Interview Only: Reporting on location of the LA Fires ABC News Chief National Correspondent Matt Gutman.

Right now, the story ravaging through our nation, these wildfires.

Let me tell you what I've been thinking.

And we're gonna have on a reporter that's on site, an expert in this kind of stuff. I mean, the guy is chief news corresponding these big times, and I'm looking forward to talking to.

Him, and I'll introduce him to you in just a few minutes.

He's out there in California as we speak, and in Los Angeles, and it's a mess.

It's a mess.

I'm not going to get into specifics in terms of the amount of damage, because we keep hearing something new every single day. Ten thousand structures destroyed, and then we heard it was fifteen potentially twenty. We heard fifty billion in damage, then it eclips to sixty billion.

Now people are.

Speculating over seventy five billion people have been displaced from their homes. Obviously, you're wondering what's going to happen with them because of of insurance companies dropping, dropping their coverage, particularly their fire coverage. You're hearing that the reason that happened was because California didn't do the greatest of jobs and sweeping up the forest floors as dry as it's been over the last eight months, been very very limited in the amount of rain and what have you.

And the water that was coming.

Down or the water that they had available to them wasn't necessarily utilized effectively and efficiently enough. The water coming out of fire hydrants wasn't enough power.

You heard all of this stuff. One a minute, it is not enough water.

Another minute, that's not enough power coming out or pressure rather coming from the fire hydrants. So you could you get rid of these fires. All of this stuff is going is going on right now. And here's the conclusion that I've come to. I'm not going to say this definitively because we all know there's a weather tax in California.

The weather is beautiful in southern California.

That's why they've been able to charge with they've been able to charge That's why they've had the nation's highest individual income tax rate, and high sales tax burdens, sales tax burdens, and.

Stuff like that.

Income tax, sales tax, the list goes on and on. You just look at a whole bunch of stuff. I mean, it's one thing I'm reading here. The state also has high income and sales tax as well. As income tax applying to or retirement income except for Social Security. In other words, the state of California are professionals are getting your money.

The professionals will get your money. I would know.

I've been getting taxed from them for years. And I got to tell you something right now. Because of my travels back and forth for ESPN, I can tell you this right now. There's a legitimate discussion that has to take place as how beneficial it is to live in the state of California.

Seriously, when you consider their tax rates.

Property taxes don't seem to be that extreme in some people's eyes, but the income tax, the sales tax.

And nor the expense that comes with living in the.

State when you just as I read to you last week, learned that California had collected approximately two hundred and twenty to one billion dollars in tax revenue.

There better not be a money problem. They better not be.

You just hear some of these things that's going on right now, and you really really find yourself wondering what the hell is going on in the.

State of California. You really find yourself.

Wondering about that, and how beneficial is it to be there outside of the warm weather.

It's a sanctuary city.

You know, they're not trying to capitulate the federal laws, especially with Donald Trump coming in into office. Gas prices, food prices, of course, the living, all of these things very very relevant. And then you got a governor and you wait for answers from him. We're tired of here, and you're on the phone with the president. You're on the farm with the president. Nah, we don't want to hear that. Gavin News has got something explaining to do. Karen Bass I don't even know if I want to

How are you, Matt? How's everything?

It's been a bit a bit tough, Steve.

It's been a rough go for I think so many people in California right now.

How are you doing.

I'm doing all right. Thank you for being on the show.

Now just paying a picture for us because we've read the reports, we've seen the news. But you're out there and correct me if I'm wrong. Do you not live out there, sir?

I live in Encino, which is just over the mountain over there, an area that's actually under mandatory evacuations as well also evacuation warning. So yeah, like a lot of us are living this, experiencing it and working through it. So you know, we talk about the scale, stephen A, and you mentioned that people are reading about it the news.

But the destruction is so vast.

Here that everything is disorienting, so you sort of don't know where you are anymore. This is the village school, this is where both of my cousins went to school, and this is what's left of the now would have them just show you the inside, just completely wrecked and just on the other side of it is the Ralph.

Supermarket, the major supermarket in town.

The other major supermarket called Gelson's, also burned down. And I think that's what's so unique about this fire is it's not just homes, but it's schools, the library, high school, elementary schools, supermarkets, the rec center. Everything has gone. And it's hard to wrap your head around. My aunt's house burned down Tuesday night, So you know, it's like it's affects so.

Many people in the community.

Mercifully not many people are killed here in the fire. Eight people so far, eight fatalities, and fourteen others or sixteen others in Alfadena at the Eaton fire.

So deadly, but could have been even more devastating.

Right now, how many structures have been destroyed, how many homes that a speculating have been destroyed.

So they're still counting, and we've seen search and rescue teams still going house to house in many of these neighborhoods trying to assess fully of the damage and trying to see if there are remains.

Of people in the debris. But right now.

Here in the Palisades, it's around fifty six hundred probably a little more, and around seven thousand in Altadena, so you know they're talking around. You know, almost twelve thousand homes and structures destroyed total from those fires last week. And you know, we've got another Santa Ana wind event bearing down tonight with seventy miles four hour wind gusts, So everybody's on tenter hooks again and people are traumatized. Here stephen A streaked out, my wife, who I love.

And of the fatalities that have that have been recorded that have you know, you've highlighted some of the numbers is the belief that folks were trapped and they couldn't get out, or that they refused to leave and they thought that somehow, some way it would bypass. What do we know about that in that.

Regard, It's a really good question.

So we don't know exactly, but many of the deceased were elderly or people with disabilities who couldn't get out. The real piece of luck, if there is such a thing in this unbelievable tragedy is that it happened, especially here in the Palisades at you know, started at ten thirty, but fires really cooking.

Bute and middle of the day. Some people were at work, other people were awake.

A firefighter told me this morning that had it happened at two am, like so many other fires, there would have been more fatalities. Just you know, it's hard to get people awake, they don't hear it, their hearing aids.

Are out, and it would have been much worse.

So, you know, we don't know what caused the fatalities, but typically and most of the victims are people who are elderly or disabled and just physically couldn't make it to the exit, couldn't make it to a car to be able to get to safety.

In terms of the actual fires that took place, has there been a definitive reason that has been established as to what happened in that regard and the forest floors not being cleaned, et cetera, et cetera. Has there been a the that's another reason that has been provided.

No, and it could be a while, but I mean, I think that's the central question that everybody here is asking and if you go on YouTube or TikTok or any of the social media or Instagram, you see like all these videos reporting to show somebody setting a fire, some arsonists on this hill doing that.

Nobody knows right now.

Arson is part of the investigation, right it's a factor that they're examining.

On the other fire, the Eton fire.

Which was more catastrophic in terms of damaged homes and destroyed homes and fatalities, that's mostly being investigated is probably something having to do with the transmission towers. And there are now three videos that we have, and there's a fourth that we haven't fully confirmed, that shows a fire breaking out at the base of an electrical transmission tower just across the canyon from where these homes were in Alta Dina, and multiple people have it at almost the.

Exact same time.

Now, the electrical company, Edison International has that we haven't seen any anomalies at that time.

Everything was operating as it should.

They're not denying that it was them, they're just saying there's nothing but by their transmission towers as a cause.

It's just less human and more moist.

And you don't think of it happening here, but we've had eight months without any significant rain.

That has dried everything up. And I wish I could show you stuff, but it's it's been watered or burned here. But it was so dry here.

So you have a combination of those ferocious wind everything being so dry, the most densely packed county in the Cut with ten million people, and that is a recipe for an absolute colossal disaster, which is what happened.

Matt.

What about all of these these reports about that there wasn't enough water in the fire hydrants?

What about that that may be the case.

Right, So the santae Nez Reservoir, which is about a mile in that direction, maybe even less was supposed to supply water, but it was closed down for repairs for whatever reason. And what firefighters told me is that they were hooking up to the hydrants and the pressure wasn't enough to fill the tanks in their engines in the ladder trucks right, so they couldn't get enough water fast enough.

The pressure wasn't right, so it couldn't blast fast enough.

But one of the problems was that there were so many trucks and so many different parts of this town all at the same time trying to access that water that they don't think any amount of water in the.

Reservoir would have been able to have been enough.

A b See this house right there, the house to it burned, the house across the street, the supermarket, everything here is gone.

And so all of the three quarter inch sprinkler hoses.

And all these neighborhoods busted, right, and so they're leaking all over the place.

So when we came in here early Wednesday morning, when.

The fire was at its most ferocious, I'll go back here, there was water everywhere on the ground and sleep and am like, what, Okay, there's water everywhere. What's the problem, and it was just leaking in my aunt's house. It's like a swamp. So firefighters put water on it. The thing burned down. The ash and the soot and the clay and the dishes and the dishwasher and the dryer and everything just sort of got to be this muddy stuff. And you walk in there and it's like six inches

He's like, I've never seen anything like it. There was nothing that anybody could have done.

They were spraying hoses at something that was fifteen feet away, like that wall, and the wind was blowing it back at them. Just stuff that boggles the mind. So he's saying, and he's got like he could have an ax to grind, he could blame the city or the mayor for not having adequate resources. But he said, I don't think any amount of resources, any amount of water, would have made enough of a difference.

Matt.

I know you've interviewed Governor Gavin Newsom in the past. I know you know him. Have you spoken to him since all of this is transpired.

Haven't yet spoken to him.

We're planning on it either today or tomorrow.

I've spoken to his people. It's complicated, complicated to today.

I can imagine. So I'm wondering, you being out there, you being out there, what is the noise like? I mean, I've gone off about what we've seen and what we've heard. Obviously he's taking a lot of heat. Mayor Karen Bass and Los Angeles, she's taking a lot of heat. If you've had time to digest the climate that is out there as it pertains to the politicians and the level of culpability.

The people feel they have. What would you describe that as being at this moment inside?

I think people are pretty upset.

I think people are upset, and I think maybe they have reason to.

Be, but we don't know yet.

What I can't tell you is, you know that Arson is being investigated that it's very possible that there were very bad people who started this fire, knowing exactly where to plant this first seed of a fire, knowing that given the winds, they would come right into town. Because where that fire started, you could not have planned it. If it were just an accident, it would be crazy.

There was no suspicion of that.

There's a suspicion that something may have gone wrong with the transmission wires. Again, it's not confirmed in any way, but you know, were they prepared, could they have called out more mutual aid? Could they have had, you know, all the equipment and all the people that they have now, which is an unbelievable amount. And Steven Ay, I don't know if you guys were watching this weekend, and maybe you can roll this over, but we were watching the air attack from my house rights of helicopters.

It was like Vietnam.

It was like apocalypse now watching this thing, you know, with the chopters going over your head, you know, like listening.

To Wagner dun da da d d da da dah.

Yeah, it was so intent with with chinook chinooks and firefighting helicopters and the DC whatever's the DC tens flying over. They assaulted that fire on the ridge above.

Our neighborhood in a way that I don't think I've ever seen.

If they had had that kind of air assault, if they could have flown in those winds, maybe it would have made a difference. Or maybe if they had all these thousands and thousands of auxiliary firefighters, maybe it would have made a difference. But again, when you talk to the people here in the ground, they say, man, I don't know that nature. It was so powerful, so indomitable. Maybe there's nothing we could have done. Maybe there was nothing that anybody could have done.

Being in, you know, a chief national correspondent.

I know that you've got a whole bunch of sources, connections or whatever, But this doesn't involve that do We've heard a number of sixty billion, seventy billion, and in terms of the amount of damage that has been incurred, I'm not asking you to speculate, just ask you to tell me what you've heard about approximately what that number would be, particularly at this moment in time, not even taking into account more, you know, further damage that will be investigated.

Obviously.

You know, these are I think the median household. They say it's two million, but it can to be much more. Of the median house price in Pacific Palasage an Altadena.

It's over a million.

There are you know, twenty five and forty million dollar homes that have been destroyed.

Here.

It's the infrastructure, the water system, roads have been impacted so much in both of these places. And the big question is how is insurance going to cover this?

What's going to happen there?

Yeah, some people like my aunt have been living in their homes for over forty years, and I have a feeling that she's under insured and a lot of people aren't going to be able to afford to move back here. So it's going to be in the many tens of billions, that's for sure. The question is what happens to these communities.

Are they going to be insured enough? And then what happens to the rest of the of the city.

Insurance company's going to want to invest in California and ensure people here.

I mean, it's a scary prospect.

This is a huge liability and a massive question for Governor Newsom, who knows I'm going to probably ask him this question. All of these people, the tens of millions of people that Newsom and others want to stay here, how are they going to be protected?

I'm wondering about that myself, just reading doing some research. It talked about insurance companies abandoning folks in California with regard to the wild Fis even before it took place. You know, you know, more than ten thousand structures in Los Angeles County being distr you had stuff like this going on rise and costs and cancelations have left many of the five victims without adequate means. And that's exactly what you're talking about here. And I don't know what's

And all of this? He has to me based off.

Of what you've seen, you know, So I love this question.

I love this question because you know, people are like, oh.

La, it's so la, and it is right, Like people can be vain and they can be fickle here, But are you guys seeing what's happening at the Santa Anita Raceway on the other side of down in Pasadena? Near there, there is a like a literal mountain of stuff of aid, of clothes, of diapers, beds, of bedding, anything you could generators tense like anything you can imagine is there.

People have come out from all over. There are places where pets are being helped. Like the amount of outpouring has surprised me and blown me away in the most positive way.

And I'm so happy to see it elated.

And had we been not locked down in my neighborhood this weekend, I would have taken the kids, but we couldn't get out of our neighbor because there was National Guard posted down the street. But that's another issue. But yeah, Like there has been a massive outpouring in a way that I don't think anybody imagined in this messy, complicated, traffic ridden city full of natural disasters, but also great beauty right like where we are is.

A beautiful place.

Well, Altadena is beautiful, and the people are coming together in a way that is truly impressive.

So I've been so heartened to see that. I know my colleagues are.

We're out there at the Santa I need a Raceway and all the other places where they have been congregating and putting all of this aid together for the people who were homeless right now, who've been burned out of their homes. So what the insurance companies may not be able to provide them right now now, I think the people of la the residents here are trying to do, you know, with just incredible pace and generosity.

Well, let me say this to you, outside of this interview being must see because you've done such an exceptional job. It'll be even better when we see you in front of California Governor Gavin Newsom, because he's got a lot of questions. He's got it, like got He's got to have some answers to a lot of these questions, and that's going to be must CTV whenever he sits down with you, hopefully very very soon. Matt Gutman, chief national correspondent for ABC News, thank you so much for your time, man.

I really appreciate it. Thank you, Thank you.

Stevan.

Yeah, that's out standing information provided by Matt Gutman. I just feel so sorry for those folks out there, and just just to reiterate, authorities say at least twenty four people died and more than a dozen others remain unaccounted for US. Multiple wildfires burned across forty five square miles of densely populated Los Angeles County. The total damage and economic loss from the wildfires is now being estimate. Remember I said fifty sixty seventy five whatever, I didn't know.

Whatever.

Now they's saying this between two hundred and fifty to two hundred and seventy five billion, according to ACI Weather. Meanwhile, thousands of firefighters from across the country are battling the flames, including other firemen from Mexico and Canada.

They've joined the fray.

Roughly one hundred and five thousand people remain under mandatory evacuation orders. And as for the response to the disaster, California Governor Gavin Newsom, who I brought up a couple of times to Matt, responded, because you knew that President Trump was gonna have something to say, and I told you Saturday how he was critical of Gavin Newsom, saying basically this was his fault. Here's what Trump had to

It less water.

It didn't work, but didn't care about the people of California. Now the ultimate price is being paid. I will demand that this incompetent governor allow beautiful, clean fresh water to flow into California.

He is the blame for this.

On top of it all, no water for fire hydrants, not firefighting planes.

A true disaster. End quote naturally.

Governor Newsom responded by saying this and writing a letter to Trump.

He invited them to a state to tour the destruction.

Newsom wrote, quote, I invite you to come to California again to meet with the Americans affective by these fires, see the devastation firsthand, and join me in others in thanking the heroic firefighters and first responders who put their lives on the line. Okay, here's the deal. First things first, Donald Trump called them new scum. Clearly he does not like this man. He sat up there and called them an incompetent governor, all in the same graph, all in

So clearly he doesn't like the man. Let's call it what it is.

Okay, that's more than we can say for him and Obama, which I'll get into a little bit later. But then I'm thinking about this story that I read when you had former Trump administration officials, this is what they've said.

Do that.

Now, if you're Donald Trump and you want to turn California red, or at least from blue to purple or something something closer to red, I don't think it would be wise for him to engage in such petulant and irresponsible behavior.

So I guess the thing that we he can say is we shall see, we shall see. But he did withhold.

According to his the people that worked in his administration, he was hesitant in providing relief for the state of California twenty eighteen in Washington State in twenty twenty in Puerto Rican as well, because he felt they weren't supportive enough for him, and if he did something like that, that would be scummy. To use his word, new scum, that would be bad. That would be bad. I just want to say that. Okay, there's no way around that.