Speaker 1: You're listening to Later with Mo Kelly on demand from
Speaker 1: KFI AM six forty with Kelly OKAM sixty.
Speaker 2: This fire is Different.
Speaker 3: I'm Weathered host Miami and we're on the ground talking
Speaker 3: to survivors, first responders, and experts. We're living through one
Speaker 3: of the worst fires in American history to see what
Speaker 3: happened and how the people of LA are fighting back
Speaker 3: and adapting to a hotter, drier, and more dangerous reality.
Speaker 3: Weather Inside the LA Firestorm.
Speaker 4: KFI AM six forty, It's Later with Mo Kelly. We're
Speaker 4: live everywhere in the iHeartRadio app premiering tonight at ten
Speaker 4: pm on PBS. Weathered Inside the LA Firestorm examines the
Speaker 4: root cause of the LA wildfires and uncovers what communities
Speaker 4: can do to better prepare for future disasters. Hosted by
Speaker 4: storyteller and whether Expert Miami, the special interviews of survivors, scientists,
Speaker 4: first responders, and public officials will hopefully help us understand
Speaker 4: the history and science behind the urban firestorms here in
Speaker 4: the US. Miama joins me now on the show. Maya,
Speaker 4: thank you for coming on tonight. How are you. I'm good,
Speaker 4: HWI Dan, I'm doing well, but I have a particular
Speaker 4: interest in this story that you're going to tell, because
Speaker 4: I know that my reference point is skewed. I live
Speaker 4: in LA. I was covering these fires as it happened,
Speaker 4: but I also probably was too close to it to
Speaker 4: have adequate perspective. How did you approach this or view
Speaker 4: this as you began researching the fires, I.
Speaker 5: Was like many people, most people not in La, watching.
Speaker 3: From Afar and being horrified at what I was seeing.
Speaker 3: But luckily, and a lot of people don't realize this,
Speaker 3: the director of our show, he is a fire expert,
Speaker 3: and this special wasn't like we didn't have our We
Speaker 3: don't do these types of specials normally, but PBS knew
Speaker 3: that we our whole our show is directed by this
Speaker 3: you know, amazing journalist who's done a lot of work
Speaker 3: on wildfires. He's created a fire feature film as well,
Speaker 3: and they trusted us to tell this story and he.
Speaker 5: Led a lot of of what you know, we talk.
Speaker 2: About in the show.
Speaker 3: Obviously he's the director, but yeah, he led the charge here.
Speaker 3: But for me, just you know, as as the communicator
Speaker 3: and the messenger for this story, it was very interesting.
Speaker 3: There's a lot of mixed emotions. I learned a lot.
Speaker 3: The main thing being that these types of disasters don't
Speaker 3: have to happen, and and there are things, very small things,
Speaker 3: fairly inexpensive, things that we can do to harden our homes.
Speaker 3: That's really the main thing that we can do to
Speaker 3: stop large scale urban fires from happening on a large scale.
Speaker 3: Very easy things that we can do. And I'm excited
Speaker 3: for people.
Speaker 5: To see the film and get this very useful information.
Speaker 4: Correct, but if I'm wrong, but they're probably two facets
Speaker 4: to this. Yes, there's things that we can do individually,
Speaker 4: as you mentioned, like to harden our homes. But we've
Speaker 4: also seen all sorts of extreme weather events in recent years.
Speaker 4: In fact, the Midwest and South are dealing with it
Speaker 4: right now. What are we seeing in a weather or
Speaker 4: climate since that we've not seen in previous decades before.
Speaker 3: In terms of this story and this particular event weather
Speaker 3: event being the wildfires, is temperature and that plays.
Speaker 2: A role in quite a few of the.
Speaker 3: Crazy natural disasters that we've experienced in recent years.
Speaker 5: In recent months and weeks.
Speaker 3: I don't know about the line of storms that came
Speaker 3: through this weekend that always happens, you know, severe weather.
Speaker 3: There's a lot more research that needs to be done
Speaker 3: to kind of attribute rise in tornadoes, for example, to
Speaker 3: climate change.
Speaker 2: But we know that.
Speaker 3: Increased temperatures as it relates to the fire that happened.
Speaker 5: In La play the role.
Speaker 2: When you have a warmer atmosphere, it sucks.
Speaker 5: More moisture out of the vegetation.
Speaker 3: And California before twenty twenty four experienced two really wet years.
Speaker 2: You had these really wet years.
Speaker 3: You had all this vegetation that resulted from those wet
Speaker 3: years being dried out.
Speaker 2: As we entered into.
Speaker 3: The summer of twenty twenty four, I don't think you
Speaker 3: guys can't get any rain for eight months.
Speaker 5: So on top of the there was no rain, you have.
Speaker 3: Increased temperatures, and we know temperatures are increasing on average.
Speaker 3: That also contributed to the drying out of these fuels and.
Speaker 2: That is what fed the fire.
Speaker 3: And again once it once it reached urban communities, it
Speaker 3: was just it was like a runaway freight train.
Speaker 5: There was really nothing that could have been done.
Speaker 3: Lot of the weather aspect that played a role here,
Speaker 3: and that play continues to play a role on large scale.
Speaker 4: Let's talk more about that, and let's talk about these
Speaker 4: La fires. Investigations are ongoing, and blame is going to
Speaker 4: be pars that. I'm not going to put that on
Speaker 4: your shoulder. But in your conversations in whethered inside the
Speaker 4: LA firestorm, what were some of your other observations, your analyzes,
Speaker 4: what if any other conclusions have you arrived at?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 3: So, I mean everyone was talking about the lack of resources, right.
Speaker 3: There were a lot of people that were very angry,
Speaker 3: and that happens. I think that's human nature. After a
Speaker 3: prett ezy disaster like this, you know, people naturally are
Speaker 3: going to want to point the finger.
Speaker 5: How what happened here?
Speaker 2: Someone had to have dropped the ball.
Speaker 3: And I made a point to ask every single fire
Speaker 3: official that I spoke to, every climate scientist, would there
Speaker 3: have been enough resources to stop this fire once.
Speaker 2: It reached urban communities? And the answer is no.
Speaker 3: There wouldn't have been enough firefighters, there wouldn't have been
Speaker 3: enough water, there wouldn't have been enough force management that
Speaker 3: could have helped once it reached that first home in
Speaker 3: those conditions, because our communities weren't building in a way
Speaker 3: to be resilient to these climate related disasters that we're seeing.
Speaker 4: That's a question of infrastructure and planning, and maybe we
Speaker 4: would not have been able to change the end result.
Speaker 4: But is there a conversation to be had about what
Speaker 4: we could have done better or should have done better
Speaker 4: before it got to those urban communities, Because I think
Speaker 4: we all can agree once it got to the urban communities,
Speaker 4: it was all over at that point and nothing could
Speaker 4: be done. But from what you've seen, you've experienced, your conversations,
Speaker 4: was there something that could have been done in this
Speaker 4: particular occasion without calling out any particular names, that might
Speaker 4: have alleviated some of the subsequent disaster.
Speaker 5: I don't.
Speaker 3: I don't believe in this situation. I mean, like I said,
Speaker 3: the conditions were.
Speaker 5: Just so so primed.
Speaker 3: Imagine doing forest management for thousands and thousands and thousands
Speaker 3: of acres.
Speaker 5: In this eight month period leading up to the disaster.
Speaker 2: I know, I know, like I.
Speaker 3: Know, you know, we want to point to, you know,
Speaker 3: some person, some human. Mother Nature is fierce, and we're
Speaker 3: seeing that. I think we're seeing just how relentless Mother
Speaker 3: nature is in the face of our changing climate. Like
Speaker 3: I said, there's just so much built up vegetation from
Speaker 3: those two years, those those extremely wet years, that that
Speaker 3: California experienced and then once we got to that drought,
Speaker 3: I mean there's just not much that could have been
Speaker 3: done once we had that red flag warning.
Speaker 2: I mean people were predicting it. All you needed at
Speaker 2: that point.
Speaker 5: Was was a arc and you know people, people knew
Speaker 5: this was going to happen.
Speaker 3: So yes, yes, like we definitely need to be thinking
Speaker 3: about more resources in that sense. Yes, we need more firefighters,
Speaker 3: more water, you know, better better management of land in
Speaker 3: that sense.
Speaker 2: But I think the biggest conversation that.
Speaker 3: Needs to come out of the special is adaptation and
Speaker 3: how we are building and where we're where we're building.
Speaker 3: Mother Nature is going to mother nature either way. But
Speaker 3: how can we continue to build in a way that
Speaker 3: humanity can thrive on this planet?
Speaker 5: I think that needs to be the conversation.
Speaker 4: By later tonight, right after our show at ten pm
Speaker 4: on PBS, Weathered Inside the LA Firestorm, hosted by journalists,
Speaker 4: weather expert, storyteller, Science Communicator. You got a lot of titles,
Speaker 4: got a lot of titles, but you've earned them all
Speaker 4: Science Communicator.
Speaker 2: We'll go with Science Communicator and that's that's going.
Speaker 4: Thank you for coming on tonight.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 4: It's Later with mo Kelly caf I AM six forty
Speaker 4: Live everywhere in the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1: You're listening to Later with mo Kelly on demand from
Speaker 1: KFI AM six forty