Speaker 1: This is Gary and Shannon and you're listening to KFI
Speaker 1: A M six forty, the Gary and Shannon Show on
Speaker 1: demand on the iHeartRadio app. Marla and Neil are here
Speaker 1: with you. Marla, tay Is, Neil Savedra.
Speaker 2: Good to be back. Nice to have you, Nice to
Speaker 2: see you.
Speaker 3: I wish it was under different circumstances in that I
Speaker 3: wish that we had a whole lot of better news
Speaker 3: to report, although we did get some good news nuggets
Speaker 3: out of the press that we just listened to.
Speaker 1: Slowly, things are getting better, of course, even today. Schools
Speaker 1: were opening. My son's been out for the past week,
Speaker 1: and I'm sure many others have. This is great news.
Speaker 1: The campuses are reopening, those located in severely impacted areas
Speaker 1: or not so. Canyon Charter Elementary School, Kenter Canyon Charter
Speaker 1: Elementary School, Palisades Charter, Marquez Charter to Panga Charter, Lenai
Speaker 1: Road Elementary School, and Paul Revere Middle School still closed.
Speaker 3: But the greater part of LAUSD, which they announced yesterday
Speaker 3: that is back open today on this Monday.
Speaker 4: So they were closed Thursday Friday.
Speaker 3: They waited throughout the weekend, of course, to make a decision,
Speaker 3: So most of those schools are back in play today,
Speaker 3: which is great news. And then what's really pretty remarkable
Speaker 3: is sad news. Of course, out of the Palisades fires,
Speaker 3: at the Palisades Charter Elementary that was completely destroyed, well,
Speaker 3: they found a second site to put those kids. So
Speaker 3: now those kids who lost their school, they are back
Speaker 3: in the classroom today in Brentwood at a magnet school there,
Speaker 3: so that school is now serving as essentially two schools.
Speaker 3: But to think about the fact that the logistics involved
Speaker 3: of having to get all that done in just a
Speaker 3: matter of days to move an entire school to another
Speaker 3: school campus, don't no.
Speaker 2: I'd go to Brentwood.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well it's like, yeah, okay, you make a good point.
Speaker 1: But for right now in LA to find a place
Speaker 1: where you're going, okay, this is safe.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 3: But the news that we just got out is most
Speaker 3: of the evacuations, the evacuation orders and.
Speaker 4: Warnings that were in place for Santa.
Speaker 3: Monica of course Brentwood adjacent, those have been downgraded, so
Speaker 3: there are no more evacuation orders.
Speaker 2: That is great news.
Speaker 3: And then in Brentwood, most of those have been downgraded
Speaker 3: as well, So things are looking so much better than.
Speaker 4: They were Friday.
Speaker 3: Saturday was precarious all over again, but then they really
Speaker 3: did stop the forward progress as those flames made their
Speaker 3: way into Brentwood and Meneville Canyon.
Speaker 1: I'm glad to hear these things that we see the
Speaker 1: changes day to day, sometimes hour to hour on the
Speaker 1: lifting of these evacuations. I don't want to see anybody hurt,
Speaker 1: and I don't want anybody into the stress of having
Speaker 1: to evacuate. Save for one situation, nothing funnier than seeing
Speaker 1: John Cobalt leave his house with a bearded dragon in tow.
Speaker 2: Two of them.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's now, that's a personal joy. But I'm glad
Speaker 1: everybody's say so far.
Speaker 4: Well.
Speaker 3: So, I was working at Fox eleven on Saturday providing
Speaker 3: the coverage and John came on the show.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I pushed it out as well, you did, Yeah,
Speaker 2: thank you, thank you.
Speaker 4: Yes.
Speaker 3: But one of the first things if you didn't hear it,
Speaker 3: it's on social of course, you can find it there.
Speaker 3: But for the folks who didn't get to hear it,
Speaker 3: one of the first things that he said was, you know,
Speaker 3: here I am going, You're essentially in an evacuation zone
Speaker 3: right now.
Speaker 4: What is that like? And he says, well, I had
Speaker 4: to get my two lizards out.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he said, they're now safe, so that was sort
Speaker 3: of top priority for him.
Speaker 1: They weren't even his originally there were his sons that
Speaker 1: they left them when they went off to.
Speaker 2: Call with get that backstory.
Speaker 3: But he's safe and his wife Deborah, which is great.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and this continues to shift all over the place.
Speaker 1: You know, even hearing the DA today come on and
Speaker 1: say listen, people are evacuating and then he paused and
Speaker 1: he's like.
Speaker 2: I'm one of them.
Speaker 1: You know, it's like, yeah, this is one of those
Speaker 1: things that takes me back. And as a journalist, you
Speaker 1: know this that oftentimes reporting on the news and the
Speaker 1: things at hand that are going on to other people.
Speaker 1: COVID and this are the two big situations where you're
Speaker 1: living and experiencing at the same time you're reporting on.
Speaker 3: It, Amen, and it's impacting everybody right in that. You know,
Speaker 3: our coverage on Fox eleven obviously same right here at
Speaker 3: KFI is people need the information right now. So typically
Speaker 3: you know, we we provide local news twenty four seven,
Speaker 3: three sixty five, right, but that's just you know, pocket
Speaker 3: news here and there that doesn't really affect me. This
Speaker 3: is impacting everybody. And of course if you're thinking, well,
Speaker 3: I'm in Orange County and I'm you know, it doesn't
Speaker 3: matter because people want to help too.
Speaker 2: Right, Buyers won't dare to go to Orange Country.
Speaker 3: Well, and that's the other thing, and I'll get a risk.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna get serious again because tomorrow is what we're
Speaker 3: worried about. So while we're able to report this relief
Speaker 3: and this reprieve right now, tomorrow, the National Weather Service
Speaker 3: is issuing another what they call a PDS.
Speaker 1: But this is you know, all the initials in the world, sure,
Speaker 1: politicians and professionals, but.
Speaker 2: This is big time.
Speaker 1: This is a serious, serious warning and one of the
Speaker 1: most more serious ones we've gotten during all of this.
Speaker 4: Yes, and this is the highest it goes.
Speaker 3: So PDS stands for a particularly dangerous situation. And they
Speaker 3: issued this last Tuesday when the fire broke out, and
Speaker 3: so we know what happened then. So another one is
Speaker 3: coming tomorrow. And they've only issued this two times prior
Speaker 3: in our area and Neil. Those two times were for
Speaker 3: the Mountain fire Inventory County where hundreds of structures were lost.
Speaker 3: That was in November, and then again for the Malibu fire,
Speaker 3: the frame than fire, structures lost there, and now here
Speaker 3: we go again. So this will be the I'm losing
Speaker 3: track third or fourth time, but they've all proven to
Speaker 3: be very detrimental.
Speaker 4: So we got to get through Tomorrow through Wednesday.
Speaker 1: Gus could range from forty five miles per hour to
Speaker 1: a whopping seventy miles per hour. Air is going to
Speaker 1: be very dry. This combination is that awe inspiring spectacle
Speaker 1: that we saw Tuesday night Wednesday. Wednesday was so insane.
Speaker 1: You know, you had trees at thirty degree angles in
Speaker 1: the wind or more.
Speaker 4: Those that didn't get ripped out from the roots.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: This is something interesting too, is that my wife and
Speaker 1: I have a place in a Big Bear and we
Speaker 1: went up there recently during the New Year to see
Speaker 1: what the fire damage was from the gosh, I don't
Speaker 1: even remember remember the name of the fire now, but
Speaker 1: it came back on the back side of the hill
Speaker 1: towards Running Spring. It's bizarre to see that trees still
Speaker 1: stand when burned. Oh yeah, often so. It's and I
Speaker 1: know there's a lot of talk about that because people
Speaker 1: are going, well, all these houses burned, but trees around
Speaker 1: them maybe didn't. It's a bizarre thing to see trees
Speaker 1: that are burned just still.
Speaker 4: Standing the skeleton, if you will, of the charge.
Speaker 1: You think they just turned to ash. And it's not
Speaker 1: the same way as a home back. This no longer
Speaker 1: living wood that just turns to ash instantaneously. But it
Speaker 1: was really bizarre to see hills spotted with trees still
Speaker 1: standing but completely torched.
Speaker 4: Well, I saw that up in the Bay Area.
Speaker 3: The other deadly fire, of course, one of the most
Speaker 3: deadly in California history was the Tubs fire up in
Speaker 3: Santa Rosa. And this personal for me because some of
Speaker 3: our friends lost their homes.
Speaker 4: This is where I'm from. My mom lives there.
Speaker 3: But still now they're still building a lot of those
Speaker 3: areas are still rebuilding.
Speaker 4: But I've seen you know exactly what you're and I'm.
Speaker 3: Sure a lot of our listeners have as well, just
Speaker 3: those charred remains of the trees that are still standing.
Speaker 4: One quick note about the PDS. It does start tomorrow.
Speaker 3: The particularly dangerous situation the winds, as Neil pointed out,
Speaker 3: forty five to seventy miles per hour, but last week
Speaker 3: they exceeded eighty miles per hour, so it's not going
Speaker 3: to be as bad, but I mean, don't get me wrong,
Speaker 3: fifty mile per hour winds dangerous.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and they moved that fire along handily.
Speaker 1: Oh god, which is what we were seeing experiencing.
Speaker 2: All right.
Speaker 3: If you were joining the Bill Handle show, you know
Speaker 3: that just wrapped was a presser. Each day there's been
Speaker 3: a presser with all of the local dignitaries to update
Speaker 3: us on the horrific fires that overcome our area.
Speaker 4: And I just want to point out a couple of
Speaker 4: the good.
Speaker 3: News nuggets because I think that's important because we've been
Speaker 3: inundated with such bad news what we learned. There has
Speaker 3: been some more containment overnight, you know, bit by bit
Speaker 3: it's getting contained. So the I'll start with the Eating fire.
Speaker 3: I haven't talked about that one, of course, that's the
Speaker 3: second largest one that's burning in Altadena Pasadena. That one
Speaker 3: is just over fourteen thousand acres and thirty three percent contained,
Speaker 3: so that earlier it was I believe in the seventeen
Speaker 3: percent area. So they have grown.
Speaker 2: It's a nice jump.
Speaker 3: It is a good jump. Palisades not as big of
Speaker 3: a jump. It was eleven percent contained. Now that's fourteen
Speaker 3: percent contained. Almost twenty four thousand acres burned there good
Speaker 3: news the super Scoopy, I dare you leave that? I'll
Speaker 3: leave that to you. It was hit by a drone.
Speaker 3: I believe it was last Thursday, and that Superscooper has
Speaker 3: been grounded. Ever since, it's been fixed and today the
Speaker 3: La County Fire chief said it will be up in
Speaker 3: the air again tomorrow.
Speaker 2: So these we only have two of them.
Speaker 3: They carry more than fifteen hundred gallons of water where
Speaker 3: they can just go and they can go into the Pacific,
Speaker 3: for instance, and.
Speaker 4: Load up and then you know, blast the water.
Speaker 2: It's amazing. Have you watched them, Yes, in the ocean,
Speaker 2: it's awesome. You know, we.
Speaker 1: Kind of lease them from Quebec. You know what their
Speaker 1: names are. It's very great marketing.
Speaker 2: I should know. I don't know Quebec one in Quebec two.
Speaker 2: It's like, okay, well I guess that makes it.
Speaker 4: Well that's my favorite.
Speaker 2: Is the VLAT.
Speaker 4: Do you know?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 3: So the v LAT those were out and about flying,
Speaker 3: thank goodness on Saturday, huge huge aircraft and they're known
Speaker 3: as a VLAT stands for a very large air tanker.
Speaker 2: Oh wow, legitimately, I mean that's legit.
Speaker 1: See I like that better than like vortex this and
Speaker 1: all these you know.
Speaker 2: Right, fancy, it's like just be literal.
Speaker 4: And they are very large air tanker.
Speaker 3: So so as if tomorrow we'll have both super Scoopers
Speaker 3: back in the air, which is key because again the
Speaker 3: winds are expected to really pick up tomorrow. So that
Speaker 3: is great news as it relates to help, and so
Speaker 3: many of you need help and asking about Hey, I've
Speaker 3: been you know, living at a hotel for the last week.
Speaker 3: Am I going to get reimbursed for this? What about
Speaker 3: my food? You know, all of the expenses that come
Speaker 3: with losing your home, being evacuated, et cetera. That was
Speaker 3: asked of the officials yesterday and it was basically, well,
Speaker 3: for reimbursement, you're going to have to.
Speaker 4: Go through FEMA. They'll help you in that.
Speaker 3: Well, there will be two Catherine Barger Elle County Board
Speaker 3: Chair of Supervisors. She announced today there are two FEMA
Speaker 3: Disaster Resources centers will open tomorrow locally, ones at UCLA
Speaker 3: and one is at the Pasadena Community College. So at
Speaker 3: least those resources are there now. And this is all
Speaker 3: you know, if this is all too much to take in,
Speaker 3: there is a website, and that website is Recovery dot
Speaker 3: La County dot gov for all of this information.
Speaker 1: That's the same website that has that housing map correct
Speaker 1: where you can look and.
Speaker 4: See if your home has been.
Speaker 2: Have you gone through that? I has it is?
Speaker 1: I know we are using these words over and over
Speaker 1: because there aren't any other words.
Speaker 2: I'm proud of, no heartbreaking. Just have to look.
Speaker 1: Imagine going through a map to see whether your house
Speaker 1: is standing or not.
Speaker 2: Well.
Speaker 3: The chief address that today too, because obviously people have
Speaker 3: gone on there to see and some of their addresses
Speaker 3: haven't are there, not there? And he said, if your
Speaker 3: address isn't there, we haven't been able to get to
Speaker 3: your homework.
Speaker 2: Verify it one way there right.
Speaker 3: I mean the task of doing so, because again, if
Speaker 3: you've been out there to Palisades, Alta Dina and you
Speaker 3: just see it, does you've heard this a lot.
Speaker 4: It does look like a war zone.
Speaker 2: I will tell you something.
Speaker 1: Mentioning Supervisor Catherine Barger, she comforts me, I think the
Speaker 1: part of a politician or a face of a city
Speaker 1: of any kind is to put you at peace, to
Speaker 1: make me feel like somebody's doing something.
Speaker 2: And God, I like her in this situation.
Speaker 1: I know it's a crap situation for anybody to be in,
Speaker 1: but she strikes me, and I know bass is taking
Speaker 1: it on the chin in every direction. But the man
Speaker 1: she strikes me is more in charge of more mayoral
Speaker 1: than our own mayor.
Speaker 3: Because she talks to you like a person. Yeah, and
Speaker 3: she doesn't make excuses.
Speaker 1: No, And it doesn't seem like she's worried about herself.
Speaker 2: Well, no, she's not.
Speaker 3: She admits when there's an error she had and she says, look,
Speaker 3: I know that is terrible. We messed up. We don't
Speaker 3: know the answer. The even admitting we don't know is comforting.
Speaker 3: It's comforting because, okay, because you know, when her mouth
Speaker 3: is open, she's telling you the stuff she does know, right.
Speaker 3: I mean that she was out front on the La
Speaker 3: County false alerts that were going out, absolutely and most
Speaker 3: everyone was you know, it's you know, kind of danced
Speaker 3: around it. And she said, this is terrible. We don't
Speaker 3: know what's going on, you know. And then and she
Speaker 3: said I have to learn why this is happening. And
Speaker 3: you know, she came back and then said, we are
Speaker 3: working on it.
Speaker 4: This is unacceptable.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 4: She calls a Spade of Spade.
Speaker 1: There's something about that that that does comfort me. So
Speaker 1: when she speaks. You were kind enough to help us
Speaker 1: out get her on Saturday with me when I was
Speaker 1: doing coverage, and.
Speaker 2: I just like her and I trust her, and I'm like,
Speaker 2: thank God.
Speaker 3: Well, that's one of the things that officials are dealing
Speaker 3: with right now is distrust.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and she's not tap dancing, right, and that's all
Speaker 1: I need.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Just I don't be a straight shooter.
Speaker 2: No one has all the answers be a straight shooter.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so I don't expect you to have all the answers.
Speaker 1: But you know, it's been very comforting. So my hat's
Speaker 1: off to supervisor Catherine Barker, who to me, has been,
Speaker 1: unfortunately in an ugly situation, a rising star of strength.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean for us here in Los Angeles.
Speaker 3: Her district is the fifth district, which is alsadin O Pasadena.
Speaker 3: So she's been out front there, you know, trying to
Speaker 3: get answers for her constituents, and she means business.
Speaker 1: She strikes me as someone that would be bothered if
Speaker 1: somebody wanted a photo op, like like, don't I'm doing something.
Speaker 1: I'm working that So you know, God bless her and
Speaker 1: the work she's doing because she has been a point
Speaker 1: person to me that makes me feel secure when she
Speaker 1: tells when she says something, it's not trying to steal
Speaker 1: this spotlish, but she's trying to get in front of
Speaker 1: that mic and out of that mic.
Speaker 2: In the second she's done talking. I'm glad.
Speaker 4: I'm glad you got her on on Saturday.
Speaker 1: She was very kind to take the time. We have
Speaker 1: a large audience and for her to take the time
Speaker 1: to make sure that they're hearing strength coming out of
Speaker 1: counting offices and the like is important. So what's your
Speaker 1: schedule today?
Speaker 3: Well, if we are not in continuous coverage five to
Speaker 3: seven and ten to eleven thirty tonight, but all of
Speaker 3: last week, since the fire broke out almost a week
Speaker 3: ago Tuesday ten thirty am, we've been basically commercial free
Speaker 3: around the clock.
Speaker 2: It's a different animal.
Speaker 1: I don't which people which part that when you're doing
Speaker 1: that kind of coverage and there's commercial and it's commercial free,
Speaker 1: it changes everything.
Speaker 3: Well, it's a whole lot of teamwork involved, right because
Speaker 3: you are tied to the desk in a good way
Speaker 3: in that you are providing valuable information and hopefully life
Speaker 3: saving information to everybody. But yes, you don't people ask,
Speaker 3: you know, how do you go to the bathroom?
Speaker 4: What do you eat?
Speaker 3: Because Elex and I were there from ten to twelve
Speaker 3: hours straight.
Speaker 1: And so you Elex is eight feet tall. He could
Speaker 1: literally be in the bathroom and on the.
Speaker 3: Air at the same time. Yeah, yeah, just turn the
Speaker 3: mic off. Yeah, you just got to switch out. You know,
Speaker 3: I'm going to go right now. You handle it. Again,
Speaker 3: This is not for sympathy. This is no zero what
Speaker 3: we're dealing with, zero what most people are dealing with
Speaker 3: out there. So but yeah, it's a it's just a
Speaker 3: great privilege though that we are able to do this
Speaker 3: and honor in that this is such vital information for
Speaker 3: people at such a crisis time.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but I I feel the same way, yes, And.
Speaker 3: The time goes by so quickly because what when we're
Speaker 3: in it for you and seeing it happened live, you know,
Speaker 3: this is all it's so fluid, and it's so many unknowns,
Speaker 3: so much devastation, and our viewers are reaching out to
Speaker 3: us with great information. We're trying to, you know, put
Speaker 3: it all together. It's just it's an amazing thing that
Speaker 3: happens and.
Speaker 2: The questions and everything else.
Speaker 1: And one of the ones that I've been seeing quite
Speaker 1: a bit that's come over and over is about the
Speaker 1: safety of water. So you have two different water entities
Speaker 1: dealing with the fire areas. So you have Pasadena Water
Speaker 1: and Power in the Altadena Pasadena area and then you
Speaker 1: have LADWP there in the Pacific Palisades area. So if
Speaker 1: you are in these zip codes, the zip codes that
Speaker 1: they are giving currently with LADWP are any of the
Speaker 1: zip codes in the nine zero two seven to two
Speaker 1: community and adjacent communities. Keeping in mind, you know, you
Speaker 1: need to look into this and find out if you're
Speaker 1: in these areas because they keep changing and it's interesting
Speaker 1: how they're building these maps. But what we can tell
Speaker 1: you that if you are in these areas, you're in
Speaker 1: the surrounding areas, you know you are wrestling with the
Speaker 1: same air conditioning, air quality, and all of these things
Speaker 1: as well. They don't want you drinking the tap water.
Speaker 1: Find out in your local area. DWP established two bottled
Speaker 1: water distribution locations, Westwood Recreation Recreation Center on Supulvita Boulevard
Speaker 1: and then adjacent to the Brentwood Country Club there on
Speaker 1: Gretna Green way is where you can go for bottled
Speaker 1: water service. There's also because of the chemicals and the
Speaker 1: like that gets into the water that hot showers, long
Speaker 1: hot showers, even using you know, hot tub. Don't know
Speaker 1: why you'd necessarily be doing that or polls can be
Speaker 1: problematic and the hot of the water the worst it
Speaker 1: can be for you. And so they don't want you
Speaker 1: to take long showers things like that. They don't want
Speaker 1: you to try and purify the water yourself by boiling it.
Speaker 2: This is beyond that.
Speaker 1: And if you're in those areas, take heed because you're
Speaker 1: talking about water that's been poisoned essentially.
Speaker 3: I mean, they literally say, don't take a hot bath,
Speaker 3: do not do it.
Speaker 1: No cooking, even you know, with cooking, I know a
Speaker 1: lot of people think, well, once you heat things up,
Speaker 1: it's getting rid of stuff, and that is true with bacteria,
Speaker 1: but other chemicals and the like sometimes can become like
Speaker 1: I said, more problematic when they are hot. And this
Speaker 1: means ice and stuff too, because your ice on your
Speaker 1: refrigerator and freezer is coming either you are manually putting
Speaker 1: it into the ice trays or it's coming through a
Speaker 1: water line to the back of your refrigerator to make
Speaker 1: ice inside. Both are problems.
Speaker 3: You mentioned the two bottled water distribution location set up
Speaker 3: by LADWP again the Westwood Rec Center, which by the way,
Speaker 3: is also an evacuation center.
Speaker 4: That's where a lot of people have gone.
Speaker 3: And then the right next to the Brentwood Country Club
Speaker 3: on Gretna Greenway, the City of Pasadena opened a bottled
Speaker 3: water distribution center Saturday. That one is on Lake Avenue
Speaker 3: and that one's open from eight to five as well.
Speaker 3: And then you think about LADWP and all of the
Speaker 3: power outages that they've been dealing with, thousands of people
Speaker 3: without power. That was one of the interesting things when
Speaker 3: I was on the air live on Saturday. First of all,
Speaker 3: it was such a sight to see site for sore
Speaker 3: eyes if you will, to see that just darkness because
Speaker 3: when pardon me, when Skyfox, our helicopter was over the
Speaker 3: Palisades Fire at one point before we see off at
Speaker 3: eleven thirty that night, it was pitch black down below,
Speaker 3: and that was wonderful because there's no flames, yeah, you know,
Speaker 3: Oh my goodness. And then on the other side of
Speaker 3: the coin is a lot of these areas were blacked
Speaker 3: out where there weren't flames because there's no power, and
Speaker 3: so LADWP has been doing what they can to restore
Speaker 3: power and to do it as quickly as possible.
Speaker 1: Today, we're letting you know that most schools in the
Speaker 1: la USD are back in service opened to teach the children.
Speaker 1: We talked a little bit about the safety of water,
Speaker 1: and the big story is that another red flag fire
Speaker 1: weather warning came from the National Weather Service swaths of
Speaker 1: areas in Los Angeles finter counties before the dawn tomorrow,
Speaker 1: and the concerns of forty five mile per hour to
Speaker 1: seventy mile per hour wind gusts in very dry areas
Speaker 1: will cause another concern as we go into this.
Speaker 3: Week, another dangerous situation coming our way. Unfortunately. Well, if
Speaker 3: you've been watching our coverage on Fox eleven, then you
Speaker 3: are very, very familiar with him.
Speaker 4: His name is Matthew Seedorf.
Speaker 3: He's one of our outstanding reporters in the field, and
Speaker 3: he has been all over the Palisades fire and the
Speaker 3: Eaten fire. So I've asked him to join us so
Speaker 3: that he can talk about his experience.
Speaker 4: Matthew Seedorf, welcome.
Speaker 5: Good morning. Yeah, thank you guys for having me.
Speaker 3: I know we actually gave you a day off, so
Speaker 3: I appreciate you jumping on the air with us here
Speaker 3: at KFI. Matthew, what has it been like to be
Speaker 3: out there, because you've literally fought tried to help people
Speaker 3: save their own homes yourself, because at one point there
Speaker 3: was no firefighters around last week when the Palisades fire
Speaker 3: broke out.
Speaker 2: Talk to us about your experience.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's unbelievable, and it's training and just what you're
Speaker 5: talking about. I mean, we understand everyone loves their firefighters, right,
Speaker 5: And we were out there and going to the scene
Speaker 5: when we first originally saw the smoke in the Palisades,
Speaker 5: and it was so gridlocked, traffic was so bad, and
Speaker 5: we saw emergency vehicles driving on the wrong side of
Speaker 5: the road to get up there. And we finally got
Speaker 5: up there and we saw homes burning. But I mean,
Speaker 5: we were up there for an hour and a half
Speaker 5: before we saw a firefighter. So while we were working
Speaker 5: with Fox eleven trying to do live shots and battling
Speaker 5: the cell reception we called in the nine one one
Speaker 5: couldn't get through. So my photojournal is Sam Dubin and
Speaker 5: I were driving around looking for garden hoses outside homes
Speaker 5: where we saw fires up in trees very close to
Speaker 5: homes or even on homes and just turning on those
Speaker 5: hoses and trying to put out the flames because we
Speaker 5: could we could sense the urgency. We knew it was
Speaker 5: getting bad, the winds were picking up, but again, we
Speaker 5: didn't see any firefighters in sight. We saw We did
Speaker 5: speak with one resident who was evacuating and he was like,
Speaker 5: where's the help, where are the firefighters, And we're just like, well,
Speaker 5: we don't know. And like I said, we understand that
Speaker 5: they were extremely overwhelmed, but this is pretty early on
Speaker 5: in the fire and they were probably trying to take
Speaker 5: out you know, where this started. But that's what residents
Speaker 5: were feeling at the time, and we were trying our
Speaker 5: best to help, but it was just it was probably
Speaker 5: too little, too late.
Speaker 1: Honestly, you're hearing the voice of Mats Matt a seed
Speaker 1: Draft from Fox eleven reporter there, Matt, it's one thing
Speaker 1: to be overtaxed with firefighters. We get that they're pulled
Speaker 1: in two directions and you know how what it's like
Speaker 1: to even get five miles in la across town. But
Speaker 1: did you see any traffic control any La PD or
Speaker 1: the like out there helping guide people at all through
Speaker 1: stop lights that maybe weren't working or any of that.
Speaker 5: No, absolutely not, and this is pretty early on. It
Speaker 5: was absolutely chaos. Around around noon or so on Tuesday,
Speaker 5: while people were evacuating, you could sense that people were
Speaker 5: getting frustrated. There was people honking, and the police and
Speaker 5: emergency vehicles that we did see a lot of them
Speaker 5: were driving on the wrong side of the road. But
Speaker 5: then also people evacuating or trying to get to their
Speaker 5: homes to evacuate, were also driving on the wrong side
Speaker 5: of the road. So it was complete gridlock. I mean,
Speaker 5: if there's six lanes, including the opposite end of travel,
Speaker 5: five and a half of those lanes were being used
Speaker 5: by people trying to get out. So it was a
Speaker 5: really bad situation because you have half a lane, so
Speaker 5: to speak, to try to get up to the fire
Speaker 5: like we were able to do, but you can imagine
Speaker 5: what a fire truck might have been going through to
Speaker 5: try to get up there right well.
Speaker 3: And that's when we saw those pictures too, of all
Speaker 3: of those abandoned vehicles, which we learned we heard from
Speaker 3: people we had them on our air who they were
Speaker 3: trying to evacuate in the gridlock, and then the flames
Speaker 3: were coming again. Folks, if you're just joining us, you
Speaker 3: are listening to Matthew Sedorf, one of our reporters at
Speaker 3: Fox eleven, and we're hearkening back to really day one
Speaker 3: of the Palisades Fire, when all of those vehicles were
Speaker 3: abandoned because the flames were getting too close and they
Speaker 3: literally had to get out of their car and run
Speaker 3: for their lives. Matthew, Tomorrow, we're in a red flag
Speaker 3: warning right now, but tomorrow.
Speaker 4: It's expected to be even worse.
Speaker 3: The National Weather Service issuing what they call a PDS
Speaker 3: stands for particularly dangerous situation. This is the highest warning
Speaker 3: that they have. That means that the winds are expected
Speaker 3: to pick up like they did last week, not as strong. Nonetheless,
Speaker 3: I'm bringing this up because you literally, in the height
Speaker 3: of the Palisades Fire, you were standing within wind gus
Speaker 3: of fifty miles per hour embers everywhere. Talk to us
Speaker 3: about how that feels, because a lot of times I
Speaker 3: think people will say, oh, you know, it's strong winds,
Speaker 3: but you know, you know what it feels like.
Speaker 4: To be in that.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean it's just hot ash and coal embers
Speaker 5: flying in the air, and I mean essentially, you're standing
Speaker 5: in what would be a tropical storm or a hurricane
Speaker 5: and you have instead of rain, you have hot embers
Speaker 5: flying at you, and it stings like you're getting stung
Speaker 5: or bit by something. Every time you get hit and
Speaker 5: there's dust flying in the air, it gets in your eyes,
Speaker 5: even with goggles on, ors getting in our eyes. It's
Speaker 5: not a fun situation to be in. It's definitely dangerous,
Speaker 5: and you know, we try to do it as safely
Speaker 5: as possible. But I mean, you just got to think
Speaker 5: about all the firefighters and first responders that are driving
Speaker 5: to that too to try to help, and how dangerous
Speaker 5: it is for everyone. But yeah, it is. It doesn't
Speaker 5: feel good and the only thing I can compare it
Speaker 5: to is a hurricane, but instead of rains, it's embers
Speaker 5: and it hurts.
Speaker 1: That, of course, is Matt Seedorf with fire even thanks
Speaker 1: so much out there reporting and you're doing a great thing.
Speaker 1: It's so important for us to be able to get
Speaker 1: this information, and we appreciate you taking the time to
Speaker 1: come on and give that first person perspective.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much, Thank you so much.
Speaker 5: Thinking about the community and the first responders and firefighters
Speaker 5: still out there doing their thing. Appreciate it.
Speaker 2: Amen.
Speaker 1: Neil Sevadra with Marlataeaz today filling in for Gary and Shannon.
Speaker 1: We'll be back with more and of course we're taking
Speaker 1: it to one o'clock where we'll hand it over to
Speaker 1: John Cobalt. So go know where this is KFI heard
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Speaker 1: Gary and Shannon Show, you can always hear us live
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