December 10, 2024 • 29 mins
Neil Saavedra and Amy King join Bill for Handel on the News. Wildfire dubbed the Franklin fire explodes in Malibu, prompting mass evacuations, and had burned more than 1,800 acres by the early morning.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to KAPI AM six forty, the Bill Handle
Show on demand on the iHeartRadio f.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
And now Handle on the news.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
Ladies and gentlemen, here's Bill Handle.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
And good morning. I don't know how good it is.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Bill Handle here and the morning crew, and I woke
up this morning to the news of the fire, which
we're gonna be carrying all morning for.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
The most part.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
I mean, there are some big pieces of news in
addition to that, but I think it's going to be
the for most of the show, it will be the fire.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
As I woke up this morning, I was listening to.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Tim Conway, who has been covering the fire for the
last several hours.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Tim, I'm still here, buddy, ding along with you.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Yeah, ding dong with you. Tim. I have to tell
you something. Usually I don't think.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Of you as a hard news guy. I think you
have done a terrific job. I'm not blowing smoke, literally,
I'm not blowing smoke up your rear.
Speaker 4 (01:04):
End.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
I appreciate that.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
It is a lot of it has to do with
number one, you You grew up here in southern California,
so you know the geography backwards and forwards.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
You know the topography, you know all the.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
Landmarks, and you've put it into a in a way.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
That is just really a joy to listen to.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
And I'd love to have your co host with me also, right, Yeah, exactly.
And I only heard during the course I was watching
a little bit of TV, I only heard firefighters, I think,
say only half a dozen times. Are priorities? Are people
first and property second? But as the property values approach
(01:44):
ten million dollars per home, that line gets blurred, doesn't it.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
That's right? Well, yeah, I think you're right.
Speaker 5 (01:49):
I think the you know, we're all worried about insurance
on our property. And I think a lot of times,
you know, don't you think that firefighters when they go
in and they you know, they put a fire out
in a guy's house. Don't you think once in a
while they dip into the fridge for a cold one?
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Yeah, I would think so.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Or how about a firefighter who is just trying to
buy a house, couldn't get loan, it's living in an
apartments watching a twenty five million dollar home.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
Go eh, you know it could be.
Speaker 5 (02:21):
Worsectly exactly right, But man, this fire You know, Bill,
I know you and I lived and you know, fairly
close to each other in the San Fernando Valley. You know,
back in twenty thirty years ago, these fires used to
take two or three days to get to the coast.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
Man they're doing it in hours now.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
It's just it's insane.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Well because obviously climate change and if you'll look at
the climate, and Amy will be telling us about all
this all morning long, and that is we have very
low humidity.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Winds are going.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
To gust up and I think what nine nine thirty
they're going to be hitting.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
That's right highest level.
Speaker 5 (02:57):
Let me ask you something, Billy, because you're a money guy,
you know, and you know insurance. You know, you've had
insurance on homes and cars and stuff like that. When
you see these fires, don't you get the feeling that
there when there are now three or four more insurance
companies that are going to bail on California.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Before the next commercial. Yes, my insurance my home. You're
a homeowner. I don't know when your insurance has come
up for renewal. Mine just did doubled, doubled, seriously, one
hundred percent increase.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
It's crazy.
Speaker 5 (03:32):
I was, you know, when my wife and I were
the only two drivers in our house is twenty four
hundred dollars a year, and now that my eighteen year
old daughter is driving, it's close to ten thousand dollars.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
It's insane.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Well, I ended up when my kids and I bought
part of their cars, and I would own the cars.
I wouldn't let them actually have title the house because
I was one of those keys. They acted out. Keys
are in my pocket. I had to give my daughter
the car. I had to give her title to the car.
I can't take away the key. Now, insurance was so astronomical.
(04:04):
Right now, it's go ahead and kill.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Anybody you want.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
I'm not responsible, you know, leave me alone. Uh, it's
just crazy. So you've got to go home and you yes,
you thank you for you have to sleep. Tim, thank
you so much.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
Yeah, thank you. Bill handle everybody and no, thank you.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
And Tim Conway Junior everybody, and back and forth, back
and forth. You know, I wasn't you know what, I
wasn't surprised, but I got kind of well, I guess
in one sense, pleasantly surprised at how strong, uh how
strong Tim was and uh basically leading the coverage here.
All right, let me say hello to everybody.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Who is here. Uh Neil just came a war a
few minutes ago. Good morning, Neil.
Speaker 6 (04:43):
Oh.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
He's waving, not speaking. Amy, Good morning, Bill, good morning.
We're going to be going to you.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
It's going to be more you than anybody else, I think,
because you're on top of the latest breaking news. Uh
Kono is here as always because we have someone running
the board and who is running around someplace. I'm here,
I just don't see you, an I am not in
the studio today. So I'm going to rely on you guys,
(05:10):
especially to go to the television coverage and we're going
to try to get We have Michael Monks going out
and he will be out on the fire.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
We're going to be talking to people who are around
the fire. In the fire.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
I'm trying to get my friend Chuck Lovers with Chuck
was with La County Fired.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
He did this.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
He fought these kinds of fires for thirty years. So
we're going to get some insight as to what is
going on on the technical side.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
And then people who were just there.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
And of course there's a press conference coming up up
at seven o'clock.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Do I have that right? Amy? From the fire department.
Speaker 4 (05:48):
They're saying now.
Speaker 7 (05:48):
That it may be eight o'clock, okay, but whenever it happens,
we'll bring it to your life, okay.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
And I have not heard of any increase in acreage
for several hours.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
All I've heard is eighteen hundred plus.
Speaker 7 (06:00):
Yeah. When I got in here, it was at like
seven hundred, and then it quickly went up to like
fourteen hundred and fifteen hundred sixteen, and now it's up
to over eighteen hundred. So it's definitely been growing quickly.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
Yeah, and it's going to grow even quicker, unfortunately as
the winds whip up. Although Tim had said that as
light approaches, let me open the window here, okay. So dark, okay,
still dark. So as light approaches, we're going to see
the aircraft, mainly from van Ey's take off, the firefighting
(06:35):
aircraft of which there's been so much of an increase
in the last few years, and they've become a game changer.
Michael Monks, who is out on the fire line? Michael,
exactly where are you and what are you seeing?
Speaker 8 (06:49):
I am hanging out at one of the evacuation centers
in the Palisades on LMO Rael Drive. This is one
that has opened up the folks who were evacuated either
late last night or early this morning, and so right
now it's very quiet. There's about a dozen and a
half cars here. And what's interesting is that when you
take a peek inside this evacuation center, they've got all
(07:10):
the little cots set up and all of the coffee
and little snacks that are available to folks, But none
of the folks who've driven here are actually in there.
Just a handful are in there. Everybody's kind of hanging
out in their cars right now. And you know, I'm
not a psychiatrist or psychologist, but I can't help but
assume that, you know, maybe you're holding onto a little
(07:32):
bit of your own comfort after something as disruptive as
being evacuated for this very serious fire and all the
questions still surrounding it about the winds and whether those
are going to pick up again, what's the condition of
any of the buildings up there, including your own.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
So I'm gonna hopefully talk.
Speaker 8 (07:50):
To some of these folks as soon as I can
muster up the strength to bother them. Folks are just
kind of hanging out right now, very quietly.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Inside their cars.
Speaker 8 (07:59):
But this evacuation center one of several open for folks,
others available for animals. But right now it's kind of
a wait and see thing, literally waiting to see. We're
hoping to see this sun come up momentarily so that
authorities can get a clearer picture of the damage and
also so those airborne firefighters can get a better handle
(08:21):
on fighting this thing.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
Yeah, Michael, keep in mind that this is KFI, So
feel free to shove a microphone in someone's face and say, hey,
how you feeling.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
I do plan to.
Speaker 8 (08:33):
I did talk to a woman a little bit earlier
as she pulled in, and you know, she was completely disheveled.
Oh yeah, scared, and her husband is handicapped disabled and
he was in the back of the vehicle and she
needed help from folks inside to come out and help
get the wheelchair together. She didn't know where to park,
(08:53):
and so it just gave me a direct sense of
how people are feeling. I mean, you had to jump
in a car and then you had to drive somewhere,
not knowing what this thing is going to look like.
She was asking me if this was the evacuation center.
So a lot of confusion on folks face as they
emerge here in the twilight hours, and it's obviously a
(09:15):
very scary situation if you had to depart your home.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Now. Is the Red Cross on site?
Speaker 8 (09:20):
It is a Red Cross operated shelter, Yes, exactly.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
All right, so they're right out there. One of the
things about the Red Cross they're pretty neat.
Speaker 8 (09:26):
And they're fast. I mean they were out here immediately.
Everybody looked like they had been cleaned up and showered
and dressed and in their uniforms and ready to go,
you know, before I got here.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
Yeah, they know what they're doing for sure.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
All right, Michael, I know you're going to be standing by,
so we'll be coming to you on a regular basis.
You're going to be working pretty hard this next shift
and probably got it the rest of the day.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
Thanks for everything you do, of course, all right. I
sort of had to say that, didn't.
Speaker 4 (09:50):
I It was very nice of you, It actually was.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
You know, I'm kind of surprised actually now there it
is right there. Thank Michael Long for everything he does.
There you go, Hey, you write it, I say it.
If you're just waking up. There is a I wouldn't
use the word massive wildfire. It's a last reported eighteen
(10:15):
hundred acres now, normally an eighteen hundred acre fire, they're
calling it a wildfire because zero percent contained would not
be that big a deal. I mean relative to the
tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of acres that have
been burnt in various fires throughout California in the last
(10:35):
couple of three years.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
But this is in the heart of Malibu.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
This is where some of the most expensive homes in
the US are the US are in the US, Yeah,
are I got that right? And we're talking about major
celebrities and high end folks financially and in the public eye.
Film stars, as Tim Conway said this morning, film stars,
(11:02):
heads of business. I mean people that are very well known.
They are the ones that are going to be effective.
And the homes can be tens of millions, are tens
of millions of dollars, so particular attention is being paid.
Let me check in really quickly with Amy, who's been
following up on this. By the way, Neil is here,
and of course An is here, and Cono said hello
(11:23):
to everybody who's working on the show this morning. So Amy,
what is the latest that we can report?
Speaker 7 (11:29):
Okay, so we're still having that It's eighteen hundred and
twenty two acres. The La County Sheriff's Department and actually
fire Chief. They're going to be holding a press conference
at eight o'clock to give us all the latest numbers,
so we'll have updates for you by then.
Speaker 4 (11:47):
We'll try to get some more before then.
Speaker 7 (11:49):
We do have about two thousand homes under evacuation warning
or actually evacuation orders. They are out of their homes
east of Las Virgins between maul Hull Highway to the
north and Payouma Road to the south, between Stunt Road
to the north and Lost Florists to the south, east
of Carbon Beach Terrace, west of Old Malibu Road, north
of Pacific Coast Highway. Shelter has been set up at
(12:11):
Palisades Recreation Center. That's where Michael Monks is and that
is at eight five to one Alma Real Drive in
Pacific Palisades. And then if you've got animals that need
to be taken to shelters, the shelters are at a
Gora Animal Center care Center in Agra Hills and also
Pierce College in Woodland Hills. The fire is burning uncontained,
out completely out of control. Several spot fires have been
(12:35):
sparked because of the embers and the ash that is
being thrown way away from the main fire because of
the Santa Ana winds which are expected to blow between
forty and fifty miles per hour, and the winds are
going to be very strong this morning according to the
National Weather Service, they may die down hopefully this afternoon
(12:56):
and hopefully give firefighters a little bit of an edge there.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
I have not heard how many homes have burnt. That
has not been reported.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
No, we know that homes have burned, Okay, we do
have that.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
And we always talk about structures, and whenever I think
of structure as opposed to homes, I think of outhouses
that are sitting on a piece of property. So the
number of homes and I'm assuming that there has to
be a fair number, and I would think they would
have gotten some ideas. So at eight o'clock we're going
to get much more of an update. One of the
(13:27):
things Amy, and then we're going to go to Mike Friole.
One of the things I noticed that it does take
hours sometimes to get an update as to numbers. If
you have a if you have fire that's out of
control like this one, and it is.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
Moving, you would think there.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
Would be some extrapolation, say it is moving at five
hundred acres an hour or and we're not getting.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
A lot of that.
Speaker 7 (13:50):
Well, the winds did, They did die down a bit
over the night, although it has been windy there. But
the winds also shift directions, so it's not just burning
in a straight line, and it doesn't you know, the
border of the fire doesn't have like a nice straight
line either, so I think it's a little more challenging.
And like we were talking about, with the embers that
are throwing off from the fire that could spark other fires,
(14:12):
you have to add those in as well.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
Yeah, and we're going to be talking to my friend
Chuck Lovers a little bit later on. And what time
do we have Chuck coming on this morning?
Speaker 2 (14:22):
He was with the.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
La County Fire and he fought these fires and he'll
give us a lot of technical insight that we're not
going to get anyplace else.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
Now. We're going to do this for a couple of
segments at least.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
So at this point, the director of communications for Pepperdine,
Mike Friel, who is there shelteringly sheltering in place. Mike,
thanks for joining us. So what's going on on that
campus right now.
Speaker 9 (14:48):
Yeah, I mean the night we woke up somewhere around
eleven em and learned about this fire about five miles
from campus, and we monitored it as it moves closer toward, uh,
toward our campus, and unfortunately we had to issue the
shelter in place protocol. This is a well planned out
(15:12):
plan to ensure that our our residents are safe. They're
in the center of campus. They're sheltered in place as
we speak, in our pace in library and the Tyler
UH Center of campus. And so right now we're taking
care of our students and make sure they have what
they need, and you know, we we really need to
(15:36):
stay focused on them to ensure that they're taken care of.
So we are looking for sunrise to make sure we
can assess and and and see if it's safe to
to allow for our students to return back to their
residence halls. We did cancel classes and this is finals week,
so uh, they're not going to be doing their finals tomorrow,
(15:59):
but we want to make sure that they're able to
finish out the semester well.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
All right, for those people that aren't aware of the
Pepperdine campus, if you want to look it up, you
want to google it.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
It sits on top of the.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
Mountain right there in Malibu and has a almost unbridled
view of the Pacific Ocean. It could very well be
the most beautifully situated campus on the planet. Now, there's
all that greenery, that huge expanse of grant of grass
in front all the way down to the highway. What's
behind it is I'm assuming if you have that much grass,
(16:35):
there's not a lot of there's not a lot of
burnable material, but how much around the campus actually is fuel?
Speaker 9 (16:45):
Yeah, we're surrounded in the Santa Monica Mountains by this
very dry shrubberry, and so there is certainly a threat.
But you know, we have a campus that's well designed.
We have made sure that we keep the edges of
(17:05):
the campus cleared of any brush, and even the shrubbery
on campus is planted and in a way that we
know it's resilient and it's going to withstand some of
these these kinds of conditions. Our buildings are also built
and designed to withstand this kind of a threat from
fires as well. So the campus itself is really the
(17:27):
safest place for our students to be. You know, we
have planned for these kinds of situations, knowing where we're at.
It is the most beautiful campus.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
In the world.
Speaker 9 (17:40):
Uh and and yet it's it's also susceptible to fire
conditions like this. So we are making sure that our students, though,
are safe and sheltered in place. Thankfully, no significant damage,
reports of any injury. So we think the worst is
over for now, but we're going to have to really
(18:01):
hold our breath for the next twenty four hours.
Speaker 3 (18:03):
Is the winds continue.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
Mike, Thank you, and I'm sure you'll be in touch
with us throughout the day because I'm not the only
one that wants to talk to you. Might keep safe
a good place to be by the way the campus,
but it really is worth.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
Looking at that be that campus. It is like a stunner.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
The problem is not only the factors Malibu and fires,
but the weather, not so much the temperature, but the
humidity and the gusts of wind. Todd Hall, National Weather
Service kind enough to be with us, Todd, thank you.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
And what are we looking at this morning? Wind? Temperature?
Speaker 6 (18:44):
Yeah, so in general we're we're looking at more of
the same unfortunately this morning. For the next couple hours,
we're looking at winds potentially being between twenty to thirty
miles per hour gusting to forty five to even fifty
five miles per hour across that area across the Franklin Fire,
So it still very dry conditions in place. We're seeing
humidities down to about you know, five to six percent
(19:06):
across that area.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
Five six percent. Basically it's desert.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
I mean that's almost zero humidity, which of course causes
fires to go crazy. And add that Augusta win forty
five miles per hour. You can't you cannot outrun that fire.
You can't outdrive a fire that moves that quickly.
Speaker 6 (19:26):
Yes, and this is this? Did this actually from start
to you know, we can see the stuff on satellite
and watching it progress. Is it from start to the
way it is right now? I mean it it ran
very fast, right from right from its ignition start at
time around eleven o'clock last night.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
And can you tell by just the way the topography
is where the strongest guts wind are likely to blow.
Speaker 6 (19:54):
Yeah, I mean typically you're going to see that it's
oriented down down ridge lines and canyons that are very
oriented with the wind direction, and that will tend to
make that fire and make those wins actually run much
quicker as a result of that.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
All right, Todd, I.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
Am sure you're going to get one or two phone
calls today and we'll come back and thank you very
much for the update. Don't bother napping today, Todd. It's
just not going to happen, all right. A quick word.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
Before we continue on.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
We take our break as we have two ways that
we want to get you involved. One is we have
our line open right now at eight hundred and five
two zero one five three four where you are, what
you're seeing, that sort of thing, and you'll be talking
probably the an and if what you have is reasonably
(20:47):
relevant in terms of where the.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
Fire is going, we'll put you on.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
And there's also you can simply record a here's what's
going on just before you literally walk out the front
door and run out trying to save your ass. The
iHeart app go to the KFI page and there's a
microphone in the upper right hand corner and just leave
a message as to what happens, where you.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
Are, what shelter you're at, whatever.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
You can do to give us information because obviously this
is dynamic and fluid, as it is described the way
we broadcast these fires.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
Neil, you just haven't said hello to you.
Speaker 3 (21:29):
Good marching.
Speaker 10 (21:30):
We just had National Weather Service meteorologist Todd Hall on,
of course, talking about the winds. This is something that
they've been perceiving to be inevitable for the past handful
of days because of those dry conditions that you guys
talked about. We're looking at probably ten minutes twenty minutes
away from winds kicking back up. Earlier this morning they
(21:53):
were clocked at about sixty five miles per hour.
Speaker 3 (21:56):
Crazy what it was reported.
Speaker 10 (21:58):
The weird thing, and you heard Conway talk about this handle,
is that you can't get fixed wing planes up there
when you have those horrible winds. So this starting around
two o'clock or something like that this morning, they were
unable to get some of that up as they normally
would because of those nighttime wins. We'll see how that
(22:22):
plays out today. But as Amy has been reporting, it's
moving south. I see it right now, just kissing the
one freeway there, and that's moving towards the water, which
is good news at one point, but bad news because
you've got that mess of homes right there, very expensive,
(22:42):
as you pointed out, earlier.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
Woke up this morning and woke up to another fire.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
I didn't turn nine KFI heard Tim Conway, who had
been there from two am. Tim was covering the firing Malibu. YEP,
it's deja vu all over again, isn't it? Where we're
watching major fire in Malibu. We have at this point
no idea how many.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
Homes have burned.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
Amy has reported that there are homes that have burnt,
and that has been confirmed.
Speaker 4 (23:13):
Amy confirm from people who are on scene that fire
officials haven't said for sure, but we were expecting to
find out more when the La Fire in La County
Sheriff will be holding a news conference from Zooma Beach
at eight o'clock.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
Yeah, I'm assuming that people there saying yeah, that house
is on fire is pretty legitimate in terms of corroboration,
unless they start mentioning that Martians have come down and
are putting out the fire.
Speaker 2 (23:43):
And you have those crazy people too.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
So we do know a number of homes have gone
up based on what Amy's reporting and that kind of corroboration.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
We don't know the actual acreage because.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
Last reported and this is effective as what time, the
eighteen hundred acre figure was last reported.
Speaker 4 (24:05):
We've had that number since five o'clock this morning.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
Okay, So all right, so there's you know, we're only
two hours out and so and a press conference coming
up at eight o'clock or we're going to get other numbers.
And then as far as the speed of this fire,
I have not gotten that, Amy. I don't know if
they've reported the fire is moving at x miles per
hour or burning up acridge at x at acres per
(24:32):
period of time, and we haven't gotten that.
Speaker 4 (24:35):
I'm assuming we know we don't have that infest.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
Okay, it's you know, this is early early hours on
these things, and the information is kind of spotty, and
the fire officials and I think are reluctant about coming
out with initial figures, as they should be because these
are official statements and we rely on them as opposed
(24:59):
to early news items.
Speaker 2 (25:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 10 (25:02):
In addition to you were talking about the lack of precipitation,
how everything's dry, and although we're looking at Malibu right now,
there are other areas that are particularly dangerous that are
in that same category as those Malibu mountains. So you're
looking at Ventura County, thousand Oaks, Ventura, Oxnard, fillmore. Oh Hi,
(25:26):
All these places like Malibu, Canoga Park, Santa Clarita acted,
these are all in similar situations as far far as
the dry brush and high winds and circumstances. So hopefully
we don't see more and more of these fires and similar.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
Yeah, and we do, I mean during these kinds of
weather conditions. We had Todd Hall of National Weather Service
just on a few moments ago, and the reporting now
is that we're looking at gus Win and coming up
over the next couple hours as winds are really going
to kick up gusts up to forty five to fifty
miles an hour, which of course turbos of fire turbo
(26:06):
charges where the fire can literally explode and no one
can try to fight.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
They don't even try to fight it. They just walk
away or run away.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
And try to get some kind of a fire break
way way up at the distance. He reported that we're
looking at humidity at five to six percent. That's bone dry,
I mean, that is nothing. And when you have the
humidity at that low a figure, then it all becomes
firewood and kindling, all of it, and so these fires
(26:38):
start and then a lot of these are well, it
used to be a lot of power lines, especially during
the gusty wind periods. I think is better now because
the power companies have cleared away a lot of the
brush under the power polls, those big transmission lines after
a few billion dollar hits in terms of liability.
Speaker 4 (26:57):
They're also shutting off the power.
Speaker 7 (26:58):
Earlier found out about the fire last night because his
sister called him and said, hey, the power's out of
my house.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
It's yeah, and I've gotten those a couple of times
power will be shut off, power will be shut.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
Off, and it isn't. It just says the possibility.
Speaker 1 (27:15):
And even though I was told from the power company
that power may be shut off or will be shut off,
it has not yet happened at my house.
Speaker 10 (27:26):
What would you do if your sister calls you up
at two in the morning and tell you heard powers out?
Speaker 2 (27:31):
Let me sleep? What are you doing.
Speaker 3 (27:35):
If you don't know it's a fire. It's like, why
are you calling me by your power out?
Speaker 2 (27:38):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (27:39):
If I look out the window and it's still dark, eh,
I roll over.
Speaker 10 (27:43):
You want to get an idea of some of the wind,
The Magic Mountain Truck Trail had a recorded wind gust
of ninety three miles per hour earlier today, Bony Mountain,
which overlooks the San Monica Mountains, which overlooks Thousand Oaks.
Speaker 3 (27:59):
Newbray Park had.
Speaker 10 (28:02):
Recorded can you image us of seventy three miles?
Speaker 2 (28:05):
Unbelievable?
Speaker 1 (28:06):
So Magic Mountain, I'm assuming is closed, and if not
completely closed, a couple of rides like the burn a
Wheel is going to shut down.
Speaker 3 (28:16):
A fly about.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
Yeah, wow, I tell you we do it. At some point.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
I've been doing broadcasting here. I've been broadcasting a KFI
now for what is it now, nineteen eighty nine?
Speaker 2 (28:30):
Wow? Long time?
Speaker 6 (28:31):
Too long?
Speaker 2 (28:31):
Yeah, way too yeah, way too long? What station was this?
Speaker 1 (28:36):
In any case, it's frankly, I'm getting tired of reporting
on fires.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
That's how often we get fires.
Speaker 1 (28:44):
And it is you know, and then and the fires
Amy pointed out, Uh, it was they would be nothing.
You'd have two or three homes being burnt up.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
Amy. Remember when the news was.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
If you lost half a dozen homes in a given fire,
that would almost end of the world headlines.
Speaker 7 (29:01):
Yes, and now and now we have hundreds or entire
towns wiped out. Yeah, and it is paradise in northern California.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
And it is less news with dozens of homes, hundreds
of homes than it was five or six homes years ago.
Did I give you an idea of the severity of
the fires and climate change? All right, we're gonna come back,
take a break. What do we have AND's running around there?
We're putting these shows together. We're trying to reach a
(29:30):
few people as well. We'll do this very much on
the fly, so we'll be back plenty more. This is
KFI AM six forty. You've been listening to the Bill
Handle Show. Catch my show Monday through Friday, six am
to nine am, and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
You're listening to KAPI AM six forty, the Bill Handle
Show on demand on the iHeartRadio f.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
And now Handle on the news.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
Ladies and gentlemen, here's Bill Handle.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
And good morning. I don't know how good it is.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Bill Handle here and the morning crew, and I woke
up this morning to the news of the fire, which
we're gonna be carrying all morning for.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
The most part.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
I mean, there are some big pieces of news in
addition to that, but I think it's going to be
the for most of the show, it will be the fire.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
As I woke up this morning, I was listening to.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Tim Conway, who has been covering the fire for the
last several hours.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Tim, I'm still here, buddy, ding along with you.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Yeah, ding dong with you. Tim. I have to tell
you something. Usually I don't think.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Of you as a hard news guy. I think you
have done a terrific job. I'm not blowing smoke, literally,
I'm not blowing smoke up your rear.
Speaker 4 (01:04):
End.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
I appreciate that.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
It is a lot of it has to do with
number one, you You grew up here in southern California,
so you know the geography backwards and forwards.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
You know the topography, you know all the.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
Landmarks, and you've put it into a in a way.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
That is just really a joy to listen to.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
And I'd love to have your co host with me also, right, Yeah, exactly.
And I only heard during the course I was watching
a little bit of TV, I only heard firefighters, I think,
say only half a dozen times. Are priorities? Are people
first and property second? But as the property values approach
(01:44):
ten million dollars per home, that line gets blurred, doesn't it.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
That's right? Well, yeah, I think you're right.
Speaker 5 (01:49):
I think the you know, we're all worried about insurance
on our property. And I think a lot of times,
you know, don't you think that firefighters when they go
in and they you know, they put a fire out
in a guy's house. Don't you think once in a
while they dip into the fridge for a cold one?
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Yeah, I would think so.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Or how about a firefighter who is just trying to
buy a house, couldn't get loan, it's living in an
apartments watching a twenty five million dollar home.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
Go eh, you know it could be.
Speaker 5 (02:21):
Worsectly exactly right, But man, this fire You know, Bill,
I know you and I lived and you know, fairly
close to each other in the San Fernando Valley. You know,
back in twenty thirty years ago, these fires used to
take two or three days to get to the coast.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
Man they're doing it in hours now.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
It's just it's insane.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Well because obviously climate change and if you'll look at
the climate, and Amy will be telling us about all
this all morning long, and that is we have very
low humidity.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Winds are going.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
To gust up and I think what nine nine thirty
they're going to be hitting.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
That's right highest level.
Speaker 5 (02:57):
Let me ask you something, Billy, because you're a money guy,
you know, and you know insurance. You know, you've had
insurance on homes and cars and stuff like that. When
you see these fires, don't you get the feeling that
there when there are now three or four more insurance
companies that are going to bail on California.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Before the next commercial. Yes, my insurance my home. You're
a homeowner. I don't know when your insurance has come
up for renewal. Mine just did doubled, doubled, seriously, one
hundred percent increase.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
It's crazy.
Speaker 5 (03:32):
I was, you know, when my wife and I were
the only two drivers in our house is twenty four
hundred dollars a year, and now that my eighteen year
old daughter is driving, it's close to ten thousand dollars.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
It's insane.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Well, I ended up when my kids and I bought
part of their cars, and I would own the cars.
I wouldn't let them actually have title the house because
I was one of those keys. They acted out. Keys
are in my pocket. I had to give my daughter
the car. I had to give her title to the car.
I can't take away the key. Now, insurance was so astronomical.
(04:04):
Right now, it's go ahead and kill.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Anybody you want.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
I'm not responsible, you know, leave me alone. Uh, it's
just crazy. So you've got to go home and you yes,
you thank you for you have to sleep. Tim, thank
you so much.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
Yeah, thank you. Bill handle everybody and no, thank you.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
And Tim Conway Junior everybody, and back and forth, back
and forth. You know, I wasn't you know what, I
wasn't surprised, but I got kind of well, I guess
in one sense, pleasantly surprised at how strong, uh how
strong Tim was and uh basically leading the coverage here.
All right, let me say hello to everybody.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Who is here. Uh Neil just came a war a
few minutes ago. Good morning, Neil.
Speaker 6 (04:43):
Oh.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
He's waving, not speaking. Amy, Good morning, Bill, good morning.
We're going to be going to you.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
It's going to be more you than anybody else, I think,
because you're on top of the latest breaking news. Uh
Kono is here as always because we have someone running
the board and who is running around someplace. I'm here,
I just don't see you, an I am not in
the studio today. So I'm going to rely on you guys,
(05:10):
especially to go to the television coverage and we're going
to try to get We have Michael Monks going out
and he will be out on the fire.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
We're going to be talking to people who are around
the fire. In the fire.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
I'm trying to get my friend Chuck Lovers with Chuck
was with La County Fired.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
He did this.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
He fought these kinds of fires for thirty years. So
we're going to get some insight as to what is
going on on the technical side.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
And then people who were just there.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
And of course there's a press conference coming up up
at seven o'clock.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Do I have that right? Amy? From the fire department.
Speaker 4 (05:48):
They're saying now.
Speaker 7 (05:48):
That it may be eight o'clock, okay, but whenever it happens,
we'll bring it to your life, okay.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
And I have not heard of any increase in acreage
for several hours.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
All I've heard is eighteen hundred plus.
Speaker 7 (06:00):
Yeah. When I got in here, it was at like
seven hundred, and then it quickly went up to like
fourteen hundred and fifteen hundred sixteen, and now it's up
to over eighteen hundred. So it's definitely been growing quickly.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
Yeah, and it's going to grow even quicker, unfortunately as
the winds whip up. Although Tim had said that as
light approaches, let me open the window here, okay. So dark, okay,
still dark. So as light approaches, we're going to see
the aircraft, mainly from van Ey's take off, the firefighting
(06:35):
aircraft of which there's been so much of an increase
in the last few years, and they've become a game changer.
Michael Monks, who is out on the fire line? Michael,
exactly where are you and what are you seeing?
Speaker 8 (06:49):
I am hanging out at one of the evacuation centers
in the Palisades on LMO Rael Drive. This is one
that has opened up the folks who were evacuated either
late last night or early this morning, and so right
now it's very quiet. There's about a dozen and a
half cars here. And what's interesting is that when you
take a peek inside this evacuation center, they've got all
(07:10):
the little cots set up and all of the coffee
and little snacks that are available to folks, But none
of the folks who've driven here are actually in there.
Just a handful are in there. Everybody's kind of hanging
out in their cars right now. And you know, I'm
not a psychiatrist or psychologist, but I can't help but
assume that, you know, maybe you're holding onto a little
(07:32):
bit of your own comfort after something as disruptive as
being evacuated for this very serious fire and all the
questions still surrounding it about the winds and whether those
are going to pick up again, what's the condition of
any of the buildings up there, including your own.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
So I'm gonna hopefully talk.
Speaker 8 (07:50):
To some of these folks as soon as I can
muster up the strength to bother them. Folks are just
kind of hanging out right now, very quietly.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Inside their cars.
Speaker 8 (07:59):
But this evacuation center one of several open for folks,
others available for animals. But right now it's kind of
a wait and see thing, literally waiting to see. We're
hoping to see this sun come up momentarily so that
authorities can get a clearer picture of the damage and
also so those airborne firefighters can get a better handle
(08:21):
on fighting this thing.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
Yeah, Michael, keep in mind that this is KFI, So
feel free to shove a microphone in someone's face and say, hey,
how you feeling.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
I do plan to.
Speaker 8 (08:33):
I did talk to a woman a little bit earlier
as she pulled in, and you know, she was completely disheveled.
Oh yeah, scared, and her husband is handicapped disabled and
he was in the back of the vehicle and she
needed help from folks inside to come out and help
get the wheelchair together. She didn't know where to park,
(08:53):
and so it just gave me a direct sense of
how people are feeling. I mean, you had to jump
in a car and then you had to drive somewhere,
not knowing what this thing is going to look like.
She was asking me if this was the evacuation center.
So a lot of confusion on folks face as they
emerge here in the twilight hours, and it's obviously a
(09:15):
very scary situation if you had to depart your home.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Now. Is the Red Cross on site?
Speaker 8 (09:20):
It is a Red Cross operated shelter, Yes, exactly.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
All right, so they're right out there. One of the
things about the Red Cross they're pretty neat.
Speaker 8 (09:26):
And they're fast. I mean they were out here immediately.
Everybody looked like they had been cleaned up and showered
and dressed and in their uniforms and ready to go,
you know, before I got here.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
Yeah, they know what they're doing for sure.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
All right, Michael, I know you're going to be standing by,
so we'll be coming to you on a regular basis.
You're going to be working pretty hard this next shift
and probably got it the rest of the day.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
Thanks for everything you do, of course, all right. I
sort of had to say that, didn't.
Speaker 4 (09:50):
I It was very nice of you, It actually was.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
You know, I'm kind of surprised actually now there it
is right there. Thank Michael Long for everything he does.
There you go, Hey, you write it, I say it.
If you're just waking up. There is a I wouldn't
use the word massive wildfire. It's a last reported eighteen
(10:15):
hundred acres now, normally an eighteen hundred acre fire, they're
calling it a wildfire because zero percent contained would not
be that big a deal. I mean relative to the
tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of acres that have
been burnt in various fires throughout California in the last
(10:35):
couple of three years.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
But this is in the heart of Malibu.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
This is where some of the most expensive homes in
the US are the US are in the US, Yeah,
are I got that right? And we're talking about major
celebrities and high end folks financially and in the public eye.
Film stars, as Tim Conway said this morning, film stars,
(11:02):
heads of business. I mean people that are very well known.
They are the ones that are going to be effective.
And the homes can be tens of millions, are tens
of millions of dollars, so particular attention is being paid.
Let me check in really quickly with Amy, who's been
following up on this. By the way, Neil is here,
and of course An is here, and Cono said hello
(11:23):
to everybody who's working on the show this morning. So Amy,
what is the latest that we can report?
Speaker 7 (11:29):
Okay, so we're still having that It's eighteen hundred and
twenty two acres. The La County Sheriff's Department and actually
fire Chief. They're going to be holding a press conference
at eight o'clock to give us all the latest numbers,
so we'll have updates for you by then.
Speaker 4 (11:47):
We'll try to get some more before then.
Speaker 7 (11:49):
We do have about two thousand homes under evacuation warning
or actually evacuation orders. They are out of their homes
east of Las Virgins between maul Hull Highway to the
north and Payouma Road to the south, between Stunt Road
to the north and Lost Florists to the south, east
of Carbon Beach Terrace, west of Old Malibu Road, north
of Pacific Coast Highway. Shelter has been set up at
(12:11):
Palisades Recreation Center. That's where Michael Monks is and that
is at eight five to one Alma Real Drive in
Pacific Palisades. And then if you've got animals that need
to be taken to shelters, the shelters are at a
Gora Animal Center care Center in Agra Hills and also
Pierce College in Woodland Hills. The fire is burning uncontained,
out completely out of control. Several spot fires have been
(12:35):
sparked because of the embers and the ash that is
being thrown way away from the main fire because of
the Santa Ana winds which are expected to blow between
forty and fifty miles per hour, and the winds are
going to be very strong this morning according to the
National Weather Service, they may die down hopefully this afternoon
(12:56):
and hopefully give firefighters a little bit of an edge there.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
I have not heard how many homes have burnt. That
has not been reported.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
No, we know that homes have burned, Okay, we do
have that.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
And we always talk about structures, and whenever I think
of structure as opposed to homes, I think of outhouses
that are sitting on a piece of property. So the
number of homes and I'm assuming that there has to
be a fair number, and I would think they would
have gotten some ideas. So at eight o'clock we're going
to get much more of an update. One of the
(13:27):
things Amy, and then we're going to go to Mike Friole.
One of the things I noticed that it does take
hours sometimes to get an update as to numbers. If
you have a if you have fire that's out of
control like this one, and it is.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
Moving, you would think there.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
Would be some extrapolation, say it is moving at five
hundred acres an hour or and we're not getting.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
A lot of that.
Speaker 7 (13:50):
Well, the winds did, They did die down a bit
over the night, although it has been windy there. But
the winds also shift directions, so it's not just burning
in a straight line, and it doesn't you know, the
border of the fire doesn't have like a nice straight
line either, so I think it's a little more challenging.
And like we were talking about, with the embers that
are throwing off from the fire that could spark other fires,
(14:12):
you have to add those in as well.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
Yeah, and we're going to be talking to my friend
Chuck Lovers a little bit later on. And what time
do we have Chuck coming on this morning?
Speaker 2 (14:22):
He was with the.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
La County Fire and he fought these fires and he'll
give us a lot of technical insight that we're not
going to get anyplace else.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
Now. We're going to do this for a couple of
segments at least.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
So at this point, the director of communications for Pepperdine,
Mike Friel, who is there shelteringly sheltering in place. Mike,
thanks for joining us. So what's going on on that
campus right now.
Speaker 9 (14:48):
Yeah, I mean the night we woke up somewhere around
eleven em and learned about this fire about five miles
from campus, and we monitored it as it moves closer toward, uh,
toward our campus, and unfortunately we had to issue the
shelter in place protocol. This is a well planned out
(15:12):
plan to ensure that our our residents are safe. They're
in the center of campus. They're sheltered in place as
we speak, in our pace in library and the Tyler
UH Center of campus. And so right now we're taking
care of our students and make sure they have what
they need, and you know, we we really need to
(15:36):
stay focused on them to ensure that they're taken care of.
So we are looking for sunrise to make sure we
can assess and and and see if it's safe to
to allow for our students to return back to their
residence halls. We did cancel classes and this is finals week,
so uh, they're not going to be doing their finals tomorrow,
(15:59):
but we want to make sure that they're able to
finish out the semester well.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
All right, for those people that aren't aware of the
Pepperdine campus, if you want to look it up, you
want to google it.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
It sits on top of the.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
Mountain right there in Malibu and has a almost unbridled
view of the Pacific Ocean. It could very well be
the most beautifully situated campus on the planet. Now, there's
all that greenery, that huge expanse of grant of grass
in front all the way down to the highway. What's
behind it is I'm assuming if you have that much grass,
(16:35):
there's not a lot of there's not a lot of
burnable material, but how much around the campus actually is fuel?
Speaker 9 (16:45):
Yeah, we're surrounded in the Santa Monica Mountains by this
very dry shrubberry, and so there is certainly a threat.
But you know, we have a campus that's well designed.
We have made sure that we keep the edges of
(17:05):
the campus cleared of any brush, and even the shrubbery
on campus is planted and in a way that we
know it's resilient and it's going to withstand some of
these these kinds of conditions. Our buildings are also built
and designed to withstand this kind of a threat from
fires as well. So the campus itself is really the
(17:27):
safest place for our students to be. You know, we
have planned for these kinds of situations, knowing where we're at.
It is the most beautiful campus.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
In the world.
Speaker 9 (17:40):
Uh and and yet it's it's also susceptible to fire
conditions like this. So we are making sure that our students, though,
are safe and sheltered in place. Thankfully, no significant damage,
reports of any injury. So we think the worst is
over for now, but we're going to have to really
(18:01):
hold our breath for the next twenty four hours.
Speaker 3 (18:03):
Is the winds continue.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
Mike, Thank you, and I'm sure you'll be in touch
with us throughout the day because I'm not the only
one that wants to talk to you. Might keep safe
a good place to be by the way the campus,
but it really is worth.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
Looking at that be that campus. It is like a stunner.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
The problem is not only the factors Malibu and fires,
but the weather, not so much the temperature, but the
humidity and the gusts of wind. Todd Hall, National Weather
Service kind enough to be with us, Todd, thank you.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
And what are we looking at this morning? Wind? Temperature?
Speaker 6 (18:44):
Yeah, so in general we're we're looking at more of
the same unfortunately this morning. For the next couple hours,
we're looking at winds potentially being between twenty to thirty
miles per hour gusting to forty five to even fifty
five miles per hour across that area across the Franklin Fire,
So it still very dry conditions in place. We're seeing
humidities down to about you know, five to six percent
(19:06):
across that area.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
Five six percent. Basically it's desert.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
I mean that's almost zero humidity, which of course causes
fires to go crazy. And add that Augusta win forty
five miles per hour. You can't you cannot outrun that fire.
You can't outdrive a fire that moves that quickly.
Speaker 6 (19:26):
Yes, and this is this? Did this actually from start
to you know, we can see the stuff on satellite
and watching it progress. Is it from start to the
way it is right now? I mean it it ran
very fast, right from right from its ignition start at
time around eleven o'clock last night.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
And can you tell by just the way the topography
is where the strongest guts wind are likely to blow.
Speaker 6 (19:54):
Yeah, I mean typically you're going to see that it's
oriented down down ridge lines and canyons that are very
oriented with the wind direction, and that will tend to
make that fire and make those wins actually run much
quicker as a result of that.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
All right, Todd, I.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
Am sure you're going to get one or two phone
calls today and we'll come back and thank you very
much for the update. Don't bother napping today, Todd. It's
just not going to happen, all right. A quick word.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
Before we continue on.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
We take our break as we have two ways that
we want to get you involved. One is we have
our line open right now at eight hundred and five
two zero one five three four where you are, what
you're seeing, that sort of thing, and you'll be talking
probably the an and if what you have is reasonably
(20:47):
relevant in terms of where the.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
Fire is going, we'll put you on.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
And there's also you can simply record a here's what's
going on just before you literally walk out the front
door and run out trying to save your ass. The
iHeart app go to the KFI page and there's a
microphone in the upper right hand corner and just leave
a message as to what happens, where you.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
Are, what shelter you're at, whatever.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
You can do to give us information because obviously this
is dynamic and fluid, as it is described the way
we broadcast these fires.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
Neil, you just haven't said hello to you.
Speaker 3 (21:29):
Good marching.
Speaker 10 (21:30):
We just had National Weather Service meteorologist Todd Hall on,
of course, talking about the winds. This is something that
they've been perceiving to be inevitable for the past handful
of days because of those dry conditions that you guys
talked about. We're looking at probably ten minutes twenty minutes
away from winds kicking back up. Earlier this morning they
(21:53):
were clocked at about sixty five miles per hour.
Speaker 3 (21:56):
Crazy what it was reported.
Speaker 10 (21:58):
The weird thing, and you heard Conway talk about this handle,
is that you can't get fixed wing planes up there
when you have those horrible winds. So this starting around
two o'clock or something like that this morning, they were
unable to get some of that up as they normally
would because of those nighttime wins. We'll see how that
(22:22):
plays out today. But as Amy has been reporting, it's
moving south. I see it right now, just kissing the
one freeway there, and that's moving towards the water, which
is good news at one point, but bad news because
you've got that mess of homes right there, very expensive,
(22:42):
as you pointed out, earlier.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
Woke up this morning and woke up to another fire.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
I didn't turn nine KFI heard Tim Conway, who had
been there from two am. Tim was covering the firing Malibu. YEP,
it's deja vu all over again, isn't it? Where we're
watching major fire in Malibu. We have at this point
no idea how many.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
Homes have burned.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
Amy has reported that there are homes that have burnt,
and that has been confirmed.
Speaker 4 (23:13):
Amy confirm from people who are on scene that fire
officials haven't said for sure, but we were expecting to
find out more when the La Fire in La County
Sheriff will be holding a news conference from Zooma Beach
at eight o'clock.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
Yeah, I'm assuming that people there saying yeah, that house
is on fire is pretty legitimate in terms of corroboration,
unless they start mentioning that Martians have come down and
are putting out the fire.
Speaker 2 (23:43):
And you have those crazy people too.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
So we do know a number of homes have gone
up based on what Amy's reporting and that kind of corroboration.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
We don't know the actual acreage because.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
Last reported and this is effective as what time, the
eighteen hundred acre figure was last reported.
Speaker 4 (24:05):
We've had that number since five o'clock this morning.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
Okay, So all right, so there's you know, we're only
two hours out and so and a press conference coming
up at eight o'clock or we're going to get other numbers.
And then as far as the speed of this fire,
I have not gotten that, Amy. I don't know if
they've reported the fire is moving at x miles per
hour or burning up acridge at x at acres per
(24:32):
period of time, and we haven't gotten that.
Speaker 4 (24:35):
I'm assuming we know we don't have that infest.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
Okay, it's you know, this is early early hours on
these things, and the information is kind of spotty, and
the fire officials and I think are reluctant about coming
out with initial figures, as they should be because these
are official statements and we rely on them as opposed
(24:59):
to early news items.
Speaker 2 (25:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 10 (25:02):
In addition to you were talking about the lack of precipitation,
how everything's dry, and although we're looking at Malibu right now,
there are other areas that are particularly dangerous that are
in that same category as those Malibu mountains. So you're
looking at Ventura County, thousand Oaks, Ventura, Oxnard, fillmore. Oh Hi,
(25:26):
All these places like Malibu, Canoga Park, Santa Clarita acted,
these are all in similar situations as far far as
the dry brush and high winds and circumstances. So hopefully
we don't see more and more of these fires and similar.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
Yeah, and we do, I mean during these kinds of
weather conditions. We had Todd Hall of National Weather Service
just on a few moments ago, and the reporting now
is that we're looking at gus Win and coming up
over the next couple hours as winds are really going
to kick up gusts up to forty five to fifty
miles an hour, which of course turbos of fire turbo
(26:06):
charges where the fire can literally explode and no one
can try to fight.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
They don't even try to fight it. They just walk
away or run away.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
And try to get some kind of a fire break
way way up at the distance. He reported that we're
looking at humidity at five to six percent. That's bone dry,
I mean, that is nothing. And when you have the
humidity at that low a figure, then it all becomes
firewood and kindling, all of it, and so these fires
(26:38):
start and then a lot of these are well, it
used to be a lot of power lines, especially during
the gusty wind periods. I think is better now because
the power companies have cleared away a lot of the
brush under the power polls, those big transmission lines after
a few billion dollar hits in terms of liability.
Speaker 4 (26:57):
They're also shutting off the power.
Speaker 7 (26:58):
Earlier found out about the fire last night because his
sister called him and said, hey, the power's out of
my house.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
It's yeah, and I've gotten those a couple of times
power will be shut off, power will be shut.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
Off, and it isn't. It just says the possibility.
Speaker 1 (27:15):
And even though I was told from the power company
that power may be shut off or will be shut off,
it has not yet happened at my house.
Speaker 10 (27:26):
What would you do if your sister calls you up
at two in the morning and tell you heard powers out?
Speaker 2 (27:31):
Let me sleep? What are you doing.
Speaker 3 (27:35):
If you don't know it's a fire. It's like, why
are you calling me by your power out?
Speaker 2 (27:38):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (27:39):
If I look out the window and it's still dark, eh,
I roll over.
Speaker 10 (27:43):
You want to get an idea of some of the wind,
The Magic Mountain Truck Trail had a recorded wind gust
of ninety three miles per hour earlier today, Bony Mountain,
which overlooks the San Monica Mountains, which overlooks Thousand Oaks.
Speaker 3 (27:59):
Newbray Park had.
Speaker 10 (28:02):
Recorded can you image us of seventy three miles?
Speaker 2 (28:05):
Unbelievable?
Speaker 1 (28:06):
So Magic Mountain, I'm assuming is closed, and if not
completely closed, a couple of rides like the burn a
Wheel is going to shut down.
Speaker 3 (28:16):
A fly about.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
Yeah, wow, I tell you we do it. At some point.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
I've been doing broadcasting here. I've been broadcasting a KFI
now for what is it now, nineteen eighty nine?
Speaker 2 (28:30):
Wow? Long time?
Speaker 6 (28:31):
Too long?
Speaker 2 (28:31):
Yeah, way too yeah, way too long? What station was this?
Speaker 1 (28:36):
In any case, it's frankly, I'm getting tired of reporting
on fires.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
That's how often we get fires.
Speaker 1 (28:44):
And it is you know, and then and the fires
Amy pointed out, Uh, it was they would be nothing.
You'd have two or three homes being burnt up.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
Amy. Remember when the news was.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
If you lost half a dozen homes in a given fire,
that would almost end of the world headlines.
Speaker 7 (29:01):
Yes, and now and now we have hundreds or entire
towns wiped out. Yeah, and it is paradise in northern California.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
And it is less news with dozens of homes, hundreds
of homes than it was five or six homes years ago.
Did I give you an idea of the severity of
the fires and climate change? All right, we're gonna come back,
take a break. What do we have AND's running around there?
We're putting these shows together. We're trying to reach a
(29:30):
few people as well. We'll do this very much on
the fly, so we'll be back plenty more. This is
KFI AM six forty. You've been listening to the Bill
Handle Show. Catch my show Monday through Friday, six am
to nine am, and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
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