Speaker 1: You're listening to Wake Up Call on Demand from KFI
Speaker 1: AM six.
Speaker 2: Forty KFI AM six forty Bill handle Here. It is
Speaker 2: a Tuesday morning, January fourteenth, and the weather is well,
Speaker 2: the winds are whipping up, and everybody is waiting for
Speaker 2: the news as to whether or not there'll be another
Speaker 2: fire starting. And boy, I hope not. They were as
Speaker 2: well prepared as we can be. And I'm talking about
Speaker 2: law enforcement, fire fighting, all of it. I want to
Speaker 2: share a story with you because already we're looking at
Speaker 2: people to blame. There's no way that this happened without
Speaker 2: someone to blame. Was it Mayor Karen Vass who was
Speaker 2: in Ghana? Had she been here, I guess it would
Speaker 2: have been better because of her vast firefighting experience and
Speaker 2: her decades of running fire departments. I mean, what would
Speaker 2: she have done. I would guess is she would just
Speaker 2: say hey to the fire departments and the officials, Hey,
Speaker 2: you guys, take care of this, right. I don't know
Speaker 2: anything about it. Nope, had she been here, it would
Speaker 2: have been better. Okay, how about the budget cuts to
Speaker 2: the LA Fire Department. Yeah, she cut seventeen million dollars
Speaker 2: And is that what really caused the problem. What had him?
Speaker 2: What would we have been much better off had we
Speaker 2: had extra fire people or more airplanes, more helicopters in
Speaker 2: the sky. Well, according to fire officials, no. First of all,
Speaker 2: when the winds are zipping along at fifty at one
Speaker 2: hundred and seventy one hundred miles an hour, there are
Speaker 2: no airplanes or helicopters in the sky. They don't exist
Speaker 2: for two reasons. First of all, it's way too dangerous
Speaker 2: for pilots. Second of all, whatever they drop, the winds
Speaker 2: are so intense that all of the fire retarnment of
Speaker 2: the water goes away. It never it can't hit the
Speaker 2: area that it's supposed to. Okay, so that's seventeen million
Speaker 2: dollars would have done it?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 2: Then, there weren't enough people on the ground. We should
Speaker 2: have had thousands of more firefighters on the ground anticipating
Speaker 2: what was going to happen. Okay, well, right now we
Speaker 2: have firefighters from Canada, from Mexico, from Arizona, from Washington,
Speaker 2: by the thousands. We should have had them already in
Speaker 2: place because we should have known that these fires were
Speaker 2: going to be this dangerous and this enormous. Okay, that
Speaker 2: would be a good thing to have.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: Well, the point is one of the reasons that people
Speaker 2: are not talking about is that home insurance isn't expensive enough.
Speaker 2: Wait a minute, how does that make sense. Well, home insurance,
Speaker 2: it's a trillion dollar industry, is built to identify risks.
Speaker 2: It's that simple. Here is the risk we are taking,
Speaker 2: and we are sharing that risk among our homeowners. And
Speaker 2: if we don't charge enough money, guess what, we can't
Speaker 2: cover it. And so what happens, Well, you have companies
Speaker 2: like State Farms and we're out of that. We're done.
Speaker 2: We're out of California. Can't afford to be here. California
Speaker 2: is really interesting. In nineteen eighty eight, that was Prop
Speaker 2: One oh three reducing home insurance rates by twenty percent.
Speaker 2: That's per law, and future rates increases have to have
Speaker 2: public oversight. Read the Insurance commissioner. Insurance companies can't raise
Speaker 2: rates without an insurance The Insurance commission Commissioner saying, Okay,
Speaker 2: he's elected. He runs for office, so believe me, it's
Speaker 2: a lot more important for him to get re elected
Speaker 2: than it is to protect homes. At least I think so.
Speaker 2: So low premiums encourage more Californians to live in the
Speaker 2: most dangerous areas. And it's just the way we build.
Speaker 2: We are built more homes against more areas that are
Speaker 2: fire prone. Read all those hills where the fire came
Speaker 2: down and destroyed thousands of homes. If rates were higher,
Speaker 2: people would think twice about building. I mean they are
Speaker 2: artificially low. You know when they're artificially low. When insurance
Speaker 2: companies say they can't do business in California anymore and
Speaker 2: they bail out, well no, you should stay here. Well,
Speaker 2: you can't force us to stay here. Now, you can
Speaker 2: force us not to charge additional money for our policies,
Speaker 2: but you can't force us to stay here. And so
Speaker 2: you have the insurance commissioner scrambling to get the three
Speaker 2: major insurance companies that bailed, and you're going to see
Speaker 2: the insurance commissioner didn't bitch at all about the fact
Speaker 2: that my insurance which lapsed last November, no November before last,
Speaker 2: when it lapsed and the insurance company doubled my policy
Speaker 2: literally one hundred percent more, I didn't see the insurance
Speaker 2: commissioner saying no, why because I got one company that
Speaker 2: was willing to ensure my home wasn't the same company
Speaker 2: because guess what, I had a state foreign policy and
Speaker 2: they weren't doing business in California anymore. So, just the
Speaker 2: way we build, just the way we ensure. And here's
Speaker 2: the bottom line. If the insurance companies don't charge enough, Now,
Speaker 2: let me tell you. I'm not sitting and saying insurance
Speaker 2: people should charge more money. Actually I am if you
Speaker 2: think about it, I like the idea of insurance, and
Speaker 2: insurance companies have to make money. I mean they have
Speaker 2: to make money. And you can argue that they're making
Speaker 2: exorbitant money. You can argue they're charging too much, and
Speaker 2: I come back at you and say that why did
Speaker 2: three companies leave California, the three major companies because they
Speaker 2: were making too much money? Is that why? So the
Speaker 2: way we deal with home insurance as well as the
Speaker 2: other problem is not only are we up against hillsides
Speaker 2: and we're building there, but our houses are wood stickhouses.
Speaker 2: You go back eat back East, it's all brick and masonry.
Speaker 2: Here it's all wood. And we don't do a very
Speaker 2: good job of fire proofing our house or fire resisting
Speaker 2: our house. I did a story yet yesterday about private
Speaker 2: firefighters that people could actually buy insurance and buy private firefighters,
Speaker 2: and there was a huge controversy about that, and I
Speaker 2: defended it well. One of the things that people pay
Speaker 2: for in private firefighting is fire proofing their homes, making
Speaker 2: it as fire resistant as possible, and that takes money.
Speaker 2: That takes real and the insurance companies should say, if
Speaker 2: you do a B and C, we're going to give
Speaker 2: you a break. They do that with auto insurance. If
Speaker 2: you're a good student, if you're a good driver, you
Speaker 2: get a break.
Speaker 3: All right.
Speaker 2: This Santa Anna win event, we were told, is life
Speaker 2: threatening and that happened two days I remember two days
Speaker 2: before the fires actually broke out. And we've had Santa
Speaker 2: Anna wins before. So why were we a unprepared for
Speaker 2: this or maybe there was no preparation possible?
Speaker 3: Hm.
Speaker 2: Brian Lewis, who is a meteorologist with the National Weather
Speaker 2: Services joining us. Thanks Brian for hanging with us for
Speaker 2: a few minutes. Explain what's the difference the difference between
Speaker 2: this Santa Ana event and previous ones.
Speaker 4: Yes, good morning, Thanks for having me. There was a
Speaker 4: little bit of a difference in terms of direction of
Speaker 4: the Santa Ana win event. They had more of a
Speaker 4: northerly component as opposed to our traditional more north east
Speaker 4: splash east wind components. So that's why it was able
Speaker 4: to kind of have this direction down into La. In
Speaker 4: addition to that these strong winds, we also had very
Speaker 4: strong winds a loft which created a mountain wave effect.
Speaker 4: And essentially the wind goes over the mountains and then
Speaker 4: creates a wave like pattern where it dips down and
Speaker 4: goes back up, which enhances the flow at the surface too.
Speaker 4: So those are the biggest differences compared to our normal
Speaker 4: sant Ana wind events.
Speaker 2: Yeah. One of the things I was listening to and
Speaker 2: watching an interview with a gentleman who lost his house,
Speaker 2: and he said he'd never seen anything like this. You
Speaker 2: normally see a fire moving up the mountain side up
Speaker 2: to the ridge. He said, this was the exact opposite.
Speaker 2: The fire was moving down the hill at this extraordinary
Speaker 2: speed and that I've never heard of before. Why would
Speaker 2: that be happening when it normally wouldn't happen during a
Speaker 2: Santa Ana event.
Speaker 4: Absolutely, the mountain waves are the biggest part of it.
Speaker 4: We did see wind guts upwards of one hundred miles
Speaker 4: per hour in some of these areas. With so, with
Speaker 4: winds that strong, it essentially creates enough force to move
Speaker 4: the fire the opposite way that we're used to, so
Speaker 4: downhill and down the mountain.
Speaker 2: And so and how often does this happen? Because I'd
Speaker 2: heard it is so rare, But in the last five
Speaker 2: years it's happened more times than it has in one
Speaker 2: hundred years. Is that true?
Speaker 4: I'm not sure about that. I know we were kind
Speaker 4: of comparing it to an event in twenty eleven that
Speaker 4: had some similar characteristics, not the same, but similar in
Speaker 4: terms of that, but in terms of this particularly dangerous
Speaker 4: situation that we were calling it. It has happened. We've
Speaker 4: used that verbiage four times since November and before that.
Speaker 4: The last time we used it was twenty twenty.
Speaker 2: I don't remember winds at one hundred miles an hour.
Speaker 2: I mean that's hurricane strength, that's a hurricane two level.
Speaker 2: And I've been here my whole life. How often does
Speaker 2: that actually happen?
Speaker 1: Quite rare?
Speaker 4: Again, comparing it to that twenty eleven event is kind
Speaker 4: of what we were looking at. I haven't seen it
Speaker 4: since I've been here. Significant winds they usually will see
Speaker 4: some areas at really high mountain elevations, maybe at mountain peaks,
Speaker 4: but it's extremely rare.
Speaker 2: And we expecting more of these in the near future.
Speaker 2: I mean, has climate change affected this to the point
Speaker 2: where it's going to be normal to have one hundred
Speaker 2: mile an hour winds occasionally?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm not sure about that, but we are, you know, expecting,
Speaker 4: you know, tonight into tomorrow morning, some pretty significant winds.
Speaker 4: The good news is it's more of a traditional Santa
Speaker 4: Ana direction, so it shouldn't impact the Palaced fire burn
Speaker 4: area too much. However, we are still expecting some extreme
Speaker 4: winds with really dry humidities and dry fuel moistures to
Speaker 4: impact Ventura County and western La County.
Speaker 2: All right, so when you I can see it coming
Speaker 2: down the mountains as the winds come. But how can
Speaker 2: it sustain itself at one hundred mile an hour winds
Speaker 2: across entire communities I'm talking about miles and miles like
Speaker 2: the Palace sads.
Speaker 4: Yeah. Absolutely, it's that upper level wind support that just
Speaker 4: keeps it going and it's just stayed in place for
Speaker 4: days there, which contributed to that sustained extreme wind extreme winds.
Speaker 2: All right, thank you very much for helping explain that.
Speaker 2: Jeene meteorologist Brian Lewis, Thank you much, Okay. I mean
Speaker 2: the bottom line is, as I understand it is, and
Speaker 2: this is where Neil and I got into it this morning,
Speaker 2: is this wind was so powerful that and of course
Speaker 2: Brian Lewis couldn't make that judgment that there was no
Speaker 2: way to really defend it. There's just no way to.
Speaker 2: If a fire starts, it's on its way and who's
Speaker 2: ever in its way just has to get the hell
Speaker 2: out of the way. That's it. You can't be anywhere
Speaker 2: near a fire like this, which is why you had
Speaker 2: all the specific alsays disappeared. Basically, the entire community is
Speaker 2: gone it. You know, they describe it as a war zone,
Speaker 2: and I described it as soon as I saw those
Speaker 2: photos that came out a day after the fire. When
Speaker 2: you aircraft could go up and actually take photos or
Speaker 2: video of what the community look like, it looked like Hiroshima.
Speaker 2: If you've ever seen a picture a photo of Hiroshima
Speaker 2: or Hiroshima after the momb was dropped, that's what it
Speaker 2: looks like. Everything flattened or parts of neighborhoods in Gaza
Speaker 2: where there's nothing left standing at all, and all you
Speaker 2: saw was foundation. And then when you go into other communities,
Speaker 2: for example, Altadena, which is a community it's not particularly wealthy.
Speaker 2: Pacific palis as it was all tons of money, but Altadena,
Speaker 2: the homes are older and the chimneys are the old
Speaker 2: fashioned chimneys, when chimneys were actually made out of brick
Speaker 2: all the way up and all you saw was just
Speaker 2: street after street, block after block of just standing chimney's. Yesterday,
Speaker 2: I heard a reporter describe it as just they look
Speaker 2: like tombstones that we're standing in a cemetery that was
Speaker 2: full of debris. I mean it was, and is that bad?
Speaker 2: So at this point, well, Amy, let me ask you
Speaker 2: real quickly, because you're paying attention this more than I am,
Speaker 2: because I'm doing the show and you're doing the news.
Speaker 2: Are we looking at anything happening with the winds that
Speaker 2: are increasing? Anything being reported?
Speaker 5: The winds haven't picked up too as strong as we're
Speaker 5: expecting them. We're expecting those fifty five to seventy miles
Speaker 5: per hour gust in the eastern Ventura County and western
Speaker 5: La County, but those have not materialized yet. There's some
Speaker 5: winds blowing, but they're not blowing super strong as we're
Speaker 5: expecting later today.
Speaker 2: Okay, so it starts what about noon, mid afternoon.
Speaker 5: Well, the highest are expected from now until noon tomorrow,
Speaker 5: so we've got you know, six hours.
Speaker 2: Yeah, lovely, just what we need. All right, Back we
Speaker 2: go to what's going on in light of the fires.
Speaker 2: A couple of stories that are opposite each other. One
Speaker 2: is the story of the gouging that's going on and
Speaker 2: the bad actors. And on the other side is the
Speaker 2: humanity of what's happening. People that are donating time and money.
Speaker 2: And if you look at sant Anita, the racetrack and
Speaker 2: the parking lot, it is so full of clothes and
Speaker 2: food and water is extraordinary. One of the good guy
Speaker 2: stories is an organization called Wings of Rescue. Jeane Gable,
Speaker 2: who's part of Wings of Rescue, is with us and
Speaker 2: Gene people don't know enough about your story, but it's
Speaker 2: one of the really good stories coming out of the
Speaker 2: f So explain to us what it's about and what
Speaker 2: you do.
Speaker 3: Well. Thanks Bill, We're really pleased to be on your show.
Speaker 3: Thank you very much, and thank you for highlighting the
Speaker 3: work we do Wings to rescue flies at risk pets.
Speaker 3: Sometimes that's from just overcrowded shelters that don't have room
Speaker 3: for them anymore, or they're high killed shelters. And often
Speaker 3: it is from disaster zones. We've fallen to hurricane zones.
Speaker 3: We've flown to earthquakes, we flew to a volcano eruption
Speaker 3: in Dominica. Wherever it's needed to move large numbers of pets,
Speaker 3: that's what we do. We charter large planes or we
Speaker 3: have a couple of planes we work with pilots on
Speaker 3: and we fill them up and we take pets that
Speaker 3: are already up for adoption. Have to be very clear
Speaker 3: about that. We get a lot of people saying, well,
Speaker 3: what happens if somebody wants to find their pet. We
Speaker 3: don't take lost pets. The whole point of this is
Speaker 3: that the shelters, like Pasadena Shelter has taken in over
Speaker 3: six hundred animals in the last two or three days,
Speaker 3: they have to have a place to put those and
Speaker 3: care for them while they wait for the owners to
Speaker 3: come and retrieve them. So we take existing pets that
Speaker 3: are already up for adoption and we bring them to
Speaker 3: shelters that have extra kennel space so that everybody wins
Speaker 3: and we never take pets to a shelter where there's
Speaker 3: any chance that they're going to be euthanized or till
Speaker 3: we don't work for shelters to do that.
Speaker 2: How far do you fly these pets?
Speaker 3: In this case, we took pets On Saturday. We took
Speaker 3: a load of pets to Utah to a big sanctuary
Speaker 3: there that Best Friends, which is a wonderful rescue group
Speaker 3: as and then on Sunday we took them to Seattle
Speaker 3: and Oregon on the Pacific Northwest has a gracious appetite
Speaker 3: for adopting pets, which is terrific, and they don't have
Speaker 3: enough local pets to meet that need, so they often
Speaker 3: have open kennel space. On this Saturday, we're taking two
Speaker 3: flights to Texas, and a lot of people are concerned
Speaker 3: because Texas does have some places and zones where there
Speaker 3: are too many pets. But we are only working with
Speaker 3: shelters that have open channel space and it's kind of
Speaker 3: a trioge situation. The rescue community is very willing to
Speaker 3: step up and take a couple of pets here and
Speaker 3: there if they can to help out. So that's what
Speaker 3: we do.
Speaker 2: And a couple of questions, I mean, extraordinary what you do.
Speaker 2: First of all, how do you excuse me, how do
Speaker 2: you figure out who gets business class and who gets
Speaker 2: coach when you fly these cats?
Speaker 3: Well, the people that load our planes are true and
Speaker 3: our CEO Crowdy, who is the guy who does a
Speaker 3: lot of that. He's very good. And there are there
Speaker 3: is a hierarchy, believe it or not. It has to
Speaker 3: do with weight in the airplane. So some pets get
Speaker 3: up front.
Speaker 2: I'm assuming that these planes are configured as cargo planes
Speaker 2: and you've got the crates that are loaded onto the planes.
Speaker 2: Do I have that right?
Speaker 3: Yes? They and they are cogo planes. So that also
Speaker 3: though all of our planes we fly are pressurized and
Speaker 3: temperature controlled, and the pets always fly in the main
Speaker 3: cabin with the pilot.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I would think so, otherwise they tend to explode
Speaker 2: when it's not pressurized. But the cost, I mean the
Speaker 2: cost of flying these pets. I mean this is not
Speaker 2: putting them on a truck. I mean that's a lot
Speaker 2: of money. It costs to fly pets around the country.
Speaker 3: It is expensive and unfortunately, in the last year or
Speaker 3: two it's gotten more expensive to the cost of fuel
Speaker 3: and the cost of everything has gone up. But one
Speaker 3: of the reasons that I think we can be successful
Speaker 3: is that we fly very large planes, relatively large planes
Speaker 3: for pet transport. So it's not unusual for us to
Speaker 3: fly one hundred hundred and fifty dogs and cats on
Speaker 3: a single flight. And when you amortize the cost over
Speaker 3: that many pets, it's not that bad.
Speaker 2: I'm assuming you're a nonprofit and you ask for people
Speaker 2: to help you. Is that correct.
Speaker 3: We are a nonprofit and people can go to wings
Speaker 3: or rest backslash donate or any place on our website.
Speaker 3: They'll find the button to donate, and we appreciate every
Speaker 3: dollar we get.
Speaker 2: Okay, let me get that again. It's Wings of Rescue
Speaker 2: dot com, slash dot org. Okay, wingso Rescue dot org
Speaker 2: and we'll put that on our website also with a
Speaker 2: link to it. Jane, you do great work and people
Speaker 2: don't really know enough about that. I mean, you think
Speaker 2: about this. You're flying pets all over the country to
Speaker 2: basically well keep them alive. It's a good thing.
Speaker 3: Jane. Thanks for joining us. We appreciate your exposure today.
Speaker 2: Sure kind of a need organization that really is chartering
Speaker 2: a plane? Yeah, that is not cheap. Stuff all right. Now,
Speaker 2: one of the big stories that were one of the
Speaker 2: stories that are coming out of the fire yesterday there
Speaker 2: was a report and this is true. We're starting to
Speaker 2: talk about the fact that prisoners are are on the
Speaker 2: fire line LA County prisoners and Chuck Lovers, who is
Speaker 2: my go to fire guy who is a friend of
Speaker 2: mine and has been for many years, actually ran those
Speaker 2: prison gangs for LA County. So Chuck, first of all,
Speaker 2: thanks for being here and explain how that works. And
Speaker 2: you know, I've got all kinds of questions like how
Speaker 2: do these prisoners even fight fires with those ball and chains,
Speaker 2: you know, dragging them along? How does this program work?
Speaker 1: Well, that's a large question. The first off, they come
Speaker 1: from the state, their state villains. We contract with the
Speaker 1: state for their use, and part of the contract is
Speaker 1: when we're not using them on emergencies, we actually are
Speaker 1: tasked with teaching them a skill so they have some
Speaker 1: kind of skill set when they parle. And that's where
Speaker 1: I came in because my background is architecture and I
Speaker 1: can build pretty much anything, and so, and you build
Speaker 1: a rapport with them when you're working on work projects,
Speaker 1: building every taining wall or repairing cement outside in front
Speaker 1: of a fire station. I used to teach them the
Speaker 1: math of the project, whatever it entailed. We start every
Speaker 1: project with the map, how we're going to do this,
Speaker 1: how do we figure out how much material? And from
Speaker 1: there we teach them how to fight fires.
Speaker 2: Also, yeah, that's the question.
Speaker 1: To be safe out there, right, they need training to
Speaker 1: be safe.
Speaker 2: All right, So let's talk about the training because you're actually, well,
Speaker 2: how much training does it actually take to put someone
Speaker 2: on the fire line, Because when we see a lot
Speaker 2: of people up there, these rows of firefighters, they're basically
Speaker 2: just digging and establishing fire breaks. There's more to it
Speaker 2: than that.
Speaker 3: Correct.
Speaker 1: Long before they get to us, we have a camp.
Speaker 1: The state has a camp called Sierra. It's up near Sacramento,
Speaker 1: and that's their fire training camp. And so they go
Speaker 1: through fire training and they learn how to deploy the
Speaker 1: fire shelters and the reasons behind them. They learn how
Speaker 1: to use the tools of the trade, and then they
Speaker 1: come to us and then we reinforce all of that.
Speaker 1: I'm responsible for all their individual training. So we learn
Speaker 1: how to you know, what signs to look for if
Speaker 1: we get into a bad situation where we might have
Speaker 1: to move out of the area. They all have to
Speaker 1: look up, they all have to make eye contact with me,
Speaker 1: and then we'll move out of an area. If a
Speaker 1: fire is going to to overtake us, and it's never
Speaker 1: happened with me, then we will stop. We will get
Speaker 1: rid of our tools and our packs, and we will
Speaker 1: deploy and put our fire shoulders on. All right.
Speaker 2: So, in terms of the prisoners, I gotta have a
Speaker 2: couple of questions. Is this something prisoners want to do?
Speaker 2: I know, the pay is extraordinary. It goes from normally
Speaker 2: eighty cents a day when you work, so like two
Speaker 2: dollars and eighty cents a day, which, of course you
Speaker 2: know they don't get paid or get paid very little.
Speaker 2: Number One is the benefit of doing this as a
Speaker 2: prisoner in the big picture when someone is released and
Speaker 2: are there more volunteers than people than you can use?
Speaker 1: Generally speaking, there's more volunteers than we could use. Correct,
Speaker 1: It is totally voluntary. It's hard work. But the venues.
Speaker 1: You know, part of the contract with the state is
Speaker 1: we have to then provide a facility to house them.
Speaker 1: And what we use in La County is a lot
Speaker 1: of the old Nike sites, the military Nike sites that
Speaker 1: ring in the hills above Los Angeles, and they're tailor
Speaker 1: made for what we need because they already have guard
Speaker 1: towers and concert in or wire. All that stuff is there,
Speaker 1: and we end dormitories, so the dormitories are generally better.
Speaker 1: A lot of times ton dormitories, we give them a
Speaker 1: higher calorie count because of the kind of work they're doing,
Speaker 1: so they get better food and they actually it out
Speaker 1: and they go out in the public, they see people.
Speaker 1: They're not just behind the prison walls anymore. So it's
Speaker 1: so good for them and if they're inclined, they can
Speaker 1: actually learn something.
Speaker 2: So there. I mean, do you have people you have
Speaker 2: prisoners that are out there out there in the public.
Speaker 2: Is there any fear of them taking a hike? Has
Speaker 2: it ever happened to you?
Speaker 1: It never happened to me. It's not that it doesn't happen,
Speaker 1: but it never happened to me. I just had a
Speaker 1: good rapport with my guys, and they for them, they
Speaker 1: wouldn't want to disrespect me.
Speaker 2: Wow. Yeah, I know you've We've talked spent so many
Speaker 2: hours doing this. The people that you select, is there
Speaker 2: any criteria that you use as to I'll take this
Speaker 2: guy and not that guy.
Speaker 1: Well, first off, we don't select. Everything's got to be
Speaker 1: racially balanced. And they you know, every Wednesday, a new
Speaker 1: bus would come in and you know, the guys that
Speaker 1: kind of got in trouble get rolled up or parole
Speaker 1: and we got new bodies. You know, we had we
Speaker 1: had four crews in camp, uh and so, and each
Speaker 1: crew has a total of fourteen men on it. And
Speaker 1: then we have in camp people that do the logistics,
Speaker 1: the you know the uh uh make sure the clean
Speaker 1: that toilets are clean and stuff like that because we're
Speaker 1: out working doing other projects.
Speaker 3: Uh and.
Speaker 2: So.
Speaker 1: Anyway, I don't pick they come and work.
Speaker 4: I do.
Speaker 1: I do suggest my crew leader go interview because they
Speaker 1: know the way I work, and we're gonna work. And
Speaker 1: everybody has to pull their own weight. And if you
Speaker 1: get a slacker that doesn't work, well.
Speaker 2: Uh chuck. As far as the quality of the firefighting
Speaker 2: ability to these prisoners, is it up to par as
Speaker 2: to the regular firefighters that you.
Speaker 1: Use, Well, when I was out there, I was type one.
Speaker 1: I could go anywhere. I didn't need supervision, So yes,
Speaker 1: uh you know. As far as as far as the
Speaker 1: the ICs system, is concerned. I could do anything that
Speaker 1: any of the other crews could do.
Speaker 2: Understood, But again, I'm just going to ask you, and
Speaker 2: maybe in misunderstood the quality of the firefighting teams that
Speaker 2: are prisoner teams versus the ones that are not. Are
Speaker 2: they up to standard or are they better? Are they worse?
Speaker 1: Well, every crew fluctuates up and down as personnel come
Speaker 1: and go. Okay, and and of course the other foreman
Speaker 1: has a lot to do with how a crew reacts.
Speaker 1: But I could put my crew up against any crew
Speaker 1: and hold arl right.
Speaker 2: You know, it's a great idea, and it takes people
Speaker 2: to know what the hell they're doing. Chuck, as always,
Speaker 2: thanks for taking the time, so appreciated anytime.
Speaker 1: Bill, and I appreciate talking about this subject that you know,
Speaker 1: they don't get enough recognition.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and they don't. All right, Chuck, thank you. And
Speaker 2: by the way, Chuck and I do spend I can't
Speaker 2: tell you how many hours we spent. The guy knows well,
Speaker 2: he was thirty years of the fire department. And you know,
Speaker 2: it's anything you have to know or anything I ever
Speaker 2: have a question about. He's right there, all right. This
Speaker 2: is KFI AM six forty Live right here on KFI
Speaker 2: Am six forty you've been listening to the Bill Handle Show.
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