AILSA CHANG, HOST:
Strong, persistent winds continue to fuel the multiple wildfires in Los Angeles County that are now responsible for at least five deaths. More than a thousand structures have been destroyed, and firefighters are worried about running out of water and running out of firefighting personnel. NPR's Kirk Siegler joins us now from Los Angeles. Hi, Kirk.
KIRK SIEGLER, BYLINE: Hi, Ailsa.
CHANG: Hi. So I know that you were able to get into the Pacific Palisades area to see all the destruction caused by the biggest fire burning in the LA Basin right now. And look, I understand it's still very much an active situation, but can you just tell us what you were able to see there?
SIEGLER: Well, first of all, from where I'm standing here on Pacific Coast Highway, I was just in the thick of it in the fire, but it's just an extraordinary sight, Ailsa. We see a plume - dark plume and a mostly deserted PCH right in front of me, except for the occasional emergency vehicle. Then behind me, I'm looking at the plume from the other fire - the other major fire, the Eaton fire out in Pasadena on the east side of LA. So the wind is blowing and howling, and then for a minute it'll kind of let up, and you think you're OK, but then not.
And unfortunately, to your question specifically, what you see around here in Pacific Palisades is the kind of just utter destruction that's getting all too familiar, I think, with these modern urban wildfires. I mean, I was just up there. I saw downed, twisted power lines, businesses and homes destroyed. The power is out everywhere. There's no cell service. So I actually was able to record myself standing on a debris-strewn Sunset Boulevard, if we can listen to that now.
(SOUNDBITE OF WIND BLOWING)
SIEGLER: I'm talking through my N95 mask, and you can hear the crackling of flames. I'm standing on Sunset Boulevard right here, just watching an apartment building on fire. It's about four stories high, it looks like - or it was. Fourth or fifth floor there, there's just one little unit left. Everything else has collapsed.
(SOUNDBITE OF FIRE CRACKLING)
SIEGLER: The situation is grim here, and actually far worse just up the street. But it's not really that safe to be here for much longer.
CHANG: Yeah.
SIEGLER: Yeah. And Ailsa, you know, the wind was howling so much at one point, there was a piece of burning tin that blew onto the street from where I was standing. And in the village of Pacific Palisades, kind of the community center, there was pooled water everywhere. A huge oak tree fell over in the middle of the street. It's totally impassable. There's burnt businesses and cars everywhere.
CHANG: It's just horrifying. Well, now, authorities are saying that they're concerned about a lack of water - am I right? Like, fire hydrants actually ran dry in the Palisades. What do we know about that?
SIEGLER: Well, that's right. That's the terrifying thing. I mean, it's, I think, also leading to a lot of precautionary evacuations elsewhere in Los Angeles. You know, we're in a serious drought here. The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power says their system is stressed. There's a lot of ash in it, so boil orders are going to be in effect in some areas. And like you say, just the horror last night to the worst-case scenario here in Pacific Palisades when the hydrants went dry.
Today I was at an evacuation center over in West LA and I met David Keys (ph). And he told me he stayed behind through the night with a neighbor to douse hot spots in his neighborhood, but then, at about 3 a.m. - and this is confirmed by the authorities - the water just was shut off, and he decided that's when he had to leave. It just wasn't safe. Let's listen to him now.
DAVID KEYS: We were fighting embers for about three or four hours nonstop before LAFD showed up and took over. But then, early a.m., the water pressure disappeared completely.
SIEGLER: So Ailsa, you know, a very stressful, sleepless night for, you know, tens of thousands of people, really. But Keys, you know, he had grabbed just a few things, and when I met him, he had his friend's little dog with him. He couldn't find a leash, and he was pretty stressed.
CHANG: Yeah. Well, before we let you go, Kirk, everyone around here just wants to know about these winds. As you say, they start, then they stop, then they start, then they stop again. What can we expect? Do you know?
SIEGLER: Well, the high winds advisory's in the forecast through at least some of this evening, as are the red flag warnings. I tended to shut my rental car door here to be able to talk to you because when we've been talking the wind kicked back up again.
CHANG: Yeah.
SIEGLER: Authorities are saying this isn't just a red flag warning, it's, like, something even more extreme than that. And it is really, really causing a lot of problems still.
CHANG: That is NPR's Kirk Siegler. Thank you so much, Kirk, and stay safe, please.
SIEGLER: Thank you, Ailsa. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
