LA UPDATE: Officials say wildfire dangers are not over

Los Angeles County City One Voice press conference here at the kennyon hall of administration my name is Anthony I am the fire chief of the County of Los Angeles Fire Department and I will provide an eaten fire update the eaten fire remains estimated at 14,17 Acres with 45% % containment we know that over 7,000 structures are damaged or destroyed and we have 3,000 392 firefighting Personnel assigned to the incident 45% of our damage inspections for the eaten Fire have been completed impacted residents may visit recovery. lacounty.gov to view maps showing damage assessments please please note

that these maps are being updated daily critical fire weather conditions will continue through this evening the anticipated 70 mph winds have yet to materialize however this could change and we are still at risk I want to remind and ask our unhoused neighbors to not have cooking or warming fires in Wildland brush areas any persons experiencing homelessness should seek housing or shelter through the county or city of Los Angeles finally donations I have heard that there are organizations that are asking for donations for my LA County firefighters please be advised that the LA County fire department

does not yet have a mechanism to accept donations we have staff working on a process at to accept donations over the Internet for our LA County Fire Department I ask that those wanting to donate hold off until we have a process established that will guarantee the funds benefit our Personnel we will release a press briefing when we have that system up and running and please do not let these despicable scammers take advantage of your generosity I would now like to introduce Jerry Magna Deputy Incident Commander calfire Incident Management team to good morning jerman G Incident

Commander for Deputy Incident Commander for The Incident Management teams on the Palisade and eaten incidents in the past 24 hours there's been little to no fire growth on both incidents uh as Chief mentioned the dens inspections continue to occur as well as usar operations Cru continue to strengthen the fire perimeter extinguishing hotpots UTI utilizing ground resources and resources alike both incidents have requested the wart and be reports which are soil severity tests that will be completed by the end of the incident and we continue to preposition Resources with a uh with a current mobilization Center

in bont which is in Riverside County for any new starts that could potentially affect the area calfire will continue to support our partners in unified command and we thank you for your patience during this time for the most current fire information please go to fire.ca.gov and next up I would like to to uh introduce LA City fire chief good morning everyone Kristen Crowley Los Angeles city fire department's fire chief yesterday I want to just give everybody a brief update on uh an additional brush fire that did break out in the Lake View Terrace area of

Los Angeles with structures that were threatened firefighters responded and aggressively attacked this fire I am pleased to report that within approximately 34 minutes all forward progress was stopped with no damage to any of the structures I'll now be providing you an update on our Palisades fire this fire is 23,7 13 acres with 19% containment with 5,14 Personnel assigned to the incident firefighters observed 30 to 40 m per hour winds with low hum humidity when you look at the aerial view of the Palisades fire you may not be able to tell but however infrared flights last

night indicated there are still numerous hot spots burning within the fire footprint very close attention was paid to address any flare ups swiftly as to prevent any fire spread outside of the perimeter we understand also just a message to the community and those that were impacted by these fires we understand and your desire to return to your community however signif significant safety and infrastructure issues remain including down power lines broken gas lines hazardous materials and unsafe water please know that we are working diligently to address these challenges and ensure your safety and the safety of

our First Responders as we enter into the third day of this additional wind event I urge everyone to stay alert the combination of low humidity and strong winds has further dried out the brush increasing the risk of fire the danger has not yet passed so please please prioritize your safety thank you I would now like to introduce our next speaker Sheriff Luna uh good morning uh Robert Luna Sheriff of Los Angeles County uh the sheriff's department LA County Sheriff's Department continues to have well over a thousand Personnel assigned uh again many on 12-hour shifts many

without days off uh really want to thank this the California Highway Patrol they've contributed even more officers in the last 24 hours there're well over 300 officers who are helping on both incidences uh The Drug Enforcement Administration has also contributed even more special agents that are assisting us uh in different incidences uh they're close to about 30 uh we are now uh close to uh or well over 900 National Guards California National Guard that are assisting us both for the uh LA County Sheriff's Department the Los Angeles Police Department and other law enforcement agencies here

in California uh evacuation orders uh they've gone down some uh we are at 82,500 uh in our LA County jurisdiction and warnings are up just a little bit because of the wind event tonight ,400 in regards to a curfew the curfew uh still is in effect from 6:00 pm. uh to 6: a.m. I just want to make sure everybody understands that uh the rules haven't changed uh if you don't belong there you don't live there stay out of there there's no reason for you uh to be there and you will be subject uh to arrest

uh if you're there uh with no business uh in regards to arrest uh we had a few more arrests overnight uh the total for Ali County Sheriff's jurisdiction is now at 44 uh that's 36 arrest uh in the Eaton uh incident and eight for the Palisades uh incident uh eat in total um well I won't go into detail but uh basically uh we stand at about 14 uh for burglary uh within those jurisdiction everything else is either curfew trespassing uh individuals that are possessing narcotics uh and or guns uh last night I do want to

bring you to your attention that in our Palisades incident uh we did arrest another individual for impersonating a firefighter uh somebody else who is dressed like a fireman was not a fireman I got to give a lot of credit to our deputies for being proactive stopping them uh and arresting him uh that investigation will continue uh search and rescue operation ations our search and rescue teams have completed approximately 78% of the search are in Altadena uh that is an estimate of 5,516 properties um I'm hoping uh with luck maybe by the end of today maybe

tomorrow uh that will be done uh yesterday we started the same operation uh in the Palisades area um evacuation zones lift Ed Palisades zero Eaton we did lift uh two uh so we're communicating the best we can with our partners and our residents uh to make sure that they can get back in there and please as a reminder our repopulation conversations do continue uh with every meeting uh but please remember just because there isn't a fire the Chiefs have made it very clear that we're still having some challenges with the wind so we've got to

keep a close eye on things but but in talking to our partners at Public Works and utilities um there are things you can't see that are underground there's a lot of Hazards uh so those are things that going to have to be evaluated hour by hour day by day uh so that we can make sure that when we start allowing our community members back to their homes that they are safe safety is always absolutely number one um in regards to deaths in the Los Angeles County uh Sheriff's jurisdiction uh we still stand at 21 uh

if you've been following the numbers I've been given or giving out uh they are uh they've stayed static for two days now even though the searches continue at least in the Altadena area so uh 21 deaths bad news no more deaths so far uh that's good news uh so I'm praying that that stays uh uh together um and then missing persons uh that did increase a bit but I I want to know that originally we had 31 missing person reports that were taken uh thank God five of them were found safe uh but we still

have 26 active missing persons that are reported uh 20 in the Eaton area uh and six in the Palisades area and then uh as I conclude uh uh if you want any more specific information regarding evacuation orders or Warnings if they're coming or going uh road closures or any other information that you think is important to you and your family uh please go to lacounty.gov emergency I'd like now to introduce uh Jim McDonald the chief of the Los Angeles Police Department thank you Sheriff good morning over the last week you've heard me say that the

LAPD REM remains committed to protecting lives safeguarding property and maintaining order in the areas affected by the fire and that remain Remains the case today the LAPD remains on tactical alert and we've dedicated whatever resources are necessary to provide for your safety LAPD officers are actively patrolling the areas around the clock and protecting your properties like they are our own our efforts include enhanced visibility in evacuation zones and neighborhoods where houses and businesses are vacant deploying marked and unmarked Vehicles as well as foot patrols to ensure a strong presence and a swift response to to

any issues that arise our deployment we understand the frustration and concern many of you are feeling regarding the fire evacuation and the restrictions on returning to your homes please know that our officers and National Guard Personnel are following the directions of the unified command which is working tirelessly to ensure the safety of everyone involved we're committed to continuing our discussions for un with the unified command to assess when it will be safe for residents to return your safety remains our top priority and we'll provide updates as soon as it is safe to do so thank

you for your patience and understanding during these very difficult times for the upcoming 24-hour period LAPD will continue to deploy roughly 600 officers to the impacted areas with support from Air LA airport police Port Police and the National Guard who have 200 soldiers assigned to the Palisades incident and we're very grateful for their support excuse me we're also introducing a team of volunteers from an NGO known as team Rubicon to assist the public at various checkpoints these humanitarian Aid workers will be available at checkpoints to direct residents to resources and answer questions they'll be wearing

gray shirts and are available to inform and support our community and again we're thankful to them on the missing person front we continue to dedicate resources to all reports of missing persons as of this morning we have 38 people who've be been reported missing 27 of those have been found safe of the 11 remaining two most likely have been found deceased but yet to be positively identified in total we have three fatalities that are fire related one person died at the hospital but had not been reported missing we still have eight missing persons remaining arrests

we have no new fire area related arrest and we remain at 14 but we'd like to update the all of you on two notable arrests that were made on uh January 14th just outside the fire zone at approximately 17 or 5:15 p.m. officers responded to a radio call near the intersection of Glenn Oaks and vanai Boulevard where a citizen had detained a possible arson suspect upon arrival officers took the suspect into custody and the citizen had already extinguished a nearby fire in a tree during the investigation the suspect admitted to starting the fire because he

liked the smell of burning leaves the suspect was subsequently booked for arson later that evening at about 9:30 in the area of Santa Monica in Vermont fire department Department Personnel responded to reports of a suspect setting multiple piles of rubbish and trash on fire fire department quickly extinguished the fires and officers took the suspect into custody suspect admitted to setting multiple fires that day and stated that she enjoyed causing chaos and destruction she was also booked for arson as we continue to manage this historic catastrophic event we want to express our gratitude to everyone who

has provided tips and remained Vigilant in keeping the city safe your cooperation is crucial during this time and you can hear from those two examples I mentioned there are people out there who this is what they do if you know of those people please give us a call before something uh really bad happens excuse me on the uh front of pets uh we want to update the public on efforts of the city to reunite pet owners with their animals a new dedicated phone line has been established to specifically assist with inquiries related to pets affected

by the fire if you're looking for your animal in the fire zone uh affected areas please call 21327 8155 for assistance and in closing I'm aware that this has now been over a week since many of you have been able to see your homes I thank you for your patience and continued cooperation LAPD and our partners here will continue to work alongside uh each other to make sure our community has the resources we need to recover and ultimately rebuild build again thank you let me now introduce the Los Angeles District Attorney Nathan Hawkman thanks the

work of firefighters law enforcement has been nothing short of heroic the over 200,000 people who've had to evacuated who have cooperated with this again has been incredibly impressive yet still there are people out there who have decided that they are going to take advantage of this tragedy they're going to exploit this crisis for their own personal benefit and we have sent this warning and I'll say it again the question is not if but when you will be arrested you will then be prosecuted and then you will be punished to the full extent of the law

on Monday we announced the charging of 10 different individuals nine for looting one for arson of the nine individuals they were involved with both looting in the Palisades fire area as well as the eaten fire area they are looking at a minimum the the shortest sentence that anyone charged is looking at is 6 years in prison nine years in prison for another individual we have people who are looking at 22 years in prison and a maximum sentence of life in prison these are very significant punishments Justice will be swift Justice will be significant if you

want to take advantage of this tragedy uh Following on on what Chief McDonald says we have actually filed charges in two additional arson cases again not related to the major fires there's one that we had charged an individual who set a fire in the city of Industry he set bushes on fire he set a pallet on fire he set the back of a tractor trailer on fire those fires were quickly put out and that individual is looking at seven years for a maximum uh prison sentence another individual was charged in the city of Irwindale under

the I 605 underpass again setting a fire that was that was quickly put out that individual is looking at a maximum sentence of 14 years we have received numerous uh allegations that we are now following up involving add additional looting incidents and price gouging the price gouging is particularly despicable because these are people who are who are basically looking at this situation and saying how can I make the most amount of money from people who are Desperately Seeking housing uh supplies they're seeking Services because they've lost everything they've lost their houses and I will tell

you that with respect to this price gouging we have seen people increase their prices for rooms that they are renting for houses that they are leasing 100 200 300% here's my again my warning if you're one of these people who have engaged in price gouging not only do you need to stop it immediately I would strongly recommend that you go back and fix it go back and re refund the amount that you have overcharged people we will certainly take that into consideration in deciding whether or not to charge you so it's your choice if you

want to actually abide by the law you could benefit from it right this second but if we go ahead and find out that you've engaged in price Gap in and you've take taken no steps to remedy the violation that you have uh uh you have basically enacted we will go ahead and prosecute you to the full extent of the law so not only are you are you going to be looking at criminal penalties you will be looking at civil penalties and as importantly your name will get out there your company's name will get out there

you will be publicly shamed I want to make that crystal clear so stop it right now and as we as the recovery starts up we again are seeing the financial scams over and over we are seeing scams involving Charities where people who want to donate either money or services to the recovery effort are being targeted by these scammers my strong message to you is if this happens please check the organization that you are donating your money to beforehand do not donate cash do not even donate Bitcoin because it's very hard to track only deal with

reputable organizations that you can then check out who will get that money to the appropriate people in need same thing when it comes to Insurance be very careful there are scammers out there who are going to try and make you promises that they can give you certain benefits from insurance that are completely false make sure you check out any insurance claims and government benefits are starting up now both the federal government and the state governments are going to be offering people in need significant dollars to get back and recover in their lives however these will

be ripped off I will guarante to you there are people who are looking at this to rip them off here again is your warning because I don't want any discussion later on that there is some confusion of what the what the consequences are they will be Swift and they will be significant so again I wish everyone great safety please support the firefighters please support law enforcement stay out of the evacuation zones they are designed for your safety and to facilitate the these putting out of fires and keeping people's houses safe if you want to go

ahead and violate an evacuation area violate a curfew you will be held accountable you will be arrested and my office off will prosecute you I'd like to now introduce Los Angeles County Public Health chief deputy director Dr anes Mahajan good morning my name is Dr Nicole quick I am the chief medical adviser for the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health as we continue to deal with the aftermath of fires and residents begin to return to their homes with proper approval from the Regulatory Agencies it is important to remain Vigilant about air quality fire and

wind conditions can increase the amount of particulate matter dust and Ash currently the South Coast air quality management district has extended a windblown dust and Ash advisory through this evening um this the high winds may displace ash from the Palisades and eaten fire impact zones wind blown Ash particles may be too large to be picked up by our regular instruments and will not influence the aqi measures that we pointed folks to to look at for air quality so it's important to look for Ash in air and on equipment and on your surroundings to take pre

um precautions to effectively reduce exposure to harmful particles it is critical to wear appropriate respiratory precautions this includes n95 and p100 masks um in addition to obtaining The Masks important to wear those correctly this means over the nose and mouth without gaps and well fitted to your face for n95 to provide the proper protection they also must be changed out with regularity and if they become wet or soiled it is very important to note that class cloth masks dust masks and bandanas are not adequate protection while they may provide minimal protection it is not adequate

to keep out those particulate and Ash that we are concerned about individuals with respiratory conditions children and those with pre-existing medical conditions are urged to talk to their healthc care provider before utilizing these respirators taking these steps is critical for vulnerable populations including older adults children and those with pre-existing conditions n95 masks are available for free at LA County Libraries and at the local assistance disaster Resource Centers um quick note also for those who are struggling with finding their prescriptions there are public health has beg offering medication assistance at all of the local assistance centers

we have teams there that can work with families and individuals to help them secure medications individuals can also connect with their regular providers their pharmacies and their health plans for further assistance in obtaining their medications I want to make a note for those who are receiving medications for opiate use disorder if you are having difficulty obtaining those please call 213 28899 and we are available from 88: a.m. to midnight to support those needs in addition to these efforts there are other resources available to help um in your prescription obtaining prescription ions want to make one

additional note that we do have Environmental Health Inspectors at the local assistance centers that can address concerns related to fire damage and safety we can assist family in identifying health hazards provide education and answer questions about maintaining a healthy environment I will now hand this over to supervisor Barker thank you thank you Dr I want to start by emphasizing especially with the wind we'll have today that it is important for residents to take health guidance seriously when you're near impacted areas in debris the health concerns are serious I've heard many questions about how to be

safe when you're around an impacted area today large signs are going up all over aladen that outline precautions you should take when you're near impacted areas and when you're sorting through debris the signs will be helpful for residents near burn areas who didn't evacuate but are still affected by debris and will be in preparation for when evacuated residents will be allowed back into the community the information is broken up into three categories what to wear what to do inside and what to do outside there's a slide rotating on the screen that shares the important information

that will be on those signs as the recover as we recover it is crucial that our residents have the information they need right here in our community yesterday I had the honor of going to the disaster recovery center at the passina City College Community Education Center on Foothill and that is exactly what I saw I went on the opening day of operation and I was so proud of our County family I was so proud of the state and the federal who've all stepped up but more importantly I was so proud of the residents that showed

up it was it gave me hope that we we are on the road to rebuilding people weren't saying if I rebuild it's when I rebuild impacted residents who cannot afford for government to um to to build up services slowly I make you this promise our board is united we are all in we are going to make it as easy as possible for you to rebuild and that includes permitting that includes approval that improves work that includes working with all levels of government to secure low interest interest loans it is an all Hands-On deck at the

center we also have County departments and federal state and local Partners in place as you heard so if you lost any of your Vital Records or you need replacement of your license uh they are there to help you and make it as easy as possible together we're bringing every resource to our neighbors in need residents can access countless services including FEMA Financial Service which may include money for basic home repairs personal property losses and other uninsured disaster related needs such as Child Care Transportation or medical need as County Services ranging from the assessor's office to

Public Works to the economic opportunity for employment assistance to the registra quarter our County stands ready to serve you it was heing to see that so many impacted residents still have hope and actually light throughout this Darkness I'd like to give a special thanks to the countless volunteers who are sacrificing their time and resources to make this happen overall I received such positive feedback from the residents who were there receiving services and you know who you are you came up to me and talked to me about how fearful you are about what the future has

in store and I made you this promise and I will honor This Promise you have a future in Altadena and we are going to come back stronger than ever our centers are open every day from 900 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. and we are going to get through this together with that I would like to introduce La city mayor Karen bass good morning everyone as we know we are still not quite out of the woods and so I would just encourage and implore upon all angelinos please take the warning seriously and the evacuation notices seriously and

frankly if you are in an area where there is a warning get prepared now get packed take everything you need with you your medications and your pets if that is possible uh if you are looking for a pet you can call a new number that was mentioned by uh Chief McDonald 21327 8155 21327 8155 we've received many inquiries from individuals who are concerned about where their pets are so please take advantage of that uh telephone number we know the winds were lower than expected yesterday but we also know from the National Weather Service that we

are still facing dangerous conditions I want to thank governor Nome so on his work yesterday on price gouging and scams we're taking this seriously and have made it so Los Angeles residents can report price gouging by calling uh a number with the City 311 scams are also spreading which is why it is so important to use trusted sources for assistance on the positive side The Disaster Recovery Center in West LA did a soft opening yesterday it was opened just for about four hours and in those four hours over a 100 households came it was encouraging

to see the number of people who were there many of whom travel from disaster to disaster I met individuals from the SBA who had been in Hawaii I met other individuals that had been in hurricanes uh in the South Department of Motor Vehicles FEMA the Employment Development Department there are a variety of resources there that people could take advantage of but I do have to tell you what was the most touching experience was to meet a woman from Pacific Palisades who had lived in Palisades for over 40 years and she lost her home she told

me that she was staying with her daughter and I asked her what kind of services she was looking for there and she said she wasn't looking for services she was there to volunteer having lost her house she was there to volunteer to me this is an example of the spirit of Los Angeles selfless and Resolute that we will make it through these fires and we will rebuild when I think of individuals who have lost their homes it's not just a matter of losing a house you've lost memories family all of the experiences that took place

there are gone and gone unexpectedly gone rapidly so at the same time as we prepared to make it through the rest of this emergency we also have to start putting in place what we need to do to rebuild and so I mentioned a couple of days ago I did an executive order to expedite the rebuilding so those individuals will not have to go through the long rates that are usual but yesterday the Los Angeles city council met and passed a number of motions that will assist in that effort as supervisor barar said We Are One

City We Stand Together the city and the county will do everything we can to expedite the rebuilding if you need any resources you can go to La city.gov I also want to thank the generosity of legitimate philanthropy because there is legitimate philanthropy out there and I hope people give generously the California Community foundation's Fund that now has over 20,000 donations over $18 million received a significant contribution last evening from mayor rich rich Rex Richardson from Long Beach and the people of Long Beach contributed half a million dollars this is how we re we will rebuild

our city we will rebuild our city stronger thank you and let me now introduce supervisor Lindsay harvan I want to reiterate the particularly dangerous situation today get ready now and be prepared to leave for our County service and school updates yesterday our board started the process of a county relief program for victims of all fires there's more information to follow and we will continue to act swiftly to support our residents the county 211 wait times are now under five minutes please use 211 to access County resources and information several more LAUSD schools are open today

Palisades Charter Elementary students should attend Brentwood science Magnet Elementary Marquez Charter Elementary students should attend norish ster Elementary you can call the Department of animal care and control at 562 94 0 6898 to help with pet reunification LA County parks are hosting care camps for young people impacted by the fires you can register at parks. laac county.gov care camps and there's more information on all recovery efforts throughout the county at recovery. La county.gov because of the particularly dangerous situation there may be additional power out ages please take this opportunity to charge your phones and batteries

and to make sure that you are prepared in the event of a power outage the Declaration of emergency countywide has gone into effect and includes illegal price gouging including on rent and housing options we cannot raise the price of rent goods or services more than 10% there are both both criminal and financial penalties these are enforced by our district attorney as you heard through the County's Declaration of emergency our County Council and our director of consumer and business Affairs have the authority to impose civil penalties and I spoke with our attorney general of the state

this morning who is vigorously investigating cases at his level we are taking these instances seriously and there will be consequences under our County Emergency we also know that this could include misdemeanor charges the governor as you have heard has also issued a new executive order and we thank him for his support and Leadership to report price gouging or other predatory practices you can do so at oag.ca.gov report or you can call 800 593 822 too for more emergency updates you can still see those at emergency. lacounty.gov and I want to Echo the thanks of to

our First Responders to our volunteers I also want to es especially acknowledge Lassa those who are working in the County's newly established ecrc and our homeless initiative efforts supporting those who are unhoused in fire danger areas our ICP has deployed more than 15,000 people through throughout Los Angeles County for all of these fires we thank each and every person who is helping angelinos in this critical time Los Angeles and the state of California have stepped up we have been supported by people throughout our nation and together we will recover thank you and now I'd like

to introduce FEMA region 9 administrator Robert Fenton Jr thank you uh and good morning uh I just want to first uh give an update on our registrations for our individual assistance program we're up to 53,000 registered almost 12 million uh dollars provided um and yesterday I had the opportunity to visit the U uh UCLA Disaster Recovery Center with mayor bass uh to Market's opening um and as uh was discuss uh you know a number of federal state local nonprofit organizations there uh survivors impacted by the fire could go there to get uh many different Services

I think there was over 70 different organizations uh there working to provide help to individuals affected by the disaster um so I would uh urge individuals to make sure you register with FEMA if you're insured go to your insurance first uh it's better to register before going to the recovery center but there are a lot of services there that uh everyone that's been impacted by the fire should take advantage of um the second thing I want to talk about is our transitional uh transitional shelter and assistance program which uh we just activated last night the

governor has requested that FEMA uh activate its transitional shelter and assistance program for displaced survivors I'm happy to announce as of today this program is now open the transitional sheltered assistance allows for fire survivors to stay at participating hotels uh to help fill the housing Gap until they can identify a short or longer term housing solution uh TSA may also be available uh for those that have insurance so will help if you're in the process of still uh trying to understand what your insurance covers or if you have alternate living expense for that uh it

will be for a limited time but it will help during that time period uh in order to uh make those decisions FEMA's reaching out to fire survivors that have registered with us that would be eligible for this program so you don't need to request this type of assistance if you're eligible FEMA will notify you via phone text or email underneath this program FEMA pays for the cost of the room taxes and non-refundable pet fees directly to participating hotels survivors are responsible for other inciler costs like laundry or uh restaurants uh parking telephone service Etc TSA

is a temporary Sheltering program female will continue to communicate with those in our program every 14 days to determine the need for longer term Sheltering and what other resources are available to you uh lastly I want to talk about the next steps were taking to start the process uh toward recovery and rebuilding uh the governor has requested that the federal government remove all household houses waste from properties impacted by the fires we had a meeting yesterday with the County uh the city of La and all the other impacted communities Public Works directors and we have

uh directed the Environmental Protection Agency to do this and I've allocated $100 million to go ahead and get this uh started epa's Mission will be to reduce the immediate threat of Hazards they do this by removing everyday products like paints cleaners solvents oils batteries pesticides larger aestus debris uh and uh and also uh pressurized fuel cylinders lithium ion batteries EPA will stand up 40 teams over the next couple days which equates to approximately 500 Personnel EPA will work in close coordination with the state county City and and local communities across the fire areas including the

incident commands of Palisades in Eaton uh to remove household hazardous waste the first this will be the first step uh in getting survivors back to their homes and communities by rendering uh by removing those hazard from that area so that then we can get into greater debris clearing and ultimately rebuilding thank you Helen Chavez communic Helen Chavez Garcia communications director for chair Katherine bargar we thank the honorable Antonio Vasquez from the State Board of Equalization for being here today we will now transition to the question and answer portion of our press conference please raise your

hand we will have bring a speaker to you and I will call upon you in order to ask your question is there would you like to mle Cal news mle Cal news I have two questions the first is for mayor bass mayor 700 people are in shelters right now more than 700 thousands of people have lost their homes I know you are trying to expedite the rebuilding process but realistically how long is it going to take for these folks to get a roof over their head can you give us a timeline I wish that I

could give you a timeline I can't specifically but what I can tell you is is that the people that are in shelters people are there for a lot of different reasons I know some of them might be unhoused but the rebuilding process we have to set the guidelines and the policies in place which is what we did and we will be kicking that off we have a lot more to do as I mentioned the city council met yesterday we need to put all of those policies together and begin right away the first step though was

yesterday and that was the Disaster Assistance Center for people to get all of their paperwork uh together whether they go to the Assistance Center or not that is the first step and I know individuals are talking their insurance companies Etc and price gouging you're talking a lot about price gouging and how ISD hold on the Fe actually the FEMA director wants to respond to you as well go ahead yeah I just want to add to that we will be sending Personnel from our teams to the shelters to see how many are eligible with our programs

and if we can move into transitioning shelter and put in a more safer housing environment into a hotel so we'll be doing the over the next day or two to help uh move people to a better situation than the congr shelters are in right now and on the price gouging that we're seeing happening with rentals again price gouging is illegal but bidding wars are not if the tenants are driving that we're seeing more and more evidence of these bidding wars should people here in Los Angeles be bracing for rents to dram dramatically increase or is

there anything you can do to try to stabilize the market so here's how bidding wars work uh If a landlord or someone who's renting out a particular house or room uh had an original price before the wild fighters in the state of Declaration occurred uh and keeps that original price but others give him or her additional money to rent and they take absolutely no action whatsoever to in any way increase that price then there that it falls in a gray area I don't want to say is 100% legal but it is a gray area but

if the landlord or the rent or the person renting goes ahead and engages in a discussion amongst different people as to which price they're going to take that is more than 10% ahead they're engaging in price gouging so again what I would strongly strongly urge anybody who's renting or selling or providing a service is that if you receive more than 10% of the amount that you would have received before these wildfires you are now entering into the world of price gouging your case will get looked at and if you are found guilty of it you

will be prosecuted thank you we're going to go right over here hi this is Kate Kagel with Spectrum news1 I have a question for mayor bass what was your involvement an emergency preparation in the decision not to deploy up to a thousand available firefighters last week given that the National Weather Service was warning about this life-threatening and destructive Windstorm this is in regarding to the reporting in the Los Angeles Times uh I will let let Chief Crowley answer that I want to be very very clear in this answer so and also offer additional details after

so being very mindful of everybody's time I want to make sure that you get the information that you need in regard to the ld's position and pre-positioning of our resources we followed the system in place the system in place looks at the overall weather and risk with that we predeployment that's very very important that everybody understands that also knowing that there was a higher risk than normal in a very high high-fire excuse me type of a scenario five additional engines were predeployment we made on that day and then following the fire I'll be available right

after okay and we're going to have stop with you as far as emergency preparedness and preparing for uh the wind event that was forecasted The Buck always stops with me but I think you received your answer from the chief thank you last question over here and then we will transition to one-on ones to make sure J vot was CBS News my question is I've won for each of the Fire Chiefs and I I just want to start off saying the firefight ERS the men and women on the front lines they are heroes they say that

as a resident and a journalist that has witnessed it firsthand um Chief Crowley with that said and forgive me I'm going to be looking down because there's a little bit of a timeline I want to establish because just after 6:00 pm last Tuesday night as winds were reaching their strongest many neighborhoods as you know were already on fire this all Hands-On deck alert to off-duty firefighters was issued right you you even reached out to local news to ask for help in assisting putting out that call we did as well the Del times as it's been

mentioned now saying that a thousand firefighters were on standby that would have effectively doubled the response this speaks to chaos and poor planning you mentioned saying something off camera but now that you do have this live feed going you're a straight shooter can you please tell me directly why the delay to activate when for many hours neighborhood after neighborhood was on fire and your firefighters these Heroes were telling tell me they felt like they were in the minor leagues so I want to Echo your sentiments first and foremost with our firefighters and First Responders that

were dispatched and responded to that incident heroic efforts and I can tell I'm sorry were they let down by your leadership I will tell you that we followed a system in place and and I will explain my position on this when it comes to to the totality and the risk that can occur in the city of Los Angeles we do have a system in place we're very system and process oriented for the right reasons we follow a system we did that we pre-employ the necessary resources knowing that or not knowing I should be very specific

in where a fire might break out in the city I think it's very also very important that media knows as well as the communities knows that we are here to protect them that we do have that capability to Surge you ask about a length of time we predeployment the matter is those engines they're pumps they go behind our trucks I won't get too detailed in the operations they're actually staffed with fire department personnel the reality and this is very important for everybody to understand straight shooter right here is that our firefighters on the truck were

immediately pulled in whether they were staffed with four people I got to be very clear we had the capability and we did pull every resource in and around the area those firefighters on the truck jump on that additional pump the truck or the engine that we're talking about that we're saying we're unstaffed we are very fortunate as a department to have a resource deployment that we have I don't think there's any other department in the nation that has the resource deployment model that we have that happened our firefighters jumped on the pumps our thousand engines

that you're talking about and they went to work so we have the system that's built we followed the system we surged where we could Surge and in fact I'll be the first one to stand up and say yeah we need help this was so incredible we have never seen anything and to to say or to think that the lafd leadership or whoever we want to point to doesn't care about the communities that we serve that we don't do everything that we can with the capabilities and the limitations of what we have or don't have I

can tell you and stand before you we did everything in our capability to Surge where we could we had the flexibility built into the system with respond sooner had you activated those reserves sooner could you have saved more neighborhoods and more lives I would think fundamentally as we surged exactly how we did our firefighters pushed in they did everything that they could and it's a what if again I want to also focus on wouldn't do anything no of course there's always Lessons Learned I tell you I am taking this to the highest of high thought

processes of how the lfd and our entire region could do better in the future let me be very very clear the other pieces what and how quickly we were able to Surge not only with limited capacity within the fire department thank God for our agencies around us that happens so quick quickly without delay with a phone call we got the resources where we needed to to do the greatest good at that time thank you thank you that's going to we're going to go ahead and transition I'm sorry we're out of time let's go ahead and

do our one-on ones please move forward we can connect you to the speaker that