You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from KFI AM six forty k.
I AM six forty Bill Handle. Here.
It is a Tuesday morning, December tenth, and Southern California fire season is here. No surprise, major fire going on right now in Malibu. Up to this point, eighteen hundred acres that has been reported. We're going to get a press conference from the fire department coming up at eight.
We'll get an update on the fire. Now, when you think of.
Eighteen hundred acres, it's not a huge deal unless it's in an area that is particularly dense, although Malibu is not. But it's Malibu, and it's the homes are astronomically priced. Malibu has gone through several of these. So we're going to have Chuck Lovers coming in at seven thirty. Chuck is a friend of mine who was with La County Fire for thirty years and this is his wheelhouse, this is what he did for thirty years. And then Michael Monks,
KFI reporter. He's coming in at seven twenty. So as of right now, Amy, I'm going to throw it to you and talk about evacuations and the various centers where people can go.
Red Cross centers.
Okay, so we've got the evacuations in place for east of Las Virgins, between Maulholland Highway to the north and Pyuma Road to the south, between Stunt Road to the north and Los Florists to the south, east of Carbon Beach Terrace, west of Old Malibu Road, north of Pacific Coast Highway, and then Malibu Canyon Road from Payuma Road to Pacific Coast Highway. A shelter set up at Palisades Recreation Center that's at eight five to one Alma Real
Drive in Pacific Palisades. And then if you've got animals that need to be taken to shelters, they are open at Agora Animal Care Center in Agora Hills and also Pierce College in Woodland Hills. About two thousand are under mandatory EVACUS orders at this point. Also, the students and staff at Pepperdine were not evacuated. They were told to shelter in place. They've moved to the middle of campus
and have been hanging out in the library overnight. The officials have said this is the safest place for you to be. Classes have been canceled for today, finals canceled for tomorrow, and Also, all schools in Malibu are closed today because of the fire.
We had the director of communications for Pepperdine earlier this morning, Mike Friele, and he talked about the campus. If you've ever been to Pepperdine, it is the most beautiful campus in the world. It overlooks Malibu and it's just absolutely gorgeous.
And is surrounded behind it.
In front is this huge expanse of lawn which clearly is not going to burn, but it is surrounded. And Mike was saying that Pepperdine was built with fires in mind, that it is the safest place to be if you are going to be near a fire.
Also, I've been going through social media and hours ago when the fire came just kissing Pepperdine, as you said, they were sheltering in place. They have these They're in the kind of the center of the campus, but they have these massive windows where they are sheltering in place. The videos that were taken by students in there on their phones that they're posting on social media are insane. It looks like the fire was surrounding them at that time.
Thankfully at this point it's moved away. But those photos that they've taken and posted many of them to social media were just walls of orange and yellow.
We have some lines open, by the way, and we are going to be taking in calls. If you are in a particular place or a place where something different is happening, we'd love to have you call in because now you become reporters out there, and the numbers eight hundred and five two zero one five three four, eight hundred and five to zero one five three four, And unless you sound like a complete imbecile and a moron, there's a good chance that we're gonna put you on to give us some insight.
Also, you can go to.
The iHeart app the KFI page microphone in the upper right hand corner, and you can leave a message as to particularly if you're running out the front door and your butt is on fire, that would you know?
That would give us some insight that we.
Don't have a little bit later on, Chuck Lovers is going to join us LA Fire, La County Fire for thirty years. We've got so much going on, And the mike was saying, no, it was you Amy that was saying. The Red Cross is already out there in force, and let's see if we can get some somebody from the Red Cross to report to us and tell us what they did and what's going on, because Michael or yeah, Mike A. Monks said he was at one of these evacuation centers and no one was showing.
Up and they said there was like twelve cars there.
Yeah, it was like nobody and they were eating all the snacks. So if you're interested in free snacks, just to go to the Malibu Evacuation Center and it's like unlimited Cheetos and coind bars and you know, you.
Can have a little bit of breakfast on the Red Cross Bill. Yes, Amy has updated the acreage on.
That, okay, Amy, Yeah, it's just up to twenty two hundred acres.
Okay, so it has well, I guess good news, and it has only increased four hundred acres from five am this morning because it was moving very very quickly. The problem is that the winds are now going to hit and between I guess now in nine point thirty they expect the major gusts. That's it's gonna be tough.
Homes on fire. We don't know how many.
This is very high end stuff. And then before we get to Michael maybe I'll do that a little bit later on. And that is how many homes are not insured because in fire areas you can't get insurance, and so you have homes and the tens of millions of dollars up in that area and the owners are self insuring. That's just another way for saying no insurance or the California Fair Plan, which pays you well relative to the cost of these homes, virtually nothing. Michael Monks KFI reporter
moving around the various fire sits. He's at PCH now next to the fire. Michael, what's the latest.
I'm on PCH and it's a rare opportunity to get the chance to drive on this iconic road with no other cars around now the Sheriff's office allowing us to go by because we're members of the media, and that was quite surreal. And I don't know if you can hear I'm gonna hold the mic up.
Yeah, we can hear it.
You got the chopper and this is one of those big choppers with the double propellers on top. And I've seen several of these go past, or maybe a couple of them the same vehicle. Not sure, but to go address this fire, they are finally able to attack it from the air, and maybe that's one of the reasons that spread has not been as fast as it was this morning. Man, it took off really crazily this morning. Amy came in very early and she noted what the acreage was at that time compared to what it was
by even five point thirty six o'clock. It was just spreading exponentially fast, and that forced a lot of people out of their homes. And what I think I might be seeing on PCH are a lot of vehicles that are parked, maybe of residents who just came down this way to get away rather than going to an evacuation center, posting up on the side of the ocean for a little while until things get figured out. Because there were a lot of vehicles just parked on the side.
Of the road.
A lot of food trucks also parked along there, and it looked like business as usual for those guys. Meanwhile, I see a heavy, heavy plume of smoke coming off the hillside right now, with those choppers from above starting to address that situation. It's one of these quintessential twenty first century California images Right now here coast in Malibu, where you've got a beautiful sunrise, the silhouette of the
palm trees and seabirds dancing around it. Just everything you might imagine when you hear the word California, and then in the background a mountain is burning.
Now, how close to pch are the flames? What can you actually see right now?
It's mostly just hazy, thick smoke that I'm seeing from right here in I'm on PCH Atlas Flores outside of Dukes.
He's not going back a closer, and we're losing you in horrible line. At this point, we just lost you.
I want to repeat, at last I heard it was you were outside of Duke's.
You know, they've been saying that they've had bad Selle service because of the and everything going on there all morning.
And Dukes is a landmark in Malibu. I've beaten there, and so have sure thousands of people. It's been around for decades and decades, So this is scary stuff. We're trying to get Lindsay's cousin who is at this point. He and his wife live in Malibu and they were.
Victims of the previous.
Malibu fire, lost everything, lost everything, and had to rebuild, and there she happens to be a interior designer and is helping us with our home. And I think the worst part of it is she has our doorknobs, and this is that's.
Really distressful for your new home.
Yeah, we're switching out doorknobs and she she has them all And that's probably the worst part of this fire.
You are not a good person, thank you.
So Duke's Balibu there just across the one freeway, the Rombla Pacifico Street. There it sounds like where are Michael monks Is? There are a row of shops across the way there. But even more importantly, you can see that that is lined with very very expensive homes there right just to the side of the mobile gas station right there in that same area.
Yeah, when we talk about expensive homes, if you're talking near or a view of the ocean from the.
Bluff stuff above.
Expensive is on a level that most people in this country have no idea ten fifteen, twenty million dollar homes. And as I unfortunately that makes news. One hundred people losing their homes that are in the four hundred thousand dollar range, that is less news than a movie Star or a major titan of business losing a twenty million dollar home. It goes to show you just where we sit in the iconicness. I guess it's the word of southern California.
As you pointed out.
If you're familiar with the area, that's the LaCosta Beach right there, and that's not far not even a mile. I don't think from the La County Fire Department Station seventy, which isn't far from there either. Of course, they're probably quite active in all of this as well.
Hey, Amy, do we have any idea of the number of firefighters out there there? Usually we get that number, how many fire fighting teams where they're coming from.
When you have fires they come from out of state.
I'm assuming it's not that big a fire that is not being handled locally.
It is being handled locally, but they have sent out teams from other areas have joined in, like La City has joined in the fire with La County, and then they're also there are other agencies that have come to the area. I don't have a number for you, but they're not fighting at alone in La County.
And usually and I don't know what.
The terrain is, I mean clearly it's mountainous, but we have not heard reports yet of the terrain being inaccessible by fire crews or fire fighters, trucks, water trucks, et cetera. So they send in the fire, not even fire fighters.
They're digging. They're digging these.
Fire breaks to try to stop and I don't know if that's happening yet, but I'm assuming that the only way that they're fighting parts of this fire is with air drops, which is fairly new technology or being used.
I mean, technology is around, but in a big way.
And the Super Scoopers have taken off. They had to wait till daylight, but so they had water dropping helicopters doing drops overnight. But now the Super Scoopers are up and they're there.
The Super Scoopers are really interesting.
Those are those yellow airplanes that are based out of Vanuy's Airport and they're Canadian airplanes, two of them, and they're leased by the county.
They're rented where they.
Literally just go to the nearest Hertz rent a plane office and just lease them and they're used.
They're just parked there.
And I'd like to talk to Chuck Lovers Chuck a friend of mine, for I don't know.
Twenty five years or more.
Who's spent almost thirty years with cal fire fighting these kinds of fires. So, Chuck, as you are watching this, what is going on? Typically because you know, so what's happening in terms of the fire fighting itself? Who's fighting? How many units would you normally call? Just tell us about some of the inside baseball here?
Okay, well, good morning bill. Typically an initial brush response, you'll get a couple of crews, five engines, dozers, helicopters, and then they'll reassess, you know, their needs after they get on sea. And right now we have probably cruise from Vincetra helping us out. CDF is probably helping us out. You know, CalFire, I'm not CalFire, I'm LA County.
And did I mention cal Fire County?
I understand I always get anyway with.
La County. Let me do that again, La County.
All right, we all look alike. Anyway, we have we have automatic aid agreements with the other departments around us. They will fill in. Actually, when we send fire engines to the fire, we will fill behind with other fire engines from other agencies. So we keep everybody protected as much as we can, but what they're doing on the scene, they can't do anything at the head of the fire because the flying length is just too big. But they
will be crews will be flanking the fire. And what that means the sides, Yeah, you know, starting at the origin and working all the way down to the coast.
And does that mean containment?
When they talk about containment, those areas surrounding the fire are you know, covered by the firefighters and it's only where the fire is moving forward. Is the fire not being fought? Do I have that correctly?
Well, the head of the fire, they're right in front of the fire, but we will have crews flanking it wherever we can get a crew in the flame link determines what we can do. The dozers, you know, they can handle stuff, you know, ten, ten, fifteen feet tall sometimes, but the hand crew is someone on foot only you know, they can't go against anything feet, So that's kind of our criteria. Of course, you know we fudge those numbers sometimes so.
They will go ahead.
I'm sorry, no, no, go ahead, No, I'm just saying that we start at the origin of the fire and just start cutting line and separating the fire from other stuff that hasn't burnt yet.
Now, if you have crews from various agencies, who is telling what fire truck to go there and what fire crew to go We're there?
Okay, Well we have pre planned you know, every every area.
UH.
The Jurisdictional Engines Station seventy, like you mentioned on air, it's the headquarters from Malibu, and they will have pre plans depending on what canyon is burning because we've we've we've done this before, UH, and they will assign a number of crews we have. We break down into what we call strike teams. A strike team for crews is two crews with it with a captain and a chief and that we will deploy them as needed. And then when crews come in from other agencies, they're already you know,
they're already in strike team configuration. UH. An engine strike team will be five engines, you know, a total of twenty men are firefighters and and achieve and then we will assign them as necessary, depending on whether they're mostly structure protection or there or they're geared for brush.
And who makes the decision.
Someone ultimately has to make a decision as to which strike team goes where and for even the air drop, Where does it go in this valley or that value when both are on fire?
Correct?
Well, the ICs system incident command system is set up immediately on anything that looks like it's going to grow. The chief will get out his maps and he'll look around and he will start deploying at that point and the system will grow. Other chiefs will come in to assist p IO, people come in, The National Weather Service sends people in. You mentioned the Red Cross. They will come in and logistically, because like you said, we've done this before, people just fall in line, just like lining
up a lunch wagon. Everybody just lines up and takes their turn. As things break out, we will deploy other units. We will put some units in reserve to attack in an area where something spot fires ahead, the helicopters will go ahead.
Now, in terms of the knowledge of that area, you said you know the area, how specific do you know the area? Do you know every ridge, every valley?
Uh?
Literally, where everything is with specificity?
Pretty much? You know, we know where water is. We know what you know because we have water staged in cisterns and we and yes, the local jurisdiction engines. That's what we do on a daily basis. We just drive the motorways and verify things. You know, even after the fire is over, we're going to drive those things. We're going to be there weeks after this fire is out and all the news people have gone home, because we will will be prepared. We were preparing for the winter rains.
You know, I'll bet you, and that's when you relax when the rains come. Chuck, thank you so much. We're gonna come back to you. I mean, you're on top of this, watching this thing, and there's no one has more expertise than you do.
La County Fire.
Correct, all right, Chucks County Fire. But there are a lot of people that are the guys are on the line are very knowledgeable.
All right.
I worked with him for years.
Take care, Thanks.
Chuck, Okay, any time, Bill.
All Right. Chuck's a very interesting guy.
Chuck is extraordinary in terms of his ability, and he turned down promotions because he wanted to fight fires.
He wanted to be at the edge of the bay indet. Very very interesting guy.
Mimi Teller is a spokesperson for the Red Cross, LA and Mimi, thank you for joining us.
Red Cross extraordinary organization.
First of all, where are you right now the Red Cross centers, what are you doing?
And then I have a bunch of follow up questions.
Yeah, good morning Bill. We have an evacuation shelter located in Pacific Palisades eight five to one, Alama Reale, and we have twelve residents at the moment, including some goats, and we're giving them a safe, warm place to stay and some food.
Well, here's something important. What kind of food? And is it worthwhile coming down there for breakfast?
Well, right now we just have continental fare, but we're going to have a nice warm lunch and if we need to, we'll have a nice warm dinner with warm breakfast tomorrow.
Huh, that doesn't sound bad. Okay, fair enough.
Now going back to the centers and getting a little bit more serious. Are these pre planned locations or does do the fire authorities tell you this is where we'd like.
You to go.
Now, the Red Class relationships with community partners throughout the whole county. So when we know that we're going to need to stand up a shelter, we rechat to those partners.
Okay, so how close to the fires do you try to get? Uh?
You know, we want to make sure that people can get here easily and quickly, so they also need to remain safe. So we were initially looking at some other locations like Malibu High School, but we wouldn't have had any road access, so we were able to be here at the Palisades Rec Center.
Right.
So, typically when you set up these centers, how do you you know, anticipate how long people are going to say stay there?
And what do you plan for?
And you didn't tell me what people are having for breakfast breakfast or lunch either.
Right now we have some chocolate cake and bagels and cream cheese, and there's even ramen in there, and some coffee. Usually we want to make sure they have all the basic facilities, hot showers, restrooms, of course, that they are accommodating for anyone with Adams and as we talked about, in proximity to where they live. Sometimes though, we have
to shift our shelters. I know once that I was staying overnight in a basketball gym and the school needed to resume activities and we have to move to a church.
Do you bring in your own you know, bathroom facilities? I know they're portable, toilets certainly about it, not just potty you know, you know those construction bathrooms, but I'm talking about you know, major trailers, eighteen wheelers that have bathrooms that have showers.
I'm assuming you have a ton of those, and are those brought in?
Actually, we always try and identify a location that already has facilities. We use a lot of gyms, school gyms or recreation centers, so for the most part, they usually come equipped with that. In the past us there have been times where we have brought in the fancy bathrooms and showers. Never a big rig, but you know, maybe two three restrooms and showers. I've seen that before.
All right, And so you have a shelter now which has relatively few people, how many do you anticipate who plans how big a shelter facility you have to put out?
Well, we work with again with our community partners, specifically the fire and we like to know the area that's affected, how many people they estimate are being evacuated, and we base it on that and also you know, just over history and the numbers and the demographics. Also with Malibu, a lot of people often look for hotels. They are friends and family, so you know, we try and accommodate as many as we can knowing how many people are
being evacuated for this incident. This facility can take up to eight hundred people.
Wow, and you've got it, and you've got a dozen only at this point.
Yeah, you know, I think a lot of people are still figuring things out. There's a lot of people that don't know that we're even here. I do know a lot of people stop. I decided to go to a hotel for whatever their reason.
And you set up beds. I'm assuming cots where people can sleep in these areas, correct.
Yeah, we have cuts and fancy, top of the line Red Cross blankets.
You do an extraordinary job, Mimi.
I have tell you, I've always been super super impressed about how the Red Cross. Hobviously do some reporting up until then and Amy coming back. We're going to give you the latest and then we'll see what the authorities have to say in that presser.
You've been listening to The Bill Handle Show.
Catch My Show Monday through Friday six am to nine am, and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.