Speaker 1: Hey, that folks.
Speaker 2: In this episode, you are going to hear from several people.
Speaker 2: You're going to hear their stories of trying to escape,
Speaker 2: survive the fires that are still continuing to wreak havoc
Speaker 2: in southern California, in particular the Los Angeles area, which
Speaker 2: is where Robock and I are right now.
Speaker 1: Welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ.
Speaker 3: Robes.
Speaker 2: It's much different covering the story from Afar than to
Speaker 2: come here and get on the ground. And it's one
Speaker 2: thing to see it, which changed our perspective a little bit.
Speaker 2: But then once you start talking to people and the
Speaker 2: next person, and the next person and the next person,
Speaker 2: it changes your perspective again about this disaster that we've
Speaker 2: been witnessing for a week now.
Speaker 4: Yes, and a disaster that is still continuing because the
Speaker 4: threat of new fires. The winds are still raging here
Speaker 4: in Los Angeles and will be for a large part
Speaker 4: of this week, and it's a threat that kind of
Speaker 4: always hangs over the head of folks who live in
Speaker 4: this area. So to see it all come almost in
Speaker 4: a perfect horrific way, where the winds were just right
Speaker 4: or wrong, no matter how you look at it, and
Speaker 4: the humidity was low enough. There hasn't been rain here
Speaker 4: in months, so this was just a tragedy where everything
Speaker 4: had to kind of fall into place for it to
Speaker 4: be what it is. And so to hear how folks
Speaker 4: not only survived this but are continuing to survive and
Speaker 4: vowing to rebuild, vowing to live and rebuild these beautiful
Speaker 4: communities that are along the one of the most gorgeous
Speaker 4: stretches in this country, along the Pacific Coast Highway. And
Speaker 4: to see the resilience, it's inspiring and it's remarkable, and
Speaker 4: yet you know, the threat is still there.
Speaker 1: So many these stories we're hearing.
Speaker 2: Somebody had to drop everything and rush to their kids'
Speaker 2: school and get the kid out. Another person had to
Speaker 2: only had a few minutes to grab a bag and
Speaker 2: get out of the house. Another person had to abandon
Speaker 2: their car as are driving down the street and get
Speaker 2: out and run. And then we talked to somebody also
Speaker 2: who was just on a hike, was just on a hike,
Speaker 2: thought it was a lovely beautiful morning for a hike,
Speaker 2: and the next thing you know, she is scrambling trying
Speaker 2: to get to her kids and trying to get out
Speaker 2: of the neighborhood as just a diversity in the experience,
Speaker 2: but a commonality, like I said, to all of those experiences.
Speaker 2: So you are going to hear from in this episode. Now,
Speaker 2: several other people that we talked to, including that woman
Speaker 2: I'm talking about who was on a hike and Robes,
Speaker 2: we had a hard time understanding it was that nice
Speaker 2: that you were not worried about anything that Tuesday morning
Speaker 2: that she went for a hike, and then the next thing,
Speaker 2: you know, within half hour, didn't she say.
Speaker 4: She abandoned her car. She was abandoning her car and
Speaker 4: running for her life. And we're going to begin with
Speaker 4: this woman because she was remarkable. Her name is Marissa,
Speaker 4: and not only did she survive this, get her kids
Speaker 4: and was able to get to safety. Now she's taking
Speaker 4: this time and she's helped others. She has two restaurants
Speaker 4: that have survived so far the fires. And Rissa, hats
Speaker 4: off to you. You've got three children and you are
Speaker 4: juggling being a mom, being a fire survivor and victim
Speaker 4: all at once, and then also giving back to your community.
Speaker 4: What are the days like? What have what have the
Speaker 4: days been like since this all took place?
Speaker 5: The days are long, the nights are longer. I was
Speaker 5: able to sleep last night, which was nice, But then
Speaker 5: you wake up to what you're going to open up
Speaker 5: at your phone and wonder if you know our house
Speaker 5: is still going to be there or not.
Speaker 4: So it's hard.
Speaker 1: It's hard.
Speaker 2: What is what is the I'm not sure how you
Speaker 2: answer it when people say how you do it? And
Speaker 2: sometimes we just kind of Sometimes we just go up
Speaker 2: fine and keep going. What if you're given an honest
Speaker 2: answer and honest assessment of how you're doing? What is
Speaker 2: the answer to that question you doing?
Speaker 5: It depends when I'm asked, because sometimes I am not well.
Speaker 5: Sometimes I'm sobbing and crying and devastated and hopeless, and
Speaker 5: other times I am invigorated and galvanized and hopeful and
Speaker 5: feeling like we can do this.
Speaker 1: How have we caught you in this moment? How you doing?
Speaker 5: I'm thankful that my house is still standing, that Matt's
Speaker 5: house is still standing, that my family, my parents live
Speaker 5: down in Laguna, my brother is in town from New York,
Speaker 5: that that we have family around us, and that's really
Speaker 5: all that matters, you know, Like it's just a house,
Speaker 5: it is our home. If that burns, we have our
Speaker 5: family and that's really what matters.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and for people, you know, I know that we've
Speaker 4: been saying it, but it's and of hard to get
Speaker 4: your head around the fact that you say, my home
Speaker 4: is still standing. Now I look at my phone and
Speaker 4: you know, am anticipating potentially bad news because the threat
Speaker 4: isn't over yet. What is that? Like, Yes, your house
Speaker 4: is okay right now, but to know that it might
Speaker 4: not be in an hour or in a day, that's
Speaker 4: got to be a crazy mind gain that you're having to, Like,
Speaker 4: how much brain power do you even allow to let
Speaker 4: your mind wander? What if could this happen? And how
Speaker 4: do you mentally handle it or even compartmentalize that.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's really challenging to metabolize that. My friend reminded
Speaker 5: me yesterday to breathe, which is useful sometimes you need that.
Speaker 5: She like gave me this box breath where you breathe
Speaker 5: in for three seconds, hold it for three seconds, breathe
Speaker 5: out for three seconds.
Speaker 4: That helps.
Speaker 5: There's this old saying I think it's can be our
Speaker 5: sol guitar. I'm saying it wrong, like to solve by walking.
Speaker 5: So we're doing a lot of walking and thinking and
Speaker 5: talking we know we can figure it out whatever happens.
Speaker 5: Is it stressful, Yes, it is incredibly scary. I'm also
Speaker 5: thankful for every moment that our house is still standing.
Speaker 5: The majority of our friends have lost their homes, so
Speaker 5: right now I'm not needing to deal with that extra
Speaker 5: huge step. Right now, it's just the worrying. But like
Speaker 5: I can handle worrying.
Speaker 2: You told me you have a and we heard there's
Speaker 2: a lot. There are WhatsApp group chats and whatnot. If
Speaker 2: somebody left behind in the neighborhood. That's checking on all
Speaker 2: the houses for everybody. How often have you had to
Speaker 2: resist the urge to not message every fifteen thirty minutes
Speaker 2: hour say how's the house, how's a house? Or or
Speaker 2: are there constant updates you're getting?
Speaker 5: There's updates every second, so and we're I'm not jumping in.
Speaker 5: So the chat is for safety and it is it's
Speaker 5: only an emergency chat, which is we have neighbors on
Speaker 5: the ground who are spotters and they're looking for blazes
Speaker 5: to come up. They'll report back where there is a blaze.
Speaker 5: The neighbor who is running the chat will then send
Speaker 5: the boots on the ground. Whether it is a something
Speaker 5: to clear the brush, which we have a brush clearer.
Speaker 5: We have the fire. The hydrant is in front of
Speaker 5: my house, and so then they're putting it looking for
Speaker 5: the nearest hoses, and if we see the address come up,
Speaker 5: we let them know where our house's nearest hoses. And
Speaker 5: it is I mean, it's when I say a military operation.
Speaker 5: It is that.
Speaker 2: Wow, you have an active fire fighting situation. You've taken
Speaker 2: up yourselves. It sounds like I assume maybe others are
Speaker 2: doing this, but this is the first time I have
Speaker 2: heard to that extent. You all are fighting fires in
Speaker 2: your ow neighborhood.
Speaker 5: Well, yes, I am not fighting the fire, but my
Speaker 5: neighbors are. I mean, my neighbor's husband is there right now.
Speaker 5: They're all there, and if they're not there, their families
Speaker 5: are on the outside. And it's a constant communication. So
Speaker 5: am I jumping into the chat to ask for how
Speaker 5: my house is? Absolutely not. I will be told and
Speaker 5: I will see it, but I'm not jumping in. I'm
Speaker 5: just not watching it like it's such a blessing and
Speaker 5: also yes, a curse because I have eyes on the
Speaker 5: ground and just it's hard.
Speaker 4: You are jumping into action though you are helping people.
Speaker 4: A lot of food needs to be made, a lot
Speaker 4: of people are hungry, a lot of people are working
Speaker 4: tirelessly around the clock to do the real work, the
Speaker 4: hard work to try and protect not just people but
Speaker 4: properties and sadly from even looters. And there's so many
Speaker 4: people in this area who are giving all of their time,
Speaker 4: and so you're giving back. Tell us a little bit
Speaker 4: about the work you're doing.
Speaker 5: On Tuesday evening, I was driving down to Laguna with
Speaker 5: the kids and the dogs, and I think, like everyone
Speaker 5: in the world, I was wondering what's for dinner, and
Speaker 5: then I can't get to my kitchen. But we have
Speaker 5: kitchens in our restaurants and it was a little plug
Speaker 5: and play. We set up a program during the pandemic
Speaker 5: called You Give, We Cook, They Eat, where we delivered
Speaker 5: food from our kitchens to first responders and frontline workers.
Speaker 5: So the path was familiar for me, and so it
Speaker 5: really was like, Okay, here we are again, but this
Speaker 5: time it's displaced families that we can deliver food too.
Speaker 5: And people need to help, you know we are. We're
Speaker 5: stuck on how to help, and so we have now
Speaker 5: galvanized drivers, people who will drive across town to bring
Speaker 5: a meal. We have people around the world who want
Speaker 5: to give, and our kitchen teams want to help, and
Speaker 5: we have people who want to help pack food. I
Speaker 5: called my friends at all the hospitals that we used
Speaker 5: to deliver to during the pandemic. And it's things that
Speaker 5: you don't think about, like they have patients who are
Speaker 5: ready to be discharged, who don't have a home to
Speaker 5: go to, and so they're going to a hotel, so
Speaker 5: we will deliver food to their hotels where they are.
Speaker 5: It's it's being run out of my kitchen table, really,
Speaker 5: but it is a way that you know, food is community.
Speaker 4: That's all I know.
Speaker 5: And I think in times like this where you don't
Speaker 5: know anything, you have to lean into what you know.
Speaker 5: You know you know how to tell stories, so here
Speaker 5: you are, you are sharing other people's stories. That's we
Speaker 5: do the only thing that we know how to do
Speaker 5: when we don't know anything else.
Speaker 2: Has it been helpful for you? I mean, given all
Speaker 2: you're going through, kids, wondering if your house is going
Speaker 2: to be your displaced, but you hear it all the
Speaker 2: time that when you're hurting, the best thing sometimes you
Speaker 2: can do is help somebody else and that is what
Speaker 2: will help your pain. Has that been the case for
Speaker 2: you as you're suffering?
Speaker 5: You are, absolutely, I mean altruism is how how you
Speaker 5: can feel better. And also, my kids are out of
Speaker 5: school right now, you know, they're school burned down, and
Speaker 5: so if mommy can show them how teach them something,
Speaker 5: whether it's giving back or helping their neighbor. You know,
Speaker 5: I's got a message. Three of my kids teachers. Their
Speaker 5: house is burnt down, so the kids are going to
Speaker 5: deliver food to their teachers. You know, it is we are.
Speaker 5: Los Angeles is a weird place. It's not like London
Speaker 5: or New York where that it has that palpable energy.
Speaker 5: Los Angeles does not. We are a vast our landscape
Speaker 5: is wide, but now we are connected and stronger than ever,
Speaker 5: and so we are just connecting the dots with each other.
Speaker 4: My goodness, Yeah, I mean that is real. I mean
Speaker 4: there are always silver linings in these types of moments,
Speaker 4: and community has got to be a huge part of it.
Speaker 4: Are just feeling like you're a part of something. And
Speaker 4: I've heard so many wonderful things about Palisades now, It's
Speaker 4: just it seems like a like a second family, almost
Speaker 4: like the people who you live by, because you're under
Speaker 4: a constant threat. I mean, this isn't some new thing.
Speaker 4: You all deal with fire danger and fire warnings and
Speaker 4: fire days all the time, and yet the worst possible
Speaker 4: thing happened that maybe you weren't expecting it to your
Speaker 4: story of when it all happened. How quickly did you
Speaker 4: have to pack a bag? How quickly did you have
Speaker 4: to get out? What was that day like for you?
Speaker 5: I mean, my backpack, here is what I had on
Speaker 5: my back. I was hiking with the dogs up on
Speaker 5: Mandeville Canyon Tuesday morning with my girlfriend and two dogs.
Speaker 4: Are my dogs.
Speaker 5: And I looked over at the next ridge and I
Speaker 5: saw smoke and then flame, and I'm like, where is that?
Speaker 5: Because you know, when you're hiking in these mountains, you
Speaker 5: don't really know where you are. And then I worked
Speaker 5: out where the ocean was, and I worked out, wait,
Speaker 5: that's behind my kid's school.
Speaker 4: I didn't have service at the top of the.
Speaker 5: Mountain, so Annie and I ran down and I got
Speaker 5: a message to collect the kids from school. So I
Speaker 5: raced over there with the dogs. Everyone was just piling kids.
Speaker 5: This school acted so efficiently. They did such an amazing job.
Speaker 5: Ended up then the traffic was truck a block evacuating.
Speaker 5: So I ended up having to hop out of the
Speaker 5: car with the dogs and walk out, walked to another
Speaker 5: friend's house, borrowed his car, and then reconnected with.
Speaker 4: My So, you abandoned your car on the side of
Speaker 4: the road.
Speaker 5: Yeah, the smoke was coming and the fire was coming.
Speaker 5: I mean, the traffic was not good.
Speaker 1: Where's your car now?
Speaker 5: No, So I got a message from a friend who
Speaker 5: works in the fire department and said, I think I've
Speaker 5: seen your car. So the whole hillside there's like four
Speaker 5: houses that didn't burn, or five houses on this hillside
Speaker 5: in Deep Palisades, and I had driven my car into
Speaker 5: one of the driveways and he said I think I
Speaker 5: see your car.
Speaker 4: And I was like, oh Jesus.
Speaker 5: So I yesterday was able to get a police escort
Speaker 5: and he drove me to my car and I'm now
Speaker 5: in my car.
Speaker 4: It's okay, wow, because we saw a lot of cars
Speaker 4: that were not okay. It's a miracle. But it speaks
Speaker 4: to the desperation to imagine, you know, I think any
Speaker 4: of us that you're in your car and that's the
Speaker 4: fastest way out of anywhere in almost every other circumstance.
Speaker 4: So the idea that you actually are so desperate and
Speaker 4: so concerned about what's happening that you abandon your car
Speaker 4: that speaks volumes.
Speaker 5: By the way, it didn't even dawn on me because
Speaker 5: you're sitting there and you're sort of like, it's hard
Speaker 5: again to think about what's actually happening. A neighbor of
Speaker 5: mine was riding his bike up and down the street
Speaker 5: and he said, Maris, is that you And I said, oh, hi, Todd, yeah,
Speaker 5: and he goes, baby, you got to get out, and
Speaker 5: I'm like, what do you mean. He goes, I've I've
Speaker 5: ridden my bike to the top of the mountain. The
Speaker 5: smoke and flame, they're coming fast. I see the traffic
Speaker 5: down to sunset. You're not going to make it. You
Speaker 5: need to get out. And then I almost just left
Speaker 5: my car in the street, and he said, no, no, no,
Speaker 5: You've got to pull it into a driveway because then you're.
Speaker 4: Gonna stop everyone.
Speaker 5: I was like, yes, you're right, So I just pulled
Speaker 5: it into a random driveway that happened to be there,
Speaker 5: and it happened to be want house that survived. It's
Speaker 5: just a car, but it's nice to not have something
Speaker 5: else to deal with.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to get the perspective of you.
Speaker 2: You felt comfortable enough that morning that you put a
Speaker 2: backpack on and you were going for.
Speaker 3: A hike to do a beautiful day. It was a
Speaker 3: beautiful But we.
Speaker 2: Go from and how give me an idea of the
Speaker 2: timing between the time you think you're fine, I'm cool
Speaker 2: to take a hike you are scrambling and literally running
Speaker 2: for your life because a fire is coming. What how
Speaker 2: much time is there? It's weird to go from everything's
Speaker 2: fine this morning to the point I'm going to hike
Speaker 2: to I got to run and get my kid.
Speaker 5: Yes, I mean it was even. I mean that was
Speaker 5: I went for the hike. I think it that was
Speaker 5: two hours, but by the time I was top of
Speaker 5: the hike, it was half an hour. Wow, I mean
Speaker 5: it moved really fast, the winds. My girlfriend we got
Speaker 5: to that hike and she's like, lovely day, you've chosen
Speaker 5: for a hike, Maris, and the tumbleweeds were going. I'm like, God,
Speaker 5: this is dry and hot and windy. It's the worst
Speaker 5: winds we've ever had.
Speaker 3: It's just off.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, it's one of those unfortunate scary reminding that
Speaker 4: things can change in a moment, and all of a sudden,
Speaker 4: your experience is it's turned upside down, And then what
Speaker 4: do you do in that moment?
Speaker 6: Right?
Speaker 4: It's it's hard to put yourself in that situation. What
Speaker 4: do you do? But you just act on instinct? Right,
Speaker 4: You're just.
Speaker 5: Yeah, you have we you know, we have a responsibility.
Speaker 5: Responsibility is the ability to respond. So how do we
Speaker 5: do that in the most thoughtful, quick way possible. It's
Speaker 5: hard to be thoughtful and slow and quick and reactive.
Speaker 2: At the same time, you sound like it sounds like
Speaker 2: it's a blessing. You all are surrounded right now. You
Speaker 2: got family here. You just happen to have your brother
Speaker 2: in town.
Speaker 1: Who's them the extended Thank god, Uncle Ben. This was Chris.
Speaker 1: He's been good with the kids.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that support. Where are you getting your I know
Speaker 2: you're surrounded, but I know you're trying to be strong
Speaker 2: for kids, You're trying to be strong for first responders.
Speaker 2: You have employees, you have all these things. Where is
Speaker 2: your comfort? I guess who is your counsel these days?
Speaker 2: As you're being this to everybody else, who is that
Speaker 2: thing for you?
Speaker 1: Right now.
Speaker 5: I mean, I live in California, so it's I'm a
Speaker 5: little bit woo woo. It's my higher spirit. You know,
Speaker 5: you drop in and you're like, you know, you carve
Speaker 5: out the time for quiet, You carve out that time
Speaker 5: for meditation and just to like connect with your senses.
Speaker 5: And I try and do that a couple times a day,
Speaker 5: and then it's very clear.
Speaker 4: Wow, that breath work. Wow, what's next?
Speaker 5: What do you do after this? Yeah, I'm going to
Speaker 5: see if I can bring some more food to my neighbors,
Speaker 5: and then I will call some more hospitals and see
Speaker 5: if they'll receive I've got more people who want to
Speaker 5: drive for food for next week. And then I'll go
Speaker 5: back and see the kids and jump in the pool
Speaker 5: with them and have some family time.
Speaker 1: Wow, that's so funny, she said, what's next?
Speaker 2: And my first thought was make sure you can insurance
Speaker 2: company or make sure you got this in line. I
Speaker 2: find the next place to stay. The first thing out
Speaker 2: of your mouth was how you were about to help
Speaker 2: somebody else? Well, she asked, what's next? The first thing,
Speaker 2: you don't even realize you smiling now. I you don't
Speaker 2: realize you did it. But the first thing out of
Speaker 2: your mouth. What's next is to go help this person,
Speaker 2: help this person, help this person, and then I'll go
Speaker 2: through the family time.
Speaker 5: So, you know, I think Palisades is a different type
Speaker 5: of neighborhood. It's you know, it's where you When I
Speaker 5: go into my neighbor's house, I know where her mugs
Speaker 5: are kept, you know, I know where the powder room is.
Speaker 5: I know where her kids swim trunks are in his
Speaker 5: room if I'm grabbing, you know, putting them in the pool. Like,
Speaker 5: it's a different This is the neighborhood of dreams, and
Speaker 5: so we will always still help each other even though
Speaker 5: our neighborhood looks different.
Speaker 4: Well, I'm Marissa. I know that this neighborhood is very
Speaker 4: lucky to have you in it because you are you
Speaker 4: are doing the work to make sure that your neighbors.
Speaker 4: You are being the consummate neighbor right, neighborly, and I
Speaker 4: just I think, thank you for sharing your story. And
Speaker 4: it's inspirational to see that you're getting out of your
Speaker 4: own grief and your own trauma and you're rolling up
Speaker 4: your sleeves and you're making you're rebuilding your neighborhood. One
Speaker 4: day at a time. We all are.
Speaker 5: I'm we're just doing what we know best.
Speaker 2: And you don't use how people all over the country
Speaker 2: are trying to find ways to help. People have just
Speaker 2: heard you talk about the work you're doing, like, oh,
Speaker 2: hell yeah, I'd sign up for that. Is there a
Speaker 2: way that can go about helping you in your effort?
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean we you can text because we're just
Speaker 5: feeding people dinner, so you can text seventy seventy seventy.
Speaker 5: You can text dinner to seventy seventy seventy and that
Speaker 5: is our pledge dot two where we are giving meals
Speaker 5: ten dollars a meal. My neighbor just told me she's
Speaker 5: set up a fund. She lives in the canyon with me.
Speaker 5: It's called Uplifters Ranch. She makes T shirts and it's
Speaker 5: T shirts of like la that she's had, and all
Speaker 5: the proceeds will go to the fire department. So there's
Speaker 5: ways to help, and also just squeeze your neighbor, hold
Speaker 5: your family. That helps.
Speaker 4: That's awesome, Rissa, thank you very much. We appreciate it
Speaker 4: and we appreciate you.
Speaker 1: Thanks.
Speaker 2: We're here with Julianne and Camille, siblings who have lost
Speaker 2: now a home that's been in your family how long?
Speaker 7: For over sixty years?
Speaker 2: For over sixty years you all lived in it. You
Speaker 2: kids got to live in it for a time. And
Speaker 2: you were just telling us a story your daughter. After
Speaker 2: all this went down and that home burn. You all
Speaker 2: hadn't been living in it, but it's been in the
Speaker 2: family so long. Your daughter said to you, what once
Speaker 2: she saw that that home was gone.
Speaker 7: She was hoping that one day her kids can live
Speaker 7: here or experience this house for themselves, just.
Speaker 4: The way that she did.
Speaker 7: And Julian, you lived in the duplex that was in
Speaker 7: the back for many years, and his kids as well.
Speaker 8: Tooty in the front.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the best discount, you know.
Speaker 8: And I stayed in there for for many years, and
Speaker 8: you know, started the family started my family back there
Speaker 8: with my wife Cynthia, and I have two little ones,
Speaker 8: and so they're they're grounded and rooted there, you know,
Speaker 8: like we were just looking at pictures of playing in
Speaker 8: the Sorry.
Speaker 4: Can I ask you all both? This all took place,
Speaker 4: you know, and and quickly went from Oh, we shouldn't
Speaker 4: have anything to worry about to oh, my god, our
Speaker 4: house is in the direct path. How did you all
Speaker 4: when did you all realize that this was serious.
Speaker 8: So where I stayed, the power went out, and I'm
Speaker 8: not too far from from Altadena.
Speaker 3: I've been going up there pretty frequently.
Speaker 8: And I got a call from Camille early in the morning,
Speaker 8: and we didn't have any cell phone signal because the
Speaker 8: cell phone towers around. So anyways, I got a call
Speaker 8: from Camille in the morning and she was like, hey,
Speaker 8: I heard the fire reached Lake, which is a long way.
Speaker 7: More panic in that voice.
Speaker 3: It was a lot more panic.
Speaker 6: It was like the morning.
Speaker 3: I'm like, you gotta get to the house.
Speaker 8: So I get up, you know, I get up, and
Speaker 8: I'm like, okay, I'll go check on the house, you know.
Speaker 8: And then I drove I'm the one that drove up there,
Speaker 8: and you know, I was the one that was going
Speaker 8: up the hill. You know, it's native out to dinner ands.
Speaker 8: You know, we know our way around, you know, the
Speaker 8: blockades and stuff. So I made my way around and
Speaker 8: I'm coming up the street and I was the first
Speaker 8: one to see it. And so the duplex at the
Speaker 8: top duplex was on fire. Yeah, and so that's what
Speaker 8: I walked into. I mean, not walk but drove up
Speaker 8: and you know, the power lines were down and hard
Speaker 8: winds were blowing, and so that was like and I
Speaker 8: had no signal and I was by myself, and so that.
Speaker 2: Was you saw your family home on fire. Yes, yes,
Speaker 2: you rolled up and you saw. Yeah, that's got to
Speaker 2: be a moment. What did What was that moment.
Speaker 8: Like when I I I didn't even know what the
Speaker 8: process because like it was, you know, I felt I
Speaker 8: don't you know, it was it was tough. Like I
Speaker 8: was sitting there in the car and drive and just
Speaker 8: looking at this like in disbelief, like I can't believe
Speaker 8: this is happening. Like I'm you know, like I almost
Speaker 8: started crying right there because I was.
Speaker 3: Just helpless, Like yeah, helpless, helpless.
Speaker 8: And I passed one fire truck on the way up
Speaker 8: and they were just trying to help a home down
Speaker 8: the hill, you know, And but I didn't see any
Speaker 8: other fire trucks. I mean, I know they were there,
Speaker 8: you know, as I you know, I was driving around,
Speaker 8: but yeah, it just felt helpless, you know, And it
Speaker 8: was just our house and the other and there was
Speaker 8: a house down the street but all the other houses
Speaker 8: were still standing, and I just like, you know, at
Speaker 8: that point, it was just like these houses were plucked,
Speaker 8: and you know, and I didn't know what to do,
Speaker 8: and I wanted to do something, and I'm just there,
Speaker 8: you know, and then I have to drive down the
Speaker 8: hill to talk to them, to tell them what's going on,
Speaker 8: because I couldn't get any signal you know, up there.
Speaker 8: And then I'm telling them and they're like, go back,
Speaker 8: go back again, you know, And and so I go
Speaker 8: back up there and you know, capture some footage so
Speaker 8: I can show my sister who's in New Orleans and
Speaker 8: my brother who's you know, further south and Whittier. And
Speaker 8: it was just it was just hard. It was tough
Speaker 8: because as you know, I'm driving up the hill and
Speaker 8: I'm seeing houses on fire, you know, like blazing, and
Speaker 8: and it yeah, it's just.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it hurts.
Speaker 4: It's your childhood home, it's your memories and how you
Speaker 4: began your families and your lives. And you actually had
Speaker 4: cousins living in the home. They were able to get
Speaker 4: out safely. How did that all take place?
Speaker 7: Yes, yeah, they were.
Speaker 8: So the top unit when I got up there, the
Speaker 8: top unit was on fire. And that was my cousin Stella's.
Speaker 8: That was our cousin Stella's home. Like she was rooted
Speaker 8: there for years, and you know, like I just I
Speaker 8: you know, I just was overwhelmed. I don't I'm not
Speaker 8: a person that gets overwhelmed, you know, and overstimulated.
Speaker 3: And I was over I was that.
Speaker 8: And so it was an unfamiliar feeling with me, because
Speaker 8: like I can you know, I got tough skin. I
Speaker 8: can handle a lot of things. But that was and
Speaker 8: I'm and and our other cousin Ari, she was on
Speaker 8: the bottom unit, and I just like all of their
Speaker 8: all of their memories, all of their stuff, Like Ari
Speaker 8: she was that was her home, like you know, her
Speaker 8: mom had already passed years ago, and her sisters were
Speaker 8: far away, you know, so like this is her ground,
Speaker 8: this is her home base. And she lost everything. She
Speaker 8: got out with I think a couple bags, she said,
Speaker 8: Because we've had things in the past, you know, like
Speaker 8: or the you know, kind of the Altadena way. It
Speaker 8: was like, oh, we're going to evacuate, or maybe we evacuate,
Speaker 8: or we're gonna evacuate for a couple hours, and they
Speaker 8: would come back.
Speaker 1: You know, you this is La people.
Speaker 3: Yes fire days.
Speaker 2: I think somebody just said to me, you'll know you've
Speaker 2: been through it's like people go through hurricanes and tornado
Speaker 2: warnings and whatnot.
Speaker 1: Is this the real one?
Speaker 3: Do I really evacuate?
Speaker 8: And at that point, you know, nothing on that side
Speaker 8: of town was on fire, but they were in the
Speaker 8: hard evacuation notice and so they got out just out
Speaker 8: of safety and they're like, oh, we'll be back, you know,
Speaker 8: like powers out and.
Speaker 1: Other things are out.
Speaker 8: And so you know, she found out the state of
Speaker 8: her house from when I sent them the videos, so
Speaker 8: she didn't even know.
Speaker 4: They thought they'd be back in a couple of hours.
Speaker 4: Probably per usual. We should always been the case, very
Speaker 4: much true.
Speaker 7: And just to piggy yourself of what he's saying, because
Speaker 7: he's leaving out a couple of things from that day.
Speaker 7: One of the things just to kind of experiencing your
Speaker 7: experience through the video. There was a portion in the
Speaker 7: video where he is filming it and it's nothing but
Speaker 7: black smoke. I cannot see next to the house that's
Speaker 7: right there and the duplex I was on fire, So
Speaker 7: I do want to experience that was absolutely terrifying for
Speaker 7: me seeing that on video, but for him seeing that
Speaker 7: in person.
Speaker 2: Can we ask guys? Finally, it just to wrap up
Speaker 2: what happens now to the home. And I know there
Speaker 2: is a lot of insurance issues and all this. I
Speaker 2: don't know what you old situation might be. But what
Speaker 2: happens next to that property, that home?
Speaker 1: What happens?
Speaker 7: Great question?
Speaker 6: I know.
Speaker 7: Definitely we want to rebuild. We don't want to just
Speaker 7: we have to rebuild the legacy that my grandmother started
Speaker 7: to the best way that we can. It will be
Speaker 7: very hard and challenging to do that because a lot
Speaker 7: of the items were just irreplaceable.
Speaker 4: Yeah, what is there something that was the most painful
Speaker 4: to lose?
Speaker 7: I hard to with our mother just passing not that
Speaker 7: long ago. All of the things that we found most
Speaker 7: valuable to her we kept there. My dad's who passed away,
Speaker 7: his uh he had this grandfather clock and you know
Speaker 7: grandfather clock in the black household. That's like who you
Speaker 7: made it? Yes, all out and winded and they had
Speaker 7: to stay wound up. And that's gone. It's just it's
Speaker 7: it's so many things. My grandmother's sewing table, she was
Speaker 7: a seamstress in Hollywood and built did costumes for the
Speaker 7: Jackson five. Diana Ross worked on the Star Trek and
Speaker 7: her sewing table that's gone, like so we just have
Speaker 7: to fill it with new memories and new items and
Speaker 7: new new, irreplaceable things and build it back bigger and better.
Speaker 2: Well, Julian Camil, I'm sorry for the circumstances that have
Speaker 2: brought us together, but it's a pleasure to see you all.
Speaker 2: Meet you all, and you know you've added. We've had
Speaker 2: a weird morning and reasons to be down, but you
Speaker 2: all came in here and lift its bears and think
Speaker 2: you all, after what you've been through, you got smiles
Speaker 2: on your face and then you have good energy to you.
Speaker 2: So thank you and good luck to you. Hope we
Speaker 2: can follow up.
Speaker 4: Yes, thank you, thank you for talking with us, joining us.
Speaker 4: Now we have Adam here who lives in the Palisades
Speaker 4: correct and owns two businesses and a home. And tell
Speaker 4: me how you fared.
Speaker 3: So we've fared, I hate to say luckily right. Our
Speaker 3: home is still standing. It's one of the only streets
Speaker 3: I think that's still standing in the Palisades. But across
Speaker 3: the street from us, actually where we are is where
Speaker 3: the fire started in the Highlands, and across the street
Speaker 3: from us is completely toast burned down and it's horrible there.
Speaker 3: Our street is still standing. It's disgusting. It's dirty, it's
Speaker 3: soot and ash and dirt, and our trees are scorched
Speaker 3: and our lawn is scorched. But our house actually is standing.
Speaker 3: We can't live there right now. There's no running water
Speaker 3: or anything like that. We were able to sneak in
Speaker 3: the other day on Friday, again feeling guilty that we
Speaker 3: were able to get in, but we needed medications and
Speaker 3: we snuck past and got in, and like I was
Speaker 3: saying earlier, for some strange reason, our rumbo was on
Speaker 3: and we just couldn't believe that this thing was trying
Speaker 3: to clean the house in the chaos. Yeah, and she's working,
Speaker 3: and she never works normally, and then all of a sudden,
Speaker 3: she's working.
Speaker 4: It's those little moments where you just chuckle in the
Speaker 4: middle of total devastation.
Speaker 3: I think that the part that hit me the most
Speaker 3: was when we drove down our street. We have about
Speaker 3: twenty homes in our street, and as we drive down,
Speaker 3: I go slowly because there's so many kids on the street.
Speaker 3: And then as I'm going slowly, like making the left
Speaker 3: hand turn, my daughter's like, why are you slowing up?
Speaker 3: No one's here, And I'm just like kind of got
Speaker 3: like a pit in my stomach, like, and no one's
Speaker 3: going to be here for a long long time.
Speaker 2: Get help us on it, because we a lot of
Speaker 2: folks consider you the lucky one. Your house is still standing, correct,
Speaker 2: but you don't have any hopes of living in that
Speaker 2: house for how long? This is not like you can
Speaker 2: go back home any time.
Speaker 3: Even if we go back home, right, even if we
Speaker 3: are able to get a hazmat team and clean it
Speaker 3: all up and all that stuff. Let's just say we
Speaker 3: are and our neighbors who we have, you know, a
Speaker 3: really great relationship with there's about eight couples so to speak,
Speaker 3: that all hang out. Even if we are able to
Speaker 3: go back home, we're the only ones there. And they're schools.
Speaker 3: I mean, my youngest daughter, her elementary school is completely
Speaker 3: to the ground and she's supposed to go to a school,
Speaker 3: you know, fifteen miles away now, and we're there my
Speaker 3: son and daughter's school. My oldest daughter, their school is
Speaker 3: partially burned. They're going to be doing zoom school for
Speaker 3: the rest of the year, just like five years ago.
Speaker 3: And even if we go back, no one's there. The
Speaker 3: town isn't there.
Speaker 4: It's we drove through and in fact, we drove down
Speaker 4: the street where you have two businesses correct that don't
Speaker 4: exist anymore?
Speaker 1: Correct?
Speaker 3: Yeah, so you know we say I'm the lucky one, right,
Speaker 3: I am lucky because I have my memorabilia. Still it's
Speaker 3: all disgusting and gross, but we'll be able to get
Speaker 3: back to it. But my wife and I owned four
Speaker 3: yogurt chops, now two, actually we had three. We had four.
Speaker 3: Two of them burned down completely. One of them is
Speaker 3: an evacuation zone and was looted on Wednesday night. So
Speaker 3: my god, just kick us when we're down. And you know,
Speaker 3: people ask us, how do you feel about that? And
Speaker 3: like it is what. I didn't even care about the
Speaker 3: looting at that point. As long as my employees are
Speaker 3: safe and everything like that, I don't care. Most of
Speaker 3: our employees lost their homes because they live in the
Speaker 3: palis Ages two. But yeah, it's gonna be really, really
Speaker 3: tough to rebuild. I just spoke to insurance yesterday, and
Speaker 3: they're gonna give us. I mean, I don't know if
Speaker 3: I'm not to talk dollars and cents, but who cares?
Speaker 3: Like they're gonna give us sixty thousand dollars to rebuild
Speaker 3: a five hundred thousand dollars rebuild, And I'm like, are
Speaker 3: you how insane is that? So I can't rebuild. So
Speaker 3: we have a GoFundMe for my employees because they are
Speaker 3: not making money.
Speaker 1: Now how many employees now?
Speaker 3: We have about fifteen employees. See, that's a big part
Speaker 3: of the story.
Speaker 1: I think it's missing. Sometimes they're right.
Speaker 2: We could actually Hollywood Hills Palace folks here, I think
Speaker 2: rich folks.
Speaker 1: All of these plays.
Speaker 2: We see all these businesses that those folks do not
Speaker 2: have a job.
Speaker 1: Correct.
Speaker 2: All of these neighborhoods. There's landscaping, there are gardeners, there
Speaker 2: are a housekeep. There are all kinds of folks whose
Speaker 2: job and we don't live anywhere close. Jobs gone that
Speaker 2: livelood's gone.
Speaker 3: To that point, TJ. You know we were talking. I
Speaker 3: was talking to a friend yesterday and my not to
Speaker 3: sound obnoxious, but our cleaning lady comes once a week.
Speaker 3: We have again, we have three kids, four dogs, and
Speaker 3: two cats.
Speaker 1: We need this.
Speaker 3: We give her two hundred dollars a week. She does
Speaker 3: five other homes around us. That's two hundred dollars a
Speaker 3: week per five homes is one thousand dollars. That's fifty
Speaker 3: two thousand dollars a year. She is not getting anymore.
Speaker 3: She's not getting it anymore. We're paying our employees or
Speaker 3: the Yorgre chop out of our own our own money.
Speaker 3: It's gonna run out eventually, so we have a GoFundMe
Speaker 3: for them. But at this point it's like, I can't
Speaker 3: let these people go hungry. They have to pay their
Speaker 3: rent too. And yes, we talk about quote the rich
Speaker 3: people of the Palisades, but we're people. We lost our
Speaker 3: homes and just because we may have money doesn't mean
Speaker 3: it doesn't hurt that we lost everything that's valuable to us.
Speaker 3: Our kids don't have schools so or that.
Speaker 4: There's an endless supply to it, or that you have
Speaker 4: the money to actually rebuild exactly. And your son has
Speaker 4: quite the escape story.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we didn't introduce yes, Jesse, Jesse, you don't have
Speaker 2: it's four dollars and three kids are three dogs.
Speaker 3: It's too many. I can't three kids. It's okay, all right,
Speaker 3: but yeah, Jesse said how old are you?
Speaker 1: First of all?
Speaker 3: Oh wow, yeah, he's and.
Speaker 4: Are you six five six three?
Speaker 3: Just a better version of me?
Speaker 4: We saw the video of you with your mom and
Speaker 4: your sister or your sister's friend and I think all
Speaker 4: of your animals in the vehicle. But can you describe
Speaker 4: what that was like fleeing your home that was and
Speaker 4: everything around you was on fire.
Speaker 9: Well, I mean we've seen fires before.
Speaker 6: We had it on a couple of years ago.
Speaker 9: We had to drive up it and I was like,
Speaker 9: I didn't really think anything of it. But then now
Speaker 9: when we're thinking, like we lost two of our younger
Speaker 9: shops and we're like that we never thought and like
Speaker 9: anything that would ever happen. So we were driving out,
Speaker 9: was like, that's just another fire, nothing's really gonna happen.
Speaker 9: And now I was thinking about it's like something really
Speaker 9: did happen.
Speaker 2: Wait a minute, you said, And again I talked to
Speaker 2: so many folks here in La. They grow up when
Speaker 2: you called them fire days. I'm sitting here looking at
Speaker 2: our producer. But how did you know again from the
Speaker 2: video we were looking at even as you were driving out,
Speaker 2: did you think, okay, just with another fire and it'll
Speaker 2: be fine, or did you know something was different?
Speaker 9: Well, we've driven through there where there's a fire before
Speaker 9: in our house was perfectly fine, and no, and thankfully
Speaker 9: it still is.
Speaker 1: But I don't know.
Speaker 9: I didn't really think anything of it because the fire
Speaker 9: started like right at the top and it grew down
Speaker 9: around So I don't know, I don't really like it
Speaker 9: doesn't didn't really fear real like. It didn't like I
Speaker 9: was like, I knew it was like my home and
Speaker 9: it was around me, but it didn't feel like it
Speaker 9: was around me at the same time.
Speaker 4: But it felt hot. It felt warm in the car,
Speaker 4: you said.
Speaker 9: The whole car, everone was sweating. We couldn't turn in
Speaker 9: the AC because of the air. Still smells bad in
Speaker 9: the car, and we couldn't turn these seas it was hot.
Speaker 1: We could see everything. It didn't smell that well, it wasn't.
Speaker 9: Yeah, it was a rough car right down.
Speaker 4: You were surrounded by flames. I saw the video. You
Speaker 4: were you you please tell me you were frightened. You
Speaker 4: were scared, Like I can't imagine thinking, oh, just another
Speaker 4: fire day. You had flames and black smoke all around you,
Speaker 4: and your car was heating up from the heat from
Speaker 4: the fire.
Speaker 9: No, it's definitely nerve wrecking knowing that like one of
Speaker 9: these could easily land on our car and something could happen,
Speaker 9: especially with all our dogs and everyone around us.
Speaker 1: I don't know it was.
Speaker 9: It was a scary time, but we got through it
Speaker 9: and we got down and we were safe.
Speaker 2: No, okay, And folks, the chillness of his voice blas
Speaker 2: the fear and anxiety that I even felt watching his video.
Speaker 2: If it's right, we're going to try to post his
Speaker 2: video to see what we're talking about here. But it's
Speaker 2: incredible to see that and Dad, as all this is
Speaker 2: going on, Yes, you got employees to think about, but
Speaker 2: you got a good sized family to think about. And
Speaker 2: I know you will have fire days. Been through this before,
Speaker 2: when did it feel different? And you actually thought my family.
Speaker 1: Is in danger?
Speaker 3: So I don't know if people realize this, but the
Speaker 3: fire actually started January first, in terms of like when
Speaker 3: I was getting nervous, I was coming from Burbank from
Speaker 3: the iHeart offices, and my daughter was picked up from
Speaker 3: school from my wife's best friend, who also lost her house.
Speaker 3: But she picked her up because my wife couldn't get
Speaker 3: there because they were sheltered in place, so she said
Speaker 3: to her friend, can you get her bring her to
Speaker 3: your house. I went to go to her house, and
Speaker 3: then I went to mescal which is probably about half
Speaker 3: a mile from my friend's house, because that's as far
Speaker 3: as I could get to. I walked to get my daughter.
Speaker 3: I went to her house and she's kind of las
Speaker 3: fair and I'm like, sorry, you have to pack up.
Speaker 3: She goes, I am packing, I'm Packing'm like, no, you
Speaker 3: gotta get out now. She was sure. I'm like no,
Speaker 3: I'm telling you got to get out now because it's
Speaker 3: not gonna hit here. And I kind of agreed with her,
Speaker 3: but I didn't disagree with her. And I was just like,
Speaker 3: I don't know if I was being frantic, but I'm
Speaker 3: not usually like that to but Sarah, I'm kind of
Speaker 3: nervous for you guys. And she lives right on Pch.
Speaker 3: So then I got my daughter and she gave us masks,
Speaker 3: and my daughter looks at me, she goes, oh, just
Speaker 3: like COVID. I'm like, yep, just like COVID. So we're
Speaker 3: walking through just to get back to my car, and
Speaker 3: then we just walked to the beach for a second
Speaker 3: because that's where our cars parked, and looking back, I'm like,
Speaker 3: that doesn't seem right. That is a huge plume. And
Speaker 3: then I didn't want to leave like that area because
Speaker 3: my family's still up there, and I'm like, okay, and
Speaker 3: I'm not again, I'm apprehensive. I'm nervous, but I'm not
Speaker 3: completely scared because I'm like, I know my wife and
Speaker 3: she's a badass, and she will just take the car
Speaker 3: and ram and whoever it is just to get down there.
Speaker 3: So I just like, I just she's in New Yorker.
Speaker 3: She's gonna get it done right. I don't mess with
Speaker 3: her for a reason. And I know my son and
Speaker 3: my daughter are smart. They're they're gonna figure out a
Speaker 3: way to get out right. And then all of a sudden,
Speaker 3: I take my daughter finally and I go up to
Speaker 3: I was like, let me go get some cash from
Speaker 3: the yogre Chop, so just so we have cash because
Speaker 3: we were gonna go north to Ventura, because get to
Speaker 3: get away. So I went into the yogurt shop. Never
Speaker 3: thought it would be the last time I saw the
Speaker 3: ogre Chop never ever.
Speaker 1: Ever.
Speaker 3: I make her right onto sunset. My daughter goes, Daddy,
Speaker 3: look back, that's bad, right. I look back and the
Speaker 3: entire Palisades is up in flames, and I'm like, holy,
Speaker 3: she goes, Daddy. Can't say that. I'm like, no, I
Speaker 3: can say that right now, I can say that, and
Speaker 3: I'm like I can And I was like nervous because
Speaker 3: I wanted to hurry up, but like didn't want to.
Speaker 3: I'm like, Jamie, just look ahead, just look ahead, goes why.
Speaker 3: I'm like, just look ahead because I don't want that
Speaker 3: in her head for the rest of her life. And
Speaker 3: it's going to be for the rest of her like
Speaker 3: in her head, you know. And again she's not scared
Speaker 3: because she doesn't know any better that how dangerous it is.
Speaker 3: But I'm like, and now I'm freaking out. I'm like, Okay,
Speaker 3: my wife and kids have to get out. So we're
Speaker 3: on a text chain. Remember there's other people up there
Speaker 3: to shelter in place because they to get out yet
Speaker 3: because of all the roadblock. And then there was like
Speaker 3: a we got a text from one person saying, hey,
Speaker 3: they're letting people out now, and I text my wife like,
Speaker 3: get the hell out of there now. She was what,
Speaker 3: I like, just two cares, take everything and go. She's
Speaker 3: got the dogs, and we got like a couple pair
Speaker 3: of shorts and later on she like, here's the shorts,
Speaker 3: Like have you ever seen me wear those shorts?
Speaker 5: Ever?
Speaker 3: Ever?
Speaker 9: Like, you're kidding me.
Speaker 3: I'm like, I've never I find you safe. But those
Speaker 3: are the things you have to joke about, right, So
Speaker 3: anyways would say, oh, that's a cute story. We need
Speaker 3: that kind of yeah, and real human stories.
Speaker 1: That is great. The place is on.
Speaker 3: Fire, now, my little lemon, come on. So she they're
Speaker 3: like face timing me as they're going down, and she's like,
Speaker 3: I can't do this right now, give the photos, and
Speaker 3: like I was, I didn't mean to be fighting with her,
Speaker 3: but I just wanted to know that they were safe
Speaker 3: the entire time. And I'm like, just face timey so
Speaker 3: I can see. So he faced timey for few and
Speaker 3: I'm like and I had a pit in my stomach.
Speaker 3: I'm like, oh, this this is not this is not real.
Speaker 1: And how was he on the FaceTime? Was he calm?
Speaker 1: Was he?
Speaker 9: I think he kept yelling at me to like show that,
Speaker 9: show the camera everything.
Speaker 3: I was like, I'm trying to get out. He was like,
Speaker 3: show me the flames. I want to see, Like I
Speaker 3: was just trying to get out, so I want to
Speaker 3: see how close it really was. Like I go back
Speaker 3: for my good shorts.
Speaker 4: Get I don't like those either.
Speaker 3: She didn't bring me shoes. Oh, we had to go
Speaker 3: to coals and get a pair of sneakers that were
Speaker 3: two sizes too big.
Speaker 4: But do you think you know to what you're describing?
Speaker 4: Because everyone's so used to this thread of fire. Even
Speaker 4: if you saw a fire, people didn't imagine it could
Speaker 4: get as bad as it got as quickly as it did.
Speaker 3: There's no way anybody thought it would get as bad
Speaker 3: as it did. There's no way. And then you see
Speaker 3: some of the because remember that night, there was no
Speaker 3: cameras there. There's no aerial view because the planes were
Speaker 3: not flying over. So we were like, well, what's happening?
Speaker 3: And then all of a sudden you see some instagram
Speaker 3: of people's ring cameras of the flames, Like, holy sh Now,
Speaker 3: I get why the whole tide place is burned down.
Speaker 3: I just it was unfathomable to think that that's what
Speaker 3: would actually happen during the situation.
Speaker 1: What's the plan now? Moving back to New York?
Speaker 3: Oh, I would never I listen. I love I love
Speaker 3: being from New York. I love saying I'm from New York.
Speaker 3: I love the badge of honor of being a New Yorker.
Speaker 3: I was there last week for the two weeks ago
Speaker 3: for the holidays, and I'm glad to be back here,
Speaker 3: even without a house to be in, even though our
Speaker 3: house is standing. I love la I love the city.
Speaker 3: It has been my dream to move here since I'm
Speaker 3: very very young. We're going to rebuild, and I know
Speaker 3: a lot of our friends. I'd say some of our
Speaker 3: older friends are thinking now that they're going to move
Speaker 3: out because they're like why not. But you know a
Speaker 3: lot of our younger friends, we're coming back. We're gonna
Speaker 3: be back better, We're gonna be back bigger and stronger.
Speaker 2: You use the word rebuild versus just clean out. Do
Speaker 2: you are you going to have to tear your house?
Speaker 3: And we don't know about that information to tell you
Speaker 3: the truth, like we I could say no, it looks great,
Speaker 3: and then somebody can come by and be like, oh no,
Speaker 3: you can't live there. We don't know, right, you know,
Speaker 3: I've work in advertising. I don't work in that world
Speaker 3: to know that. All I know is that when I
Speaker 3: spoke to the insurance company yesterday, there were a lot
Speaker 3: of four letter words used a lot because they're like,
Speaker 3: because you know, to build a yoga chop is about
Speaker 3: half a million dollars and it's our yogurt chops are
Speaker 3: very community oriented. And the reason I have two is
Speaker 3: because we had one and then our competitor wasn't doing well,
Speaker 3: so I bought it. And it's like coke and pepsi
Speaker 3: in that town where like people love one or the other.
Speaker 3: So I just kept them open. And to build them
Speaker 3: is about about a half million dollars, and our insurance
Speaker 3: is like, hey, well, we'll give you about seventy And
Speaker 3: I'm like, are you freaking kidding me? Like that's not
Speaker 3: it's actually an insult. So we have a go fund
Speaker 3: me for to help rebuild, but also for employees to
Speaker 3: help pay for them now. And people in the community
Speaker 3: have been so generous. And I actually feel guilty for
Speaker 3: a gofund me to tell you the truth, but like
Speaker 3: my employees need to live.
Speaker 4: And I mean, I'm curious. We've heard a few people
Speaker 4: mention it, but is there any sort of survivor's guilt
Speaker 4: the fact that your house is intact and others are not,
Speaker 4: a lot of folks have talked about feeling almost guilty
Speaker 4: that they didn't suffer the same fate.
Speaker 3: Oh, absolutely right, Like you look at it and someone's like, oh,
Speaker 3: how's your house. It's okay, Oh okay, and then that's it.
Speaker 7: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I'm like right, I'm we're still displaced. Yeah, we're still out.
Speaker 3: We still don't know what's going on. But it's not
Speaker 3: about me. It's not about my guilt. This is not
Speaker 3: about that at all. It's about the community. It's about
Speaker 3: the fact that my son can't go to school for
Speaker 3: the rest of the year. My daughter's school's burned down
Speaker 3: to crisp, my youngest and my oldest school with him.
Speaker 3: They can't do their sports, they can't see their friends.
Speaker 3: Some of their friends are in San Diego, somewhere in Colorado.
Speaker 3: I mean that it's not about survivor's guilt anymore. It's
Speaker 3: about we're still dealing with the situation where our lives
Speaker 3: are completely turned upside down and we can't have the
Speaker 3: normal life. And like, I think about retirement and I
Speaker 3: love working for iHeart and it's great, and I would
Speaker 3: retire in let's say, five, ten, fifteen years and on
Speaker 3: the yogurt shops. And now I can't write, so our
Speaker 3: futures are completely in flux. So yes, survivor's guilt, but
Speaker 3: I don't even think like that. It's just more of
Speaker 3: the community at large of like, how are we going
Speaker 3: to make the Palisades the best? Possibly one more time.
Speaker 2: And you're looking forward to that moment. It sounds like
Speaker 2: that day, which is years and years down the road,
Speaker 2: but you've seen as a New Yorker, you see such
Speaker 2: a proud member of the Palasades.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I so am being the yogurt shops have done
Speaker 3: so much for the community, giving back to the community,
Speaker 3: giving back to charities, giving back to the sports. We
Speaker 3: would have happy hours where people come in and we
Speaker 3: donated portion back. So like the shops are the community,
Speaker 3: it is the community, and then we've only done well
Speaker 3: because of the community. So I wanted to be the
Speaker 3: first thing back in the community and make sure that
Speaker 3: everybody knows like we're back and you're going to.
Speaker 4: Be back to We wish you the very best. Thank
Speaker 4: you for sharing your stories and we're just so happy
Speaker 4: everyone in your family, pets included Roka, Thank you so much.
Speaker 1: Thank you.
Speaker 2: We are joining now by Tyler Florence, a celebrity cheff
Speaker 2: at restaurant tour who has been very busy.
Speaker 1: Tyler, you give us an idea.
Speaker 2: You came here to La to help out, but give
Speaker 2: us your impressions once you got here, of the people
Speaker 2: you interacted with and the things that you saw.
Speaker 10: Well, you know, living in California for the last eighteen years,
Speaker 10: you start to understand the California is a beautiful place.
Speaker 10: It's also a little fragile. We get extreme weather, we
Speaker 10: get fires, we get earthquakes, we get these things that
Speaker 10: other parts of the world in the country don't really
Speaker 10: have to deal with, although Florida does get their fair
Speaker 10: share of hurricanes. You know, we have now an extended
Speaker 10: fire season that almost kind of goes you around, which
Speaker 10: is kind of crazy. So La hasn't had a drop
Speaker 10: of water or drop of rain seven months, which is
Speaker 10: kind of wild if you think about it, right, So
Speaker 10: everything's really dry. So the red flag warnings, you know,
Speaker 10: went to effect last Monday, you know, the crazy Sanate
Speaker 10: and the winds came through, you know, winds hitting eighty
Speaker 10: miles an hour, one hundred miles an hour, just a
Speaker 10: hurricane level winds. And they always start a fire, They'll
Speaker 10: they'll knock down a fire pole or something else happens,
Speaker 10: and and just the winds sort of accentuate the situation
Speaker 10: where it becomes an epic fire that happened in the Palisades,
Speaker 10: and you know, we had a chance to be on
Speaker 10: the ground for the last like two days, Saturday and Sunday,
Speaker 10: helping out both with the Eaton fire in Pasadena and
Speaker 10: then also at the Palisades fire. And that's where I
Speaker 10: was yesterday feeding fire rescue, National Guard, l A p D.
Speaker 6: Santa Monicipedi.
Speaker 10: We had seven food trucks lined up, you know, feeding
Speaker 10: hundreds and hundreds of first responders. So it felt like
Speaker 10: it feels like you know, as remember you know, of California,
Speaker 10: this is just kind of what we do.
Speaker 6: We have a big open heart.
Speaker 10: We love our state and we love our rescue people,
Speaker 10: and when disaster happens, we re lean in.
Speaker 6: And that's exactly over day.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and Tyler, it's so incredible to see the work
Speaker 4: that you have done with World Central Kitchen and the
Speaker 4: mission you all have around the world, but when it's
Speaker 4: this close to home, it has to have a much
Speaker 4: more special impact, at least knowing that these are your friends,
Speaker 4: these are your colleagues, these are the people who you are.
Speaker 4: Everyone here has said, you know, at least ten people
Speaker 4: who have lost their home, so to be personally affected
Speaker 4: through relationships and friendships has to be something that takes
Speaker 4: on a whole other level with your work.
Speaker 6: It really does.
Speaker 10: We have lots of friends in Los Angeles, you know,
Speaker 10: I've been shooting and filming with through network from here
Speaker 10: for twenty five thirty years there, and you know, lots
Speaker 10: of friends inside the restaurant industry. You know, LA is
Speaker 10: one of the greatest food cities in the world, so
Speaker 10: lots of great chefs here, and so the community hits
Speaker 10: home for me in a couple different directions.
Speaker 6: It's the hospitality industry, it's also the entertainment industry.
Speaker 10: So lots of friends, lots of people that are impacted
Speaker 10: in a couple different communities.
Speaker 6: So yeah, it definitely home to four.
Speaker 10: But with World Central Kitchen, I mean, this is the
Speaker 10: organization that I think a lot of people should be
Speaker 10: paying attention to. They're faster than FEMA. Not that FEMA
Speaker 10: doesn't do more once they get on the ground, because
Speaker 10: of course they do. But I think that immediate emergency
Speaker 10: relief of just having hot, live food available, no one
Speaker 10: does it better than World Central Kitchen. So I think
Speaker 10: it's a really important opportunity for people to give back
Speaker 10: and so if you go to WCK dot o rg's
Speaker 10: that's World Central Kitchen dot org. There's a couple of
Speaker 10: things you can do. You can donate because money equals meals.
Speaker 10: Every dollar that you donate, the majority of that hits
Speaker 10: the ground in a hot life meal for someone in
Speaker 10: need all over the world. And also it's a really
Speaker 10: good opportunity to sign up to volunteer. So they'll organize
Speaker 10: you based on your zip code, and so if a
Speaker 10: natural disaster happens in your part of the country and
Speaker 10: you're a part of the world, you will be the
Speaker 10: first person or a first team of people that gets
Speaker 10: reached out to. But then also you'll get a notification
Speaker 10: you want to, you know, travel to come. You coordinate
Speaker 10: and help volunteer and the more you do it, the
Speaker 10: more you understand how it works. But it's a fascinating organization.
Speaker 10: It's a very lean organization, but they get the job
Speaker 10: done in such an incredible way. So I always feel
Speaker 10: like their logistics and then our muscle from the culinary standpoint,
Speaker 10: we're an incredible change.
Speaker 2: Thank you for that, because so many people are looking
Speaker 2: for ways to help, and yes, that is a wonderful
Speaker 2: organization to your point, and they do need food out here.
Speaker 2: Sai's minor. We talk about water, we talk about equipment,
Speaker 2: but yes, we've got to feed a lot of these
Speaker 2: guys and gals we're helping. We're gonna let you go here,
Speaker 2: but give me the lasting, Give me the one thing
Speaker 2: that stood out that maybe you're going to be thinking
Speaker 2: about on the plane as you leave. We've seen plenty
Speaker 2: of things that just stand like, wow, I can't believe that,
Speaker 2: or I can't believe she said that, Or give me
Speaker 2: some lasting, something that made such an impression on you
Speaker 2: here that it's going to stay with you.
Speaker 10: So yesterday we when we were set up at Command
Speaker 10: Central on the Pacific Coast Highway at Will Roger State
Speaker 10: Park in the Palace itdes we loaded up our car
Speaker 10: with a few hundred portions of chicken tenders and burritos
Speaker 10: and tacos from a few other food trucks that were there,
Speaker 10: and we drove deep up into the hills to go
Speaker 10: find fire trucks and fire companies that were almost like
Speaker 10: hand to hand combat putting.
Speaker 6: House fires out. For two days.
Speaker 10: They had not slept for two days, and they had
Speaker 10: not had a meal in two days, and so finding
Speaker 10: them and handing them a warm burrito, and to see
Speaker 10: the look on their face with somebody, I'll never forget.
Speaker 10: It's the reason we do this, and it's the reason
Speaker 10: that I think the hospitality industry cares so much.
Speaker 6: This is what we do. We open up our hearts
Speaker 6: in our restaurants every single night.
Speaker 10: We know how to feed people, we know how to
Speaker 10: run a team, we know how to get food on
Speaker 10: the ground fast. And so it was that moment where
Speaker 10: you know, if you go to my Instagram story it's
Speaker 10: still come up right now you can kind of see
Speaker 10: some firefighters Tyler Florence on Instagram.
Speaker 6: You'll get a chance to see it. But I'll never
Speaker 6: forget that as well.
Speaker 4: They won't forget it either, Tyler. And so thank you
Speaker 4: on behalf of the folks who are fighting the fires
Speaker 4: and doing so many things to just ensure the safety
Speaker 4: not just of people but of property. I know they're
Speaker 4: so grateful for you and all of your efforts. So
Speaker 4: thank you for joining us and sharing that with us.
Speaker 4: We appreciate it.
Speaker 6: Thanks not take care for you back you