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.
Speaker 2: We're ending up this latest daily briefing on what was
Speaker 2: referred to earlier today as the fire siege that we
Speaker 2: have seen at the beginning of twenty twenty five. Out
Speaker 2: of state resources good news continue to arrive in to
Speaker 2: this area as we battle these continued fires. The National
Speaker 2: Weather Service does say that the red flag conditions are
Speaker 2: going to stay in effect through Friday probably. And the
Speaker 2: number that I was always the number that I was
Speaker 2: always questioning, was the thirty thousand people who had been evacuated.
Speaker 2: The sheriff said there were one hundred and eighty thousand
Speaker 2: people who are under current evacuation orders, one hundred and
Speaker 2: eighty thousand and then another two hundred thousand under evacuation
Speaker 2: warnings throughout La counted.
Speaker 1: I was listening to Conway last night when the Hollywood
Speaker 1: fire broke out, and you could just hear it in
Speaker 1: his voice or he was kind of like, oh no,
Speaker 1: not another one, not there, And I think everyone had
Speaker 1: that gut punch as well. I mean, we talk about
Speaker 1: from the Palisades to Altadena and then you know, it
Speaker 1: just kept getting worse. I mean, usually we're used to
Speaker 1: covering these fires, and you know, there's the initial burst
Speaker 1: and the initial devastation and the homes lost, and then
Speaker 1: twenty four hours later, it's a different kind of vibe.
Speaker 1: It hasn't been that way. It's been what's next, What's next?
Speaker 1: Since the Palisades fire erupted.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and the Palisades Fire itself continues to grow. This
Speaker 2: is a very I mean today it's what you would
Speaker 2: probably consider more normal fire behavior. Yeah, but it's going
Speaker 2: the other direction now. I mean when it started.
Speaker 3: On Tuesday, what day is today?
Speaker 4: Today is Thursday?
Speaker 3: Today? Thursday.
Speaker 2: When it started on Tuesday, it was going from the
Speaker 2: hill down to the beach. Now it's going up north
Speaker 2: towards the valley and east towards the four or five.
Speaker 3: Much much slower.
Speaker 2: I mean, that's the benefit of having very little wind.
Speaker 2: But it is going in those uphill areas, which it
Speaker 2: tends to go faster than if it were going downhill
Speaker 2: or on flat lane.
Speaker 1: And I'm wondering if they said those backfires to protect
Speaker 1: even more homes in the Palisades. It doesn't sound like
Speaker 1: there's many left. Honestly, the devastation is vast there. I
Speaker 1: mean there are no roads, really, I mean there are roads,
Speaker 1: but there's no homes. And you know, we're talking about
Speaker 1: it this morning about yeah, okay, so your home survives,
Speaker 1: your home, maybe one other home on the road, those
Speaker 1: are not inhabitable.
Speaker 2: Well, one of the images from this morning was right
Speaker 2: along pch in Malibu area, where right past Dukes. We
Speaker 2: were talking about a few dozen homes right along the
Speaker 2: strand right along the beach in Malibu, and they were
Speaker 2: they're gone, and then there's one still standing or two
Speaker 2: still standing.
Speaker 3: And I mean, you're poin. So what do you go
Speaker 3: back to?
Speaker 1: You don't I mean, at least you have your stuff
Speaker 1: that's in your home. Your home probably smells and your
Speaker 1: stuff will always smell like fire. But at least, I
Speaker 1: guess you have your stuff. But you can't live there.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's not safe to live in a neighborhood
Speaker 1: where everything's been decimated like that. And why would you
Speaker 1: why would you want to live in the apocalypse.
Speaker 2: There's still a lot We talked about this at the
Speaker 2: end of the show yesterday. There are a lot of
Speaker 2: questions that need to be answered. Whether it's by fire officials,
Speaker 2: by political officials, whoever, about what it is that's going
Speaker 2: on at what caused this, what prompted this, Why we
Speaker 2: were so un or should say, incapable of handling it.
Speaker 2: I mean a lot of it is just the wind.
Speaker 2: You could could do anything right. There was no amount
Speaker 2: of water in the tanks, There's nothing. There are questions
Speaker 2: that simply will go will never have a fulfilling answer.
Speaker 3: You'll never be able to pin the blame on anybody.
Speaker 1: You were never going to minimize the devastation. But there
Speaker 1: are questions that have been addressed. I still think it's
Speaker 1: a little too early, but they're surfacing to the fire
Speaker 1: department on the city level when you're dealing with the
Speaker 1: most devastating fire in city history. The lack of water pressure,
Speaker 1: and then of course the statewide effort to keep the
Speaker 1: water in northern California from coming down here because of
Speaker 1: the Baby smelt.
Speaker 3: So all of that stuff.
Speaker 2: Insurance, I mean, that's another massive issue that we'll be
Speaker 2: talking about over of course of the next few days
Speaker 2: and weeks and probably months.
Speaker 1: To be honest, a lot of the insurance policies canceled.
Speaker 1: What James Wood said four months ago.
Speaker 3: Just months ago.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And it's not just there, it's not just in
Speaker 2: the Palisades.
Speaker 3: This is a California thing.
Speaker 2: This is something that's happening throughout the Western United States,
Speaker 2: concentrated here in Kema.
Speaker 1: Well, and it's going to keep getting worse because the
Speaker 1: fires get worse and we live in these urban wildlife
Speaker 1: interface areas all over the California area.
Speaker 2: A quick rundown of what we know, and we're going
Speaker 2: to go out to Altadena here in just a second.
Speaker 2: The Palisades fires up to seventeen two hundred plus acres
Speaker 2: as of right now. They said the number of damaged
Speaker 2: or destroyed buildings is into the thousands, thousands some of
Speaker 2: Right now, the eastern and northern flanks of the fire
Speaker 2: are moving towards the four or five. They're moving north
Speaker 2: towards the vout very very slowly compared to what we
Speaker 2: saw twenty four forty eight hours ago. But that is
Speaker 2: one of the things that is still growing. Eaten fire
Speaker 2: in Altadena. Pasadena's up at ten thousand, six hundred acres,
Speaker 2: and they said most of the growth in that one
Speaker 2: has been significantly stopped. But you're still talking about over
Speaker 2: a thousand. Again, they just they don't have a good
Speaker 2: count on this yet, but over a thousand structures damaged
Speaker 2: or destroyed. The rest of the fires, they're fine, Like,
Speaker 2: let's worry about the two big ones.
Speaker 3: Those are the ones that we're going to be talking about.
Speaker 1: We talked about Alta Dina. I live in a town
Speaker 1: over from Alta Dina and it was one of the
Speaker 1: areas where I looked when we were looking to buy
Speaker 1: a house and move in that area. And the thing
Speaker 1: about Alta Dina is it's very special. It's one of
Speaker 1: the places with great history in this area. It is
Speaker 1: got kind of a small town feel about it. You
Speaker 1: brought up yesterday the loss of things like the hardware store.
Speaker 1: You've seen a lot of businesses. It's not just wildland,
Speaker 1: but there's a lot of wildland in Altadena there. I
Speaker 1: go hiking there all the time. That area has all
Speaker 1: been devastated. But you saw a lot of homes go up.
Speaker 1: A lot of that checkerboard type style of a home
Speaker 1: is here gone across the street.
Speaker 4: It's fine.
Speaker 1: The home next to that one across the street gone
Speaker 1: on the flip side of the street, the home is standing.
Speaker 1: This was also one of those areas where there were
Speaker 1: not a lot of first responders seen, and not a
Speaker 1: lot of people telling put down your hoses and leave.
Speaker 1: In fact, I know at least personally a few people
Speaker 1: that stayed behind and were just watering down trees and
Speaker 1: fences yesterday because the first responders were spread so thin there.
Speaker 1: But the devastation now is just becoming apparent. Michael Monks
Speaker 1: is there. He is at the corner of Mariposa there
Speaker 1: in El Molino. Is that right, Michael?
Speaker 5: That's exactly right right outside where that hardware store used
Speaker 5: to be. It is a scene of just utter destruction,
Speaker 5: like something out of a Hollywood set. It's just unbelievable
Speaker 5: to stand here and absorb this. I mean, we've seen
Speaker 5: some of them, will tell you that we've seen some
Speaker 5: of the TV. I'm sorry of the neighborhood itself, where
Speaker 5: there are just power lines down. You can't recognize which home,
Speaker 5: where one home starts and the other one ends because
Speaker 5: of the fire and the collapsed nature of the buildings.
Speaker 5: What is it that you're seeing from that intersection. It's
Speaker 5: a tale of four corners really, and Shannon really explained
Speaker 5: it well. I mean, there's it's so random how this
Speaker 5: fire chows what to destroy, because there are, of course
Speaker 5: blocks that are leveled, and then there are other blocks
Speaker 5: where one or two homes were taken in.
Speaker 3: The one in the middle wasn't. It's just been so
Speaker 3: strange to see that.
Speaker 5: I'll tell you right now, it looks and feels like
Speaker 5: it's the evening already. It's only barely twenty after nine,
Speaker 5: and the sun is this weird shade of pink. It's
Speaker 5: tucked behind clouds and smoke. The air is thick, it's
Speaker 5: very difficult to breathe. But here at this intersection, on
Speaker 5: one side, one corner, that hardware store in an old
Speaker 5: brick strip mall next to an insurance agent's that's gone.
Speaker 5: The frame is still standing. Across the street from that,
Speaker 5: everything is completely leveled. Then coming over to the other
Speaker 5: side of the street, there's a corner, and it's an
Speaker 5: interesting site because there's this sign, just a small wooden sign,
Speaker 5: facing the corner advertising rentals in the Mariposa town Homes,
Speaker 5: and that sign has not suffered a lick of damage. Meanwhile,
Speaker 5: behind the sign, the town homes are gone, completely flattened
Speaker 5: and leveled. And then the last corner is particularly interesting
Speaker 5: because the buildings, so for no damage at all, and
Speaker 5: it just happens to be a fire station. And so
Speaker 5: as I'm standing here, I'm watching a lot of the
Speaker 5: firefighters who are clearly coming back from the thick of it,
Speaker 5: taking a little rest, taking a little break, and I'm
Speaker 5: watching them get right back in their trucks and head
Speaker 5: back out. Another interesting scene that I saw right here
Speaker 5: in this neighborhood, in on a side of the street
Speaker 5: that does not appear to have suffered any damage at all.
Speaker 5: There seem to be a couple I guess that we're
Speaker 5: standing out here, likely the homeowners, and there was a
Speaker 5: little bit of smoldering in their mault near the curb
Speaker 5: on the street, and they were tending to it. They
Speaker 5: were digging it out and pouring a little bit of
Speaker 5: water on there. So there are residents who are still
Speaker 5: here despite what has happened to their neighbors across the street,
Speaker 5: and it looks like they are playing defense right now
Speaker 5: against any of those floating embers. I can tell you
Speaker 5: there's lots of smoke coming off the ground. There are
Speaker 5: little pockets of flames. The cars on the street just
Speaker 5: burned out, Utility poles split in half, wires hanging again.
Speaker 5: It just looks apocalyptic, something out of a scene from
Speaker 5: The Walking Dead.
Speaker 1: I've seen more people in Alta Dina just appearing in
Speaker 1: shock and in tears, and it's a lot of whiplash
Speaker 1: there still. Because this was one of those fires where
Speaker 1: there was no time. I think what I've heard from
Speaker 1: people who live there is we didn't even know there
Speaker 1: was a fire burning there until.
Speaker 4: It was time.
Speaker 1: It was almost too late to evacuate, let alone getting
Speaker 1: an evacuation warning and an evacuation order. It was just
Speaker 1: it happened so suddenly, and then coming back to find out, wait,
Speaker 1: there was a fire. Wait I had to evacuate, and wait,
Speaker 1: I don't have a house left, and the businesses are gone.
Speaker 5: In a blink of an eye, this beautiful city has
Speaker 5: just been decimated. And you characterized it well, Shannon. I mean,
Speaker 5: there's this little side street that is a private street.
Speaker 5: There's a sign out front that makes that clear, and
Speaker 5: you can tell even now that that street led to
Speaker 5: some beautiful homes, and the only remnants of those homes
Speaker 5: there's a white picket fence that is half standing and
Speaker 5: also half charred to the ground.
Speaker 3: And then you have.
Speaker 5: These beautiful chimneys and fireplaces that once stood inside these
Speaker 5: lovely homes and now stand out here like a graveyard.
Speaker 2: The other issue I think is, I mean, outside of
Speaker 2: the loss of obvious home stuff, in your home memories,
Speaker 2: all of that, you're talking about people whose place of
Speaker 2: work is also gone.
Speaker 3: In many instances, I mean.
Speaker 2: There are people who work here who have lost jobs,
Speaker 2: but they have a job.
Speaker 3: I mean, our building is still standing.
Speaker 2: They are going to be people who have lost their
Speaker 2: home and whatever place of business that they were supposed
Speaker 2: to be going to.
Speaker 5: That's right, and so that is very impactful to the workers,
Speaker 5: to the owners of the business, to the owners of
Speaker 5: the properties. And it also attacks the character of a community.
Speaker 5: When you think about a small hardware store, how long
Speaker 5: have people been shopping there? How many generations have stories
Speaker 5: from when they needed something and got some help at
Speaker 5: that place. We see it here in Altadena, we see
Speaker 5: the devastation in the palisades. The character of these communities
Speaker 5: have been lost as well, in addition to people's personal
Speaker 5: items and of course the loss of some lives.
Speaker 3: Michael, we'll check back in with you. Thank you for that.
Speaker 3: Thank you, guys. Michael.
Speaker 2: Monks there out there in Altadena, Elmalina and Mariposa Street,
Speaker 2: that intersection right next to one of the fire stations.
Speaker 2: As he was reporting, Amy King made a comment this
Speaker 2: morning that I thought that is also one of those
Speaker 2: conversations for down the road, but Michael kind of touched
Speaker 2: on it right there, which is the loss of the
Speaker 2: character of a neighborhood. And when we were talking yesterday
Speaker 2: with the head of the Palisades Community Council, she was
Speaker 2: discussing what the personality of Pacific Palisades, and I mean
Speaker 2: this is obviously it's la and a lot of people.
Speaker 2: If you're anywhere east of here, you're going to be
Speaker 2: reading stories about celebrities that have lost their homes or
Speaker 2: because they're the ones who generate the headlines, but just
Speaker 2: the sheer number, I mean, the images of these neighborhoods
Speaker 2: in the Palisades. There's not a house standing, and the
Speaker 2: idea that there are thousands of structures, I mean to
Speaker 2: me that seems like it Ell States is gone. They're
Speaker 2: just neighborhoods like just as decimated and you're losing with
Speaker 2: that what she described yesterday as sort of that Midwest
Speaker 2: small town feel on a bluff overlooking the beautiful Pacific Ocean,
Speaker 2: and Alta Dina has that as well in parts of
Speaker 2: that Pacady and those Some of those homes are built,
Speaker 2: I mean, one hundred and twenty years ago, and.
Speaker 1: It's going to take a decade at least to rebuild
Speaker 1: and to get businesses back up and all of that.
Speaker 1: It's just it's a long road to hoe, you know what.
Speaker 1: I'm kind of done with. And I don't mean to
Speaker 1: be a negative person, but I'm really done with all
Speaker 1: of the we as Angelino's are strong and we will
Speaker 1: overcome and blah blah blah blah.
Speaker 4: I don't care.
Speaker 1: Right now, the freaking smoke is still rising from the
Speaker 1: homes where families.
Speaker 4: Built their lives. Tell us what we're going to do.
Speaker 1: Tell us where people can get food and shelter, and
Speaker 1: where how you're going to get the water situation fixed
Speaker 1: locally and statewide, and where people can go. And tell
Speaker 1: us more about Airbnb giving away free lodgings, and tell
Speaker 1: us which hotels are going to be offering free rooms
Speaker 1: because not everybody has money that spend displaced.
Speaker 4: Tell us that stuff.
Speaker 1: Enough of your bad sea grade poetry, like nobody needs
Speaker 1: to hear that crap.
Speaker 4: There's no stomach for that crap right now.
Speaker 3: What I want to know is and this.
Speaker 1: For the love, that is the way we stand here united, Jesus,
Speaker 1: Marian Joseph.
Speaker 6: United and stand strong.
Speaker 1: Only think she said good in that whole thing was Tuesday?
Speaker 3: Who is that for?
Speaker 1: That's what people who do not have any sort of
Speaker 1: realization how real people are living right now, that's the
Speaker 1: same crap.
Speaker 4: I almost at a bad word.
Speaker 1: Eric Garcetti would say, or all the people who live
Speaker 1: in their ivory west side towers, you know the stuff
Speaker 1: that people are so out of touch with humanity. How
Speaker 1: can you be out of touch with somebody who loses
Speaker 1: their home. Don't you have a home, don't you have stuff?
Speaker 1: Don't you have a family?
Speaker 4: I mean, how can you be that out of touch?
Speaker 4: Right now? I just don't get it completely.
Speaker 2: That's why I pulled that cut, was because I wanted
Speaker 2: to make fun of it as just so tone deaf
Speaker 2: for what needs to be what we need to see
Speaker 2: and hear action from them right now?
Speaker 3: Action. All right, it's gonna be a good day.
Speaker 4: Is it gonna be a good day?
Speaker 3: Well, it's gonna be a better day.
Speaker 1: Yes, it's gonna Well, I hope. So, yes, the wind
Speaker 1: is I'll be happy when the wind event.
Speaker 3: Is over, Yes, and that is coming soon.
Speaker 2: So we'll talk more about what's going on fire wise,
Speaker 2: et cetera throughout the day Today.
Speaker 4: John cobe elt.
Speaker 1: In overnight twelve midnight to three am. In fact, I
Speaker 1: didn't get a chance to listen because yeah, but I mean,
Speaker 1: doesn't that sound kind of nice like going to sleep?
Speaker 1: John Coe belts on the radio. No, no, sounds soothing. Well,
Speaker 1: I don't know what John after dark sounds like. I mean,
Speaker 1: I know what John after sunset looks like. But that's
Speaker 1: well after I told you I think on Monday or
Speaker 1: Tuesday about the BBC shipping news and how that is
Speaker 1: a big draw for people, people who have no interest
Speaker 1: in shipping directions or traffic or wind or any sort
Speaker 1: of forecast. But yet the guy who does the BBC
Speaker 1: shipping news for the BBC obviously has such a soothing
Speaker 1: voice that people subscribe to this and go to sleep
Speaker 1: to the shipping news on the routine. What a nice
Speaker 1: compliment for him, isn't it. Yeah, maybe you could do
Speaker 1: some sort of shipping news thing. I wouldn't know the
Speaker 1: I wouldn't know the first thing. Well, just try to
Speaker 1: make it up, wing it and use a British accent.
Speaker 1: I'll close my eyes and see if I can go
Speaker 1: to sleep.
Speaker 3: There is one giant shipload of oil being shipped through
Speaker 3: the Suez Canal.
Speaker 1: See that's pretty good. That's pretty good. I got a
Speaker 1: little sleepy. Well, that's great. So one of the estimators,
Speaker 1: I don't even know what would you would say estimations
Speaker 1: an estimation made by an estimator about what kind of
Speaker 1: I mean, ballpark we're talking when it comes to damage
Speaker 1: from the fires that have broken out in the last
Speaker 1: couple of days. Between fifty two and fifty seven billion
Speaker 1: dollars in damage is what they're and that's this is
Speaker 1: the first forty eight hours after this thing broke out.
Speaker 1: That's the first number that we've gotten to put that
Speaker 1: in context. That obviously would be the worst in terms
Speaker 1: of damage and property damage. The worst disaster in the
Speaker 1: history of California, the nineteen ninety four Northridge earthquake, by comparison,
Speaker 1: was somewhere about thirty billion dollars in property damage. Thirty billion,
Speaker 1: and this we're talking about fifty to fifty seven billion.
Speaker 2: Some of the most expensive real estate in the country.
Speaker 2: But that's not even what makes this that expensive. It's
Speaker 2: that it's so widespread, and it's not just one two
Speaker 2: million dollar house or a one point four million dollar
Speaker 2: house in Altadena. This is thousands of them. Chief meteorologists
Speaker 2: for ACU Weathers said it's already one of the worst
Speaker 2: wildfires in history, and if a large number of additional
Speaker 2: structures are burned in the coming days, it would be
Speaker 2: the worst wildfire in modern history based on not just
Speaker 2: the number of structures burned, but also economic loss.
Speaker 3: We talked yesterday. CalFire keeps a list.
Speaker 2: It's just a depressing list of the top twenty wildfires
Speaker 2: based on different in the state of California, based on
Speaker 2: different metrics. One of them is the size, the top
Speaker 2: twenty in size, the top twenty in damage, and then
Speaker 2: the top twenty in terms of loss of property and
Speaker 2: the campfire. The one that burned through Paradise burned about
Speaker 2: eighteen thousand structures, I think is what they said, and.
Speaker 3: Killed eighty five people.
Speaker 2: This one could surpass that, if not in the deaths,
Speaker 2: then almost certainly in the number of people I'm sorry,
Speaker 2: in the number of properties that are lost and.
Speaker 3: The death toll.
Speaker 2: I wanted to mention as well because Sheriff Robert Luna
Speaker 2: said something at this news conference, which was it was
Speaker 2: rare and it was important, especially in a situation like this.
Speaker 2: The death toll has been reported at five in the
Speaker 2: Eton fire, the one in Altade in Nepasadena. Yesterday, it
Speaker 2: was two. Today, the numbers overnight in this morning were five.
Speaker 2: And when he talked about it, he said, I'm not
Speaker 2: going to give you a death toll for a couple
Speaker 2: of reasons.
Speaker 3: Number one, we're not quite sure.
Speaker 2: We don't have our trained eyes on whatever it is,
Speaker 2: and I don't know if they're finding bodies or whatever.
Speaker 2: But he said, we need to make sure we get
Speaker 2: this right, because this is not there's no rush right.
Speaker 2: It doesn't like you've said many times about the acreage
Speaker 2: of things like this, the acreage doesn't matter. If it's seventeen,
Speaker 2: that teny, twelve thousand, that doesn't matter. What matters is
Speaker 2: people's lives and property. And at this point the exact
Speaker 2: death toll, we know people have died. We know that
Speaker 2: that makes it a deadly fire, and that's what's important.
Speaker 3: And he said in.
Speaker 2: Response to one of these questions in this news conference
Speaker 2: today I'm gonna make it. I'm gonna make sure before
Speaker 2: we start getting into that story, you believe that death
Speaker 2: toll is not accurate and do you think it's less
Speaker 2: than that?
Speaker 7: Based on all the information that I've received in the
Speaker 7: last probably eight hours, I want to be more confident
Speaker 7: in the specific information that I'm getting. So what we're
Speaker 7: doing now is going back through everything, because you've got
Speaker 7: to understand the urgency, the chaotic nature of what we're
Speaker 7: dealing with, and we're still in the middle of that.
Speaker 7: So I want to make sure that as we go forward,
Speaker 7: at least for the Sheriff's Department, we're actually having our
Speaker 7: homicide unit involved because they do they only do murder investigations.
Speaker 7: They do death investigations. That I'm going to change the
Speaker 7: system and verify each number because I don't care if
Speaker 7: it's just one. That's somebody's family, that's somebody we love
Speaker 7: and care for, So I want to make sure that's
Speaker 7: solid before we start presenting that information. Unfortunately, based on
Speaker 7: the preliminary information I've seen, at least in the both
Speaker 7: the two large fires that we're dealing with on each
Speaker 7: side of the county, Unfortunately, I think the death toll
Speaker 7: will rise.
Speaker 3: Now listen, And that's the acknowledgment. He knows it's going
Speaker 3: to go up.
Speaker 2: It doesn't matter if it's five or four or seven
Speaker 2: right now, because it is going to go up, unfortunately,
Speaker 2: and he wants to make sure he gets.
Speaker 4: It, gets it right, and I'd love to hear it.
Speaker 2: It's such a refreshing comment from a situation like that.
Speaker 1: And it's not poetry. It's not the BS about well,
Speaker 1: we're going to stand strong and be the thing in
Speaker 1: this and the light it sounds real person and the
Speaker 1: show our better angels or whatever, None of that, none
Speaker 1: of that BS.
Speaker 3: It's just listen.
Speaker 2: I want to get it right because I know that
Speaker 2: people are going to be affected by whatever numbers come out,
Speaker 2: because they're not just numbers, they're actual.
Speaker 3: People, all right.
Speaker 1: Coming up next one of the most dramatic scenes you know,
Speaker 1: and I'm not even going to qualify it.
Speaker 4: It's all been dramatic.
Speaker 1: It's all been awful and horrific and a freaking nightmare
Speaker 1: since Tuesday morning.
Speaker 4: Last night was the most recent nightmare.
Speaker 1: I guess you could say the freshest nightmare when you
Speaker 1: saw the Hollywood Hills go up in flames, and spotting
Speaker 1: almost immediately. The Magic Castle Hotel was in jeopardy at
Speaker 1: one point. Coming up, we are going to talk to
Speaker 1: the man who operates the Magic Castle Hotel about what happened,
Speaker 1: how things stand now, and what's next. The four big
Speaker 1: fires burning right now, it looks like just complete devastation
Speaker 1: at the Palisades. I haven't seen I've seen maybe one
Speaker 1: or two homes standing. Maybe it's just the news coverage
Speaker 1: is focusing on the neighborhoods that have been completely decimated.
Speaker 1: But it looks like I'm looking at an overhead grid
Speaker 1: right now, and it is just it's a war zone.
Speaker 2: It's war I mean sections of even even Sunset, those
Speaker 2: buildings along Sunset that are the larger, you know, they
Speaker 2: housed a couple of different businesses or you know, even
Speaker 2: those are the buildings are gutted. They're still standing, but
Speaker 2: they're gutted. And then hundreds of homes throughout those I
Speaker 2: think they call in the Alphabet streets they're in Palisades
Speaker 2: that are just they're just gone.
Speaker 4: Well another oh no.
Speaker 1: Last night I heard Conway talk about it as this
Speaker 1: fire was breaking out in the Hollywood Hills. Darren Ross
Speaker 1: is the owner of service. Free Hospitality operates a Magic
Speaker 1: Castle Hotel, obviously an institution there in Hollywood.
Speaker 4: Darren, thanks for your time this morning.
Speaker 6: Well, yeah, good morning. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1: So walk us through your experience last night as this
Speaker 1: thing was unfolding.
Speaker 6: Yeah. Sure. I had got home from work, starting to relax,
Speaker 6: and then got word that this fire broke out. Came
Speaker 6: right back to the hotel and all of a sudden
Speaker 6: we were under evacuation orders and we evacuated our hotel,
Speaker 6: and on my way back in, I saw the glow
Speaker 6: of the fire. It seemed pretty close. Looked like it
Speaker 6: was on the other side of Le Brea and the
Speaker 6: Running Cannon area. But yeah, it was a pretty scary
Speaker 6: sight to see on my way in and got to
Speaker 6: work and we safely evacuated our hotel.
Speaker 4: How many people are we talking? How many do you
Speaker 4: have to get out of there?
Speaker 6: Yeah we have. We have thirty nine rooms. We were
Speaker 6: about Yeah, we're about ninety five percent occupied last night,
Speaker 6: so a pretty full hotel with families and kids and luggage,
Speaker 6: you know, and going on onto Franklin Avenue, which was
Speaker 6: just packed as everybody was evacuating.
Speaker 1: It seemed like it was gridlock there through Hollywood, but
Speaker 1: it died down relatively quickly. It seems like everyone got
Speaker 1: out right away. Now, your area, much like we saw
Speaker 1: with the Palisades and the Alta Dina area, I mean
Speaker 1: Altadena kind of knew they were on the radar of
Speaker 1: the winds coming down from the mountains and the foothills.
Speaker 1: Pacific Palisades has that super large wild land area right
Speaker 1: above it. But it must have been a shock when
Speaker 1: when you heard the news that there was a fire
Speaker 1: encroaching on your area.
Speaker 6: It was a shock. We of course, we all hope
Speaker 6: for the best, for more of the of course, the
Speaker 6: hotel to be protected, and an historic club next door
Speaker 6: to be protected. It's funny, there was a there was
Speaker 6: an image going around and I started getting messages from
Speaker 6: all of the country, all over the world, Australia.
Speaker 3: There was a.
Speaker 6: Picture of the club with this glow behind it that
Speaker 6: looked like it was on fire. But the fire was
Speaker 6: actually about a half a mile away. But there was
Speaker 6: a scary site, not the club's first first run in
Speaker 6: with the fire.
Speaker 3: What's I mean, everything's fine.
Speaker 2: The evacuation orders were lifted a couple of hours ago,
Speaker 2: so today is going to be different. Do you just
Speaker 2: let people back in? How does that work trying to
Speaker 2: reoccupy the hotel?
Speaker 6: Absolutely, So we've we've been in communication with our guests
Speaker 6: via email and our Facebook page, keeping them, keeping them informeds. Like,
Speaker 6: the evacuation order was actually lifted at about twelve forty
Speaker 6: in the morning, so we notified everybody around that time.
Speaker 6: And right now as we speak, people are trickling back
Speaker 6: into the hotel, enjoying breakfast in our courtyard ard and
Speaker 6: things seem to be back to normal.
Speaker 2: In a situation like that, and the location that you're in,
Speaker 2: is this something that you had even planned for?
Speaker 3: Is there? Do you guys have procedures for this on
Speaker 3: a regular basis?
Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean absolutely, I mean we have, we have
Speaker 6: evacuation plans, you know, living in an earthquake country for
Speaker 6: you know, for sure, for sure. It just depends on
Speaker 6: the circumstance. So we send everybody to kind of the
Speaker 6: south end of Hollywood Boulevard, which was outside the evacuation
Speaker 6: so we were just on a cusp of the evacuation boundaries.
Speaker 6: So Hollywood Hills, Hollywood Hills High School was an evacuation center.
Speaker 6: The rose of the Hollywood Roads famous Roosevelt Hotel was
Speaker 6: not in the evacuation uh area, so we sent some
Speaker 6: people there. Some people stay there for the night.
Speaker 1: You guys had a fire there Halloween a handful of
Speaker 1: years ago.
Speaker 6: We did, Yeah, Halloween on a twenty eleven. God, I
Speaker 6: was the guy who hired the roofing company to redo
Speaker 6: the roof there. And yeah, a nice showman left the
Speaker 6: torch down a little too long and that's what started
Speaker 6: the fire. And yeah, there were no no injuries, but
Speaker 6: a whole lot of damage. And the firefighters did such
Speaker 6: an incredible job. I think it was one hundred and
Speaker 6: twenty six firefighters showed up to help save that historic building.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 3: Well good.
Speaker 2: I'm glad everybody's safe and I'm glad you guys are
Speaker 2: getting back to business. Darren Ross operates a Magic Castle
Speaker 2: Hotel over the just over the hill, right over there.
Speaker 3: Darren, thanks for your time again today. I really appreciate it.
Speaker 6: Thank you so much. Have a great morning. Man.
Speaker 4: That's quite the response. It's like, what five strike teams.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but the good news is that's that fires out.
Speaker 3: All those evacuations in that area have been left in.
Speaker 1: I was watching or listening to some of the television coverage,
Speaker 1: and it was.
Speaker 4: Like, oh, run and cannyon. I hike there every day.
Speaker 4: Well it's like, oh.
Speaker 2: Boy, it's a I was telling you off the air,
Speaker 2: like I I've slept for a long time last night
Speaker 2: because I was up all the night before, but I
Speaker 2: also slept in a home with a bed exactly.
Speaker 1: I mean. It's a very human thing to make something
Speaker 1: about you where you want to connect to somebody who's
Speaker 1: going through something, or I want to connect to anybody.
Speaker 3: I know how tired you are.
Speaker 1: But yeah, in situations like this, when that human condition
Speaker 1: to connect happens, sometimes it can come off the wrong.
Speaker 1: I do it all the time. See I just did it.
Speaker 1: We'll stay on top of the fire right here on
Speaker 1: Gary and Channer.
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 Lab.