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Life & Times Transcript

10/23/07

Val Zavala>> Tonight on Life and Times --

Wildfires are sweeping across southern California creating a record number of evacuees.

>> I just put water in the truck, the kids in the truck, the dogs in the truck and I just left everything else.

Val Zavala>> And then, which homes get protection and which ones are left to the whims of nature? Fire inspectors make their decisions in a matter of minutes. We'll show you what they look for.

It's all straight ahead on tonight's Life and Times.

Announcer>> Life and Times is made possible through the generous support of the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of medicine, health, science and education.

And by a generous grant from Jim and Anne Rothenberg.

Val Zavala>> They knew it would be bad, but they didn't know how bad until now. Wildfires are burning across southern California in Malibu, Canyon Country, Arrowhead, San Diego, Irvine. Schools and roads are closed. People are evacuated. Homes are lost and thousands of acres are blackened. Here's the very latest.

The death toll has now risen to six. Over eight thousand firefighters have been deployed. The fires continue to spread. Right now, they are fighting sixteen full-blown fires from San Diego to Ventura County. President Bush has declared a state of emergency in seven counties and plans to visit the state on Thursday.

Officials say there will be no break in the weather until at least tomorrow and are warning that the air is very unhealthy and continues to pollute the skies with smoke, gas and dust. KCET's Jeffrey Kaye has more.

Jeffrey Kaye>> There was little relief for firefighters and homeowners today as lines of fire advanced across southern California destroying more than a thousand homes, most in the San Diego area. Hundreds of thousands of people have fled their homes.

>> We're in what we call the perfect storm of fire conditions.

Jeffrey Kaye>> About a dozen fires are burning from north of Los Angeles down to the Mexican border scorching nearly six hundred square miles, an area larger than New York City. The fires are whipped by dry erratic Santa Ana winds.

Ron Roberts>> "We are entering day three of what appears to be one of the worst fires, probably the worst fire, in San Diego County history and easily one of the worst fires in the history of the state of California."

Jeffrey Kaye>> By this afternoon, two people had died in the California fires. More than forty-five people have been injured, eighteen of them firefighters.

>> "Sheriff's Department."

Jeffrey Kaye>> To encourage evacuations, officials have gone door to door and placed calls to residents in endangered communities.

>> I just put water in the truck, the kids in the truck, the dogs in the truck and I just left everything else. I just looked around and I thought none of this is very important. I got what's important.

Jeffrey Kaye>> Thousands of San Diego's evacuees headed to Qualcomm Stadium, home of the San Diego Chargers football team.

Sandra Pike>> I feel very confident. Nobody's breaking into the cars. Nobody's bothering anyone. Everybody has a smile and it's pretty cool.

Jeffrey Kaye>> Many camped out in the corridors around the field. Outside the stadium, volunteers offered evacuees an assortment of food and clothing.

Phillipe Jean Louise>> I've been here all morning. Between twelve and one, I've been here just unloading the trucks and getting food over here. Myself and a couple of other volunteers are just trying to make it happen for everybody else who's in need right now.

Jeffrey Kaye>> Where's the stuff come from?

Phillipe Jean Louise>> We have a lot of stuff coming from Ralphs. You have stuff coming from Wal-Mart, Vons. I mean, a lot of people bringing in their own personal stuff that they have saved up. Canned foods and other foods they've saved up at home. So you have a lot of volunteers donating stuff.

Jeffrey Kaye>> With communities throughout the San Diego area under mandatory evacuation orders, the Qualcomm Stadium was just one of the places people came to for refuge. Last night, in the community of Poway north of San Diego, many found safety in a Wal-Mart parking lot. Since this part of the county mixes suburbia with rural living, some came with their horses and livestock. How many horses do you have?

Dwight Kraich>> Just the one. This is my daughter's. She's in Australia and that's the only thing she wanted me to save.

Jeffrey Kaye>> And did you save anything else?

Dwight Kraich>> It doesn't matter. I got me and the horse and my wife. That's all I care about.

Jeffrey Kaye>> At another evacuation site in the town's community center, some residents were philosophical, given their experience with past wildfires. Kameron Wong lost a home in the region's last major blaze in 2003.

Kameron Wong>> We lost a house in Julian. That's the second house. That house was totally burned down, so this is the second time.

Jeffrey Kaye>> So what must go through your mind, going through this a second time?

Kameron Wong>> Well, we kind of been saying that's life. I mean, what can you do about it?

Jeffrey Kaye>> With so many people gone, many San Diego area neighborhoods and business districts look like ghost towns. Meanwhile, to the north, smaller fires merged into a larger one and at least a hundred sixty homes were destroyed in the mountain community of Lake Arrowhead east of Los Angeles.

Pilot>> "There are backfires just trying to burn off some of that fuel so the fire doesn't get to the structures."

Jeffrey Kaye>> Hundreds more homes and businesses from the mountains to the shores of Malibu were burned to the ground. Aircraft loaded water from area reservoirs and doused flames.

There was also new visual evidence on just how fast the fires spread. NASA released two photographs taken Sunday, the day the fire started. One just after the first blaze, and the other three hours later. Weary firefighters in southern California are stretched to the limits and relief is on the way.

Deputy Chief Steve Heil>> "There's a huge demand for resources and the fire is still outstanding and resource orders for additional fire engines, hand crews, bulldozers and aircraft."

Jeffrey Kaye>> Crews are arriving from surrounding states, including Washington and Nevada. Some Air National Guard troops from North Carolina are also en route. About fifteen hundred National Guard personnel, including two hundred diverted from the Mexican border, have come in to provide logistical support and security.

>> "It's the largest ever evacuations that we've ever had in California."

Jeffrey Kaye>> Federal aid is on its way as Homeland Security Department officials departed for the region this morning.

Michael Chertoff>> "We have been moving carts, blankets, other supplies, into the area of San Diego so that we can handle any necessity for additional sheltering capacity. We've also moved air assets to be poised to take flight when we do have the opportunity to deal with the fire once the winds begin to die down, and we're going to continue to move supplies and assistance in the area."

Jeffrey Kaye>> The National Weather Service reported those strong winds and high temperatures won't subside until tomorrow evening.

Val Zavala>> That report from KCET's Jeffrey Kaye. Now the National Guard became an issue in Washington, D.C. today. California Democrat Barbara Boxer charged that much of the Guard wasn't around to help firefighters here in California because of the war in Iraq.

Senator Barbara Boxer>> "Right now, we are down fifty percent in terms of our National Guard equipment because they're all in Iraq, half of the equipment. So we really will need help. I think all of our states are down in terms of equipment."

Dana Perino>> "We are a nation at war and, when you are a nation at war, you have to use assets that are available to you and sometimes those come from the National Guard. I haven't heard about those concerns specifically. The president has said that we will get them what they need to the extent that there is a hole in the system or not enough equipment. You can bet that the Defense Department and the president will be making sure that we provide what they need."

Announcer>> Kcet.org is the place to look for the very latest on Life and Times. You'll find previews of upcoming stories, plus transcripts and audio of past episodes and links to some of our most interesting features. Just go to kcet.org, scroll down the page and click on "Life and Times".

Val Zavala>> These last three days are what firefighters have been afraid of. Wildfires are burning across southern California from Malibu to San Diego. Hundreds of thousands of people have been evacuated and hundreds of homes lost and, with resources stretched so thin, firefighters have to make quick decisions about which homes to save and which homes to let go. Hena Cuevas our story.

Hena Cuevas>> Malibu resident Bill Brady knows just how quickly flames can move. He's been in the area for fifteen years and has lived through four fires.

Bill Brady>> The 1993 fire started eight miles away and it was here in two hours when it burned over. Actually, all this hillside behind me burned down in 1993.

Hena Cuevas>> He has a new fire-resistant roof, but he wants to make sure the flying embers don't get a chance to catch on. Have you been doing your brush clearing?

Bill Brady>> Yeah, maybe not enough. I only own a little over halfway up the hill, so if you'll notice, everything is cleared there. The rest of them are fruit trees and sunflowers. But, yes, that belongs to the fellow on the other side and, no, he hasn't been doing his brush clearing.

Hena Cuevas>> Clearing the brush around structures is the first thing a homeowner should do, but it's also about how it's built. This home, for example, complies with current fire building codes. Captain Cris Rowe from Long Beach says that makes tough decisions easier.

Captain Cris Rowe>> Houses are chosen on building construction features, clearance of combustible materials around the house and defensible space.

Hena Cuevas>> Rowe points out that the house is made of fire-retardant materials like stone and has a clay roof. Plus, there are no open vents in the soffits where embers could flow in and start an attic fire. The landscape around the house also helps. The owners have planted succulents providing additional moisture. There's even fake grass. They have a term for a house like this. It's called defensible.

Captain Cris Rowe>> You can see very, very defensible spaces right up close to the house. Nothing combustible up against it. And if you can get a view down the canyon, he's also cleared a defensible space two hundred feet down the canyon.

Hena Cuevas>> The current building codes were established in the 1990s after a series of fires raged throughout the state. Now after a decade of much discussion, new regulations will go into effect starting in January of 2008. These regulations update the current building code to keep things like this from happening again.

The tough new rules include using fire-retardant construction materials as well as dual-pane tempered glass for all exterior windows. Why not decide to protect another home that doesn't have them?

Captain Cris Rowe>> Well, as we can see, down in Esperanza, five firefighters were killed in a structure that was deemed non-defensible. So there is a risk analysis that we must make and, unfortunately, sometimes we have to choose our safety over a structure. We do not want to lose lives of our guys just for something that can be rebuilt later down the road.

Hena Cuevas>> The regulations aren't retroactive and only apply to new construction and major remodels. So it definitely pays to follow the building codes, the changes to the codes.

Captain Cris Rowe>> Absolutely. It makes our job much easier. The cost of the homeowner is insurance well-spent in the long run for him or her and it increases his safety and our safety as well.

Hena Cuevas>> For now, the biggest challenge facing firefighters is the wind. What are some of the challenges that the wind presents?

Edward Osorio>> Well, you know, like a giant bellow, the wind actually fans the flames. It causes the fire to burn with more intensity, more heat.

Hena Cuevas>> It blows embers which can ignite, and it has downed power lines leaving thousands without electricity.

Edward Osorio>> As you can tell, we're getting gusts of about eighty miles an hour right now. So it's going to make it really hard for our firefighters to keep their balance on these steep and rugged hills and have to fight the fire as well.

Hena Cuevas>> Those Santa Ana winds are expected to die down by Wednesday. Not soon enough for fire crews already stretched thin throughout southern California. How optimistic are you that the fire is not going to make it this way?

Bill Brady>> Well, I've been praying a lot. I don't know about how optimistic. I really don't know and I would hate to jinx myself, so I won't say.

Hena Cuevas>> I'm Hena Cuevas for Life and Times.

Val Zavala>> If you wait for a disaster to hit before you get ready, it's too late. Fire officials have told us time and time again to be prepared, yet few communities are. Well, we found one in Topanga Canyon that is a model for the rest of us. But as Bob Jimenez tells us, even they had to learn the hard way.

Bob Jimenez>> Welcome to Topanga, an old Native American word that means heaven. Locals have another word for it.

John Mac Neil>> This is what we call a perilous paradise. It has all the disasters that you can find anywhere.

Bob Jimenez>> Disasters, in fact, come with the territory and, because the area is so remote, folks like John have learned the hard way that to live in Topanga Canyon means being on your own even during a natural disaster.

>> "Looking for an update from your observation point. Update on the road conditions on Tuna Canyon."

Bob Jimenez>> These Topangans are conducting a drill, practicing for the next disaster.

>> "Kay, can you give me your exact location, please?"

Bob Jimenez>> They're volunteers for the Topanga Coalition for Emergency Preparedness, or T-CEP for short. T-CEP prepares for disasters and mobilizes when they hit. It's the only organization of its kind.

Pat Mac Neil>> "Write it down, give it to me. We'll give it to the radio room."

Bob Jimenez>> This is John Mac Neil's wife, Pat. She was one of a handful of people who came up with the idea of T-CEP. Pat has seen a wildfire or two in her time, but what she saw in 1993 was like no other. You didn't know where it was going. You got in your car.

Pat Mac Neil>> No. Nobody knew where it was going because of the way the winds were blowing.

Bob Jimenez>> The old Topanga fire was the most devastating blaze to ravage the canyon in sixty years.

Reginald C. Lee>> Normally, water puts out fire, but in this situation, no. This is basically a stampede of flames.

Patricia Moore>> It was the closest thing to hell I've ever seen.

Bob Jimenez>> Hundreds of buildings were destroyed. Three people died. More than five hundred firefighters were hurt. Pat Mac Neil was worried about her husband, John, who was working in a part of the canyon the flames were attacking and she went to warn him.

Pat Mac Neil>> Because I knew there wasn't anybody there but him and I was concerned that he would not know that there was a fire because we didn't know where it was going. I got to him and I yelled for him. He would have been trapped in there.

Bob Jimenez>> Fear, chaos and misinformation made for a lot of confusion.

Pat Mac Neil>> I can remember getting a phone call from somebody when I was at my house and they said that an area called Intrado was on fire. I had a perfect view of it and I said, "No, it's not."

Bob Jimenez>> Pat claims that the media was more interested in the wow factor than the facts.

Pat Mac Neil>> In many, many cases, the media was wrong and it was from that lesson that we learned that we had to figure out a way to better be able to communicate to the people in Topanga.

Bob Jimenez>> That way was to take matters into their own hands. They set up their own emergency communication center.

>> "K3TDC for YXH."

Bob Jimenez>> Here's how it works. In a disaster, T-CEP stations one of their own right at command central. That way, they learn what's happening straight from police and firefighters on the scene. They also get updates from their volunteer disaster radio team.

They drive around the canyon reporting incidents like closed roads. Even individual neighborhoods are connected by radio. Result? The community has accurate information during an emergency. A big test came in 1996 when another nasty wildfire hit the area.

Pat Mac Neil>> We were open for thirty-six hours. We never left. We slept there.

Bob Jimenez>> Then the rain and floods came and T-CEP proved itself again. Officials took notice.

Reginald C. Lee>> They were going out and actually locating the streets that were flooded and trying to help people out. They were doing that on their own. We were helping out, but they were actually giving us information on what we needed.

Bob Jimenez>> Not only was the community helping itself and the fire department, but the county began to see them as a model for other communities. Step one? Create a Topanga Disaster Survival Guide. It includes things you'd expect to see like home safety checklists, but also sections on protecting animals and a local actor's interpretation of terrorist threat levels.

A unique part of the plan is the designated survival areas, many on private property. It's where people huddle together and wait during an emergency if they can't evacuate. One of those places is Patricia Moore's back yard. Did you really want to do it? I mean, would you prefer not doing it?

Patricia Moore>> Having been through the 1993 fire, I saw the fear in the people and they felt safer here. I think when there's a major disaster, especially a fire, you want to help.

Bob Jimenez>> That's always the way it's been here in Topanga. If you live here, love the paradise, but deal with the peril.

Val Zavala>> That story from Bob Jimenez of California Connected. And if you'd like the latest on the fires, you can go to the website for the Los Angeles County Fire Department at fire.lacounty.gov.

Announcer>> To send a comment or a question to our program, you can reach us by mail at this address:

Life and Times
4401 Sunset Blvd.
Los Angeles, California 90027

You can also call our viewer comment line (323) 953-5555) or contact us the fast way by e-mail at kcet.org.

Val Zavala>> The hot Santa Ana winds that touched off these wildfires across southern California is one thing, but what has made this fire season even worse is the fact that we're in a drought, a drought that shows no signs of letting up. Hena Cuevas talks with climatologist Bill Patzert of JPL.

Hena Cuevas>> Two years ago, we had record rain and we had one of the wettest winters in Los Angeles, so why a drought now?

Dr. Bill Patzert>> Well, two years ago, that was a real soaker. It was a record, but since then, it's been very, very dry in southern California. Of course, this year it's going to be another record, but a dry record. In actual fact here, we've only had 3.2 inches of rain this winter in Los Angeles, so I'm about ready to award the famous Bill Patzert ChapStick Trophy for the driest year ever going back to 1877.

Of course, we've had gigantic fire seasons. But is there really a drought in southern California? Well, the national forests are definitely on their knees and the brush has never been this dry this early in the season.

As we look ahead here, we really have to be vigilant because the forecast for the west is literally incendiary and we've already seen a preview of coming attractions at Griffith Park and Catalina Island and this is only a preview of coming attractions. So the situation is dire. It's literally incendiary.

Hena Cuevas>> It also has a progressive effect on the plants, then, because every year that it's dry, they get drier and become much more flammable.

Dr. Bill Patzert>> Well, droughts are very insidious, you know. I always say that you creep into a drought very slowly and you crawl out of a drought even more slowly. The drought might not be as photogenic as a big wet and wild rain year like we had two years ago, but its impact on the environment and the economy is definitely more devastating. It's been building here for seven years.

We're dry, all right? We're very, very dry. We've never been this dry this early in the season. Of course, the big rains of two years ago, the impact of that today is that they really fueled up the chaparral in the national forests. So that great rain season that we had two years ago was really just a fuel builder for what we're facing this summer.

Hena Cuevas>> How so?

Dr. Bill Patzert>> You have a big rain year two years ago and, of course, that gives you a spurt in the national forests, in the grasses and the chaparral and then, two years later when it's been so very, very dry like this past winter, all that is is the buildup of the fuel supply. Remember that the great fires are three things.

They're fuel which were definitely fueled up and dried out. They're meteorology and this winter we've had an abnormal number of Santa Ana winds. Of course, the result has been a lot of fires. And, of course, the third component of a fire is ignition. That can be accidental. It can be natural like lightning or, in many cases in southern California, it's wacko pyromaniacs. There's twenty million of us and there's plenty of wacko pyromaniacs.

Hena Cuevas>> You talk about long-term. What does that mean? What do you mean by long-term drought?

Dr. Bill Patzert>> Well, when we look at the history of the west, the normal condition really in the west is dryness because we have more dry years than wet years. So I always say, when in doubt, vote for drought in the west. We've seen ten years, twenty years, thirty years, we've even seen looking back in the historical record, we've seen fifty-year droughts in the west.

The twentieth century was relatively benign in terms of drought, but the twenty-year drought is certainly probable and the fifty-year drought is very possible looking ahead into the future.

Hena Cuevas>> But the reality is that we do live in a desert, so why is this news?

Dr. Bill Patzert>> Ironically, in a place that's semi-arid, there are twenty million of us using water like there's no tomorrow. For instance, we over-water our lawns in Los Angeles by six feet a year, all right? And the twice a week car wash is definitely the norm. So what a great irony in a place that has no weather, we're more water than we can sensibly use.

Hena Cuevas>> Dr. Bill Patzert from JPL, thank you very much for this very interesting information.

Dr. Bill Patzert>> Well, it's always a pleasure to be on KCET. Thank you.

Val Zavala>> Go to kcet.org for the latest headlines on the fires and links to other resources. And that's our program. I'm Val Zavala. Thanks for watching. We'll see you next time.

Announcer>> Life and Times was made possible through the generous support of the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of medicine, health, science and education.

And by a generous grant from Jim and Anne Rothenberg.

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