You're listen Saints KFI AM six forty the Bill Handles show on demand on the iHeartRadio f CAFI Handle Here on a very smoky and for the wrong reasons. Unfortunately, very hot if you're in the fire area day, and none of that particularly good news. As I've mentioned that this story, this fire story is southern California is not only a huge story locally, of course it would be,
but nationally and internationally. Alex Stone, ABC News correspondent is in Altadena and he's reporting both for US and ABC what's going on. So Alex, thanks for taking the time there. You are in the Altadena fire area. What are you seeing, what is going on?
What are you experiencing?
Hi, Bill, I'm on Sacramento Street right now, right off of Lake Avenue, and there are numerous homes that are burning around me here, and really they're burning on checks. There is one engine from La County Fire that just throw through the area, but there's nothing that they can do. It is cars, It is homes burning on this street, and it is street after street that really it was the winds of about four to five am that where we got a reading of one hundred miles an hour
on one of the peaks around here. But it was so strong that when you would get out of your car, your car door would actually snap all the way back, and it was hard to just stand at that time. There were embers flying everywhere, live embers rolling down the street, and that has led to what we are seeing right now that in this whole area is I'm looking from block to block. I can only see that buildings are
on fire, that they have spread. On the one that I'm on right now, there's two or three cars that are fully engulfed right now, along with a number of homes, and it's silent. I'm the only one standing on this street. There's nothing firefighters can do to battle this right now. These homes are burning unchecked.
Yeah. Can you imagine being an owner of one of those homes.
Either being able to watch the home burning.
Down up close, which I'm assuming is not the case because he said the street is empty, or seeing the home being burnt and watching a news report and there are no firefighters and a fire truck goes right past the house. I mean, that is something that we're not used to do. They have authorities tell you just where to stand. Alex, you're an empty street. Did they say you got to stand over there or are you on your own?
They're not here. We're we're on our own in here. But what I'm saying is no hit to firefighters. They're just out manned right now. There's nothing that one engine is going to do.
No.
I understand that.
Yeah, that are burning to the ground, but yeah, I mean this is really a situation of that. With all three fires that are burning and the size of this one and the size of one of the physical palissy, there's nothing that they can do. There are explosions going off all over the place NonStop as these buildings are burning, and propaane tanks and ammunition and other things are burning
inside of the homes. But what they have been doing is I mean, really this is about life safety right now, telling people to get out and just get out of the area that the Sheriff's Department has been going through on their loud speakers, just saying everybody out there are some lookie loose around that have decided that you know,
they're going to film it rather than go. But the Sheriff's bar has just been going up and down Lake Avenue here on their loud speakers saying you must leave immediately. And so we're seeing a lot of people who are packing up and getting out, not like Pacific Palisades yesterday with the bumper to bumper trying to get out. The streets here are a lot wider, so they're able to
do it. But the people, since you know, and I came into the main area probably around three point thirty this morning, people were in a long line trying to get out with their packed up vehicles and bailing out of the area.
Yeah, I'm thinking, you know, how do the firefighters even deal with this? Because you've got one home and let's say they're fighting a fire and then they're trying to do some kind of property preservation and then all of a sudden, six doors away, a fire just ignites, because an ember just ignites a palm tree or a piece of brush.
And are they trying to go back and forth?
Are they Do you see any fire equipment dealing with any fires right now?
They're trying to stop anything that it sparks up, But some of these embers have been jumping, oh, probably half a mile to a mile. There were areas this morning when the wind was at its worst and there was no way at that time, I would have been able to talk to you on the phone outside without getting into a car, whereas right now I'm standing outside and
there's really no wind, thank goodness. But when the embers were really flying, you would think that you were pretty far ahead of the front of the fire, the flaming front, and then all of a sudden, embers would land and you'd have fire all around you, and it was kind of playing hopscotch of jumping ahead and getting out of the area. And there were a few times I saw firefighters race up and try to put out something before
it it burned a building. But they're you know, like I say, I mean this really right now is about trying to rescue people, to get them out, to convince them to go. We know they've done a number of rescues of elderly people overnight in the winds. It was impossible when driving to see five feet in front of your car, and on tight streets with fire everywhere, and it's always hard at night time to know really where the fire is because you can only see this glow.
So they were working on getting people out. Now as I talk to you right now, it's like they're listening to KFI. There's a strike team pulling up to this neighborhood with a number of fire engines. They're pulling up to one of the high prints as well. It looks like they may try to battle back some of these flames that are burning these homes. I mean, these homes
are really going up right now. And well now it looks like maybe not that there's not a lot they can do, and they're gonna driven, but they're kind of keeping an eye on it to know where the flames are to try to stop them from progressing now that the wind has died down, But for these homes, there's nothing that they can do.
Do you see any aircraft dealing with the fire yet? Daytime winds are down, they should be up.
Sorry, Bill, I was clearing hopefully you couldn't hear that clearing an emergency alert that was going off on my phone.
No, well you have that, Okay, let me restated. Now that the winds have died down and it's light, we have daybreak. Do you see any air assets up that you're looking at.
No, I haven't heard any air assets. I haven't seen any air assets. I'm guessing the wind probably at altitude is still pretty strong. The problem they were having last night is they hit the ground. Even the helicopters that were able to fly in pretty strong winds yesterday, not only because of the safety of the helicopters, but the drops weren't doing any good. When they would drop water, it would just fly off at a ninety degree angle
and wasn't hitting the ground. What is It's so dry that evaporates very quickly, but two in the wind, it just makes a right hand turn and goes off into the air and doesn't do any good. Did they Hopefully the wind stays like it is right now and if they if it's this way up a little bit at altitude, that they'll be able there to try to get aircraft back up at least the helicopters to begin. I mean, they could just dump on some of these homes and it would put out a lot of this fire to
just prevent it from continuing to move down. Altadena, Alex, thank you.
I'm sure we're going to get back to you as you're reporting on this fire over the next I assume you've been up all night and you probably not going to get any sleep for.
A while, so.
Enjoy yourself.
I guess all right, Michael Monks kfi's Michael Monks is at the Westwood Recreational Center.
Do I have that right, Michael?
You do? Bill.
This is one of these centers that's been set up for people who have evacuated from the fire in the Palisades. And I can tell you that just right here in this small piece of the world, the sky above is quite a group. You got a significant contrast. There's blue skies to my right, beautiful California sky, and then to my left it's dark, gray, cloudy, smoky. The wind is blowing. It feels ominous, It almost feels funereal.
Here.
There is certainly a ghastly pallor that's hanging over people here as they wonder what may be left of their homes or what's still left to come in the Palisades. And I can tell you this feels a lot different than the evacuation center I visited not that long ago when Malibu was burning, where people did show up for a little while, but there was a lot of optimism that this is going to pass and we'll be going back home. This one definitely has more of a sense of dread.
And concern how many people are there.
I could not get a specific account from the fire department that's here operating this shelter, but there are dozens. And there are folks who are sleeping. So they have a gym here, and that gym is currently closed unless you're going in there to sleep. So they've got all the cots set up, and there are definitely people sleeping in there. A lot of cars are here, and I'm also seeing a lot of seniors, a lot of folks using walkers, using wheelchairs. There are a lot of pet
owners here, so people are with their pets. So people are with their pets, they're walking their dogs. And I did speak to a guy who was here. He came down from the palisades. He was waiting it out at first, he said, until about four o'clock yesterday afternoon. It wasn't the you know, the lapping of the flames that pushed him out. It was simply the air quality. When he thought, I've got to get going, Plus the traffic that was starting to build on the roads. I mean, if you
live there, you can see it building. He said, I'd better get in that line right now before he gets worse, and said he made it out just before that clog from all the cars that had to be left behind. So he's not sure what's going on in his neighborhood. And you know, we know the firefighters are there doing their best, but it's it's difficult to get a full account. Now that the sun is coming up and hopefully the winds die down, maybe we'll get better visuals of what's going on.
Yeah, I'm assuming a lot of those people have absolutely no idea as to whether their homes have survived.
Or not, and I we are getting at Yeah, I mean, I.
Will be scrambling, and I'm assuming people are asking everybody and anybody is there any reporting of neighborhoods that have gone down? How people are dealing with it?
And I know it's kind of rough throwing a microphone in front of someone's.
Face, Hey, how you feeling your family just died? You know, I know how stupid that is. But talk a little bit about what the conversation is if you've heard it, and what the concerns are.
Right, people have been a little hesitant to talk formally to me, but they are talking to me in background basically, and then I can relay their stories a little bit. So Hopefully I'll find some people who can. You know, it is difficult to go up to them, especially with it still going on and they don't know exactly what's happening. And you know, I did just see a family walk past here with two young kids, and it look like one of the kids was holding one of those pet boxes,
you know, with a pet inside. So I mean, everybody was completely disrupted. So you have that going on, with the looming uncertainty of what's happening in your neighborhood. But one of the gentlemen that I spoke to, says another guy he knows has not been able to get in touch with his elderly parents. The land lines are down, they don't have a mobile phone, and it doesn't think that they were able to get out. So it's difficult.
You know, when we think of all the technology that we have, if it becomes unavailable and you can't get somewhere, then you're left with that worry. So a lot of questions here in Westwood for these folks at the evacuation center as they wait for word, and we've got all of the up to the minute information either coming from officials or even following the fire on social media, but you don't know until you know for sure. And that's
what I think everybody just wants to know. Here is what's happening on their block, all right.
In terms of setting the the center up, do they have are they bringing kitchens, food, food trucks? Are they looking at staying there for a number of days or does it feel very temporary that they're up and out of there next day or two.
I mean, this is a rec center, so it's a solid structure, and they just bring in the cots. They bring in some seating, and they do bring in some food for people to get when they need it. I did notice a sign that says, please don't bring donations here, so take your donations. If people are soliciting that, make sure you're finding reputable donation sites to drop off. It's not the evacuation centers that want any of that. So they are bringing in what they need and not anything
beyond that. But I can tell you the cots are being used. I'm seeing a lot of people, you know, munching and standing around, having some coffee and just waiting for word for what might be next. I'll also note that you know this is not an area that's been hit by the fire, but it was certainly hit by the winds. And I've been here since early this morning, and crews from the Parks and Recreation Department were already on site picking up massive branches and pieces of trees
that had blown over. It was kind of a mess here. And you know, beyond the fire damage, those winds have I have definitely hurt some other things.
I'll tell you this.
I mean, I know we've got multiple fires burning, but when I left downtown LA this morning, it felt.
As though the fire were there.
You could smell it so thickly, and the cars and my parking lot were covered in dirt and slot and all that. It looked like in a dark covering on the wind shield. This is burning in very specific places, obviously, but it seems like all of us in the area are literally physically feeling it.
Yeah.
And at the same time, why don't you ask Amy how comfortable she is sitting in her news booth and just listening to you.
I could have had one more day in there with you, Bill, you could have That's right.
Unfortunately she's feeling a little bit better. Hey, is the Red Cross involved at all? Michael, resist this.
Is a city fire is here with this wind, but the Red Cross is typically involved in a lot of these as well, So whether this is something that will be handed over to another agency at some point, I'm not exactly sure. That the public information officer from the fire department had arrived about the same time I did and was looking to gather some of the information that I'm hoping to relay to you at some point, like how many people there are, what the operations look.
Like right now.
You've got a lot of people hanging out in their cars too, so they're here at the evacuation center, maybe if they need access to a bathroom or if they want to spread out and lie down on one of those CODs, but a lot of people are here in this parking lot hanging out, and it is just it's windy, the wind is cold, and the sky, like I said, is just it's so ominous, and you have such contrasts with the sun glowing in one side, the blue skies on the other side, and then just in the middle
here it's just dark.
What an aberrational time, Michael.
I know you're going to be reporting most of the day, so we'll probably talk again, and if not this segment or the next two, certainly on Gary and Shannon, Michael, take care of yourself?
Thanks Bill.
All right, as Michael Leavesy talked about how the pallor of the smoke, just watching a report on k t LA and one of the reporters and they're they're wearing.
Ski goggles and face masks.
Uh.
The the mask was this dark, dingy gray.
His hands you could see we're dirty.
And the mic flag, you know where it says like our KFI mic flag at the end of a microphone that was starting to get gray and spotty just from the ash.
It's insane. And who's up next?
I know we're changing and we're bringing in, you know, various people.
This is quote fluid this morning. Who's up next?
Cool thing is Bill Ann has really busted her hump to make sure you have a list in front of you, and well I have to your dear friend is going to be joining us.
Oh, Chuck Lovers is coming. Oh okay, yeah, oh you know did I print that? Oh yeah, that's on the printer.
All right.
I thought maybe you might talk to Gary Hoffin briefly about you.
Yeah, yeah, we can do that. Yeah, we can do that. Okay, yeah, we got a lot fair enough. Thank you for con no, thank you for straightening that out. Hey, this is why I get paid the big bucks for doing this.
You know, Oh, Gary and Shannon, you know follow this show.
Gary.
I was listening to Gary this morning because people have been up there or we've been here all night. I was listening to Gary talk about driving in this morning and what he saw, and just as a precursor, Gary lives if I'm not if I'm right up in the Santa Clarita Valley which is north well north of Burbank, And so Gary, if you could repeat, because I think it's worth repeating what you saw this morning and how you came in.
So I got the alert actually that I was in an evacuation zone, which I wasn't, And I got three of them to say that I was in an evacuation zone and I wasn't in any of those three.
But it did get me awake.
So I got things ready because the the fire in Silmar, the Hearst fire, is the closest one to us, and there are some evacuation zones near us. So what I did was I got up, got the basic you know, the basics ready if we ever had to.
Get out of there.
And then I kissed my wife on the forehead and left and said you're good and driving in coming down the New Hall Pass, I mean basically I got out of the door of my house and I could see the fire in Silmar cresting the top of that ridge. And then as I come down the New Hall Pass, you can see the glow on the opposite side of the hill. And as you've come farther down the freeway, it just the orange flames, active flames just explode to the left of you.
They're just all over the side of that hill.
And you drive through Silmar to get to Bourbank.
Yes, right down I five there was another fire actually right close to where the five and the one seventy split on the northbound side. As I was driving down, it was a little vegetation. They put it out, no problem, but the road five northbound had been closed first when I drove by it it was actually closed down. That would I mean, that was hours ago by this time, but it still was just indicative of the kind of problems.
And then as I got farther down sort of North Hollywood area, I could see the fire, the eating fire over an Altadena, which was crazy because I did not expect to see that. I did not expect it to be visible from this side from the San Fernando Valley,
and it was clearly visible. And then this morning, I mean, I know that Neil set you a picture of what we can see out of sort of the south facing windows that face over the one thirty four freeway here in Burbank and the just incredible black cloud of smoke that's been kicked up by that eating fire.
All right, Gary, thank you as always, And of course Gary start, Gary and Shannon start at nine o'clock and they're going to be covering of all aspects of the fire. So you got a little ways until Gary shows up. Now, Chuck Lovers is with a Chuck, let me do this. I am going to take an early break come back so we have a full segment that I can talk to you about. Chuck having been with La County Fire for thirty some odd years. Also, there are some headlines going on that we have ignored.
There are other things going on in the world.
Probably the lead story the girl Scouts have dropped two of their cookies.
I don't know if you knew that, but that's big, big news, and Neil is scrambling to find out exactly which two.
Chuck Lovers is a friend of mine and was with La County Fire and had been for over thirty years. And Chuck and I have spent hours talking about firefighting and his experience. And as this fire broke out and I saw La County firefighters there at the forefront, Chuck, just my visualization is of you standing there with your crew fighting the fire. I also visualize you standing in the shower naked, but that's for another show at another time.
So Chuck, as your look at.
This, the first question I thought was, you know, what do you do other than get the hell out of the way when something like this happens.
Well, yes, of course you have to protect yourself, but it's very disheartening when the fires are that big. You know, we do you work, and you never seem to gain anything. So that's that's probably the hardest part, trying to get a foothold somewhere and make a difference.
When there is a fire like this where you have the gusts of wind blowing in one direction and then three minutes later switching and going the other direction. Do you ever stage firefighters at various points just in case the fire goes that way because it has or do you just go for the fire itself, the one the house that's ignited, and then you try to go to the other one and you're bouncing back and forth.
What goes through the planning and the thinking.
Okay, well you plan for wind reversals because that's what gets you, that's what hurts people. So you're always you're always looking behind you, always always watching the smoke, because of the smoke gives you a tell tale that something is changing. But you do the best you can. And when a house is beyond what you can do, you have to kind of the house that isn't burning it, You got to protect that one. Does that make sense? Yeah?
It does. So you can't do anything more.
And the house is basically gone, even though maybe it's only ten or twenty percent engulfed, and you know that it's gone, you write it off.
Is that right correct? And we have to try to protect the exposures, to try to contain the fire as much as as you can, try to stop its growth.
Who makes that decision saying Okay, you're off of this house.
You go to the next one.
Pretty much everybody does that. You know, when you're on a house and just you and your unit, you do the best you can and if that one is lost and you protect you know, you're protecting the exposures to start with, along with fighting the fire. But at some point you have to concentrate just on the exposures because you can't, you know, the fire has grown too big for your unit.
But when you when the wind is blowing so hard as it has been, and of course that gives a lot of fuel to the fire. I mean, obviously it needs a lot of oxygen and wind gives lots to it, and aircraft can't get up the air assets.
How big a deficit is that?
I mean how much do you rely on those airplanes and helicopters a great deal?
And over the years, the aircraft, the technology has increased. They can fly in the higher winds than when I first started, so they they're a big asset. They can they can drop a lot of water in an area and calm it down, so you can actually go in as a hand unit and do something.
So do I know that the aircraft actually reports on what's going on on the ground, things that you can't see direction of a fire things a couple of miles away that's moving in your direction. Do the aircraft report directly to you the battalion chief who gets that information?
Okay, well, directly talk with the helicopter pilots when they're working with you. But normally Helco controls the environment up there. It's a helicopter with a battalion cheap or somebody, and he's directing the traffic and telling the helicopters where they're best needed. And they keep this. They separate the airspace
between the helicopters and the and the fixed airway. You know, they have different patterns that they have to fly, and so they keep them set as much as they can for safety reasons.
All right, do they I missed that part about who they talk to.
If you're on the line, you're you have a fire truck and you're a unit that's there.
Do the aircraft talk directly to you on the fire line?
If I'm working directly with a helicopter, yes, But normally, if if the helicopter is just flying up there, they're they're controlled by Helco. It's an air traffic controller for the helicopters and he's up in the air with them, so again and then he's and he's keeping them separate from the fixed air wings because there's another air traffic control for the fixed air.
And how many are typically and I know you can't say specifically, but on a fire of this magnitude, if the aircraft could go up, which I'm assuming they're going to this morning, what are you looking at?
Numbers and kinds of aircraft.
I have no idea what the numbers are, but you know, I understand that the Super Scoopers which we contract with, they were up yesterday and hopefully they'll be up today because their turnaround time is very quick.
Okay.
I did see some some fixed wing with foz check on the TV last night. Uh, and they'll come out of like fox Field, which you know it's a ways a way. But the helicopters I have, I really don't know how many helicopters we have now, but we've transitioned to more Blackhawks, or we call them firehawks. They're very big and very stable in the winds.
Right, So, Chuck, I just saw one last one and this is just between us chickens. When I ask you how many up there, you cannot answer. I don't know. You have to make something up because you sound you have to sound like you know what you're talking about.
Okay, I did it. Uh, But you know we have we have La City and we have U and Ventura has helicopters. Uh and Orange County has now contracts for helicopters. So there's a lot of helicopters that have wasn't it didn't go angering?
And who is it?
Someone has to be the lead agency that actually moves everybody around.
Who is that actually? The state? Oh? Yes, okay, they controlled how equipment is ALLOCID when it comes from outside of an area.
Okay, that helps a lot. Chuck, thanks always, great stuff on this. Thanks for taking the time.
Okay, Bill, and take care of yourself you too.
Thank you.
Here we are in southern California.
Chuck knows more about this stuff than anybody you will ever hear. Thirty years he was doing this and ran cruise and you just you could spend hours with Chuck just talking about all of this. There's a world to firefighting and the technology as he describes what's happened through the years. All Right, this is KFI a M six forty more stimulating talk radio.
You've been listening to The Bill Handle Show.
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