LA wildfire: Tesla CEO Elon Musk speaks to fire command team in Los Angeles
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Hey everybody. Welcome back to the Elon Musk podcast. This is a show where we discuss the critical crossroads that shape SpaceX, Tesla, X, the boring company, and Neuralink. I'm your host, Will Walden. So honestly, we don't know yet. It's still an investigation. We don't know how it started. Okay. But because of the wind, honestly, it just allowed it to outpace anything possible. The winds are so strong, air resources, which we use to keep it small, ineffective. Uh,

uh right now the fire is is looking good we still have heat all around the perimeter we still have resources all over and try to to secure those ages edges make sure that there is limited the potential for any kind of growth yeah so we're still out there but the activity is way down i'm here uh with the fire command team at the palisades fire hey guys um and um

Let's see. So this is... I was asked if we could bring some more Starlings here, so we've brought some more Starlings here, and I'm just here with the team, and they're going to provide a briefing of the Palisades Fire. So...

please go ahead all right hello good evening my name is christian litz i'm with la county fire uh cooperating with the partnership with cal fire team two and i'm operating section chief on this pal states fire

So, Palisades Fire. I'll just go. We've been here since the beginning of the fire on Tuesday. We were looking at extreme damaging winds, erratic fire behavior coming through and blowing in from about midway on this map and blowing all the way down to the coastline there. When did that start? Just to frame the thing, people? I assume people, like, it's great to get the story from basically a straight shooter. And, like, you know,

And so, like, how did it start? And...

you know and then maybe after how did it start then like what are some of the things that can be done to prevent it in the future but how did it start out like what's this what's the story so honestly we don't know yet it's still an investigation we don't know how it started okay but because of the wind honestly just allowed it to outpace anything possible the winds are so strong air resources which we use to keep it small okay ineffective okay so it blew at record break it it grew at a record breaking pace

The resources put themselves probably in a bigger danger than they've ever done. It saves you many structures, but you can see it started about here with the wind and pushed it straight through the palisades, and it allowed it to grow laterally. As the wind slowed down, it allowed it to go back the other way, but now the wind came back out of the north and blew down again. So we have

Several windshifts resources are all around trying to both structure the fence, which is down along the coast where this truck is more heavy. We do have communities all along the top that we have. We've just been working as hard as we can from beginning to now without any stop, any rest. Resources working 36, 48 hours at times just because of the need of what we had to do.

Right now, the fire is looking good. We still have heat all around the perimeter. We still have resources all over and try to secure those edges, make sure that there is limited the potential for any kind of growth. So we're still out there, but the activity is way down. And then with these winds over the next couple of days, honestly, this fire, we have to watch it and give you a, but it's going to blow down at least most of it into its own self. But any new fire,

It's going to do the same thing. We have the winds that's going to push it. It's not as strong as it was on Tuesday, but there is still going to be movement. So we're keeping all the resources available and we're ready to actually not only respond to where the fire is now, but any new fires that start, we're able to respond and help. Okay, so fires are currently under control?

This fire, we're not calling it control, but there is lying around almost all of it. Okay. Pretty much almost all of it, but resources were still working. So about the excitement is about 10% of the fire where the flames were there, but 90% of the work is done after those flames are gone, and we have to secure those edges.

Because you ever watch a campfire where the wind comes in and it's out? Yeah. Then the wind comes and it blows embers? Sure. Same thing can happen. Okay. So we have to keep pushing and pushing and pushing deeper and deeper and stay around all these homes and Montanito, Fernwood, all the way up. So when you, when you, when you, like, pull the barriers to stop the fire from going, do you just, do you,

You clear the brush and the trees. What actions do you take around the perimeter of that? So along the perimeter, we call it cutting line. We use a bulldozer. But really what we're doing is taking everything out down to bare minimum soil. So there will be a path of dirt from where the black line is. Exactly. We're building a fire break along the edge of the black. Okay.

Okay, got it. So there's nothing left to burn. So the only danger at that point was if the wind blows an ember over that line. So we have to build it appropriately big enough to secure that, to stop that from happening and then push into the black to take all the heat away. So it gives us a bigger buffer as much as possible. How big is the fire break need to be?

it depends on the size of the fuel if you look at textbook size of fuel it's anything that we see and it's different for terrain size of fuel everything like that usually it's a couple times uh one and a half times the size of the fuel yep but

We have fuel in the Topanga Canyon area, the Palisades area. There hasn't been fire there in 60 years. So you're looking at 15 to 20 foot long. This is quite a rare fire. Correct. Like it's a half century fire or something. Absolutely. The last major fires I have really pushed through Topanga is 93, 96. But there is part of these hillsides that there hasn't been recorded fire in 60 years. Okay, wow.

All right. And are there things that like would be like, like, I think what a lot of people are curious about is like, what things can be done in the future to ensure that houses are less susceptible to burning down? I mean, it's like, like, like as we rebuild for the future, because it's like, there's one thing about like past recriminations and all that, but like, we can't go, we can't rewind the clock. But what we can do is say like in the future, what, what, what should we do?

to minimize the probability that people's homes and businesses will burn down? - Yeah, great question. And that's really what we want. So throughout history, as fire prevention gets better, we do better at safety structures. So when you look at the LA County website, LA City has references out there as well. We call it, you always hear the term defensible space. That is the biggest thing to safe structures and hardening your home. So defensible space, we'll start there. That is basically clear and brush

as low as possible to about 100 feet is what our minimum standard, say 100 feet away. You start at 10 feet, but you limit it out. About 100 feet is the best. So then when it hits there, you're basically building that 100-foot buffer of fuel break around your home. So like no kindling for 100 feet, basically. Correct. That sounds pretty sensible. It is. And then hardening your home, we call hardening, is don't stack firewood

Right against the wall. Really a big part of when we lose structures on a typical, maybe not 100 mile wind, but a typical is there's something by the house. Wood, furniture, something like that. And it can burn up and gets into the attic and then we

we lose the house okay or it gets in the porch system right you might have a wood deck and it comes up and just allows the flame to go into the house so okay a lot of times we talk about our ember cast that gets in the embers so you put screens around every opening so you have vents on your house but the screen is very small screen so the air can get through there but embers good size embers that will actually catch house yeah get in there okay uh so there's stuff like that move everything great from your house and you can say

And the vegetation in this area is astonishingly beautiful and we understand that. But there are things you have to do for it. I mean, I have some things like some of the issues with fire breaks where there's some endangered plant or something and then we can't do a fire break or that's an issue. Is there stuff that would be helpful from a regulatory reform standpoint that would help with fire prevention in the future?

Well, L.A. County, we do have standards. We go in certain areas. We actually have these lists of residences like this is what we have to do. Okay. I think it's just an awareness. So when people good and bad about it, the bad thing is this happened. The good thing, maybe it'll bring a greater awareness that there is a way to help defend your homes. Yeah. There is a way to help this from stop happening in the future. Yeah. And that defensible space, building that and building those, that's the way to do it. Okay.

As far as – Well, I guess people are like – obviously, we definitely want to give people a sense of hope for the future. And if things get rebuilt, that their house is not going to burn down again. It's like a reasonable thing. So it's like if there are things that we should push for from a regulatory reform standpoint, this would be good to know. And yeah. Clearance phase. Okay.

Okay. Building material, right? We can now – these are newer things. So now the standards of building construction codes have been brought and have changed over the years. So maybe when their house was built, they weren't there. Okay. Now we have the new codes. There's going to be certain fire-retardant materials. There's going to be certain things that they can do. If you look a lot, concrete buildings don't burn. Sure. So there's some of these people that have built their concrete in the middle, and it's right on the middle of the –

black all around and nothing was done but they didn't burn because of the building material yeah you can't both we can't burn concrete correct so it's all based in yeah and return materials the ceiling concrete is going to be okay yes great things they have other materials out there now that will definitely help like what i think people just like i'm like hopeful that this video can be like helpful to people uh you know like what

what should people do differently like if it's not steel concrete you said there's some new materials like like like synthetic materials or or what absolutely there's stuff that they put into the materials to be able to do hi yeah i really asked to come out help my partner else over here yeah yeah you know

Anyways, I just wanted to kind of point something out. Back in 1962, we had a fire. It was called the Bel Air Fire that burned from this area into kind of the same burn pattern. And then after that fire, that's when they basically in the city of Los Angeles, they outlawed wood-shaped roofs. So wood-shaped roofs were outlawed.

Yeah, I mean, that's what I'm hearing. Yeah, sure. There's a roof made of kindling. Right, so we update the building standards, the fire code standards, the fire prevention standards. Sure. And then that's up to you and the people out there that are a little more into the architecture and to find something that actually could be potentially more fire-safe. Sure. You know, and maybe the silver lining around the gray cloud is that that may happen. Maybe we'll live in a safer fire zone

or an area where there's prone to fires, but a safer type of structure. So that's kind of what we're hoping to come out of this, you know, as maybe one of the very small but good things. All right, sounds good. Well, I mean, do you have any guidance for people? Like, if there's, like, obviously steel and concrete are not going to burn, but, like, are there new synthetics that you're,

think would be better than... Or besides steel and concrete, is there anything else? No, I really am not an expert. Or stones, actually. Okay. It's pretty hard to burn stone, steel, and concrete. There's some stuff out there. We're worried about putting it out. But yeah, I think that some people will come together and find something. But yeah, there's certainly some stuff out there. All right. Sounds good. All right. Hey, everyone. So...

all right what about what about water availability was water availability i understand that was like not not an issue in malibu is that correct was it water yeah so

There was water. We have several reservoirs that we use a lot. Now, just an example, if we have one building burning, we could flow 1,000 gallons a minute on that one building with the hose lathes that we put in to stop it. You can imagine 1,000 gallons per house, we couldn't do it, right? So the amount of water we're flowing, there really is no water system that's going to keep that pace. So we have to bring in water tenders, which are these

big tank water tanks that you know 2500 3000 gallon yeah trucks and they'll come in that's what we have to do to overcome to compensate so they park out there do it dwt uh p did a great job they brought in big water trucks for us all right and we use them as basically mobile hydrants all right right and then we have our own agency as well that has water tenders okay

My understanding is that along the, correct me if I'm wrong, in Malibu along the coast, there was no shortage of water. In the Palisades, there was a shortage of water at a certain point, or is that not accurate? Well, we were just, we were flowing just an amount of water that the system couldn't, just because of how much water these firefighters were utilizing. Okay. All right. Sounds good. All right. Thanks, guys.

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