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It's time for your morning wake up call.
Here's Amy Kig.
Good morning. It's five oh one.
This is your wake up call for Tuesday, January fourteenth.
I'm Amy King.
Thanks to Valentine for stepping up and hosting overnight to keep you up to date on the fires. Another crazy day on the way. We are glad that you are here. We're going to keep you up to date. We're going to get you great information, including we'll be talking with the National Weather Service in a couple of minutes about the key ds, the particularly dangerous situation as the next round of Santa Ana winds begins to blow. We'll also be talking about how pets are being helped in the
Altadena fire area. Pasadena Humane is stepping up sending strike teams into the burn area. We're going to get the latest on that, and of course, the fires affect your money. We've got Joel Larsgard, host of How to Money on KFI on how to protect your money during these wildfires.
Here's what's ahead on wake up call.
Strong Santa Ana winds triggered the highest level red flag warning called a PDS or a particularly dangerous situation for southern California, with winds expected to gust fifty five to seventy miles per hour between now and noon tomorrow. Firefighters are working to shore up containment lines around fires as the next wind event moves in. The Palisades fire is fourteen percent surrounded. The fire in Altadena and Pasadena thirty three percent surrounded. We're expected to get updates on those
numbers a little bit later this morning. Effect they're going to be doing another press conference at eight o'clock as they've been doing each day, to give us an update from law enforcement and fire officials. So keep it right here because we will be airing that live for you right here on KFI. LA District Attorney Nathan Hawkman says ten people have been charged with looting in fire evacuation zones. Two were charged with stealing two hundred thousand dollars worth
of property in the zones. Hawkins says anyone caught looting will be charged to the fullest extent of the law. Let's get started with some of the stories coming out of the KFI twenty four hour newsroom. The Santa Anas are expected to kick up through tomorrow in most of southern California, which is already dealing with deadly wildfires. LA City Fire Assistant Chief Joe Everett says those wins can potentially fan fires that haven't been doused yet.
Within the city of Los Angeles. I we're still actively working in there.
We do have some active, active structure fires left over from the original impact.
The National Weather Service has issued Red flag warnings as well as that rare particularly dangerous situation warning. It says when gus could be as high as seventy miles an hour in some areas. A fire in Ventura that broke out last night has been stopped at about fifty five acres. Crews have been working through the night to put out hot spots and surround it. It was confined to the river bottom off North Ventura Boulevard. No homes are threatened.
That the cause of that fire's under investigation. A brush fire in Harupa Valley and Riverside County has been stopped at two acres. It started yesterday afternoon in the Santa Ana River bottom. A neighborhood was briefly placed under an evacuation warning, but fire crews were able to keep it from getting into that area.
More than forty.
People have been arrested in Santa Monica on suspicion of illegally entering the Palisades Fire evacuation zone.
The evacuation zone is under a sunset to sunrise curfew. Please say the people who were cut there at night without a valid reason violated local emergency orders in city and county curfew orders, adding that none of them are Santa Monica residents.
Kfi's Daniel Martindale says some of those arrested had burglary tools, two had guns on them. He says even some had the watch duty fire app open to see which areas had been evacuated.
That's just infuriating, isn't it.
President Biden says people impacted by the wildfires in LA are going to get a one time payment of seven hundred and seventy dollars so they can quickly buy things like water, baby formula and prescriptions. The announcement yesterday was criticized on social media especially since the cost of living in California is higher than in much of the country. Private forecaster Acuweather has estimated damages and economic loss caused by the fires to be between two hundred and fifty
and two hundred seventy five billion dollars. Let's now say good morning to Todd Hall with the National Weather Service.
Morning Todd, good morning. Okay, So Todd, we've.
Mentioned this already, but we have a PDS A pertin particularly dangerous situation tell us about that particular warning.
So it's it's an extension of our red flag warnings that highlights just the very extreme critical fireweather conditions that we want to highlight. And it's really for firefighter safety. That's what it's designed for the public, of course, can it's all public information. You can see this stuff. So it's it highlights the really dangerous conditions that firefighters will
be facing. When you have wind gusts to seventy miles per hour, embers will be thrown two three miles away from from any starts, and certainly anything that's that's already burning, there's those potential that those glowing embers can still be tossed as well. Several miles away, so we have to we have we want to bring that heighthend alert to firefighters for their safety.
Okay, and Todd, is this round of Santa Ana wins worse than last week?
No, it's expected to be weaker than the last week. Last week we had we had a very broad area of gusts between sixty and eighty and some isolated gusts up to one hundred. We're expecting generally a larger you know, I guess the most prone areas will gust fifty five to seventy and we might have a few isolated gusts to eighty eighty five, But for the most part, it's it's supposed to schedule to be much weaker than last week's event.
Okay, that's good news. And how long are the winds going to last?
We're going to continue to see winds peaking after sunrise today, We're going to see that bump up in the wind. They will there will be some weakening through this afternoon this evening, and then we'll start to see them increase again into Wednesday morning. So hopefully by Wednesday evening we'll
start to see some improvement in the fireweather conditions. The red flag warning, the PDS red flag warning, I should say, the particularly dangerous situation type with red flag warning goes through noon Wednesday, and then we have the red flag
warning in effect until six pm Wednesday. There's a chance that some for some portions of La in Ventura Counties that could be extended in the Thursday, depending upon, uh, how dry the air masses, how windy it's it still remains, there's there's still that that that unknown there that we could be still seeing some of these conditions still existing in pockets of the south Land.
Okay and Toad you mentioned, like the embers and flare ups and that kind of thing. Is the is the threat even greater in the burn areas or is it actually lower in the burn areas because everything's already burned.
As far as the winds, the strongest winds, we're not we're not forecasting the strongest winds to hit those burn areas. Now, the north end of the Eton would be a concern and the west end of the Palisades would be a concern because those are the strongest wind corridors expected across western Ventura County or western Los Angeles County and eastern Ventura County so that would be the most area is concerned if there's still any hot spots in those areas.
But certainly with any of these conditions, I mean, we still have critical fire weather conditions in place. Any wind guests could still cause some issues to develop on any of these fires, given the how dry the conditions are, the lack of rain we've had, and we now had four Santa Ana event wind events, well three when events, and this is the fourth one on top of these these areas already, so any new starts can be can spread very rapidly, as as we know from our fire partners.
They tend to tell us, working with La County Fire and Ventura County Fire behavior analysts quite a bit. They tend to tell us that the fire conditions worsened with with the Santa Ana wind event we have, and if you put them in succession, it starts to become a early dangerous situation.
Okay, well, we know that the Santa Ana winds blow in the winter time, but why are we getting these extreme weather conditions back to back to back.
So it's it's really, I mean, most of our firewether season runs typically between May and October. By October we start to see some rain. We'll see some some rain through November, October, Noveber, December, and that will that will end up and usually bring some moistening of the of the vegetation and we'll get enough rain. We haven't had any rain. We've had a quarter inch of rain at downtown, less than a quarter to rain at downtown since since uh May. So from through we've had some very dry
We've had some very dry months. We have eight months of almost no rain whatsoever. And so that's so typically January, December and January bring our most damaging sant Ana wins. So that's that's the that's the ones that bring the seventy the sixty seventy eighty miles pur Santa and wins that are that that typically do happen this tin of year. So that's that's more of our damaging wind events. Well, now our fireweather season ran a little longer because we
had no rain. So now we're in this window where we have these more damaging stand in the wind events and then you're throwing the dry vegetation into that next.
All right, well, let's hope that this is the last of them.
Toddhall with the National Weather Service appreciate your time and information this morning.
Thank you.
All right, take care.
Let's get back to some of the other stories coming out of the KFI twenty four our newsroom. Police in Torrents say they're urging residents to be vigilant as thieves have been stealing catalytic converters. Police say people stealing them are sometimes armed. They suggest parking in well lit areas, closer to an entrance to stores when shopping, and getting your converted converter welded to your car's frames so it's
not so easy to remove. Special Counsel David Weiss has released his final report on the investigation into Hunter Biden and the President's decision to pardon his son. ABC's per Thomas says the report was released ye yesterday.
In its final report, Special Counsel David Weiss saying other presidents have pardon family members, but in doing so, none have taken the occasion as an opportunity to align the public service at the Department of Justice based solely on false accusations.
Why says his prosecutions were based on thorough, impartial investigations, not partisan politics. Some of President elect Trump's nominees will have their confirmation hearings this week. ABC's Olivia Rubin says they're set to start today.
Include Department of Defense pick Pete haig Seth.
Attorney General nominee Pam Bondi, and Marco Rubio tap for Secretary of State.
She says some Republicans have been involved in practice hearings complete with microphones and name tags.
Country music fans, well.
Pretty much everybody who is a fan of any kind of music may be extra excited to hear who will be in DC next week when President Elect Trump takes the oath of office. ABC's Rachel Scott says Carrie Underwood will perform.
In a statement, she says, I love our country and I'm honored to have been asked to sing at the inauguration be part of this historic event.
The inauguration is scheduled for Monday, January twentieth. As we've been telling you, the helicopters and the planes have made a huge difference in the firefight. But with the winds kicking up again, the concern is are they going to be grounded? Because you'll remember when the fires first broke out, the winds were blowing so hard that the helicopters and the planes had to be grounded. So the question is when do planes have to stop flying?
The problem is the guts, So the gus peak and the aircraft limitations or capabilities are then limited based on approach and departures as well as as Chief mentioned, they drop accuracy, so each aircraft will have that limitation based on the manufacturer's recommendation. And then as far as the safety component. Usually the limiting factor's guts over threw thirty miles an hour, but the sustained wins anything over forty is pretty much gonna ground most aircraft, and we.
Are expecting wins to gust over forty miles per hour today. That was Jerry mcganya with CalFire Incident Management Teams. He was talking during the most recent press conference and explaining the win situation. We're going to get another update on the fires and the wins and the relief efforts. That's coming up this morning at eight o'clock and we will bring that to you live right here on KFI. I
want to say congratulations to the la Rams. They beat the Vikings twenty seven to nine last night in wildcard action. They're going to take on the Philadelphia Eagles next. That happens Sunday at noon for the NFL Divisional playoff game. The game, ironically was supposed to be held at SOFI Stadium,
they moved it to State Farm Stadium in Glendale. Of course, State Farm is California's largest home insurance provider and announced last year that it would no longer be taking applications for property insurance and other policies because of the historic increases in construction costs and inflation, and of course, wildfire risks. So kind of weird that it was played at State
Farm Stadium, huh. Firefighters are working to beef up containment lines around the fire burning in Altadena and Pasadena as another Santa Ana wind event blows in. The fire is now thirty three percent surrounded. At least twenty four people have died in the two largest fires. Officials expect that number to go up as they get deeper into neighborhoods to assess the damage. Firefighters have stopped forward progress of
a fire that broke out in Herrupa Valley. The Riverside Fire Department says the fire started just before five yesterday. Homes in the area were briefly placed under an evacuation order. The cause of the fire isn't known. It is in an area that has homeless camps. The Super Scooper firefighting plane, damaged by a collision with a drone last week, has been repaired and is expected to return to the air today. It's one of two Super Scoopers on loan from Canada.
La County Fire Chief Anthony Maroney says it can return to service it's cleared by the FAA.
Stick around at six oh five. It's handle on the news.
The guy who won a two billion dollar power jackpot Powerball jackpot lost his home in Pacific Palisades. Let's say good morning now to Calabasa's resident, Danny Cooper. Good morning, Danny, Good morning Amy. So, law enforcement officials have been warning us over the past days that there are bad actors out there, and you live in a neighborhood where some bad actors are cropping up.
Tell us what's going on.
Yeah, the other night we were out back and my dog started barking. She heard some noises out front.
Who went out to the street and we're like four cars zooming around and we're like trying to figure what's going on.
So my wife and I.
One of the cars, like what's going on. They say they got a tweet from their following this a sorry ay tweet. This guy Los Angeles Scanner has hundreds of thousands of followers, and they said there was a false report. They didn't know it was a false report at the time that there was a fire on our corner and clearly was none. They had extinguishers with them, and we were trying to determine what was going on, to determine if they lived there or not, and turns out they did.
But at the same time, what we didn't realize at the end of the street, there was two women knocking on the seven year old woman's door trying to get her.
To come out and evacuate because there was a fire. So she didn't she was smart enough, and they said they were residents. So what happened.
What happened was that somebody had called them a false report and they were trying to get people to leave their houses so they could go on and rob them.
So it sounds like Danny.
They created the situation by calling in a false report for a certain area saying, hey, there's a fire here, and then people started who were not from the area started going up to people's doors and saying, hey, you guys, didn't you see the report.
There's a fire in your area. You need to get out.
Yeah, that's that's exactly what happened. And somehow they got in our gate. We're a gated community, so they.
Got past security somehow because a delivery van was said to have come in at around nine to fifteen pm.
Not sure why they let them in, but that's been taken care of since. And they're trying to get everybody out.
And there's a fire gate by our house, by that corner where the fire was staying, and they're trying to get them to open it up because only the fire department can get it open. That's not the way it works.
And is the fire gate behind your homes?
It is?
It's about one hundred yards from our house. Yeah, goes out onto Moholland Highway.
And the next day there was another report because all of a sudden, fire engines started coming on the street. Said somebody from the neighbor's house had called and reported a fire. So someone keeps reporting fires. Besides taking away emergency services were fire department needs to be, they're bringing them to the neighborhood for false supports, trying to get us leave, but they don't know that we're all in a group chain and we're all texting each other, monitoring
the fires, monitoring everything. We monitor Citizen Watch Duty LA fire apps, so we're on top of everything. But they keep coming in, trying to get the seventy year old woman to come out of her house so they can rob her.
Yeah, that fire chain.
It's a beautiful thing about smaller communities where you guys all are kind of it's your own little neighborhood watch and you're watching out for each other.
So that's great that you're doing that. Did you guys call police immediately or what happened?
What happened was, yeah, well we didn't know that was going on at the end of the street until ten minutes later when I texted everybody what happened. She said, Oh, by the way, this just happened, and we saw that van come by because I think all the activity on the streets scared them away.
But yeah, and we called the Sheriff's department immediately. Left by that point, all right, and what.
Do you recommend because if it's happening in your neighborhood is probably happening in other neighborhoods. What do you recommend, you know, I mean, it sounds like you guys kind of have your your your act together. You've got your little neighborhood watch going and that kind of stuff. But what do you recommend for other people?
I do recommend that you do if you don't know your neighbor, which happens in Los Angeles a lot, make friends with them.
Because this really united our neighborhood a lot.
We had robberies on the street about seven years ago when we started a small chain just our street, but this has expanded to the four hundred and twenty families. So I would say recommend get out, have a like you said, a community watch on texting and make sure everybody knows the numbers of fire department. The Sheriff's department called nine one one, But everybody stays in touch with each other and it's a good way to get that neighborhood vibe going.
Yeah, and it's scary too, because, like you said, they called it and you got a tweet or whatever. There was a notification that there was actually a fire and we could say go to watch duty, which has been invaluable, but that one isn't going to show up right away.
It's going to show the larger fires. I know there are some other apps.
In fact, I want to ask Richdimiro about that, because he's got some other fire watch apps that you can have specifically for your location that will tell you if there's actually a fire in your location. But it looks just you know, with all the great things that people are doing coming together, it's so just infuriating to hear that. You know, there are bad actors out there, and you can't let your guard down. You got to be careful because people will take advantage in times of crisis.
Absolutely, all right, Danny.
Cooper, Calabasis resident, thank you so much for sharing your story. Just by sharing that story, you're probably going to help other people and we appreciate that a ton.
I hope, so thank you. Amy.
All right, take care, Danny. Wow, that really makes me mad. I mean, doesn't that just make your blood boil? I mean, people have lost their homes, some have lost their lives, some of lost pets, and there's people out there taking advantage. And like we were saying, just in Santa Monica, they've made like thirty arrests for people who were just breaking curfew. None of them were from Santa Monica, but they were in the area and you can expect that they were
up to no good. We mentioned pets, and Assistant Chief Choi was asked about pets who had to be left behind during the most recent press conference or got left behind because people heard about the fire and couldn't get back to their homes to get their pets. They're obviously frustrated and frantic because they're not being allowed back into the area because the fire danger. The fire is still burning in some places, there's hazardous material. They're going through
and doing the searches. But so the question is, you know, if you can't get in to get to your pets, do you have any options?
There are other options that we can do. For example, officers that are patrolling the area can get a list of locations at the checkpoint. Officers can patrol these areas and go check themselves. I'm not saying that's exactly going to have, but there are options where we don't have to leave a pet in there if we're made aware of that.
So you can go to the.
Checkpoints and talk to officers. But I urge you not to go there, just to wait to go in to see your house, which is largely what a lot of these individuals are doing. They're waiting to be escorted to see their property, which we can't too. We still aren't doing medication and pets. However, we can come up with a way where if somebody knows a pet is in the residence, that we'll do everything we can in our authority to go in there and get that pet.
And then Gigi on that note, Passing Humane Society is actually going into the Alcadena area that's under evacuation orders and feeding pets, so there is we will link up and see if we can duplicate that.
And that was County Supervisor Catherine Barger mentioning Pasadena Humane. So we reached out to our friends at Pasadena Humane. We wanted to get them on again because they are taking care of hundreds of extra animals during this wildfire event and now they're going into the burn areas to feed and then rescuing any animals who may be left behind.
So we're going to be talking to them right after this.
Firefighters are bracing for the return of dangerous Santa Ana wins that could test containment lines around the Palisades and eaten fires and potentially spark new fires. The most dangerous winds are expected between now and noon tomorrow in the western Santa Monica and San Gabriel Mountains, the five and fourteen corridors, and western San Fernando Valley. Police are warning people to watch out for scams if they're looking to donate to fire relief areas. Authorities say they've seen a
rise in scam artists who are exploiting the crisis. The City of La is distributing n ninety five masks at all city public libraries, recreation centers, and senior centers because of the poor air quality from the fires. A list of library locations is available online. At six oh five, it's handle on the news. A fire broke out and was quickly attacked by firefighters. Thousands of firefighters are out on the lines just waiting for the next fire as
the winds increase again. At five point fifty, Joel Larsgard's going to have some information on some of the scams to watch out for after the fires, and also insurance, how to navigate it, what you can do to hopefully keep your home covered right Now let's say good morning to the PR and communications director at Pasadena Humane. It's Kevin McManus. Kevin, thanks for coming on with us again
this morning. Pasadena Humane, as we know, is always helping animals and especially helping during this weather emergency in several different ways. We've just heard that you've been approved to send a strike team into the burn areas to rescue and feed animals.
Can you tell us about that.
Yeah, that's correct.
We were partnered with a bunch of organizations, many of whom like San Diego Humane and SPCA and LA County have specially trained animal control officers who are being allowed into the fire areas, and they've been able to rescue a number of animals from from homes and find a lot of stray animals that have been displaced.
Okay, now, and Catherine Barger, the county supervisor, announced yesterday that you had just been kind of led into the area. But it sounds like you've been going into the area or not you personally, but your teams have been going into the area to look for animals for a bit.
Now, a couple of days.
Yeah, I mean obviously much longer than you know. We would have liked to been in there right away, but obviously we have to make sure that it's safe, and cal Fire has given us the okay because of the assistance that they especially trained folks.
Okay, and what are you finding, Kevin.
Well, we have been able to get into some homes and where we've known that there were pets, you know, who had to be left behind during evacuation, and we have been able to rescue some of those and reunite them with their families, which is, you know, obviously the goal. The stray animals that we found, we're scanning for microchips right in the field, so we have almost if the pet is microchipped or has collars and tags, we have almost immediate information. So that's been a really uplifting part
of our mission as well. And then the stray animals that we just sound and cannot identify or bring them back to the shelter, getting their photos on our website immediately or within an hour or rather, so people who are out there looking for their lost pets in the Eating Fire area specifically, they can well anyone can look at the website obviously, but we're finding the animals in the Eating Fire area.
And it's got to be so frustrating for like we were talking about the people who had to you know, either were not home when the fire started and weren't able to get back, or for whatever reason, had to just leave because there was literally no time. I mean, we've heard stories of people having ninety seconds to leave everything behind and the frustration and the panic that they must feel knowing that their animals are out there and need them.
So it's it's so amazing that you guys are out there and doing the help that you can.
I heard too that there's a I think I read from DA that there's like you're putting cat feeding stations out because there are cats that just kind of roam around the neighborhood.
That's correct, So we uh you know, at the at the shelter, we have kind of almost like a database of known cat colonies. So that's people who have taken advantage of our uh tr tn R services. So if we uh so we have a lot of locations that we've done a lot of us SPAN neuter for the cats in the area, and so we know that with feral cats, in particular community cats, they they're not going to be the ones that are going to let you come and pick them up and put them in a
create when even even in a fire. So so we are going out leaving water, cat food and hoping that there's some some cats who are able to uh to make it to that food. And I believe the next step is just art setting humane traps to see if we can catch any of those cats and you know, treat any injuries, make sure that they're okay, okay.
And are you finding a lot of injured animals?
Yeah, yeah, it's been.
As the fire has, as the days have progressed since the initial fire on the injuries are a little bit more severe and unfortunately we have found a lot of
animals as well. But yeah, it's that's kind of what my our vet was briefing me a couple of days ago, and she said, look, the first ones to get out, you know, they're going to have a little bit of smoke inhalation, they're going to maybe have some burns on there and their pause of their feet and obviously they'll be the higher As it progresses the longer time than an animals in that environment, in that air, the respiratory issues become greater and the chance obviously of burns is
increased as well, so uh, yeah, there's something mean. I know, one of the very cute dogs that we have featured on our social media passed away the other day, so that was, you know, heartbreaking, But obviously we have been able to save so many so it's been you know, a mixed bag.
So to continue doing your great work, you need our help. So what do we what do we need to do?
Well? At this point, we're uh, we are so full of in kind donations thanks to you know, just the outpouring and support from our amazing community, so we cannot
take any more physical donations at for now. So we're asking people to pause if they have things that they want to bring to us financially doing since the most direct way, so we can you know, buy specialized equipment for our animal control officers to help assist with this effort, so we can treat the animals with the utmost care in our animal ICU and we can direct those resources
to exactly what we need. And someone brought something up with me last night that I hadn't even really been tracking on, but we really want to buy all of our supplies locally, uh, to support the businesses that we have been you know, using for for you know, a century in some cases with with acumine humane so and financial donations allow.
Us to do that, all right, So money is what they need right now.
They have enough people to foster, they have enough volunteers, they have enough food for now.
What they need is emctually, if I could just started, we will need more fosters and volunteers. You do, and we're kind of we will probably in a week or two. So we have gone again an overwhelming scruit support. We put the call out and people have answered.
So much so that we have to kind of you have to put a pause on.
A Yeah, we have to put a pause on it. And we also have for the stray animals who coming in, we're extending the stray hold. Normally we do a five days stray hold, which allows an owner to find their lost pet in five days, but because of the circumstances we've we've extended that to three weeks. So so we won't be able to move any of the animals out of our shelter into foster homes or adoptive homes for another two and a half.
Weeks at this point.
Okay, day by day, right, Kevin.
Day by day. But we're also you know, knowing that this is this is a marathon at this point, and so we're going to be in the care of a lot of animals for a long time, and so we are definitely going to need assistance.
Okay. And again, what's the website where they can make a donation?
The most direct one is give dot Pasadena Humane dot org.
Splash fire.
Another blessing of this is so many people poured support is that our website has been experiencing some difficulties, so this is kind of the work around if you want to make a donation now, people who want to look for lost pets find about other services. It's Pasadena Humane dot org.
Okay, and we need to save as many as we possibly can. Kevin McManus with Pasadena Humane, thank you for all of your efforts and your team's efforts. It's just amazing what you guys are doing and we appreciate it.
Thank you so much.
Thank you all right, take care.
We're so proud to be associated with Pasadena Humane. They do such amazing work. One of the things that the fires has taught have taught us is that we need to be ready to go La County Fire Chief Anthony Morony addressed this during the most recent press conference and basically said, if you don't have a wildfire plan, you need one.
We really want residents in La County to be prepared. If you don't have a wildfire evacuation plan for your family and your home, please make one today. Visit www dot Lacounty, excuse me, www dot fire, dot La County dot gov. Forward slash RSG that stands for ready set Go.
I would recommend in an abundance of caution, if you get an alert on your telephone for an evacuation warning, leave then don't wait for the order, because we know from experience that if you wait for the order, you might get caught up in the congestion that you referenced. And please do not silence the emergency alerts on your telephone. If we send out an alert at three am on Tuesday night or Wednesday night Wednesday morning, when you're sleeping,
we want you to wake up and evacuate. We know we had some issues earlier, but please do not turn off that those wireless emergency alerts on your telephone.
All right, So, La County to find out the Ready Set Go recommendations. You can go to fire dot Lacounty dot gov and then slash RSG, which means ready, set go. I know I have my go bag now at least half done, producer and says she's got her car full just in case, because we got more wins on the way. Hopefully they're not going to turn into fires, but we got to be ready. Fire officials say, cruise are ready as Santa Ana wins pick up again. The Palisades, Eton
and Hears fires erupted a week ago. Today, more than ninety two thousand people are under evacuation orders. Another eighty nine thousand are under evacuation warnings. At least three lawsuits have been filed against Southern California Edison over aims that its electrical equipment is responsible for starting the fire in Eaton Canyon. The lawsuits claim eyewitnesses saw a fire at the base of a transmission tower that's owned by Edison.
Edison says that is not the case.
More than forty people have been arrested for illegally entering the Palisades fire evacuation zone in Santa Monica during curfew. Police say the people who were caught there at night without a valid reason, violated local emergency orders and city in county curfew orders, adding that none of them are Santa Monica residents. We're just minutes away from a handle on the news this morning, Life in prison. That's what's on the table for people arrested for looting an arson
during the wildfires. Right now, let's say good morning to the host of How to Money on KFI. It's Joel lars Guard. Joel, as we've been talking about this hour, there are things that you need to watch out for because there are bad actors out there, and we want to make sure that people protect their money. So let's talk a little bit about like how they can make sure that they don't get scammed during the wildfires.
Sure, yeah, it's a good question, and yeah, you're right. There are sadly a lot of people in the aftermath of a crisis who try to benefit themselves, whether that is looters, or whether that is scam artists online trying to raise money for fake charities and so, or even let's say legitimate websites where you might go to donate and you might be confronted with fees or expenses that
you didn't bargain for. So For instance, a lot of individuals have turned to GoFundMe to try to raise money for rebuilding efforts or you know, just to essentially make ends meet for the time being because they don't have a place to live and go Fundme is a site that claims to not take any fees for themselves, just
a processing fee for credit cards, which is understandable. Yet then on top of that, they will charge these tips that you maybe like, you scroll through there and you know, you can eliminate the tip while you're trying to make the donation, but you might be kind of surprised by it and the tip can be pretty hef so be careful when you're giving donations. They're also just fake charities out there now trying to raise money, especially online, and
go to charities that you know and trust. And if you're looking to find a charity to donate to, charitynavigator dot org has a great list of highly rated charities that you can give to so that they have vetted and I just think, like, especially now, if your heart is tugged to give money, which understandably is make sure that money is actually going to help people in need and not going to pad the pockets of people who are up.
To no good and even I think we've talked about this before, Joel, something like the Red Cross.
You've got to make sure you're giving to the actual Red Cross.
Yes, that's right, that's right. And so the Red Cross is listed on Charity Navigators site as one of the best places to give money right now, but I would like literally click over to the American Red Cross from Charity Navigator. Just make sure that you are not, you know, giving to somebody who says they're the Red Cross, or think about if you get a phone call or something.
And it's true that time is of the essence to get funds to people, but people will try to get you to donate immediately and before you hang up the phone and that kind of stuff, and that is a red flag. If someone is trying to pitch you on a donation and they're saying you need to do it right now, right now, right now, well you need to actually make sure you're going to the proper website for
the Red Cross is Redcross dot org. But make sure that you are not in a moment of compassion giving somewhere that where the money isn't actually going to help anybody in need.
Okay, And I want to just touch on homeowners insurance and maybe we'll talk about it more next week, because this is going to be an issue as we move forward. But you know, a lot of people are losing their homeowners insurance. We're hearing that some people didn't have homeowner's insurance because the rates have gotten so crazy high. Is there anything customers can do to keep their insurance?
Gosh.
So it's a really difficult situation right now in California insurance wise, and it's only been getting worse over the past couple of years. And these fires just go to show why insurance companies have been reticent to write policies in certain areas and why they have been reducing or removing coverage from certain places because they are just high risk areas.
And so.
The truth is, insurance costs are going up, and more people are going to find themselves looking to the fair plan for basic coverage that won't be as good as what they had, and self insurance and having more money on hand is going to be more important than ever.
There is no fantastic, simple, easy, inexpensive solutions, sadly, but yeah, we're finding ourselves in the state of California kind of between a rock and a hard place insurance wise, and there will be more coming out in the coming months, and the state is going to have to do something I think to help citizens when it comes to allowing insurance companies and entire seeing insurance companies back into the state to write coverage, because we just need a more competitive marketplace.
Yeah, okay, I.
Hope we can revisit this again because I think there's more to dive into. But for more great tips on how to protect your money and how to grow your money, you can listen to how to Money with Joel Larsgard. It's right here on KFI Sundays from noon to two. You can follow Joel at how to Money. Joel, Thank you, Joel.
Thanks Amy.
All right, touch to you soon.
Let's get back to some of the stories coming out of the KFI twenty four hour newsroom. Charges have been filed against nine people accused of stealing from homes in wildfire zones.
The homes are in Alta, Dina and Mandeville Canyon. In one case, an Emmy Award was taken and another two hundred thousand dollars worth of stuff. LAPD Assistant Chief Blake Chow says police and prosecutors are serious about jailing looters.
It's not enough that they have to worry about their properties and rebuilding and things like that, but now they would have to worry about criminals coming up there and taking advantage.
La County DA Nathan Hoffman also says charges were brought against a man accused of setting a fire and a parking zuza, that one is unrelated to the wildfires. Michael Monks KFI News.
Governor Newsom says he wants the state to provide another two and a half billion dollars in funding for fire response and recovery.
On Monday, Newsom signed a proclamation that expands the scope of the state legislature's current special session. The governor is requesting a billion dollars more go toward emergency response, clean up, and recovery, and he wants another one point five billion dollars in funding to prepare for the threats of firestorms and other natural disasters in the future.
Hey if i's Daniel Martin Dale says, according to Newsom, California is organizing a Marshall Plan to help La rebuild faster and stronger. A man from Altadena who won a huge lottery jackpot has lost one of his homes in the Palisades fire.
Edwin Castro won the largest lottery jackpot in history, taking home close to a billion dollars after taxes. Now, Castro went on a shopping spree, buying multimillion dollar homes in Altadena, Malibu, and the Hollywood Hills. Last week. Two of his homes were in evacuation zones, and the third in Malibu burned down in the fire that first started in the Palisades.
According to new satellite images reviewed by the La Times, that mansion, which was nearly four million dollars, was bought by Castro in September twenty twenty three because other two homes weren't evacuation zones, but those are still standing. Andrew Caravella KFI News.
The La County Department of Parks and Recreation is launching care camps to help families impacted by the fires. Care camps give kids something to do, enjoy music, arts and crafts, sports, as well as taking trips to the La Natural History Museum very cool place, the Librea tar Pits another very cool place, and of course Dodger Stadium one of my favorite places. The Department's also going to provide breakfast, snacks,
and lunch daily. The department is also seeking donations to support its care camps, which will run through the month of January. This is KFI and KOSTHD two Los Angeles, Orange County Southland. Weather from KFI. Those Santa Ana wins expected to blow again today.
They'll be the.
Strongest from now through tomorrow at noon with wind gus fifty five to seventy miles brour sunny sky is other than that ties around seventy at the beaches Metro La and Inland O c. Sixties to about seventy in the Valley's in Inland Empire, forties and fifties. In the Antelope Valley it's forty five and Dana point forty seven in Long Beach, fifty in Calabasas, forty nine in Garden Grove.
We lead local live from the KFI twenty four hour newsroom for producer Ann and technical producer KNO and traffic specialist Will.
I'm Amy King.
This has been your wake up call, and if you missed any wake up call, you can listen anytime on the iHeartRadio app.
You've been listening to Wake Up Call with me Amy King. You can always hear Wakeup Call five to six am Monday through Friday on KFI AM six forty, and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app