The Highwire with Del Bigtree - ON THE GROUND UPDATE FROM LOS ANGELES FIRES

Episode Date: January 11, 2025

Disaster relief specialists, Steve Slepcevic & John Knox, join Del from ground zero of the California fires with heroic details of the first responders fight to save homes and tough questions about the colossal failure of government leadership in funding to help prevent and fight these kinds of disasters. Hear critical information on how you can help in the staggering relief.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-highwire-with-del-bigtree--3620606/support.

It's being described in many sort of descriptions as a hellscape, an inferno, hell on earth. Many of us are making calls to loved ones and people that we know that find themselves in the middle of this incredible tragedy. It's unfolding right before our eyes. Of course, I'm talking about the incredible images of the fires that are happening right now in Los Angeles that look something like this. Breaking news out of Southern California, where dangerous and fast news, moving wildfires are currently raging in Los Angeles. The Palisades fire hitting the affluent Malibu in Pacific Palisades areas. Then there's the Eaton fire ripping through the neighborhoods of Altadena, Pasadena, and other surrounding towns.

And tonight the sunset fire encroaching on the Hollywood Hills, the Hollywood Bowl, and the Dolby Theater, where the Oscars are held. A severe drought and fierce Santa Ana winds, some gusting to 90 to 100 miles per hour that made for a dead deadly and horrific combination here, turning parts of Los Angeles County into a hellscape in just 24 hours. The Palisades fire exploding to more than 15,000 acres. 75 mile per hour winds overnight, pushing the flames up the Pacific Coast Highway, where it overtook the iconic city of Malibu. The normally stunning Pacific Coast Highway, unrecognizable. Fire raging on both sides, destroying businesses and homes.

Here on PCH. Here in Altadena, home after home after. Home after home after home of beachfront properties are completely destroyed. You have entire neighborhoods that have been reduced to rubble. All of PCH is on fire right now. And it's like driving through hell itself down here. This area of Altadena has become an absolute wasteland. You've got rows and rows of homes that have burned.

You've got some homes are still standing, but it's just a matter of time. This is really neighbors helping neighbors. You see some here. with garden hoses doing what they can as firefighters have been stretched incredibly thin in these neighborhoods. Last night was one of the most devastating and terrifying nights that we've seen in any part of our city at any part of our history. This is considered one of the worst fires or the worst fire in the history of Los Angeles

and it will likely end up being one of the worst fires in the history of this state and this country. I can say personally that those images, you know, bring up, you know, I guess feelings of PTSD. As many of you know back during the Woolsey fires in 2018, my wife and I and our family lost our home in the Malibu, the Woolsey fires. And my heart goes out to everyone that's going through this experience. I know firsthand what it's like. And, you know, we are lucky, as so many are today, that are getting out with the lives of their children and their own lives and their animals. That is what's important. But, you know, there's so many things you just never get back.

The memories, you know, the photos, the family photos, the kids' art that they've brought out, you know, brought through the years for us, you know, the ultrasounds and things, those images that you had going through the birthing process. So I just, you know, really our prayers with everybody. We're joined by the head of strategic response partners in our good friend Steve Slepsvick and firefighter John Knox right now from the area. Now we're at the top of the hill. We've got a little bit of a rough feed, but we'll see if we can at least get a sense of what's going on there. Steve and John, I want to thank you for taking time. I don't want to take too much time. I know there's so much work to be done.

but, you know, boots on the ground. What are we looking at? How bad is it? I mean, it looks terrible in the news. I'm hearing worst fire in L.A.'s history. Is that how it stacks up from your perspective? Yeah. Thanks for having us on, Dale.

You know, being a firefighter for 23 years with the city of Los Angeles, working arson and a lot of difference in the city of Los Angeles, I've never seen anything like this. You know, back in 2011-12, we had a serial arsonist that over a period of a couple days did about a hundred different structure fires. But this is worse from the standpoint as far as loss-wise. You know, there's a lot of issues, a lot of questions to be asked right now as to what's going on. You know, the beautiful city of Pacific Palisades is absolutely completely completely clear. I mean, it looks like Lahaina 2.0. Wow.

There's literally not standing but the fire station, which is miraculous as well. You know, and this goes from Santa Monica, basically the edge of Santa Monica all the way up to into Malibu. So, you know, it's looking about 17,000 acres just for, as of right now, for the Palisades fire. You know, there was a lot of issues with dry hydrants. There's a lot of questions as to why that is. is, you know, there should be, we should never happen. Did you a lot of department of water and power, you know, from, from leadership aspect to me, is a complete to allow this type of tragedy to happen.

Steve, you, you were out there in Lahaina, you have been through fires, you go to disaster areas. From your perspective, you know, how does this, are there. similarities to what you saw in Lahaina and you know what is how much containment are we looking at right now i mean you're looking at this is like a hundred wolsey fires wrapped up into one the breath and the depth of this damage is so widespread complete neighborhoods completely destroyed what what's going to happen is that when people wake up and start to realize that there's coastal commission issues on permitting when they realize that getting on back on the property, there's toxic ash and all types of carcinogens that are part of the ash.

So it's important that people know how to re-approach these properties. Having their insurance policies properly reviewed, making sure they put security on it, and that they have a hazmat team that removes any valuables from one secure location on a chain of custody to another secure location. Literally, the place we're at right here is just to give you kind of a perspective. This just gives you an idea. Like this is an active, I mean, these fires just continue, right? So you can see the whole canyon behind me here is just ongoing.

The level of damage that I've seen. It's massive, it's really massive. When you, you know, for people that are going through this, I've been lucky that I have you as a friend through the issues we had, and you immediately said, get a lawyer. You need, in order for these insurance claims to go through, what is your recommendation right now? Because obviously, this is going to be, you know, very, very difficult, I would think, for the insurance companies to handle. I mean, it's so big.

But you find yourself in this queue. I remember standing the lines for the FEMA, you know, help and things like that. that, you know, what do you do right now? I mean, even if you're, you're probably staying in a shelter or you're at a friend's house, which I remember, it was so difficult having our kids and sleeping on couches and you feel like you're burdened and you know your friends are trying to help you, but you just want some stability. But are there things you have to think about just right in these first hours as the computers are filling up, the phone lines are filling up, that that will help you get ahead, you know, in the situation?

Yeah. So first and foremost, if you have insurance, look at that policy, have it reviewed. I always say have the best private adjuster who's going to advocate for you, get involved. One of the best companies, I'm just going to share their Nilein adjusters. Skyline adjusters is one of the best companies out there. Have them review it. Know that you may be entitled to a third party claim, like the water reservoirs not being full, the fire hydrants being empty. Could be some other issues like that has to do with California Edison. Those are third-party claims that the attorneys will get involved in.

The other part of it is your house is still standing. Have it properly tested by an environmental consultant. Put in commercial air scrubbers. Have it completely deconged. Do a 360th exterior check for burnt embers on the roof. Look for attic ash that's in the attic. Remove all the attic insulation, hepavac, everything. Wipe all the walls down.

Have the electronic restoration inspected. Have your contents that are soft good properly done by professional restoration contents company that can actually ozone the stuff. And then before you put it back into a contaminated house, have the environmental consultant do exit testing. It's not a good enough where these insurance companies tell you, it's like nothing ever happened. And then the guy that comes out to do your exit testing, your environment, Ray Charles, that's who shows up. Everything's fine, right? So very selective, be very careful on who you choose. If people are looking for recommendations on who to use, that's qualified, that's reputable, that's going to take care of all your listeners, have them reach out to me.

I'm happy to assist on that. And I want to touch upon another thing. Right now, think about all the firefighters that are out of work as a result of these Vax mandates, right? John Knox, one of them. The guys from FD&Y, Bravest for Choice. They were on the phone with me yesterday, putting people on flights to come out here to volunteer for the private fire side of it. So in this catastrophe, if your clients are going to go anywhere, right, have them donate to firefighters for freedom, have them donate to Bravest for Choice, just support these guys because these guys are putting out these volunteer firefighters out here to help just everybody, not just those that have money, right? So here we go again, Helene, Maui, and like the guy said on your, it's neighbor helping neighbors.

So you've got professionals that are out of work and these whole DEI programs, this whole. mismanagement is again showing people that they cannot count on government or state officials that are not qualified for the job, right? Yeah. And if those that are out there for the people that are not covered, there's also the give send go, SRP 24 SRP that could be done to it. But the most part of it is I'm just looking to help people. That's what we all are here for. It's really to get people through this chaos, through this crisis, navigate a path so they don't get taken advantage of because that's the disaster after disaster. You know, Dale, I just want to put one thing in here that I feel is really important.

The boots on the ground, the actual, you know, firefighters that are on the ground and working, man, law enforcement, everyone in that aspect, they're doing a tremendous job with what they have. You know, for the LAFD, we, you know, we've been short staffed for a long time. They just cut funding again, you know, $20 some odd million dollars out of the budget. for the year. You know, they stopped hydrant testing. They've done a lot of things that, you know, and this all comes from upper management and from the city, from the mayor, you know, but the guys that are on the ground, the firefighters, the police officers, they're doing what they're

supposed to do and they're improvising and they're doing the best they can. This is an actual overwhelming fire, you know, and in the city of Los Angeles, we don't only have the city of, you know, the Palisades fire. You know, you've got the sunset fire that happened last night, right? Up in Runyon Canyon, you know, they did a good job on that and didn't lose as many houses. They've got the haze fire out in Van Nuys at the 210 and the, you know, the five freeway there. Yeah, we're looking at footage right now as we're trying to get the signal back. Yeah, I mean, we're hearing reports of it being too windy early on for the aircraft.

have to fly. It looks like the wind has calmed down as we're speaking with Steve Slesifik and John Knox. It looks like we have them back. Hey, guys, I want to play one of the interviews of Gavin Newsom by Anderson Cooper in the middle of this fire and just ask you a couple questions really quick. Let's take a look at this. What is the situation with the water? Obviously, and Palisage ran out last night in the hydrants. I was trying to firefighter in this block. They left because there was no water in the hydrant here. The local folks are trying to figure that out. I mean, just when you have a system that's not dissimilar what we've seen in other extraordinarily large-scale fires, whether it be pipe, electricity, or whether it just be the complete overwhelm of the system.

I mean, those hydrants are typical for two or three fires, maybe one fire. You have something at this scale. But again, that's going to be determined by the local. I mean, there, I don't know if you could hear, but Gavin Newsom is basically saying the locals are going to have to figure out why there was no water in the fire hydrants. John, when we went through the Malibu fires, this is exactly what we had there. Within hours, no water in the fire hydrants. As a resident in Malibu, you pay for a fire line. Very expensive, actually, just to make sure there's water there.

And once again, we see that there's no water in these fire hydrants. And it just seems like to have the same issue, fool me once, you know, shame on me, Foam me twice, what are we talking about? I mean, how are they not working out this issue of keeping water in the fire hydrants? And more specifically, John, what is it like for a firefighter who is doing their job out there, risking their lives to attach that water, get there, and just watch the water not come out of that hose? What is that like for a firefighter in the middle? What is the emotion around that? Yeah, you broke up some. You know, we've got bad reception, but off of your last question there, it's actually terrifying.

You know, you're tasked to do a job and when you get out there and you attach to a hydrant and you're expected to, you know, protect these structures, people's livelihoods, and you don't have water, that's a problem. You know, now you're in a very, and one of the things we don't want to do is take victims to victims, right? And so again, this goes back to poor leadership. poor city planning, it's not like anybody knew that city of Palisades was in a heavily, you know, brushy area or whatever. And so, you know, I'm hearing different things that the tanks weren't filled, that we lost electricity. Well, if we lost electricity, and that caused an issue because they're on pumps, why isn't there a backup system? You know, there's a lot of questions that need to be asked, and somebody really needs to press the mayor, the Department of Water and Power, the fire chief, you know, why weren't hydrant testing done in January like it is every year.

They said because of budget cuts, but, you know, we don't spend extra money on that. We do that every day at the fire station throughout the month of January. So there's a lot of unanswered questions, you know, and why the money is continually being rerouted to the homeless situation here in Los Angeles. And yet the homeless situation continues to get worse, you know, they're diversed. converting money from all of our budgets in the fire department, the police department, everywhere going to this situation. So somebody really needs to start asking these hard questions and holding these leaders or so-called leaders, you know, people in those positions, accountable for the lack of what

we're seeing right now. You know, services that these taxpayers are paying for, right? You know, water systems that should be working. You know, you've got water and power saying, well, it's, you know, it's. not designed to do well you know that California has been prone to wildfires why aren't we upgrading it why aren't we doing you know things that need to be done for critical infrastructure a lot of questions uh well look I don't want to hold you guys up yeah yeah yeah go ahead go ahead I just again I think we cut out I really want to emphasize that the boots on the ground the

firefighters the police officers what they're doing is tremendous you know what you're actually seeing is a failure in the leadership roles of everywhere, you know, across the country at this point. And it's not just here in Los Angeles. So, you know, thank you and know that these firefighters and police officers, first responders are doing the best they can with the resources they have. They're understaffed. They don't have enough apparatus. As you've seen, the fire hydrants aren't working. There's a lot of bad things happening. And people need to rise up and, and ask the questions and hold the quote unquote leaders accountable. I appreciate John. Thank you for your time. Steve, I want to let you get back to work you're doing because I know this is really, you know, what you do.

You're funded just through donations and things really working to make a difference out there. We love you so much. Any last words for those of us that are watching from afar? Yeah, just be conscious that anybody returning to these areas, there's a lot of hazards. There's a lot of power lines that are down. Some of those things are still being re-energized. So treat it as if it's a live wire. There's a lot of nails and stuff on the road from debris. So bring your tire repair kits, your fix-a-flats. Make sure you're wearing proper respirators, proper PPEs when you're approaching gas lines are ruptured, sharp objects. And also, there's no comms up here. We're on the very top of one ridge that is one of right next to one of our private clients that we were able to

get as you see spotty reception. So get a satellite phone, pick up a starlink. Um, you can pick it up at sat one, two, three.com. Tina Blanco is always out here providing phones and starlings for all the first responders, but just be conscious of how people approach it slow, cautiously, and we're still not out of the woods. The cause of calm down. It's giving us a great edge to keep these fires contained, but it's going to be a long road to recovery here because some people from Woolsey Fire are just now starting their reconstruction. So our prayers with everybody that lost everything. And those that didn't are still going to suffer because they're in the same place.

So keep these people in your prayers. Just just be conscious, be love and support. It's not a time for judgment of who's who. Let's just be here as one community really helping people come back together because we're all humans. We're all one kind for God's children. So that's what's really important right now. You know, Dale, real quick also, when people, if they've lost, lost their home or whatever. When they come back into the area, again, like Steve said,

a lot of down power lines, a lot of things in the road. And if you're going to go into your home, do not do it and try and get around evacuation zones and where they don't, you're becoming a problem at that point. A, heed all the evacuation warnings, because that's where we see loss of life is, you know, wins aren't done. Things aren't done. We're supposed to get more wins next week. If they're telling you to evacuate, you need to evacuate. It's only property. Back in to your home, be very cognizant. You're in.

Everything we have now is petroleum-based products. Your couches, your curtains, all of your tables, everything. And so you're walking around with a lot of carcinogen. N-100 mask or a respirator, gloves, long-sleeved shirts, right? You want to diminish the amount of toxins that you're stirring up. and breathing in. Just, you know, some advice for the homeowners that do come back in when they're allowed to really be cognizant of what you're doing. All right, gentlemen, I really appreciate Steve Slepsvic, John Knox, strategic response partners. Thank you for your work. Thank you for, you know,

being available to us in these incredible moments, giving a sight inside of what's happening there. I'll let you get back to it and hopefully have much better news next week. Thank you. Thank you, Tal. You know, it's, I have to say, you know, frankly, we lost our home in the Woolsey Fire. I also lost a home years earlier in 2007 with my wife at the time in a home we were renting an electrical fire. Those first responders, those firefighters are really truly the best of the best. I didn't realize I wasn't home in the first fire. My wife handled it all alone.

And when we got through the house burned down in 15 minutes, they taught classes over the next week with the fire department just because of how fast that home had burned down. And I didn't realize that they were in there pulling our computers and pulling in the driveway right across the street from our burned down home. This is an electrical fire was, you know, so many of our valuables, jewelry and things like that. I had no idea that that was an effort that they made. They saved some very important things for us then. but these guys are really, truly heroes. And, man, it just really, it's horrible to imagine that they're not being given the tools to get there and to think they're ready to do this job, and then there's no water in the fire hydrants.

And to see it happen, if it was the first time, okay. I heard that when it happened in our Malibu fire. That was 2018. It's 2025. You haven't figured out how to keep water in the fire hydrants? Well, maybe the tanks at the top of the mountain got emptied. You haven't added tanks, you know, and then I look at the headlines, you know, record rainfall. I mean, I mean, you look at some of the headlines that have been out there.

Way, way, way above normal rains could set all-time L.A. record as wet weather continues. That was April of 2024. Yet we're being told, oh, massive drought. Look at the snowstorms that came in. You know, I mean, there's, you know, right outside of L.A. up in Lake Arrowhead, you know, I think it was last year, had like 10 feet of snow. yet no one in that area is building any infrastructure. My understanding is like no new reservoirs since like the 1980s. You know you live in a fire zone.

And let's go ahead and say, because you all want to, they want to scream climate, you know, it's a climate issue. Well, why don't you act appropriately then? Why do you get some more water so you're ready for these things? Why don't you start hiring people to rake out, you know, as Donald Trump says, why aren't we raking out of the pine needles? Why aren't we trimming some of this forest back? Why aren't we using tax dollars to actually protect people, protect the land so this doesn't happen?

I mean, all of it. There's so many questions that really need to be asked because when you just keep seeing the same pathetic repeat performance. And at the heart of this, you know, I have some real questions. When you see the conversations about insurance, you know, that people's insurance was dropped, you know, just a month of California's insurance crisis resulting in canceled policies, increased rates. Here's what to know. That was March of 2024. Can you imagine if you're not insured right now, insurers dropped fire coverage for California homes months ago. Now, wildfires are claiming more houses in Los Angeles. I've been talking to people in L.A. that said the insurance company no longer because the increase of the value of my home will not insure me for the whole value of my home.

We actually had that here in California, just to sort of wrap this up just last year, you know, I mean, I mean, sorry, here in Austin, Texas, where they drop my homeowners insurance. And then when I went to look for a new policy, while I'm doing that, the bank is telling me, while you're uninsured, you've got to pay this exorbitant, crazy bank rate to protect the loan that we have because we don't have enough to own the house outright. And then the policy I find is three times what it previously was. And the insurance broker saying, you better grab this because every other policies is six and seven times what they were charged you. And it just made me think. And I'm just going to put this out there. This is a hypothesis, if you will.

But remember this video that we have talked about a lot by the WEF. Just watch this really quickly. Just the beginning. I've been talking about all the global power brokers, all of the owners of the global companies that own your banks, own your insurance companies, have all been gathering in Davos with this great new plan, especially for America. You will own nothing. everyone will rent. And I think we all thought, I mean, whatever. I mean, that's some sort of crazy thought in some group of, you know, you know, jet setters flying in on their private jets and the Davos for this Dungeons and Dragons meeting.

But now you look at it. And I have to say, when I went through this insurance issue on my own house, I thought, is this some sort of internal scam, if you will, some globalist scam? if you start pulling people's insurance or underinsuring their home saying we're no longer because of climate, we can't give you the whole value of home. If they underinsure you and you haven't paid off that home, if you're not one of those lucky people that has bought your home outright, the bank now hits you with a giant fee until you can find insurance to cover the value of your home.

If you can't, guess what? You're owning nothing. You're renting. You know, how many of these homes will not be able to be rebuilt in California, except for the very wealthy? And how many, once they are, will be underinsured, which no one will be able to do it unless you can afford to just pay for that thing in cash. So are the only owners of homes in the future in the United States of America? And I guess the world are just the completely that 1% affluent. Is this a part of how we end up, you know, being renters?

I want to, we're going to watch this over the next year or two. I think that there's something up. I think that these power brokers, if you own both the insurance company and the bank that handles people's loans, do you realize how much you can manipulate that market and change the world? Insurers are deserting homeowners as climate shocks worsen. Well, we're going to keep an eye. Without insurance and it's impossible to get a mortgage, without a mortgage, most Americans can't buy a home. Well, maybe we're about to all be renters or maybe we have a new administration that might be trying to help with this issue. We're going to keep our eyes on it no matter what. No one gets a free ride.

This is the high wire. We're going to keep asking the hard questions for anyone that tries to report some conspiracy theories. Del Bigtree said that all I'm saying is our eyes are on it. We're watching you. We're watching what's happening.