January 9, 2025 • 27 mins
Bill recaps what we know about the historic wildfires ripping through Pacific Palisades, Altadena, Pasadena, Sylmar, and now Hollywood Hills. Fred Fielding from the LAFD Public Service Office joins the program to share an update on fire containment. Bill talks with Kevin McManus, the PR & Communications Manager for the Pasadena Humane Society, about what they are doing to make sure the animals are safe.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to Wake Up Call on demand from KFI
A six forty.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
This is KFI. Go'll handle here on a Thursday morning,
January ninth. Again, the fires are a big story. I mean,
it will stay the big story for a.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Couple of days.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Hopefully it goes away fairly quickly.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
But let's do this. We'll do a recap of what's
going on. I don't see Amy.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
I'm looking at an empty chair there, So why don't
we make Amy feel terrible here?
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Oh no, no, no, no, okay, let's do a recap
without Amy.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
My question is, and I'm going to be asking various
people this morning, is have evacuation orders been lifted?
Speaker 1 (00:44):
I think that I'm desperate for some good news here.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
I really am Amy, and I know all this morning,
and we're going to hear how many more acres have
been destroyed, how many more structures, how many more homes.
I'm sure I'm going to get many more techs about
property and stores and businesses lost from people I know.
(01:07):
So I'm going to throw it to you, and I'm
hoping for some good news.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
So let's do a recap.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
Okay, first we'll start with that piece of good news
and that is that the fire that broke out last
night in the Hollywood Hills in Runyon Canyon and forced
a lot of evacuations. Most of the evacuation orders have
been lifted because they were able to stop the forward
progress and keep it out of the neighborhoods. The remaining
evacuation orders are lifted effective in about twenty five.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Minutes, which is that is good news. On the other
side of that the bad news. We already have a
couple of stories of deaths, and for the most part,
these are people that did not want to evacuate.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
They were told to the police came by.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
And I know of one story that came in this
morning about a gentleman who his family found him at
the side of the road or the side of the
house or in front of the house, with a garden
host in his head hand, and he had been he
was charred. I mean, he just literally had been burnt
during that fire. You know what that does to someone.
(02:09):
So I don't even know how the family recognized him.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Although they did say he looked peaceful. Okay.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
And that's the fire in Altadena that has burned about
nine hundred and seventy two buildings at the last count
and in that fire there have been five deaths.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
And then in the.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
Palisades fires still burning overnight, the winds are still blowing.
Seventeen thousand acres, over a thousand structures burned. We're talking
about homes, businesses, restaurants, banks, schools, you name it.
Speaker 4 (02:43):
They're just getting wiped out.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
CalFire said that fifty to seventy five percent of the
Pacific Palisades area is just wiped out.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
Yeah, there was a video.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
I saw a reporter down and it was I think
of the Palisade.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
No, it was a Malibu area.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
And walking a long PCH and I'm talking to the
right of or the ocean side of PCH where you
have these multi trillion dollar homes, I mean ten fifteen
million dollar homes.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
All you could see was foundation and nothing else.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
And you go wow, And you know that's going to
be an interesting conversation with the insurance company. No, we'd
rather not give you seven and a half million dollars
to rebuild. We'll give you six and a half million
dollars to rebuild. That's another story that we're going to
talk about in the next few days. Even today at
a twenty when Joe Larsgard comes aboard after the press
(03:40):
conference and talk about the insurance issues, because that's a
conversation I'm having with people. My general contractor who is
helping me with by new Place, greatest guy in the world,
and yesterday we were talking about some clients that he
has that have lost their homes and are now starting
to deal with the insurance companies. And it is just
(04:03):
a horrific mess. And by the way, for those of
us who own homes, be prepared for astronomical rises in
our home insurance.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
I mean all of us. It's going to be crazy.
Speaker 4 (04:17):
Amy, Yes, you want two more pieces of good news?
Speaker 1 (04:20):
First, yes, please?
Speaker 4 (04:21):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
The Hurst fire, which is the one burning in Silmar
Aries north of the two ten freeway in the San
Fernando Valley that is now ten percent surrounded eight hundred and.
Speaker 4 (04:31):
Fifty five acres.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
There are evacuation orders, but no reports of any buildings, homes,
anything that has burned besides rush. So ten percent surrounded.
And then they act and fire that broke out yesterday
about three hundred and fifty acres burned, but it's now
forty percent surrounded, so firefighters able to get lines around
that hopefully or probably mainly because the winds have died down.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Yeah, compared to yesterday, when aircraft couldn't get into the air,
or the day before aircraft couldn't get into the air
to even ascertain what's going on. And the fire department
it was not only and we were hearing the news
from the officials, not only was it zero percent contained,
it was moving faster than you can run. The winds
(05:15):
were so heavy and of such magnitude. And you know,
I don't know how anybody, anybody wants to stay.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
And save their homes.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
I don't get it, or I don't because now we're
talking about you know, these fires. You have warnings with
hurricanes certainly, and you can see fires off in the distance.
I mean there are stories of people looking off in
the distance and there was the fire a mile and
a half away. Well, yesterday Neil sent me the you know,
(05:49):
Neil's took that photo of what we were looking out
out the window.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Did we put that up by the way, Yeah, I
put those up.
Speaker 5 (05:56):
I also took some photos on the way home from
the station yesterday, one of you know, this deep brown
and orange sky above the Warner Brothers water tank. I
took one of Los Phelis Boulevard and the fire freeway
roughly where trees were down. You had a concrete light
(06:17):
pole broken in half and then the sky was like that.
And I have that up at FOURK reporter duck Fork
reporter on Instagram.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Rather and one of the things that I was going
to mention before Neil rudely interrupted me, although I did
as fast, yeah, I did, well, okay, fine, is the
fact that as I was stating before I before we
get the Neil is you could see a fire half
a mile away or a mile away and figure, okay,
you're relatively safe even in an evacuation area and an
(06:50):
evacuation zone. And what they, for example, they do in hurricanes,
a lot of people stay home, a lot of people
do okay.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
You don't do okay. In a fire.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
You don't get the hell out of there. You're in
a world of hurt and more and more. That's some
one of the things I'm going to ask the PIO,
the Public Information officer coming up next break of the
La Fire Department, and that is the evacuation orders.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
How many people actually pay attention do.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
The fire department crew Do those crews go in even
after a mandatory evacuation order and they know people are
in that building over there, do they just say, like
they do in the world of hurricanes, too bad. If
you're dumb enough not to leave, then we're not dumb
enough to rescue you. I know that's a little He
(07:40):
probably wouldn't put it in those words.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
What he no, because he makes his living talking to
people and doesn't do it the way we do.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Let's check in with the public Information Officer of Los
Angeles Fire.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
Department, Fred Fielding. Fred, thank you for taking the time.
Greatly appreciated that question here. Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
I mean, you know, I know that's your job, but
you have to talk to the public and we have
to know the answers. And there's a couple of them
that I want to know. I'd like to ask, and
one of those I've been we've been hearing, you've been
reporting that every fire agency within hundreds and hundreds of
miles have been brought in and they're on their way
(08:24):
from Oregon, in Washington and Arizona as we are quote
stretched to the extreme.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
At what point does it just break.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
When there's no more, when we've used all the assets
and it isn't enough.
Speaker 6 (08:42):
Well, we're always scaling depending on the fire. So if
the fire continues to grow, we're going to keep getting
more and more people. We already have folks from Arizona
people arriving, and so we will scale the resources of
the fire to the fire itself.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Okay, well, let me ask this because this wasn't one
of those incidents where this came out of blue where
you really didn't know and caught everybody by surprise, which happens.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
We knew that it was going to be and the
word words in the.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
News life threatening wins coming in, So you folks in
the fire department sort of had to know this was
probably going to happen.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
And so what did you do that you normally wouldn't do?
Speaker 6 (09:27):
So we augmented our staffing, both us in the Los
Angeles Fire Department, I would imagine the smaller departments around
so California did as well, and the offices of Emergency
Service also had additional engines that were prepared here in
case of these emergencies, to prep in case these things happened.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
So was did these fires go beyond what was anticipated?
Did this just is it one of those things where
there's no way we can deal with this.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Like if an eight point.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
Zero UH level earthquake hits this, there's just no way
to deal with it.
Speaker 4 (10:05):
Uh.
Speaker 6 (10:07):
It's very challenging. The energy release component aspect of this,
I mean you're talking in terms of kilotons. It's it's
really a scale that that is on par with like
a small nuclear weapon, So those sorts of things. I mean,
the amount of energy that's releasing these fires is really incredible,
and the fire crews out there are working as hard
(10:30):
as they can in coordination with air attack to do
as much containment as we can and to get out
everyone safely. Like that's our that's our number one priority.
So at this point where we're going on containment because
that's what's going to keep the rest of the people safe.
But life safety is our number one priority, and thankfully
we've we've kept those numbers as low as we can.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
You know, I'm thinking when evacuations are ordered, mandatory evacuation orders,
I immediately think of what happens in the hurricane area,
is of the rest of the country where the reports
are that the officials have said, we told you to
get out, we warned you to get out. We did
everything we could to get you out and you're on
your own.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
We're not going to come and rescue you. No way.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
Is there anything approaching that in Los Angeles and during
these fires.
Speaker 6 (11:20):
No, we you know, we always urge our residents to
get out. That lets us do our job more effectively
and efficiently, and it protects our residents, that's first and foremost.
But we don't give up on people. If someone's there,
we're going to do our grondas to get in there
and get them out as quickly as we can. We
do that in conjunction with law enforcement. They're a great
(11:41):
asset in helping people get out and evacuating residents, especially
those people who can't get out so they I can
see that.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
No, I can see that.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
But there are stories and we're starting to hear them.
We had one where there was a gentleman who had
they found him at the side in front of his house.
Of course, he had been burned to death, and he
had a garden hose in his hand. And to what
extent the fire crews and specifically fire crews go in
to rescue people, I mean, at how much of a
(12:12):
risk to their lives and their safety comes into consideration.
Speaker 6 (12:17):
Well, it's always a balance. I mean, you know, we
will risk a life to save a life. That's sort
of our risk assessment model, right. But again, we can't
be everywhere at once. So if we see someone and
we know where they are, we're going to go in
there and we're going to try our darness to get
in there. But you know, on a scale like this,
(12:38):
we don't know where everyone is. That that's part of
the problem. It's the information lag. And I understand, you know,
people are emotional about their homes. This is these are
not just houses, their homes, and people want to save them,
so it's understandable. But I think that here we've seen
the danger. You know, this is this has opened our
eyes to really the potential. And unfortunately, these things come
(13:00):
around every once in a while and we go, oh
my god, yeah, we need to we need to pay
attention to these warnings. And it's difficult because you know,
sometimes these fires don't devastate in this way, and then
people are going, oh, why did I've been This is
such an inconvenience, and you know, I mean, it's hard
to really upset people's lives. So we take these warnings seriously.
(13:21):
In these evacuations and we try to issue them judiciously
so that it's not disturbing people's lives. But I think
unfortunately when we see fires like this, it's the reality
of the danger really comes into light.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Okay, yesterday the call went out to various other agencies.
Any agency near the south Land, in other states, et cetera.
Is that still out there. We're still looking for other
fire agencies to come in.
Speaker 6 (13:52):
So that's going to be dependent on the operations. The
operations is going to have meetings this morning to determine
the needs and sort of the scaling up. People are
still coming, but depending on how they feel it going,
they'll order more or they'll be satisfied with what is
in a route. It takes a little bit of time
for travel, so if they think, oh, you know, I
(14:14):
mean the wind, the red flag is projected to end
at six pm on Friday, So they're going to sort
of look at that calculus and determine what they still need,
if they need to keep scaling up, if what they've
got en route is going to be enough.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
And then the last question I have bringing in other
fire teams, and that is they have their own equipment.
They have their own pumps, They have their own ways
of dealing with fire.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
How does all that coordinate it?
Speaker 2 (14:40):
I mean, does one fire truck connect the same way
to various water sources as another fire truck.
Speaker 6 (14:48):
We've been working on interoperability between different crews and departments
throughout the country. Some of those standards are really helped,
and especially locally so La County Fire, the the fire
department I'm with, works and trains with La City Department,
City Fire Department, so that we want to fire like
this happens, we can work, you know, seamlessly and make
(15:10):
sure that we get this fire out as quickly as possible.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
All right, Fred, thank you. I know you're going to
be working very hard for the next couple of days.
Thanks for taking the time greatly.
Speaker 6 (15:19):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
One of the stories coming out of the fire, of course,
people who are being evacuated, going to friends and families home,
going to hotels.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
Well, most of us have pets. Where do you go
with a pet? Well, this is what the story is about.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
The pasting a humane society, which we are connected with
here on KFI because we do the Wiggle Waggle Walk
that now Amy heads every year for the benefit of
the pasting in humane society. Kevin McManus is part of
this and from if I have this right, Kevin, it's
over three hundred and fifty animals already arrived just yesterday
(16:00):
and more expected.
Speaker 7 (16:03):
That's correct though, Yeah, three fifty and counting.
Speaker 6 (16:07):
And unfortunately, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
So people come in and the ones that I'm concerned
they come in with their pets, are these poor animals
with burn injuries. They're either left behind or I'm assuming
they're feral animals that have been picked up and dropped off.
Do you have vets that are there that are working
as hard as other first responders are?
Speaker 6 (16:32):
We do.
Speaker 7 (16:32):
Yeah, we have a really talented and dedicated group of
vets and vetex and health staff who are caring for
all the animals in our care, but especially those who've
come in in the last last twelve or so hours
who have significant burn injuries something need oxygen. So we
were really lucky to have a great facility and a
(16:55):
great community support to help care for these animals.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
Now, hearing about virtually every shelter in the south Land
is jammed to capacity, where do you put three hundred
and fifty animals that have come in and most of
them in the last twelve hours.
Speaker 7 (17:13):
Well, we're actually very lucky to have received a huge
lift yesterday from a couple of shelters in the area
who are not as affected in the fire zone, who
were able to come in and take some of the
pets that we already had on hand before the fire started.
These are adoptable animals and they were actually just transferred
(17:34):
out to these other shelters for adoption. So that was
a huge help. And you know, we have the kind
of extending your you know, backup plans of we have
foster families who are willing to take in pets who
have been displaced or animals that we already had. So
it's been a little bit of I kindly describe it
(17:54):
as tetris. We've got some animals in our staff offices.
Were prepared to have pop up crates if necessary for dogs,
but at this point everybody is secure in their own
kennel and everything is is good. But yeah, it's been
a real struggle.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
Yeah, just a personal note, I happen to live with
someone who is sort of a fanatic pet person, and
the first thing she said was, Okay, we're going to donate,
and donate right now.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
And so I told the story this morning.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
I said, here's our budget that we do every year,
and you know, kids are not going to eat all
over the world because we're going to help pets. And
she said that's absolutely true. So yeah, real, how do
you not help? You know, how do you not help pets?
So you're getting a pretty you're getting a pretty good
donation from us.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
But here's the important part.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
One of the things we had on is, you know,
in terms of need, which of course is always a lot,
now extraordinary, you know, just out of the box.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
You even asked for water bowls for people to help.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
So I'm getting money because that's easy, and I live
a hell of a long way from house to what
can people do well?
Speaker 7 (19:13):
To be honest, the easiest thing is money because it
is going to cost us a lot to care for
the animals, and we don't have any you know, an
end date for sure. You know, we we got such
an overwhelming support of in time goods yesterday that our
front parking lot was nearly full by the end of
the night, which was brought tears to our eyes and
just such a testament to the animal loving folks in
(19:36):
our community. But if you can donate monetarily. That will
really help us to keep you know, the pets going
and to keep caring for them in the way that
we want to.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
Yeah, and I know I know the kind of work
you do because I know, for example, even when you
guys have dinner breaks, you just go outside and eat some.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
Of the kibble. That So, how do we help you
and how do we get hold of you?
Speaker 7 (20:04):
Well, our website is pasadenas Humane dot org and we
have been really diligently updating that as soon as we
can with information on fire, on the fire, on our response,
on what people can do, And that's the easiest way
to get us, get our information and to make a
donation if you are so inclined.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
Yeah, well you know, I'm certainly part of that crowd.
Speaker 7 (20:29):
Kevin.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
They repeat that Pasadena Humane dot org. Kevin, please keep
up the good work. I know what you're doing is
extraordinarily valuable.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
Well, take care of go to work, and.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
I know I don't have to say that. And just
a quick one before we go to Karen Bass, my hero.
Oh yeah, if you look at Instagram, if you're on
Instagram watcher, which I sort of am, the celebs that
have lost their homes that posted their houses are gone,
Billy chris So, Mandy Moore, Paris Hilton, James Woods, Diana
(21:06):
Warren or Diane Warren, Melissa Rivers, daughter of Joan Rivers,
Jamie Lee Curtis. So far, those are the ones that
have posted and evacuations. Evacuees Adam Sandler, Ben Affleck, Tom Hanks,
Steven Spielberg, Mark Hamill, Maria Shriver, Eugene Levy, and at
(21:27):
this point we have no information as to whether their
house has survived or not. Karen Bass, the Mayor of
Los Angeles, during the course of this the first twenty
four hours, she was a constant presence on social media
urging us to evacuate various zones, announcing she's declaring an emergency.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
So she was right there. Nope, she was in Africa.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
She was on a presidential delegation to Ghana, attending the
inauguration of the new president of Ghana, and the city
council President, Marquise Harris Dawson was actually doing all the
work mayor, the acting mayor of the city. And when
she got back to the US man did she get
(22:16):
some brutal questions. A Sky News reporter just peppered her,
Why did you go to Africa? How could you have
done this? She avoided eye contact, wouldn't answer. He kept
on repeatedly pressing her. Do you need to apologize to
Angelino's for being in Africa? Do you regret reducing the
(22:38):
fire department budget?
Speaker 1 (22:42):
WHOA so, a couple.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
Of things I want to share with you about this
situation and others. Being elected mayor city councilor congressperson or
senator is kind of.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
A neat deal.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
You go on a lot of junks, just you know,
fact finding missions. In this case representing the United States.
The president says, go to Ghana and here is the problem.
A couple of days before, the word was out that
the winds were coming life threatening wins and the fire
danger was about one hundred and fifty percent, and she
(23:20):
got on an airplane and then one on social media
sort of pretending to be here in La and you.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
Can't do anything about it. Let me tell you, when
he elected official reports to no one.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
They report only the boss is their boss is us
the people, And what we do is either reelect or
don't elect them at the next election cycle. I mean,
you know, theoretically they can be tossed out on a recall,
but no one ever is, and so hey, if she
wants to be out, she can be out all she wants. Now,
(23:58):
the optics of this are got awful, and either she
made the decision or somebody told her on her staff,
don't worry about it. The problem is she had been
There was enough warning. See, it's not like it happened
out of the blue. It's not like she's out of
the country and all of a sudden earthquake hits which
can't be anticipated. It's the information was there, and we
(24:22):
were warned the day before the fires, the two days
before the fires.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
We were all told, hey, this is going to be bad.
We knew it. And so her optics.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
She could have easily said I'm in Ghana, I'm on
the first airplane out and literally put her phone up
on a social and say here, I am at the airport.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
I've asked for help to get back. I'm chartering.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
It doesn't matter whatever, as long as it looked like
she tried early on and she didn't. And then the
issue she got nailed. She got nailed by Rick Caruso,
who ran against her for mayor, and they were both
on the same page, even though he's a Republican, he
rips into her. Caruso's daughter lost her home in the wildfire. Also,
(25:17):
there was outrage over the lack of water pressure. I
don't know what she has to do with that. I mean,
that's pretty technical. Was she warn prior in previous meetings
with the DWP we have a lock of water pressure?
Speaker 1 (25:30):
Okay, she's being hit for that.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
The owner of the La Times ripping into her, saying
that this is a matter of this is a matter
of competence. Now, the officials Department of Water, the fire
chief of LA You've got the county supervisor, Catherine Barger,
(25:54):
County sheriff Robert Luna all said she did a great job.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
We had her presence. Okay. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
By the way, this happened before James Hahn when he
was mayor. He was gone for several days in two
thousand and one and the nine to eleven terrorist attacks
hit couldn't be anticipated. He couldn't get back because every
plane was grounded. There were no planes grounded out of Ghana.
(26:26):
Nice junkets.
Speaker 1 (26:28):
So joy. By the way, they don't mention.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
How great a deal it is to be an elected official.
The fun stuff you get to do, you get to do,
go to Remember when we were looking at a new
bus system. One of the world's best bus systems was
in kudit Tiba is in Kudi Tiba, Brazil, And I
cannot tell you how many elected officials went to Brazil
to quote, investigate and study the transit system there. Oh
(26:56):
by the way, it's just a hop, skip and a
jump to Rio de Janeiro, which is kind of a
nice place to see. This is KFI AM six forty
Live on KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (27:10):
You've been listening to Wake Up Call with me Amy King.
Speaker 3 (27:13):
You can always hear Wake Up Call five to six
am Monday through Friday on KFI AM six forty and
anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app
You're listening to Wake Up Call on demand from KFI
A six forty.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
This is KFI. Go'll handle here on a Thursday morning,
January ninth. Again, the fires are a big story. I mean,
it will stay the big story for a.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Couple of days.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Hopefully it goes away fairly quickly.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
But let's do this. We'll do a recap of what's
going on. I don't see Amy.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
I'm looking at an empty chair there, So why don't
we make Amy feel terrible here?
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Oh no, no, no, no, okay, let's do a recap
without Amy.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
My question is, and I'm going to be asking various
people this morning, is have evacuation orders been lifted?
Speaker 1 (00:44):
I think that I'm desperate for some good news here.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
I really am Amy, and I know all this morning,
and we're going to hear how many more acres have
been destroyed, how many more structures, how many more homes.
I'm sure I'm going to get many more techs about
property and stores and businesses lost from people I know.
(01:07):
So I'm going to throw it to you, and I'm
hoping for some good news.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
So let's do a recap.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
Okay, first we'll start with that piece of good news
and that is that the fire that broke out last
night in the Hollywood Hills in Runyon Canyon and forced
a lot of evacuations. Most of the evacuation orders have
been lifted because they were able to stop the forward
progress and keep it out of the neighborhoods. The remaining
evacuation orders are lifted effective in about twenty five.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Minutes, which is that is good news. On the other
side of that the bad news. We already have a
couple of stories of deaths, and for the most part,
these are people that did not want to evacuate.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
They were told to the police came by.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
And I know of one story that came in this
morning about a gentleman who his family found him at
the side of the road or the side of the
house or in front of the house, with a garden
host in his head hand, and he had been he
was charred. I mean, he just literally had been burnt
during that fire. You know what that does to someone.
(02:09):
So I don't even know how the family recognized him.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Although they did say he looked peaceful. Okay.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
And that's the fire in Altadena that has burned about
nine hundred and seventy two buildings at the last count
and in that fire there have been five deaths.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
And then in the.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
Palisades fires still burning overnight, the winds are still blowing.
Seventeen thousand acres, over a thousand structures burned. We're talking
about homes, businesses, restaurants, banks, schools, you name it.
Speaker 4 (02:43):
They're just getting wiped out.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
CalFire said that fifty to seventy five percent of the
Pacific Palisades area is just wiped out.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
Yeah, there was a video.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
I saw a reporter down and it was I think
of the Palisade.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
No, it was a Malibu area.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
And walking a long PCH and I'm talking to the
right of or the ocean side of PCH where you
have these multi trillion dollar homes, I mean ten fifteen
million dollar homes.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
All you could see was foundation and nothing else.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
And you go wow, And you know that's going to
be an interesting conversation with the insurance company. No, we'd
rather not give you seven and a half million dollars
to rebuild. We'll give you six and a half million
dollars to rebuild. That's another story that we're going to
talk about in the next few days. Even today at
a twenty when Joe Larsgard comes aboard after the press
(03:40):
conference and talk about the insurance issues, because that's a
conversation I'm having with people. My general contractor who is
helping me with by new Place, greatest guy in the world,
and yesterday we were talking about some clients that he
has that have lost their homes and are now starting
to deal with the insurance companies. And it is just
(04:03):
a horrific mess. And by the way, for those of
us who own homes, be prepared for astronomical rises in
our home insurance.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
I mean all of us. It's going to be crazy.
Speaker 4 (04:17):
Amy, Yes, you want two more pieces of good news?
Speaker 1 (04:20):
First, yes, please?
Speaker 4 (04:21):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
The Hurst fire, which is the one burning in Silmar
Aries north of the two ten freeway in the San
Fernando Valley that is now ten percent surrounded eight hundred and.
Speaker 4 (04:31):
Fifty five acres.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
There are evacuation orders, but no reports of any buildings, homes,
anything that has burned besides rush. So ten percent surrounded.
And then they act and fire that broke out yesterday
about three hundred and fifty acres burned, but it's now
forty percent surrounded, so firefighters able to get lines around
that hopefully or probably mainly because the winds have died down.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Yeah, compared to yesterday, when aircraft couldn't get into the air,
or the day before aircraft couldn't get into the air
to even ascertain what's going on. And the fire department
it was not only and we were hearing the news
from the officials, not only was it zero percent contained,
it was moving faster than you can run. The winds
(05:15):
were so heavy and of such magnitude. And you know,
I don't know how anybody, anybody wants to stay.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
And save their homes.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
I don't get it, or I don't because now we're
talking about you know, these fires. You have warnings with
hurricanes certainly, and you can see fires off in the distance.
I mean there are stories of people looking off in
the distance and there was the fire a mile and
a half away. Well, yesterday Neil sent me the you know,
(05:49):
Neil's took that photo of what we were looking out
out the window.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Did we put that up by the way, Yeah, I
put those up.
Speaker 5 (05:56):
I also took some photos on the way home from
the station yesterday, one of you know, this deep brown
and orange sky above the Warner Brothers water tank. I
took one of Los Phelis Boulevard and the fire freeway
roughly where trees were down. You had a concrete light
(06:17):
pole broken in half and then the sky was like that.
And I have that up at FOURK reporter duck Fork
reporter on Instagram.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Rather and one of the things that I was going
to mention before Neil rudely interrupted me, although I did
as fast, yeah, I did, well, okay, fine, is the
fact that as I was stating before I before we
get the Neil is you could see a fire half
a mile away or a mile away and figure, okay,
you're relatively safe even in an evacuation area and an
(06:50):
evacuation zone. And what they, for example, they do in hurricanes,
a lot of people stay home, a lot of people
do okay.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
You don't do okay. In a fire.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
You don't get the hell out of there. You're in
a world of hurt and more and more. That's some
one of the things I'm going to ask the PIO,
the Public Information officer coming up next break of the
La Fire Department, and that is the evacuation orders.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
How many people actually pay attention do.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
The fire department crew Do those crews go in even
after a mandatory evacuation order and they know people are
in that building over there, do they just say, like
they do in the world of hurricanes, too bad. If
you're dumb enough not to leave, then we're not dumb
enough to rescue you. I know that's a little He
(07:40):
probably wouldn't put it in those words.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
What he no, because he makes his living talking to
people and doesn't do it the way we do.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Let's check in with the public Information Officer of Los
Angeles Fire.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
Department, Fred Fielding. Fred, thank you for taking the time.
Greatly appreciated that question here. Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
I mean, you know, I know that's your job, but
you have to talk to the public and we have
to know the answers. And there's a couple of them
that I want to know. I'd like to ask, and
one of those I've been we've been hearing, you've been
reporting that every fire agency within hundreds and hundreds of
miles have been brought in and they're on their way
(08:24):
from Oregon, in Washington and Arizona as we are quote
stretched to the extreme.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
At what point does it just break.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
When there's no more, when we've used all the assets
and it isn't enough.
Speaker 6 (08:42):
Well, we're always scaling depending on the fire. So if
the fire continues to grow, we're going to keep getting
more and more people. We already have folks from Arizona
people arriving, and so we will scale the resources of
the fire to the fire itself.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Okay, well, let me ask this because this wasn't one
of those incidents where this came out of blue where
you really didn't know and caught everybody by surprise, which happens.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
We knew that it was going to be and the
word words in the.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
News life threatening wins coming in, So you folks in
the fire department sort of had to know this was
probably going to happen.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
And so what did you do that you normally wouldn't do?
Speaker 6 (09:27):
So we augmented our staffing, both us in the Los
Angeles Fire Department, I would imagine the smaller departments around
so California did as well, and the offices of Emergency
Service also had additional engines that were prepared here in
case of these emergencies, to prep in case these things happened.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
So was did these fires go beyond what was anticipated?
Did this just is it one of those things where
there's no way we can deal with this.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Like if an eight point.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
Zero UH level earthquake hits this, there's just no way
to deal with it.
Speaker 4 (10:05):
Uh.
Speaker 6 (10:07):
It's very challenging. The energy release component aspect of this,
I mean you're talking in terms of kilotons. It's it's
really a scale that that is on par with like
a small nuclear weapon, So those sorts of things. I mean,
the amount of energy that's releasing these fires is really incredible,
and the fire crews out there are working as hard
(10:30):
as they can in coordination with air attack to do
as much containment as we can and to get out
everyone safely. Like that's our that's our number one priority.
So at this point where we're going on containment because
that's what's going to keep the rest of the people safe.
But life safety is our number one priority, and thankfully
we've we've kept those numbers as low as we can.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
You know, I'm thinking when evacuations are ordered, mandatory evacuation orders,
I immediately think of what happens in the hurricane area,
is of the rest of the country where the reports
are that the officials have said, we told you to
get out, we warned you to get out. We did
everything we could to get you out and you're on
your own.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
We're not going to come and rescue you. No way.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
Is there anything approaching that in Los Angeles and during
these fires.
Speaker 6 (11:20):
No, we you know, we always urge our residents to
get out. That lets us do our job more effectively
and efficiently, and it protects our residents, that's first and foremost.
But we don't give up on people. If someone's there,
we're going to do our grondas to get in there
and get them out as quickly as we can. We
do that in conjunction with law enforcement. They're a great
(11:41):
asset in helping people get out and evacuating residents, especially
those people who can't get out so they I can
see that.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
No, I can see that.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
But there are stories and we're starting to hear them.
We had one where there was a gentleman who had
they found him at the side in front of his house.
Of course, he had been burned to death, and he
had a garden hose in his hand. And to what
extent the fire crews and specifically fire crews go in
to rescue people, I mean, at how much of a
(12:12):
risk to their lives and their safety comes into consideration.
Speaker 6 (12:17):
Well, it's always a balance. I mean, you know, we
will risk a life to save a life. That's sort
of our risk assessment model, right. But again, we can't
be everywhere at once. So if we see someone and
we know where they are, we're going to go in
there and we're going to try our darness to get
in there. But you know, on a scale like this,
(12:38):
we don't know where everyone is. That that's part of
the problem. It's the information lag. And I understand, you know,
people are emotional about their homes. This is these are
not just houses, their homes, and people want to save them,
so it's understandable. But I think that here we've seen
the danger. You know, this is this has opened our
eyes to really the potential. And unfortunately, these things come
(13:00):
around every once in a while and we go, oh
my god, yeah, we need to we need to pay
attention to these warnings. And it's difficult because you know,
sometimes these fires don't devastate in this way, and then
people are going, oh, why did I've been This is
such an inconvenience, and you know, I mean, it's hard
to really upset people's lives. So we take these warnings seriously.
(13:21):
In these evacuations and we try to issue them judiciously
so that it's not disturbing people's lives. But I think
unfortunately when we see fires like this, it's the reality
of the danger really comes into light.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Okay, yesterday the call went out to various other agencies.
Any agency near the south Land, in other states, et cetera.
Is that still out there. We're still looking for other
fire agencies to come in.
Speaker 6 (13:52):
So that's going to be dependent on the operations. The
operations is going to have meetings this morning to determine
the needs and sort of the scaling up. People are
still coming, but depending on how they feel it going,
they'll order more or they'll be satisfied with what is
in a route. It takes a little bit of time
for travel, so if they think, oh, you know, I
(14:14):
mean the wind, the red flag is projected to end
at six pm on Friday, So they're going to sort
of look at that calculus and determine what they still need,
if they need to keep scaling up, if what they've
got en route is going to be enough.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
And then the last question I have bringing in other
fire teams, and that is they have their own equipment.
They have their own pumps, They have their own ways
of dealing with fire.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
How does all that coordinate it?
Speaker 2 (14:40):
I mean, does one fire truck connect the same way
to various water sources as another fire truck.
Speaker 6 (14:48):
We've been working on interoperability between different crews and departments
throughout the country. Some of those standards are really helped,
and especially locally so La County Fire, the the fire
department I'm with, works and trains with La City Department,
City Fire Department, so that we want to fire like
this happens, we can work, you know, seamlessly and make
(15:10):
sure that we get this fire out as quickly as possible.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
All right, Fred, thank you. I know you're going to
be working very hard for the next couple of days.
Thanks for taking the time greatly.
Speaker 6 (15:19):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
One of the stories coming out of the fire, of course,
people who are being evacuated, going to friends and families home,
going to hotels.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
Well, most of us have pets. Where do you go
with a pet? Well, this is what the story is about.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
The pasting a humane society, which we are connected with
here on KFI because we do the Wiggle Waggle Walk
that now Amy heads every year for the benefit of
the pasting in humane society. Kevin McManus is part of
this and from if I have this right, Kevin, it's
over three hundred and fifty animals already arrived just yesterday
(16:00):
and more expected.
Speaker 7 (16:03):
That's correct though, Yeah, three fifty and counting.
Speaker 6 (16:07):
And unfortunately, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
So people come in and the ones that I'm concerned
they come in with their pets, are these poor animals
with burn injuries. They're either left behind or I'm assuming
they're feral animals that have been picked up and dropped off.
Do you have vets that are there that are working
as hard as other first responders are?
Speaker 6 (16:32):
We do.
Speaker 7 (16:32):
Yeah, we have a really talented and dedicated group of
vets and vetex and health staff who are caring for
all the animals in our care, but especially those who've
come in in the last last twelve or so hours
who have significant burn injuries something need oxygen. So we
were really lucky to have a great facility and a
(16:55):
great community support to help care for these animals.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
Now, hearing about virtually every shelter in the south Land
is jammed to capacity, where do you put three hundred
and fifty animals that have come in and most of
them in the last twelve hours.
Speaker 7 (17:13):
Well, we're actually very lucky to have received a huge
lift yesterday from a couple of shelters in the area
who are not as affected in the fire zone, who
were able to come in and take some of the
pets that we already had on hand before the fire started.
These are adoptable animals and they were actually just transferred
(17:34):
out to these other shelters for adoption. So that was
a huge help. And you know, we have the kind
of extending your you know, backup plans of we have
foster families who are willing to take in pets who
have been displaced or animals that we already had. So
it's been a little bit of I kindly describe it
(17:54):
as tetris. We've got some animals in our staff offices.
Were prepared to have pop up crates if necessary for dogs,
but at this point everybody is secure in their own
kennel and everything is is good. But yeah, it's been
a real struggle.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
Yeah, just a personal note, I happen to live with
someone who is sort of a fanatic pet person, and
the first thing she said was, Okay, we're going to donate,
and donate right now.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
And so I told the story this morning.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
I said, here's our budget that we do every year,
and you know, kids are not going to eat all
over the world because we're going to help pets. And
she said that's absolutely true. So yeah, real, how do
you not help? You know, how do you not help pets?
So you're getting a pretty you're getting a pretty good
donation from us.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
But here's the important part.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
One of the things we had on is, you know,
in terms of need, which of course is always a lot,
now extraordinary, you know, just out of the box.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
You even asked for water bowls for people to help.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
So I'm getting money because that's easy, and I live
a hell of a long way from house to what
can people do well?
Speaker 7 (19:13):
To be honest, the easiest thing is money because it
is going to cost us a lot to care for
the animals, and we don't have any you know, an
end date for sure. You know, we we got such
an overwhelming support of in time goods yesterday that our
front parking lot was nearly full by the end of
the night, which was brought tears to our eyes and
just such a testament to the animal loving folks in
(19:36):
our community. But if you can donate monetarily. That will
really help us to keep you know, the pets going
and to keep caring for them in the way that
we want to.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
Yeah, and I know I know the kind of work
you do because I know, for example, even when you
guys have dinner breaks, you just go outside and eat some.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
Of the kibble. That So, how do we help you
and how do we get hold of you?
Speaker 7 (20:04):
Well, our website is pasadenas Humane dot org and we
have been really diligently updating that as soon as we
can with information on fire, on the fire, on our response,
on what people can do, And that's the easiest way
to get us, get our information and to make a
donation if you are so inclined.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
Yeah, well you know, I'm certainly part of that crowd.
Speaker 7 (20:29):
Kevin.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
They repeat that Pasadena Humane dot org. Kevin, please keep
up the good work. I know what you're doing is
extraordinarily valuable.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
Well, take care of go to work, and.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
I know I don't have to say that. And just
a quick one before we go to Karen Bass, my hero.
Oh yeah, if you look at Instagram, if you're on
Instagram watcher, which I sort of am, the celebs that
have lost their homes that posted their houses are gone,
Billy chris So, Mandy Moore, Paris Hilton, James Woods, Diana
(21:06):
Warren or Diane Warren, Melissa Rivers, daughter of Joan Rivers,
Jamie Lee Curtis. So far, those are the ones that
have posted and evacuations. Evacuees Adam Sandler, Ben Affleck, Tom Hanks,
Steven Spielberg, Mark Hamill, Maria Shriver, Eugene Levy, and at
(21:27):
this point we have no information as to whether their
house has survived or not. Karen Bass, the Mayor of
Los Angeles, during the course of this the first twenty
four hours, she was a constant presence on social media
urging us to evacuate various zones, announcing she's declaring an emergency.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
So she was right there. Nope, she was in Africa.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
She was on a presidential delegation to Ghana, attending the
inauguration of the new president of Ghana, and the city
council President, Marquise Harris Dawson was actually doing all the
work mayor, the acting mayor of the city. And when
she got back to the US man did she get
(22:16):
some brutal questions. A Sky News reporter just peppered her,
Why did you go to Africa? How could you have
done this? She avoided eye contact, wouldn't answer. He kept
on repeatedly pressing her. Do you need to apologize to
Angelino's for being in Africa? Do you regret reducing the
(22:38):
fire department budget?
Speaker 1 (22:42):
WHOA so, a couple.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
Of things I want to share with you about this
situation and others. Being elected mayor city councilor congressperson or
senator is kind of.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
A neat deal.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
You go on a lot of junks, just you know,
fact finding missions. In this case representing the United States.
The president says, go to Ghana and here is the problem.
A couple of days before, the word was out that
the winds were coming life threatening wins and the fire
danger was about one hundred and fifty percent, and she
(23:20):
got on an airplane and then one on social media
sort of pretending to be here in La and you.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
Can't do anything about it. Let me tell you, when
he elected official reports to no one.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
They report only the boss is their boss is us
the people, And what we do is either reelect or
don't elect them at the next election cycle. I mean,
you know, theoretically they can be tossed out on a recall,
but no one ever is, and so hey, if she
wants to be out, she can be out all she wants. Now,
(23:58):
the optics of this are got awful, and either she
made the decision or somebody told her on her staff,
don't worry about it. The problem is she had been
There was enough warning. See, it's not like it happened
out of the blue. It's not like she's out of
the country and all of a sudden earthquake hits which
can't be anticipated. It's the information was there, and we
(24:22):
were warned the day before the fires, the two days
before the fires.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
We were all told, hey, this is going to be bad.
We knew it. And so her optics.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
She could have easily said I'm in Ghana, I'm on
the first airplane out and literally put her phone up
on a social and say here, I am at the airport.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
I've asked for help to get back. I'm chartering.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
It doesn't matter whatever, as long as it looked like
she tried early on and she didn't. And then the
issue she got nailed. She got nailed by Rick Caruso,
who ran against her for mayor, and they were both
on the same page, even though he's a Republican, he
rips into her. Caruso's daughter lost her home in the wildfire. Also,
(25:17):
there was outrage over the lack of water pressure. I
don't know what she has to do with that. I mean,
that's pretty technical. Was she warn prior in previous meetings
with the DWP we have a lock of water pressure?
Speaker 1 (25:30):
Okay, she's being hit for that.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
The owner of the La Times ripping into her, saying
that this is a matter of this is a matter
of competence. Now, the officials Department of Water, the fire
chief of LA You've got the county supervisor, Catherine Barger,
(25:54):
County sheriff Robert Luna all said she did a great job.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
We had her presence. Okay. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
By the way, this happened before James Hahn when he
was mayor. He was gone for several days in two
thousand and one and the nine to eleven terrorist attacks
hit couldn't be anticipated. He couldn't get back because every
plane was grounded. There were no planes grounded out of Ghana.
(26:26):
Nice junkets.
Speaker 1 (26:28):
So joy. By the way, they don't mention.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
How great a deal it is to be an elected official.
The fun stuff you get to do, you get to do,
go to Remember when we were looking at a new
bus system. One of the world's best bus systems was
in kudit Tiba is in Kudi Tiba, Brazil, And I
cannot tell you how many elected officials went to Brazil
to quote, investigate and study the transit system there. Oh
(26:56):
by the way, it's just a hop, skip and a
jump to Rio de Janeiro, which is kind of a
nice place to see. This is KFI AM six forty
Live on KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (27:10):
You've been listening to Wake Up Call with me Amy King.
Speaker 3 (27:13):
You can always hear Wake Up Call five to six
am Monday through Friday on KFI AM six forty and
anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app
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