WEBVTT - Interview Only w/ Pete Curran - The Wildfire Conditions In 2026 Are Extremely Alarming 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:02.040 This episode of the Chuck Podcast is brought to you 0:00:02.080 --> 0:00:04.440 by Ethos and what Ethos does is it helps you 0:00:04.559 --> 0:00:06.880 find life insurance. Let me tell you why life insurance 0:00:07.000 --> 0:00:09.360 bailed me out. My father died when I was sixteen. 0:00:09.720 --> 0:00:11.680 We didn't have a lot of money when it happened, 0:00:11.800 --> 0:00:14.640 and we were in a pretty tough financial spot after 0:00:14.800 --> 0:00:18.520 it happened. I'm an only child. Suddenly my mother's single, 0:00:18.680 --> 0:00:21.360 single mother. She had a job, suddenly lost a job, 0:00:21.400 --> 0:00:23.799 looking for another job, and we were struggling. You know, 0:00:23.880 --> 0:00:26.720 my dad didn't leave us in the best financial situation, 0:00:27.040 --> 0:00:29.080 but he did make one purchase. 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Application times may 0:01:40.319 --> 0:01:47.440 vary and rates may vary. Well. My next guest is 0:01:48.960 --> 0:01:53.560 fills the role of the staff meteorologist for an organization 0:01:53.640 --> 0:01:56.240 called Watch Duty. And as many of you know, I've 0:01:56.240 --> 0:01:59.200 been obsessed with the local news problem that we have 0:01:59.400 --> 0:02:02.040 all across the country. Doesn't matter media market like I 0:02:02.040 --> 0:02:08.480 do in Washington or where my guest is in Southern California. 0:02:08.600 --> 0:02:12.200 It doesn't mean that local news is getting the coverage 0:02:12.240 --> 0:02:17.480 that is necessary. And the focus of the conversation with 0:02:17.520 --> 0:02:20.799 this organization has to do with wildfires and wildfire season, 0:02:20.840 --> 0:02:24.760 which of course is such a huge issue in California. 0:02:24.760 --> 0:02:28.280 Being a Floridian, it's the equivalent of constantly having to 0:02:28.280 --> 0:02:32.120 be prepared for hurricane season or tropical storms. What's that 0:02:32.440 --> 0:02:37.600 consumes pretty much everybody's half of everybody's brain in Florida, 0:02:37.840 --> 0:02:41.079 just like wildfire season consumes about half of everybody's brain 0:02:41.120 --> 0:02:45.200 in southern California. And I see Pete is nodding along 0:02:45.240 --> 0:02:48.519 here in agreement. So but what I find fascinating about 0:02:48.560 --> 0:02:52.120 Watch Duty is it's filling a role that traditional local 0:02:52.120 --> 0:02:55.160 media wants filled and we know with all the cuts 0:02:55.160 --> 0:02:57.880 this is missing, and in some ways this might end 0:02:57.960 --> 0:03:01.080 up being a more trusted and a better way to 0:03:01.280 --> 0:03:05.240 do this. So part of this is also highlighting something 0:03:05.280 --> 0:03:09.000 new in the information ecosystem. So let me bring in Pete, 0:03:09.000 --> 0:03:12.880 current staff meteoralogists for Watch Duty. Pete, nice to meet you. 0:03:13.639 --> 0:03:15.640 Good to meet you, Chuck, thank you for having me. 0:03:16.480 --> 0:03:20.440 So look, we're on the I used to ask this 0:03:20.600 --> 0:03:24.920 of one of my oldest and closest friends lives in 0:03:25.080 --> 0:03:28.200 LA and he's now fond of saying there's no such 0:03:28.240 --> 0:03:30.440 thing as wildfire season unless you want to call all 0:03:30.480 --> 0:03:33.880 twelve months of the calendar a season. Do you concur 0:03:33.960 --> 0:03:34.720 with that these days? 0:03:35.360 --> 0:03:39.000 Absolutely? Right? We all know for years that the fire 0:03:39.040 --> 0:03:41.400 scene has been getting longer. And if you talk to 0:03:41.440 --> 0:03:45.800 any firefighter and you ask them after it's been a 0:03:45.800 --> 0:03:48.680 tremendously rainy winter, perhaps, and you ask them, what do 0:03:48.720 --> 0:03:51.120 you think about fire season, and they will say, without 0:03:51.520 --> 0:03:53.680 missing a beat, it will be the mother of all 0:03:53.720 --> 0:03:56.160 fire seasons because there will be new growth and that 0:03:56.200 --> 0:03:58.720 growth will dry out and it will be really bad. 0:03:58.960 --> 0:04:02.160 And if we've had zero and it's been a really 0:04:02.240 --> 0:04:04.680 dry winter and you asked the firefighter what kind of 0:04:04.680 --> 0:04:06.680 a fire season, they will say, it will be the 0:04:06.720 --> 0:04:10.400 worst fire season ever. So it's a standard answer. That's 0:04:10.400 --> 0:04:12.840 the way it is. In California. We've when I started 0:04:12.840 --> 0:04:14.840 in the fire service, so that's my background. I started 0:04:14.840 --> 0:04:17.760 as a firefighter. It's been an entire career in the 0:04:18.080 --> 0:04:21.560 fire service. And you know, we used to have a 0:04:21.640 --> 0:04:24.120 regular fire season, right. It used to start, you know, 0:04:24.160 --> 0:04:26.760 in southern California we would start maybe late May early 0:04:26.839 --> 0:04:29.440 June with some grass fires and then as the season 0:04:29.480 --> 0:04:32.480 progressed and the summer got hotter, but we were done 0:04:32.839 --> 0:04:36.720 with by typically, you know, November first, right after the 0:04:36.760 --> 0:04:37.839 Santa Ana's comedy. 0:04:37.880 --> 0:04:40.960 So fire season in California was the equivalent of what 0:04:41.080 --> 0:04:45.200 hurricane season traditionally was, which is June one November thirtieth. 0:04:45.200 --> 0:04:46.960 That was approximately fire season out. 0:04:46.880 --> 0:04:49.640 West there you go, right, And so there was a 0:04:49.680 --> 0:04:53.360 tremendous right all the fire Service, they're staffing in logistics 0:04:53.360 --> 0:04:55.760 and resources all based on that. And so now it's 0:04:55.760 --> 0:04:59.080 a change in that for the last obviously decade that 0:04:59.240 --> 0:05:01.920 we've have turned into a year round fire season. 0:05:02.520 --> 0:05:04.880 Tell me about Watch Duty. I know where it got 0:05:04.920 --> 0:05:08.440 on my radar produce. One of my producers, Lauren Gardner. 0:05:08.480 --> 0:05:11.599 He lives in LA and I remember during the fire 0:05:12.160 --> 0:05:17.479 in California, the Palisades in particular, Watch Duty became just 0:05:18.160 --> 0:05:21.440 a must have app all of a sudden everybody. It 0:05:21.520 --> 0:05:23.920 was one of those you know, it must be an 0:05:23.960 --> 0:05:26.400 odd thing for you guys to say your biggest growth 0:05:26.400 --> 0:05:28.560 period was during one of the worst disasters ever. Right, 0:05:28.640 --> 0:05:33.359 that's never a comfortable place to be. And yet the 0:05:33.400 --> 0:05:36.960 reason you grew is you had information that people found 0:05:36.960 --> 0:05:41.839 to be factually correct and helpful. Look, you said you 0:05:41.839 --> 0:05:46.080 were a firefighter before. What was the information flow to 0:05:46.320 --> 0:05:48.920 the public pre watch duty in your mind? 0:05:48.960 --> 0:05:51.760 Sure, because one of the roles I filled was is 0:05:51.800 --> 0:05:56.120 a situation unit leader on a incident management team. So 0:05:56.160 --> 0:05:58.279 I can tell you what that information flow was, and 0:05:58.320 --> 0:06:01.040 that is, twice a day, we take snapshot of the 0:06:01.080 --> 0:06:04.360 incident and that goes through they fill out a very 0:06:04.360 --> 0:06:07.640 official form and that's percentage of containment, how many acres, 0:06:07.800 --> 0:06:10.200 how many resources on the fire. So that would be 0:06:10.320 --> 0:06:12.919 updated twice a day, and so the information to the 0:06:12.920 --> 0:06:15.680 public and the media and everything else would happen about 0:06:15.680 --> 0:06:17.800 six am in the morning at six pm. In between 0:06:17.839 --> 0:06:22.520 those hours, there really wasn't specific information about the incident. 0:06:23.320 --> 0:06:28.720 So now with watch duty, we have an army of 0:06:29.040 --> 0:06:32.800 reporters of contributors that are looking at this incident in 0:06:32.839 --> 0:06:36.600 real time. They are digesting radio traffic on radio scanners, 0:06:36.680 --> 0:06:40.560 listening to the real time information. They're looking at cameras, 0:06:40.880 --> 0:06:44.240 the wildfire cameras that are pointed at the the fires. 0:06:44.480 --> 0:06:47.360 They're looking at satellite imagery of hotspots and things like that, 0:06:47.480 --> 0:06:50.680 so they are able to report in real time things 0:06:50.839 --> 0:06:53.840 like where the fire is moving how fast are there 0:06:53.839 --> 0:06:57.200 any evacuations? So they vet this information, they make sure 0:06:57.240 --> 0:07:00.400 that it is valid through a number of sources before 0:07:00.440 --> 0:07:04.080 it appears on the app. So only vetted information appears 0:07:04.080 --> 0:07:05.120 on that app as official. 0:07:06.640 --> 0:07:09.680 But for years before this existed, So how did you 0:07:09.760 --> 0:07:11.920 farm you know, when you were on these incident teams. 0:07:12.320 --> 0:07:16.240 Did you just have a collection of local media that 0:07:16.320 --> 0:07:19.160 was paying attention, you try to have relationships with different 0:07:20.960 --> 0:07:23.120 TV meteorologists or how did it work? 0:07:23.600 --> 0:07:26.000 So there was on every incident management team there's a 0:07:26.000 --> 0:07:28.920 public Information officer PIO shop and they may have one 0:07:28.960 --> 0:07:31.240 to twenty people, depending on how big the fire is. 0:07:31.280 --> 0:07:35.440 So those folks would do outreach to the local medias also, 0:07:35.560 --> 0:07:38.000 but they would always have to key only off of 0:07:38.040 --> 0:07:42.120 those official twice a day ICs two nine reports is 0:07:42.120 --> 0:07:46.000 what they called, and so they could only sing whatever 0:07:46.160 --> 0:07:49.360 was on those sheets. But yes, previous to watch duty, 0:07:50.160 --> 0:07:52.640 it would be the pios, but mostly it would go 0:07:52.640 --> 0:07:55.600 to the National Interagency Fire Center VERA official places that 0:07:55.600 --> 0:07:58.320 would release this information. The maps that you see, the 0:07:58.360 --> 0:08:01.080 fire perimeter maps, the acreage that's where it would come from. 0:08:02.080 --> 0:08:04.840 And you guys are fully private. Is it nonprofit? Is 0:08:04.880 --> 0:08:07.400 it NGO? How would you describe it. 0:08:07.400 --> 0:08:11.960 It is fully nonprofit donor supported. At this all started 0:08:12.240 --> 0:08:17.040 John Clark Mills was in the tech industry Silicon Valley 0:08:17.640 --> 0:08:20.840 around twenty twenty one, purchased a home and then was 0:08:20.880 --> 0:08:23.400 immediately threatened by wildfire. And he found that there was 0:08:23.440 --> 0:08:26.320 no one place that he could go to find out 0:08:26.320 --> 0:08:29.160 about evacuations, to find out about the fire movement, to 0:08:29.240 --> 0:08:32.440 find out about what was happening. And so his thought was, 0:08:32.880 --> 0:08:36.200 shouldn't there be such a thing, this one stop shop? 0:08:36.520 --> 0:08:38.280 And he made it. He made it happen. And that's 0:08:38.320 --> 0:08:39.240 what watch duty is. 0:08:40.480 --> 0:08:44.800 So let's talk about this season. There's been all It 0:08:44.840 --> 0:08:48.640 was a wet winner. So that but as you said, 0:08:48.679 --> 0:08:51.880 you know, you can spin a wet winter means new 0:08:51.920 --> 0:08:54.760 growth means more fuel for fires, or a dry winter 0:08:54.920 --> 0:08:57.800 means even drier condition, more fuel for fires. I mean, 0:08:58.160 --> 0:09:01.359 is it really heads tails you lose. 0:09:03.160 --> 0:09:06.160 This season? It is is pointing in that direction, right. So, 0:09:06.640 --> 0:09:10.080 as you know, we had a pretty wet winter, but 0:09:10.160 --> 0:09:12.520 what we didn't have was a lot of snow. Right. 0:09:12.800 --> 0:09:16.280 So even though let's say in california's not snow black, 0:09:16.720 --> 0:09:19.120 we're about right so and not just in California, we're 0:09:19.120 --> 0:09:22.360 talking about to the entire west Colorado, the lowest snow 0:09:22.960 --> 0:09:25.880 pack ever right throughout the west. 0:09:26.120 --> 0:09:28.640 This man, we got plenty of yr snow. We got 0:09:28.679 --> 0:09:31.559 plenty of that out east. It was a crazy We 0:09:31.600 --> 0:09:34.319 got more. There was a stat Pete, you'll love this. 0:09:34.800 --> 0:09:40.240 I think we had Denver had more days over seventy 0:09:40.280 --> 0:09:42.320 and we had more snow out here. I mean, it 0:09:42.400 --> 0:09:43.120 was just crazy. 0:09:43.960 --> 0:09:46.800 It's been a crazy season. And so right, I mean 0:09:47.040 --> 0:09:50.240 we're seeing things that the handwriting is on the wall. Right. 0:09:50.280 --> 0:09:53.280 So in February we had a two hundred and eighty 0:09:53.320 --> 0:09:57.320 thousand acre fire in Kansas. Then in March, six hundred 0:09:57.320 --> 0:10:01.600 and eighty thousand acre fire into Erasca, followed by another 0:10:01.600 --> 0:10:04.480 two hundred and fifty thousand in mid March. When does 0:10:04.520 --> 0:10:05.960 that happen? That never happens. 0:10:06.360 --> 0:10:09.640 So the March, I mean that's supposed to be still winter, right, 0:10:09.760 --> 0:10:11.600 still right, most no. 0:10:11.679 --> 0:10:14.560 In low lying area. So the planes were the first 0:10:14.640 --> 0:10:16.800 wake up call. A six hundred and eighty thousand acre 0:10:16.840 --> 0:10:19.360 fire in mid March is a wake up call. Then 0:10:19.760 --> 0:10:24.640 in California we have the hottest March on record ever. 0:10:26.640 --> 0:10:30.959 Right then we start seeing a marine heat wave caused 0:10:30.960 --> 0:10:34.240 by this this March right. So off the eastern Pacific, 0:10:34.840 --> 0:10:37.840 we have the hottest. The Scripts Institute is recording sea 0:10:37.840 --> 0:10:41.720 surface temperatures the hottest they've seen. Now we have what 0:10:42.000 --> 0:10:45.280 last week, a Category five typhoon in the Western Pacific 0:10:47.160 --> 0:10:54.000 in April. Right. So my comment previously was the handwriting 0:10:54.040 --> 0:10:56.080 is on the wall. And if you're a fire manager, 0:10:56.080 --> 0:10:58.160 if you're in this business, if you're a fire behavior 0:10:58.160 --> 0:11:00.360 in US, if you're looking at those fuels and you 0:11:00.400 --> 0:11:03.719 are not realizing these signs, then your head is in 0:11:03.760 --> 0:11:06.640 the sand. It's going to be a very significant season. 0:11:06.760 --> 0:11:12.760 How you know. Look, I'm being an East coaster. I'm 0:11:12.920 --> 0:11:15.440 you know, like I said, we're all in. If you're Fluoridian, 0:11:15.480 --> 0:11:18.000 you're an amateur meteorology, hurricane expert. We all think we're 0:11:18.080 --> 0:11:18.760 hurricane experts. 0:11:19.000 --> 0:11:21.319 I spent years of the Hurricane Center, you bet. 0:11:21.200 --> 0:11:24.560 And so, but I feel very ignorant when it comes 0:11:24.640 --> 0:11:28.600 to fire season and all of that. For again, proximity 0:11:28.679 --> 0:11:33.120 is everything. How hard is it to forecast fire season? 0:11:33.559 --> 0:11:36.439 And I mean, and how connected is it to La 0:11:36.520 --> 0:11:38.199 Nina and El Nino? And I know we're about to 0:11:38.240 --> 0:11:38.800 do a flip? 0:11:39.520 --> 0:11:44.640 Right, So great question. So as the forecasters are looking 0:11:44.679 --> 0:11:46.520 at this season. What are we looking at right, Well, 0:11:46.520 --> 0:11:48.760 first we're looking at that the things we just talked about, 0:11:48.760 --> 0:11:52.000 the dry smoke, snowpack. We know that all of the 0:11:52.040 --> 0:11:55.200 things that burn, right, which is what grass brush, timber, 0:11:55.440 --> 0:11:59.800 those things are drying out in record ways because normally 0:11:59.840 --> 0:12:03.079 we start fire season with grass fires, but the heavier stuff, 0:12:03.120 --> 0:12:05.600 the timber, would be wet from the snow. Well, guess what, 0:12:05.679 --> 0:12:08.480 we don't have the snow. So now we have a 0:12:08.520 --> 0:12:13.240 scenario where all the fuels are drawing out rapidly, and 0:12:13.320 --> 0:12:15.280 we're going to enter into a scenario where we're going 0:12:15.320 --> 0:12:17.320 to start to having these one hundred acre fires, two 0:12:17.360 --> 0:12:19.360 hundred acre fires in California, and all of a sudden, 0:12:19.640 --> 0:12:22.440 the timber that wouldn't normally burn is now going to 0:12:22.440 --> 0:12:25.520 be receptive to burning a month or two earlier than 0:12:25.559 --> 0:12:29.360 it would be. So we're looking at in all areas 0:12:29.600 --> 0:12:32.560 a scenario where throughout the West, throughout the Midwest, even 0:12:33.040 --> 0:12:36.679 of a significant fire season. So we look at these models, 0:12:36.720 --> 0:12:39.719 we look at the weather models. Obviously, you know a 0:12:39.800 --> 0:12:44.800 wildfire is driven by slope, topography, fuel, and weather. Weather 0:12:44.880 --> 0:12:48.240 being the most difficult to predict, right, So when I 0:12:48.320 --> 0:12:50.760 go to a fire, I'm looking at the winds. I'm 0:12:50.800 --> 0:12:53.160 looking at as their cold front. Are the winds going 0:12:53.200 --> 0:12:56.840 to change direction? Is there lightning? Right? Typically a lightning 0:12:56.880 --> 0:13:01.600 bust from a decaying tropical system act right, So we 0:13:01.640 --> 0:13:04.520 do have tropical cyclones that might come up the Baja 0:13:04.559 --> 0:13:08.080 Spine of Mexico even though the water is too cold 0:13:08.120 --> 0:13:09.560 for them to sustain themselves. 0:13:09.800 --> 0:13:12.200 They talked about the warm water though, I keep like 0:13:12.240 --> 0:13:15.000 the MIDI you said that, it's like there you go. There, 0:13:15.280 --> 0:13:17.439 are we going to see something we've never seen before, 0:13:17.480 --> 0:13:19.959 like landfall on the west coast of one of these typhoons? 0:13:20.040 --> 0:13:23.360 Right? So, two years ago, we had a decaying tropical storm. 0:13:23.400 --> 0:13:25.640 It was still tropical storm as it entered the southern 0:13:25.760 --> 0:13:30.320 US first time ever, but it brought abundant lightning over 0:13:30.360 --> 0:13:33.000 California that started all these fires that went for months. 0:13:33.480 --> 0:13:36.839 So this year, with that hot water, the al Nina, 0:13:36.920 --> 0:13:40.360 the developing issues on the Sea service temperatures, we could 0:13:40.400 --> 0:13:43.640 certainly see tropical activity further north. We're already hearing from 0:13:43.679 --> 0:13:45.880 the fishermen. You want to know about al Nina. You 0:13:46.000 --> 0:13:48.760 talk to the fishermen if they're catching these big fish 0:13:48.760 --> 0:13:51.400 that they don't normally catch in those waters, that's the 0:13:51.440 --> 0:13:53.320 first sign and that's what we're hearing. 0:13:53.760 --> 0:14:01.960 Wow, with a hurricane, there's some preparation. YEP, walk me 0:14:02.080 --> 0:14:05.720 through what you'd be telling, what you are telling people 0:14:06.080 --> 0:14:11.400 in southern California because unlike hurricane there's not a I assume, 0:14:11.600 --> 0:14:13.880 it's not like you can track, well, we know a 0:14:13.920 --> 0:14:17.120 fire may start in this ten day period. You don't 0:14:17.120 --> 0:14:21.800 have that kind of precision like we do with organized storms. 0:14:22.560 --> 0:14:26.200 So you know that, I assume is the hardest part 0:14:26.280 --> 0:14:29.000 to get people to prepare. It's you know, we're the 0:14:29.080 --> 0:14:32.880 human species are procrastinators. I think we've learned this now 0:14:33.240 --> 0:14:35.080 over time one hundred percent. 0:14:35.200 --> 0:14:37.760 So what we're telling the people is and what the 0:14:37.840 --> 0:14:40.960 drum beat has been right. Certainly the LA wildfires in 0:14:40.960 --> 0:14:44.880 twenty twenty five is a wake up call to harden 0:14:44.960 --> 0:14:48.880 your home against wildfire, right, to be ready to evacuate, 0:14:48.920 --> 0:14:51.360 to have a go kit. Not unlike you know, a 0:14:51.400 --> 0:14:55.760 tropical scenario, but really when you're talking about wildfire, and 0:14:55.800 --> 0:14:59.360 we saw this in the LA wildfires, right, the wind 0:14:59.480 --> 0:15:02.800 blows the end members into the built environment, it gets 0:15:02.800 --> 0:15:06.240 into the attics, into the eves. Then you're losing the house. 0:15:06.680 --> 0:15:09.200 It starts the fence on fire, It lights the playground 0:15:09.200 --> 0:15:11.320 equipment on fire in your backyard, the wood that may 0:15:11.320 --> 0:15:15.080 be stacked. So trying to mitigate those issues is a 0:15:15.080 --> 0:15:17.960 big thing, right, So we call it zero zone, which 0:15:18.000 --> 0:15:20.720 means the four or five feet closest to your home. 0:15:21.000 --> 0:15:24.440 Whatever that is, planters, whatever, move all that combustible material 0:15:24.440 --> 0:15:27.480 away from your home. Try to cover up your attic 0:15:27.600 --> 0:15:30.760 vents with a fine enough mesh screen that prevents those 0:15:30.840 --> 0:15:33.840 embers from going in, and basically just be smart. Clear 0:15:33.920 --> 0:15:36.760 your property of anything that's combustible, because once those embers 0:15:36.800 --> 0:15:39.720 start flying and they're going a mile or two beyond 0:15:39.760 --> 0:15:42.920 where the fire is, there's very little right you've lost 0:15:42.960 --> 0:15:45.440 control of the ability to get out in front of that. 0:15:45.920 --> 0:15:48.720 It's going to light anything on fire that's combustible. So 0:15:48.760 --> 0:15:50.640 that's a real challenge. And trying to get people to 0:15:50.680 --> 0:15:53.640 harden their homes, be ready to go, to ready to evacuate. 0:15:54.040 --> 0:15:56.360 That is really the key moving into firecities. 0:15:56.720 --> 0:15:59.920 Does dampness matter? You know, you'll see some people hosing 0:16:00.080 --> 0:16:02.920 their backyards if they know a wildfire is coming. You know, 0:16:03.120 --> 0:16:05.560 all of that does that? What is the level of 0:16:05.600 --> 0:16:06.800 help something like that does? 0:16:06.960 --> 0:16:10.840 So you know, if they wet down their roofs, they 0:16:10.840 --> 0:16:12.800 wet down. The fuel is going to help for a while, 0:16:12.920 --> 0:16:15.640 you bet it might. But as you as you can imagine, 0:16:15.680 --> 0:16:19.840 once a wildfire is moving into an urban interface, everybody's 0:16:19.880 --> 0:16:22.760 doing that right. The firefighters are trying to tap the hydrants. 0:16:22.920 --> 0:16:25.960 Everybody's on their hose, right, uh. And so that water 0:16:26.000 --> 0:16:28.960 pressure that the firefighters desperately need now is going to 0:16:29.040 --> 0:16:29.360 go down. 0:16:29.720 --> 0:16:31.760 And that what happened during the Palace Sades fire. 0:16:32.320 --> 0:16:34.600 Absolutely. And then what happen is as soon as you 0:16:34.640 --> 0:16:37.840 burn a home, right, imagine all that plumbing that now 0:16:37.960 --> 0:16:40.480 is exposed, right, the toilet, all of that plumbing now 0:16:40.560 --> 0:16:44.720 is then you have water, and you multiply that in 0:16:44.800 --> 0:16:48.760 the hundreds and then commercial buildings that have commercial sprinkler 0:16:48.800 --> 0:16:51.360 systems that are now flowing because those pipes have burned. 0:16:51.800 --> 0:16:53.640 So that is part of the problem. You have free 0:16:53.640 --> 0:16:55.680 flowing water and you lose water pressure. 0:17:00.080 --> 0:17:02.040 This episode of the Chuck Podcast is brought to you 0:17:02.080 --> 0:17:04.359 by Soul. So if you love that end of the 0:17:04.440 --> 0:17:07.960 day unwined but hate the hangover, Soul's out of office 0:17:08.600 --> 0:17:12.000 is for you. 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Yea, Now it seems as if I'd 0:19:08.119 --> 0:19:10.880 be more concerned about whether my property was fire resilient 0:19:10.960 --> 0:19:14.439 more than I would earthquake resilient. So what is that 0:19:14.480 --> 0:19:18.000 you described the outside? Is there different types of building 0:19:18.080 --> 0:19:20.760 materials we had? I'd be thinking about do we want 0:19:21.680 --> 0:19:24.439 one story not two story? I mean, I just like, 0:19:24.960 --> 0:19:28.280 let's assume we're living in this healthscape now for a while. Okay, 0:19:28.359 --> 0:19:31.000 I mean, you know it is what it is. How 0:19:31.040 --> 0:19:33.480 do we live with this threat in a way that 0:19:33.920 --> 0:19:37.119 won't feel like you're constantly having to evacuate. 0:19:37.800 --> 0:19:43.119 So another great question. So we know that the better 0:19:43.160 --> 0:19:45.480 you could harden your home. And we talked about the outside. 0:19:45.680 --> 0:19:47.800 But I was involved in the in the after action 0:19:47.880 --> 0:19:50.800 ANALYSI at the led wildfires and we went through those communities. 0:19:50.840 --> 0:19:54.679 We saw blocks that were decimated by wildfires, and then 0:19:54.720 --> 0:20:00.080 we saw an entire block, untouched, standing, brand new home 0:20:00.600 --> 0:20:04.479 built to certain specifications. And so to your point, what 0:20:04.720 --> 0:20:07.840 was that that was a non combustible roof material? Right, 0:20:08.160 --> 0:20:10.960 So any kind of composite material on your roof that 0:20:11.000 --> 0:20:15.320 doesn't sustain combustion. Right, So the old wood shape shingles, roofs, 0:20:15.720 --> 0:20:18.240 those are just waiting to catch on fire. 0:20:18.320 --> 0:20:21.080 Should we brand them? Is it something that maybe? I mean, look, 0:20:21.080 --> 0:20:22.879 you're not I'm asking you to be a politician or 0:20:22.880 --> 0:20:25.720 a regulator, but if they were asking your expert opinion, 0:20:25.720 --> 0:20:28.000 we'd be like, you know, this shouldn't even be allowed. Like, 0:20:28.320 --> 0:20:30.040 for instance, in Florida, I don't think you should have 0:20:30.080 --> 0:20:34.080 manufactured housing. I'm not saying manufactured housing doesn't fill a role, 0:20:34.680 --> 0:20:37.359 but if you're in a in an environment that you 0:20:37.400 --> 0:20:40.000 could get fifty or more mile an hour weds, these 0:20:40.000 --> 0:20:42.840 things blow right over. I don't think it's illegal. 0:20:43.320 --> 0:20:45.840 So let me tell you a secret. It's not so secret. 0:20:46.040 --> 0:20:48.399 But when firefighters go into a community and they have 0:20:48.440 --> 0:20:51.960 a fire coming into an entire urban interface, they're going 0:20:52.040 --> 0:20:53.879 to send a bunch of fire engines to the block 0:20:54.320 --> 0:20:56.639 and the first folks in that block are going to 0:20:56.640 --> 0:21:00.480 do an analysis or an assessment within ten minutes which 0:21:00.520 --> 0:21:04.280 homes have been hardened and which haven't. And those homes 0:21:04.320 --> 0:21:07.879 that have that shake shingle roof that have overhang of 0:21:08.240 --> 0:21:12.800 growth materials, power lines, things like that, combust materials. Right, 0:21:13.200 --> 0:21:16.240 they know that's a problem house versus the house that's 0:21:16.280 --> 0:21:21.200 got right, a composite material roof glass that's maybe double 0:21:21.200 --> 0:21:24.959 pane glass, right, so the external paine of the glass 0:21:25.000 --> 0:21:27.880 cracks in the heat, but the inside maintains. We saw 0:21:27.920 --> 0:21:31.359 that in the in Los Angeles. So other things that 0:21:31.440 --> 0:21:35.200 you can do. We also found that fences, wooden fences, 0:21:35.520 --> 0:21:37.560 they catch on fire and they bring the fire to 0:21:37.600 --> 0:21:39.560 the house because the fence is usually ran up to 0:21:39.560 --> 0:21:44.160 the house. So get a composite fence, right, do things 0:21:44.400 --> 0:21:51.280 composite plastic, plastic or right, some some sort of metal fence, 0:21:51.359 --> 0:21:55.199 whatever you want to do. Aluminum that that doesn't sustain 0:21:55.280 --> 0:21:58.480 because that is what we found brought fire to the 0:21:58.520 --> 0:22:00.919