Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty with a live
broadcast of the One Voice press conference. To get the
latest updates on the impacts of the fires that are
burning around southern California. We're listening to La City Fire
Chief Kristin Crowley. Pretty Much the only information we've gotten
so far is that now for Palisades, they're saying thousands
(00:28):
of homes have been destroyed, but they're not giving a number.
We are still expecting to hear from La County Sheriff
Robert Luna, City Police Chief Jim McDonald and Lada Nathan Hawkman,
which is Sheriff Luna, Sir.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Good morning, Robert Luna, the Sheriff of Los Angeles County. Currently,
we have well over four hundred Sheriff's personnel that are.
Speaker 4 (00:54):
Still actively deployed to.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
The fires, in addition to our normal staffing for patrol
related functions throughout the County of Los Angeles. Deputies continue
to assist our residents with evacuations. They are performing a
lot of humanitarian missions, so many stories to share, don't
have time right now. Providing food and blankets to people
rescuing people who unfortunately did not evacuate when they were
(01:20):
asked to.
Speaker 4 (01:21):
So you've heard it over and over up here.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
A lot of the stories of heroic actions by our
deputy sheriffs, police officers, or firefighters. A lot of them
are taking place from people who did not choose to evacuate,
putting their own lives at risk. So please, if you're
asked to evacuate, evacuate, because it's not only your life
you're putting in danger. We continue to conduct roving patrols,
(01:47):
manning hard road closures, providing security in evacuation areas to
prevent anyone who may be tempted attempted to engage in
criminal behaving or behavior like looting. It was mentioned earlier
before by the supervisor, and I'm going to make this
crystal clear to everybody out there. Over last night and
(02:12):
this morning, we are up to twenty twenty individuals who
chose to go into our areas and deprive these poor
people who have been through so much of their property.
Absolutely unacceptable. And I'm going to give direction to our
(02:32):
department members. As you know, when we have an evacuation order.
Speaker 4 (02:38):
By law, if you remain in that.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
Area, you are guilty of a misdemeanor. If you commit
certain crimes, it could jump up to a felony. I'm
going to be asking our employees to start enforcing that.
That is very different than a curfew. Why because it's
twenty four to seven. I don't have to wait for
the sun to go down or the sun to come up.
If you are in one of these areas and you
(03:01):
do not belong there, you are going to be subject
to arrest. I hope that is as clear as I
can make it, because I don't. Our first choice isn't
to do enforcement. It's not to make arrest. It's to
help people. But if people choose to commit crimes, they're
going to be held accountable. And the DA who is
standing next to me will clarify even that a little
(03:23):
bit further. This continues to be a fluid and evolving crisis,
and the numbers that we released throughout this incident are
going to fluctuate, so anything we say is subject to change.
We're getting information from our boots on the ground. It's
very chaotic out there because it's still so fluid. So
forgive us if we give a number and then we
(03:43):
have to modify those numbers. I talked about the twenty
arrests that have been made so far. Unfortunately, I do
expect that to go up. We're not going to tolerate
that kind of activity. We have substantially increased our deployment
of depth at the fixed traffic post and are trying
to limit and clear out any unauthorized vehicles or people
(04:07):
in these areas. I do want to talk as we
are summonsing more resources. I have been in contact with
the chief of the Office of Emergency Services for the
State of California. Obviously that's done at the direction of
Governor Newsom from the get go of this. He has
offered any and all resources to us in law enforcement,
(04:29):
and they're doing the same for fire. But I'll specifically
talk about policing. The California National Guard is on standby
at our direction, specifically my direction, and we, along with
my partner Jim McDonald at the LAPD, are currently in
discussions if we are going to need them or how
(04:50):
we would deploy them as the hours go on, So
stand by for that information as the hours tick on.
Chief Maroney mentioned this regarding any death toll information. Yes,
we had preliminary numbers yesterday. I got to be honest
with you as I reviewed some of those last night
(05:11):
and this morning, I was not satisfied with some of
the information that we're getting.
Speaker 4 (05:15):
And it's not the fault of our people.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
The people that are working under very difficult conditions are
doing their best to do what they need to do.
At one point, we'll be able to do a more
thorough search of these impacted areas. Some of them look
like a bomb was dropped in them, where we will
be able to bring in canines and other things to
help us hopefully not discover too many fatalities. That's our prayer.
(05:42):
But this is a crisis and we don't know what
to expect. But we're ready for everything, So all information,
at least on the county side of this equation. We're
working with our corner's office. We'll figure out those numbers,
So be patient with us when you ask us about
death toll numbers right now.
Speaker 4 (06:01):
Frankly, we don't know yet.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
We eventually will evacuations overall for Palisades, Eaton Hurst and
Lydia fires. The number in both county and city areas
evacuation orders are impacting one thousand or one hundred and
seventy nine thousand, seven hundred.
Speaker 4 (06:19):
And eighty three residents.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
That's nearly one hundred and eighty thousand people in Los
Angeles County that are currently under evacuation orders, with another
close to two hundred thousand residents that under evacuation warnings.
I cannot emphasize enough that I urge residents that are
asked to evacuate to follow our warnings. I gave some
(06:42):
examples earlier. I'm going out through my staff.
Speaker 4 (06:45):
Hey, give me some.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
Stories where our deputies are just constantly putting their life
on the line, and in every example I'm given as
a result of somebody who chose not to evacuate. I
don't want to tell those stories anymore. I don't want
to give stories of our first responders being injured, specifically
our communities being injured. Please, if you're told to evacuate, evacuate.
(07:09):
Two of our sheriff Stuff State substations are out of power,
running on generators. That's both our Altadena and Crescentia Valley stations.
They're right in the thick of things. They're engaged in
all of the work that I've described described the issues
of mutual aid will consistently evaluate and reevaluate the needs.
Speaker 4 (07:30):
For more law enforcement personnel.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
But I can tell you I'm getting calls from all
over this region from other sheriffs and police chiefs. Everybody
wants to help, and that's awesome. That's part of our profession.
Very proud to be part of it. The last thing
I'll say is for any specific information regarding evacuation orders
or warnings or any road closures, and there's a lot
(07:53):
of them, please go to Alacounty dot gov slash emergency.
Thank you very much, And with that, I am going
to introduce the Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department,
Jim McDonald.
Speaker 4 (08:09):
Good morning, and.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
I'll start off with a sincere thank you to all
who have cooperated and supported the first responders and others
who've been out there doing the best they can to
make this as manageable as it can be. We're still
on full tactical lilerate at the LAPD in support of
our fire partners to be able to accomplish their mission.
(08:30):
We're assisting with safety as well as the evacuation sites.
You heard the sheriff quote the numbers of people who
are out there using those and again we want to
provide every level of safety we can for those involved
in that effort. We've been joined by our Port Police
and Los Angeles World Airport Police partners as part of
the city family and doing the jobs that we're doing
(08:52):
as we move forward today.
Speaker 4 (08:54):
But I want to thank our team.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
Many of our team and many of the people who
are here behind me, have left their families and fire
areas to come to work to be able to help others.
We've had a large number of people who have been evacuated,
a large number of people in this group here who
either family or friends have lost their own homes and
lost everything they own and are dealing with taking care
(09:19):
of young families at the same time while they're trying
to balance the needs of work with the needs and
responsibilities of family. We truly are all in this together,
and we have to look at it that way as
we move forward. The advice I would give is consistent
with what you've heard. The air is not healthy for
people who are challenged from a respiratory standpoint, So if
(09:42):
you don't have to come into an area that's so impacted,
please don't traffic. We are trying to maintain ingress and
egress to our emergency areas for first responders. In particular,
we had, as you heard, people coming in still from
other states to be able to help in the fire
suppression effort, and we need them to be able to
get in and be able to do what they need
(10:03):
to do as easily as possible. The evacuations they will
probably still continue as the winds pick up, so we
want to be able to do that as effectively as
we can. Again, I said thank you for the cooperation,
but I asked for additional cooperation should the need arise
as we move forward. This is anything but predictable. We're
(10:25):
thankful for the wind conditions we have now and the
ability for our fire partners to try and make up
for lost time, to be able to put containment around
several of our burn areas and to be able to
move forward on that. But again I just want to
say that you've heard from and you'll hear in a
minute from the DA, but from the Sheriff about our
(10:46):
crime suppression efforts. For those who want to take advantage
of others, we're there, We're going to be there, and
we're going to be working to hold you accountable for
what you're doing in that regard but as this runs
its course, fatigue will search become a significant factor for
those who are both directly involved in the operation as
(11:06):
well as members of our community. So again, we are
very thankful for the people who are doing this on
all of our behalf. But we need to stick together,
we need to support each other, and this is a
thing where morale is a big deal for both the
community and all of our folks. So take care of
each other out there, and let's do the best we can.
Speaker 4 (11:25):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
Now I mentioned our da Hawkman, it's not my pleasure
to introduce the newly elected District Attorney of Los Angeles County,
Nathan Hakman.
Speaker 5 (11:45):
Yesterday I bore witness by walking and driving through Pacific Palisades.
I ended up in my sister's house, a house where
she and her husband raised four boys, celebrated birthdays, barbecues
and whatnot. And that house has been burned to the ground,
and not just her house, but all her neighbors up
(12:06):
and down each one of the blocks I traveled. Those
houses no longer exist. They are now basically rubble. And
I haven't seen something like that, and I've lived here
almost over sixty years. In the entire time i've been here,
it looked apocalyptic. Not since the nineteen nineties when Los
Angeles was hit with the fires, the flood, the earthquake,
(12:29):
and the riots, if I've seen such disaster occur here
in our city. But like back then, Los Angeles has
true grit. It has resilience, and it will rebuild and
it will rebuild better than ever. But along the way,
there might be people out there who want to take
(12:50):
advantage of the people who are suffering these tragic losses.
These criminals need to hear, as they've heard from the sheriff,
as they've heard from Chief McDonald, an unmistakably clear message
that if you want to go ahead and loot, if
you want to commit burglary, if you want to engage
in grand theft, if you want to engage in these
(13:12):
internet scams where you're going to take advantage of people
who are going to be seeking insurance and government benefits,
you will be arrested, You will be prosecuted, and you
will be punished to the full extent.
Speaker 6 (13:26):
Of the law.
Speaker 4 (13:27):
And the reason I want to send this.
Speaker 5 (13:28):
Warning now is I don't want any mistake later that
somehow they thought, oh, it's not a big deal.
Speaker 6 (13:35):
It's a huge deal.
Speaker 5 (13:36):
These acts are despicable and we will prosecute them with
maximal punishment. So I want to make sure that message
is received loud and clear, because the first responders in
this situation have been simply heroic. As I was in
Pacific Palisades, I not only saw fire departments from LA
(13:56):
County and LA City, I saw rialto howway reading fire
engines from across this entire state that have come to
our rescue.
Speaker 6 (14:06):
And thank you.
Speaker 5 (14:07):
Thank you to all the first responders.
Speaker 4 (14:10):
When it comes to law enforcement.
Speaker 5 (14:12):
It's an all hands on deck operation with law enforcement
and the DA's office. Again, detectives are putting on uniforms
and getting out there on the streets to protect us.
We owe them a huge thank you and from the
DA's office. If we do get these cases, please be
on notice that we.
Speaker 6 (14:33):
Are going to try and deter you from committing.
Speaker 5 (14:35):
The crimes in the first place, but if you do
commit these crimes, do not expect anything else than maximal punishment.
Are now introduced LA County Public Works Director Mark Priscella.
Speaker 6 (14:55):
Good morning.
Speaker 7 (14:56):
As was stated, my name is Mark Coastrella and the
director of the Los Angeles County Public Works Agency.
Speaker 6 (15:02):
First.
Speaker 7 (15:02):
I want to save My heart, of course, goes out
to everyone affected by the devastating event. I personally toured
many of the areas yesterday and met with residents, and
as everyone here is described, it's an absolute tragedy, including
the life safety support system, our infrastructure that has been
destroyed that supports life in these communities. I know for
(15:25):
personal experience that fielding a loss from a wildfire, and
I have tremendous respect for our firefighters and other first responders,
our police force, the Sheriff's department for the work they
are currently doing. In fact, our current mission, which has
been going twenty four to seven for three days now,
is to support our fire department and our Sheriff's department
(15:45):
and the local pds and their efforts to save lives.
That is our number one mission right now, Kay.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
If I am six forty, we are listening to an
update on the wildfires that have broken out across the
LA region. The new information that we got today is
that in the Pacific Palisades, the number of homes and
businesses burned is in the thousands. Also, in the fire
burning in the Altadena area, we're hearing that they are
(16:14):
reevaluating the number of people who have been killed in
the fire. Also that twenty looters have been arrested so
far getting into the fire areas and that they will
be prose prosecuted. We're still waiting to hear from the
director of the or the CEO and chief engineer of
the laed W P. Jenese quinnonas and that may affect
(16:38):
whether there are power outages in the area, which we
know there still are, and also whether you can drink
the water. So we're going to stick with this news
conference and go back to Public Works Director Mark Pistralla,
back to.
Speaker 7 (16:51):
Its former way of life. The debris can be hazardous.
The debris that is on the private property is considered
hazardous toxic, and so I want to warn everybody now
that is either there, who's remained behind, or who is
visiting the areas.
Speaker 6 (17:06):
As was mentioned earlier, it is not safe.
Speaker 7 (17:09):
It is not safe to touch the debris, It is
not safe to remove the debris yourselves. There is a
process for that, and we will be mobilizing with the
City of Los Angeles to provide a health review of
every property and make sure that when we move that
debris that it's done in a way that's safe and
safe for you and for the other residents who remain
behind in the area. We are also working on water
(17:32):
supply system. The water supply system currently is still supplying.
Speaker 6 (17:37):
Supply fire suppression.
Speaker 7 (17:38):
Last night, we got to see the wonderful use of
our reservoirs, the city's reservoirs and our reservoirs to take
water from the reservoirs and actually use firefighting event aerial
attacks to the system. You saw what a difference that
made in the firefight last night. And those reservoirs are
full and continue to be ready and at the disposal
of our firefighting friends. The municipal water system continues to
(18:03):
suffer poor water quality due to the introduction of ash
and debris into our reservoirs into our filtration systems, So
there are specific areas that we are asking for water
to be boiled. I would just say, with all caution,
anyone who's remained behind, if there is any residence in
your area that has burned to the ground and you
are still there, you should just go.
Speaker 6 (18:23):
Ahead and boil water.
Speaker 7 (18:25):
We will be actively coming to communities in the next day,
within this day or next day delivering water delivering domestic
water to people who remain in the fire zone area.
Speaker 6 (18:36):
We will do.
Speaker 7 (18:37):
Ellie County will be coordinating that effort, not only for
the District twenty nine, but also we'd be working with
the City of La to deliver water to residents who've
remained behind or who again have partial damage and are
maybe staying in their homes.
Speaker 6 (18:52):
I want to again just mention.
Speaker 7 (18:54):
That a firefight with multiple fire hydrants drawing water from
municipal water systems for several hours is just sustainable. That's
why the air support is so important. Our residents in
the sudset Mesa Topanga Beach area, Coastline Drive on south
out on the south to Shore Heights Drive on the
north have are are up in the area. This is
(19:16):
a partial damaged area or a threatened area the Topanga
Canyon Road to Carbon Canyon Road Maysa as well as
another area that's threatened. So all what I just talked
about applies to you residents who are there.
Speaker 4 (19:28):
Now.
Speaker 7 (19:28):
What can we do, what can the public do? What
you should be doing as we sort of still active fire.
I if you again, I will reiterate that it's extremely
important to listen to the sheriff and to PD. When
you are asked to evacuate, to evacuate immediately.
Speaker 6 (19:44):
Do not hesitate, do not wait. Your life is not
worth it.
Speaker 7 (19:48):
The systems that you're leaving behind, they are going to
be impacted and they cannot be restarted easily. So I
know a lot of people are talking about, you know,
starting up. If you're thinking about cre your own water
and sewer and power system that you're home, I want
you to be very careful about that. That is not
something that a licensed contractor should be doing or our utility.
Speaker 6 (20:10):
Folks, Please don't do that.
Speaker 7 (20:12):
As I said yesterday, if you're leaving your home, I
want to make sure that you lock that home, that
you close that home uptight, and that you leave access
for firefighters by not closing gates or creating situation where
they can't get to your home.
Speaker 6 (20:26):
To fight off fire.
Speaker 7 (20:27):
The road system is impacted heavily throughout La County, including
city and county areas. There are multiple, in fact hundreds
of stop signals that are currently flashing red. Owner remind
everybody that you treat that as a stop sign and
you stop for that flashing, and if you come to
a barricade, you need to turn around because those streets
are closed for the purpose of recovery and not for
(20:50):
lookie loose. Please do not argue with the sheriffs that
are there are the pd the road. If the road
is closed, there's a good reason for it. It's because
it's not safe for you to be in that area.
And that safety includes the debris that I was talking about,
trees down, potholes, road systems destroyed. There could be breaks
in the roadway that could cause major damage to your vehicle.
(21:11):
So I'm asking that you comply with all road closures
until further notice. We are available as a twenty four
to seven agency. You can reach our department at one
eight hundred and six seventy five.
Speaker 6 (21:24):
Help.
Speaker 7 (21:25):
We do need every citizens. There's something else you can do.
If you see something, please tell us about it. Whether
it's a gas leak, whether it's a utility line down,
if it's a signal that's not malfunctioning, if it's a
sewer system leak, any of those things that keep our lives,
our life safety system going. We need to know about
them so we can catalog them and get to them.
Please know, and I do need to mention that all
(21:47):
of the utility workers, not just my folks at La
County Public Works, but the folks at the City of
Los Angeles, the folks at the Southern California Edison, the
gas company.
Speaker 6 (21:55):
We are all.
Speaker 7 (21:56):
Coordinating with each other to restore your systems, and they
are folks are all working twenty four to seven. There
are many heroic stories like the sheriff and fire have
of our utility folks out in the middle of the
night twenty four to seven getting those systems back up
into place. And I want to thank all of the
utility workers who are out there doing their job, who
are not going home to family at night, they are
(22:17):
actually working twenty four to seven as well. With that,
I want to introduce the CEO and Chief Engineer of
the Department of Water Power, Janie Keionas.
Speaker 4 (22:33):
Good morning.
Speaker 8 (22:34):
I am Jenny's Kinyona, CEO and Chief Engineer of LEDWP.
LADWP crews continue to work around the clock to restore
power and support firefighting efforts. On the powerfront. We have
restored about two hundred thousand customers so far since the
windstorm started, and as of this morning, we have approximately
ninety five thousand customers out. We have one hundred and
(22:58):
eighteen crews d W pre Cruise working around the clock
to restore powers as fast and as safe as possible.
We're expecting our mutual A crews coming from pg AND
to arrive today and support the restoration efforts. Our restoration
times are ranging from twenty four to forty eight hours.
(23:19):
We are prioritizing wires down, so if you see a
wire down, please call nine one one and we'll send
cruise immediately to make the area safe. However, if you
leave and the fire impacted areas or near those areas,
you might experience longer outages, mainly because either our equipment
has been compromise due to the fire, we're not able
(23:40):
to access the area yet, or we're proactively shutting out
the power for the safety or of firefighters and first responders.
On the water side, the boiled water not is for
palistades on nine zero two seven to continues an effect
and it will continue an effect for at least forty
eight hours. I have water quality engineers taking samples around
(24:03):
the system to ensure that the water quality remains a
priority for our consumers. We continue to support la FD
and call fire and water supply issues and firefighting response,
including opening our water reservoirs. As mentioned by Mark yesterday,
Hollywood Reservoir was a critical asset when we were fighting
(24:26):
the Sunset fire. So all our reservoirs are open that
are open air for air assets, and we continue to
work around the clock with other water agencies to increase
the supply and pressure of the water system, including Metropolitan
Water District. I want to end this by thanking d
wq DP crews and personnel for their commitment and efforts
(24:53):
to support the restoration of La Thank you, thank you
very much for that.
Speaker 9 (24:58):
And now I also want to you know, we recognize
President Biden and Governor Newsom, but we also have here
with us today Congress Member George Whiteside, Congress Member Laura Friedman,
Senator Sasha Renee Perez, Assembly Member Celeste Rodriguez, and Malibu
Mayer Doug Stewart. Make no mistake, we are all working together,
(25:22):
and I want to thank you all for being here.
I know our Congress representatives flew in and we appreciate
it and we are all in this together.
Speaker 4 (25:31):
With that, we'll take some questions, Thank you, cher Barger.
So just a couple rules of.
Speaker 10 (25:34):
The run to continue on with questions and so Gary
and Shannon are coming right up. You're going to hear
a commentary, what they have to say the latest news.
So please stay tuned to KFI. I'll catch you tomorrow
Handle in the Morning.
Speaker 4 (25:50):
Crew, you've been listening to the Bill Handle Show.
Speaker 10 (25:52):
Catch my show Monday through Friday, six am to nine am,
and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty with a live
broadcast of the One Voice press conference. To get the
latest updates on the impacts of the fires that are
burning around southern California. We're listening to La City Fire
Chief Kristin Crowley. Pretty Much the only information we've gotten
so far is that now for Palisades, they're saying thousands
(00:28):
of homes have been destroyed, but they're not giving a number.
We are still expecting to hear from La County Sheriff
Robert Luna, City Police Chief Jim McDonald and Lada Nathan Hawkman,
which is Sheriff Luna, Sir.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Good morning, Robert Luna, the Sheriff of Los Angeles County. Currently,
we have well over four hundred Sheriff's personnel that are.
Speaker 4 (00:54):
Still actively deployed to.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
The fires, in addition to our normal staffing for patrol
related functions throughout the County of Los Angeles. Deputies continue
to assist our residents with evacuations. They are performing a
lot of humanitarian missions, so many stories to share, don't
have time right now. Providing food and blankets to people
rescuing people who unfortunately did not evacuate when they were
(01:20):
asked to.
Speaker 4 (01:21):
So you've heard it over and over up here.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
A lot of the stories of heroic actions by our
deputy sheriffs, police officers, or firefighters. A lot of them
are taking place from people who did not choose to evacuate,
putting their own lives at risk. So please, if you're
asked to evacuate, evacuate, because it's not only your life
you're putting in danger. We continue to conduct roving patrols,
(01:47):
manning hard road closures, providing security in evacuation areas to
prevent anyone who may be tempted attempted to engage in
criminal behaving or behavior like looting. It was mentioned earlier
before by the supervisor, and I'm going to make this
crystal clear to everybody out there. Over last night and
(02:12):
this morning, we are up to twenty twenty individuals who
chose to go into our areas and deprive these poor
people who have been through so much of their property.
Absolutely unacceptable. And I'm going to give direction to our
(02:32):
department members. As you know, when we have an evacuation order.
Speaker 4 (02:38):
By law, if you remain in that.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
Area, you are guilty of a misdemeanor. If you commit
certain crimes, it could jump up to a felony. I'm
going to be asking our employees to start enforcing that.
That is very different than a curfew. Why because it's
twenty four to seven. I don't have to wait for
the sun to go down or the sun to come up.
If you are in one of these areas and you
(03:01):
do not belong there, you are going to be subject
to arrest. I hope that is as clear as I
can make it, because I don't. Our first choice isn't
to do enforcement. It's not to make arrest. It's to
help people. But if people choose to commit crimes, they're
going to be held accountable. And the DA who is
standing next to me will clarify even that a little
(03:23):
bit further. This continues to be a fluid and evolving crisis,
and the numbers that we released throughout this incident are
going to fluctuate, so anything we say is subject to change.
We're getting information from our boots on the ground. It's
very chaotic out there because it's still so fluid. So
forgive us if we give a number and then we
(03:43):
have to modify those numbers. I talked about the twenty
arrests that have been made so far. Unfortunately, I do
expect that to go up. We're not going to tolerate
that kind of activity. We have substantially increased our deployment
of depth at the fixed traffic post and are trying
to limit and clear out any unauthorized vehicles or people
(04:07):
in these areas. I do want to talk as we
are summonsing more resources. I have been in contact with
the chief of the Office of Emergency Services for the
State of California. Obviously that's done at the direction of
Governor Newsom from the get go of this. He has
offered any and all resources to us in law enforcement,
(04:29):
and they're doing the same for fire. But I'll specifically
talk about policing. The California National Guard is on standby
at our direction, specifically my direction, and we, along with
my partner Jim McDonald at the LAPD, are currently in
discussions if we are going to need them or how
(04:50):
we would deploy them as the hours go on, So
stand by for that information as the hours tick on.
Chief Maroney mentioned this regarding any death toll information. Yes,
we had preliminary numbers yesterday. I got to be honest
with you as I reviewed some of those last night
(05:11):
and this morning, I was not satisfied with some of
the information that we're getting.
Speaker 4 (05:15):
And it's not the fault of our people.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
The people that are working under very difficult conditions are
doing their best to do what they need to do.
At one point, we'll be able to do a more
thorough search of these impacted areas. Some of them look
like a bomb was dropped in them, where we will
be able to bring in canines and other things to
help us hopefully not discover too many fatalities. That's our prayer.
(05:42):
But this is a crisis and we don't know what
to expect. But we're ready for everything, So all information,
at least on the county side of this equation. We're
working with our corner's office. We'll figure out those numbers,
So be patient with us when you ask us about
death toll numbers right now.
Speaker 4 (06:01):
Frankly, we don't know yet.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
We eventually will evacuations overall for Palisades, Eaton Hurst and
Lydia fires. The number in both county and city areas
evacuation orders are impacting one thousand or one hundred and
seventy nine thousand, seven hundred.
Speaker 4 (06:19):
And eighty three residents.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
That's nearly one hundred and eighty thousand people in Los
Angeles County that are currently under evacuation orders, with another
close to two hundred thousand residents that under evacuation warnings.
I cannot emphasize enough that I urge residents that are
asked to evacuate to follow our warnings. I gave some
(06:42):
examples earlier. I'm going out through my staff.
Speaker 4 (06:45):
Hey, give me some.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
Stories where our deputies are just constantly putting their life
on the line, and in every example I'm given as
a result of somebody who chose not to evacuate. I
don't want to tell those stories anymore. I don't want
to give stories of our first responders being injured, specifically
our communities being injured. Please, if you're told to evacuate, evacuate.
(07:09):
Two of our sheriff Stuff State substations are out of power,
running on generators. That's both our Altadena and Crescentia Valley stations.
They're right in the thick of things. They're engaged in
all of the work that I've described described the issues
of mutual aid will consistently evaluate and reevaluate the needs.
Speaker 4 (07:30):
For more law enforcement personnel.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
But I can tell you I'm getting calls from all
over this region from other sheriffs and police chiefs. Everybody
wants to help, and that's awesome. That's part of our profession.
Very proud to be part of it. The last thing
I'll say is for any specific information regarding evacuation orders
or warnings or any road closures, and there's a lot
(07:53):
of them, please go to Alacounty dot gov slash emergency.
Thank you very much, And with that, I am going
to introduce the Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department,
Jim McDonald.
Speaker 4 (08:09):
Good morning, and.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
I'll start off with a sincere thank you to all
who have cooperated and supported the first responders and others
who've been out there doing the best they can to
make this as manageable as it can be. We're still
on full tactical lilerate at the LAPD in support of
our fire partners to be able to accomplish their mission.
(08:30):
We're assisting with safety as well as the evacuation sites.
You heard the sheriff quote the numbers of people who
are out there using those and again we want to
provide every level of safety we can for those involved
in that effort. We've been joined by our Port Police
and Los Angeles World Airport Police partners as part of
the city family and doing the jobs that we're doing
(08:52):
as we move forward today.
Speaker 4 (08:54):
But I want to thank our team.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
Many of our team and many of the people who
are here behind me, have left their families and fire
areas to come to work to be able to help others.
We've had a large number of people who have been evacuated,
a large number of people in this group here who
either family or friends have lost their own homes and
lost everything they own and are dealing with taking care
(09:19):
of young families at the same time while they're trying
to balance the needs of work with the needs and
responsibilities of family. We truly are all in this together,
and we have to look at it that way as
we move forward. The advice I would give is consistent
with what you've heard. The air is not healthy for
people who are challenged from a respiratory standpoint, So if
(09:42):
you don't have to come into an area that's so impacted,
please don't traffic. We are trying to maintain ingress and
egress to our emergency areas for first responders. In particular,
we had, as you heard, people coming in still from
other states to be able to help in the fire
suppression effort, and we need them to be able to
get in and be able to do what they need
(10:03):
to do as easily as possible. The evacuations they will
probably still continue as the winds pick up, so we
want to be able to do that as effectively as
we can. Again, I said thank you for the cooperation,
but I asked for additional cooperation should the need arise
as we move forward. This is anything but predictable. We're
(10:25):
thankful for the wind conditions we have now and the
ability for our fire partners to try and make up
for lost time, to be able to put containment around
several of our burn areas and to be able to
move forward on that. But again I just want to
say that you've heard from and you'll hear in a
minute from the DA, but from the Sheriff about our
(10:46):
crime suppression efforts. For those who want to take advantage
of others, we're there, We're going to be there, and
we're going to be working to hold you accountable for
what you're doing in that regard but as this runs
its course, fatigue will search become a significant factor for
those who are both directly involved in the operation as
(11:06):
well as members of our community. So again, we are
very thankful for the people who are doing this on
all of our behalf. But we need to stick together,
we need to support each other, and this is a
thing where morale is a big deal for both the
community and all of our folks. So take care of
each other out there, and let's do the best we can.
Speaker 4 (11:25):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
Now I mentioned our da Hawkman, it's not my pleasure
to introduce the newly elected District Attorney of Los Angeles County,
Nathan Hakman.
Speaker 5 (11:45):
Yesterday I bore witness by walking and driving through Pacific Palisades.
I ended up in my sister's house, a house where
she and her husband raised four boys, celebrated birthdays, barbecues
and whatnot. And that house has been burned to the ground,
and not just her house, but all her neighbors up
(12:06):
and down each one of the blocks I traveled. Those
houses no longer exist. They are now basically rubble. And
I haven't seen something like that, and I've lived here
almost over sixty years. In the entire time i've been here,
it looked apocalyptic. Not since the nineteen nineties when Los
Angeles was hit with the fires, the flood, the earthquake,
(12:29):
and the riots, if I've seen such disaster occur here
in our city. But like back then, Los Angeles has
true grit. It has resilience, and it will rebuild and
it will rebuild better than ever. But along the way,
there might be people out there who want to take
(12:50):
advantage of the people who are suffering these tragic losses.
These criminals need to hear, as they've heard from the sheriff,
as they've heard from Chief McDonald, an unmistakably clear message
that if you want to go ahead and loot, if
you want to commit burglary, if you want to engage
in grand theft, if you want to engage in these
(13:12):
internet scams where you're going to take advantage of people
who are going to be seeking insurance and government benefits,
you will be arrested, You will be prosecuted, and you
will be punished to the full extent.
Speaker 6 (13:26):
Of the law.
Speaker 4 (13:27):
And the reason I want to send this.
Speaker 5 (13:28):
Warning now is I don't want any mistake later that
somehow they thought, oh, it's not a big deal.
Speaker 6 (13:35):
It's a huge deal.
Speaker 5 (13:36):
These acts are despicable and we will prosecute them with
maximal punishment. So I want to make sure that message
is received loud and clear, because the first responders in
this situation have been simply heroic. As I was in
Pacific Palisades, I not only saw fire departments from LA
(13:56):
County and LA City, I saw rialto howway reading fire
engines from across this entire state that have come to
our rescue.
Speaker 6 (14:06):
And thank you.
Speaker 5 (14:07):
Thank you to all the first responders.
Speaker 4 (14:10):
When it comes to law enforcement.
Speaker 5 (14:12):
It's an all hands on deck operation with law enforcement
and the DA's office. Again, detectives are putting on uniforms
and getting out there on the streets to protect us.
We owe them a huge thank you and from the
DA's office. If we do get these cases, please be
on notice that we.
Speaker 6 (14:33):
Are going to try and deter you from committing.
Speaker 5 (14:35):
The crimes in the first place, but if you do
commit these crimes, do not expect anything else than maximal punishment.
Are now introduced LA County Public Works Director Mark Priscella.
Speaker 6 (14:55):
Good morning.
Speaker 7 (14:56):
As was stated, my name is Mark Coastrella and the
director of the Los Angeles County Public Works Agency.
Speaker 6 (15:02):
First.
Speaker 7 (15:02):
I want to save My heart, of course, goes out
to everyone affected by the devastating event. I personally toured
many of the areas yesterday and met with residents, and
as everyone here is described, it's an absolute tragedy, including
the life safety support system, our infrastructure that has been
destroyed that supports life in these communities. I know for
(15:25):
personal experience that fielding a loss from a wildfire, and
I have tremendous respect for our firefighters and other first responders,
our police force, the Sheriff's department for the work they
are currently doing. In fact, our current mission, which has
been going twenty four to seven for three days now,
is to support our fire department and our Sheriff's department
(15:45):
and the local pds and their efforts to save lives.
That is our number one mission right now, Kay.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
If I am six forty, we are listening to an
update on the wildfires that have broken out across the
LA region. The new information that we got today is
that in the Pacific Palisades, the number of homes and
businesses burned is in the thousands. Also, in the fire
burning in the Altadena area, we're hearing that they are
(16:14):
reevaluating the number of people who have been killed in
the fire. Also that twenty looters have been arrested so
far getting into the fire areas and that they will
be prose prosecuted. We're still waiting to hear from the
director of the or the CEO and chief engineer of
the laed W P. Jenese quinnonas and that may affect
(16:38):
whether there are power outages in the area, which we
know there still are, and also whether you can drink
the water. So we're going to stick with this news
conference and go back to Public Works Director Mark Pistralla,
back to.
Speaker 7 (16:51):
Its former way of life. The debris can be hazardous.
The debris that is on the private property is considered
hazardous toxic, and so I want to warn everybody now
that is either there, who's remained behind, or who is
visiting the areas.
Speaker 6 (17:06):
As was mentioned earlier, it is not safe.
Speaker 7 (17:09):
It is not safe to touch the debris, It is
not safe to remove the debris yourselves. There is a
process for that, and we will be mobilizing with the
City of Los Angeles to provide a health review of
every property and make sure that when we move that
debris that it's done in a way that's safe and
safe for you and for the other residents who remain
behind in the area. We are also working on water
(17:32):
supply system. The water supply system currently is still supplying.
Speaker 6 (17:37):
Supply fire suppression.
Speaker 7 (17:38):
Last night, we got to see the wonderful use of
our reservoirs, the city's reservoirs and our reservoirs to take
water from the reservoirs and actually use firefighting event aerial
attacks to the system. You saw what a difference that
made in the firefight last night. And those reservoirs are
full and continue to be ready and at the disposal
of our firefighting friends. The municipal water system continues to
(18:03):
suffer poor water quality due to the introduction of ash
and debris into our reservoirs into our filtration systems, So
there are specific areas that we are asking for water
to be boiled. I would just say, with all caution,
anyone who's remained behind, if there is any residence in
your area that has burned to the ground and you
are still there, you should just go.
Speaker 6 (18:23):
Ahead and boil water.
Speaker 7 (18:25):
We will be actively coming to communities in the next day,
within this day or next day delivering water delivering domestic
water to people who remain in the fire zone area.
Speaker 6 (18:36):
We will do.
Speaker 7 (18:37):
Ellie County will be coordinating that effort, not only for
the District twenty nine, but also we'd be working with
the City of La to deliver water to residents who've
remained behind or who again have partial damage and are
maybe staying in their homes.
Speaker 6 (18:52):
I want to again just mention.
Speaker 7 (18:54):
That a firefight with multiple fire hydrants drawing water from
municipal water systems for several hours is just sustainable. That's
why the air support is so important. Our residents in
the sudset Mesa Topanga Beach area, Coastline Drive on south
out on the south to Shore Heights Drive on the
north have are are up in the area. This is
(19:16):
a partial damaged area or a threatened area the Topanga
Canyon Road to Carbon Canyon Road Maysa as well as
another area that's threatened. So all what I just talked
about applies to you residents who are there.
Speaker 4 (19:28):
Now.
Speaker 7 (19:28):
What can we do, what can the public do? What
you should be doing as we sort of still active fire.
I if you again, I will reiterate that it's extremely
important to listen to the sheriff and to PD. When
you are asked to evacuate, to evacuate immediately.
Speaker 6 (19:44):
Do not hesitate, do not wait. Your life is not
worth it.
Speaker 7 (19:48):
The systems that you're leaving behind, they are going to
be impacted and they cannot be restarted easily. So I
know a lot of people are talking about, you know,
starting up. If you're thinking about cre your own water
and sewer and power system that you're home, I want
you to be very careful about that. That is not
something that a licensed contractor should be doing or our utility.
Speaker 6 (20:10):
Folks, Please don't do that.
Speaker 7 (20:12):
As I said yesterday, if you're leaving your home, I
want to make sure that you lock that home, that
you close that home uptight, and that you leave access
for firefighters by not closing gates or creating situation where
they can't get to your home.
Speaker 6 (20:26):
To fight off fire.
Speaker 7 (20:27):
The road system is impacted heavily throughout La County, including
city and county areas. There are multiple, in fact hundreds
of stop signals that are currently flashing red. Owner remind
everybody that you treat that as a stop sign and
you stop for that flashing, and if you come to
a barricade, you need to turn around because those streets
are closed for the purpose of recovery and not for
(20:50):
lookie loose. Please do not argue with the sheriffs that
are there are the pd the road. If the road
is closed, there's a good reason for it. It's because
it's not safe for you to be in that area.
And that safety includes the debris that I was talking about,
trees down, potholes, road systems destroyed. There could be breaks
in the roadway that could cause major damage to your vehicle.
(21:11):
So I'm asking that you comply with all road closures
until further notice. We are available as a twenty four
to seven agency. You can reach our department at one
eight hundred and six seventy five.
Speaker 6 (21:24):
Help.
Speaker 7 (21:25):
We do need every citizens. There's something else you can do.
If you see something, please tell us about it. Whether
it's a gas leak, whether it's a utility line down,
if it's a signal that's not malfunctioning, if it's a
sewer system leak, any of those things that keep our lives,
our life safety system going. We need to know about
them so we can catalog them and get to them.
Please know, and I do need to mention that all
(21:47):
of the utility workers, not just my folks at La
County Public Works, but the folks at the City of
Los Angeles, the folks at the Southern California Edison, the
gas company.
Speaker 6 (21:55):
We are all.
Speaker 7 (21:56):
Coordinating with each other to restore your systems, and they
are folks are all working twenty four to seven. There
are many heroic stories like the sheriff and fire have
of our utility folks out in the middle of the
night twenty four to seven getting those systems back up
into place. And I want to thank all of the
utility workers who are out there doing their job, who
are not going home to family at night, they are
(22:17):
actually working twenty four to seven as well. With that,
I want to introduce the CEO and Chief Engineer of
the Department of Water Power, Janie Keionas.
Speaker 4 (22:33):
Good morning.
Speaker 8 (22:34):
I am Jenny's Kinyona, CEO and Chief Engineer of LEDWP.
LADWP crews continue to work around the clock to restore
power and support firefighting efforts. On the powerfront. We have
restored about two hundred thousand customers so far since the
windstorm started, and as of this morning, we have approximately
ninety five thousand customers out. We have one hundred and
(22:58):
eighteen crews d W pre Cruise working around the clock
to restore powers as fast and as safe as possible.
We're expecting our mutual A crews coming from pg AND
to arrive today and support the restoration efforts. Our restoration
times are ranging from twenty four to forty eight hours.
(23:19):
We are prioritizing wires down, so if you see a
wire down, please call nine one one and we'll send
cruise immediately to make the area safe. However, if you
leave and the fire impacted areas or near those areas,
you might experience longer outages, mainly because either our equipment
has been compromise due to the fire, we're not able
(23:40):
to access the area yet, or we're proactively shutting out
the power for the safety or of firefighters and first responders.
On the water side, the boiled water not is for
palistades on nine zero two seven to continues an effect
and it will continue an effect for at least forty
eight hours. I have water quality engineers taking samples around
(24:03):
the system to ensure that the water quality remains a
priority for our consumers. We continue to support la FD
and call fire and water supply issues and firefighting response,
including opening our water reservoirs. As mentioned by Mark yesterday,
Hollywood Reservoir was a critical asset when we were fighting
(24:26):
the Sunset fire. So all our reservoirs are open that
are open air for air assets, and we continue to
work around the clock with other water agencies to increase
the supply and pressure of the water system, including Metropolitan
Water District. I want to end this by thanking d
wq DP crews and personnel for their commitment and efforts
(24:53):
to support the restoration of La Thank you, thank you
very much for that.
Speaker 9 (24:58):
And now I also want to you know, we recognize
President Biden and Governor Newsom, but we also have here
with us today Congress Member George Whiteside, Congress Member Laura Friedman,
Senator Sasha Renee Perez, Assembly Member Celeste Rodriguez, and Malibu
Mayer Doug Stewart. Make no mistake, we are all working together,
(25:22):
and I want to thank you all for being here.
I know our Congress representatives flew in and we appreciate
it and we are all in this together.
Speaker 4 (25:31):
With that, we'll take some questions, Thank you, cher Barger.
So just a couple rules of.
Speaker 10 (25:34):
The run to continue on with questions and so Gary
and Shannon are coming right up. You're going to hear
a commentary, what they have to say the latest news.
So please stay tuned to KFI. I'll catch you tomorrow
Handle in the Morning.
Speaker 4 (25:50):
Crew, you've been listening to the Bill Handle Show.
Speaker 10 (25:52):
Catch my show Monday through Friday, six am to nine am,
and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
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