January 12, 2025 • 35 mins
@In the wake of the worst disaster in Los Angeles' history, host Michael Monks takes you into the heart of a city forever changed. Reflecting on the devastating fires that have reshaped neighborhoods and altered the city's future, Michael shares his personal experiences and grapples with the profound emotional and historical impacts of the tragedy.
Join the conversation as Michael opens the phone lines to hear raw, real stories from listeners living through this moment. From grappling with partisan blame to envisioning the monumental task of rebuilding iconic areas like the Palisades and Alta Dena, this episode explores how one disaster can transform public policy, the physical landscape, and the spirit of a city.
Join the conversation as Michael opens the phone lines to hear raw, real stories from listeners living through this moment. From grappling with partisan blame to envisioning the monumental task of rebuilding iconic areas like the Palisades and Alta Dena, this episode explores how one disaster can transform public policy, the physical landscape, and the spirit of a city.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
KFI AM six forty. We're live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
I'm Michael Monks from KFI News. We're with you till
ten o'clock tonight, and we're talking to and with you,
so you can join our conversation live on the phone
Old School one eight hundred five two zero one KFI.
That's one eight hundred five to two zero one five
(00:25):
three four. Because we've been telling you the story of
this destructive fire, these destructive fires all week long, we
want to hear your story as well. What are your frustrations,
what are your questions, what were your first hand experiences?
What are some good things that you've seen out there
in terms of helping people, people helping people, or ways
(00:48):
to help people?
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Join us.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
You can also hit us up on the iHeartRadio app
click that talkback button. SAD to report that the death
toll across all the fires today has grown to sixteen
or the Eaton fire, the one burning in the Altadena
and Pasadena area, half of them, they're eight people dead.
They've got that one contained at fifteen percent, but it's
(01:10):
over fourteen thousand acres the one of the Palisades continues
to threaten more areas. This one will not stop. More
than twenty three yeah, more than twenty three thousand acres burned.
I mean, how do you even comprehend that in your mind,
that many acres. It's shocking, and it's another thing to
(01:33):
see it up close. You see these aerials, you see video,
but to go on Pacific Coast Highway, to go up
into the Palisades, to go to Altadena, and to see
that those places are gone. I mean, I've been a
reporter a long time. I've covered fires, of course, some
(01:55):
wildfires since being at KFI. But you know, a big
house fire, an apartment building or something that was destructive
and terrible, but like you see, you see some frames
on the walls, you see couches burned, but there is
some semblance of a life that had existed there. Not
(02:16):
in this thing. It is ashes gone and it is
not over. Stay vigilant, stay tuned, and if you're living
near these things right now, be ready because we've got
more wins coming next week. Like I said, we're taking calls,
(02:39):
but we're also doing talkbacks. Kayla Austin is producing for
us in house tonight, and we've really put her to
work taking all of your calls and screening them and
getting you in line so that we can pipe you
up and hear your words across Greater Los Angeles CALEA,
if you can hear me in there, would you mind
just giving me a rundown on what we've got in
terms of talkbacks? I want to make sure those folks
can be her today too.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
We have a few. The first one is from David. David.
Speaker 4 (03:06):
I was wondering what happened to the California Conservation Corp
And why it is still in operation. That it ran properly,
it could have prevented a lot of these wildfires, and
no one's talking about that, so let me hear what
you guys think.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
Thank you, all right, David.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
They still got a website, so I can't comment to that,
and certainly wouldn't want to spread any misinformation, but we
do appreciate the call anyway, and maybe that's something we
can look into a little bit further for you.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
What else, Gala, We have one from Grace.
Speaker 5 (03:39):
The cultural loss is absolutely devastating. I heard that man
say his friend lost his physics notes, important things he
was working on. I keep thinking about the rare books,
the artworks. It's like the burning of Alexandria, the cultural
loss we're going to experience, and I just you're right,
we're not prepared for the aftermath. We need to stick together.
(04:01):
It's like nothing we've ever encountered, and we're not ready
and we need to be.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
That's exactly right.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
I mean, we have not had any time at all
to process because it's still happening. I mean, we can
mourn a coffee shop as we should, that we used
to love, that was there on Monday serving lattes and
is now a pile of rubble. But there's so much
more than that. Generations of a family home, schools, historic
(04:33):
houses gone, the spirit of a community erased, that will
never be rebuilt. That's now in the history books any more.
Talkbacks there, Kayla.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
Yeah, Grace actually sends another one. Oh hi, Grace, blaming.
Speaker 5 (04:52):
The homeless is so lazy, and I'm sick of that take.
I don't want to hear that take anymore.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
All right, Grace, we appreciate that too. I mean, these
are the conversations that need to happen. I think it's
appropriate to let people vent responsibly. We are a news outlet.
But people are feeling things right now, and when you
think about the homeless policies and the fires that have
(05:19):
been associated with homelessness, it's understandable why people's minds go there.
It's not inexplicable. We're gonna go back to the phone lines.
I've got time for one before we go to a break.
We've got a line of people. We're going to get
to all of you tonight, so just be patient. We
will get to you tonight. And let's go to Phil.
He's been waiting a while. Phil is on the line.
Good Saturday evening to you, Phil.
Speaker 6 (05:42):
Ah, Yes, I so much to discuss, but I'll focus
on the one topic I promised to bring up. If
there was a press conference, a public press conference tomorrow,
I would ask Mayor Bass one question, will you resign today?
Why or why not?
Speaker 3 (06:01):
Thank you, Phil?
Speaker 2 (06:02):
And I'm sure there will be press conferences tomorrow. They've
been doing them pretty consistently, multiple times a day between
the various cities that are impacted in the county. And
I'm not going to speak for Mayor Bass, but I
can probably anticipate her answer. There is no as she
suffered some political carnage of course.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
I mean, my goodness.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Imagine being the mayor of la and leaving town for
something that had been scheduled, leaving the country for something
that had been scheduled, and then your city catches fire,
a fire that grows to be the worst disaster in
the history of your city, and then you're squabbling with
the fire chief and maybe having some communication issues with
(06:49):
the governor.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
That's tough. That is tough, and she will be up
for election next year.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
So if she decides to run for reelection, I think
we know what the number one issue is, because this
is going to be the number one issue in a
lot of political campaigns. And I think collectively we need
to hope that it's not cheap political goals that people
try to score here. We need to hear serious policy proposals,
(07:19):
and we need to be serious people when we consider them.
It's not a game. It's not about the numbers of
d's and the numbers of ours. It's about whether your
home will burn to the ground based on how we
address these very significant issues.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
So let's be.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Serious together today. Let it out vent a little bit,
let's do it responsibly, respectfully. But we're going to be
with you here updating the fires all night long, taking
your calls all night long. One eight hundred five to
zero one KFI one eight hundred five two zero one
five three four. You can also leave a talk back
(07:59):
on the eye I Heart Radio app.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
KFI AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
I'm Michael Monks from KFI News. We're with you tonight
till ten o'clock and we are taking calls and your
voice messages through the iHeartRadio app. Just click on that
talk back button and we'll play some of your messages
or old school talk radio, share your feelings. One eight
hundred five to zero one KFI. That's one eight hundred
(08:29):
five to two zero one five three four. The death
toll in the fires ravaging southern California right this moment
is sixteen eleven of those reported in the Eton fire,
the one that's burned Alta Dina and Pasadena. Just a
terrible scene to go on those beautiful streets of Alta
(08:51):
Dina and see nothing but chimneys and fireplaces that managed
to survive the flames. It looks like you're walking in
a graveyard with tombstones for houses. Just heart wrenching to
see the smoldering ashes of homes lived in by generations gone.
(09:18):
I stood outside what was Altadina Hardware this week and
took a look around and a walk around. You've heard
the term war zone. I've never been to a war zone,
but that's certainly what it looks like based on the
images I've seen, and there's no way to get it
(09:42):
back to what it was. It's gone forever. This is
not just one block that had a bad fire. A
neighborhood is gone. Thousands of structures destroyed, many of them homes,
and it is not over yet. That eats and fire
is now over fourteen thousand acres. The one in the
(10:04):
Palisades over twenty four eleven percent containment, five people dead there.
I was on Pacific Coast Highway this week, and when
you're on PCH and you look out towards the Pacific
Ocean and you see the sun coming up and that
(10:25):
streak of sunshine glistening in the waves as they beat
against the shore. You hear the shrieks of the seabirds.
You see the palm trees swaying in the wind. There
are no questions about why people would want to live there.
That is quintessential California. That is the dream. And then
(10:50):
you look towards the hillside and you see those dreams
turn to ashes. Those are images that I know won't
leave my mind anytime soon, and they weren't my homes.
(11:11):
And I know all of us, all across Greater LA,
despite how we feel about the politics that have been
injected into this, the questions that have been raised, I
know we feel this together. And I hope just not
even as a journalist or a broadcaster, I hope as
a person that somehow we tap into that as we
(11:33):
seek the answers and as we rebuild, because this has
changed LA forever, not just geographically. This has changed La,
and it's not over yet. Stay alert, stay vigilant if
you live close to these things. If you're not taking
(11:54):
it seriously. By now, there's really nothing else to tell you.
This changes moment to moment. And we've got more when
on the way. We got a line of callers. We're
going to get to all of you tonight. Let's go
to Raoul. He's been waiting on the line for a while.
Good Saturday evening to you, Raoul.
Speaker 7 (12:10):
Good Saturday, Michael, how good evening.
Speaker 8 (12:12):
How are you.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
I'm well, thanks for calling in great, great.
Speaker 6 (12:16):
Well.
Speaker 7 (12:17):
I don't want to make this political or point fingers,
but you know, I do identify as a Republican, but
I'm more right of center. I'm more center, I think,
but I think I feel bad for the people that
have lost their homes and it's it's terrible. And I
know we're going to get out of it because we're Americans,
we're Californians, and then we support and and when when
(12:39):
when things get.
Speaker 6 (12:40):
Bad, we're here for each other.
Speaker 7 (12:42):
But I do have to say, you know, it wasn't
I wouldn't point fingers left or right, but I would
say there are things that were that were cut they
shouldn't have been cut. And there are things that are
funded they shouldn't be funded. So when you hear the
homeless industrial complex, it's it's a real thing. When you
hear don't waste the money on on the bullet train,
(13:04):
you know, we know what we're talking about and things
like that. You know there's things that need to be
tout that we shouldn't be spending the money. We can
see it right now with when we were saying we
need to fund the police for a reason. Now we're
turning that around because we saw what was happening.
Speaker 8 (13:22):
That's what I Meank bro.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
Well, thanks for the call. I think that's an example
of sometimes we live and learn. It doesn't mean that
policies were not well intentioned.
Speaker 9 (13:31):
You know.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Sometimes you push something through, you see how it works,
and it doesn't work well, and then you get a change.
This is going to be some significant change. Obviously this
change has come against our will, the physical changes, the
tragedy of it all. But what changes will we make
(13:54):
on the other side of this, and how will we
do it? Will we do it collectively with humanity?
Speaker 3 (14:02):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Let's take one more call before we take another break.
Teresa is on the line. Hello Teresa, thank you for
calling in and listening tonight.
Speaker 10 (14:10):
Hi, thank you so much for taking my call. I
want to give KFI a quick compliment that you guys
have overall done amazing coverage of the fire and what's
been happening, and I want to thank you so much
for that.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
Thank you.
Speaker 10 (14:30):
That's the first thing, You're welcome. Second thing is, you know,
I'm not going to get political or anything like that,
but I think Los Angeles has never had a development plan.
And when I hear the first thing out of politicians' mouths,
(14:53):
which is we're going to rebuild, we don't have and
we've never really had a rebuilding development plan. And you know,
for all the people that are blaming the Democrats, the
developers have mainly been Republicans, that's all I will say.
And there has been this war on open space. And
(15:15):
when you build homes in habitat, and you know, let's
get rid of the wildlife, and let's get rid of
the coyotes. All these animals do have a job in
their habitat, and we've neglected that, and we've built these
(15:36):
MC mansions. I remember Pacific Palisades. I used to go
play there with my guitar a long time ago.
Speaker 6 (15:46):
In the little village.
Speaker 10 (15:48):
We didn't have the huge homes that you know, the
MC mansions that have gotten bigger and bigger and bigger.
And then you see these hundreds of millions of dollars
built in Malibu or you know, in certain areas, and
we can't do that anymore. We have to let the
(16:11):
land breathe so that when we have these wind patterns,
the wind has some place to go and if there
is a fire, because we're going to have fires.
Speaker 8 (16:22):
We're going to have.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
That's exactly right, Teresa. I mean, we can't change the weather.
We know that that's coming. And I think one of
the biggest issues that we're going to have to face
is development and planning, and we are all going to
get a crash course in new zoning and that sort
of thing coming up as as we start the rebuilding
process whenever we can. But again we're still in the
(16:44):
midst of this right now. Teresa, I'm so grateful that
you've been listening to us here at KFI. I thank
you for calling in and sharing your perspective, and I hope,
in spite of everything, you managed to enjoy the rest
of your Saturday night. Thanks to Teresa, thanks for everybody
else who has called in. We're with you till ten
o'clock tonight. You can join us as well. I hope
you do.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
KFI Am six forty, we're live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
I'm Michael Monks from KFI News with you till ten
o'clock tonight. You can guess what We're talking about this
city that has been on fire since Tuesday, and it
has only gotten worse and more unpredictable. A lot of
people living with anxiety right now because which direction is
(17:28):
this fire going to go next? And the winds are
coming back in just a few short days. Maybe not
as bad as they were this past week, but any
strong wind isn't good. The worst catastrophe, the worst disaster
in Los Angeles history, and it's not even over yet.
(17:52):
We've got a severe red flag warning for much of
La and Ventura Counties. We've got high wind warnings for
the eastern San Gabriel Mountains, the eastern Santa Monica Mountains,
recreational area, red flag warning for the I five Corridor,
(18:12):
Malibu Coast, red flag warning inland O, c red flag warning,
high wind warning for the Santa Susanna Mountains, and a
red flag warning there. So we're living in this disaster
and we've got ingredients brewing that could make it more disastrous.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
This is so awful.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
The capacity to digest all of this does not exist.
Parts of Los Angeles are gone forever. It's not just
somebody's house. Entire communities are gone. They will never come back.
Speaker 3 (18:55):
Not like that.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
People dead twenty four thousand acres in the Palisades fire,
fourteen thousand acres in the Eating fire. We're taking your
calls and your voice messages through the talkback option on
the iHeartRadio app. Kayla Austin has been producing for is
on site tonight, working very hard taking your calls, screening
them and putting you in line. And we've also got
some voice messages. Kayla, if you can hear me, what
(19:22):
do we got going on on the talkback line?
Speaker 3 (19:24):
I got you, Michael. We have Lee with a talkback.
Speaker 9 (19:27):
Hey, Michael, A great show. Been back in the eighties
when I used to take live calls in the air.
But anyway, I digress doing a great job, Bud. I
just thought i'd point something out that you probably already
know very well. And it's just silly how people have
to turn this into a political issue. Stop it. People
are dying and losing their homes and you're worried about
(19:49):
the politicians. You need to start thinking about something else.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
Hey, thanks for that call. That's a radio voice right there,
if I've ever heard one, for sure, that's I think
there are a lot of people out there field. I mean,
obviously we live in a culture that needs immediate relief
and gratification, and so the tweets start, the social media
post starts, and sometimes even we and the media start,
and that's just where our heads go. But yes, we
(20:14):
are going to have a lot to grieve and a
lot of questions that will not be able to be
answered right away. A lot of patients that we may
not have is going to be needed as we start
to emerge from this. Kayla, let's get one more of
those before we go back to the phones.
Speaker 3 (20:28):
Sure we have Lisa with a talkback.
Speaker 11 (20:30):
My name is Lisa, and I recently left California to
move back home to Nashville in September. And it's really
hard for people that live there, like May I always
say for twenty nine years, to see all the things
I know being destroyed and burned and gone forever. So
that's another aspect people who live there and have moved
(20:51):
out want listening to all of this is happening back there.
Speaker 3 (20:55):
Thank you for that call.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
That is a widespread sentiment.
Speaker 3 (20:59):
Now back to the phone, let's go in the order
of the lines.
Speaker 12 (21:02):
Here.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
We've got Rob on the line. Rob, Good Saturday evening
to you.
Speaker 13 (21:08):
Hi, Michael, how are you tonight.
Speaker 3 (21:09):
I'm well, thanks for calling.
Speaker 13 (21:12):
I don't want to make this political, but I've lived
here since the seventies and I've seen a drastic change
in California, specifically in the last fifteen years. And I
think if you got a brain, you knew this was coming.
Speaker 8 (21:28):
These fires.
Speaker 13 (21:29):
I mean, there was no preparedness and cutting into the budgets.
It's just crazy with all the rain that we had
last year and overgrowth and now it's all dried out.
Of course it's going to burn up, but it's just
the big change that I've seen in California. It's not
the Golden State anymore. I'm scared, really scared of the
(21:53):
future of California.
Speaker 3 (21:55):
Rob.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
I don't think you're alone, but I do appreciate you
taking the time to call in and share your feelings
about it. No doubt, this was a perfect storm, a
perfect storm, all the right ingredients for just something terrible
to happen. The winds that blew across very dry land
and then blew fire around, but also prevented any serious
(22:18):
apparatus from attacking the fire. Just a terrible, terrible situation.
Let's go to Victor now on the line. Hi Victor,
how are you.
Speaker 14 (22:28):
I'm blessed to be alive. Hi Michael, thanks for taking
my call, my pleasure. Yeah, First of all, my heart
goes out to the victims Bolsto have lost your lives
and your families and friends, and also those who have
lost the priceless gifts that can help the replace. The
point I'm trying to make it is it's mine's more
like impromantle. When you think about what happened in Hawaii.
(22:52):
Was it last year Mai? Like one hundred and two
people died and the fire was just like like an
infernal are similar to what's going on here, even though
it's much bigger here. We are actually causing this. We
are causing We're fueling the fires from all the emissions
and all the pollutions and all that. And we don't
(23:14):
have enough trees planet to counter.
Speaker 7 (23:18):
The few trees that we have.
Speaker 14 (23:21):
Dry up and they're like fuel ready. The Lewisto spark
you can have just treat us everything. I think we
need to be environmentally aware and take precaution steps to avoid.
Speaker 15 (23:37):
Us in the future.
Speaker 14 (23:38):
Otherwise it's gonna it's gonna be innovative, inevitable, it's going
to happen again and again and.
Speaker 3 (23:43):
Again, victory.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
That's going to be part of the conversation for sure
about as we rebuild these neighborhoods, what type of vegetation
you know, what type of trees should we be having.
What can we do to combat any type of natural
disaster like what we have just experienced. We'll take another
call before we get to the news break. We've got
Lee Roy. He's in Culver City. Good Saturday evening, Lee Roy.
Speaker 15 (24:05):
Good evening, blessings, God is good. I just wanted to
give you a call and say thank you to all
the radio hosts who've been on air and the producers
in the background who've been servicing us through this whole week.
It's been a lot of information that we're relying on.
And I don't want to get too political, but my
main thing was when I heard the fire chiefs say
(24:28):
they needed the resources and they didn't get them. I
got really concerned about that. I was a little disappointed
because if there's anything political or issue, the number one
thing in the city, one of the number one things
is the fire department has to have all their resources
for any emergency that happens. You have to make sure
your citizens are safe, and you have to make sure
your citizen has the resources when something like this occurs,
(24:51):
and for the fire chiefs to say they didn't have that,
And when you hear people talking about water and etc.
Speaker 8 (24:57):
You're kind of wondering.
Speaker 15 (24:58):
We had fire wildfire two weeks ago in Malibu. They
made remote classes in Pepperdine. The governor was warning about
a drought. So when you hear this stuff occurring and
you hear officials talking about the drought and conservative water,
and then this happens, you've got to kind of wonder, well,
why don't our fire fire department, why don't they have
the resources and what's going on? Because the fire chiefs
(25:20):
said it herself, so it's not any hearsay. Those are
just the facts. The fire department has to have the
proper resources to take care of the citizens. Citizens want
to be safe. That's number one. Any political affiliation you have,
Democratic Republican, citizens want to be safe.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
Leroy, thank you for that thoughtful call. You're absolutely correct.
And I'll tell you this as a guy who watches
a lot of LA city council meetings. In fact, watches
every city council meeting. Every city Council Committee meeting. The
city's broke. It doesn't have money for really anything. In fact,
they've just decided to borrow some money, not to better
fund the fire department or other departments, to pay for
(25:59):
the law lawsuits that they're facing. And a lot of
these lawsuits, if they're not related to police activity, they
are related to infrastructure. So they don't have the money
to fix the infrastructure. They have to borrow money to
pay for the lawsuits related to the broken infrastructure. The
city is in trouble financially. It's a very serious situation.
(26:20):
We talked about it on this show over the course
of several weeks, and we will continue to talk about
that as well. City of la is absolutely broke. We'll
have more of your calls about the fires destroying Los
Angeles when we come back.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (26:38):
KFI AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
I'm Michael Monks from KFI News with you till ten
o'clock tonight. We're talking about the fires. We're talking about
them with you. How are you feeling, what are your questions,
what are your frustrations, what are some good things that
you've seen. What do you hope comes on the other
side of this, when, if ever, we get to the
(27:01):
other side of this, Because it is still a situation
that is evolving. Despite all the destruction that we've already
seen in our city, there could be more to come.
I mean, these are still burning. Palisades is only eleven
percent contained, and it has burned a house in Brentwood. Apparently.
KTLA says it has reached Brentwood. It's threatening bel Air
(27:25):
Insino Hills. Folks in UCLA's campus have been told to
be prepared to evacuate. We can't even get to the
post mortem yet because we're not in the post yet.
We're living in an inferno that has not decided when
it will subside. And guess what, it's got some vitamins
(27:46):
on the way, some wind, and the wind pushed this
thing in a direction that it could not be managed before.
We couldn't use our best tools to fight the thing.
And now more strong winds are on the way. So
keep your phone charged, keep your laptop charge, stay tuned
(28:07):
to KFI, and we will get you the latest, all
of the wind warnings, all of the evacuation orders, we've
had a few come today. If you lifted today, it's
still moving, it's still with us, and we want to
hear from you as well. Right here on KF I
am six forty. Let's go back to the phones now.
We've got Neil in Santa Barbara. Neil, good Saturday evening
(28:29):
to you.
Speaker 12 (28:31):
Good evening, Mike, thanks for taking my call. Sure, I'm
all so sorry for the people down there, and it's
a sad situation. Just a couple of thoughts to be nice.
If they reached out to other communities that had this
kind of thing. Santa Rosa comes to mind. Maybe Paradise
Homeless in San Diego that is done with a lot
(28:55):
of quantt huts. We've got a pretty good solution there.
So it's it's about the he's talking to each other
as much as the internal departments talking in LA They
really and I'm sure they are, you know what I mean,
I'd be surprised if they're not, because this is huge.
The other thing is shot the blame game, and you
(29:17):
know the water versus air versus wind. I mean, you
got you fly on the wall and listen to you know,
how many days of wind could they put up with?
Without air support and sounds like, one, what are they
going to do when they're sitting doing those trades? Again,
(29:39):
it's okay to do trades and risk management, but it
doesn't sound like that stress test was good enough. But
that's and that's not political. That's just sharpening the pencil
and doing a better job the next time.
Speaker 8 (29:51):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 12 (29:52):
A week? How about a week of winds where no
planes can go get in the air. Do that one
and see where that was that lands in terms of
the water. A couple of other things.
Speaker 2 (30:05):
Well, Neil, we do want to make sure that we
can get to everybody else who's called in. I think
that the suggestions that you've made are valid. And having
the governments that have seen success with their approaches, whether
it be to wildfire management or addressing homelessness, those are
activities that should be shared with other counties because if
it's working somewhere, it could work in another place, and
(30:28):
we could use some progress on both of those fronts. Neil,
I'm really grateful that you called. Thanks for listening from
Santa Barbara. Let's go next to Craig. Craig, good evening
to you, Thanks for thanks for waiting for us, great.
Speaker 3 (30:41):
Michael, hear me, yes, sir, go right ahead.
Speaker 8 (30:45):
Oh well, I'm trying to get my speakerphone, so so
there we go. That's a little better. Hearing better. Hey,
My comments are definitely not political, and they're not about
budget cuts or resource or anything like that. That all
falls in the place over time. My research. My issues
are really about actual overall systems design and code requirements.
(31:06):
But I need to give a little backstory about why
what what. My final point will be. I was able
to get into Lavina, And it's interesting that you were
up in that area and it does look like a
warzone or moon escape or whatever. But I was up
in Lavina early Wednesday morning fighting fires with garden hoses. Wow,
well that was going fine. And while one house is
on fire, you can protect the next house with strong
(31:27):
enough water pressure. Well I did find protected my buddy's house,
put the fire out there with the other houses and
to save them too. And I I've been in fires,
I know that I need to do. But the irony
is while we're fighting fires, about eleven o'clock am, the
water stopped. Yeah, and they have water takes a top
Lavina and the top row goes first and it goes
(31:49):
all the way to the bottom. Well by noon, all
the fire tucks left because there's no water, nothing to
fight the fires with. And we're sitting there going, wow,
we could fight. We could save these houses here if
we had a garden notes and a fire because they
eat a house will catch on fire and the next
house is going to go unless it's protect as low
water shields. Well, all that means the same. I'm sitting
up here with two huge water tanks and guess what.
(32:13):
See cut the power so there's no power to put
water back in the tank, so pumps can't run. But
the backshore is if you look around, the sewer systems
in La County all have backup generators and all their
lifting pumps. No one wants the sewer at the bottom
hill because you've got a pump back out. But none
of the water companies that I know of have emergency
(32:35):
generator backups that charge the water systems and or filled
the water tanks up at all the vina so they
had power. So I think all these water systems issues
are power related, and why don't they have emergency generator
backup pumps in their water systems? Powering and pressurizing the
water systems.
Speaker 2 (32:49):
Those are great points, and I definitely think that's all
of these things are. We have a lot of work
to do. We have a lot. This disaster has drawn
attention to so many problems across La County, La City
and the various cities within that. I mean, I just
don't see how there is a path forward without some
(33:11):
very serious change. I'm not talking about necessarily changing the
political leaders, but changing the priorities and the speed at
wish we address them. I think that's going to change.
It's going to have to, but we can't even get
to it yet because of the ongoing disaster that we
are dealing with.
Speaker 3 (33:30):
We've got more phone calls.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
Just ahead, I want to check in with Kayla Austin,
who's been producing for us on site here handling all
those phone calls that are coming in, but also handling
the talkbacks through the iHeartRadio app, Cayla.
Speaker 3 (33:41):
What do we got on that line? Is Kayla with us?
Speaker 12 (33:44):
I'm here.
Speaker 2 (33:47):
I know, I'm so sorry. I should have sent you
a message and I didn't.
Speaker 3 (33:49):
You are so good. We actually have Gloria with the
talkback all right time.
Speaker 16 (33:54):
My name's Gloria, like fifteen minutes away from the Hearst fire,
and images from the Palisades fire is just heartbreaking. I
have never seen such destruction.
Speaker 3 (34:07):
In my entire life.
Speaker 16 (34:08):
I've been here all my life in California. This one
is very heartbreaking.
Speaker 15 (34:14):
I cry every time.
Speaker 16 (34:15):
I see those images. Firefighters dropping to the knees exhaustion
is just so heartbreaking.
Speaker 3 (34:23):
I hope that we all have a cry. Honestly.
Speaker 2 (34:26):
I mean it may sound ridiculous, but you really, at
some point we'll need to let this out, this experience
that we are all having together. Obviously some of us
have it far worse than others, but we are a
community here for better or for worse. We're not always
great at showing it, but we're experiencing this together, and
there will come a point where you got to get
this out, Kayla.
Speaker 3 (34:47):
Do we have another one we can play? We do
we have aaron?
Speaker 17 (34:51):
This is definitely a devastating thing. I grew up in California.
I was born here in Burbank. Today's my birthday. Matter
of fact, I'm fifty six. Wait now, my aarp bag.
Speaker 3 (35:02):
But that one.
Speaker 17 (35:03):
Gentleman city is ready to move out of the country.
I can kind of feel the same way. I've seen
the California dream good to poop to darn shame too.
What a lovely state my state is.
Speaker 2 (35:15):
It really is a lovely state. I saw it firsthand,
even amidst the devastation it. California has its problems, but
being beautiful ain't one of them. Driving in here to
Burbank today on the one oh one, you know, you
see the Hollywood Sign, you see the Capitol Records Building,
and you know, as somebody who moved here from elsewhere,
those are images that you know, felt like a dream
(35:37):
to me and now they're part of my everyday life.
But then over the horizon, smoke rising, and your jarred
back to the reality of what we are all living
in right now. More of your phone calls coming up.
Speaker 1 (35:51):
KFI AM six on demand
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
KFI AM six forty. We're live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
I'm Michael Monks from KFI News. We're with you till
ten o'clock tonight, and we're talking to and with you,
so you can join our conversation live on the phone
Old School one eight hundred five two zero one KFI.
That's one eight hundred five to two zero one five
(00:25):
three four. Because we've been telling you the story of
this destructive fire, these destructive fires all week long, we
want to hear your story as well. What are your frustrations,
what are your questions, what were your first hand experiences?
What are some good things that you've seen out there
in terms of helping people, people helping people, or ways
(00:48):
to help people?
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Join us.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
You can also hit us up on the iHeartRadio app
click that talkback button. SAD to report that the death
toll across all the fires today has grown to sixteen
or the Eaton fire, the one burning in the Altadena
and Pasadena area, half of them, they're eight people dead.
They've got that one contained at fifteen percent, but it's
(01:10):
over fourteen thousand acres the one of the Palisades continues
to threaten more areas. This one will not stop. More
than twenty three yeah, more than twenty three thousand acres burned.
I mean, how do you even comprehend that in your mind,
that many acres. It's shocking, and it's another thing to
(01:33):
see it up close. You see these aerials, you see video,
but to go on Pacific Coast Highway, to go up
into the Palisades, to go to Altadena, and to see
that those places are gone. I mean, I've been a
reporter a long time. I've covered fires, of course, some
(01:55):
wildfires since being at KFI. But you know, a big
house fire, an apartment building or something that was destructive
and terrible, but like you see, you see some frames
on the walls, you see couches burned, but there is
some semblance of a life that had existed there. Not
(02:16):
in this thing. It is ashes gone and it is
not over. Stay vigilant, stay tuned, and if you're living
near these things right now, be ready because we've got
more wins coming next week. Like I said, we're taking calls,
(02:39):
but we're also doing talkbacks. Kayla Austin is producing for
us in house tonight, and we've really put her to
work taking all of your calls and screening them and
getting you in line so that we can pipe you
up and hear your words across Greater Los Angeles CALEA,
if you can hear me in there, would you mind
just giving me a rundown on what we've got in
terms of talkbacks? I want to make sure those folks
can be her today too.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
We have a few. The first one is from David. David.
Speaker 4 (03:06):
I was wondering what happened to the California Conservation Corp
And why it is still in operation. That it ran properly,
it could have prevented a lot of these wildfires, and
no one's talking about that, so let me hear what
you guys think.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
Thank you, all right, David.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
They still got a website, so I can't comment to that,
and certainly wouldn't want to spread any misinformation, but we
do appreciate the call anyway, and maybe that's something we
can look into a little bit further for you.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
What else, Gala, We have one from Grace.
Speaker 5 (03:39):
The cultural loss is absolutely devastating. I heard that man
say his friend lost his physics notes, important things he
was working on. I keep thinking about the rare books,
the artworks. It's like the burning of Alexandria, the cultural
loss we're going to experience, and I just you're right,
we're not prepared for the aftermath. We need to stick together.
(04:01):
It's like nothing we've ever encountered, and we're not ready
and we need to be.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
That's exactly right.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
I mean, we have not had any time at all
to process because it's still happening. I mean, we can
mourn a coffee shop as we should, that we used
to love, that was there on Monday serving lattes and
is now a pile of rubble. But there's so much
more than that. Generations of a family home, schools, historic
(04:33):
houses gone, the spirit of a community erased, that will
never be rebuilt. That's now in the history books any more.
Talkbacks there, Kayla.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
Yeah, Grace actually sends another one. Oh hi, Grace, blaming.
Speaker 5 (04:52):
The homeless is so lazy, and I'm sick of that take.
I don't want to hear that take anymore.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
All right, Grace, we appreciate that too. I mean, these
are the conversations that need to happen. I think it's
appropriate to let people vent responsibly. We are a news outlet.
But people are feeling things right now, and when you
think about the homeless policies and the fires that have
(05:19):
been associated with homelessness, it's understandable why people's minds go there.
It's not inexplicable. We're gonna go back to the phone lines.
I've got time for one before we go to a break.
We've got a line of people. We're going to get
to all of you tonight, so just be patient. We
will get to you tonight. And let's go to Phil.
He's been waiting a while. Phil is on the line.
Good Saturday evening to you, Phil.
Speaker 6 (05:42):
Ah, Yes, I so much to discuss, but I'll focus
on the one topic I promised to bring up. If
there was a press conference, a public press conference tomorrow,
I would ask Mayor Bass one question, will you resign today?
Why or why not?
Speaker 3 (06:01):
Thank you, Phil?
Speaker 2 (06:02):
And I'm sure there will be press conferences tomorrow. They've
been doing them pretty consistently, multiple times a day between
the various cities that are impacted in the county. And
I'm not going to speak for Mayor Bass, but I
can probably anticipate her answer. There is no as she
suffered some political carnage of course.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
I mean, my goodness.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Imagine being the mayor of la and leaving town for
something that had been scheduled, leaving the country for something
that had been scheduled, and then your city catches fire,
a fire that grows to be the worst disaster in
the history of your city, and then you're squabbling with
the fire chief and maybe having some communication issues with
(06:49):
the governor.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
That's tough. That is tough, and she will be up
for election next year.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
So if she decides to run for reelection, I think
we know what the number one issue is, because this
is going to be the number one issue in a
lot of political campaigns. And I think collectively we need
to hope that it's not cheap political goals that people
try to score here. We need to hear serious policy proposals,
(07:19):
and we need to be serious people when we consider them.
It's not a game. It's not about the numbers of
d's and the numbers of ours. It's about whether your
home will burn to the ground based on how we
address these very significant issues.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
So let's be.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Serious together today. Let it out vent a little bit,
let's do it responsibly, respectfully. But we're going to be
with you here updating the fires all night long, taking
your calls all night long. One eight hundred five to
zero one KFI one eight hundred five two zero one
five three four. You can also leave a talk back
(07:59):
on the eye I Heart Radio app.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
KFI AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
I'm Michael Monks from KFI News. We're with you tonight
till ten o'clock and we are taking calls and your
voice messages through the iHeartRadio app. Just click on that
talk back button and we'll play some of your messages
or old school talk radio, share your feelings. One eight
hundred five to zero one KFI. That's one eight hundred
(08:29):
five to two zero one five three four. The death
toll in the fires ravaging southern California right this moment
is sixteen eleven of those reported in the Eton fire,
the one that's burned Alta Dina and Pasadena. Just a
terrible scene to go on those beautiful streets of Alta
(08:51):
Dina and see nothing but chimneys and fireplaces that managed
to survive the flames. It looks like you're walking in
a graveyard with tombstones for houses. Just heart wrenching to
see the smoldering ashes of homes lived in by generations gone.
(09:18):
I stood outside what was Altadina Hardware this week and
took a look around and a walk around. You've heard
the term war zone. I've never been to a war zone,
but that's certainly what it looks like based on the
images I've seen, and there's no way to get it
(09:42):
back to what it was. It's gone forever. This is
not just one block that had a bad fire. A
neighborhood is gone. Thousands of structures destroyed, many of them homes,
and it is not over yet. That eats and fire
is now over fourteen thousand acres. The one in the
(10:04):
Palisades over twenty four eleven percent containment, five people dead there.
I was on Pacific Coast Highway this week, and when
you're on PCH and you look out towards the Pacific
Ocean and you see the sun coming up and that
(10:25):
streak of sunshine glistening in the waves as they beat
against the shore. You hear the shrieks of the seabirds.
You see the palm trees swaying in the wind. There
are no questions about why people would want to live there.
That is quintessential California. That is the dream. And then
(10:50):
you look towards the hillside and you see those dreams
turn to ashes. Those are images that I know won't
leave my mind anytime soon, and they weren't my homes.
(11:11):
And I know all of us, all across Greater LA,
despite how we feel about the politics that have been
injected into this, the questions that have been raised, I
know we feel this together. And I hope just not
even as a journalist or a broadcaster, I hope as
a person that somehow we tap into that as we
(11:33):
seek the answers and as we rebuild, because this has
changed LA forever, not just geographically. This has changed La,
and it's not over yet. Stay alert, stay vigilant if
you live close to these things. If you're not taking
(11:54):
it seriously. By now, there's really nothing else to tell you.
This changes moment to moment. And we've got more when
on the way. We got a line of callers. We're
going to get to all of you tonight. Let's go
to Raoul. He's been waiting on the line for a while.
Good Saturday evening to you, Raoul.
Speaker 7 (12:10):
Good Saturday, Michael, how good evening.
Speaker 8 (12:12):
How are you.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
I'm well, thanks for calling in great, great.
Speaker 6 (12:16):
Well.
Speaker 7 (12:17):
I don't want to make this political or point fingers,
but you know, I do identify as a Republican, but
I'm more right of center. I'm more center, I think,
but I think I feel bad for the people that
have lost their homes and it's it's terrible. And I
know we're going to get out of it because we're Americans,
we're Californians, and then we support and and when when
(12:39):
when things get.
Speaker 6 (12:40):
Bad, we're here for each other.
Speaker 7 (12:42):
But I do have to say, you know, it wasn't
I wouldn't point fingers left or right, but I would
say there are things that were that were cut they
shouldn't have been cut. And there are things that are
funded they shouldn't be funded. So when you hear the
homeless industrial complex, it's it's a real thing. When you
hear don't waste the money on on the bullet train,
(13:04):
you know, we know what we're talking about and things
like that. You know there's things that need to be
tout that we shouldn't be spending the money. We can
see it right now with when we were saying we
need to fund the police for a reason. Now we're
turning that around because we saw what was happening.
Speaker 8 (13:22):
That's what I Meank bro.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
Well, thanks for the call. I think that's an example
of sometimes we live and learn. It doesn't mean that
policies were not well intentioned.
Speaker 9 (13:31):
You know.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Sometimes you push something through, you see how it works,
and it doesn't work well, and then you get a change.
This is going to be some significant change. Obviously this
change has come against our will, the physical changes, the
tragedy of it all. But what changes will we make
(13:54):
on the other side of this, and how will we
do it? Will we do it collectively with humanity?
Speaker 3 (14:02):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Let's take one more call before we take another break.
Teresa is on the line. Hello Teresa, thank you for
calling in and listening tonight.
Speaker 10 (14:10):
Hi, thank you so much for taking my call. I
want to give KFI a quick compliment that you guys
have overall done amazing coverage of the fire and what's
been happening, and I want to thank you so much
for that.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
Thank you.
Speaker 10 (14:30):
That's the first thing, You're welcome. Second thing is, you know,
I'm not going to get political or anything like that,
but I think Los Angeles has never had a development plan.
And when I hear the first thing out of politicians' mouths,
(14:53):
which is we're going to rebuild, we don't have and
we've never really had a rebuilding development plan. And you know,
for all the people that are blaming the Democrats, the
developers have mainly been Republicans, that's all I will say.
And there has been this war on open space. And
(15:15):
when you build homes in habitat, and you know, let's
get rid of the wildlife, and let's get rid of
the coyotes. All these animals do have a job in
their habitat, and we've neglected that, and we've built these
(15:36):
MC mansions. I remember Pacific Palisades. I used to go
play there with my guitar a long time ago.
Speaker 6 (15:46):
In the little village.
Speaker 10 (15:48):
We didn't have the huge homes that you know, the
MC mansions that have gotten bigger and bigger and bigger.
And then you see these hundreds of millions of dollars
built in Malibu or you know, in certain areas, and
we can't do that anymore. We have to let the
(16:11):
land breathe so that when we have these wind patterns,
the wind has some place to go and if there
is a fire, because we're going to have fires.
Speaker 8 (16:22):
We're going to have.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
That's exactly right, Teresa. I mean, we can't change the weather.
We know that that's coming. And I think one of
the biggest issues that we're going to have to face
is development and planning, and we are all going to
get a crash course in new zoning and that sort
of thing coming up as as we start the rebuilding
process whenever we can. But again we're still in the
(16:44):
midst of this right now. Teresa, I'm so grateful that
you've been listening to us here at KFI. I thank
you for calling in and sharing your perspective, and I hope,
in spite of everything, you managed to enjoy the rest
of your Saturday night. Thanks to Teresa, thanks for everybody
else who has called in. We're with you till ten
o'clock tonight. You can join us as well. I hope
you do.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
KFI Am six forty, we're live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
I'm Michael Monks from KFI News with you till ten
o'clock tonight. You can guess what We're talking about this
city that has been on fire since Tuesday, and it
has only gotten worse and more unpredictable. A lot of
people living with anxiety right now because which direction is
(17:28):
this fire going to go next? And the winds are
coming back in just a few short days. Maybe not
as bad as they were this past week, but any
strong wind isn't good. The worst catastrophe, the worst disaster
in Los Angeles history, and it's not even over yet.
(17:52):
We've got a severe red flag warning for much of
La and Ventura Counties. We've got high wind warnings for
the eastern San Gabriel Mountains, the eastern Santa Monica Mountains,
recreational area, red flag warning for the I five Corridor,
(18:12):
Malibu Coast, red flag warning inland O, c red flag warning,
high wind warning for the Santa Susanna Mountains, and a
red flag warning there. So we're living in this disaster
and we've got ingredients brewing that could make it more disastrous.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
This is so awful.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
The capacity to digest all of this does not exist.
Parts of Los Angeles are gone forever. It's not just
somebody's house. Entire communities are gone. They will never come back.
Speaker 3 (18:55):
Not like that.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
People dead twenty four thousand acres in the Palisades fire,
fourteen thousand acres in the Eating fire. We're taking your
calls and your voice messages through the talkback option on
the iHeartRadio app. Kayla Austin has been producing for is
on site tonight, working very hard taking your calls, screening
them and putting you in line. And we've also got
some voice messages. Kayla, if you can hear me, what
(19:22):
do we got going on on the talkback line?
Speaker 3 (19:24):
I got you, Michael. We have Lee with a talkback.
Speaker 9 (19:27):
Hey, Michael, A great show. Been back in the eighties
when I used to take live calls in the air.
But anyway, I digress doing a great job, Bud. I
just thought i'd point something out that you probably already
know very well. And it's just silly how people have
to turn this into a political issue. Stop it. People
are dying and losing their homes and you're worried about
(19:49):
the politicians. You need to start thinking about something else.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
Hey, thanks for that call. That's a radio voice right there,
if I've ever heard one, for sure, that's I think
there are a lot of people out there field. I mean,
obviously we live in a culture that needs immediate relief
and gratification, and so the tweets start, the social media
post starts, and sometimes even we and the media start,
and that's just where our heads go. But yes, we
(20:14):
are going to have a lot to grieve and a
lot of questions that will not be able to be
answered right away. A lot of patients that we may
not have is going to be needed as we start
to emerge from this. Kayla, let's get one more of
those before we go back to the phones.
Speaker 3 (20:28):
Sure we have Lisa with a talkback.
Speaker 11 (20:30):
My name is Lisa, and I recently left California to
move back home to Nashville in September. And it's really
hard for people that live there, like May I always
say for twenty nine years, to see all the things
I know being destroyed and burned and gone forever. So
that's another aspect people who live there and have moved
(20:51):
out want listening to all of this is happening back there.
Speaker 3 (20:55):
Thank you for that call.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
That is a widespread sentiment.
Speaker 3 (20:59):
Now back to the phone, let's go in the order
of the lines.
Speaker 12 (21:02):
Here.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
We've got Rob on the line. Rob, Good Saturday evening
to you.
Speaker 13 (21:08):
Hi, Michael, how are you tonight.
Speaker 3 (21:09):
I'm well, thanks for calling.
Speaker 13 (21:12):
I don't want to make this political, but I've lived
here since the seventies and I've seen a drastic change
in California, specifically in the last fifteen years. And I
think if you got a brain, you knew this was coming.
Speaker 8 (21:28):
These fires.
Speaker 13 (21:29):
I mean, there was no preparedness and cutting into the budgets.
It's just crazy with all the rain that we had
last year and overgrowth and now it's all dried out.
Of course it's going to burn up, but it's just
the big change that I've seen in California. It's not
the Golden State anymore. I'm scared, really scared of the
(21:53):
future of California.
Speaker 3 (21:55):
Rob.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
I don't think you're alone, but I do appreciate you
taking the time to call in and share your feelings
about it. No doubt, this was a perfect storm, a
perfect storm, all the right ingredients for just something terrible
to happen. The winds that blew across very dry land
and then blew fire around, but also prevented any serious
(22:18):
apparatus from attacking the fire. Just a terrible, terrible situation.
Let's go to Victor now on the line. Hi Victor,
how are you.
Speaker 14 (22:28):
I'm blessed to be alive. Hi Michael, thanks for taking
my call, my pleasure. Yeah, First of all, my heart
goes out to the victims Bolsto have lost your lives
and your families and friends, and also those who have
lost the priceless gifts that can help the replace. The
point I'm trying to make it is it's mine's more
like impromantle. When you think about what happened in Hawaii.
(22:52):
Was it last year Mai? Like one hundred and two
people died and the fire was just like like an
infernal are similar to what's going on here, even though
it's much bigger here. We are actually causing this. We
are causing We're fueling the fires from all the emissions
and all the pollutions and all that. And we don't
(23:14):
have enough trees planet to counter.
Speaker 7 (23:18):
The few trees that we have.
Speaker 14 (23:21):
Dry up and they're like fuel ready. The Lewisto spark
you can have just treat us everything. I think we
need to be environmentally aware and take precaution steps to avoid.
Speaker 15 (23:37):
Us in the future.
Speaker 14 (23:38):
Otherwise it's gonna it's gonna be innovative, inevitable, it's going
to happen again and again and.
Speaker 3 (23:43):
Again, victory.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
That's going to be part of the conversation for sure
about as we rebuild these neighborhoods, what type of vegetation
you know, what type of trees should we be having.
What can we do to combat any type of natural
disaster like what we have just experienced. We'll take another
call before we get to the news break. We've got
Lee Roy. He's in Culver City. Good Saturday evening, Lee Roy.
Speaker 15 (24:05):
Good evening, blessings, God is good. I just wanted to
give you a call and say thank you to all
the radio hosts who've been on air and the producers
in the background who've been servicing us through this whole week.
It's been a lot of information that we're relying on.
And I don't want to get too political, but my
main thing was when I heard the fire chiefs say
(24:28):
they needed the resources and they didn't get them. I
got really concerned about that. I was a little disappointed
because if there's anything political or issue, the number one
thing in the city, one of the number one things
is the fire department has to have all their resources
for any emergency that happens. You have to make sure
your citizens are safe, and you have to make sure
your citizen has the resources when something like this occurs,
(24:51):
and for the fire chiefs to say they didn't have that,
And when you hear people talking about water and etc.
Speaker 8 (24:57):
You're kind of wondering.
Speaker 15 (24:58):
We had fire wildfire two weeks ago in Malibu. They
made remote classes in Pepperdine. The governor was warning about
a drought. So when you hear this stuff occurring and
you hear officials talking about the drought and conservative water,
and then this happens, you've got to kind of wonder, well,
why don't our fire fire department, why don't they have
the resources and what's going on? Because the fire chiefs
(25:20):
said it herself, so it's not any hearsay. Those are
just the facts. The fire department has to have the
proper resources to take care of the citizens. Citizens want
to be safe. That's number one. Any political affiliation you have,
Democratic Republican, citizens want to be safe.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
Leroy, thank you for that thoughtful call. You're absolutely correct.
And I'll tell you this as a guy who watches
a lot of LA city council meetings. In fact, watches
every city council meeting. Every city Council Committee meeting. The
city's broke. It doesn't have money for really anything. In fact,
they've just decided to borrow some money, not to better
fund the fire department or other departments, to pay for
(25:59):
the law lawsuits that they're facing. And a lot of
these lawsuits, if they're not related to police activity, they
are related to infrastructure. So they don't have the money
to fix the infrastructure. They have to borrow money to
pay for the lawsuits related to the broken infrastructure. The
city is in trouble financially. It's a very serious situation.
(26:20):
We talked about it on this show over the course
of several weeks, and we will continue to talk about
that as well. City of la is absolutely broke. We'll
have more of your calls about the fires destroying Los
Angeles when we come back.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (26:38):
KFI AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
I'm Michael Monks from KFI News with you till ten
o'clock tonight. We're talking about the fires. We're talking about
them with you. How are you feeling, what are your questions,
what are your frustrations, what are some good things that
you've seen. What do you hope comes on the other
side of this, when, if ever, we get to the
(27:01):
other side of this, Because it is still a situation
that is evolving. Despite all the destruction that we've already
seen in our city, there could be more to come.
I mean, these are still burning. Palisades is only eleven
percent contained, and it has burned a house in Brentwood. Apparently.
KTLA says it has reached Brentwood. It's threatening bel Air
(27:25):
Insino Hills. Folks in UCLA's campus have been told to
be prepared to evacuate. We can't even get to the
post mortem yet because we're not in the post yet.
We're living in an inferno that has not decided when
it will subside. And guess what, it's got some vitamins
(27:46):
on the way, some wind, and the wind pushed this
thing in a direction that it could not be managed before.
We couldn't use our best tools to fight the thing.
And now more strong winds are on the way. So
keep your phone charged, keep your laptop charge, stay tuned
(28:07):
to KFI, and we will get you the latest, all
of the wind warnings, all of the evacuation orders, we've
had a few come today. If you lifted today, it's
still moving, it's still with us, and we want to
hear from you as well. Right here on KF I
am six forty. Let's go back to the phones now.
We've got Neil in Santa Barbara. Neil, good Saturday evening
(28:29):
to you.
Speaker 12 (28:31):
Good evening, Mike, thanks for taking my call. Sure, I'm
all so sorry for the people down there, and it's
a sad situation. Just a couple of thoughts to be nice.
If they reached out to other communities that had this
kind of thing. Santa Rosa comes to mind. Maybe Paradise
Homeless in San Diego that is done with a lot
(28:55):
of quantt huts. We've got a pretty good solution there.
So it's it's about the he's talking to each other
as much as the internal departments talking in LA They
really and I'm sure they are, you know what I mean,
I'd be surprised if they're not, because this is huge.
The other thing is shot the blame game, and you
(29:17):
know the water versus air versus wind. I mean, you
got you fly on the wall and listen to you know,
how many days of wind could they put up with?
Without air support and sounds like, one, what are they
going to do when they're sitting doing those trades? Again,
(29:39):
it's okay to do trades and risk management, but it
doesn't sound like that stress test was good enough. But
that's and that's not political. That's just sharpening the pencil
and doing a better job the next time.
Speaker 8 (29:51):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 12 (29:52):
A week? How about a week of winds where no
planes can go get in the air. Do that one
and see where that was that lands in terms of
the water. A couple of other things.
Speaker 2 (30:05):
Well, Neil, we do want to make sure that we
can get to everybody else who's called in. I think
that the suggestions that you've made are valid. And having
the governments that have seen success with their approaches, whether
it be to wildfire management or addressing homelessness, those are
activities that should be shared with other counties because if
it's working somewhere, it could work in another place, and
(30:28):
we could use some progress on both of those fronts. Neil,
I'm really grateful that you called. Thanks for listening from
Santa Barbara. Let's go next to Craig. Craig, good evening
to you, Thanks for thanks for waiting for us, great.
Speaker 3 (30:41):
Michael, hear me, yes, sir, go right ahead.
Speaker 8 (30:45):
Oh well, I'm trying to get my speakerphone, so so
there we go. That's a little better. Hearing better. Hey,
My comments are definitely not political, and they're not about
budget cuts or resource or anything like that. That all
falls in the place over time. My research. My issues
are really about actual overall systems design and code requirements.
(31:06):
But I need to give a little backstory about why
what what. My final point will be. I was able
to get into Lavina, And it's interesting that you were
up in that area and it does look like a
warzone or moon escape or whatever. But I was up
in Lavina early Wednesday morning fighting fires with garden hoses. Wow,
well that was going fine. And while one house is
on fire, you can protect the next house with strong
(31:27):
enough water pressure. Well I did find protected my buddy's house,
put the fire out there with the other houses and
to save them too. And I I've been in fires,
I know that I need to do. But the irony
is while we're fighting fires, about eleven o'clock am, the
water stopped. Yeah, and they have water takes a top
Lavina and the top row goes first and it goes
(31:49):
all the way to the bottom. Well by noon, all
the fire tucks left because there's no water, nothing to
fight the fires with. And we're sitting there going, wow,
we could fight. We could save these houses here if
we had a garden notes and a fire because they
eat a house will catch on fire and the next
house is going to go unless it's protect as low
water shields. Well, all that means the same. I'm sitting
up here with two huge water tanks and guess what.
(32:13):
See cut the power so there's no power to put
water back in the tank, so pumps can't run. But
the backshore is if you look around, the sewer systems
in La County all have backup generators and all their
lifting pumps. No one wants the sewer at the bottom
hill because you've got a pump back out. But none
of the water companies that I know of have emergency
(32:35):
generator backups that charge the water systems and or filled
the water tanks up at all the vina so they
had power. So I think all these water systems issues
are power related, and why don't they have emergency generator
backup pumps in their water systems? Powering and pressurizing the
water systems.
Speaker 2 (32:49):
Those are great points, and I definitely think that's all
of these things are. We have a lot of work
to do. We have a lot. This disaster has drawn
attention to so many problems across La County, La City
and the various cities within that. I mean, I just
don't see how there is a path forward without some
(33:11):
very serious change. I'm not talking about necessarily changing the
political leaders, but changing the priorities and the speed at
wish we address them. I think that's going to change.
It's going to have to, but we can't even get
to it yet because of the ongoing disaster that we
are dealing with.
Speaker 3 (33:30):
We've got more phone calls.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
Just ahead, I want to check in with Kayla Austin,
who's been producing for us on site here handling all
those phone calls that are coming in, but also handling
the talkbacks through the iHeartRadio app, Cayla.
Speaker 3 (33:41):
What do we got on that line? Is Kayla with us?
Speaker 12 (33:44):
I'm here.
Speaker 2 (33:47):
I know, I'm so sorry. I should have sent you
a message and I didn't.
Speaker 3 (33:49):
You are so good. We actually have Gloria with the
talkback all right time.
Speaker 16 (33:54):
My name's Gloria, like fifteen minutes away from the Hearst fire,
and images from the Palisades fire is just heartbreaking. I
have never seen such destruction.
Speaker 3 (34:07):
In my entire life.
Speaker 16 (34:08):
I've been here all my life in California. This one
is very heartbreaking.
Speaker 15 (34:14):
I cry every time.
Speaker 16 (34:15):
I see those images. Firefighters dropping to the knees exhaustion
is just so heartbreaking.
Speaker 3 (34:23):
I hope that we all have a cry. Honestly.
Speaker 2 (34:26):
I mean it may sound ridiculous, but you really, at
some point we'll need to let this out, this experience
that we are all having together. Obviously some of us
have it far worse than others, but we are a
community here for better or for worse. We're not always
great at showing it, but we're experiencing this together, and
there will come a point where you got to get
this out, Kayla.
Speaker 3 (34:47):
Do we have another one we can play? We do
we have aaron?
Speaker 17 (34:51):
This is definitely a devastating thing. I grew up in California.
I was born here in Burbank. Today's my birthday. Matter
of fact, I'm fifty six. Wait now, my aarp bag.
Speaker 3 (35:02):
But that one.
Speaker 17 (35:03):
Gentleman city is ready to move out of the country.
I can kind of feel the same way. I've seen
the California dream good to poop to darn shame too.
What a lovely state my state is.
Speaker 2 (35:15):
It really is a lovely state. I saw it firsthand,
even amidst the devastation it. California has its problems, but
being beautiful ain't one of them. Driving in here to
Burbank today on the one oh one, you know, you
see the Hollywood Sign, you see the Capitol Records Building,
and you know, as somebody who moved here from elsewhere,
those are images that you know, felt like a dream
(35:37):
to me and now they're part of my everyday life.
But then over the horizon, smoke rising, and your jarred
back to the reality of what we are all living
in right now. More of your phone calls coming up.
Speaker 1 (35:51):
KFI AM six on demand
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