Keenan grew up in Pacific Palisades as did her husband. Over the past 24 hours, they keep hearing about other friends and family whose homes have gone up in flames. Her husband's cousins and aunt lost their homes and her in-laws had been evacuated. "Everyone we know over there has now been evacuated," she said. The Pasadena-Altadena area is also in trouble. "These are families who have been here for 30, 40 years," she said, "beautiful old Craftsmans." These are not celebrities in their mansions, Keenan said, but family homes.
"Every few years Malibu burns down," Keenan said. "But the Pacific Palisades has never burned down." The fire, she said, started up in the mountains and went all the way down to the coastal homes. Classic restaurants, schools, mom and pop shops, have all burned down. "I don't think this area has ever burned like this," she said, calling it "unprecedented."
President-elect Donald Trump, Posobiec noted, has put the blame for the fires squarely "on the shoulders of Gavin Newsom." Trump has blamed water management, forest management, wildfire management and poor governance for the conditions that have spawned the disaster. During his first term in office, Trump toured the site of a devastating fire with Newsom, encouraging him to clean up the forest floor, to clear out the underbrush. California, Posobiec said, is instead putting environmental concerns over human life and property. Up in the hills, Keenan said, are numerous homeless encampments which could have been caused a conflagration either with cooking or smoking.
"The other thing that's really shocking to me," Keenan said, is that there's no water. There's been a lack of water to put out fires in Pacific Palisades, in Altadena. She said a firefighter broke open a fire hydrant and found that there was no water in it to put out fires. Instead, she's seen neighbors using their hoses to try to put down the flames.
"Our government is so ridiculous," she said. "It really does feel like I'm abandoned." There's been no National Guard as yet, just "tons of cops." Homes are in flames and there's not much information getting out. "It does feel like we're alone," she said. People have been evacuated, Keenan said, but property damage will be extensive. The footage she shared was unreal, showing cars driving down residential roads with homes ablaze on either side.
LA Mayor Karen Bass was in Africa while the area burned. She had defunded the fire department in recent years to the tune of $20 million.
"I just can't believe they let the Palisade Village burn to the ground," Keenan said. "This is the library I grew up going to, this is my childhood. Honestly, it's devastating. I'm angry. And people should be enraged. And I keep thinking, Jack, what would it take for people in LA to vote against Newsom, to vote against these people."
Watch the full episode below.
