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It was like a hurricane.
This fire no water, but like eighty miles an hour plus it felts a real.
It's a fire like racing down the hill at that point. Yeah, well that's what's scary about this.
It just was shooting like a blow torch, like a blow tort It was literally just shooting off of the mountain.
Man, I just watched a video I hadn't seen this doorbell camera captures early moments of the eating fire. That's the one up by Altadena and Pasadena and these people. She was coming home from work and she saw a little orange glow off in the distance underneath the power lines. That's why they're now reporting. The La Times is reporting
that they they get started under the power lines. But it's got the minute by minute on here of how fast it went from tiny little fire to a pretty big fire to holy crap, and they loaded up their car and got out of there. It's just crazy how fast that happened. And also I found the the three letter Warning for.
Today comes up with this stuff.
They declared it a PDS for Today Particularly Dangerous Situation. Okay, that's like the official and I guess when you declare something a PDS, then all.
Kinds of things happen. Do we need that, I don't know, it's what I wonder.
So I would say it's a pleasure to talk to our next guest, and it is in a way, but it's a terrible, a terrible topic. Rick Dickard is a legend of LA Media Fox eleven Morning News, among other credits for years, certified broadcast meteorologist, heard many, many, many many times on our beloved affiliate seven to ninety KABC, and he joins us, Now.
Rick, how are you, sir?
I'm well, given what's happening here. Thank you for having me, Jack Joe. And you mentioned the PDS, and that is an official term used by the National Weather Service to express the heightened risk of severe weather, and here it's a wildfire or the potential of more wildfires that they usue those PDS's force severe weather, hurricanes, tornadoes. So this
is an extreme situation. And unfortunately we're looking at another powerful wind event, not quite what we saw last Tuesday, but close to it in terms of wind velocities that are anticipated over the next forty eight hours.
Wow, and I want to get to that in just a second, But first, can you describe to folks what the weather was like last week when the fires started? Giving your perspective of reporting on this sort of thing for years and years.
And I worked in the broadcast media here in southern California for thirty plus years, twenty of which I spent up in an airborne capacity in a helicopter covering these events, these wind driven events. This is the worst I have ever seen, and I was on the ground for this one.
And essentially what happened dynamically in the atmosphere. Things came together to produce these hurricane force wind guts in those areas that we call the urban wildland interface here in southern California, two of which above Pacific Pali States, above that iconic shoreline if you're on the East coast you've seen it in pictures and movies of Malibu. And then the eaten fire above just to the north and northeast of the iconic Rose Bowl and Colorado Boulevard where you
see the Rose Parade every year. Those two areas, there was some sort of trigger in the wild land just above those communities, those two sparks happen, and then dynamically utroologically, we have this powerful wind event that allowed that fire to spread. You heard what people in those areas said, like a blowtors. It was a firestorm, eighty mine hour wind deests burning that chaparral, that forest land, those dry tinder, dry bloodshed. We had months of no precipitation essentially here
in southern California. That Breashcot fire, the winds ignited and that fire spread directly down into those communities. They eaten fire Pasadena over towards Altadena, Sierra Madre, and then the Palisades fire incumbassy Pacific Palsas there even part of Santa Monica, and then up the past towards Malabu.
Yeah, I thought I knew what these videos would be like when I started watching them. But some of the videos they had in sixty minutes last night, and somebody saw this morning on my phone. It was so windy, it was like it was like CGI special effects. I'd never see anything like that anywhere, No wonder it's been so difficult to fight, and it was like a machine gun of embers being shot over tremendous distances miles.
That those embers that Ember cast and the Ember intrusion as we call it, it gets caught up in the eaves of homes two miles away from the fire zones because it was so dry out there, it ignited homes well away from that major fire zone. And that's exactly what happened for a good twelve to twenty four hour period after these two fires started. The Palisades Fire started
at ten thirty am Pacific Standard time on Tuesday. The Eaten Fire above the Rose Bowl north and east of the Rose Bowl in the Angels National Fire that started shortly after six pm on the same day. Worst case scenario with the weather in play and where those two fires ignited, allowing those fires fanned by those dusty, powerful hurricane force windows out of the north and northeast towards the south and southwest into those communities of Pacific Palisades of Alcadina and Sierra.
Madre, including bizarre fire behaviors racing downhill driven by the wind, which is something normally that doesn't happen. Rick Dickert, a longtime meteorologist reporter in LA Online. Rick talk to us about what's expected this week weatherwise.
Yeah.
Again, we set it that pds issued by the National Weather Service heightened fire weather encompassing parts of southern California, Ventura County, the Porto Ranch area, Simi Valley, San Fernando, the West Santa Monica Mountains. That's very close to the Palisades Fire from Pepperdine University over towards Point Mavie. Wind guts again not as strong as what we saw last Tuesday, but close to it. We're talking about wind gusts of forty five to seventy miles per a sustained wind of
thirty nine miles an hour that's tropical storm force. A sustained wind of seventy four miles an hour that is a Category one hurricane. Those wind guts, in addition to the relative humidity values of eight to fifteen percent, that's what's going to produce the red flag conditions. When a red flag warning is issued for southern California, you're watching and listening from other parts of the country. That means explosive fire growth potential, just like what we saw last
Tuesday into Wednesday, that blow towards effect. You get that ignition and then the fire spreadent I do want to mention that Jack and Jodd a fire. These fires aren't started by the weather. They're driven by the weather. There's some sort of ignition. It could be something in terms
of our infrastructure. Unfortunately, there's arson. People love startheas fires. Accidentally, the trigger occurs, the atmosphere conditions are in play, and that's what allow these fires to spread so rapidly and create the devastation that we've seen.
I'm really glad we had you on. What a great report. Nice job, Yeah, terrific, Rick, We're big fans.
I'm sorry it's under this circumstance that we talk to you, but fabulous job.
I hope we can stay in touch.
Absolutely, stay safe out everybody. Thank you for having me.
It's interesting he brings that up about the obviously the weather conditions don't start the fire, they spread the fire. David Spade, the actor comedian, is offering five thousand dollars for anybody with information on the arsonists to start the fire. So clearly he's under the impression that some human beings started this on purpose.
Is I've often wondered.
This with with with our you know, you start a you go into a building and start that on fire, that's a you know, specific thing, but starting a fire in an area that it catches on and then burns and burns and burns and burns. You got you gotta be prepared for that, whether it's an arsonist, a lightning strike,
an electric breakdown. You've got to have some way to keep that from getting so out of control, don't you know, the forest management we're having enough of water in your fire hydrants to fight it or whatever, because there's always going to be something a.
Lot more sparked or I don't think there is anything you can do to be ready for that weather after that long and drought and getting sparked. You have to work like a maniac to make sure that in those conditions nothing gets sparked, and there's super quick response if it does. But with one hundred male par gusts, lots and lots of seventy five mile prou gusts, you're just screwed. To summarize, although, and we made this point a couple of times, and it's worth making again because a particular
aspect of this cannot be blamed on bad governance. Is no reason to not talk about the awful, awful governance of California slash LA that was a contributor. Maybe it doesn't explain it, but it should still be identified and rooted out.
I wish I could remember where I heard some fire chiefs saying we could have had every fire truck in America here last Thursday night and it wouldn't have made any difference when it was gusting to one hundred miles an hour, which makes sense.
Well, yeah, the one gent I heard, I think it was on sixty minutes point doubt that if they have a fully involved structure, they want three fire trucks there typically, and that there were as of when they interviewed him, something like twelve thousand structures had burned. He said, do the math. There aren't that many fire trucks.
I was trying to find the quote that man Gavin got beat up for on Friday. It was similar to what you're talking about. See if I can find it real quick.
Oh, Gavin Newsom he was.
He did an interview on a liberal outlet, which also got him some pushback, like you didn't have the guts to go on where he was going to be challenged at all. He said, let's stop with the finger pointing. I'm not interested in who's to blame. Oh really, that's interesting because a lot of people are interested in who's to blame, Like.
A lot of people with no homes are pretty interested in that. Yeah, yeah, that's funny, Kevin. A quick word from our friends at Prize Picks. It's playoff time? Oh is it ever?
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Speaking to Gavin Newsom, the Governor of California, here's here's my my tiny little seminar I'm gonna do for politicians. If you're ever asked the question does the buck stop with you?
Always say yes. There's no win in anything other than yes, And here you go, does the buck stop with you?
I mean, you're governor of California inviting it will be the mayor of California.
We're all in this together. We're all better off. We're all better off.
We're all better off, and we're working together to take.
Care of people.
What wow, obviously, well we know where Kamala Harris's speech writers went to work having been laid off.
Oh my god, that was a terrible job of family. Armstrong and Gaddy, thank you. That makes ana. We've got more on the way. Stay with
Armstrong and Getty