This is Gary and Shannon and you're listening to KFI AM six forty, the Gary and Shannon Show on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
We're ending up this latest daily briefing on what was referred to earlier today as the fire siege that we have seen at the beginning of twenty twenty five. Out of state resources good news continue to arrive in to this area as we battle these continued fires. The National Weather Service does say that the red flag conditions are
going to stay in effect through Friday probably. And the number that I was always the number that I was always questioning, was the thirty thousand people who had been evacuated. The sheriff said there were one hundred and eighty thousand people who are under current evacuation orders, one hundred and eighty thousand and then another two hundred thousand under evacuation warnings throughout La counted.
I was listening to Conway last night when the Hollywood fire broke out, and you could just hear it in his voice or he was kind of like, oh no, not another one, not there, And I think everyone had that gut punch as well. I mean, we talk about from the Palisades to Altadena and then you know, it
just kept getting worse. I mean, usually we're used to covering these fires, and you know, there's the initial burst and the initial devastation and the homes lost, and then twenty four hours later, it's a different kind of vibe. It hasn't been that way. It's been what's next, What's next? Since the Palisades fire erupted.
Yeah, and the Palisades Fire itself continues to grow. This is a very I mean today it's what you would probably consider more normal fire behavior. Yeah, but it's going the other direction now. I mean when it started.
On Tuesday, what day is today?
Today is Thursday?
Today? Thursday.
When it started on Tuesday, it was going from the hill down to the beach. Now it's going up north towards the valley and east towards the four or five.
Much much slower.
I mean, that's the benefit of having very little wind. But it is going in those uphill areas, which it tends to go faster than if it were going downhill or on flat lane.
And I'm wondering if they said those backfires to protect even more homes in the Palisades. It doesn't sound like there's many left. Honestly, the devastation is vast there. I mean there are no roads, really, I mean there are roads, but there's no homes. And you know, we're talking about it this morning about yeah, okay, so your home survives, your home, maybe one other home on the road, those are not inhabitable.
Well, one of the images from this morning was right along pch in Malibu area, where right past Dukes. We were talking about a few dozen homes right along the strand right along the beach in Malibu, and they were they're gone, and then there's one still standing or two still standing.
And I mean, you're poin. So what do you go back to?
You don't I mean, at least you have your stuff that's in your home. Your home probably smells and your stuff will always smell like fire. But at least, I guess you have your stuff. But you can't live there. I mean, it's not safe to live in a neighborhood where everything's been decimated like that. And why would you why would you want to live in the apocalypse.
There's still a lot We talked about this at the end of the show yesterday. There are a lot of questions that need to be answered. Whether it's by fire officials, by political officials, whoever, about what it is that's going on at what caused this, what prompted this, Why we were so un or should say, incapable of handling it. I mean a lot of it is just the wind. You could could do anything right. There was no amount
of water in the tanks, There's nothing. There are questions that simply will go will never have a fulfilling answer.
You'll never be able to pin the blame on anybody.
You were never going to minimize the devastation. But there are questions that have been addressed. I still think it's a little too early, but they're surfacing to the fire department on the city level when you're dealing with the most devastating fire in city history. The lack of water pressure, and then of course the statewide effort to keep the water in northern California from coming down here because of the Baby smelt.
So all of that stuff.
Insurance, I mean, that's another massive issue that we'll be talking about over of course of the next few days and weeks and probably months.
To be honest, a lot of the insurance policies canceled. What James Wood said four months ago.
Just months ago.
Yeah, And it's not just there, it's not just in the Palisades.
This is a California thing.
This is something that's happening throughout the Western United States, concentrated here in Kema.
Well, and it's going to keep getting worse because the fires get worse and we live in these urban wildlife interface areas all over the California area.
A quick rundown of what we know, and we're going to go out to Altadena here in just a second. The Palisades fires up to seventeen two hundred plus acres as of right now. They said the number of damaged or destroyed buildings is into the thousands, thousands some of Right now, the eastern and northern flanks of the fire are moving towards the four or five. They're moving north towards the vout very very slowly compared to what we saw twenty four forty eight hours ago. But that is
one of the things that is still growing. Eaten fire in Altadena. Pasadena's up at ten thousand, six hundred acres, and they said most of the growth in that one has been significantly stopped. But you're still talking about over a thousand. Again, they just they don't have a good count on this yet, but over a thousand structures damaged or destroyed. The rest of the fires, they're fine, Like, let's worry about the two big ones.
Those are the ones that we're going to be talking about.
We talked about Alta Dina. I live in a town over from Alta Dina and it was one of the areas where I looked when we were looking to buy a house and move in that area. And the thing about Alta Dina is it's very special. It's one of the places with great history in this area. It is got kind of a small town feel about it. You brought up yesterday the loss of things like the hardware store. You've seen a lot of businesses. It's not just wildland, but there's a lot of wildland in Altadena there. I
go hiking there all the time. That area has all been devastated. But you saw a lot of homes go up. A lot of that checkerboard type style of a home is here gone across the street.
It's fine.
The home next to that one across the street gone on the flip side of the street, the home is standing. This was also one of those areas where there were not a lot of first responders seen, and not a lot of people telling put down your hoses and leave. In fact, I know at least personally a few people that stayed behind and were just watering down trees and fences yesterday because the first responders were spread so thin there. But the devastation now is just becoming apparent. Michael Monks
is there. He is at the corner of Mariposa there in El Molino. Is that right, Michael?
That's exactly right right outside where that hardware store used to be. It is a scene of just utter destruction, like something out of a Hollywood set. It's just unbelievable to stand here and absorb this. I mean, we've seen some of them, will tell you that we've seen some of the TV. I'm sorry of the neighborhood itself, where
there are just power lines down. You can't recognize which home, where one home starts and the other one ends because of the fire and the collapsed nature of the buildings. What is it that you're seeing from that intersection. It's a tale of four corners really, and Shannon really explained it well. I mean, there's it's so random how this fire chows what to destroy, because there are, of course blocks that are leveled, and then there are other blocks where one or two homes were taken in.
The one in the middle wasn't. It's just been so strange to see that.
I'll tell you right now, it looks and feels like it's the evening already. It's only barely twenty after nine, and the sun is this weird shade of pink. It's tucked behind clouds and smoke. The air is thick, it's very difficult to breathe. But here at this intersection, on one side, one corner, that hardware store in an old brick strip mall next to an insurance agent's that's gone. The frame is still standing. Across the street from that,
everything is completely leveled. Then coming over to the other side of the street, there's a corner, and it's an interesting site because there's this sign, just a small wooden sign, facing the corner advertising rentals in the Mariposa town Homes, and that sign has not suffered a lick of damage. Meanwhile, behind the sign, the town homes are gone, completely flattened and leveled. And then the last corner is particularly interesting because the buildings, so for no damage at all, and
it just happens to be a fire station. And so as I'm standing here, I'm watching a lot of the firefighters who are clearly coming back from the thick of it, taking a little rest, taking a little break, and I'm watching them get right back in their trucks and head back out. Another interesting scene that I saw right here in this neighborhood, in on a side of the street that does not appear to have suffered any damage at all.
There seem to be a couple I guess that we're standing out here, likely the homeowners, and there was a little bit of smoldering in their mault near the curb on the street, and they were tending to it. They were digging it out and pouring a little bit of water on there. So there are residents who are still here despite what has happened to their neighbors across the street, and it looks like they are playing defense right now against any of those floating embers. I can tell you
there's lots of smoke coming off the ground. There are little pockets of flames. The cars on the street just burned out, Utility poles split in half, wires hanging again. It just looks apocalyptic, something out of a scene from The Walking Dead.
I've seen more people in Alta Dina just appearing in shock and in tears, and it's a lot of whiplash there still. Because this was one of those fires where there was no time. I think what I've heard from people who live there is we didn't even know there was a fire burning there until.
It was time.
It was almost too late to evacuate, let alone getting an evacuation warning and an evacuation order. It was just it happened so suddenly, and then coming back to find out, wait, there was a fire. Wait I had to evacuate, and wait, I don't have a house left, and the businesses are gone.
In a blink of an eye, this beautiful city has just been decimated. And you characterized it well, Shannon. I mean, there's this little side street that is a private street. There's a sign out front that makes that clear, and you can tell even now that that street led to some beautiful homes, and the only remnants of those homes there's a white picket fence that is half standing and also half charred to the ground.
And then you have.
These beautiful chimneys and fireplaces that once stood inside these lovely homes and now stand out here like a graveyard.
The other issue I think is, I mean, outside of the loss of obvious home stuff, in your home memories, all of that, you're talking about people whose place of work is also gone.
In many instances, I mean.
There are people who work here who have lost jobs, but they have a job.
I mean, our building is still standing.
They are going to be people who have lost their home and whatever place of business that they were supposed to be going to.
That's right, and so that is very impactful to the workers, to the owners of the business, to the owners of the properties. And it also attacks the character of a community. When you think about a small hardware store, how long have people been shopping there? How many generations have stories from when they needed something and got some help at that place. We see it here in Altadena, we see
the devastation in the palisades. The character of these communities have been lost as well, in addition to people's personal items and of course the loss of some lives.
Michael, we'll check back in with you. Thank you for that. Thank you, guys. Michael.
Monks there out there in Altadena, Elmalina and Mariposa Street, that intersection right next to one of the fire stations. As he was reporting, Amy King made a comment this morning that I thought that is also one of those conversations for down the road, but Michael kind of touched on it right there, which is the loss of the
character of a neighborhood. And when we were talking yesterday with the head of the Palisades Community Council, she was discussing what the personality of Pacific Palisades, and I mean this is obviously it's la and a lot of people. If you're anywhere east of here, you're going to be reading stories about celebrities that have lost their homes or because they're the ones who generate the headlines, but just the sheer number, I mean, the images of these neighborhoods
in the Palisades. There's not a house standing, and the idea that there are thousands of structures, I mean to me that seems like it Ell States is gone. They're just neighborhoods like just as decimated and you're losing with that what she described yesterday as sort of that Midwest small town feel on a bluff overlooking the beautiful Pacific Ocean, and Alta Dina has that as well in parts of that Pacady and those Some of those homes are built, I mean, one hundred and twenty years ago, and.
It's going to take a decade at least to rebuild and to get businesses back up and all of that. It's just it's a long road to hoe, you know what. I'm kind of done with. And I don't mean to be a negative person, but I'm really done with all of the we as Angelino's are strong and we will overcome and blah blah blah blah.
I don't care.
Right now, the freaking smoke is still rising from the homes where families.
Built their lives. Tell us what we're going to do.
Tell us where people can get food and shelter, and where how you're going to get the water situation fixed locally and statewide, and where people can go. And tell us more about Airbnb giving away free lodgings, and tell us which hotels are going to be offering free rooms because not everybody has money that spend displaced.
Tell us that stuff.
Enough of your bad sea grade poetry, like nobody needs to hear that crap.
There's no stomach for that crap right now.
What I want to know is and this.
For the love, that is the way we stand here united, Jesus, Marian Joseph.
United and stand strong.
Only think she said good in that whole thing was Tuesday?
Who is that for?
That's what people who do not have any sort of realization how real people are living right now, that's the same crap.
I almost at a bad word.
Eric Garcetti would say, or all the people who live in their ivory west side towers, you know the stuff that people are so out of touch with humanity. How can you be out of touch with somebody who loses their home. Don't you have a home, don't you have stuff? Don't you have a family?
I mean, how can you be that out of touch? Right now? I just don't get it completely.
That's why I pulled that cut, was because I wanted to make fun of it as just so tone deaf for what needs to be what we need to see and hear action from them right now?
Action. All right, it's gonna be a good day.
Is it gonna be a good day?
Well, it's gonna be a better day.
Yes, it's gonna Well, I hope. So, yes, the wind is I'll be happy when the wind event.
Is over, Yes, and that is coming soon.
So we'll talk more about what's going on fire wise, et cetera throughout the day Today.
John cobe elt.
In overnight twelve midnight to three am. In fact, I didn't get a chance to listen because yeah, but I mean, doesn't that sound kind of nice like going to sleep? John Coe belts on the radio. No, no, sounds soothing. Well, I don't know what John after dark sounds like. I mean,
I know what John after sunset looks like. But that's well after I told you I think on Monday or Tuesday about the BBC shipping news and how that is a big draw for people, people who have no interest in shipping directions or traffic or wind or any sort of forecast. But yet the guy who does the BBC shipping news for the BBC obviously has such a soothing voice that people subscribe to this and go to sleep to the shipping news on the routine. What a nice
compliment for him, isn't it. Yeah, maybe you could do some sort of shipping news thing. I wouldn't know the I wouldn't know the first thing. Well, just try to make it up, wing it and use a British accent. I'll close my eyes and see if I can go to sleep.
There is one giant shipload of oil being shipped through the Suez Canal.
See that's pretty good. That's pretty good. I got a little sleepy. Well, that's great. So one of the estimators, I don't even know what would you would say estimations an estimation made by an estimator about what kind of I mean, ballpark we're talking when it comes to damage from the fires that have broken out in the last couple of days. Between fifty two and fifty seven billion dollars in damage is what they're and that's this is the first forty eight hours after this thing broke out.
That's the first number that we've gotten to put that in context. That obviously would be the worst in terms of damage and property damage. The worst disaster in the history of California, the nineteen ninety four Northridge earthquake, by comparison, was somewhere about thirty billion dollars in property damage. Thirty billion, and this we're talking about fifty to fifty seven billion.
Some of the most expensive real estate in the country. But that's not even what makes this that expensive. It's that it's so widespread, and it's not just one two million dollar house or a one point four million dollar
house in Altadena. This is thousands of them. Chief meteorologists for ACU Weathers said it's already one of the worst wildfires in history, and if a large number of additional structures are burned in the coming days, it would be the worst wildfire in modern history based on not just the number of structures burned, but also economic loss.
We talked yesterday. CalFire keeps a list.
It's just a depressing list of the top twenty wildfires based on different in the state of California, based on different metrics. One of them is the size, the top twenty in size, the top twenty in damage, and then the top twenty in terms of loss of property and the campfire. The one that burned through Paradise burned about eighteen thousand structures, I think is what they said, and.
Killed eighty five people.
This one could surpass that, if not in the deaths, then almost certainly in the number of people I'm sorry, in the number of properties that are lost and.
The death toll.
I wanted to mention as well because Sheriff Robert Luna said something at this news conference, which was it was rare and it was important, especially in a situation like this. The death toll has been reported at five in the Eton fire, the one in Altade in Nepasadena. Yesterday, it was two. Today, the numbers overnight in this morning were five. And when he talked about it, he said, I'm not going to give you a death toll for a couple of reasons.
Number one, we're not quite sure.
We don't have our trained eyes on whatever it is, and I don't know if they're finding bodies or whatever. But he said, we need to make sure we get this right, because this is not there's no rush right. It doesn't like you've said many times about the acreage of things like this, the acreage doesn't matter. If it's seventeen, that teny, twelve thousand, that doesn't matter. What matters is people's lives and property. And at this point the exact
death toll, we know people have died. We know that that makes it a deadly fire, and that's what's important.
And he said in.
Response to one of these questions in this news conference today I'm gonna make it. I'm gonna make sure before we start getting into that story, you believe that death toll is not accurate and do you think it's less than that?
Based on all the information that I've received in the last probably eight hours, I want to be more confident in the specific information that I'm getting. So what we're doing now is going back through everything, because you've got to understand the urgency, the chaotic nature of what we're dealing with, and we're still in the middle of that.
So I want to make sure that as we go forward, at least for the Sheriff's Department, we're actually having our homicide unit involved because they do they only do murder investigations. They do death investigations. That I'm going to change the system and verify each number because I don't care if it's just one. That's somebody's family, that's somebody we love and care for, So I want to make sure that's
solid before we start presenting that information. Unfortunately, based on the preliminary information I've seen, at least in the both the two large fires that we're dealing with on each side of the county, Unfortunately, I think the death toll will rise.
Now listen, And that's the acknowledgment. He knows it's going to go up.
It doesn't matter if it's five or four or seven right now, because it is going to go up, unfortunately, and he wants to make sure he gets.
It, gets it right, and I'd love to hear it.
It's such a refreshing comment from a situation like that.
And it's not poetry. It's not the BS about well, we're going to stand strong and be the thing in this and the light it sounds real person and the show our better angels or whatever, None of that, none of that BS.
It's just listen.
I want to get it right because I know that people are going to be affected by whatever numbers come out, because they're not just numbers, they're actual.
People, all right.
Coming up next one of the most dramatic scenes you know, and I'm not even going to qualify it.
It's all been dramatic.
It's all been awful and horrific and a freaking nightmare since Tuesday morning.
Last night was the most recent nightmare.
I guess you could say the freshest nightmare when you saw the Hollywood Hills go up in flames, and spotting almost immediately. The Magic Castle Hotel was in jeopardy at one point. Coming up, we are going to talk to the man who operates the Magic Castle Hotel about what happened, how things stand now, and what's next. The four big fires burning right now, it looks like just complete devastation at the Palisades. I haven't seen I've seen maybe one
or two homes standing. Maybe it's just the news coverage is focusing on the neighborhoods that have been completely decimated. But it looks like I'm looking at an overhead grid right now, and it is just it's a war zone.
It's war I mean sections of even even Sunset, those buildings along Sunset that are the larger, you know, they housed a couple of different businesses or you know, even those are the buildings are gutted. They're still standing, but they're gutted. And then hundreds of homes throughout those I think they call in the Alphabet streets they're in Palisades that are just they're just gone.
Well another oh no.
Last night I heard Conway talk about it as this fire was breaking out in the Hollywood Hills. Darren Ross is the owner of service. Free Hospitality operates a Magic Castle Hotel, obviously an institution there in Hollywood.
Darren, thanks for your time this morning.
Well, yeah, good morning. Thank you for having me.
So walk us through your experience last night as this thing was unfolding.
Yeah. Sure. I had got home from work, starting to relax, and then got word that this fire broke out. Came right back to the hotel and all of a sudden we were under evacuation orders and we evacuated our hotel, and on my way back in, I saw the glow of the fire. It seemed pretty close. Looked like it was on the other side of Le Brea and the Running Cannon area. But yeah, it was a pretty scary sight to see on my way in and got to work and we safely evacuated our hotel.
How many people are we talking? How many do you have to get out of there?
Yeah we have. We have thirty nine rooms. We were about Yeah, we're about ninety five percent occupied last night, so a pretty full hotel with families and kids and luggage, you know, and going on onto Franklin Avenue, which was just packed as everybody was evacuating.
It seemed like it was gridlock there through Hollywood, but it died down relatively quickly. It seems like everyone got out right away. Now, your area, much like we saw with the Palisades and the Alta Dina area, I mean Altadena kind of knew they were on the radar of the winds coming down from the mountains and the foothills. Pacific Palisades has that super large wild land area right
above it. But it must have been a shock when when you heard the news that there was a fire encroaching on your area.
It was a shock. We of course, we all hope for the best, for more of the of course, the hotel to be protected, and an historic club next door to be protected. It's funny, there was a there was an image going around and I started getting messages from all of the country, all over the world, Australia.
There was a.
Picture of the club with this glow behind it that looked like it was on fire. But the fire was actually about a half a mile away. But there was a scary site, not the club's first first run in with the fire.
What's I mean, everything's fine.
The evacuation orders were lifted a couple of hours ago, so today is going to be different. Do you just let people back in? How does that work trying to reoccupy the hotel?
Absolutely, So we've we've been in communication with our guests via email and our Facebook page, keeping them, keeping them informeds. Like, the evacuation order was actually lifted at about twelve forty in the morning, so we notified everybody around that time. And right now as we speak, people are trickling back into the hotel, enjoying breakfast in our courtyard ard and things seem to be back to normal.
In a situation like that, and the location that you're in, is this something that you had even planned for?
Is there? Do you guys have procedures for this on a regular basis?
Yeah, I mean absolutely, I mean we have, we have evacuation plans, you know, living in an earthquake country for you know, for sure, for sure. It just depends on the circumstance. So we send everybody to kind of the south end of Hollywood Boulevard, which was outside the evacuation so we were just on a cusp of the evacuation boundaries. So Hollywood Hills, Hollywood Hills High School was an evacuation center.
The rose of the Hollywood Roads famous Roosevelt Hotel was not in the evacuation uh area, so we sent some people there. Some people stay there for the night.
You guys had a fire there Halloween a handful of years ago.
We did, Yeah, Halloween on a twenty eleven. God, I was the guy who hired the roofing company to redo the roof there. And yeah, a nice showman left the torch down a little too long and that's what started the fire. And yeah, there were no no injuries, but a whole lot of damage. And the firefighters did such an incredible job. I think it was one hundred and twenty six firefighters showed up to help save that historic building.
Wow.
Well good.
I'm glad everybody's safe and I'm glad you guys are getting back to business. Darren Ross operates a Magic Castle Hotel over the just over the hill, right over there.
Darren, thanks for your time again today. I really appreciate it.
Thank you so much. Have a great morning. Man.
That's quite the response. It's like, what five strike teams.
Yeah, but the good news is that's that fires out.
All those evacuations in that area have been left in.
I was watching or listening to some of the television coverage, and it was.
Like, oh, run and cannyon. I hike there every day. Well it's like, oh.
Boy, it's a I was telling you off the air, like I I've slept for a long time last night because I was up all the night before, but I also slept in a home with a bed exactly.
I mean. It's a very human thing to make something about you where you want to connect to somebody who's going through something, or I want to connect to anybody.
I know how tired you are.
But yeah, in situations like this, when that human condition to connect happens, sometimes it can come off the wrong. I do it all the time. See I just did it. We'll stay on top of the fire right here on Gary and Channer.
You've been listening to The Gary and Shannon Show.
You can always hear us live on KFI AM six forty nine am to one pm every Monday through Friday, and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio Lab.