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00:01This documentary shows actions undertaken in extreme circumstances.
00:06If you're at risk from wildfire, please seek local emergency advice.
00:10Oh, fire on the other side of the hill.
00:15On January 7th, 2025, wildfire tears through the streets of Los Angeles like a blowtorch.
00:22Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh.
00:24Fanned by hurricane-force winds, the fires are unprecedented.
00:29Oh, good to get through it, okay?
00:32Unimaginable.
00:33Oh, the embers are up here now, look.
00:35And unstoppable.
00:37Police!
00:38First responders are overwhelmed.
00:41Billy's on fire, man, we gotta go.
00:42So friends, family, and neighbors make life-changing decisions.
00:47I'm like, yeah, bro, we're crazy.
00:50I'm staying to save this house.
00:52There's a house on fire here.
00:53We just caught this ember right on the edge.
00:55Transformed by fire, these streets become a forge for unlikely heroes.
01:01If you haven't evacuated, please do so now.
01:03I have to come back for my dogs, no matter what.
01:06Okay, time to go.
01:07Time to go.
01:08Time to go.
01:08Ordinary people face off against the costliest fires in world history.
01:14Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name like he don't come.
01:17This is their heartbreak.
01:19Oh my God.
01:20These are their stories.
01:22Bro, we gotta go.
01:24We can't do this.
01:30L.A. Firestorm.
01:32Inside the Inferno.
01:38During the Palisades and Eaton fires, 31 lives were lost.
01:45More than 16,000 structures were destroyed.
01:51Total damage and economic losses may exceed $250 billion.
01:58They are the costliest fires to ever burn on planet Earth.
02:04We've never seen urban fires like this before.
02:07There's not enough equipment, not enough firefighters, not enough water for what we are experiencing.
02:14The devastation is jaw-dropping.
02:20But to those who know wildfires, the danger signs are unmistakable.
02:25There are three things that influence a wildfire.
02:28Topography, it's been there for a million years.
02:30It's not changing.
02:32Fuels.
02:33We know the condition of the fuels.
02:35We know the age of the fuels.
02:36And then there's weather.
02:37We knew the winds.
02:38We knew the directions.
02:39We knew the humidity.
02:40We knew this was lining up to be a potential for a disaster.
02:45People from other parts of the country would ask me,
02:48you live in such a beautiful place, but don't you worry about the fire?
02:52And all of us said the same thing.
02:54My house has been here 115 years.
02:58I think people do get complacent.
03:00We love it when it's beautiful, but it's also a place with a lot of dangers.
03:10West of downtown Los Angeles, the coastal neighborhood of Pacific Palisades sits between the Santa Monica Mountains and the Pacific
03:18Ocean.
03:20In the upper Palisades, Erin Kyle wakes early with a feeling of foreboding.
03:25The winds were insane.
03:28It was so loud.
03:30And just, I remember thinking, this doesn't feel normal.
03:34It sounded like you took two garbage trucks and were smashing them together outside.
03:39But it takes more than high winds to slow the city of angels.
03:45It's vicious, the wind.
03:47I'm from Hawaii, and I came to Los Angeles in 1995, doing air conditioning for almost 30 years now.
03:55Andy Tangelin is working on a mansion in the hills above Pacific Palisades.
04:00I look over it, and I see smoke.
04:04Oh, fire on the other side of the hill.
04:07Looks pretty close.
04:08And I think, man, not again, because a week earlier, there was another fire in the same spot.
04:18When you hear more than one fire truck, you immediately look out the window.
04:22I could see the ridge.
04:23I could see the beginning, maybe the first 10 minutes of the fire.
04:27As a surfer and studio cellist, David Lowe is among the first to foresee how the fire will spread.
04:34Wind is the most important aspect of surfing.
04:38And as string players, we're also very sensitive to humidity.
04:42So it didn't look extremely threatening, but it was going up and then going at a straight angle across parallel
04:48to the ground.
04:49And that's a strong wind.
04:52As fire trucks and police cars scream toward the Palisades, Sue Cole and her daughter, Courtney, wrap a morning meeting.
05:00At about 10.40, Courtney went out the door to go grab some coffee.
05:04And I looked up, and I was completely overwhelmed.
05:07She turned around and came back and said, we're canceling everything today.
05:11Cancel the meetings.
05:12We're going straight home.
05:13The darkness and the volume of smoke had just gotten a tenfold.
05:29I see flames up there, too, now.
05:33It kept getting bigger and bigger, and I started seeing a lot of firefighting aircraft.
05:41They were dropping both retardant and water.
05:46They had airplanes going straight down to the ocean, picking up water and coming back, and they were dropping ocean
05:52water on the hills.
05:53But the winds kept getting worse and worse as the day went along.
06:00Between the fire and the Pacific Ocean are thousands of homes.
06:04And one of the Palisades' most famous landmarks, the Getty Villa Museum.
06:10The winds are blowing this way.
06:11So the decision was made.
06:12We're going to send our staff home, with the exception of what we call our response team, which is all
06:20security and our facility staff.
06:23The fire is four miles away.
06:25So the biggest concern is smoke.
06:28Particulate matter in the smoke.
06:29That could be very damaging to the antiquities, to any of the artworks.
06:33And so our facility staff shuts the dampers down so that there's no outside air coming into any of the
06:39gallery area.
06:40And then we had our staff going around with painter's tape and actually sealing all of the doors.
06:47We assumed we'd just be sheltering in place.
06:49I mistakenly felt very confident that they're going to knock this down before it even gets close to us.
06:55In the nearby city of Santa Monica, Minnesota transplant Tanner Charles watches the smoke from the rapidly growing fire.
07:04I've been in the Southern California area for about a year and a half.
07:07And so I'm still not used to when fire season comes around.
07:11Wow, look at this structure!
07:13Tanner is a storm chaser, best known for filming extreme weather in the heartland of America.
07:20I chase tornadoes.
07:21Wildfires are a different beast.
07:23But because of my weather background, I did know that we were going to have a significant Santa Ana wind
07:27event.
07:28We're exceeding 80 to possibly 100 miles an hour in some places.
07:33Correct, dude.
07:36Most people are trying to flee the palisades.
07:39Tanner heads in the opposite direction.
07:42My main motivation for going up there was to document the wildfire and then also to be a helping hand
07:49to anyone else who would need it.
07:50I didn't realize how bad it could get.
07:54Wow.
07:55I didn't wait for any emergency alert.
07:56I would say that I probably got out no later than 11.30.
08:02And it was already crowded.
08:03There was a lot of people leaving.
08:06Even with just all of our local schools getting out at 3 p.m. each day, we have a huge
08:14traffic jam.
08:15So anytime there's any kind of emergency, it's exponentially worse.
08:23Driven by phone calls and texts, warnings are shared between friends, neighbors, and family members.
08:32We got a text alert from my daughter's school saying that we're going to be evacuating.
08:40They all made it to the fire station, but within minutes, the back of the fire station caught fire.
08:48And they had to evacuate further down towards the ocean.
08:52The traffic is impossible, but Tracy is a mom on a mission.
08:58I literally just jumped the curb and parked my car on the sidewalk.
09:02And I ran the rest of the way up the hill.
09:06I found my daughter coming down with her class.
09:09And she took one look at me and she just broke down and started crying.
09:13She knew it was serious.
09:15I was home with my daughter and her best friend.
09:19They had had a sleepover.
09:20I went into my daughter's room and I said, Grace, we might have to evacuate right away.
09:25Because I was getting text messages from friends down the hill.
09:28And I said, get out of your house.
09:30Take everything.
09:31Take your daughter.
09:32Take your cats.
09:32And I could see the fire for myself.
09:35This looked awful and I didn't want to take any chances.
09:39Courtney, who was in the village, is then telling me, holy shit, we have to evacuate.
09:45Don't come here.
09:46I had seen the flames coming over the hill.
09:49I knew they were coming our way, even though my neighbor at the time who saw me packing my
09:54car had told me, don't worry.
09:56I took my dogs and every single thing that they could ever need.
10:01Their toys, their treats.
10:04So my mom and I were panicked.
10:07We were packing quickly.
10:09So I took a lot of photo albums.
10:11And that was it.
10:13With no buses operating, Tanner Charles completes his three-mile trek into the Palisades.
10:20At this point, it was probably noon.
10:22And, you know, the smoke wasn't overhead or anything.
10:25But it's there.
10:26It's present.
10:26And I just hear someone yell my name.
10:29And so I look over and it's orally.
10:31I roll down the window.
10:32I go, Tanner!
10:34No way, bro.
10:35I can't believe that you're doing this and, second of all, going towards the fire.
10:41And I know he's a storm chaser.
10:43I know why he's here.
10:44It's because he gravitates towards disaster zones.
10:47We chat for a little bit.
10:48And at the end, I'm just kind of like, hey, man.
10:51Weird ask, I guess.
10:53But would you want to come with me to document the fires?
10:56Uh, no.
10:58I'm trying to leave.
11:00And that's a ridiculous thing to say.
11:02And he thinks about it for maybe, like, five seconds.
11:05And he's like...
11:06It would be interesting.
11:09And it would be better than sitting in this line of cars.
11:12You know, let's go.
11:14Like, frick it.
11:14Like, let's just go.
11:15I hopped in his car.
11:17We did a U-E.
11:18And we went right back up towards his neighborhood.
11:22All right, dude.
11:23My plan?
11:24I'm here with my friend.
11:25What's up, dude?
11:26I was trying to leave and I ran into Tanner.
11:28Now we're driving towards the fire.
11:30Oh, so sick.
11:31Like moths to a flame, Tanner and Orly head toward the smoke.
11:37Just one and a half miles to the north, Erin and her sleepover girls head in the opposite direction.
11:45Oh, my God.
11:46Please help me to die.
11:48Oh, my God.
11:50The fire moved faster than anything you could possibly imagine, like nothing I've ever seen in my entire life.
11:55For Erin and so many of her neighbors in the upper palisades, there is just one road out.
12:01You're driving into a gray abyss and you can't see.
12:06You can barely see the giant ball of the sun that is behind all those gray clouds and it looks
12:12like the apocalypse.
12:13The sun is about to be covered.
12:15I know.
12:16It's so stressful.
12:18You too.
12:19And we get almost down to the bottom and it is a dead stop.
12:24And we get stuck on the road.
12:30Yeah, it's close.
12:32While Erin waits in traffic, the reunited Price family prepares for the worst.
12:39When I arrived home, there were flames all in the mountains, kind of back and around behind the house,
12:44which was a lot closer to us than we had ever really experienced before.
12:49And I immediately went to the hoses and got the ladder out and started watering from the top down was
12:58really my methodology.
12:59So hitting the trees, hitting all the bushes and just made sure that everything was saturated as best as I
13:06could.
13:07We opened up our sliding glass doors in the backyard and we brought all of our umbrellas, our outdoor sofa,
13:14anything that had any kind of polyester cushion on it came inside.
13:21All of our neighbors were standing there watching us, and I said, this is real, this is serious, and if
13:28I were you, I'd be packing your cars and I'd be doing something, not just sitting there.
13:34About an hour later, the trash truck comes by and he's picking up all of the recycling.
13:39And you see a wall of flames above the trash truck.
13:46A little more than one mile north, the fire is now incinerating trees and homes.
13:52There's fire coming down the mountain behind us, and now the car starts getting hit with embers.
13:58The smell was insane, and there was a palm tree behind us that we saw catch on fire.
14:04And there was a car that started to catch on fire five cars behind us.
14:08My girls, they're asking me, what do we do? Are we going to die here?
14:12And my daughter says to me, Mom, we're going to have to get out of the car. We have to
14:15run.
14:24During the morning of January 7th, 2025, fire breaks out in the hills above Pacific Palisades, California.
14:32So these embers from, like, a palm tree, they're the size of your fist, and they weigh nothing.
14:38They don't weigh anything.
14:40And they're on fire, and you put them into a 50, 60, 100 mile an hour wind, and they're off.
14:48And everything's been dry for nine months.
14:51Yeah, that's a recipe for disaster.
14:56You have neighborhoods of houses on top of houses on top of houses with a blowtorch catching one house to
15:06another to another and never stopping.
15:11This is not the day that Erin Kyle was expecting.
15:15This is the most terrifying moment of my life and my girls, and I'm trying to just stay calm.
15:21I've got to make sure we get out safely and protect these kids.
15:25We see people starting to leave their vehicles.
15:28I've got four minutes to decide.
15:31Do I have to get out of my car, or am I safer in the car?
15:34Is the car going to move?
15:35I also have cats in the back seat.
15:38I couldn't carry them, plus my daughter and her friend and anything else that we had.
15:44I decided that we're going to wait it out as long as possible in the car,
15:49because I knew breathing in the air outside the car would be worse,
15:54and I knew that there would be more panic because we're watching people around us panic.
15:59And my daughter said to me in the car,
16:00Mom, these people look scared.
16:02And we waited.
16:03And right in that moment, the car starts to roll.
16:08I was lucky to get out early, and I was lucky to leave when I did.
16:15As Erin drives towards safety, Tanner and Orly finally reach a hilltop that is upwind from the fires.
16:22And we drive up to the top vantage point in the neighborhood,
16:27which is the street Chautauqua that has a water tower and the reservoir.
16:31When we got up there, I would say the fire was about maybe a mile, a half mile away.
16:37That's crazy.
16:38Dude.
16:39Yeah, look at that.
16:40Look at that.
16:40That's crazy.
16:41That's really concerning.
16:42And then every once in a while, you can see the fire come over another ridge.
16:47And Tanner goes, well, we're not in danger unless the fire comes over the last ridge.
16:52The wind was on X Games mode.
16:54It was on crazy wind.
16:56It was on I've never seen it so windy.
17:01There was just this huge gust of wind that just almost knocked me off my feet.
17:06And I remember filming, and I panned down to where Orly and a few other residents were.
17:11And they're almost getting knocked around too.
17:13And the dust is swirling, and it's just super intense.
17:17I was grabbing onto the fence just to keep my footing straight.
17:21Here we are at the fire.
17:22Why do we run away from fires?
17:24Because we're human beings.
17:25Why does Tanner run towards the fire?
17:28It blows my mind.
17:31West of the fire, veteran news photographer Amy Katz drives toward the downwind side of the inferno.
17:38I entered Malibu, and then I started to see the smoke.
17:42It was shocking.
17:43I have never seen a plume of smoke this big.
17:47And I've probably covered about 20 fires.
17:50And then as I got closer, I could actually see the flames coming down the mountainside.
17:56I entered the Palisades, and I got to Sunset Boulevard.
18:00That is where the fire department, the police, were set up.
18:06And they said that they were in position, and they were prepared to defend the homes and the businesses
18:13that were along the Pacific Coast Highway.
18:16I thought that was very optimistic, because the wall of flames that was coming down the mountain
18:22was so extreme.
18:23It was just like a dragon coming down the mountain, and the wind was as fierce as could be.
18:32We never saw any fire trucks.
18:36We never saw any firefighters.
18:39We had the two planes that were flying from about 12.30 p.m. until about 2.30 p.m.
18:48The planes were a constant.
18:51In the heart of the Palisades, Tracy and David Price have stayed behind after their children evacuated.
18:58David watered everything down.
19:00Every video I have of that day, he has a hose in his hand,
19:04and he's constantly watering every plant and tree and shingle.
19:09We had two of the planes that were working in unison over and over and over again,
19:13and they were holding the lines.
19:15But the moment the planes stopped, that's when it got eerily quiet.
19:24Unchecked, the fire continues to rage in the hills above the Price home.
19:29I would just keep telling everybody, why are we still here?
19:32Like, we should probably go.
19:34Because every time it goes over the ridge, I go, all right, it's another ridge.
19:38I always said if it got to this ranch right here, I would go, all right, beached him.
19:43Well, I mean, it is getting, like, that is pretty f***ing close to you.
19:49You could tell that he was nervous.
19:50He would vocally say it.
19:52Only one ridge left.
19:56So, Lord, Lord, these people, this is crazy.
20:00Guys, what are we doing here?
20:02Oh, Lord.
20:03Oh, Lord.
20:04And every now and then, you would see
20:06that it would catch this whole tree on fire,
20:08this whole, like, brush pile on fire, all at once.
20:11And it would just, like, make this searing noise.
20:16Seeing it with your own eyes is just, like,
20:18it just really changes the game.
20:19So, I run over to the other side of the reservoir.
20:21I look down in the valley, and I see
20:23that there's several homes on fire.
20:25You can see that there's homes on fire.
20:27We have flames just licking the ridge over here.
20:29And it doesn't look like the fire is slowing down at any point.
20:32So, if you haven't evacuated, please do so now.
20:35It's not safe to be here, as I'm here, right now.
20:41All running away.
20:46It's literally just about time to leave.
20:49Just about time to leave.
20:51Yeah.
20:52Time to go.
20:53And so we decide it's time to protect our houses.
20:56The fire crossed the Temescal Ridge
20:59and moved behind the homes.
21:03That fire crossing the ridge
21:05was the kiss of death for our community.
21:07That was when I knew we were in trouble.
21:20In California, wind-driven wildfires
21:23move rapidly from wilderness to city streets.
21:26And now you've got an urban conflagration,
21:29and there's so many homes burning,
21:31there's not enough firefighters and fire engines
21:33to hit every home.
21:35Across the American Southwest,
21:38aircraft, fire engines, and firefighters
21:41rally to the Palisades.
21:43But the reinforcements will take time,
21:46and the fire expands with each passing second.
21:49You get a house burning,
21:51and it's going to create these embers,
21:53an ember shower that goes for blocks.
21:55And all it takes is the next block to catch on fire,
21:58and the firefighters are here,
21:59well, who's going to fight this one?
22:01In downtown Los Angeles,
22:03Caleb Serbin Lawler wants to do more
22:05than just sit on the sidelines.
22:07I live by downtown,
22:09so it's kind of 15 minutes away from Palisades,
22:12and I can see the smoke.
22:13And I also saw the notifications on every single thing
22:16with fire, fire, fire, fire, fire.
22:19I have a prior history in EMS.
22:21I worked a little bit as an EMT in San Diego before.
22:24I still have all my stuff.
22:25I keep it in the back of my truck
22:26just in case I ever need to help somebody.
22:28Why not go and volunteer and help?
22:31This was actually my first time ever being in Palisades.
22:36I went to the very top,
22:37kind of where the reservoir was,
22:38and was just making sure everyone was out,
22:41making sure everyone was okay,
22:42trying to see who was still there,
22:44if there was anybody there,
22:45and how I could help.
22:46Okay, those houses are on fire.
22:48There's a fire right there.
22:49Hello?
22:51I see fires, like, in the hills,
22:53and usually when that happens,
22:56I would have, like, 10 fire trucks going up my street
22:58to the reservoir,
22:59but this time, not one fire truck,
23:01so I thought everything was fine.
23:03Artist Nani Nam watches the fire
23:06from the hillside home she shares with her four dogs.
23:10I love animals because they're so pure,
23:13and, you know, you can see their soul when you look into their eyes,
23:16and when they look at you, they say your soul.
23:20Nani and her dogs make a group decision.
23:23They'll stay in their home for as long as they possibly can.
23:28Further down the hill,
23:30a seemingly normal day collides with reality.
23:34Literal fire, just a couple blocks up there.
23:37Still delivering packages.
23:39It's crazy.
23:40As spot fires start to spread,
23:43Tanner and Orly look for people they can help.
23:45This is all compromised right now.
23:47We can't do anything with this.
23:49Oh, my gosh.
23:51Can we get out this way?
23:52I think it's going to be in the end room.
23:53It was hard to even see that far in front of you at this point
23:56because the smoke is so thick,
23:57and that was the first time I saw a house just fully on fire.
24:02Flames are getting really close,
24:04and so we just went in for a little bit,
24:06helped a few people.
24:08There were some embers that flew into the neighbor's yard,
24:11and we stomped those out.
24:15We literally have flames.
24:16There's a house on fire here.
24:17We just caught this ember.
24:18We're right on the edge where all of it is happening,
24:20and so we're just trying to help out as much as we can.
24:23This random dude's like, hey, help me with this,
24:25so we can go help him out.
24:26Do you have any tools of any kind that we can open that up with?
24:32Guys, I can't even see.
24:35There was this older man there who was, like,
24:37looking at the flames.
24:38We're like, hey, man, do you have, like, an evacuation plan?
24:40Like, what are you up to?
24:42And he's like, oh, my house is fireproof.
24:44We'll be okay.
24:45And I look over, and he has his two nephews there.
24:49One's, like, it looks like 10.
24:50The other is, like, 13.
24:51It was literally at that moment
24:53where it became really real for me.
24:56Yeah, but you want to be cautious, though, you know?
24:58You don't want to just, like, it's literally right here.
25:00These people could die.
25:02I literally could be speaking to someone
25:04that's going to die here in, like, a couple hours.
25:06At a hilltop mansion,
25:08Andy Tangelin has a bird's-eye view of the Palisades.
25:12There's a siren.
25:14Fire engine.
25:16We can see the mountains, the ocean, the city.
25:18We see everything from this house.
25:21Ooh, look at this.
25:22But for three critical hours,
25:24what Andy sees is this.
25:27I went back in and kept working
25:30because I had to finish my job.
25:32Found out later that they called
25:35for a mandatory evacuation at 12.30 p.m.
25:39I had no idea until, well, about 4 o'clock.
25:43A little too close for comfort.
25:46But I did see the whole front line of the fire
25:50coming across the whole mountain range
25:52to Mandeville Canyon.
25:53Look at those flames are coming over.
25:56Look at them.
25:57The homeowner evacuated, and...
26:01There goes Vince.
26:02My buddy Vince, who is a property manager,
26:05decided to stay to keep an eye on the property,
26:08and I wasn't going to let him stay by himself.
26:12I'm staying here.
26:13Looks like I'll be locked in.
26:16Below the reservoir,
26:18Caleb watches helplessly
26:20as wind-blown embers ignite fire after fire.
26:24I was up there driving around
26:25in between all the houses on fire
26:27and every single house is on fire.
26:28Boom, boom.
26:29And it's also trash day.
26:30This is the craziest part, too, is trash day.
26:32So imagine all the wind
26:33and everyone has their trash cans out.
26:36What the f***?
26:38All the trash cans are flying in the air
26:39and all the trash on fire.
26:41Got to go!
26:42Oh, f***!
26:43And the embers and, like,
26:44these 100-mile-an-hour winds
26:45and a hill
26:45with all these very big structures
26:47and very big trees.
26:48The wind was so intense,
26:50and the smoke,
26:51even though it was daytime,
26:52you couldn't see anything in front of you.
26:54Every single house was catching on fire.
26:57Damn, so this house is about to go up.
27:01This house is already gone.
27:04Damn.
27:06There were five, six houses
27:07that would go up in a few minutes' span.
27:10I was standing at a cul-de-sac
27:11and all five of the houses went up.
27:13It was, like, three or four minutes.
27:15It was crazy.
27:18It was like snowing fire.
27:19Like, it was literally, like,
27:20a really big blowtorch
27:22that was just lighting the entire mountain on fire.
27:26F*** me.
27:27Okay.
27:28F***, time to go.
27:29Time to go.
27:30Time to go.
27:30Half a mile to the south,
27:33Nani makes the hardest decision of her life.
27:36Around 4 o'clock,
27:37that's when I thought,
27:38okay, I'm going to bail.
27:39I tried to start my car.
27:40It won't start.
27:42I tried again.
27:42It won't start.
27:43I tried again.
27:44It won't start.
27:45But this time, my heart starts beating.
27:47I'm like, what the f***?
27:49I called my friends,
27:50and they said,
27:50Nani, they blocked off Sunset.
27:52They won't let anyone go up to your house.
27:54They said, call 911.
27:56I called 911.
27:57It's a recording.
27:58No one's there.
27:59For like 20 or 30 minutes,
28:01maybe it was 40 minutes.
28:02And I felt like Mother Nature
28:04was just squeezing my heart.
28:07And I'm looking up in the sky.
28:09I'm like, God,
28:09am I going to die today?
28:17You can't lose that way out.
28:20No, that's good.
28:21You're good.
28:22You're good.
28:22You're good.
28:22In Pacific Palisades' famous Alphabet Streets,
28:27Tanner and Orly try to help where they can.
28:30Orly goes up and rings the doorbell.
28:32The ring camera comes on,
28:34and we're just like,
28:35hey, we're like trying to save your house.
28:38We found some masks and that kind of thing.
28:40We're making sure to be safe,
28:42and we have all our escape routes
28:44and that kind of thing.
28:45We put out a fire on a house,
28:48and celebrated,
28:49for 13 seconds
28:51before we turned around
28:52and realized that
28:53in the time it was taking
28:54to put out this one garden,
28:56two other houses,
28:57their front yards,
28:58got on fire.
28:59When the wind shifted,
29:01the smoke came in,
29:02and it just clobbered us.
29:06That was the turning point for us.
29:08We all booked it down the hill
29:09to get back to the car.
29:15Things were different now.
29:16All hell is breaking loose.
29:18It really felt apocalyptic.
29:20The smoke in the wind
29:21is screaming overhead.
29:22It's just like,
29:23just,
29:24this is freaking insane.
29:25We got a guy here
29:26dousing his house
29:27with a homemade hose.
29:29You can hear there's like
29:31explosions happening,
29:33buildings being caught on fire,
29:34and literally like
29:35things inside the house exploding.
29:37This is literally insane.
29:40Insane.
29:42Ooh, this shit just erupted right here.
29:45This shit just got all crazy right there.
29:48Andy Tangelin
29:49and his friend Vince
29:50have decided to battle
29:52the most intense wildfire
29:54that Los Angeles has ever seen.
29:57Oh, shit,
29:58it came over the hill.
30:00It's coming down the canyon now.
30:03It's just getting real.
30:06We started watering down the hillside
30:09for a couple hours
30:10while we could.
30:12We got our fire hose,
30:14we're ready.
30:17We're going to fight this.
30:20Yeah, we get them.
30:22Just above Pacific Coast Highway,
30:25the firestorm arrives
30:26at the Getty Villa Museum.
30:29Once it crested
30:30over the hillside,
30:32then it's,
30:34okay, well,
30:34this is not good
30:35because it was so fast
30:37and that's when it became real.
30:40The wind was swirling
30:42and that was wild,
30:44particularly as the smoke
30:45was coming in
30:46and then you would have
30:48these embers flying by you
30:50and whirling around
30:51and then you'd have a fire
30:54just on your site,
30:55right to the side of you
30:56on the side of the road.
30:57We make sure
30:59that we have everything ready
31:00for the fire department,
31:01but we're not firefighters.
31:04It was very dark
31:06except for the flame,
31:07so all I could see was flame
31:09and the wind was so, so fierce.
31:14Usually we would be seeing air drops,
31:17but there was no way
31:18that a helicopter
31:19could be dropping water
31:21and that's really how
31:22most large fires are fought.
31:25As water pressure
31:27in the Palisades starts to drop,
31:29the Getty opens up
31:30its fire roads and water tank.
31:32Throughout that day,
31:34throughout that night,
31:35firefighters came in
31:36with their trucks.
31:37Even though there was fire
31:38all around,
31:39including on our property,
31:40they had access to our hydrants.
31:42They watered up
31:43with water from our hydrants
31:45and battled both in our area
31:49but in the neighborhoods.
31:51You know, you think of,
31:52oh, the firefighters
31:53see a fire,
31:54they're going to put it out.
31:55When you're dealing
31:56with such a big fire,
31:57they had to make choices.
31:59The fire department
32:01was primarily focused
32:03on saving lives
32:05and I was very impressed
32:07that they accomplished
32:08their number one goal,
32:09which was to evacuate people.
32:12With fire threatening
32:13to cross the highway,
32:15Amy takes no chances.
32:17There was debris flying
32:19all around.
32:20Every time I went over
32:21to my car,
32:22my car door,
32:23I was afraid that the wind
32:24was going to rip my car door off.
32:26And then the flames,
32:27as the flames got closer,
32:28there were embers flying.
32:30That was really scary
32:31because I wasn't wearing
32:32fireproof clothing.
32:33I knew that if I kept
32:35staying there watching,
32:37I was really in danger
32:39of losing my life.
32:40And so I would then back up
32:43a couple of blocks
32:44and they had to start
32:45backing up as well.
32:47Below the reservoir,
32:49Nani has four good reasons
32:51to hold her ground.
32:53My dogs were in my car,
32:54in my garage,
32:55when I was inside the house
32:57trying to call 911
32:58and no one was there.
32:59So then I hang up the phone,
33:01I go outside,
33:02I'm looking at the embers.
33:03The embers were on my hair,
33:05so my hair was on fire.
33:07Yeah, it was chaos.
33:09I'm thinking, okay,
33:10I'm going to run down the hill
33:11with all my dogs, right?
33:12The little chihuahuas
33:13I could carry if they collapse,
33:15but my big dogs,
33:16like if they collapse
33:17from smoke inhalation,
33:19I couldn't drag them
33:20down the hill.
33:21If I run down,
33:22I might just collapse
33:23from smoke inhalation
33:25and then I'm going to die.
33:26And then my dogs will die.
33:28I felt like land for slaughter,
33:31you know?
33:34Even those who are now safe
33:36cannot escape
33:37this unimaginable disaster.
33:40All of the information
33:41we were getting
33:42from the news
33:42was one thing,
33:43but what we were also getting
33:45was video
33:46from people's ring cameras.
33:54A lot of people's ring systems
33:56were working,
33:57ours was not.
33:58I got a call from a friend
33:59in absolute tears
34:01with a home a block up from us
34:02with the ring system
34:04showing that the front
34:05of their home
34:05had caught fire.
34:06And that's when I knew
34:08that we were next.
34:23And then later that evening,
34:26our block was just
34:27a wall of orange.
34:29And I think that's the moment
34:32that I knew I didn't have
34:33to watch the news anymore.
34:34I didn't have to worry
34:36about phone calls
34:37or texts coming in
34:38that the house was gone.
34:54That was the end of it
34:57for us.
35:02Just a few blocks away,
35:04Tanner and Orly
35:05desperately try to save
35:06Orly's home.
35:11Me and Orly started
35:13fire prepping his house.
35:16And so we're getting
35:17all the flammable materials
35:19off of his deck.
35:20And we start hosing down
35:21everything we can.
35:23Right now I'm at my friend's house.
35:25The fire behind me
35:27is literally burning the house.
35:30Everything's on fire.
35:31The house behind us
35:31is on fire.
35:33Please protect this house.
35:34I'm Jesus' name.
35:34Then the fire is upon us.
35:44During the evening
35:45of January 7th,
35:47the Palisades fire
35:48continues to grow exponentially.
35:51At 6.18 p.m.,
35:5430 miles to the east,
35:56fire is spotted
35:57in Eaton Canyon
35:58in the hills
35:59above Altadena.
36:01My son could just see
36:02the flames
36:04right underneath
36:05the power line
36:06coming down the mountain.
36:08He's like,
36:09Dad, that's a fire.
36:11I'm thinking,
36:12man, this is bad.
36:15Oscar Franco
36:16and a fast-growing
36:17cohort of first responders
36:19watch the fire
36:20go from bad
36:21to worse.
36:22Every gust of wind,
36:24you just see that
36:25expansion of fire.
36:26I've never seen this before.
36:29Evacuations are in a way.
36:30Residents in the area
36:31need to immediately evacuate.
36:33Evacuate now.
36:34We were there
36:35about 10, 15 minutes
36:37and it's coming
36:38over the hill
36:39and onto the houses.
36:40That's how fast it was.
36:42That's the only warning
36:43these folks have.
36:45Police department,
36:46evacuate immediately.
36:48The cops start cussing,
36:50like,
36:50get the half out of here.
36:53Go, go.
36:54Police department.
36:55You hear the panic
36:56in their voice
36:57and you're like,
36:57wow,
36:58that was the cue,
36:59the cue for panic.
37:01The only fires
37:02that Mandana Najafabadi
37:04is thinking about
37:05are candles.
37:07January 7th
37:08was an important day
37:09because it's
37:10my husband's birthday.
37:12Never in a million years
37:13thought that this fire
37:15was going to come
37:15into the neighborhood
37:17and cross the golf course.
37:19Never.
37:20Retired fire captain
37:22Rich Snyder
37:22is quick to spot the danger.
37:24I was in my home office
37:27ironically putting
37:28a presentation together
37:29on wildfire risk
37:30and mitigation
37:31for residential structures.
37:32I looked out my window
37:34and saw the orange glow.
37:35I got to a good vantage point
37:37and I saw the rapid fire spread
37:40and I saw the smoke
37:42and wind travel
37:43in a direction
37:44that in all my life,
37:46all my career,
37:47I hadn't seen
37:48come that way.
37:50Wherever the smoke
37:51is going
37:51is where the fire
37:52is going to go.
37:54and it was coming
37:55over my neighborhood.
37:56That's where
37:56it was going to come.
37:58The firestorm
37:59that will engulf
38:00Altadena
38:00is just beginning.
38:04In Pacific Palisades,
38:06Nani Nam
38:06and her four dogs
38:07have run out of time.
38:10There was no one
38:11on my street.
38:12All of a sudden
38:13I'm hearing voices.
38:14It's not a man's voice
38:15or a woman's voice.
38:15It's just like
38:16energy from my ancestors
38:18and they're like,
38:19move your ass
38:20and do something right now.
38:22Do something right now.
38:23You know,
38:23fight for your life.
38:24So I ran into the house.
38:26I wetted a towel
38:27with water.
38:28I put it over my mouth
38:29and I started running
38:30down the hill.
38:31It was just chaos.
38:33The embers
38:34were on my hair.
38:35Some of my hair
38:36was on fire.
38:37I saw this small truck
38:39and then I screamed
38:40and I waved
38:41but they didn't see me.
38:43And then all of a sudden
38:44I see him backing out
38:45to turn around
38:46to go back down the hill.
38:47I just ran.
38:54I think it was right
38:56after the sun set
38:57and this woman
38:57comes running down the hill.
39:00I ran down.
39:01I slammed on this car.
39:02Then starts banging
39:03on my window.
39:04I basically body slammed
39:05on this car.
39:07You okay?
39:08No.
39:08What happened?
39:09My car won't stop.
39:10Can you please help me
39:11get my doctor?
39:11He's so much
39:12in my garage.
39:14I had to come back.
39:15I had to come back
39:15for my dogs
39:16no matter what.
39:18I would have held
39:18down to his windshield
39:20and, you know,
39:21make him get out.
39:22Where are you?
39:23Right there.
39:23It's up the street.
39:23How far up.
39:24Yeah, yeah, yeah.
39:24I got you.
39:26Yeah, I got you.
39:26I got you.
39:27I got you.
39:27He probably thought
39:28I was like this mad woman
39:29like, you know,
39:30coming at him from nowhere.
39:31Like, you know,
39:32he didn't know
39:32what the f*** I was.
39:34At that point,
39:35I just said,
39:36yeah, get in.
39:37He was brave.
39:38Not too many guys
39:39like that, you know.
39:39Some guys,
39:40they might go,
39:40oh no,
39:41I have to go back.
39:42It's not protocol.
39:43He didn't ask me
39:43any questions.
39:44He just went up there
39:45to help me.
39:46Stuff exploding.
39:48Yeah.
39:49Go to the right,
39:50right, right, right, right.
39:51It was up
39:52into the fire,
39:53into the smoke
39:54where everything was bad.
39:57Whoa.
39:58Whoa.
39:58She opened the garage door
39:59and all the embers
40:01start going into the garage.
40:02All the smoke
40:03and everything
40:03and she's like,
40:04my dogs are in the car,
40:05my dogs are in the car.
40:05Okay, let's go quick.
40:07Go quick.
40:07Go, go, go, go, go, go.
40:08They were just
40:09terrified.
40:11They were so terrified.
40:12Their tails
40:12were in between their legs.
40:14There we go.
40:16There's two chihuahuas,
40:17a husky,
40:17and a pit bull.
40:17Pit bull does not like
40:18the husky and the chihuahuas.
40:20He's built like
40:20an NFL player,
40:22like really big guy.
40:23So Caleb's like,
40:24is he going to bite me?
40:26Part of my ski mask
40:27came back
40:28and when I was trying
40:29to put the dog in the car
40:29and Amber actually
40:30caught part of my hair
40:31on fire
40:31and I was like putting it out,
40:33trying to get the dog
40:34in the car.
40:34Got it?
40:35Ow.
40:36I'm burning.
40:37Sorry.
40:38All the way up.
40:39One, two, three.
40:40Over 50 houses
40:40on the entire hillside
40:41had been completely
40:43obliterated by that point.
40:44It had gotten
40:4510 times worse.
40:47It's okay.
40:47No, stay here.
40:48It's okay.
40:49You're a good boy.
40:50Yes.
40:53Company checking in.
40:54Got it?
40:55You good?
40:57Okay.
40:59Well, be careful, doggy.
41:15We're going down the hill.
41:16It's like we're going
41:17left and right
41:17and dodging all these things
41:19and cars and trash cans.
41:21We literally couldn't see
41:23like two or three feet
41:24in front of the car.
41:25It was just all white.
41:27Our beacons were like
41:28cars blowing up
41:29right and left.
41:30Oh my gosh.
41:31Oh my gosh.
41:32Oh my gosh.
41:33Oh my gosh.
41:33Oh my gosh.
41:35While Caleb and Nani
41:36race through a gauntlet
41:37of flames,
41:38Tanner and Orly
41:39are locked in a desperate
41:41battle with fire
41:42and fate.
41:44My main focus was just,
41:46you know,
41:47making sure Orly's house
41:48is protected
41:49as much as possible
41:49and making sure Orly
41:51is protected
41:51as much as possible.
41:53Protect this neighborhood
41:54God in Jesus' name
41:55I pray amen.
41:57This tree is going
41:58to kill us.
41:59When I get back
42:00to the backyard,
42:01the hedge
42:03between my house
42:04and the next house
42:06is a 30-foot
42:08tower of flames.
42:10No.
42:11Just let it burn
42:12and there's nothing
42:13we can do now, bro.
42:16Bro, I don't...
42:26Bro, we gotta go.
42:28We can't do this.
42:30It wasn't like,
42:31oh, we can try
42:32and figure this out.
42:32It's just straight up
42:33dangerous at that point.
42:34It's just foolish.
42:35It could not say
42:36for us to be here
42:37any longer.
42:38Any longer, so...
42:39We gotta get out of here.
42:41I wasn't sad.
42:42I was just being realistic.
42:43What are we gonna do?
42:45We can't fight this,
42:46so we're gonna...
42:48We're gonna evacuate.
42:50Oh, this is hard.
42:51All right, dude.
42:53All right, dude.
42:53Yeah, let's get out of here.
42:55We tried.
42:56We tried, bro.
42:57I'm sorry.
42:58I'm sorry.
43:01We tried our best.
43:03Yeah, and when this tree falls,
43:04I'm over.
43:08I'm sorry, bro.
43:11Bro, get out of here.
43:15And so as I left,
43:16I was just like...
43:17Holy shit!
43:18Damn.
43:19That could have gone better.
43:29We made sure to park the car
43:31further down the street
43:32so that it wouldn't catch on fire
43:34from any embers.
43:35And so we're just like
43:36running down the street
43:37going towards this car.
43:43It felt pretty defeating
43:45in a way
43:46because we tried our best
43:49and it wasn't good enough.
43:53But at the same time,
43:54because we tried our best,
43:56there's no regret.
43:57You know, it's just like
43:58we did our best,
44:00we stayed as long as we could,
44:01and now we just have to leave.
44:09In my wildest imagination,
44:10I never thought of a scenario
44:12where the neighborhood
44:13was just completely gone.
44:19I got to live there
44:20and have community
44:21and make incredible friends
44:23and have incredible memories
44:24that will build relationships
44:26that are fireproof.
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