But this is literally somebody's house
just got destroyed.
>> Tammy's house.
>> Tammy is the heart of the fire?
>> She's one of the fire [music] watch
members. This was her house.
And the location, yeah.
And she [music] was up here with uh
her nine animals who unfortunately
didn't make it.
>> Oh man.
>> [music]
[music]
>> How's it going everybody? I'm here with
MARK HUGHES OF BOONDOCK ECHO.
>> [laughter]
>> AND WE ARE up at a repeater site. What
site is this? Or do you would do we want
to be super secret squirrel or can we
say at least where we're at?
>> We'll tell where we're at. We're we're
at the old KOCE broadcast tower. They
don't use it for KOCE anymore.
>> Yeah, so we're kind of at a lower
mountain if you will, not even a
mountain, just a a elongated hill.
Um and it used to have a lot more radio
equipment in it. But there is a couple
of units still left and you are a part
[music] of which group?
>> The La Habra Heights Fire Watch.
>> Okay. And what's going on?
>> We uh we look for fires and if we see
one, we beat a hasty retreat, call 911,
and then get on the radios and see what
we can do to help. Show up at the
evacuation centers, um
help out the fire. We don't do any fire
fighting
>> Sure.
>> Sure. But you know, if the firefighters
need uh case of water or, you know,
couple hamburgers, anything along those
lines, we can help out with that.
>> Your group was actually a little uh
influential with the recent fires that
happened here, right? You guys were
tracking what was going on. What what
happened?
>> So, uh
fire started. They still haven't
released the cause. The two leading
theories are gardeners using metal tool
blades
>> Mhm. or a possible homeless cooking
fire.
>> Okay.
>> They're going to release release that
report soon, but we live in very dry,
very hilly, very windy area. So, the
fire very quickly raced up the hill and
unfortunately took out a few homes.
>> Wow.
>> Um
>> Where about was it from where we're at
here?
>> Um it would have been west of us.
>> West of us, okay.
>> to the right over there.
>> Okay.
>> You have a repeater here, commercial
radio.
>> Commercial radio channel and the fire
department has our radios, the police
department sheriffs has our radios, the
city has our radios. So, we've got a
great location on the repeater, um best
reception around as you saw driving up
here your cell phone just stops working.
>> Yeah, it's dead.
>> So, nothing can do there, but we can
collect information and we report it out
in an emergency every 15 minutes,
um which is much better information than
they usually get from their PIOs or
anybody else.
>> Mhm.
>> Um
>> What brings us here today though?
>> So, our repeater has been failing. It is
a 2001 model Kenwood something, which
will be able to tell you later as soon
as we finish pulling it out of the
building.
Uh and we're going to replace that with
a 2026 Kenwood model something.
>> Excellent. Excellent. Well, let's go
check that out and then we'll see how
things are going on.
>> All right.
>> You hear the repeater identifying.
>> Yeah.
>> And it sounds fine, but you're right
here underneath it, so
>> What kind of batteries are you upgrading
to here?
>> Um I know they're lead acid, but
>> Some sleds.
>> AGMs.
>> Oh, AGMs, even better, yeah.
>> Yeah.
>> How many amp hours?
>> The 100 each, so you got a total of 300
amp hours.
>> Some charging circuit for the 300 amp
hour AGM.
Pretty slick.
This place is empty though.
>> Yeah.
Most of the areas right now.
>> They have a
dehumidifier
or a deliquification pump because they
have gas going into the hardline.
Can't read those gauges.
Those are hardline out through the
antenna.
This too. Wow.
Something, probably humidity, pulling
out the moisture. That's their new
repeater.
And you can see just the size
comparison. That was a 2U with a massive
power supply
that did the battery switchover, which
they were not doing.
Now they've gone to a 1U
and like half of it is power, power
supply and battery charging, and then
around back here
that's their ca- their cavity.
Pretty slick.
>> Little off kilter there. Got to fix
[laughter] it.
We've got to fix it. Somebody could be
up here looking and judging us on the
quality of our labels.
>> Well, there's people watching on YouTube
now that are judging you
on your quality of the label placement.
Oh, now you did it.
>> Judge away, people. Judge away.
[laughter]
>> All right, first test.
>> 172 on height six.
>> The repeater should be accurate. Radio
check, please.
>> Oh, I'm not going to do any of that.
No volume, no speaker, I guess.
>> Radio service, copy loud and clear.
>> No, okay.
Thank you, radio service. 172 clear.
>> Check 132, very clear.
>> Oh my goodness. THAT SOUNDED FANTASTIC.
>> WOO!
>> No quality report. Please do so now.
>> 172 100 copy you
>> Oh my goodness. What was that?
100 uh barely copyable under
interference, but that could be location
uh location based. Thank you.
>> Uh copy loud and clear. How do you copy
172? Over.
>> That's the squeal.
157 uh copy you, but we heard that
squeal. So, we're going to uh
talk to the radio tech here and see what
there is to learn. Thank you. 172 clear.
All right. So, behind me is the fire
scar. And about how many
square feet did it burn, do you know?
>> I think we're about 7 8 acres.
>> Oh, 8 acres. Okay.
>> quite a bit.
>> Quite a bit. Yeah. I mean, driving in,
I've I've gone down that road, Hacienda,
hundreds of times, but I've never
ventured this deep, and it is a winding
traversing canyon that we're through.
So, the fact that this kind of took off
through here is kind of scary cuz these
houses are fairly remote.
>> Yeah. And you're going to see when we do
some other driving later just how narrow
these roads can be.
>> Oh, yeah.
>> And if you've got fire trucks trying to
come in and people trying to get out,
there's not enough room.
>> No.
>> So, if you're ever in a situation like
this, evacuate early.
>> And I guess there's not probably not a
lot of fire hydrants out here as well
because there the big bore water lines
kind of don't exist. So, they're doing
all this on pumper truck.
>> Well, it depends on where you're at in
the heights. There are some areas up
here where you're right, you don't have
much water volume. But, other
on the east side, I think we're in much
better shape. On the west side, I'm not
really sure. I haven't seen a fire
hydrant for a while.
>> Yeah, I haven't either. But, it it
sounds like your repeater's now set up.
So, you're you're you're good in that
sense. Um you still have some work to
do. There's some local interference,
which happens with all the repeater
sites we have in the area and all the
radios. But, it's just the thing.
>> Let me tell you what we did. So, this
was a terrain-driven fire. So, you've
got this canyon, and it kind of funnels
everything up to the top. It's like a
chimney.
>> Yeah.
>> So, the good news is the winds weren't
really blowing that day. Otherwise, this
thing would have spotted and spread all
over the place.
>> Oh, like blown ashes everywhere versus
just ate the material as it went up the
hill kind of thing.
>> even like this, the the material's so
dry, and there's so much of it that you
can't get firefighters out there fast
enough. The really only way you can
fight this is from the air.
>> Oh.
>> you if you have water dropping on it,
great. But if you have wind, it's going
to spread. And also, too, if it starts
blowing too fast, which it can do up
here, the water never hits the ground.
Just atomizes and spreads before it ever
hits the thing.
>> hot, yeah.
>> So, they stop they stop flying at a
particular speed. I'm like, "Why don't
they fly? The planes can take it."
They're like, "Yeah, but the water never
hits the ground."
>> Right.
>> You're out of luck. So, here's what we
did. Um
Fire Watch on that day, we were on the
radios. And in fact, one of the ladies'
homes that burned is a Fire Watch
member.
>> I was going to ask you, we're in the
thick of it here. Can you even hit the
repeater from over here?
>> From here? I don't know.
This is 172 on Las Palomas. Can I get a
radio check?
>> And you may have to be up top.
>> Yeah, I don't know if I can.
>> We're I mean, we're down deep here,
yeah.
>> 172, radio check.
>> I'm guessing that you can't, yeah.
>> not being heard.
>> We're We're down deep, but I guess when
you had the spotters, were they up top?
>> Spotters, yeah. So, we've got people who
live in the heights, and we just have
them have radios. So, we knew about this
just pretty much as soon as smoke was
showing. We didn't have a good location,
but we knew smoke was showing. So, we
activated the net, and we started
collecting intelligence. So, I've got
two guys down in um in La Habra, uh
Dennis and Kelly. And I don't remember
their call signs. They're amateur radio
operators, but these are scanner guys.
And they've got, you know, banks of
scanners.
>> Okay.
>> So, the first thing I did was I called
them. I'm like, "Hey guys, start
listening to LA fire comm tactical. Just
get whatever you can, air." And they
did. And then they passed that up to me,
and I was net control for this event.
So, I would just sit there and collect
the information.
>> Yeah.
>> I trust these guys, so very little
verification needs to be done. And then
I passed it on in 15-minute intervals.
And then other Fire Watch members are
like, you know, "Hey, this is burning.
It's smoke showing. We've only got one
fire tanker on scene. People need to
start getting ready to go
>> Ah.
>> on these streets up here."
>> Yeah.
>> So, the lady whose house burned um knew
about this about 15 minutes before
she was in danger.
>> Wow.
>> Fortunately, at that time
she was a couple cities over. So, the
information didn't really help her save
her animals.
>> Um um
>> But at the same Yeah, I know. It was
really She lost quite a few, Tammy um
and her home. Um it was really not a
great situation, but
um it's one of those things where she
had the knowledge if she'd been in a
different position.
>> Sure.
>> But I mean, you can't live your life 2
months from your house. It doesn't work
that way.
>> all wish we could, but it doesn't always
work that way.
>> So, we were notifying people to evacuate
as soon as we heard that the sheriffs
were evacuating people.
>> Mhm.
>> Um because LA County, it takes a little
while for the leadership to wrap their
arms around this and the EOC to issue
those evacuation orders.
>> Right.
>> But sheriffs are already evacuating
people.
>> Yeah. They have their own training as
far as that's concerned. They get the
information.
>> fire coming.
>> You got to go.
>> They're running away.
>> Right.
>> So, as soon as we heard that, we started
relaying that information. We don't tell
people to evacuate. We're not those
people. Um but we can tell them that
they are evacuating, you should go now,
too.
>> Yeah.
>> And when we get up there to that street,
you're going to see why. Because
>> you just can't do it.
>> Okay.
>> [music]
>> So, we are one canyon over from the burn
scar that we're about to visit. And this
is what it looked like before. I mean,
very similar. You've got a road cutting
into the canyon. You've got all this
unburned vegetation on the side. And all
of it funnels right up to the top.
Add to that, we've got about a 5 to 10
mph wind today.
>> Yeah.
>> And there's nothing a firefighter can do
to stop it. How do you even get them in
there in time?
>> Right. Even if they started down where
that cat is
>> Yeah.
>> and it's up already here. You You
basically have to come up here and fight
it from the top, but you're too far out.
>> Exactly. So, there's really nothing
>> nothing you can do
>> but drop water on it from helicopters
and planes.
>> Right.
>> So, next we're going to be up uh into
the burnt canyon. So, this is a great
example of where radios can still help
people. Um cell phones don't work fast
enough. You talk to call one person on a
cell phone, you're done.
>> Mhm.
>> But, we've got people willing to help
down in La Habra that are willing to
listen to these radio stations, the the
firefighters, the police listen to all
this stuff.
>> Like scanners.
>> Scanners.
>> Okay.
>> Our scanner guys are critical and they
report back the information that I need
to know as net controller, right? I
don't need to be listening to six eight
different channels. It's overwhelming.
They can tell me, "No, we've got this
happening. We've got, you know,
evacuations happening on Casilero where
we are now." I can relay that
immediately to potentially hundreds of
people instead of trying to get on the
phone with one or two. And this is long
before the county has an opportunity to
act to activate Wea and the other
emergency and Genesis, which is what we
use for the evacuation response.
>> Because of how quick the fire took off.
>> It They go fast and this was on a pretty
windless day relatively. If the wind is
blowing
>> Just burning fuel up the canyon
and that's
>> 15 minutes
>> Oh, wow. 15 minutes.
>> Not even that, you're done.
They can't even get resources out of
county in here that fast.
>> Yeah.
>> So, it's critical. What What we do with
these radios? Yeah, we have fun with
them, but you can also use them to do a
little bit of good. This particular
case, um
you know, we had the information out.
Fortunately, there was no loss of life,
but the whole idea is to get that
information to people faster so they can
get evacuate and get out of the way
faster and let the firemen do if they're
able to do something, let them do it,
but we don't need to be there.
>> Wow. Well, thank you, Mark, for showing
me this and good luck with your new
repeater. I I literally saw the antenna
peaking up at the repeater site. So, if
you're up here, you'll be able to hit
it, which is exactly where you'd want to
be anyway from a fire watch vantage
point. So,
>> And then
>> this is good.
>> Ultimately, what we want to do is raise
some more money and put repeaters in
other spots so we can hit these dead
zones.
>> Yeah, yeah, yeah.
>> You know, but that's a problem for
another day. We got a repeater up. We're
happy today.
>> Excellent. Excellent. Thanks for having
me out. I appreciate it. Although, this
is
kind of sad, so I feel sorry for
everybody that that was impacted, in
particular the loss of the animals.
>> But, no loss of life.
>> Yep, that's Yeah, that's what you
>> You know, um they were able to the fire
I mean, they did a great job containing
it to just this size.
>> Mhm.
>> As you can see where we're at, man.
>> Yeah, it's pretty impressive. We're
We're right up against houses. And so,
this fire break is literally That was
the line and they they held it.
>> Yeah.
>> Scary, though.
>> Yeah, I'm glad I wasn't up here in it.
And thank you to all the fire personnel.
Thank you for our deputies, especially
Deputy Sarah, for uh throwing people in
his truck and racing them to safety down
the fire road right there.
You guys are heroes.
>> Good job.
>> Cool.
>> Thank you.