Speaker 1: This is Gary and Shannon and you're listening to KFI
Speaker 1: AM six forty the Gary and Shannon Show on demand
Speaker 1: on the iHeartRadio app with all the coverage of this
Speaker 1: fire that has exploded this morning in the Pacific Palisades,
Speaker 1: quickly taking off down the hills there as it makes
Speaker 1: its way, particularly on the west side of Timescal Canyon there,
Speaker 1: into the neighborhoods we mentioned most recently. Because the winds
Speaker 1: are coming down the mountain from the north and from
Speaker 1: over the east, it pushed this thing to the west
Speaker 1: into the borderline of the Summit area, which backs up
Speaker 1: right there to Palisades Drive, which has said to be
Speaker 1: overrun all four lanes with cars trying to get down
Speaker 1: as fire crews try to get up.
Speaker 2: Getting word that some people are starting to walk out
Speaker 2: because of the evacuation problems that they're having with people
Speaker 2: cars that are jamming the roads getting out of it.
Speaker 2: A couple people that we have heard from have said
Speaker 2: as much, and we're hearing radio traffic as well that
Speaker 2: even dispatchers realize that there are problems getting people out
Speaker 2: of the areas that need to be gotten out of.
Speaker 3: I don't know what you do at that point.
Speaker 4: Yeah, this is some more bad news for you.
Speaker 1: Reports now that the fire has spotted across Palisades Drive
Speaker 1: and is on both sides of the road, which puts
Speaker 1: it if you're looking at a map here on.
Speaker 4: The Getty Villa side right of Palisades Drive.
Speaker 2: Now that is this in terms of the sheer number
Speaker 2: of homes. That's probably the smaller pocket right right there
Speaker 2: before it goes before you hit Topanga and then it
Speaker 2: kind of gets wild landy before you make.
Speaker 3: Your way over towards Big Rock and in the Malibu area.
Speaker 2: But this does not mean that it's less dangerous, because
Speaker 2: that just means it's spreading as it reaches out into
Speaker 2: the into the flatlands there. We have been following all
Speaker 2: of the coverage of it as well, and I mean
Speaker 2: you could see there's there's a picture right there from
Speaker 2: Channel five of the traffic as it exists there people
Speaker 2: getting out of pch and then fire trucks that are
Speaker 2: stuck in that same traffic, and of course that dark
Speaker 2: cloud of smoke that comes over them brings with it
Speaker 2: sort of that I'm sure probably fear inducing panic.
Speaker 4: So here's where we're at.
Speaker 1: It quickly went from ten acres and just balloon to
Speaker 1: two hundred like that. They knew it would because of
Speaker 1: the twenty to six excuse me, forty to sixty mile
Speaker 1: per hour winds gus even more as we can imagine
Speaker 1: and predict with fires like this wind driven down the
Speaker 1: mountains with those mountain wave winds behind it, Several spot
Speaker 1: fires have erupted in multiple neighborhoods. This was an area
Speaker 1: where strike crews were deployed. This was considered to be
Speaker 1: one of the high intensity when it came to high
Speaker 1: fire risk areas that they knew that anything that exploded
Speaker 1: in this area would take off. Unfortunately, they just didn't
Speaker 1: know when. And the speed of this thing means that
Speaker 1: people didn't have time to preemptively leave if they were
Speaker 1: going to anyway, which is why you're seeing the gridlock
Speaker 1: everywhere there.
Speaker 4: But anyway, they have.
Speaker 1: Got at least four or had had four firefighting aircraft
Speaker 1: in the sky, including those two Super Scoopers. Now, the
Speaker 1: Super Scoopers are unique and that they can fly in
Speaker 1: winds of forty five miles per hour per hour. They
Speaker 1: can scoop up water in headwinds of forty five miles
Speaker 1: per hour, which is one of the reasons why they
Speaker 1: are so key. The pilots which are also on loan,
Speaker 1: the equipment crews who know how to take care of
Speaker 1: these babies, they can approach. They can approach their approach,
Speaker 1: I should say, based on different wind speeds. They have
Speaker 1: different protocols for different wind speeds on how to approach
Speaker 1: the water pickups as well as the water drops. They
Speaker 1: are very skilled at that when it comes to the
Speaker 1: technicality of that kind of maneuver. So they are able
Speaker 1: to reach these fire locations quickly, repeatedly drop water on
Speaker 1: flames in wind. So lucky that we have those. I
Speaker 1: can't believe they were still on lease in January. Usually
Speaker 1: fire season is over. They say it's year round, but
Speaker 1: rarely do we have these things explode in January.
Speaker 2: We are watching, like you said, a handful of air traffic,
Speaker 2: a bunch of different spotter planes that have now come
Speaker 2: in and are circling around this thing. The last number
Speaker 2: that we had was two hundred plus acres. It is
Speaker 2: going to be whatever the number is next is going
Speaker 2: to be much much larger than that, based on the
Speaker 2: speed with which this thing has been able to expand
Speaker 2: there has been video that we've.
Speaker 3: Also seen of homes that are on fire. So this is.
Speaker 2: A situation now that is getting I mean exponentially more dangerous,
Speaker 2: not just for the people who are trying to get out,
Speaker 2: but for the fire crews. A couple of different TV
Speaker 2: stations have reporters up in those neighborhoods and they are
Speaker 2: watching law enforcement and firefighters going into homes, ushering people
Speaker 2: out door to door, literally yelling for people to get
Speaker 2: out of the neighborhood.
Speaker 1: LA Fire Department, LA County Fire Department, the finest departments
Speaker 1: you will find when it comes to firefighting in this country,
Speaker 1: possibly the world. They are very good at this, and
Speaker 1: they're describing this situation as dire. They're saying that this
Speaker 1: is the ferocity of a blowtorch. Again, a dire situation.
Speaker 1: They said this morning it was going to be life threatening.
Speaker 1: They said it was going to be destructive when it
Speaker 1: came to this wind event, and they were not kidding.
Speaker 3: There are homes that are on fire.
Speaker 2: The entire Pacific Palisades area has been ordered evacuated, and
Speaker 2: that means that everybody is trying to get out of
Speaker 2: there at the same time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Palisades Drive is gridlocked. They're using all four lanes
Speaker 1: told to are not told to to get the hell
Speaker 1: down while fire crews are trying to use that only
Speaker 1: and only.
Speaker 4: Major artery to get up.
Speaker 1: Right now, radio traffic indicates that the traffic there on
Speaker 1: Palisades Drive is gridlocked. Cars are being abandoned by people,
Speaker 1: which is making things harder for fire engines as you
Speaker 1: can imagine, to get up that road. So firefighters right
Speaker 1: now are requesting that people at the top of Palisades
Speaker 1: Drive shelter in place at this time, don't try to
Speaker 1: come down.
Speaker 2: Well, I mean, the one thing they would have is
Speaker 2: that the fire doesn't appear to be moving that direction.
Speaker 2: I mean it has jumped over as you get farther south,
Speaker 2: farther closer to the water, I should say, and it
Speaker 2: is on the side of Palisades Drive that would be
Speaker 2: the Getty Villa area, and as you make your way
Speaker 2: over towards Topega Canyon Boulevard or Topenga Canyon Highway twenty
Speaker 2: seven there. But that's not a that doesn't make anybody
Speaker 2: feel calm. I wouldn't expect two hundred plus acres was
Speaker 2: the last time we saw a number associated with this,
Speaker 2: But we know it's going to be bigger than that
Speaker 2: once they get in more information. There's a couple pictures
Speaker 2: of all of the different agencies that have reacted to this.
Speaker 2: I've seen LA County and LA City firefighting aircraft that
Speaker 2: are in the air. They've got a couple of different
Speaker 2: tankers with their lead spotter planes that are coming through,
Speaker 2: just doing their circles all around. So you could imagine
Speaker 2: it is a very busy time in those skies above
Speaker 2: this fire trying to do what they can. That's at
Speaker 2: least four helicopters that I see now, and then a
Speaker 2: couple of other tankers that continued to circle through.
Speaker 1: Again. The winds are volatile, so there are a number
Speaker 1: of aircraft that will not fare well in situations like this.
Speaker 4: At this point, there is going to be.
Speaker 1: A lull, we're told by meteorologists in the afternoon, at
Speaker 1: some point where maybe you can get on top of
Speaker 1: this thing from the sky a little bit more. Take
Speaker 1: advantage of that break, because the strong winds and the
Speaker 1: strong wind gusts will make a return this evening. Now,
Speaker 1: if you're on PCH hoping to get by this thing
Speaker 1: before it hits PCH, you're so well traffic on PCH
Speaker 1: toward the Palisades is a mess. You're not going anywhere,
Speaker 1: so your plans need to be aborted.
Speaker 4: At this point. I'm looking at live pictures and there's
Speaker 4: just no.
Speaker 1: Way that you're going to get in that direction. I
Speaker 1: don't know if these are people trying to get to
Speaker 1: their homes to get things out, or people trying to
Speaker 1: get through this area on pch because it is shut
Speaker 1: down as well.
Speaker 4: It's a Pega Canyon southbound.
Speaker 3: Yeah to Panga A. Mulholland is where pH is close.
Speaker 2: We talked with Quentin Fleming from the Pacific Palisades Community
Speaker 2: Council a little bit earlier and we discussed that one
Speaker 2: way in, one way out, especially if you're up at
Speaker 2: the top of the hill there in the Palisades, that
Speaker 2: that Palisades Drive was really the only access to get
Speaker 2: in and out of that place. Like you said, that's
Speaker 2: one of the reasons they have suggested it if you
Speaker 2: are up at the top of that hill, that you
Speaker 2: shelter in place, because they need to get the fire
Speaker 2: equipment in there to help fight that fire.
Speaker 3: Much farther, I.
Speaker 2: Shouldn't say much, but a couple of miles to the
Speaker 2: west of that is where we saw that fire last
Speaker 2: month that burned up towards Malibu, down towards Malibu, I
Speaker 2: should say, and it is echoing a lot of what
Speaker 2: we saw then today, but today's exploded in size. We
Speaker 2: were on edge in that Malibu fire. We were waiting
Speaker 2: for it to grow and grow exponentially, but it did not.
Speaker 3: This one is.
Speaker 2: This one is taking advantage of the incredible wind speeds
Speaker 2: that we saw, like you said, up to sixty mile
Speaker 2: an hour gusts, if not more than that, specifically in
Speaker 2: this area and again the entire area of Pacific Palisades.
Speaker 2: They want you out of there so that they can
Speaker 2: go in and fight this fire and try to protect
Speaker 2: your homes.
Speaker 1: Unfortunately, pictures of homes on fire. As you mentioned, We
Speaker 1: also talked about how the President's trip to the Inland
Speaker 1: Empire to declare some national monuments has been canceled. One
Speaker 1: of the reasons is that it would have created problems
Speaker 1: in airspace. Him coming on Air Force one to the
Speaker 1: Inland Empire would definitely shut down and some airspace over
Speaker 1: much needed airspace, as you can imagine around southern California
Speaker 1: with this beast that is just eating up the Palisades.
Speaker 2: Now, one of the things that we mentioned this morning
Speaker 2: when we were talking about what was going to happen
Speaker 2: for the rest of the day and for the next
Speaker 2: couple of days. As a matter of fact, because of
Speaker 2: the red flag fire danger, CalFire did deploy a few
Speaker 2: dozen fire engines and six hand crews from northern California
Speaker 2: to come down here to Southern California, La Orange, Riverside,
Speaker 2: San Bernardino, San Diego, Samuis Obispo, and Ventura County. So
Speaker 2: the local units were going to be We're staffing extra engines,
Speaker 2: extra hand crews, bulldozers, water tenders were all ready at
Speaker 2: the ready. But this is not This is beyond what
Speaker 2: we have seen in terms of fire behavior in many
Speaker 2: instances before. So that's one of the reasons why we've
Speaker 2: seen such an incredible response. And then there's one of
Speaker 2: the images that we see so many times in southern
Speaker 2: California where the palm tree is catching on fire.
Speaker 1: And those palm trees, once they get to the fronds,
Speaker 1: those things take off and they travel. I mean, you
Speaker 1: don't need that palm tree to spread this thing in
Speaker 1: terms of spotfires because of the wind, it'll carry those
Speaker 1: those flames alone. But it doesn't make matters any better.
Speaker 1: And look at that. Look at that live area of
Speaker 1: just gridlock. I mean it's like trying to get out
Speaker 1: of a stadium after a concert or a sports event.
Speaker 1: You're not moving because there are just so many people
Speaker 1: and nowhere to go. And you wonder if they've got
Speaker 1: the traffic lights configured correctly, you know, or people are
Speaker 1: even paying attention to traffic lights at this point to
Speaker 1: get out of there. But look at the chaos and
Speaker 1: people just to well just be kind of one another.
Speaker 1: You've got civilians out there directing traffic at this point.
Speaker 2: It looks like that guy's car is stalled, and that's
Speaker 2: probably what's causing the problem right now.
Speaker 3: No, I mean that's moving.
Speaker 1: Yeah. No, these are people that have gotten out of
Speaker 1: their cars to try and get people to go different
Speaker 1: directions or to actually just plate traffic monitor there to
Speaker 1: try and get these cars through. Oh, that guy's car
Speaker 1: is stalled. Yeah wow, look at that. Look at this,
Speaker 1: This guy's car is stalled. What of time to have
Speaker 1: your car stall?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 1: Four people get out of their cars to push them down.
Speaker 1: That's nice to see, yeah, and hopefully free up at
Speaker 1: least some of the problems.
Speaker 2: So again it looks like traffic is gridlocked in different
Speaker 2: areas trying to get out of Pacific Palisades.
Speaker 1: And it looks like just like every other fire where
Speaker 1: there's no visibility, it's just all gray, just like it
Speaker 1: looks like.
Speaker 4: A war zone. It is like a bunch of bombs
Speaker 4: have dropped.
Speaker 2: And again there are homes that have burned. We haven't
Speaker 2: seen what sort of plans LA City Fire or County Fire,
Speaker 2: whoever's going to take the charge of the lead on
Speaker 2: this would be giving updates on any of it.
Speaker 3: So we'll keep an eye on that.
Speaker 1: But that just goes to show you how feverish this is,
Speaker 1: how hot it got, how quickly, how wide spread it is.
Speaker 1: There's just no time to give an update. I don't
Speaker 1: want them to waste time giving us an update, you know.
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, I mean that that along with the lack
Speaker 2: of specific evacuation orders early on everybody and now it's
Speaker 2: just everybody in the Palisades leave.
Speaker 4: Every one in the Palisades area.
Speaker 1: Leave is the evacuation order they're not just getting they're
Speaker 1: not getting granular about which neighborhoods.
Speaker 4: There's no time to get granular.
Speaker 2: I mean, just miles of smoke that have now been
Speaker 2: blown out across the ocean and everywhere along the west side.
Speaker 2: You can see images of this fire. You can see
Speaker 2: it from the valley over the hills.
Speaker 3: There is just it is. It is big again.
Speaker 1: There is supposed to be a lull in the winds
Speaker 1: coming up this afternoon before they pick up again tonight.
Speaker 1: But the red flag warning is in effect for this
Speaker 1: area until Thursday at six pm. Still got a lot
Speaker 1: of hours to go with this wind event.
Speaker 2: All right, we'll continue to keep an eye on this again.
Speaker 2: Two hundred plus acre fire in a Pacific Palace Sades,
Speaker 2: very dangerous situation.
Speaker 1: All of the Palisades has been evacuated. We are seeing
Speaker 1: some they're trying to now they're trying to at excellent point.
Speaker 1: We've got eyes on Palisades Drive. All four lanes, two in,
Speaker 1: two out, all four now have been devoted to outs
Speaker 1: as according to the people who are trying to get out. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: there are fire engines trying to get in, making matters
Speaker 1: much worse. You pointed out a palm tree that was
Speaker 1: on fire.
Speaker 2: Yeah, right in the median there. It's too like you said,
Speaker 2: two lanes up and two lanes down. On Palisades Drive
Speaker 2: and in the media and through much of it there
Speaker 2: are palm trees. It's California, and some of the palm
Speaker 2: trees have started to catch fire from the earlier spot
Speaker 2: fires that we saw the embers that were blowing in.
Speaker 3: There was also a car that it was actually.
Speaker 2: A van, headed down Palisades Drive away from the fire
Speaker 2: on the wrong side of the road that had caught fire.
Speaker 2: But that thing burned for a good ten or fifteen
Speaker 2: minutes before a fire truck came and they were able
Speaker 2: to put it out just a couple of minutes ago.
Speaker 3: But this is it's a situation.
Speaker 2: I don't think anybody, well clearly nobody expected like this,
Speaker 2: especially with people trying to get out of that hillcrest
Speaker 2: area the top of the Palisades area, the summit, because
Speaker 2: the only way to get out of there is through
Speaker 2: Palisades Drive.
Speaker 3: You can't go back the other way. You can't go
Speaker 3: back up over the hill.
Speaker 2: You have to come down Palisades Drive. And even with
Speaker 2: two lanes up two lanes down, pretty sizable, I guess
Speaker 2: access lanes on the side of that, it's just a mess.
Speaker 1: So you can see cars that are just abandoned on
Speaker 1: Palisades Drive. Cars that were driving down the wrong side
Speaker 1: of the road to get out, desperate to get out.
Speaker 1: People have just been taking off running. Now mentioned that
Speaker 1: the fire did jump Pacific Palisades Drive, so it's on
Speaker 1: both sides, on the Temescul side and it's on the
Speaker 1: side of the Getty Villa.
Speaker 4: Well.
Speaker 1: Now listening to radio traffic that indicates the fire is
Speaker 1: currently impacting the Getty Villa area, will be impacting Coastline
Speaker 1: Drive area shortly, which is as you know, if you
Speaker 1: know the area right in.
Speaker 4: The thick of residential communities.
Speaker 2: As well, a couple of notes to pass on the
Speaker 2: command center that you're going to see a lot of
Speaker 2: don't go there. But if you are coming out of Palisades,
Speaker 2: the area to the south is jammed. The area headed
Speaker 2: towards Topega and then into Malibu, you're also going to
Speaker 2: see a lot of traffic, but it's apparently not as
Speaker 2: bad going that direction.
Speaker 3: Also, the evacuation center.
Speaker 2: One evacuation center that's been set up has been set
Speaker 2: up at the Westwood Recreation Center, which again you're going
Speaker 2: to have to go through all of that traffic to
Speaker 2: get out of the Palisades. To get into that area.
Speaker 2: In terms of the wind that we saw drive this
Speaker 2: thing for the last couple of hours and just grow
Speaker 2: it exponentially, very quickly. Is expected to peak later tonight.
Speaker 2: That's not the good news. I mean, we've seen sustained
Speaker 2: winds in thirty forty mile an hour, but we expect
Speaker 2: winds to peak somewhere around ten o'clock tonight in the
Speaker 2: Palisades area, peaking it around forty five miles per hour sustained,
Speaker 2: which would put the gusts well up over sixty seventy
Speaker 2: miles an hour possible.
Speaker 1: Actor James Woods has posted some very graphic footage from
Speaker 1: his driveway as he's preparing to get out.
Speaker 4: You better hurry the hell up and get out. Several
Speaker 4: homes around there on fire.
Speaker 1: And again it doesn't make it any worse any better,
Speaker 1: but these are as you can imagine multimillion dollar homes
Speaker 1: up in flames. Again, a lot of the conversation, and
Speaker 1: it's too soon to have it, will center around the
Speaker 1: fact that Palisades Drive is the main and only.
Speaker 4: Artery out of the affected area.
Speaker 2: The images down Palisades Drive with these cars listen, it's still, hey,
Speaker 2: it's daylight. That's a good thing. The smoke isn't that
Speaker 2: thick that they can't see ahead of them, but you.
Speaker 1: Can't see daylight when you're down there in it. It's
Speaker 1: just all gray and all smoke. And imagine the air
Speaker 1: quality as well. But it's eerily reminiscent of the Skyway. Yeah,
Speaker 1: when everybody was leaving that fire, Paradise up in northern Califoria.
Speaker 1: Skyway is basically Palisades Drive.
Speaker 2: It was the one way out of Paradise, and there
Speaker 2: were so many people that got caught and were afraid
Speaker 2: for their lives while they were trying to get out
Speaker 2: of there.
Speaker 1: And I wonder what the conversation has been. And I
Speaker 1: don't know why we haven't heard more about it, And
Speaker 1: maybe it's just because these fires have become more explosive
Speaker 1: in recent years, But it seems like a conversation that
Speaker 1: we would have been abreast of in the news business
Speaker 1: if this was a major conversation topic and the Pacific Palisades.
Speaker 1: Maybe it was locally, like we were talking to one
Speaker 1: of the community council members about the fact of well,
Speaker 1: worst case scenario, were screwed with this one major artery
Speaker 1: in and out. And I think a lot of people
Speaker 1: don't like to think about the worst screwed possibility, and
Speaker 1: today we're screwed, which is why you see people just
Speaker 1: making a run for it, you know, miles away from
Speaker 1: from Sunset Boulevard there, if you're coming down from Palisades,
Speaker 1: just taking off and walking or running down down the road.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I think everybody, we all know some people
Speaker 2: who who are in the Palisades. They don't have to
Speaker 2: be celebrities, but just neighbors or friends or friends of
Speaker 2: neighbors or whatever that do live in the Palisades. And
Speaker 2: as far as we know, most everybody's getting out quickly
Speaker 2: and getting out safely. But they've had to abandon cars,
Speaker 2: like we've been saying, they've abandoned them, whether it's on
Speaker 2: Palisades Drive or other places on pH As they get
Speaker 2: out of there, it is as life threatening as they expected.
Speaker 2: I mean, this is this is kind of the worst
Speaker 2: case scenario that they were saying, or the very bad
Speaker 2: case scenario that was possible.
Speaker 3: And it's coming to fruition.
Speaker 1: And it's one of those situations where it's not that
Speaker 1: people were dilly dallying.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 1: So often when we cover these fires, there are people
Speaker 1: that are interviewed to say, ma'am, I'm just gonna wait
Speaker 1: it out. I'm just gonna see what goes on. This
Speaker 1: was one of those fires there are. I'm pretty sure
Speaker 1: eighty five to ninety percent of the people in the
Speaker 1: area said oh, hell no, and just got the hell
Speaker 1: out of there. The thing was moving so quickly, though,
Speaker 1: that as soon as they had that thought and started
Speaker 1: getting in the car, everyone else had that thought. It
Speaker 1: wasn't that people were just waiting and seeing how this
Speaker 1: thing was going to play out.
Speaker 4: They wanted to get out of there, and they did.
Speaker 1: It's just that there's so few space on those roads
Speaker 1: to make your way down the hill.
Speaker 2: Again, the immediate threat to life. The evacuation order is
Speaker 2: very general in terms of its location, but evacuation orders
Speaker 2: are in effect, and they have listed the zones. It's
Speaker 2: all of the palisades. It's the entire from the summit
Speaker 2: all the way to down out of the water. They
Speaker 2: want you out of there.
Speaker 1: And from the summit there, right to the east of
Speaker 1: that neighborhood is where this thing erupted. And it is
Speaker 1: just a steady stream, a massive thick stream of white
Speaker 1: and black smoke, and that black smoke of course, means
Speaker 1: most likely homes burning, and then the fingers, the fingers
Speaker 1: that exist down towards near Santa Monica.
Speaker 4: Of just the spot fires that are.
Speaker 1: Crawling down the terrain there are also just terrifying to
Speaker 1: see because again those embers doesn't take much to get
Speaker 1: them flying and sparking new fires.
Speaker 2: All right, so this is going to be an all
Speaker 2: day and probably well into the evening kind of a
Speaker 2: story because as we mentioned, the wind gusts are expected
Speaker 2: to peek later tonight and the red flag warnings for
Speaker 2: this fire danger will continue through the next couple of days.
Speaker 2: It could be until Friday that the red flag war
Speaker 2: are up in those areas. If you are making your
Speaker 2: way out of Palisades, out of Pacific Palisades, there is
Speaker 2: movement in traffic. Yes, it looks pretty grim in terms
Speaker 2: of getting out of there, and we know plenty of
Speaker 2: people have abandoned their cars and are trying to walk out,
Speaker 2: but there is some movement. They finally have it looks
Speaker 2: like a handle on some of the traffic control to
Speaker 2: try to get people out of there as quickly as possible.
Speaker 1: Palisades on fire right now pretty much worst case scenario
Speaker 1: in terms of this wind event and how quickly it
Speaker 1: hit this area, no time to respond, no time to
Speaker 1: get out, which is why you've got people abandoning their
Speaker 1: cars on the only major artery in and out of
Speaker 1: the Palisades. There are four lanes, two lanes in each direction,
Speaker 1: but everyone decided to make all four lanes one direction out.
Speaker 4: Problem is fire engines are trying to get in.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this was We talked with Quentin Fleming from the
Speaker 2: Community Council, the Pacific Palisades Community Council, and that question
Speaker 2: came up. Is this something that's been talked about. I mean,
Speaker 2: there are hundreds of homes higher up in the hill
Speaker 2: and only one good way in and out, and it's
Speaker 2: not like fire is new in this area. So the
Speaker 2: entire area has been placed under evacuation order. There are
Speaker 2: I mean just scores and scores of images on social
Speaker 2: media from really far away where people can see the
Speaker 2: smoke cloud from this well down the coast, well down
Speaker 2: the west side into the beach communities down there. The
Speaker 2: traffic in and out of the Palisades, I shouldn't say
Speaker 2: in the traffic out of the Palisades is very, very thick.
Speaker 2: There is an evacuation center that been set up at
Speaker 2: the Westwood Recreation Center, but it's going to take some
Speaker 2: patients among other things to get there. We do know
Speaker 2: that there have been homes that at least have been damaged.
Speaker 2: We don't know of any that are complete losses as
Speaker 2: of this point, but it just seems the way that
Speaker 2: this thing was behaving early on, it's almost an inevitablity
Speaker 2: that we're going to lose some homes in this area
Speaker 2: and it is going to get worse potentially before it
Speaker 2: gets better, if no other reason. Then the winds are
Speaker 2: not expected to die. The winds have not peaked yet.
Speaker 2: It will be several hours before they peak. In fact,
Speaker 2: the expectation is that it's sometime between eight and midnight
Speaker 2: tonight when they will peak in that area.
Speaker 1: Thank god, we still have those super Scoopers on loan
Speaker 1: from Quebec. They are able to fly in the winds.
Speaker 1: They are making crucial air drops. They're able to pick
Speaker 1: up water in headwinds of forty five miles per hour.
Speaker 1: So those things were activated right quick and have been
Speaker 1: attacking this thing now for a couple hours.
Speaker 4: The spot fires were.
Speaker 1: A concern that came true very quickly as well. So
Speaker 1: you can see just fingers of active flames working down
Speaker 1: the hills. Here, the fire did jump Palisades Drive from
Speaker 1: the Tamescul side over to the Getty Villa side. In fact,
Speaker 1: they do say that the fire is impacting the Gelly
Speaker 1: Villa area, will be impacting the Coastline Drive area. Shortly
Speaker 1: pch non negotiable trying to make your way to the Palisades.
Speaker 1: There's just no way to get in. If you're trying
Speaker 1: to get into your home or what have you. There's
Speaker 1: it's just not tenable at this situation, at this time.
Speaker 2: A couple of quick notes just about we've done this
Speaker 2: for a long time and not had an experience where
Speaker 2: there's so much that is happening at the beginning of
Speaker 2: an event like this that they don't they being fire authorities,
Speaker 2: don't give out information. They were slow in putting out
Speaker 2: specifics about the evacuation parameters because they were just saying,
Speaker 2: if you're in that area, you need to get out.
Speaker 2: It doesn't matter what zone you need to get out
Speaker 2: of the Palisades. The other thing is our last number
Speaker 2: is at two hundred acres. It's well over two hundred acres,
Speaker 2: and you can tell that especially with these other spot
Speaker 2: fires that have come up. But their priority is not
Speaker 2: coming up with a number of how many acres. Their
Speaker 2: priority is absolutely protecting people's lives and then protecting properties
Speaker 2: and getting people in and out of their safely.
Speaker 1: It's telling that they don't have acreage. It's telling that
Speaker 1: we are hours away from any sort of containment number.
Speaker 1: All of this is telling that this is their number
Speaker 1: one priority is getting people out, structure protection. I'm trying
Speaker 1: to create a ring around something that is moving like
Speaker 1: this and this quickly and this erratically is near and possible,
Speaker 1: So hopefully they will get some work done from the
Speaker 1: air on this thing before they are able to get
Speaker 1: in there and do the painstaking work that will be
Speaker 1: wildline containment line for this thing.
Speaker 4: Wildfire containment line for a lot of that.
Speaker 2: That's just literal boots on the ground hand crews that
Speaker 2: are going in some of those areas. There are a
Speaker 2: couple of dozen, it looks like, just based on flight radar,
Speaker 2: twenty four aircraft in the area, which in and of
Speaker 2: its self brings a whole series of potential problems. You've
Speaker 2: got to be able to coordinate all of these different
Speaker 2: firefighting aircraft you've got for the tankers. They are usually
Speaker 2: following a spotterer plane or a lead plane that will
Speaker 2: go through and indicate where it is that they need
Speaker 2: to have water or retardant dropped down. On top of that,
Speaker 2: you've got all of the helicopters that are in the air.
Speaker 2: Throw into all of that. Like we were saying earlier, this
Speaker 2: mess of traffic getting out of Palisades. The last time,
Speaker 2: about fifteen twenty minutes ago we started seeing some of
Speaker 2: the traffic really starting to move, but that was the
Speaker 2: first time we had seen it in probably an hour
Speaker 2: or so. It looks a lot like as you head
Speaker 2: up the hill up Palisades Drive, you go past a
Speaker 2: little shopping center that's got an Italian place, a little
Speaker 2: restaurant in there, a sushi place, and a Starbucks. That
Speaker 2: hillside just above that, as you head up towards the summit,
Speaker 2: there is on fire and there are crews that are
Speaker 2: trying to get some sort of water on that. But
Speaker 2: you could see it right above, right on that hill
Speaker 2: behind that little shopping center, there's all kinds of open flame.
Speaker 1: Hey takeaway from here is if you live in a
Speaker 1: wild fire risk area and you know when you do
Speaker 1: just note that with this wind event we've got, with
Speaker 1: these mountain wave winds coming down, if you're in the
Speaker 1: San Gabriel's, the valleys, wherever you are there, because the
Speaker 1: winds in this event are coming from the north, are
Speaker 1: coming from the east. These things are moving ferociously, So
Speaker 1: you're not going to have time to pack up the
Speaker 1: car the way you normally would have when you are
Speaker 1: given the evacuation order, because likely you're going to have
Speaker 1: to evacuate before you get that order. So takeaway from
Speaker 1: this is just be ready to go on a wind
Speaker 1: event like this. I mean, if it means pack in
Speaker 1: a bag, put it in the car now, why not?
Speaker 1: Why not operate out of an abundance of caution. Again,
Speaker 1: the evacuation area is basically all of the palisades from
Speaker 1: Topanga Canyon to the to the west, all the way
Speaker 1: down to pch and all the way over towards towards Brentwood.
Speaker 4: I mean, it's just all of the palisades.
Speaker 2: We haven't seen much yet of any sort of update
Speaker 2: where we're going to get a news conference out of
Speaker 2: fire authorities and they can give us more information and
Speaker 2: print some specifics probably about the people who might still
Speaker 2: be up in that area. What you can do to
Speaker 2: protect yourself, But we will keep an eye on this
Speaker 2: and we'll bring it to you, of course, live when
Speaker 2: it happens, whether it's our show. John's coming on in
Speaker 2: just a few minutes, and of course Deva and the
Speaker 2: rest of the team, you're going to have everything throughout
Speaker 2: the course of the day.
Speaker 1: We will see him minat Manada Manada? What's manada? Is
Speaker 1: that a thing?
Speaker 3: It's a tomorrow's soup. It is tomorrow's menuda.
Speaker 4: All right, we'll see youm mignona. Okay, stay drive everybody, blessings.
Speaker 3: You've been listening to The Gary and Shannon Show.
Speaker 2: You can always hear us live on KFI AM six
Speaker 2: forty nine am to one pm every Monday through Friday,
Speaker 2: and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.