Video Transcript:

GLORIA PENNER (Host): Reporter Alison St. John spent much of the week covering the Station Fire for our sister station in Los Angeles and she joins me now. So Allison, you covered the 2000 firestorm that was here in San Diego, how was this situation up in LA now different or similar? 

ALLISON ST. JOHN (KPBS Reporter): From the 2007 fires? Yes.

PENNER: Yes. 

ST. JOHN: Yes it was very interesting Gloria because the fire was completely different in character because of the lack of wind. And I really came to see the difference of a fire that’s blown by the strong winds that we had in 2007 and the fire in the hills north of Los Angeles where the winds… There were winds, but they were very gentle and that allowed the firefighters to actually exercise their craft. You can see here a picture of the smoke burning as I was driving towards La Crescenta, and they were very close to homes. But this was not actually a wildfire that you’re seeing in this picture. This was a backfire. And the thing about backfires is that they look just like wildfires. They have a lot of smoke, a lot of flames. They were lighting them right down the street from homes, upscale homes, but they were under control, they were controlled fires. So, in Los Angeles they actually had time to burn the hillside behind the houses up to the ridge, leaving the hillsides with no fuel. So the wildfire wouldn’t get the houses. 

PENNER: And yet, we did hear reports about evacuations…. 

ST. JOHN: Oh, yes. 

PENNER: But that, some people were not heeding those evacuations. What was the point of staying behind? 

ST. JOHN: Well, I was up in those communities and a lot of people didn’t obey the mandatory evacuation orders. The thing is, is that it was different from San Diego in that sense that the train is very different. You can stand in your front yard and look up at the hills behind your house and watch the progress of the fire, watch the helicopters dropping the water. And people who stayed were fairly confident they could hop in their cars, they were all packed up ready to go and just drive down the hill if the necessity arose. But of course the firefighters were not happy about that at all because the flames were very large and, you know, they could have gotten out of control. Even though they had fire trucks lined-up along the streets to actually leap into action if they crossed the line. 

PENNER: Wait, we saw in Sharon’s report that there was some mixed reaction about budget cuts and their affects on firefighting. What could you see when you were reporting about whether cuts are affecting the firefighters ability to go after the fire? 

ST. JOHN: Well, there was a lot of talk about unified command. And I think that even though a lot of politicians are putting a positive face on it, we heard from Augie Ghio that in practice there are fewer resources in many cases. However, if they can communicate better with each other and coordinate their services, then they can be more effective. And I did see a lot of different agencies working very closely together in Los Angeles. Although, the L.A. City people were unaware of the fact that the L.A. County people were lighting backfires. So even there, there were some break-downs in communication. But I do think that that is the main thing where we are better prepared than we were two or three years ago. 

PENNER: Yea, and Mayor Sanders had a press conference this week basically saying we were better prepared and that the city had made a big effort to clear brush. How important is brush clearing, sort of creating this defense-able space around your home? 

ST. JOHN:  Well, I think the homeowner, that’s really the key because you can’t clear whole hillsides. You can’t clear the backcountry. You know, fire is a natural thing, it’s going to burn. Although, it’s interesting that budget cuts did result in the federal government not clearing some of the brush around the area where the Los Angeles fire broke out, so that may be where the budget cuts are hitting home. But I do think that we really do need to learn to live with fire because it’s going to keep coming. Not be afraid of it because it’s going to burn in the backcountry. It’s a matter of managing it and controlling it and recognizing where it’s dangerous and where it’s a natural phenomenon. 

PENNER: Well that’s going to take a little shift in one’s psyche, I think. 

ST. JOHN: We’re all learning.

PENNER: Thank you very much, Allison St. John.