"I've Seen Fire, and I've Seen Rain"
The California Fires on "The Inside Scoop."
Chapter 4
“I’ve Seen Fire, and I’ve Seen Rain.”
Eaton Canyon, California
January 8, 2025
T. “How are you doing out there Silvia?”
S. “Not good Tom. Its 3 am, my eyes are killing me. The heat and winds are unrelenting. I’m just exhausted from the devastation, fear and sadness. And I keep thinking I have burning embers in my hair.”
T. “We can’t see any from here, but tell us about the fires.”
S. “Well, this one only started at 6:30 last night when a small brush fire exploded and swept down through Eaton Canyon which is bone dry from eight months without rain and tonight, we have had almost hundred mile an hour wind gusts.
The trees simply explode in these conditions sending burning embers into the air which can travel for miles to ignite new conflagrations.
T. “We can see the air is full of those burning embers.”
S. “Yes they have been hopscotching from neighborhood to neighborhood setting new fires and burning down homes.
S. “So far there have been four fires but we expect many more. I’m in the Eaton Canyon area. Everywhere you look you can see the glow of burning homes.
S. “It reminds me of when I was in Kiev where individual houses would be burning all over the city from poorly aimed bombs dropped, how you say it? Willy nilly into different neighborhoods.
T. “We understand that so far only four people have died.”
“But a hundred thousand have been evacuated and thousands more had to be hospitalized with burns, smoke inhalation and head wounds.”
T. “And we hear thousands of homes, businesses, schools, libraries, churches and synagogues have burned to the ground.”
S. “But the real damage is psychological, people are scared. They had to grab whatever they could and evacuate. The streets are littered with burned out cars.
S. “Firemen told residents they had to abandon their cars and run for their lives. The officials were afraid peoples’ cars would get stuck in traffic and block firetrucks from reaching the fires. One person told me that officials brought in bulldozers to move the cars so the firetrucks could get through.”
S. “Oh, I see a new glow down that street. Let’s head down there and take a look.
S. “Oh my God I know this area. I had friends on this street. Oh, the memories I have from inside these homes. It is just so terribly sad and exhausting.
S. “I can’t take it anymore. My shift is almost over. We’re going to see if we can get to the Palisades Fire in the camera car.
S. “Dave, try to get down to the Pacific Coast Highway.
S. “That’s the famous PCH. You folks on the East Coast probably know it as the road where Barbie and Ken cruised from Malibu to Santa Monica. Now those palatial homes are simply smoldering piles of rubble.
S. “Oh my God. Now the fire is on both sides of the highway. The smoke is toxic from the burning houses. I can feel the heat from inside our camera car. We will have to head back the other way.
S. “Look there is an emergency vehicle let’s follow him and get out of this God forsaken catastrophe.
S. “You know I’ve been in war zones and covered natural disasters from hurricanes to tornadoes but I’ve never felt quite so vulnerable, scared, and emotionally exhausted from seeing houses I grew up in go up in flames.
S. “We can talk about global warming and Polar Vortexes, but you never really realize the effects of climate change until you experience it firsthand.
S. “This is the first time that I really understood the impact that global warming will have on all our lives in the very near future.
T. “We’re glad you got out. Now go home and get some sleep.”
S. “I hope I still have a home to go to, and I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to sleep again. This has just been so close and traumatic. I wish I could just go to sleep and wake up in the morning and realize it was all a bad dream, but unfortunately this is our new reality, if we are seeing the rise and fall of the Great American Empire then this is our Pompei.”