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Speaker 1: Now here's a highlight from Coast to Coast AM on

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Speaker 1: iHeart Radio and welcome back to Coast to Coast George

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Speaker 1: nor with you along with Robert Kovac in his book

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Speaker 1: Malibou Burning, Robert had any given time, how many fires

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Speaker 1: have we had going on this year? Too many? Thirteen

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Speaker 1: at least? Right, Yeah, too many. My mother was evacuated

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Speaker 1: from the Easy fire, my brother was nearly evacuated from

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Speaker 1: the Saddle Ridge fire. I had a friend evacuated from

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Speaker 1: the Maria fire. Isn't this unusual and weird? Yeah, it

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Speaker 1: is quite weird. It's quite weird, and it's very disturbing,

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Speaker 1: and it's put you know, most of us in you know,

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Speaker 1: a gigantic area of southern California on a strange and

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Speaker 1: constant alert. What's your gut tell you about this? You know,

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Speaker 1: it just doesn't make sense to me that all of

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Speaker 1: these fires are starting and now there are no coincidences.

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Speaker 1: I know, and you know, and you know you know,

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Speaker 1: I mean, is there is there one person and you know,

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Speaker 1: running around setting these fires or is there some reason

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Speaker 1: that fires are being set? Because it just doesn't make

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Speaker 1: sense that so many fires are starting. I mean, we've

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Speaker 1: lived I've lived here for a long time now, and

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Speaker 1: I've never seen so many fires in such a short

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Speaker 1: period of time. I know, I know. That's what leads

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Speaker 1: me to believe there's something else strange going on here. Yes,

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Speaker 1: maybe PG and E had some you know, line problems,

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Speaker 1: some power problems that caused some fires, there's no doubt

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Speaker 1: about that. But all of these all at the same time,

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Speaker 1: it's just strange. Yeah, And I said that to my wife,

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Speaker 1: I said, this just doesn't make any sense. I mean,

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Speaker 1: I mean, I guess it's possible, you know, you know,

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Speaker 1: you know that, you know, you're generally your washer's got

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Speaker 1: a certain amount of years on it, right, so when

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Speaker 1: it gets to be fifteen years old or twelve years

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Speaker 1: old or whatever the number is, you go, Okay, maybe

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Speaker 1: it's time it's going to go. And so maybe it's

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Speaker 1: possible that the infrastructure of the power companies we've reached

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Speaker 1: the kind of shelf life and so all their equipment

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Speaker 1: is failing at the same time. But again, I don't know.

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Speaker 1: It just is very odd our fire officials saying anything

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Speaker 1: about the potential causes of these blazes. You know, they're

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Speaker 1: not sometimes they do, but you know, they want to

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Speaker 1: be sure that they get it right right, so they

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Speaker 1: shouldn't take their time. And of course the power companies

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Speaker 1: hate to admit that they started a fire, especially a

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Speaker 1: fire when people get killed. As as I mentioned, you know,

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Speaker 1: Edison just now a year later finally admitted that they

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Speaker 1: were responsible for starting the Wolvesey fire. Now they know, though,

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Speaker 1: exactly where these fires start, because they start small, right,

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Speaker 1: that's right, that's exactly right. Yeah, and usually you know,

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Speaker 1: there's a In the case of the Wolsey fire, there

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Speaker 1: was a failure of electrical equipment, which the utilities are

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Speaker 1: required a report, and so they reported this failure of

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Speaker 1: equipment and then two minutes later the fire was sighted

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Speaker 1: at that at that spot. So I mean, it was

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Speaker 1: pretty obvious that their equipment had caused the fire, and

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Speaker 1: yet they went a year before they finally owned up

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Speaker 1: to that. Now I hear insurance companies starting to balk

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Speaker 1: about insuring houses out those ways. Yes they are. As

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Speaker 1: a matter of fact, they heard recently that someone's insurance

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Speaker 1: went from you know, let's say it was I don't know,

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Speaker 1: I forget what the number was, was was eight thousand dollars

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Speaker 1: a year or five thousand dollars a year to seven

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Speaker 1: hundred thousand dollars a year, seven hundred thousand? Ye, how

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Speaker 1: much is the houseworth? You know, probably not much more

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Speaker 1: than that. And that's the point, is that what they're

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Speaker 1: basically doing is making it so that the home is

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Speaker 1: it's uninsurable, and if it's uninsurable, you can't get a

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Speaker 1: mortgage because the mortgage companies won't back you. That's right,

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Speaker 1: and everything starts to collapse. This is a this is

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Speaker 1: a huge story. It's a much bigger story. You've put

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Speaker 1: a lot of it in Malibu burning. Nobody's a step forward.

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Speaker 1: I think you're the first person. Well, thank you. I

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Speaker 1: mean it was important to me. I had never seen

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Speaker 1: a book that what took you inside a wildfire. And

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Speaker 1: what I tried to do is the opening chapter is

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Speaker 1: the story that I told of my wife and son

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Speaker 1: and I fighting this of our house. But all of

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Speaker 1: the other chapters tackle the story from a different perspective.

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Speaker 1: So people that came in and rescued countless animals, even

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Speaker 1: though they didn't have to, even though they didn't even

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Speaker 1: live here, they came in and saved all of these animals,

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Speaker 1: horses and dogs and even a tortoise. Then there's the

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Speaker 1: stories of people that lost homes. A seventeen year old

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Speaker 1: girl who lost the only bedroom she ever had, you know,

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Speaker 1: everything she ever owned. And as you know, you remember

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Speaker 1: when it was a young person, how important your room

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Speaker 1: was to you. You know, your posters, your music, your

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Speaker 1: your your drawings, whatever it was. And to lose all

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Speaker 1: of that and how does that affect you for the

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Speaker 1: rest of your life? Teachers losing everything, a firefighters fighting

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Speaker 1: to save neighborhoods, residents that stayed, fighting to save entire neighborhoods.

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Speaker 1: So that was what I tried to do, is to

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Speaker 1: get inside and to show what it is like on

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Speaker 1: the ground during a wildfire. How can these poor firefighters

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Speaker 1: keep up with all this? Well, I'll tell you, I

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Speaker 1: think it's a challe it's really a challenge. I think

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Speaker 1: the homeowners have to do a lot more help. And

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Speaker 1: you know, I mentioned the ember resistant events and clearing

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Speaker 1: your brush and I think those things can really help

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Speaker 1: the firefighters a lot, you know. And I think one

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Speaker 1: of the big things we're seeing now is that the

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Speaker 1: aerial equipment really can make a big difference. These Firehawk

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Speaker 1: helicopters are incredible. The pilots that fly them. It's just unbelievable.

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Speaker 1: And of course there are these Super Scooper planes. But

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Speaker 1: the issue with the Super Scooper planes, which you know,

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Speaker 1: again they're phenomenal too, but they can't fly in the

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Speaker 1: heavy winds. And as we talked about earlier in the program,

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Speaker 1: usually these fires, these massive fires, are wind driven events,

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Speaker 1: and when the winds get above thirty miles an hour,

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Speaker 1: the Super Scooper planes can't fly, and that's when the

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Speaker 1: Firehawk helicopters take over. So when I interviewed Deputy fire

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Speaker 1: Chief Inspania, who was phenomenal and really cooperative, he said,

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Speaker 1: if he'd had six more Firehawk helicopters could have stopped

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Speaker 1: the fire in Wolsey Canyon where it started before it

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Speaker 1: even spread off, that that would have been great. And

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Speaker 1: it's a catch twenty two because the winds fuel the fire,

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Speaker 1: and the fire fuels the wind. Yes, that's right. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and it creates its own weather pattern. And as we

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Speaker 1: saw in my neighborhood, we literally had a fire tornado.

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Speaker 1: So imagine that fire and starting to swirl in front

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Speaker 1: of you. Yeah, the cover on your book Malibu Burning

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Speaker 1: is frightening. Yeah, thank you, Yeah, I mean that that

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Speaker 1: was a you know that what I love about that

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Speaker 1: shot as it shows the hell that is coming from

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Speaker 1: the perspective of where the picture was taken. Can you

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Speaker 1: feel that heat? Yes, absolutely, yeah, absolutely, you can definitely

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Speaker 1: smell the smoke, I'm sure. Yeah. I mean you feel

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Speaker 1: the hairs on your arm crackling. Now, what happens ten

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Speaker 1: years from now, Robert, when people start coming now with

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Speaker 1: lung cancer or something? Is that conceivable? Absolutely? Yeah, absolutely.

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Speaker 1: I mean one of the chapters in the book deals

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Speaker 1: with that secret nuclear site, and I interviewed this gentleman,

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Speaker 1: professor Dan Hirsch, and he basically estimated that forty thousand

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Speaker 1: tons of toxic material was sentenced the atmosphere. Oh my god.

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Speaker 1: The place was vacant though, right, The Santa Susana Field

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Speaker 1: Laboratory was vacant. But remember the toxins had never been

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Speaker 1: cleaned up, so they were in the soil. They just

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Speaker 1: left everything, They just left everything there. So they in

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Speaker 1: the forties it was the site. It was called Rocketdyne

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Speaker 1: and they did a lot of engine testing of rockets,

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Speaker 1: and then in the fifties they put in nuclear power

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Speaker 1: plants and in nineteen fifty nine they had an accident.

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Speaker 1: They didn't tell anybody. They didn't even have a containment

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Speaker 1: dome as there was at Three Mile Island. And actually

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Speaker 1: there was more radiation released in the nineteen fifty nine

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Speaker 1: meltdown than there was at Three Mile Island. There was

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Speaker 1: a book written about we almost lost Detroit where I'm from. Yes,

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Speaker 1: and they early almost had a meltdown there. Yes, Yes,

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Speaker 1: that's right. And this one the plant was going to explode,

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Speaker 1: and rather than let it explode, they just vented the

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Speaker 1: radiation into the atmosphere and didn't tell anyone. But this

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Speaker 1: seems to be the worst year I can remember in

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Speaker 1: California that I've ever heard of fires, and so many

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Speaker 1: at one time. I think you're right. I mean, you know,

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Speaker 1: we've lived here a long time. I've never seen it

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Speaker 1: was like a fire every day, two fires every day

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Speaker 1: in different places, different places. And that's the scary thing

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Speaker 1: is that places that maybe normally wouldn't see fires. The

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Speaker 1: San Fernando Valley, you know, you know, I think you

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Speaker 1: know that area. I mean, you know, oh yeah, we're

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Speaker 1: not used to seeing fires in the San Fernando Valley. No, No,

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Speaker 1: there was in a couple of spots there. It was horrible. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: I hate to say this, Robert, but I have a

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Speaker 1: feeling that there's something else going on, and that law

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Speaker 1: enforcement and government is afraid to tell us. I think

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Speaker 1: they're definitely afraid to tell us. I mean, after the fire,

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Speaker 1: the authorities told you know, all these different authorities were

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Speaker 1: telling the cities who were concerned about the toxins and

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Speaker 1: the radioactive materials. You know what happens with these radioactive materials, caesium, stronium, plutonium,

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Speaker 1: which of course don't go away in our lifetimes, so

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Speaker 1: they're in the soil. And then as vegetation grew on

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Speaker 1: the site, and of course the site was abandoned, and

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Speaker 1: you know how California works, things grow and the chaparral grows.

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Speaker 1: So now the chaparral is soaking up these toxins and

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Speaker 1: radioactive materials, and then when the fire burns them and

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Speaker 1: the winds blow them, there was really no way to

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Speaker 1: track where those materials ended up. And I know a

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Speaker 1: couple of people wanted to do some testing and they

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Speaker 1: were told by the authorities, everything's okay, nothing to worry about,

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Speaker 1: no tests needed. And some of those reports came out

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Speaker 1: ten hours after the fire had started. So the fire

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Speaker 1: wasn't even finished. There was no way to do any testing,

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Speaker 1: let alone obtain the results. And yet it was fine. No,

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Speaker 1: you don't have to worry about you know, radioactive materials

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Speaker 1: in your backyard. Why did you elect to stay in Malibu?

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Speaker 1: That's a great question. You know, if I had a choice,

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Speaker 1: I would leave. My son is a junior in high school,

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Speaker 1: and you know how that goes. He's got his friends.

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Speaker 1: These are kids he's known since kindergarten. The Malibu community

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Speaker 1: is a very tight community, and the fire has made

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Speaker 1: the community even tighter. I mean, that's been the silver

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Speaker 1: lining in this People have been amazing. I didn't have

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Speaker 1: one person, including major celebrities, turned me down for an

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Speaker 1: interview for the book. As a matter of fact, the

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Speaker 1: only entities that turned me down with Southern California Edison.

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Speaker 1: They were the only ones that would not speak to me.

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Speaker 1: Of course, not they didn't know what to say. No,

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Speaker 1: I guess not unbelievable. Who are some of the most

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Speaker 1: prominent people you talked to? You know my favorite story

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Speaker 1: in the book, you know, I mean, all these celebrities

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Speaker 1: make appearances, Leonardo DiCaprio and Bob Dylan, but my favorite

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Speaker 1: story is the actor Kevin Dillon. Kevin lived across the

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Speaker 1: street from Nick Nulty, and when the fire started, Nick

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Speaker 1: Nulty's house caught on fire, and so he was over

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Speaker 1: there with a couple of other neighbors that had stayed behind,

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Speaker 1: and they were fighting this fire, massive fire, with garden hoses.

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Speaker 1: And he showed me some of the videos of these guys,

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Speaker 1: you know, you know, literally risking life and limon. And

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Speaker 1: of course, in the case of Kevin, he's an actor.

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Speaker 1: You know, getting burned is probably not going to be

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Speaker 1: good for his career. And yet he was over there

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Speaker 1: trying to save Nick Nulty's place. In an odd twist,

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Speaker 1: his movie star brother Matt Dillon, was on location in

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Speaker 1: Europe shooting a movie playing Nick Nulty's son, and Matt

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Speaker 1: was calling Kevin because he had found out that Kevin

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Speaker 1: had stayed behind, saying, you know, get the hell out

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Speaker 1: of there. What are you doing, Get the hell out

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Speaker 1: of there, not knowing that Kevin was actually fighting to

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Speaker 1: save Nick Nulty's house. Unfortunately, he was unable to save

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Speaker 1: Nicknolty's house into the ground. Tell us what it's like

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Speaker 1: to be in your house to see a fire coming,

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Speaker 1: knowing that you could possibly lose all your possessions, everything

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Speaker 1: you've had since you were younger, perhaps because you know,

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Speaker 1: your house is your domicile, it's it's it's where you

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Speaker 1: keep your life. Basically. What's it like knowing all that's

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Speaker 1: about to go? Do you think about that? Yeah? I

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Speaker 1: think you do. And you know, one of the things

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Speaker 1: I call it in the book, the myth of it's

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Speaker 1: just stuff, right, And you know sometimes you hear the

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Speaker 1: authorities say, oh, well, you know, you know, just evacuate.

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Speaker 1: It's just stuff. And you know, certain things you know

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Speaker 1: are really irreplaceable, you know, family heirlooms, um. You know,

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Speaker 1: I'm very into genealogy, and I have family trees that

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Speaker 1: you know, ancestors had done and you know all of

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Speaker 1: those things, you know they're handwritten. You know, there's you

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Speaker 1: can't replace those those were gone. You know, you know

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Speaker 1: that that that would be history for you know, a

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Speaker 1: couple hundred year year is gone. So there's things like that.

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Speaker 1: And then of course the other thing that people don't

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Speaker 1: really talk about is the difficulty of rebuilding. It is

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Speaker 1: a long, difficult and expensive process. In my neighborhood, you know,

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Speaker 1: we had almost two hundred homes gone a year later,

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Speaker 1: four just started to be rebuilt, four out of approximately

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Speaker 1: two hundred. So I think that most of these homeowners

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Speaker 1: are going to be out of their homes for three

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Speaker 1: to five years. And when you think about that, you

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Speaker 1: know there's a lot of stress involved with that. It's

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Speaker 1: a full time job dealing with that, and of course,

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Speaker 1: you know, most times you have another job, so now

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Speaker 1: you have to do this on top of it. And

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Speaker 1: and I think that's one of the interesting things. When

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Speaker 1: I talk about homeowners who did evacuate, many of them

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Speaker 1: talk about staying the next time. I had a guest.

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Speaker 1: I have a guest, La Marzuli, who lived out in

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Speaker 1: that area, and he lost everything in the fire. Everything. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: he had. His business was biblical DVDs and things like

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Speaker 1: that that he produced. His masters were there. He lost everything.

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Speaker 1: He ended up moving to Oklahoma with his wife. Wow

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Speaker 1: did not want to come back. And I understand that,

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Speaker 1: you know, I really do. I understand that. I mean,

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Speaker 1: there is a certain desolation here right now. And I

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Speaker 1: know your listeners again, you know, you know, malib was

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Speaker 1: such a beautiful place, but it's really it's really taken

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Speaker 1: a hit. And when you buy the house. You really

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Speaker 1: never think about it burning. You're looking at it. It's gorgeous,

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Speaker 1: it's serene, and you don't think of the whole place

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Speaker 1: engulfed in flames. No, you don't. And then when it happens,

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Speaker 1: oh boy. Yeah, how many firefighters generally are on the

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Speaker 1: scene fighting a fire. They didn't have enough people. I mean,

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Speaker 1: you can't fight thirteen fires at one time. No, no,

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Speaker 1: And you know, as I said, we had that you know,

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Speaker 1: you know again, Deputy uh Painius called it a perfect

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Speaker 1: storm where they had, you know, these three massive fires,

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Speaker 1: you know, the camp fire up north which took which

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Speaker 1: took a lot of resources. You know, one of the

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Speaker 1: things about firefighters is they work on this mutual aid

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Speaker 1: they call it, where you know, one department puts out

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Speaker 1: the call for help and firefighters come from all over

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Speaker 1: the state or and and out and outside of the state,

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Speaker 1: from different different states. But in this case, um, because

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Speaker 1: Paradise was first, so many of the resources went there.

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Speaker 1: That um that there just worn't a lot of resources

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Speaker 1: for Woolsey. And of course they didn't know that it

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Speaker 1: was going to become this you know, unprecedented wildfire. And

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Speaker 1: so that initial morning that the fire hit Malibu. There

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Speaker 1: were very few engines um and a lot of residents

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Speaker 1: were really surprised by that and shocked by that because

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Speaker 1: in pass fires there had been engines um And there

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Speaker 1: was a lot of frustration about that because as you

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Speaker 1: can imagine, you know, you're you're looking for help, and

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Speaker 1: you know you're in a case of fire, you're looking

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Speaker 1: for the firefighters, and they just did not have the

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Speaker 1: boots on the ground. No, they did not. And it's sad,

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Speaker 1: I mean, and I guess helpers came in from other states.

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Speaker 1: They did, and they did, but again when I interviewed

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Speaker 1: the fire personnel, they did not have the resources they

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Speaker 1: wanted until the third day of the fire. And think

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Speaker 1: about that, the third day of the fire, not even

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Speaker 1: the second day of the fire, the third day of

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Speaker 1: the fire, and so by then eighty to ninety percent

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Speaker 1: of the damage was already done. President claims he gave

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Speaker 1: the state money to fight these things and to prevent

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Speaker 1: him What do you think see that one more time?

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Speaker 1: The President claimed that he gave the California money to

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Speaker 1: fight these things. You know, I saw the tweetstorm going

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Speaker 1: back and forth between the Governor of California and President

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Speaker 1: Trump and The thing that's kind of interesting to me

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Speaker 1: is that, and again these are facts from the Fire

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Speaker 1: Department that I've gotten. In the Woolsey fire, twenty five

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Speaker 1: percent of the acreage that burned federal land and twenty

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Speaker 1: five percent with state land. So how about if everybody

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Speaker 1: clears their brush. Yeah, that's what I'd like to see.

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Speaker 1: Listen to more Coast to Coast AM every weeknight at

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