Handel on the News

You're listening to KAPI AM six forty, the Bill Handle Show on demand on the iHeartRadio f.

And now Handle on the news.

Ladies and gentlemen, here's Bill Handle.

And good morning. I don't know how good it is.

Bill Handle here and the morning crew, and I woke up this morning to the news of the fire, which we're gonna be carrying all morning for.

The most part.

I mean, there are some big pieces of news in addition to that, but I think it's going to be the for most of the show, it will be the fire.

As I woke up this morning, I was listening to.

Tim Conway, who has been covering the fire for the last several hours.

Tim, I'm still here, buddy, ding along with you.

Yeah, ding dong with you. Tim. I have to tell you something. Usually I don't think.

Of you as a hard news guy. I think you have done a terrific job. I'm not blowing smoke, literally, I'm not blowing smoke up your rear.

End.

I appreciate that.

It is a lot of it has to do with number one, you You grew up here in southern California, so you know the geography backwards and forwards.

You know the topography, you know all the.

Landmarks, and you've put it into a in a way.

That is just really a joy to listen to.

And I'd love to have your co host with me also, right, Yeah, exactly. And I only heard during the course I was watching a little bit of TV, I only heard firefighters, I think, say only half a dozen times. Are priorities? Are people first and property second? But as the property values approach ten million dollars per home, that line gets blurred, doesn't it.

That's right? Well, yeah, I think you're right.

I think the you know, we're all worried about insurance on our property. And I think a lot of times, you know, don't you think that firefighters when they go in and they you know, they put a fire out in a guy's house. Don't you think once in a while they dip into the fridge for a cold one?

Yeah, I would think so.

Or how about a firefighter who is just trying to buy a house, couldn't get loan, it's living in an apartments watching a twenty five million dollar home.

Go eh, you know it could be.

Worsectly exactly right, But man, this fire You know, Bill, I know you and I lived and you know, fairly close to each other in the San Fernando Valley. You know, back in twenty thirty years ago, these fires used to take two or three days to get to the coast.

Man they're doing it in hours now.

It's just it's insane.

Well because obviously climate change and if you'll look at the climate, and Amy will be telling us about all this all morning long, and that is we have very low humidity.

Winds are going.

To gust up and I think what nine nine thirty they're going to be hitting.

That's right highest level.

Let me ask you something, Billy, because you're a money guy, you know, and you know insurance. You know, you've had insurance on homes and cars and stuff like that. When you see these fires, don't you get the feeling that there when there are now three or four more insurance companies that are going to bail on California.

Before the next commercial. Yes, my insurance my home. You're a homeowner. I don't know when your insurance has come up for renewal. Mine just did doubled, doubled, seriously, one hundred percent increase.

It's crazy.

I was, you know, when my wife and I were the only two drivers in our house is twenty four hundred dollars a year, and now that my eighteen year old daughter is driving, it's close to ten thousand dollars.

It's insane.

Well, I ended up when my kids and I bought part of their cars, and I would own the cars. I wouldn't let them actually have title the house because I was one of those keys. They acted out. Keys are in my pocket. I had to give my daughter the car. I had to give her title to the car. I can't take away the key. Now, insurance was so astronomical. Right now, it's go ahead and kill.

Anybody you want.

I'm not responsible, you know, leave me alone. Uh, it's just crazy. So you've got to go home and you yes, you thank you for you have to sleep. Tim, thank you so much.

Yeah, thank you. Bill handle everybody and no, thank you.

And Tim Conway Junior everybody, and back and forth, back and forth. You know, I wasn't you know what, I wasn't surprised, but I got kind of well, I guess in one sense, pleasantly surprised at how strong, uh how strong Tim was and uh basically leading the coverage here. All right, let me say hello to everybody.

Who is here. Uh Neil just came a war a few minutes ago. Good morning, Neil.

Oh.

He's waving, not speaking. Amy, Good morning, Bill, good morning. We're going to be going to you.

It's going to be more you than anybody else, I think, because you're on top of the latest breaking news. Uh Kono is here as always because we have someone running the board and who is running around someplace. I'm here, I just don't see you, an I am not in the studio today. So I'm going to rely on you guys, especially to go to the television coverage and we're going to try to get We have Michael Monks going out and he will be out on the fire.

We're going to be talking to people who are around the fire. In the fire.

I'm trying to get my friend Chuck Lovers with Chuck was with La County Fired.

He did this.

He fought these kinds of fires for thirty years. So we're going to get some insight as to what is going on on the technical side.

And then people who were just there.

And of course there's a press conference coming up up at seven o'clock.

Do I have that right? Amy? From the fire department.

They're saying now.

That it may be eight o'clock, okay, but whenever it happens, we'll bring it to your life, okay.

And I have not heard of any increase in acreage for several hours.

All I've heard is eighteen hundred plus.

Yeah. When I got in here, it was at like seven hundred, and then it quickly went up to like fourteen hundred and fifteen hundred sixteen, and now it's up to over eighteen hundred. So it's definitely been growing quickly.

Yeah, and it's going to grow even quicker, unfortunately as the winds whip up. Although Tim had said that as light approaches, let me open the window here, okay. So dark, okay, still dark. So as light approaches, we're going to see the aircraft, mainly from van Ey's take off, the firefighting aircraft of which there's been so much of an increase in the last few years, and they've become a game changer.

I am hanging out at one of the evacuation centers in the Palisades on LMO Rael Drive. This is one that has opened up the folks who were evacuated either late last night or early this morning, and so right now it's very quiet. There's about a dozen and a

So I'm gonna hopefully talk.

To some of these folks as soon as I can muster up the strength to bother them. Folks are just kind of hanging out right now, very quietly.

Inside their cars.

But this evacuation center one of several open for folks, others available for animals. But right now it's kind of a wait and see thing, literally waiting to see. We're hoping to see this sun come up momentarily so that authorities can get a clearer picture of the damage and also so those airborne firefighters can get a better handle on fighting this thing.

Yeah, Michael, keep in mind that this is KFI, So feel free to shove a microphone in someone's face and say, hey, how you feeling.

I do plan to.

I did talk to a woman a little bit earlier as she pulled in, and you know, she was completely disheveled. Oh yeah, scared, and her husband is handicapped disabled and he was in the back of the vehicle and she needed help from folks inside to come out and help get the wheelchair together. She didn't know where to park, and so it just gave me a direct sense of

Now. Is the Red Cross on site?

It is a Red Cross operated shelter, Yes, exactly.

All right, so they're right out there. One of the things about the Red Cross they're pretty neat.

And they're fast. I mean they were out here immediately. Everybody looked like they had been cleaned up and showered and dressed and in their uniforms and ready to go, you know, before I got here.

Yeah, they know what they're doing for sure.

All right, Michael, I know you're going to be standing by, so we'll be coming to you on a regular basis. You're going to be working pretty hard this next shift and probably got it the rest of the day.

Thanks for everything you do, of course, all right. I sort of had to say that, didn't.

I It was very nice of you, It actually was.

You know, I'm kind of surprised actually now there it is right there. Thank Michael Long for everything he does. There you go, Hey, you write it, I say it. If you're just waking up. There is a I wouldn't use the word massive wildfire. It's a last reported eighteen hundred acres now, normally an eighteen hundred acre fire, they're calling it a wildfire because zero percent contained would not

But this is in the heart of Malibu.

This is where some of the most expensive homes in the US are the US are in the US, Yeah, are I got that right? And we're talking about major celebrities and high end folks financially and in the public eye. Film stars, as Tim Conway said this morning, film stars, heads of business. I mean people that are very well known. They are the ones that are going to be effective. And the homes can be tens of millions, are tens of millions of dollars, so particular attention is being paid.

Okay, so we're still having that It's eighteen hundred and twenty two acres. The La County Sheriff's Department and actually fire Chief. They're going to be holding a press conference at eight o'clock to give us all the latest numbers, so we'll have updates for you by then.

We'll try to get some more before then.

We do have about two thousand homes under evacuation warning or actually evacuation orders. They are out of their homes east of Las Virgins between maul Hull Highway to the north and Payouma Road to the south, between Stunt Road to the north and Lost Florists to the south, east of Carbon Beach Terrace, west of Old Malibu Road, north of Pacific Coast Highway. Shelter has been set up at Palisades Recreation Center. That's where Michael Monks is and that is at eight five to one Alma Real Drive in

I have not heard how many homes have burnt. That has not been reported.

No, we know that homes have burned, Okay, we do have that.

And we always talk about structures, and whenever I think of structure as opposed to homes, I think of outhouses that are sitting on a piece of property. So the number of homes and I'm assuming that there has to be a fair number, and I would think they would have gotten some ideas. So at eight o'clock we're going to get much more of an update. One of the things Amy, and then we're going to go to Mike Friole. One of the things I noticed that it does take

Moving, you would think there.

Would be some extrapolation, say it is moving at five hundred acres an hour or and we're not getting.

A lot of that.

Well, the winds did, They did die down a bit over the night, although it has been windy there. But the winds also shift directions, so it's not just burning in a straight line, and it doesn't you know, the border of the fire doesn't have like a nice straight line either, so I think it's a little more challenging. And like we were talking about, with the embers that are throwing off from the fire that could spark other fires, you have to add those in as well.

Yeah, and we're going to be talking to my friend Chuck Lovers a little bit later on. And what time do we have Chuck coming on this morning?

He was with the.

La County Fire and he fought these fires and he'll give us a lot of technical insight that we're not going to get anyplace else.

Now. We're going to do this for a couple of segments at least.

So at this point, the director of communications for Pepperdine, Mike Friel, who is there shelteringly sheltering in place. Mike, thanks for joining us. So what's going on on that campus right now.

Yeah, I mean the night we woke up somewhere around eleven em and learned about this fire about five miles from campus, and we monitored it as it moves closer toward, uh, toward our campus, and unfortunately we had to issue the shelter in place protocol. This is a well planned out plan to ensure that our our residents are safe. They're in the center of campus. They're sheltered in place as we speak, in our pace in library and the Tyler

All right, for those people that aren't aware of the Pepperdine campus, if you want to look it up, you want to google it.

It sits on top of the.

Mountain right there in Malibu and has a almost unbridled view of the Pacific Ocean. It could very well be the most beautifully situated campus on the planet. Now, there's all that greenery, that huge expanse of grant of grass in front all the way down to the highway. What's behind it is I'm assuming if you have that much grass, there's not a lot of there's not a lot of burnable material, but how much around the campus actually is fuel?

Yeah, we're surrounded in the Santa Monica Mountains by this very dry shrubberry, and so there is certainly a threat. But you know, we have a campus that's well designed. We have made sure that we keep the edges of the campus cleared of any brush, and even the shrubbery on campus is planted and in a way that we know it's resilient and it's going to withstand some of these these kinds of conditions. Our buildings are also built and designed to withstand this kind of a threat from

In the world.

Uh and and yet it's it's also susceptible to fire conditions like this. So we are making sure that our students, though, are safe and sheltered in place. Thankfully, no significant damage, reports of any injury. So we think the worst is over for now, but we're going to have to really hold our breath for the next twenty four hours.

Is the winds continue.

Mike, Thank you, and I'm sure you'll be in touch with us throughout the day because I'm not the only one that wants to talk to you. Might keep safe a good place to be by the way the campus, but it really is worth.

Looking at that be that campus. It is like a stunner.

The problem is not only the factors Malibu and fires, but the weather, not so much the temperature, but the humidity and the gusts of wind. Todd Hall, National Weather Service kind enough to be with us, Todd, thank you.

And what are we looking at this morning? Wind? Temperature?

Yeah, so in general we're we're looking at more of the same unfortunately this morning. For the next couple hours, we're looking at winds potentially being between twenty to thirty miles per hour gusting to forty five to even fifty five miles per hour across that area across the Franklin Fire, So it still very dry conditions in place. We're seeing humidities down to about you know, five to six percent across that area.

Five six percent. Basically it's desert.

I mean that's almost zero humidity, which of course causes fires to go crazy. And add that Augusta win forty five miles per hour. You can't you cannot outrun that fire. You can't outdrive a fire that moves that quickly.

Yes, and this is this? Did this actually from start to you know, we can see the stuff on satellite and watching it progress. Is it from start to the way it is right now? I mean it it ran very fast, right from right from its ignition start at time around eleven o'clock last night.

And can you tell by just the way the topography is where the strongest guts wind are likely to blow.

Yeah, I mean typically you're going to see that it's oriented down down ridge lines and canyons that are very oriented with the wind direction, and that will tend to make that fire and make those wins actually run much quicker as a result of that.

All right, Todd, I.

Am sure you're going to get one or two phone calls today and we'll come back and thank you very much for the update. Don't bother napping today, Todd. It's just not going to happen, all right. A quick word.

Before we continue on.

We take our break as we have two ways that we want to get you involved. One is we have our line open right now at eight hundred and five two zero one five three four where you are, what you're seeing, that sort of thing, and you'll be talking probably the an and if what you have is reasonably relevant in terms of where the.

Fire is going, we'll put you on.

And there's also you can simply record a here's what's going on just before you literally walk out the front door and run out trying to save your ass. The iHeart app go to the KFI page and there's a microphone in the upper right hand corner and just leave a message as to what happens, where you.

Are, what shelter you're at, whatever.

You can do to give us information because obviously this is dynamic and fluid, as it is described the way we broadcast these fires.

Neil, you just haven't said hello to you.

Good marching.

We just had National Weather Service meteorologist Todd Hall on, of course, talking about the winds. This is something that they've been perceiving to be inevitable for the past handful of days because of those dry conditions that you guys talked about. We're looking at probably ten minutes twenty minutes away from winds kicking back up. Earlier this morning they were clocked at about sixty five miles per hour.

Crazy what it was reported.

The weird thing, and you heard Conway talk about this handle, is that you can't get fixed wing planes up there when you have those horrible winds. So this starting around two o'clock or something like that this morning, they were unable to get some of that up as they normally would because of those nighttime wins. We'll see how that plays out today. But as Amy has been reporting, it's

Woke up this morning and woke up to another fire.

I didn't turn nine KFI heard Tim Conway, who had been there from two am. Tim was covering the firing Malibu. YEP, it's deja vu all over again, isn't it? Where we're watching major fire in Malibu. We have at this point no idea how many.

Homes have burned.

Amy has reported that there are homes that have burnt, and that has been confirmed.

Amy confirm from people who are on scene that fire officials haven't said for sure, but we were expecting to find out more when the La Fire in La County Sheriff will be holding a news conference from Zooma Beach at eight o'clock.

Yeah, I'm assuming that people there saying yeah, that house is on fire is pretty legitimate in terms of corroboration, unless they start mentioning that Martians have come down and are putting out the fire.

And you have those crazy people too.

So we do know a number of homes have gone up based on what Amy's reporting and that kind of corroboration.

We don't know the actual acreage because.

Last reported and this is effective as what time, the eighteen hundred acre figure was last reported.

We've had that number since five o'clock this morning.

Okay, So all right, so there's you know, we're only two hours out and so and a press conference coming up at eight o'clock or we're going to get other numbers. And then as far as the speed of this fire, I have not gotten that, Amy. I don't know if they've reported the fire is moving at x miles per hour or burning up acridge at x at acres per period of time, and we haven't gotten that.

I'm assuming we know we don't have that infest.

Okay, it's you know, this is early early hours on these things, and the information is kind of spotty, and the fire officials and I think are reluctant about coming out with initial figures, as they should be because these are official statements and we rely on them as opposed to early news items.

Yeah.

In addition to you were talking about the lack of precipitation, how everything's dry, and although we're looking at Malibu right now, there are other areas that are particularly dangerous that are in that same category as those Malibu mountains. So you're looking at Ventura County, thousand Oaks, Ventura, Oxnard, fillmore. Oh Hi, All these places like Malibu, Canoga Park, Santa Clarita acted, these are all in similar situations as far far as

Yeah, and we do, I mean during these kinds of weather conditions. We had Todd Hall of National Weather Service just on a few moments ago, and the reporting now is that we're looking at gus Win and coming up over the next couple hours as winds are really going to kick up gusts up to forty five to fifty miles an hour, which of course turbos of fire turbo charges where the fire can literally explode and no one can try to fight.

They don't even try to fight it. They just walk away or run away.

And try to get some kind of a fire break way way up at the distance. He reported that we're looking at humidity at five to six percent. That's bone dry, I mean, that is nothing. And when you have the humidity at that low a figure, then it all becomes firewood and kindling, all of it, and so these fires start and then a lot of these are well, it used to be a lot of power lines, especially during

They're also shutting off the power.

Earlier found out about the fire last night because his sister called him and said, hey, the power's out of my house.

It's yeah, and I've gotten those a couple of times power will be shut off, power will be shut.

Off, and it isn't. It just says the possibility.

And even though I was told from the power company that power may be shut off or will be shut off, it has not yet happened at my house.

What would you do if your sister calls you up at two in the morning and tell you heard powers out?

Let me sleep? What are you doing.

If you don't know it's a fire. It's like, why are you calling me by your power out?

Yeah?

If I look out the window and it's still dark, eh, I roll over.

You want to get an idea of some of the wind, The Magic Mountain Truck Trail had a recorded wind gust of ninety three miles per hour earlier today, Bony Mountain, which overlooks the San Monica Mountains, which overlooks Thousand Oaks.

Newbray Park had.

Recorded can you image us of seventy three miles?

Unbelievable?

So Magic Mountain, I'm assuming is closed, and if not completely closed, a couple of rides like the burn a Wheel is going to shut down.

A fly about.

Yeah, wow, I tell you we do it. At some point.

I've been doing broadcasting here. I've been broadcasting a KFI now for what is it now, nineteen eighty nine?

Wow? Long time?

Too long?

Yeah, way too yeah, way too long? What station was this?

In any case, it's frankly, I'm getting tired of reporting on fires.

That's how often we get fires.

And it is you know, and then and the fires Amy pointed out, Uh, it was they would be nothing. You'd have two or three homes being burnt up.

Amy. Remember when the news was.

If you lost half a dozen homes in a given fire, that would almost end of the world headlines.

Yes, and now and now we have hundreds or entire towns wiped out. Yeah, and it is paradise in northern California.

And it is less news with dozens of homes, hundreds of homes than it was five or six homes years ago. Did I give you an idea of the severity of the fires and climate change? All right, we're gonna come back, take a break. What do we have AND's running around there? We're putting these shows together. We're trying to reach a few people as well. We'll do this very much on the fly, so we'll be back plenty more. This is KFI AM six forty. You've been listening to the Bill