Eaton/Palisades Fire Investigation

the country. So back here at home, the fire cleanup continues, and as we get through what will be some very very difficult months and probably a couple of years of clean up and rebuild. We got to figure out what caused these fires in the first place. And there are two very different tracks for the two largest fires that we're talking about, the Eton Fire over in Altadena and

the Palisades Fire over Pacific Palisades. The more information that comes out about the Eton fire, the more it looks like this was power lines that caused this massive and incredibly destructive, deadly fire. In fact, sorry, The New York Times has an article today that talks with Whisker Labs, Bob Marshall's co founder, a chief executive of Whisker Labs. Whisker Labs has a bunch of censors that are installed in homes around the country measuring abnormal activity on the

electrical grid. And he describes something Bob Marshall does. He described something that happened the night of January seventh, when the Eton fire started, that I've never heard described before. Moments before the fire actually erupted near transmission towers up in the hills above Altadena, some high voltage power lines faulted in that area. About three seconds after that fault, another major fault registered right near Altadena. And in fact,

this is the part that I've never heard before. The two electrical disruptions along those transmission lines were so powerful that they reverberated as far away as Oregon and Utah. And again they could tell because Whisker Labs has a bunch of these sensors installed in people's homes around the country. And even Bob Marshall, who does this for a living, says, we looked at this one, and it was Holy cow.

This is a transmission scale event. Anytime something happens on the grid and we see a fault at exactly the same time on many many sensors, than it is a fault on the utility grid. Those faults occurred at six ten PM and six eleven PM. Remember earlier, a few days ago, one of the law firms had put out surveillance video that appeared to show flashes.

But they do say that they are conducting their own investigation, and Edison, to its credit, has agreed to meet with Whisker Labs about the data as part of its review. Could take months for them to figure this out, but once again, even more evidence that those flashes in the hills above Altadena just after six o'clock on January seventh were probably power lines going down or arcing, sparking and then starting the fire beneath them. Now, the Palisades fire

is very different story. It was windy that day, was earlier in the day January seventh, and we were on the air when it happened. But two leading theories have come out about exactly what happened. One of the things I said the day that the Palisades fire started was that it reminded me of the fire in the Oakland Hills back in nineteen ninety one, and one of those theories tracks with that description. Of what happened in the Oakland Hills. Shannon's out today's getting her teeth fixed. Don't

worry about it a little. Some dentist was able to finally fit her in so she can get her tooth fixed, so she can come back all better tomorrow. Another rain event coming to southern California. National Weather Service forecasting a minor to moderate rain event in La in Ventura Counties next week from Tuesday through Thursday. Quarter of an inch to an inch expected Tuesday through Thursday.

in the hills above Altadena. It started on January seventh, and it looks more and more like it was power lines that may have faulted come down something in the hills above Altadena that eventually that fire was pushed down by the winds into the neighborhoods there. As for the Palisades fire, there's an interesting problem with the investigation into

what started the Palisades fire. It started also January seventh, but it was at about ten fifteen in the morning, and that was just a short time before we were notified about it, right about ten thirty people driving along Pcight. Somebody had actually called us and left us a talkback message that said that they could see smoke coming from the hills above the Palisades, and that started obviously what became a couple of weeks of waldewall coverage here on

KFI about both of those fires. Well, for the last couple of weeks, a team of investigators from the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms and Explosives has been working out of command post in the neighborhood of Pacific Palisades and that Highlands neighborhood, and there is a pretty popular hiking trail, the Skull Rock trailhead, where they believe that the fire started. And there's only two real good

theories right now about what started the fire. The first one is it's human caused, somebody cigarette fireworks something like that. January seventh, the morning of extremely windy the fire starts and gets out of control. The other one, the other theory that they're looking at is that somehow an almost weak old fire that actually started on January first was able to reignite. And I know that sounds weird, but the LA Fire Department was called into that area, the

hillside above Pacific Palisades on January first. This would have been seventeen minutes after midnight January first, and a home about two blocks away from that Skull Rock trailhead was the homeowner, I should say about two blocks away was the one who first called the fire in said that they could see the flames and smell the smoke, and at this point somebody, an investigator, an anonymous investigator has told the La Times that they believe that that fire,

that January first fire, was sparked by fireworks. Initially, I've seen this unfortunately before. But initially they could not put helicopters in the air because of the wind. But at about one four in the morning, they started doing an aerial attack support a cruise on the ground. TV cameras were there caught the whole thing just about three point thirty, so about three hours, three plus hours after the fire

was first reported. They said that they had stopped the forward progress of the fire Now, what happens then, is they don't just pack up and leave, Even on a fire that's that small, relatively small, they don't just pack up. A little over an hour after the forward progress is stopped. Lapd says they completed the hose line around the perimeter. Some of the firefighters stayed there for thirty six hours. Someone was on scene for thirty six hours after that

fire was considered stopped. And in fact, they do a cold trailing operation there. Crews literally feel for any heat that might be lingering along the edge of the fire. They'll dig out any hotspot that they find. They trenched the live edges make sure that nothing flares up. The idea then that the January seventh fire was somehow a remnant of that New Year's Day fire is pretty far fetched,

but it is possible. The LA Fire Department has not yet said whether or not they did any sort of thermal imaging of the area after that New Year's Day fire to make sure that there were no hotspots. A lot of times, agencies like that do use thermal imaging during fires after fires to find the hotspots when there's no visible light or in conditions when it's a heavy smog or mist or something like that. And the idea that this fire, somehow, the Palisades fire, was a remnant

of that New Year's Day fire is slim. The chances of it are very slim, but it is still a possibility, and that's one of the things that they're looking at. ATF says they want to have a report on the cause of the Palisades fire sometime within the next sixty days. That would be considerably faster than the massive fire that burned on the island of Maui from twenty twenty three

that took about a year. And it may depend on whether or not they need to have more tests back at the fire lab that the ATF has in Maryland.

I mentioned the Oakland Hills fire. It is possible for a fire like that to rekindle after several days, maybe even months. The Oakland Hills Fire ninety one destroyed twenty five hundred different structures. It came a few days after there was a small six acre fire in that same area. Firefighters did have engines there. They weren't constantly looking at that six acre fire that they had put out, or

they thought they put out. But when the winds picked up again a couple of days later, that's when the Oakland Hills fire really erupted and caused all the damage from a fire that they thought had been out completely. All right, Up next, a little bit more about what's going on for the rain forecast, and it's eagle time. The eagles we're talking Keiana respect Keana suggested that this

may be Southern California's Groundhog Day. They were doing this whole eagle egg watch thing over and over and over and expecting different results. But this one is a little different because now we have three eggs. I guess why passengers on that flight included a bunch of teenage figure skaters. They were headed back from the US figure skating championship in Wichita. Their Russian coaches were also part of it.

US Figure Skating put out a statement that said that several skaters, coaches and their family members were on that flight after attending a development camp that followed the championships that wrapped up Sunday in Wichita. Internationally, militants freed eight more hostages from the Gaza Strip, and then Israel turned around and released one hundred and ten Palestinian prisoners part of the ceasefire. There was some chaos though, that took

part some of the hostages. The Hamas held hostages were pushed through a rowdy crowd by a bunch of masked militants, and obviously that upset Israel. The Prime Minister, as a matter of fact, briefly put on hold the prisoner swap. He demanded that mediators go in and make sure that there would be safe exits for the Israeli hostile just going forward, a commitment that he said he later received.

Then later Thursday, Hamas confirmed the death of Muhammad Dif, head of its military wing, six months after Israel City was killed in an air strike there in southern Gaza. We'll talk more about what's going on with the confirmation hearings coming up, we get into swamp Watch. Also more on President Trump's order about housing illegalalien criminals in Guantanamo Bay. Sitting there, nobody's using it, so he says they'll probably

start planning on doing that. We are expecting another National Transportation Safety Board update on the crash that plane versus helicopter collision in DC, So we'll get to that and carry some of that live when it happens.

the snow because the snow level is relatively low. That prompted some flash flood warnings for parts of Malibu and the Palisades because of the burned scar area, and then a full closure of Topanga Canyon from pch Over to Grand View Drive because of the mud and brief flows that came as a result of last weekend storm. The temperatures, however, warmer temperatures starting tomorrow through Sunday north of Santa Barbara.

You could see some light showers, they're saying. But as for next week's forecast, National Weather Service said there's still a range of outcomes where rainfall amounts the timing are concerned, but there is at least some risk of moderate to heavy totals and intensities.

on Jackie's schedule. There's a blog post that was published that says this egg laying process is almost identical to the previous two and that it took less than four months to get that final push. The blog post says Jackie looked down and that third egg have been softly laid down beside the other two. Her calmness continues as she gently talents tucked, stepped back to check on her eggs and almost immediately settle down on top of them,

ready to keep them warm and protected. Here's an awful Here's an awful sentence, and if you are any sort of medical inclination, you will know what this means. About fifteen minutes after she laid the egg, Jackie stood up and rapidly shook all the trauma out of herself before promptly settling back down on her eggs and falling asleep. Shadow apparently gave her some much needed space after supplying her with two fish and then and mating on a

nearby perch tree on Tuesday. And that means anyway, he also had some of the nest watching. There are thousands of people watching the live stream of these eggs, thousands, thousands, which brings to mind the idea that we should be doing a phone fee fresh sorry, phone free February. You say that, phone free February. I know somebody who's not here today because she's getting dental work done, who has been dry all of January and maybe phone free February

is the next way to increase your wellness. A space rock, they say is between forty and one hundred yards wide, spotted on Christmas Day by a telescope in Chile, is expected to hit sometime in December of twenty thirty two. Official estimates says there's about a one point two percent chance that this Christmas asteroid code named twenty twenty four y R four will hit the Earth at five twenty five in the morning Wednesday's December twenty second, twenty thirty two.

So if you're expecting it all to burn, that may be your day. It's time for our wellness segment of the day. Oh, I'm sorry, I blew it. I didn't know that I was going to surprise Jacob with the wellness segment.

Here is an option phone free February Now. The guy who came up with this, Jacob warren Co, created this campaign under the Global Solidarity Foundation, whatever the hell that is. He's not actually asking you to drop your phone completely for the month of February, although it is the shortest month.

But the vast majority of Americas three hundred and forty million of us, the vast majority, have a smartphone, and we're all spending more and more time time online. About a third of people, a third of Americans say they are almost constantly online on various devices, which includes their phones, iPads, computers, whatever you want to talk about. Experts have said there would be huge benefits to us cutting back. There's research that shows that more screen time is associated with more obesity,

more sleep problems, more mental health issues. Psychologists say they've been treating a whole bunch more people who are addicted to their devices. What's the likelihood Are you more likely to forget your wallet or your phone? I mean, that's a dude thing. Maybe are you more apt to forget your purse or your phone, or your keys or your phone. So many people would never leave the house without their phone.

I mean, think about my kids, for example, They've had this has been the way that they've lived their lives for the last ten or twelve years. And anybody under the age of twenty, anybody under the age of thirty, probably has their phone basically sewn into their hand or pocket. The good news is a lot of the harmful effects that come from smartphone usage like this, they say would

be reversible. Jennifer Margaret Kesenstein is the director of psychology, neuropsychology and Social Work JOHNS Hopkins and says reducing your cell phone use by just one hour a day can have a huge impact on your quality of life and the levels of depression that you have.

actually develop a dopamine tolerance. You need more game, more social media, or you need it longer to feel that same amount of pleasure. And obviously when you do that over and over again, that can lead to an addiction. And if you're not sure if you're spending too much time on your phone, go into your settings, look at your average daily screen time and when you see that, it will probably blow you away. I happen to have that alert that comes on every Sunday morning. I think

it's Sunday morning. It's either Saturday or Sunday morning. And what they do is what the phone does is it tells me I averaged this amount of screen time per day this last week, and that either represents an increase from the week before or a decrease.

of dopamine. Think about it ahead of time. This is like preparing a meal ahead of time, being more healthy than the last minute options that you often have. Ask make a list of things that you enjoy doing without your phone, walk outside, read, draw, stretch, work out, something

like that. One big key they say is to keep the phone out of your bedroom all the time, not just at night time when you keep it downstairs, or you keep it in the front by your keys and wallet or whatever, but keep it out of your bedroom all the time.

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 app.