47):
which in the case of a fifteen amp circuit is
a fourteen gauge wire. Now I'm just spewing out numbers
and people are like, I have no idea what you're
talking about. It's essentially this. It's a smaller gauge wire.
It's protected by a appropriately sized breaker, and if that
wire begins to heat up because there's too much electrical
draw through it, the breaker goes off, right, And then
(28:09):
you find yourself you're like, oh, I'm pulling too much
energy through this circuit. I need to disperse it. And
that's the easiest way to figure out whether or not
you're using too much energy or putting too much of
a burden on one outlet. Now here is the more
important subject. Okay, the more important subject is that if
(28:33):
you plug in these tiny, little thin extension cords. Okay,
now it sounds like you you're actually using an actual
you know, multiplug adapter, right, yes, Okay, when people plug
into an outlet a tiny little extension cord, a really
(28:55):
thin one that those little five dollars extent cords that
you get at the and then and they have multiple
outlets on them, and then plug a bunch of stuff
into those. It's not the circuit that you're overloading, it's
the extension cord that you're overloading. And sometimes that will
literally melt down and cause a fire. Not good. But
(29:15):
if you're using a heavy gauge power strip coming out
of that outlet and then dispersing the power from the
power strip, the power strip itself also has a little
breaker device on it. So the point is, I wouldn't
worry about it. I wouldn't worry about it unless you
see the thing dropping constantly or not. And I'm gonna
tell you the result of the search and whether it's
(29:35):
user friendly as soon as my computer comes back online.
But Peter, that's the answer. You have got breakers tech
those circuits, and you're not going to open to it.
Speaker 5 (29:46):
All right, thanks Teine.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
All Right, my friend, stay listening because as soon as
my computer comes back, I'm going to tell you the
result of a of such a search. Until then, let's
get some news from Andrew Caravella. You're listening to Dean Sharp,
The House Whisperer on KFI.
Speaker 6 (30:03):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on Demand from
KFI a M six forty
Home with Dean Sharp News
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