Hey there, folks, welcome to a special episode of Amy and TJ from Los Angeles, from in particular Santa Monica here in California, where the fires continued to burn. And we are going to attempt to put into words what words simply cannot describe in this episode. And with that, everybody, welcome.
Sitting next to.
Robes, Robs, you and I got here to LA yesterday. Before we even landed, we could tell and if you had no idea what was going on in the world and what was going on in La just the plane ride as we were about to land, right, I knew something was up.
We heard from the pilot who and by the way, the plane was almost empty, which is unheard of on a Sunday from New York JFK to LAX. It is usually packed. And we were one of a handful of people on that plane. So that was eerie just to begin with. And then as we were making our initial descent into Los Angeles, the pilot got on to the microphone and said, hey, folks, we may be going through a layer of smoke as we make this landing, and the cockpit or the actual plane might smell like smoke,
but don't be alarmed. That's, you know, been pretty typical over the past couple of days. So just warning you all. That didn't end up happening. I'd never smelt the smoke actually as we were landing into La But as soon as we got on the ground we had more pretty immediate reminders of what was going on.
Yeah, I mean, a soon as you at the ground, you sense something is going on. From it took I don't know, fifteen minutes. Even if that in the car the driver or go through certain neighborhood, he's almost starts giving a tour, a fire tour, if you really Yeah, it was smoke here yesterday, and then that it's just all everybody's talking about the same thing. Went to lunch and you were the one that pointed it out. And
it's a place we've been to before. But there were pets everywhere because the place was full of people who had to flee their homes and had to flee with their pets and places here making exceptions.
Yeah, exactly. And we were hearing hearing stories even at tables next door to us, people talking and congregating in the lobby, hearing from our own waiter, everyone checking in on each other what have you been through? Let me show you pictures of my house, and then people asking questions about have you been on this street? Have you been able to get back up? Because as we made our way earlier this morning through some of these areas that are restricted now to residence, every single street is
blocked off. I mean, there are army vehicles, there is a huge police presence, firefighting trucks, you know, going through the streets with alarms going off. I mean, it really feels like you are in Yes, you can tell you're in an evacuated donor right adjacent to one, but also you realize all the work that's going on behind the scenes.
So it's aerie to a certain degree when you get here because you see so much, well what's been on television, see the pictures in the flame. You hear how horrible it is. But from the airport to where we're staying, it wasn't chaotic. There was not destruction. We just happen to be in a certain area and even the air was clear. It looks like beautiful, sunny southern California this morning.
We get up still dark. As soon as we get off the elevator at the bottom floor, you can smell smoke at the moment the elevator door opened and we go outside. Of course, we can smell at our crew we meet. They all have masks on. But the point that they did they we got a chance to go through and see today what so many of us have been seeing, and we had up to this point just been seeing on television. And you just I can't. I mean, we've been doing this a long time in our careers,
have been a lot of disaster zones. You can say it all, you can come up with whatever descriptive word you want to, it doesn't do it justice. And I struggle. The word I end up using was about myself today. It was confused. I'm confused at how nature behaves this way. I'm confused to how a fire could do what it did, and I'm confused about how wide spread and then random the destruction can be. I've never seen anything like this. Tornadoes, hurricanes, fires,
seen floods more than most. Yeah, and never I can't understand it.
Yeah, I mean, you and I have both been to the scene of countless natural disasters of epic proportions, by the way, and I have never seen anything like We both saw this morning where you just saw ash. There was nothing truly left standing in most of these homes except for fireplace chimneys. And at one point you pointed it out to me, eerie scenes like this leveled homes for an entire stretch of a street, an entire neighborhood
wiped out. There was a basketball net standing with a that was just remarkable.
Well not earned, but the net, the fabric netting was almost untouched, not even smoky.
It was bizarre to see that completely untouched. And then you pointed out inside one of these fireplaces that used to be inside a beautiful home had all of their logs perfectly placed as if ready for a fire. You know, you see, you know, a scene set with like a fireplace with the logs, they're not touched, not even burned, and it was perfectly in place where a fire should be. The wood was perfect and untouched, and everything around it was gone.
Those things were weird. I call them weird. And a lot of folks familiar with the PCH right Pacific Coast Highway goes up and down. It's one of my favorite things to do I've ever done in this country is to drive that. And so as a stretch of Pacific Coast Highway where you're looking and literally on one side it's paradise looking out of the ocean. The other side is armageddon. Literally you're looking there's a dividing line between the end of the world and heaven, right and it's
the Pacific Coast Highway. It literally looks like that. And I there are our producers, producer Danielle was in the car with us, said yeah, you can see as we were driving at times on the Pacific Coast Highway, So yeah, you can see the ocean. You couldn't last week because those homes were there. They've burned now to the point that you can actually have a view at some places from the highway to the ocean that weren't there before because homes are gone.
It's just unfathomable, it really is. And you mentioned this. The sun was rising this morning, it was gorgeous. I could hear birds chirping, the ocean was making that beautiful wave crashing on the rocks, noise, and yet everywhere you
looked was a nightmare. And so it was just such a strange juxtaposition of the ruins of people's lives and then seeing Mother Nature just going about doing what it does here, especially on the West coast, and just being spectacular and gorgeous, and it was just such a strange confluence of two different views.
And look as we were as of this recording at least, and the story is changing. It seems minute by many at times, but it'll continue to change.
As of this.
Recording, there were twenty four confirmed deaths, at least sixteen unaccounted for. At least twelve thousand structures that have been burned are those latest numbers. But we were we had plans yesterday day before of somewhere we were planning to stay here and it was in the Brentwood area. And sure enough, yesterday was we were getting on the plane and things kept developing that were keeping an eye on it. Our team let us know, hey, that area where you
were supposed to stay has been evacuated. So we had to change our plans and figure somewhere else out to stay while we were out here. That's just how things are going. And we are sitting here in the middle of a There is anxiety right here. There's no recovery time. There's like hold on, folks. We got another several days where they're talking about winds and wind gusts going up
to that seventy eighty mile an hour range. No, it's not that eighty to one hundred range that started all this, but people are on edge again.
It is a very unique and for me, a singular experience, because normally, when you come to the scene the aftermath right of a of a natural disaster, it's about cleanup, it's about recovery, it's about you know, rebuilding. But there is still a threat because if one like small ember from a hotspot that maybe they firefighters have yet to be able to put out flies through the air in these crazy, unpredictable Santa Ana winds, it can set off
an entire new fire. And that's what has happened, because if we're not talking about one fire, there are several fires in the area, and it's looks as though you don't see the flames anymore, but the thread of those embers remains, and it is a scary, scary feeling. We when we landed, your phone immediately started going off into that emergency mode in on the on the East coast.
We're used to seeing it or hearing it for amber alerts or for some extreme extreme right but they were going off, and it's so jarring and it's so frightening, and you just can imagine what it's like to be living here after you've already lost everything, or you're afraid or fearful that you've lost everything because maybe you don't know yet, and you've got these alerts going off, and we were told to evacuate an area that we were just driving through. So if you get into these certain
evacuation zones, you're told get out. And that's just jarring and scary. As an adult, I can't imagine the children who are living through this as well, how hard that is for them. So many kids have lost their schools, they have no building to go back to, they've lost their homes, they have no bedroom to go back to. This is and it's just beginning, and the threat still exists.
I just still struggle the scope of it when it comes to and some of the scenes, like you hear it sometimes and you walking dead fans out there. I never thought I would see a scene like that where I'm literally walking past and going past cars that have been abandoned in the middle of the street, and some of them are literally burned out, and some of them you can see where and you all heard this part of the story where they had to come and bring
bulldozers to move vehicles out of there. You can see some of those vehicles are damaged from being banged and people trying to get them out of the way. Those are odd scenes, and some neighborhoods were all, okay, this this neighborhood looks like it it's unscathed. But then you keep driving down that neighborhood and there's one house gone or charred, and it literally does look like the fire
was discriminating, like I'm gonna pick this one. I'm gonna skip those two, and now I'm gonna go over here to this one. But that's this idea of these embers that are flying around. I can't remembers the high school we went past, and you were like, hey, I'm glad to.
See that Ally High High?
Was that okay, well, Bally High. It's damaged. The whole place is enclosed. You can't see anywhere a fire got in, but the roof of one section of that school is burned because those embers they flew over landed on one spot, burned part of it the other. The whole place is intact. Yeah, but that is still the remaining threat that even if you're a couple of miles away, you are not sleeping.
No, you're not at all, and in fact, you're hungry for information. We when we got back from taking this tour, our producer Danielle who was with us, who was so amazing showing us she's was born here, lived her whole life here. So she was explaining to us what was lost, Like there was a motel that was storied and historic that everyone loved right along the Pacific Coast Highway. It doesn't you can't even see where it was. I mean, it's just literally ash. You can see this sign and
the rest of it is just gone. But when we got back to our hotel that we were staying at, she had a woman come up to her and say are you with the press, and then said, could you please please please see if my house is still intact.
Because as members of the media, we have been allowed and we are allowed to get through some of the points at which residents are not to go and tell these stories to tell you at home, or to at least to show people what's going on and what's sarah and what's not She handed or tried to hand Danielle the keys to her house and say, please just go inside and could you grab a few things for me.
We had already come back, so that wasn't possible. But that's that's the desperation, handing the keys to your house over to a complete stranger.
Help nobody listening to you right now, I can imagine doing that. That's how desperate you get. I don't know you and don't know where you're going anything, but if you're go into there, here here, just go to my house for me.
Please.
Everybody's desperate for that kind of information. We're constantly getting requests. We just talked to a local radio host here. He said every single even a lot of reporters are getting dms from people saying, hey, I know you can get up there, if you can swing by here for me. That's just it's I don't know how we've seen it before. Robes and people are determined immediately, I am going to rebuild. There is nothing here in places. There are neighborhoods gone.
When I say gone, I'm talking about piles of ash. We were walking through today and I'm looking through rubble trying to identify anything like what room was this? What room was this? There's ash as a bathtub here or there. But I'm telling these places are gone.
You can tell where the fireplace was.
That's it.
Actually there was a few homes where you could actually see where the front door was, or where maybe a garage door was. And perhaps what was so eerie was you could see obviously that the sidewalk leading up to where the entrance would have been. But that's the clearest mark you could even see of where the footprint of the house might be. I mean it was gone, like if you've got a hurricane, if you've got a tornado, certain things are still left. You can pick through the rubble.
Perhaps you could go maybe find that family heirloom. I don't think you could find anything in the aftermath of this.
Well, we spent the morning. We walked through a lot of planet. There are some stories of things being found here and there, but I've never seen and we've been the house fires and structure fires our whole careers. You know what the thing when you have a structure fire, fire department gets called, they come, even if they take a few minutes, they can get there and start putting water on. Correct These are places that just burned and
burned and burned until they stopped burning. And that's why we see just ash and that construction is on these neighborhoods. It's unlike anything I've ever seen. Like I said, we're going to try to put this in the words, but there are none, right.
And you know, it's also been interesting because when we've arrived on scenes, they've been I mean somewhat fairly contained when it comes to a fire, because there is danger involved. Obviously there were I saw nails and glass and you know, twisted metal like you know this is. They don't want down power lines, they don't want residents coming back to check on their belongings because there are a number of
hazards just lying around. And normally even us in the media would not be allowed because they would have cordoned off the area or made it inaccessible to folks because of the inherent dangers. And yet this is such a wide swath and such a huge like part of the of the landscape that we were just walking around in places that I was actually surprised we had acces, to be honest, and some.
Of that we we got to see it in a couple of ways. That scare the hell out of you and give you hope. Because we went right before sunrise, so it was still dark in many of these neighborhoods when we went. And when I say dark, it was dark. No power dark, there's no power. Just look like places have been. Literally they grabbed things and took off and now the power's out. Lights were off in these neighborhoods. There's nothing there.
I saw a vehicle it was too quick to point out to you, that was halfway out of a driveway and halfway in it and you could it almost looked like it was balancing on the curb and it had the doors were open. It had been abandoned. I mean you could see. I have chills thinking about it. You know, we were there in the aftermath, but you could see what was happening while they were facing the fire and
the fear and the embers. To the point where you say abandoned the vehicle, there was obviously so much traffic and like everyone trying to get out that people just abandoned their vehicles or realized that they couldn't get out fast enough in a car that they took off on foot. And that was really eerie to me.
So that was the tie. So as we're out there in the dark, and then we're on right off the Pacific Coast Highway, sunrise is coming. We're standing in rubble and the sun starts coming up and it is the most it is the most perfect, beautiful California sunrise you will ever see.
It really was.
And well, we'll post pictures of this, we have this, but to have in the foreground, just rubble and just someone's dreams in that pile, that sunrise, that was the dream they were chasing. People are here because they come here,
they're attracted for exactly what we saw. And then the threat of living here for that dream came and got them and wiped out so many people's homes and lives and savings, and I just it was it's a hell of a picture, and it's a hell of a site to see just how beautiful this place is and how destructive and dangerous in the threat that they live under. And it came home in a historic way this time around.
And we've been folks, we've been talking to plenty of people here who've been on the run, who fled, who've lost homes over the past week now, and we've talked to plenty more of them here and now we want you to hear some of these voices.
Yes, we're going to be playing for you now, some of the remarkable stories that are being told by the people who lived them, the people who lost their homes, the people who lost their businesses, the people who lost all hope at one point, but at least walked away with their lives. We want you to hear their stories from them. So take a lesson.
We are joined now by Scott. Scott who's house we went by earlier today when we toured some of these neighborhoods, and Scott, I say, we went by your house. All we saw was a surfboard. To be honest with you, a surfboard still standing. That's a win in the back. That's a win for you. Tell me why even a surfboard right now is.
A win.
Still standing?
You know the s.
There's something. But you know, the point of all of this is, as I'm explaining to literally what seems to be my entire outlook that is now in my text, which you know, the shining example of love and humanity. But the equation is very simple. All are safe. All that matters. That was it. That's that is one hundred percent where I began. You know, two days ago I
had literally one pair of pants to my name. Today I have three great day right socks tomorrow, So you know, uh yeah, my you know they call it the fink water Jean, My grandmother and my boys got it big time, and you know they have to go water their gills. So the fact that they will still be able to do so one day, big surfers.
Right.
That's that's it holds, It holds a hope and promise.
Yeah, I mean, I mean, I can't the perspective that this is unfortunately giving so many people who lost everything, but to have that one thing, one thing survive is so powerful. But yes, you walked away with your life, your entire family is alive. And yet I imagine as the days start to go by, you start to realize all the things you'll never get back. Right, you're not thinking about it in the moment, you shouldn't be, necessarily, but.
Perfect point in the literal ten minutes, literal ten minutes that I had because the minute I arrived, which was a blessing undo itself. You know, ashes raining down, you know, and you breathe in and your lungs are there to tell you like, oh no bueno, like get out about But I had to go in and so I got uh, I think I shared with you. I got, I got my favorite picture of my boys and and you know,
so that's it. So you know, you met with that bullying mind to go ah, you didn't get you and you didn't do And yet I look up and Griffin and his beloved girlfriend Julia, and Christopher and Pam and two cats that are hiding in the in the closet of the of the Blessing that is the apartment that our dearest Amy is loaning us right now. So you know, anything else is just things.
Was it? You got word first that your house had burned down because your son went into the neighborhood and he took video.
Right, we got confirmation? Yeah, that was the confirmation.
So give me those two different perspectives. Because you saw the house burning on video and then you were able to get to the neighborhood yourself and see the house gone. Give me the perspective of how you reacted emotionally to those two different moments.
Another great question, the you know, the hope you carry in all candor from the moment we left to you know, the little word that would travel. And obviously, you know, the minute we were leaving, we were trying to find a place, which is then the testament to not just the kindness of friends and family, but complete stranger through association had a bungalow that they'd bought, but they fell in love and moved in with their boyfriend, and it was empty, and so you know, seven hundred square feet
looked really good to us. So you know, check right, it's the checklist. And so you know, we we obviously TV and phone and yeah, we held hope and hope and hope and hope. We actually got a glimmer of oddly someone reporting from the street over, you know, and you're you're going, oh my god, camera just peer left, peer left. And so the reveal came with unfortunately, my intrepid oldest doing what he does, which is go towards the danger. And so he said us, he sent us
the very personal video. She was still burning and you know, as he said, what's important is we're safe. The house is not. And so the next day we started long story too much longer. The next day we were able to get some electric bikes. And you know, I've always
noted a songwriter friend of mine. We always talked about why you feel so close to where you grow up and as a kid, you know the backyards to cut through, you know the alleys to sneak through, you know literally the secret paths you know under the tree limb, which is almost the combination of what we used to get past. You know, those there to protect us. But we were determined, and as I just told you, I went to say hello,
not goodbye. And the dream and the determination is we're going to rebuild and kind of believe the phoenix is going to rise right like that's it.
That's it.
I mean, it's one of those moments where you live in an area where you know there's a constant threat of fire. You have had fire days, We've heard from so many people who live in the area. You're used to it, and yet you still don't think it's going to happen to you. When you actually saw for yourself with your own eyes what was left, which wasn't much. Can you give us any I don't know if there are words to describe what you were feeling.
I just cleared out irony. I had just cleared out my aunt's house, who passed away in December. I came back with treasures, a hundred photos that things I'd never seen great great grandparents into. This is actually funny, I'll show you later, But I find this, find this picture of myself. It's effing horrible at five years old, with the worst beatles, boat cut and just teeth that just
are are so spaced apart. And what I never knew is that my mother had given this to my grandmother with a note on the back quoting me, mom my smile looks. I don't want to say the word, but apparently I was schooled in some language even at that age. And you know. And so again it's a treasure.
It's gone out, it's gone. We're never gonna get a chance to see this wonderful picture.
Of the year's comedy. I didn't screenshot of that one. I'm like of all them, like great grandparents, I didn't take a picture of it, but I've got that, and believe me, it was one of the first laughs. And I also, I had been in search of random anecdote. I'd been in search of a photo that I had remembered since I was a kid of me as a baby on my grandfather's lap, and my grandfather was blind, so he hadn't seen He didn't see me for the first three years of my life. The miracle is in
that house. My houses are so important. He woke one day my grandmother pulled the shades back, and he'd been blind for ten years due to illness, and she pulled the shades back, and he voiced, hey, honey, why is it so bright in here? And my grandmother just turned to look back, and as far as I know, inexplicably to this day, but he got about thirty five percent
of his siteback. So I'd wanted that picture forever. And there'd been family floods in the basement, going through thirty boxes of papers and letters, and you know, in some pictures, I see this broken photo album. I got that picture, baby, Now I've got that picture digitally that was lost. But I'm like, you know, so you know, listen, you're again, you bully, you bully yourself. But then I'm telling you, I meet and greet every thought of that with but
what I do have. And lastly, my wife, blessed wife, no joke, ran into the closet not to get any clothing. Take it back. I think she I think she grabbed her favorite pair of shoes. But that from the story because what she really did. I had an inner synctum of pictures and oh too personal here the picture. The picture is the one picture I had of my sister who passed when she was one. Only ever had one.
Wow.
So I had a little inner sanctum of and we have that. So that's what I'm saying. You know, you go loss but gain and yeah, there you go waxing too much.
People. People always use if you were fire hit your home and you had less than five minutes to grab what you could, what would you grab. That's just something I.
Got the less you ready, Yes, the piece.
I didn't know. You're asking what you learn. I didn't know this, but for one and all people, pets pictures important papers, if if if if, But that really trails off the piece. It's the piece. I'm not joking people pat's pictures.
Can I ask you what did you think There's a house across the street from you that's still standing. Yeah, it only has a few burn marks in the in the grass. Just to see your neighborhood and to see that, what is there going we saw anything, like, what the actual hell, how is this possible? But for a guy who's looking at that, I don't know. If it does cross your mar I will go, wow, I think this happened over here, And why could I have been that house?
We're not human if we don't go, boy, I wish mine. But but then I you know, there's no halo on this head and there's no wings on his back.
That's my wife.
She earned him on earth. But but but but I'm really not joking when I tell you I love it because from my side of the street, I know what the loss is and I never ever, ever, ever, never ever, even if we were the Hatfields and the McCoy's, ever would I want that for them? Ever? And so we love it. And then for our neighborhood it's so affirming
because there's the beacon light. Wow, there's there's the still standing the surfboard and the house and that we know we're going to get back to and we're talking five years, maybe talking ten, right, But it's not about you know, I'm old, I'm bald, working, I'm blind, and what the hell do I need anymore? But again, for the kids, right, for all who are to come bringing it back. We're like, not a Joe, We're bringing it back. Yeah, I mean really like not.
Just everyone else we've spoken with, and it's it's really affirming, it's really hopeful. It's not it's not if, it's when, and it's let's start now and let's figure this out. And I don't know how, but let's begin right now.
Yeah.
Like I said, the dream and the and and the and the determination, like put those together and hey, listen, that's what the world's built on.
Scott. We appreciate you, and we look forward to seeing what you do with that surfboard. I am sure you're going to frame that or do something really with that surfboarding. Before you go, please tell us what is your wife's favorite pair of shoes?
She's gonna kill hold on, hold on, I know this. Oh, I know this. She's not gonna By the way, do you know what I have in my head right now?
Sorry?
Everything's music to me? Ding then done? Don Dunne? What was that game show?
Done?
Yeah?
And she's not going to kill you. He got it?
Got it?
Mary Jane's mean anything to Mary James.
I know exactly what they are.
Swear to God.
The par Mary Jane.
She has she has the Mary Janes. Can you efin believe that? And by the way, no socks, no underwear, no pants or or shirt additional to what she was wearing.
But she got her married Jane.
She got the Mary Jane's insane. So yeah, we will walk on.
Well, thank you so much for being with us. We appreciate it and all the love, and just thank you for sharing that you were so real and so raw and so vulnerable and things that nobody ever wants to be. But in moments like this, it counts and it matters because we we it resonates.
To say, and again we're one hundred percent right, food, clothing, shelter check, really, really, we all we have to be talking about those who are still fighting their way back, you know, and and route route the river resource you know, in that direction, and because that need is still very much there.
Joining us now is James Petty and he unfortunately lost his home in the Eton fire, correct and is a real estate agent in the area and just told us, James just told us that he lost all of his listings in addition to his very own home. James, I shudder to even ask you how you're doing today. How you're feeling today?
Well, I mean, I think I've got a family. I've got four kids, I've got a wife, and I've really been just trying to keep it strong for them. But I mean when I'm on my own, it's tough. I've been crying like every day when I went to church, and just by myself yesterday just broke down. I mean, this is unbelievably hard.
And James, that comes from Look, we've been talking to plenty of people, some of them lost their homes and then we talked to some people who their place of employment burned down, so they lost their livelihood. But you're the first person we've talked to that has law both, it seems because you talk about these moments that you have alone. But to help us understand this, this is one thing about rebuilding and going through this. But James, where in the world do you go from here?
That's that's a good question. I mean, we got noticed of the fire at six pm. And for my neighbor who said it's coming, it's my friends. Because I've sold homes all over so a huge database. People are telling me this fire is going about as fast as a person can run. You got to get out. I threw some clothes in the car through the dog in the van and we left. And I mean five point thirty in the morning. I had to call my father in law, who's stubborn. He's just there, wouldn't leave. I woke him up,
I said get out, and he got out, thankfully. But it was like watching your life that you've built. I've been an altady in twelve years and then my business burned down in day. I just you know, I'm a dad. I live on the deals I do, and it's just that's the hard part, the unknown of what am I going to do for my family, for my kids?
Wow, where are you all right now? How have you found shelter and all the things that you need to live day and day out?
Well, you know, my brother I live in Montana and grew up there for twenty some years. But my brother and I both moved down here. He ended up in Orange County. So I'm with him. My family's with him right now. And then my kids all go to Sierra Madre Elementary. Two of them go there. We're going to be in Siera Madre with some friends and you know, the next sixteen to ninety days is gonna be very telling of what's going to happen where we're going to.
Go, James, that neighborhood you're in Altadena. There's so much emphasis been put on the Palisades fire eating fire. I think eating fires that been the deadliest, even though the Palisades is the largest. But Alta dina in particular, that area. We heard a local reporter describing it a certain way today in the devastation, and you almost couldn't believe it. But you knowing that area, living in that area, how
do you describe? I mean, it's hard for us to put in words because it does look like the place is gone. So you, as a guy who knows it, knows it well, lives there, describe what has happened to that neighborhood.
Well, it's funny, you know, before the National Guard came in, because I'm a local, I was able to talk some local people how to hop the police line. And so I actually went up because I have clients saying can you tell me about my home? And I drove blocks, blocks and blocks. I drove from Marengo to fair Oaks. There was not one house left. I mean, you cannot tell where you are at there are no visual landmarkers. I mean, is it is truly post apocalyptic. I've never
seen anything like I just stay up. People are walking around on the street like zombies. I'm trying to say, can I give you money? Can I do something for you? And people are like, my dad's in that house over there, I think, and the car. I think that's what's hitting me. It's not just me, it's my whole neighborhood. Everybody is impacted and it's just so many on phones.
Yeah, I mean you were able to sneak your way back up there. Did you actually get to see where your house once stood? And what did it look like? Did you see anything recognizable?
Well, I'm happy to share the video with you because I took video of it all from my clients and everything, and actually did walk through my house through the crumbling wreckage of it. And there's some bathroom tiles that I saved and a burnt page of a book and there is nothing else left.
Wow, James, did I hear you said you saved You grabbed the tiles, you held on to them.
That's I mean. The kids are like, is there anything? And I said, I get whatever I can find and I grabbed a bathroom tile.
Bathroom tiles.
Wow, we'll take in amazing. Yeah, I'll take whatever's left. And bathroom tiles work.
Just just a memory, just some physical reminder of what once was. And I know your mind has to be racing about what was lost. Is there something? Are there certain things that you think are just you're just gutted by the loss of Yeah.
I mean, I'm an avid fly fisherman. My dad taught me when I was thirteen up to Montana and all my rods burned, my saltwater reel burned, and those were gifted to me by my father, as well as a really special shotgun my grandfather gave me is gone and I'm not hunted in years, but just having it meant something to me. And those I can't get back. I can't get back my kid's drawings and all the things that they made for me as a dad. That's really hard.
I mean the other stuff I can replace, a stove, a fridge, I can't get that stuff back.
Tell us the ages, James and your kids.
Sure, I've got a seventeen year old William, twelve year old named Plum, ten year old named Jonah, and a seven year old named Juniper.
How were they?
They're pretty impacted. I think my son, I told I was worried about him. He's pretty withdrawn. He didn't want to play Nintendo, which is like his favorite thing in the world, and just really on his own, not eating in the way that you normally would. And I think my youngest is going to bounce back. I think my plum really internalizes it, but my ten year old is he's having a hard time.
James, what do you say to your kids? How do you explain this to them?
I called my therapist friend with the same question. She said, just tell them how you feel that and that it's going to be okay, that we're going to make a way. But they can share with you how you're feeling, like, tell me the good, the bad, tell me in your heart and when you're ready, I'm listening, and not to force it out of them. Give them time.
You said you called the therapist's friend to help you get your kids through it. Who's helping you through it, James.
No one yet. I've got therapists that I can talk to, but I've really the clothes drives, the food. It's been really focused on my wife and kids. I'm wearing what I have. You know, this is my Tsara T shirt and some jeans and some running shoes. So not really dressed for the real estate world.
Yep, I have on a Tsar T shirt myself, right.
Yeah, Zara, when you were able to like, I don't think people, I mean, I'm imagining it, but when you have seconds to grab what you can, you know, what was that moment? Like, what were those moments?
Like?
Yeah, well, with four kids, you're telling your kids like, oh, pack, you know, and my wife is packing. I always have our a black box, which I recommend everybody does. You have a black box of your documents. That's a go bag anytime you don't want to be scrambling for your passports at the last minute. So thankfully we got all that stuff. But yeah, I just grabbed a couple of shirts.
I honestly didn't think my house would burn. I mean, that was I thought I'd be coming back and it, you know, maybe a few days.
Yeah.
So we opened my daughters This is it's strangely funny, ironically funny. We opened my daughter's suitcase of clothes and it's all her stuffed animals made with beds and there's no clothes.
Yeah, you leave your kids like every man for himself. You guys, pack what you need. She packs her stuffed.
Animals, So he's gotta go. Guys, he's coming with us.
I mean, I think my kids would do that too. I think they would grab their baby blankets and their mementos and not think about And honestly, maybe she was the smart one. She left behind the things she can replace. She grabbed, but she couldn't.
Yes, I just love that she put blankets on them so they wouldn't get cold.
You know, everyone we've talked to today, they We've waited on the person who's being impacted to make the joke, but everybody has made us smile. Right, everyone who's been impacted has some little story and in some way is finding a way to stay upbeat. But have you been on the phone with insurance companies yet? Is my question? And what does that mean for your home, your property and moving forward?
Sure? Well, honestly, this is not to toot my own horm. I haven't called my insurance yet. I've actually been counseling my clients. My phone has been going off NonStop. There's a service from a church that's offering ash outs which they'll come through your ashes and dig through your dig through it to find valuables like jewelry, things that are
really important. And I'm putting a notice out today and you know, and the next step is coaching people on how to talk to insurance if you need to speak with a claims adjuster, uh, you know, preparing preparing them for that and after this or tomorrow when I get a minute, I'll file my claim, but you have some
time on that. I've really just been thinking about, you know, my community, to be honest, and we have launched you know, I was in renovation and uh services for residential real estate, so I've done so many homes in the area and so we did launch rebuild Altadena dot com. And that is I'm committed. I'm not moving away. I'm here. We're going to be with people in the process and to help them kind of get through navigating the permitting whole issue with account work County, so you know, to do
your permits. We can help expedite those and help rebuild. So that's where we're focused at it.
Tell can you if you don't have an exact number, you don't have to uh, it's okay, but I'm trying to get an idea. Yes, all homes you sold burned, but you also had a bunch of listenings. Do you have the idea how many listings you lost and how many you have left? Can you give us You might have already counted, but even if you don't have an exact can you give us an idea.
Yeah, it's about six, so one on the market and then my future spring inventory burned.
Wow.
So financially, how do you you know insurance companies? We've heard all the nightmare stories and I know you haven't even begun that journey yet, but I'm sure you're preparing yourself. How do you get back on your feet? Do you know financially how you're going to get back on your feet?
No, that is an unknown. But we are launching construction company, so I think the insurance when it will be there. I have education and knowledge on permitting and how to build, so I think that is really where I'm going to pivot. Of course, I do have people calling me panic selling, and I'm just saying hold the phone. I mean, I don't know what's going to happen, so I just don't know how to advise people until I learn more information.
You know, are we going to see a major dip in altered because no one wants to come here, or because there's low inventory? You know, prices will go up. So I don't know the answer to that question.
James. We've heard you talk about and it's understandable for any parent. You've got four kids, You're trying to make sure they're okay. You've got a wife, you want to make sure she's okay. You got a community you want to make sure okay. You got clients you want to make sure they're okay. Robot and I employ you. Please, James, you got to take care of yourself at some point. Brother,
you got to man. I know, I know you got to be strong now and whatnot, but this is taking a toll on you, the likes of which you won't realize for maybe a little bit. But really, James, you are doing incredible heroes work for everybody around you. It sounds, but we beg you, yes, please, I will.
I will for sure. We'll make sure everybody's getting therapy. I will create that space for myself. Well.
James, thank you for sharing your story giving us some perspective about what you and so many people are going through right now. We just wish you the very best and just so happy everyone's safe and sound.
Thank you.
We're speaking to Edwin, Flores and you have lived in the Palisades Edwin now for just the last few years, but you've had some major life changes. Your wife had a baby two weeks ago. You have a young son who you were racing to pick up at school when
this all started to unfold very quickly? Can you walk us through when you first were alerted that you needed to go get your son, and of course you, I'm sure were concerned about your wife and your newborn as well, who were far away from where you were.
Yeah.
I mean, the whole day started off kind of weird because the winds were definitely extreme for what we're used to. We have a side gate at the home where our dogs kind of go out in the morning, and the entire fence was down, and that's where I kind of got the first notice that this was a little bit different than what we're used to. I comfortably took my son to school and left my wife at home with the baby. She obviously just gave birth two weeks ago
and had a sea section. So you know, after doctor's orders, she's not really able to lift much or move around too much. So I left her at home with the positive thought that everything was gonna be okay. So I went to work and I probably did one meeting, and at the very end of the meeting, I got a text from the school saying a fire has broken out in a very very close vicinity. Please make your way to the school as soon as possible to pick up your son. And well, I didn't really think much of it.
I was like, okay, cool, let me just grab my stuff. And once I got.
In my car and looked towards the sky, like this gray cloud just kind of overpowered what you're looking at, and quickly I got in my car so.
I drive you straight there, and checking in on my wife, checking in with friends in the area to make sure if they got the message as well. And it just seemed like a very very long drive that I was making from Culver City to just the pch. The cloud just kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger, and you know, I was texting friends and sending them photos.
I was like, I do not know what I'm getting into, but this is not looking good.
The closer I got, the more the fear kind of came in, saying like, I have two things I have to do, and I don't know if I can do both of them. And one of them is picking up my son and the other one is picking up my wife and my baby. And the school is the Monassory and it sits in the mar Kessnoles of Palisades is just kind of pretty dead center of the Palisades and
just south of the highlands where the fires began. And once I got into pch you can see the amount of people racing towards the Palisades, which I can only assume it's other parents. I can only assume it's other neighbors that live nearby. And we tried our best to kind of, you know, follow the rules, but you can see people, you know, bypassing red lights, chasing fire trucks to get there faster. And by the time we made it, you know, close to where the Palazi stars, it's just Chautaqua.
You can see the amount of traffic already trying to get out as well.
And once I made a ride onto Mescal, which is the middle street that gets you up there, the line to get onto v ch was already insane. There was tons of cars racing to the top of the hill and the main street, which the Sunset, it was bumper to bumper, like there was.
No room to maneuver any which way, and I was already fearful.
I was like, Okay, this is not going to be good because I still have so many blocks to get to my kid. It probably took me about half an hour to get to the kids school, and during that time I kept checking in with my wife. I was like, I think you need to just start packing things up. We didn't really think we were. We had a fear of the fire. Thought we were just gonna be like
in an area that's probably gonna be smoky. We live in the Sunset Mesa area and it's just behind the Getty Villa, which you know the For some reason in our head we're like, yeah, this this isn't.
Gonna touch us.
I think it's just more so, you know, step away while, step away from the area while the smoke is around, and then we'll be back in, you know.
Two days.
Once I was able to make it to my son, the teachers were not doing well.
They had still ten more kids to go.
You can see the fire and the smoke from the mountains, and they they had concerns for themselves and as well as for those, you know, remaining ten kids or so. I jumped back in my car and I raced heading westbound on sunset, And unfortunately, as soon as I hit Pch, I could not move. Like the cars somehow were just stopped. We couldn't figure out what was happening, and so you.
Couldn't get to your You couldn't get to your wife and to your new born child. So she had to she had to take matters into her own hands, correct and escape on her own.
Yeah, So I called her and I said, listen, I know you can't lift much. I know you can move things around, but I just I need you to just grab as much as you can, grab the dogs, grab the baby, and just get ready just in case.
I'm going to try my best.
But to be honest, I'm moving ten feet every twenty minutes, like I am not moving.
Well, you're we're starting through your head at that point. I'm just curious, like I can't even imagine what your brain is saying to you.
There's two things. The first thing was my son who was in the car with me. The sky was orange, it was dark orange. The moon was red or the sun was like bright bright red. And my son has asthma, so I knew that there was no chance that I can step out of this room the car without him having any type of asthma attack. And in my head, I knew I don't have his inhaler, I don't have anything that can help him in case he does suffer from any of these attacks. So I had to keep
him in the car. I didn't have anything in the car with me, so I took my shirt off and I actually wrapped her around his head, just so that he wasn't breathing anything in case he got into the car. That drive, going towards the Palises drive again. It just took so so long, and you're starting to see people starting to walk with their suitcases on the sidewalk.
Cars pulled off to the side already.
I think everyone was in disbelief, not knowing if they really have to take everything or are they just going to wait it out. I tried my best to wait it out. I'm a film of my wife the entire time. She's, you know, getting little things as much as she can. Carrie luckily. Unluckily, we still had our hospital back pretty much packed because we were just at the hospital not even a week ago, and she was able to grab that bag, tossed in a few more things, primarily for
the kids. And you know, I'm going down the list of like what do we need for my kid obviously the asthma medicine, fourmula for our baby, at least one or two bottles, diapers, like anything that can think of that's going to be immediate, and she luckily was able to grab that throw it in the car. She had to grab the dogs, throw them in the car. They were piled on top of suitcases, and then for the baby.
The unfortunate part was I had the base for the car seat and she had the car seat, so she essentially did her best to just put the car seat on the front seat and just tie it with the seat belt as best as she could.
These are the things you don't plan for, really, like you don't think it's going to happen like this. And thank goodness you all got out safely with at least a few things, because your house ended up being completely destroyed.
Completely destroyed, And I think it's one of those hard things.
Like I said, we thought we'd be back, you know, we thought, hey, in two days, once the small clears,
we'll be back, so there's nothing to worry about. And you know, you're staying close to the news and you're watching these winds swirl and then go left and right, and you know, we're file following the app that you know updated every so happened hours and at some point at the end of that first day, you can see that there's a fire around us, but yet the map in the middle of it had not been updated.
Yet, so we had hope. We had hope. We held on to it.
We had friends in that area that kept texting us, saying, a self connection to my camera, I can see that things are working.
We started getting videos of our.
At the bottom of our hill where the Getty's landscape started burning. We started getting videos of our the restaurants right next to us. We live right next to the real end Enchilada, which unfortunately burned down the first day as well. So in our heads we're thinking, there's still a chance, there's still a chance. And I was trying to find any which way, like how can I get information? And you know, I stuck to the to the social media platform X and I was like, someone's gonna be
talking about it, someone's gonna be posting about it. And you know, the very next day, maybe around midnight, I was like, I'm desperate to find something. I think it was a firefighter that posted, you know, everything on Seahorn Drive from this address to stage dress this address is burning. And it just so happens that that's where we got our first glimpse of the house on fire. So we knew what we were gonna expect. We kind of waited to see if there was anything else that was gonna
come up. And the very next day, I guess the neighbor was able to get into the area and luckily took video of as much as he could so that
everyone would get some kind of understanding or closure. And you know, we live at the very end of an intersection where I think it was a long pause for us where we saw it, and it just it was very surreal knowing that, you know, you're just looking at a driveway like there's not even any structure, if there's no there's nothing there but just flat flat land, And you know, all I can think about is like that whole garage is full of all of my boxes that I had just put in there three weeks ago, and
I was going one by one trying to like, you know, empty them out.
So yeah, I think, I think now.
It's heartbreaking, and it and it's and it's just it's such a sad story that so many I know of your neighbors and friends are going through as well. But Edwin, we really appreciate you walking us through that. You really painted the picture of what it must have been like. And we're just so happy that you and your wife and your children and your pets are okay, and we are sending you our very best. We just, you know,
we just can't even imagine how difficult this is. But thank you for sharing your story.
Of course, of course thank you for listening.
So we are joined now by Rabbi Daniel Sure joining us. Sir, you just before we came on here, you said you were able to get back up and take a look, I think at your neighborhood and where your house is. Tell me what you saw.
You know, we'd gotten once to check the conreation and ones to my own home, and what we see is pain, right. We see a community that so many of us nearly had memorized. Right walking the streets, playing with our kids.
We nearly had this, this neighborhood memorized. And for a second, you feel disoriented and lost because all of the landmark pieces of how you'd remember that, telling your kids you can ride up three houses to the purple mailbox and then stop, which all of us if parents, have done things like that, and then the mailbox is gone and the house is gone, and it's it is a painful and also a little bit confusing because all of the memories of all that love and the neighborhood fled through
you while you're assessing that, and it's just a it's an incredibly complex emotional process.
And Rabbi, I know you you lost your home, what about your stream, your neighborhood? Did anyone's home survive? Are you all literally in the same boat, so to speak.
There are two homes out of one hundred and sixty one hundred and seventy out of our neighborhood, and we are in that same boat. And that's what's so interesting about this moment is like, as as people we've learned how to care for people in trauma. There's no good example or guidance on how to care for those in trauma. While in trauma, it's a different kind of shared experience. There's a different power to it, of course. But if I had a neighbor whose house burned down, we would
surround them with love. And when all the neighbor's houses burned down, there's this flip where part of it is surrounding the two houses that stayed with love because of the guilt, because of the the confusion about what will happened to them, about will they be allowed to live in their home? How long I drove through the neighborhood,
it's not an area to live in. So your house survived, and there's even a weird sense of survival guilt to it, and yet your neighborhood was robbed of you and it is gone too.
Well, Robi, what do you do? And I'm just curious to how you answer it. Your you're a man of faith, and so many people in the community are coming to you for some kind of guidance and counsel, and so often people do answer ask that question, why why would this? Why would my God allow something like this? I'm not sure if you've gotten that question, but just how do you, as a man of faith, make sense of what's happening right now. We know things just happen in Some people say,
is God's plan? But what is your answer to it?
I mean, look, the Jewish tradition holds a lot of different answers to it. But there's a number of theologians and philosophers who understand God as part of this universe and not as the puppet master of this universe. And when you understand God as a concept as as as the noun that connects to human love and care and compassion in this world, then it isn't so much why
would God? And it's more about what do we do to create that space of faith in these moments right I believe that things that happen, I'm not one of those bad things happen for a reason, but I am a When bad things happen, we have a choice, We
have a divine choice. We can either step up and be partners in faith and we can care for humanity and we can see travesty as the kind of origin story that means our children will fix this world because they have experienced the kind of pain that will motivate them to or we can just ask why, and if we find community and we find the people who we can connect to, and by the way, part of the devastation is we have that the Palisades was in a wonderful community of people who showed up for each other
and loved each other. I was at countless of the homes that went down. I was in their homes, and I blessed their homes by putting the Mozusa that piece up on the door that in the inside talked about how to show love and create a world of love. So we have a choice to hold onto that community and care for it and do something real. But right now we're also in pain.
Yeah, can you We've been hearing everyone's stories, Rabbi about how they they got out safely. What's your story?
You know?
I'm going to carry some grief and wrestling with it for a while. I was out of town. I was at a conference, and I was coming back an hour later. Then I ended up coming back and my wife called me and said, should I be worried about this fire? And we talked it through and she went about her day. At first it was nothing. Up on the top of the hill. We had one like a week earlier, and by the time it was something I couldn't get back.
So I was on the phone with my wife while reception would cut in and out, and we problem solved on what to do, and my wife, in a truly heroic axe, was able to go to two schools to pick up the dogs, to collect everyone. She couldn't get her car through, so she actually took a jogger and ran to the synagogue to pick up our youngest son through smoke and it. You know, she saved our entire family and for that will always be the most important already was but the most important person in my world.
But I'm there's gonna be a really hard moment for those of us who couldn't help at all. How we figure out do you go to that next conference? Are you comfortable leaving your family? Because no one saw this coming, No one, absolutely no one. When the fire came up, we said, it can't jump the street. It's a wide street. So there's just so many and you talk to people. Everyone has a story, what they did, what they didn't do,
who they called, who they checked in on. You look at their phone logs and they were checking in on every single one of their friends while trying to evacuate at the same time, it was it was chaos because it is such a in person, tangible, close knit community.
You talk about how you might have a difficult time reconciling or dealing with the uh you being gone when this all went down. I'm curious, though, what's your wife's response to that, because I'm sure you said that to her, And how is she comforted you or tried to get you to you know what, stop that.
Well, I'll tell you part of it is her fault, because she says every time I leave, bad things happen here, talking about like the power outage or kid wakes up in the middle of the night sick. And so I said that, and she dismissed me pretty hard. I tell you that joke is now over. She reminded me of that, like we are a team and you can't foresee these things.
And part of being a role model to our children, which is really the most important thing we do, is showing them that tragedy and the things that might scare us cannot stop us. We have to move forward with life. We have to think about how we rebuild. We have to reach out, we have to create community. We have to keep the tether to the people we care about. And as I said before, we have to be thinking about how the world can be stronger and better for
it because we have three kids. We have three kids who can go and make a difference in this world, who can create beautiful lives, who will do something that makes us proud. And we have to make sure that moments like this strengthen their resolve and don't break them. Wow, even if when they go to bed at night we're a little broken.
Rabbi, I was going to ask you what it has been like, what it will be like leading your congregation. Your synagogue is amazing, it's beautiful, we saw it. It remarkably survived. I was going to ask how you lead people when you're trying to work through your own mental and physical stress of having gone through this tragedy with them. But my goodness, just hearing your words right there, I don't think you're going to have a hard time. You
have a way of inspiring while you're also dealing. Is this a new thing where you have never really had to walk the walk along with your your congregation at the same time in this in this path of pain.
You know it's important to note that every religion has a different setup and structure with their with their leadership and clergy and the way the Jewish tradition is set. Rabbis are not outside the scope of their community. We're
community members. There's there's a piece of rabbinic literature that says in every community, the following are required, and it lists it off a t sure and a doctor, one who understands the laws, someone to supply the food, sanitation, like all the things you can think of that a community needs, and a rabbi. And it doesn't start with rabbi right like it's it's about the idea that rabbi is part of the community. So when you say lead, I guide, but we lead with love and we absorb
what are surrounding. On last Friday, we were able to gather as a community, not in our own space, but in another one, another synagogue, sigin a temple was so gracious to offer us their space to use, and we led with love as I saw faces in tears, myself our senior rabbi, Rabbi Amy Bernstein, the canter canter heien Frankel. We cried with them and we laughed with them. We shared in that pain and that joy of being able to be together after three days of fear and separation.
And so it's not about leading in this moment. It's about meeting the people where we need to be met, and then and then knowing that my love language is to help make sure that even while we sit in this pain, we see a path that will be to move forward.
Man, you've just counseled us here. We've been watching from Afar, and we've been now talking to a lot of folks here in La since we got here, and every single one of them after we've talked to them, has made us feel better. It's put us a smile on our face. Our homes are three thousand miles away. But for whatever reason, you all have a resolve and an energy and a joy and an appreciation and a community. Something is coming through right now in La and you certainly are a
part of it. We thank you for taking the time. I know it's hell for you and your community and your family personally, but man, really really appreciate what you're doing, taking time with us and also guiding. As you say, I won't say lead anymore when I talk about a rabbi, but guiding your community.
So thank you so much, man, I appreciate I want to leave you one note please, As a Jewish peace people, we've known the story of devastation and rebuilding for thousands of years, and so it's not to dismiss the pain.
Of this moment, but it's to know that we really we will rebuild the heirlooms that I lost. The Canter so aptly said, when I buy a new Kiddish cup to bless for Shabbat, my grandkids will know that as the cup that we first blessed Shabbat. After this moment of pain, we'll create new heirlooms. Well, we'll start again, and so we will lean on three thousand years of history to learn to do it. And as a culture, as a people, as all of it, there is so much, so much to look forward to. So thank you for
having me on. I really appreciate it, and I hope you guys are able to share this message out and all the stories you've heard for so many to hear.
Rabi Sure, thank you so much and we will and we appreciate you.
Those are just a few examples ropes of the stories we are hearing here, each one a little different but each one kind of theme so a certain degree as well. When you hear about this, just a commonality, not a comparison, but there's a commonality to the suffering that everybody has. Somebody. You might have lost your home, maybe you didn't, but everybody's in the same boat out here.
Yeah, I find that I found that so interesting and not something I was expecting coming here to hear people's stories. They're vastly different, and yet they all have the same theme to it. There's a gratitude, there's a sense of community. There's a sense of togetherness that was there all the time, it seems like, but just heightened, and people are just so grateful and aware of it, checking in on one another.
And I love that the messages to those of us who didn't suffer any losses or aren't a part of this community, that we can still take the lessons learned during these fires and apply them to our own lives, to our own communities. It doesn't have to have some sort of a tragedy for us to remember to be kind to our neighbors, to check in on people who are vulnerable, and to make sure that we have a
safety plan in place. Natural disasters can happen anywhere, and these are all lessons and all takeaways I believe we can all use in our own lives.
And so thank you once again to all of our guests who have suffered, who are suffering right now, but have still taken the time to tell their stories, to spend some time with us, and for that we are forever grateful, not just for the time, but also for the lessons they gave us and quite frankly, given us a reason to smile, given us a reason to be optimistic in the midst of an unspeakable tragedy. Robes and I will continue to be talking to people while we
are here in LA. We will bring you more of their stories in our next episode of Amy and TJ.
But for now, I'm TJ Holmes and I'm Amy Roboch. Have a wonderful day, everyone,