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Good afternoon. My name is Anna Beth and I'm interviewing uh Pepperdine staff and faculty in Malibu Lake residents, Landon and Jennifer Phillips on August 13th, uh 2019 for the Pepperdine Library's Woolsey Fire, Malibu Community Memory Project. Uh So where were y'all when you first heard about

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the Woolsey Fire? I heard it actually um in the CCB when we were all grieving for Elena wolf, sorry, Elena's um tragic death. And so everyone was um talking about that and a professor came out and said, have you heard the news? There's a brush fire

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um somewhat nearby and at the time, we were so devastated with Elena that it's hard to even put together the fact that this is anywhere near us or that it matters or it should be a priority at the time. But then I started to look into

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it and realized, well, we should probably think about um at least put some attention into this and hopefully it'll be ok, but I'm gonna leave and go home anyway, uh just in case and so I left pretty soon after that. So that's when I first heard

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about it. Yeah, and I received a text message from Jen saying, hey, did you hear about this fire? We wanna consider leaving early? And, yeah, that whole day everyone was just kind of in a daze. And so it didn't really seem, you know, obviously the threat

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wasn't really understood at that point, but I did go ahead and leave early just in case. And, uh, I remember I started kind of more thinking about like what I was gonna do on the drive home to the canyon and, um, yeah, just that kinda escalated,

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I guess from there in terms of eventually taking it very seriously. Um So you all live in the Malibu Lake neighborhood. Um Can you explain kind of how your neighborhood and house was threatened by the fire? Yeah. Um It was not great. Uh So when we

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got home that night, um you know, we, this was kind of the first time we'd ever dealt with something like that. And so we didn't know like we wanted to talk to some of the other neighbors or like, see like, hey, what are you guys doing?

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Is this really a real threat? Has this happened before? Um Because one of the benefits of so many, um people who have lived in that community for so long is they have lived through a lot of, you know, similar threats. Um But one of the things

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we realize is that you kind of have a little bit of a survivorship bias and that if they've been there for, you know, 20 years and there's been fires that have come close but not gone through the neighborhood. It tends to kind of give you a

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little bit more confidence that things will be ok. Um, so some of the older people seemed like, ah, it'll be, it'll work itself out and some of the younger people were, like, ah, I feel kind of nervous about this. Um, not that, you know, anybody's right

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or wrong in that because there's no way to predict how it's actually gonna turn out. Um, but it did help us kind of in hindsight, realize like, if anybody's nervous, it's probably better to be safe rather than sorry. Um We ended up uh getting a call

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also from some neighbors uh that were really good about like reaching out to other members of the community and making sure everybody was aware of what was happening and like, kind of encouraging them. Hey, you should, you should pack a bag and, and be ready. Um

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Did we hear about that from them before? Like the middle of the night call or? No? So basically, I was trying to balance, thinking about Elena and all my students, how everyone was doing, but at the same time around eight or nine pm also thinking, well,

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maybe this fire could be threatening. So we should start thinking about packing just in case, but not at the same time, we're probably over preparing So, um, I started packing and then I encouraged you to as well. And do we just put everything kind of near

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the car? But we didn't actually pack anything in the car just yet. I kept my phone on that night, which I don't normally do. It's usually on vibrate, but I turned it on just in case someone was gonna call us. And I'm glad I did that

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because in the middle of the night we got the call or actually before the call we got um, we received a notification, an emergency alert that first woke me up and it said it again wasn't super threatening, but it was enough where I wasn't ready to

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fall back asleep. And then probably five minutes later is when our neighbor called and that's when I knew because she's, she's calling me at, I think it was midnight right around midnight. She's calling me at midnight the moment I answered the phone, I realized this is

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real. We gotta go. And so she first thing she said was, did you pack your bags? And I was like, well, we are packed but we're not ready to go. She's like we should get ready to go. It's coming. And so, um I was like, ok,

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great. Thank you. Bye. And so, uh I'll and so we just kind of gathered everything else for the next probably half an hour or so and threw it in the car and looked at each other and said, where are we going? And we just started driving

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and finally we decided to just turn towards the beach and thought, well, I guess we can go to Pepperdine and sleep there. Um, so it was kind of one of the first times that I can think of where I would just get in a car with

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absolutely no destination in mind and then eventually figure it out on the way. So that's, that's kind of how we heard about it. We also reached out to some of our other neighbors who were renting kind of across the lake from us. Um Just to check

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in with them and make sure, hey, if you guys need a place to meet up, hang out again, we didn't know if this was gonna be over in a few hours or what. Um We said, hey, come up to Pepperdine with us. We're, you know, just

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kind of hanging out here for a while and see how it goes. They were able to come up and, and meet us up at the CCB. And um, you know, everyone's kinda like at that point, no one's really taking it like super, super seriously again, cuz

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we thought this would just blow over and I don't know, maybe I'll feel sheepish in the morning or whatever. But um when they came over, we were actually in really good spirits, like nobody was really nervous yet, cuz it was so far away. They were somewhat

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nervous. And so, yeah, I guess nervous but not like your dream to come to you. And so that like the the mood there was still like, let's make the best of the situation and be with friends. And uh we met some of the night crew of

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the CCB. They were really nice. They, they made us coffee and then took us to the secret stash of food in the graphic newsroom. And um so we took pictures and had music and going and ate the rest of the food. And then I asked if

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it was ok to my, to my colleague in the morning, she said it was fine, but I thought that not everyone would be affected by it in the capacity that it was. And so I even thought that um I would probably still teach at 8 a.m.

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in the morning. So this was probably 3 a.m. We finally went to sleep in my office in the CCB. And I just thought I probably would still just need to teach and how funny it would be for me to just walk out of my office and

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go uh teach a few hours. At the same time, I knew that there would be a lot of people affected. So I plan on giving lots of grace, but I really just thought it would only be a certain group of people that would be affected and

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most everyone else would be ok. And so even though we were being affected, I didn't think it would be, uh, to the extent that it was. And so by morning at 6 a.m. when they said they, um, when they sent out the notification, that classes are

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canceled, and then we were also told by the firefighters that you're gonna need to evacuate Pepperdine. Now, then got in the car again and headed towards Santa Monica because again, we just knew we needed to get out of this area. So we just headed that way

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before we knew everyone else was going to head that way because we knew it was gonna get crazy with it being the only, pretty much the only direction of where people are gonna go. So thankfully, I've heard people took like 3 to 5 hours from Pepperdine

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to Santa Monica. I think we took an hour maybe. So, we really tried to get out there as soon as possible. Um And then we had, we checked in on a lot of our community members as well and they were just hanging out at the Malibu

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Country Mart just kind of waiting and seeing what was happening, watching the smoke. Um The right before we evacuated from our house. And I remember looking and seeing basically a silhouette of the fire over what's called Sugarloaf Mountain. It's kind of an iconic part of the

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lake and that's when it was a little bit terrifying uh to see. So I think we're just kind of monitoring the whole time. And finally we just got in the car and met up with uh lake members, community members at a restaurant called, what was it

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in Santa Monica Mel's diner. Yeah. So we just all met in the parking lot and we couldn't find any updates on the news because we didn't have access to the news. But um and so some people were from the lake were actually trying to get news

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coverage and we couldn't really find anything. So one lady from Argentina had news coverage that was in Argentina about the lake fire, about the fire in general. And so that's how we got coverage on updates is from the Argentinian news, not even the local, I think

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she was like Facetiming with her relative that was pointing it basically at her TV. In Argentina. Yes. And the whole time no one knows what's actually happening. Of course. So it's a lot of speculation. You know, we're saying like this person didn't, my brother is still

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at the lake. I think he's like, he's like on the lake is what is, what one lady said? I think my brother's on the lake. I don't think he's leaving. I think he's stuck. I think he's gonna get lifted by a helicopter. Like there's all these

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things because no one really knew what was going on. And then thankfully we had something called next door, which we usually are not on that for pretty much anything. But this was so helpful during the because that's when we got all the updates that would say

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things like the fire has crossed over the freeway, the fire is heading towards the lake. The fire is at the lake and that's when we knew. And that's when I, I personally felt especially devastated, was realizing it is burning our community at that moment and we

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were all together. So it was pretty stressful of mills is when things really sunk in that this the threat was very imminent. And um yeah, next door, which was kind of like a social media app for Neighbors, um was a blessing and a curse during that

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time because it was good to be able to talk to people who were in the same boat as you. But like we said, one of the lessons we learned after the fact was like a lot of speculation can, can run pretty rampant when people are so

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desperate for up to the second news that they'd be willing to pass on any hearsay, rumor, whatever that they had heard. Um regardless of actually seeing it with their own eyes or checking it. And so, yeah, at that point though, we were getting updates on that

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app that was saying, you know, like the fire is, it is at the lake now, like, um and you know, homes are, are going down. And so that's when people were obviously very upset at Mel's and we were really trying to make sure all the community

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members were present and accounted for, like we said, one of the, one of our friends at the lake, I didn't know if her, that her brother was still there. And so she was distraught and um other people that didn't leave yet to several people, I guess

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had, had not heard some of the police knock throughs and, and sirens and stuff cuz they had slept with their, their hearing aids in. And so people were worried about if everybody got out at that point, I even called my neighbors when we were at Mel's,

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uh just again, just to make sure they were ok. And like he was saying earlier that there are some people who are older who've been there who survived a lot. And so I remember calling, uh a neighbor and asking, are you ok? Are you out yet?

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And she's like, oh, yeah, I'm fine. But you know, the island right in front of our house is burning right now and I'm like, you're at the house still and she's like, yeah. Yeah. No, I mean, it's so smoky and she said it just so casually

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and I was like, you should probably leave. And she said, yeah, I think we're gonna start heading towards a Agoa. That's the wrong way. Um And then, and then later I called her and I was like, where are you? And she said we're in a Agoa

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but everything's closed. I mean, we can't get anything, no food and nothing is open. I was like, ok, well, be careful because that's probably not a good place to be, but because all the freeways are closed at this point, of course, too. And so, so luckily

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we were out quickly but of course, we heard from students and things of people, like not having enough gas in their car. I think that's something we learned from. This whole experience is never let your tank go below a quarter just in case you have to

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evacuate from something. Um, so that you're not stuck and on, on the side of the road or anything like that. So, yeah, we learned a lot from this all. Um, so you're in the diner in Santa Monica. Uh Where did you stay for the remainder of

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the fire? What did you do? What was that experience like, um, we realized kind of like when we had transitioned from Pepperdine to Mels, um, the importance of kind of getting on the road early just because we know the PC H is such a choke point.

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And, and we figured a lot more people would probably just be leaving Santa Monica because there's no guarantee of where this thing is gonna go. Um, thankfully we have uh a relative Jim's mom lives in Orange County area. And so we kind of had decided that

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was gonna be our, you know, place to weather the storm and so we ended up getting in the car and, and heading down that way, um, and ended up getting there pretty good time. We, we ST, we, we got to her, um, condo there and we

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were watching the news to try to see updates and, um, saw live footage from our neighborhood and saw our neighbors that had stayed behind. They were just putting spot fires out with their hose or even snuck back in. Yeah. And they had to go back. Yeah,

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they had to go back and kind of break the, the quarantine line for lack of a better word to, to get back to their houses and we're putting out spot fires and they're being interviewed by the news and obviously that wasn't a priority for them. So

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they're just hosing down spot fires where they're like, how are you doing? I don't know, they don't care. They're not trying to answer the interview. So that's what we're seeing, um, while we're at her house. And I think that kind of helped us make the decision,

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like cuz again at this point, we don't know if our house is even there or not. Um, but we saw that other people were wanting to, to stay and help and that kind of like the main blaze had passed during the night. And so we kind

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of decided like, well, you know, sitting here and, and wringing our hands isn't really gonna do anything. So we wanna see if we can go back and help them because obviously they had been going nonstop and we thought they're gonna be tired. There's only so much

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that a small number of them could do. Um, we wanna be able to kind of like at least give him a break if nothing else. So it felt like somebody is, is still able to help when other people need to, to rest. So we ended up

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only staying there for, uh, that the night and we left super early in the morning. But, and part of the reason why we also went though too is just because at that point, I mean, obviously, once the fire passed, I mean, at that point, it was

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hard to get in. And so we just assumed we probably couldn't. But again, once we saw our friends on the news, we realized, well, they managed to get in. So there's a way. Uh And so then that's what motivated us to think like, well, we gotta

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get back because clearly there's still fires or spot fires around. Um, and also we were, we were messaging them and, and calling them and they were the ones that also gave us the update in the evening at like seven or so, they gave us the update

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that our house was ok. And we didn't know what that meant at that point because we've never been through this, we thought, well, mostly ok, or kind of ok, or some parts burned, others didn't, we didn't, we didn't know. Um And then eventually the next day

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when we did show up, it was, it was a bittersweet feeling because obviously we saw lots of houses that were not ok. But when we showed up to our house and realized it looked untouched, even though of course, there was lots of smoke damage and thing

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and things, other things. But I mean, that's nothing compared to all the other houses that we saw in our community as we were driving in. So, I mean, it was that morning, I remember it was just, of course, just bright like, like orange and brown and

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in the sky. I mean, it looks, it looked like the end of the world happened overnight. Um So it was pretty crazy and it was very toxic and smelled terrible. But, you know, we knew we wanted to get back there. And so that next morning we

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left really early and we still, we couldn't get in off Canaan. And so we ended up trying to go through all these back roads in terms of freeways because there were so many cops at different like exits and so many detours, we finally managed to get

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close to Canaan. Um And then we couldn't get farther. And so that's when we just decided to go hang out at the Jack in the box because there's Wi Fi internet there. I think there was Wi Fi. We another neighbor was waiting there too. Um Another

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lady also came in who's a friend of hers and she needed clothes. And so I said, well, I packed my whole car so I let her borrow some clothes. I mean, it was definitely like a community bonding like this woman I've never met before had my

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clothes. Um And so we were just waiting and then finally we decided to go through a different entrance because on the side of Canaan, there's, I think Cornell, they, they did say over there that if you wanted to go in, you could walk, but you can't

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bring your car and you can't drive. And so finally, we decided we were sick of waiting to like drive in. So we decided we would just walk. And so we left our car there with all of our belongings and everything that's invaluable to us, but we

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just left it out there assuming we'd see it again one day. Um which we didn't for about five. And then, um and then we just started walking and then probably about a quarter mile in. We were picked up by neighbors. So that's what was happening all

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throughout from Can to the lake. People were just who were there, who got in or stayed, they were just picking people up and driving them back and forth. So again, just like a really amazing community bonding experience. Um And so we got, that's how we got

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there finally and then I think maybe an hour later they did open it up on Canaan to cars. That's how another neighbor got in and then they closed it again soon after that. So it was really, really unpredictable of when you could get in and out.

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So as soon as we were in, like I said, we knew we couldn't leave. That's why our cars were out by the Mexican restaurant nearby, um, in the parking lot and we were just hoping that no one would go into it and break and take our

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things, but we had to just leave it there because we knew if we left, we couldn't come back in. So that's why we decided to stay for the next five days on our way in. I remember we smuggled, we went and got a bunch of bagels

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cuz we wanna bring some for our neighbors and just put them into stuff them into the backpack when we were hitchhiking on the way back in. Um, which it's not, you know, a habit we normally do, but that was again, everything was so topsy turvy like

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normal social rules and things didn't, didn't really apply. I don't normally hitchhike but yeah, it was fine and then somebody comes up with his trip and say, hey, you wanna get in. We're like, yeah, so we hopped in and thankfully everything worked out. Uh, really well,

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we were able to get in. Ok. Um cuz at that point in fact, I think we had left one of our cars still at our house, like in our haste to leave again. Not really even thinking how serious it was. We did load one of them

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up very full. And then as soon as we were basically past like the, the quarantine line, we were like, why on earth did we leave the other car? That's so stupid. But again, you wanna be together and like, you wanna make sure we're ok. And so

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I think that was probably why we, in hindsight, it feels stupid, but really in the time, it really was, it felt like we were being excessive. So that was another thing. We were kind of now we had one car behind the line and one car on

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the other side. And so we didn't know like how we wanted to, to handle that. Were you gonna say? So with that being said, we had the other car and so there was a moment where we heard that they opened the gates again. So we're like,

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well, we really want to get food like we're hungry so maybe we can leave and come back since they opened the gates. So then we did, we went to grab food somewhere. I don't remember where we went and grabbed food and we came back, they closed

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it. So then we ended up parking again next to our car. So now both cars were behind the line and we had to walk in again. So this is why, so this eventually now we had no cars, we had two, then we had one. Now we

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have zero. And so then we just decided to pump our, our bike tires and because that was gonna be our main mode of transportation the rest of the time since we didn't want to be left behind if something happened. So, yeah, I remember having to talk

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to some of the neighbors that did have cars behind the line saying like, hey, if we get, you know, another call that says we got to EVAC, can you please not leave us? Because we're not gonna be nearly as fast on our little bicycles trying to

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potentially outrun another blaze and we don't get left behind. Yeah. So mainly we're just like walking everywhere around the community and, and then we were grateful because the people that we did ask to do that, they would always drive by our house and they would say,

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are you ok? Do you need a ride? I'm like, oh, thank you cuz that's what we're hoping they would do is like, make sure that they didn't forget us. So the clubhouse essentially became kind of like the main base of operations. And uh some people had

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some the really good idea to kind of make, make a makeshift sign that was like encouraging firefighters to stop there as like a little check in point to, you know, share water and food and you know, they could crash on the couches there if they needed

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some, some sleep when they were still on shift. Um And that was great because it helped like get some like primary sources for information for how things were going and you know what was happening. Um Also, just obviously as a way to say, thanks for these

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people that had, I mean, some of the guys we were talking to were on 48 72 hour shifts where they just did not stop the whole time and it was heartbreaking to hear, you know, obviously in such a disaster, like people uh emotions are running high

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and, and, you know, tensions can get wound up pretty well. And so some of the people that had lost some of their, lost their home or lost everything, you know, were upset or looking for, you know, some someone or something to point the finger to and

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oh, why, you know, why aren't they bringing in the helicopters here? Why aren't, you know, nobody saved my house and da da, da da da. Um So that was, that was tough to see, you know, the, the people that we had seen the firefighters we had

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seen just run to the bone over the past few days, still very cordially, like handle some of the the people's complaints was like, that was, that was amazing. Like I couldn't believe that they were able to, you know, handle that without getting, obviously justifiably upset. Mhm.

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Are there any other moments or stories from your time behind the quarantine line that, uh, you'd like to highlight? I mean, yeah, I'm trying to think. I mean, I was just, I was thinking about a lot of the other people in the community and I remember

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when we were going from the parking to the lake we would get flagged. I remember one time we were flagged by an older man and I asked him, well, what do you need? And he said, oh, I need my medication and we're like, oh, what, um

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what do you mean? And he's like, I need to get out. I need to get my medication. Can I get out? I'm like, I don't think you can right now actually. And so I, I could see that he felt really anxious and stressed. And so we're

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just thinking about like, you know, those people who just need just basic like medical supplies and, um, and who may not have had a lot of opportunity to maybe leave or come back or whatever it might be prior to and prepare for anything. So that was,

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that was a little bit, um, that was sad to kind of see because, and you saw a lot of different stories like that. Um Even I, I'll let you talk about maybe some of the harder moments with the neighbors. But one good thing that I just

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remembered was probably the third night in after we had no utilities whatsoever. So basically when the sun would rise, we would rise. And as soon as the sun set at like six, we would go to bed because there's nothing much you can do unless you just

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tell stories with flashlights. Like there was not much. So, um, so then one really nice thing was three days later after just having nothing, someone in our community who owns the winery, he um knew that all of his stuff was going to go bad, just like

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all of us from our fridge and freezers. And so he actually put on uh a generator in the, in the winery and invited everyone in the community to come and just eat all the, the, the food that he had and in the fridge. And also um

00:25:01.323 - 00:25:12.973

as much wine as we wanted to kind of make everyone feel better. And that was probably one of not only a highlight, but just probably one of the first times that we just felt like normal again. And um and it was just really neat to see

00:25:12.984 - 00:25:26.385

everyone kind of come together, enjoying themselves, kind of putting aside a little bit of the stress even though that's also what's bringing us together and that's what we're bonding over. But it was just nice to be able to um just put that aside and kind of

00:25:26.395 - 00:25:41.469

feel like we can just function as normal human beings again. So that was definitely one really neat highlight. Um, another one was just like I said, everyone's food was gonna go bad. So people would just find others down the street. It was old school style. You

00:25:41.479 - 00:25:52.739

couldn't text. So it was you knock on their door or you just show up and you just say, hey, at two o'clock, uh, we're gonna eat food, um, whatever you've got in your fridge or freezer, we're gonna cook it. And so it could be that you're

00:25:52.750 - 00:26:05.729

bringing beans, you're bringing eggs, you're bringing mayonnaise, whatever, like you bring what you have and we're gonna just cook it. And so sometimes we had inc like in the beginning especially we had some of the most amazing gourmet food, uh, whatever you could do on a

00:26:05.739 - 00:26:18.349

grill at least. Um, cause it would be like, well, I've had, you know, these steaks frozen for months. So I guess we're just gonna eat all the steaks and all the fish and all the like really nice stuff. And so we were eating well for periods

00:26:18.359 - 00:26:30.099

at a time, but then there were moments where like we had no idea when we were gonna eat next and, and how, how we were going to eat and what we were gonna eat. So it was, this really, it definitely felt like survival mode where it

00:26:30.109 - 00:26:42.420

was like someone said, we're gonna have food and I felt like I had to eat everything there, like eat just in case I don't see a meal in the next day or so. So I ate everything that I could. And then, um, hours later I'm like,

00:26:42.430 - 00:26:55.630

oh my gosh, I'm so hungry. Like, what am I gonna eat? I looked in my, in our cabinets like, well, there's nuts, you know, there's certain snacks, but that's not gonna hold me over. And so, um, I just remember also just appreciating when we finally left

00:26:55.640 - 00:27:08.219

after five days having something warm in my stomach. I was like, wow, I never appreciate temperature as much as I do now. Like hot and cold. I think I got something warm and after that, I got ice cream because I just needed to feel both in

00:27:08.229 - 00:27:22.579

my stomach and it was the most satisfying feeling like cooked food. So it just, it just was, yeah, it just was such a crazy time like to like not know when you're gonna have your next meal, how you're gonna eat it? What it was gonna be?

00:27:22.599 - 00:27:37.500

I think I ate beans and peas for breakfast and they were delicious. But I had to eat those for like the whole day because I didn't know when I would get the next thing. Yeah, it was very surreal cuz of how simplified your life becomes when

00:27:37.510 - 00:27:51.380

you're very single minded in your purpose. So in some ways, it was, it was kind of freeing because you didn't have to worry about emails or calendar invites or anything. Like that. It was like you wake up with the sun, you walk the neighborhood and put

00:27:51.390 - 00:28:05.390

out any spot fires. You see. Um, thankfully we still had water to help with the hoses and, and, and, you know, cold showers and stuff, but mostly we just walked around with shovels like a gang looking for travel and, uh, you'd find, you know, some little

00:28:05.400 - 00:28:18.189

smoldering thing and just shovel a bunch of dirt on it and smack it till it, you know, stopped making any noise and then you'd, you'd move on to the next thing. But, um, the clubhouse, like I said was kind of our central gathering point. And so

00:28:18.199 - 00:28:33.530

the people that would, you know, break quarantine line and come in would bring, you know, 10 boxes of pizza or they'd bring, you know, a bunch of breakfast burritos and that alone was still like, I don't know, a mile and a half from our front door

00:28:33.760 - 00:28:45.880

and without a car, like that gets to be kind of a long walk. Yeah, it was, yeah, it was, it was a while ago. We basically had to go all the way around the comforts of the lake to get there. And so, you know, we got

00:28:45.890 - 00:28:58.989

a lot better at riding bikes again or, you know, we occasionally hitch rides with people, um, who were kind of providing the free shuttle service back and forth. But, um, that was kind of the main spot for food. So Yeah, you'd go there in the morning,

00:28:59.349 - 00:29:12.260

see if there, what e what else would come, see, you know, which street or part section of the neighborhood hadn't been patrolled recently and then we'd head up that way and, and look for stuff or if there was people that were trying to, like, pull things

00:29:12.270 - 00:29:28.550

out or salvage things. Um, you know, you try to help with whatever people needed but then at the end of the day, like you said, the sun goes down, you go to sleep, wake up, do it and then do it again the next day. Um So

00:29:28.560 - 00:29:46.140

that, like I said, even though it was obviously stressful and, and tragic that the silver lining of that was just kind of again finding serenity and, and how simple your purpose was. Uh But some people obviously go the other way when faced with that situation and

00:29:46.150 - 00:29:59.060

then have a really difficult time. A lot of people started feeling pretty stir crazy. Um um Like we said, one of our neighbors uh was kind of caring for his wife. Uh because I think she had like broken a leg or something like that. So she

00:29:59.069 - 00:30:12.989

was especially like in need of assistance and he was like struggling with, do I try to get her out of here? Do I need to go get that medicine? Like what? And so he was kind of torn up about like, if I'm the one that has

00:30:13.000 - 00:30:26.760

to like take care of my wife and I, like, I have to make these tough calls and he was just really struggling back and forth on like being afraid to leave. Um, and not being able to get back it sh sh should something happen. But at

00:30:26.770 - 00:30:41.640

the same time also feeling, you know, responsible for, for taking care of himself and his wife. Um, and I just remember there was no like, you know, obviously threatening situation from that, but he was very, very clearly distraught. And when a lot of us was like

00:30:41.650 - 00:30:53.719

saying this is a simple call, like you can go find a hotel, they could stay with some family like that would be best. There's no, there's nothing you're really gonna do here because he wasn't out, you know, fighting fires or anything. We're like, we'll, we'll take

00:30:53.729 - 00:31:07.670

care of it, we'll watch for your house like it'll be ok, just go take care of, of your wife. And it was difficult to communicate that to him, I think even though like 10 or so people were telling him this is the clear answer mentally. I

00:31:07.680 - 00:31:23.670

think he was just in that state where he was so stressed out, he couldn't really hear it very well. And so I remember that was kind of the first example of me being like, oh, like this really does affect people's ability to reason and communicate like

00:31:23.680 - 00:31:38.650

very substantially, not just in a I'm being stubborn way, but like it was just like the, you know, wires were being crossed and it wasn't going through, um, being more emotional. And so there, like we said, there were some outbursts where, you know, some people were

00:31:38.660 - 00:31:53.170

very distraught about losing their houses and we were trying to blame firemen and, you know, we had to, some, some other neighbors had to like, intervene and make sure, you know, fist fight didn't break out. Or, um, some people who had formerly been, you know, who'd

00:31:53.180 - 00:32:12.829

been dry for many years, fell off the wagon and were just kind of wandering the streets like where people were nervous that they were gonna like, accidentally hurt themselves or somebody else. So we had to like kind of come talk some people down who were getting

00:32:12.839 - 00:32:28.420

pretty belligerent and not making sense and threatening some people, I think one of our neighbors, yeah, had to run up and call the police at one point because a neighbor had been threatening, like, basically walked into his house in the, in the middle of the, of

00:32:28.430 - 00:32:39.689

the, you know, night slash early morning and woke him up holding the gun being like, we gotta go fix the septic tanks like things that wasn't making any sense. He's like, yeah, you stay right there. I'm gonna go run up the hill so I get cell

00:32:39.699 - 00:32:55.989

reception, call the police immediately and then I'll be right back. Um So yeah, just seeing how differently people dealt with that stress. And some people like, like Jen said, there's a lot of really great moments of camaraderie and you know, unification of people coming together where

00:32:56.000 - 00:33:09.469

we'd have those kind of communal dinners and say like, why don't we do this all the time? This is a lot of fun. And even in those settings though it was crazy because at one point, like all of a sudden everyone went kind of quiet in

00:33:09.479 - 00:33:23.869

the middle of this kind of hodge podge dinner and people just kind of like smell in the air cuz you all have this like crazy atun like warning signal now and somebody's like, yeah, I think I smell it too. And so we went out just immediately

00:33:23.880 - 00:33:36.630

stopped eating, started walking up and down the street to see if we could find anything. And um like five of us went, yeah, I went around the local area, didn't see anything, came back. One guy's like, hang on, I think I, I wanna keep looking goes

00:33:36.640 - 00:33:50.969

all the way up the hill to his house, comes running back in. Hey guys, I found where it is. Let's go and everybody just dropped what they were doing left immediately and we were just even like grabbing shovels from neighbors garages on the way there and

00:33:50.979 - 00:34:08.669

went and all found the, the source and, and put the fire out and then came back down. But just like how people like, I don't know, like they just change it totally. Changed like how you interact with people and how you interact with your environment where

00:34:08.679 - 00:34:22.360

now, like, that was a major concern where you're like, I need to be listening for like helicopters or alarms or, you know, warnings or I need to be smelling things to see if I can tell, you know, if, if something is, is burning again close by

00:34:23.070 - 00:34:36.395

and everybody was like, so acutely aware of those, those next few days and you kind of knew who you wanted to ask for help, who was still kind of thinking rationally who was like, there's about instincts were more like, let's do something versus being, you know,

00:34:36.405 - 00:34:49.824

filled with fear and anxiety and like, you know, crawling into a whole kind of a thing like you, you see how different people respond and react. So you definitely got to know each other in a very different way. What could people tolerate? You know, you could

00:34:49.834 - 00:35:11.060

see that people are their truest selves when in times of stress. So you could definitely see just how people handle things differently. So after all of this, what was it like coming back to campus after the fire? Yeah. So we were, we were gone basically until

00:35:11.290 - 00:35:26.100

classes had resumed. Um I felt bad because a lot of my team was responsible for trying to help so many faculty, like since we had that time period where you're kind of supposed to teach remotely and to just like have your entire school all of a

00:35:26.110 - 00:35:42.459

sudden become an online university like overnight is obviously extremely difficult and props to them. They did a great job, um managing that situation. I couldn't really help cuz we were basically, like, not homeless, but we didn't have a set place. We were basically ping ponging back

00:35:42.469 - 00:35:54.820

and forth between airbnbs and family places. And I wouldn't have like a reliable place to really, to really work. And so I just kind of have to check in every now and then and, and do what I could and our community was a, was one of

00:35:54.830 - 00:36:07.790

the worst affected, so pepper was affected. But so it was, I mean, ours was pretty bad with around 30 or so houses that were burned and one of the main places where um they talk about the Wolseley fire really affecting. So it was legitimate that we

00:36:07.800 - 00:36:22.939

couldn't also be as concerned with Pepperdine and we knew it was gonna be in good hands anyway. We knew we just had to focus on our community and then also Pepperdine on the side. But more so our community for now. Yeah. Yeah. Um So coming back,

00:36:23.070 - 00:36:43.000

um cuz there was kind of like a two, was it a two week window or something like that before? Like classes at Malibu officially resumed, um things had kind of died down from in terms of like an emergency standpoint by then. But obviously that's just the

00:36:43.010 - 00:37:02.550

beginning for the re recovery and reconstruction efforts that like, you kind of realize like the stresses of your emails and your, your work invites and all that stuff are easy to handle comparatively. And so, um yeah, it was, it took a while, I think probably just

00:37:02.560 - 00:37:20.469

even from my mind to kind of be back in the headspace enough where I was like, really performing at 100% and like, ready to uh I guess, resume business as usual. Um Not because I was, you know, so badly scarred because again, we were extremely fortunate

00:37:20.479 - 00:37:34.790

in, in the outcome that we got, but, you know, you're having to deal with like, all right, well, now I gotta figure out what contractor I'm gonna use to re reduce the smoke damage and like, do I have to throw out all of my furniture and

00:37:34.800 - 00:37:48.459

rugs and clothes because they were, you know, imbued with carcinogenics and, or, you know, was it stupid of me to stay behind so much just with my little dust mask? Because I'm gonna get, you know, stage four cancer and in, you know, 10 years from now,

00:37:48.469 - 00:38:07.719

like all these other questions are still like immediately requiring answers. And so, yeah, coming back um was very surreal, especially because literally the day we left, like we were still reeling from the previous tragedy and trying to help students and shepherd them through that loss and

00:38:07.729 - 00:38:24.090

kind of come to terms with like, how obviously that kind of a threat, you know, even a place like Pepperdine over 1000 Oaks which is extremely safe, is, is, is not 100% protected from that. And so, yeah, just kinda trying to figure out like, how to

00:38:24.100 - 00:38:38.090

both make sure we were ok, handling our, our stuff. Ok, how the immediate students and our student workers that we work with, um, were doing and, and cuz I know some of our student workers also had severe losses in the fire and like trying to be

00:38:38.100 - 00:38:55.090

able to console them and comfort them and be understanding and like set that tone for like how if they needed anything, you know, we're happy to help um while at the same time still just trying to, to get what needed to be done done. Is it

00:38:55.100 - 00:39:07.350

any different when you were like, obviously as a teacher, you have a a much more direct role with students and kind of an authority figure to them. Is it different for you? So just even with the online teaching, like Landon said, everything was kind of just

00:39:07.360 - 00:39:24.239

thrown together, which is not anyone's fault by any means when no one thought this would happen, of course. But the point is that it was just such a learning curve for everyone. And so I remember even having those classes online, but really having a hard time

00:39:24.250 - 00:39:36.949

actually teaching because it was a lot more like just checking in and seeing how everyone was doing and you could tell people were not in that mindset as well. And so I just knew that when we came back to campus that we would have to, there

00:39:36.959 - 00:39:51.820

would be a lot of just, um, ju just like changes in curriculum, of course, and not really wanting to focus on that. Like, it, it just didn't feel right, of course to just jump right back in, try to catch up. So, um, so I just remember

00:39:51.989 - 00:40:03.760

in all of my classes just thinking this first day back, I think we're pretty much just gonna check in and I was a little nervous that that's what every class would be like and they would be tired of it. But I just knew that at least,

00:40:03.770 - 00:40:15.719

at the very least there should be a little time for that. So that because not everyone maybe had the same amount of, of um checking in and you could see that students are affected very differently. Of course. So there are some students that live in Santa

00:40:15.729 - 00:40:29.479

Mo. Uh even though it's not very far and they weren't really affected that much like yes, they care about their friends, but it still just didn't really affect them in the same way as you could see someone who lived in Malibu who was evacuated, um who

00:40:29.489 - 00:40:42.760

actually lost their things. Like you just saw how it was affecting everyone very differently. Um You could see some people just really struggling still peop some people still weren't coming to class, of course, because they were evacuated. And so I'm not gonna force them to come

00:40:42.770 - 00:40:56.179

to class if they don't even know how to get their books or can't access any of their things. So it was, um, it was definitely a crazy time because I think we only had two weeks of school left something around that. And so we kind of

00:40:56.189 - 00:41:11.729

just had to make the most of what we had left. And really the priority was to take care of the students to make them feel um just to help them out and take that extra time, like everyone had was to just check in and throughout and,

00:41:11.739 - 00:41:25.010

and because the hardest time is not just as it happens, the hardest time is a month or two or three later when people aren't talking about it as much. So, um so I actually also did a little bit of personal fundraising through social media and just

00:41:25.020 - 00:41:37.010

asked for people if they were interested in donating. Um And I would give it to those who lost things in the fire. I wasn't expecting thousands of dollars or anything, but I figured whatever I could get would prob I'm sure it could be helpful. So then

00:41:37.209 - 00:41:51.104

my students and other people around the community that I knew like lost their things or um their homes, uh I was able to give them like gifts or cific gets to like, you know, to just either food or groceries or just whatever it might be. Um,

00:41:51.114 - 00:42:03.245

and so I, so anyway, so I think that was really probably, I mean, you know, I'm sure a lot, like, lots of people did things like that. Um, but I know other professors were saying things like, you know, if you need a place to stay or

00:42:03.254 - 00:42:17.659

if you need a warm meal or if you need things, clothes, anything, like, please just let us know and we want to help. So I, I would say the whole, um, everyone was just so supportive on campus. I think everyone was on the same page. Um,

00:42:17.689 - 00:42:33.590

and I heard, I don't know if it's true, but I heard that the general response from students regarding our division was that the communication division was especially just overall, just really, really helpful, um, and supportive throughout the process because I did hear some students say, like

00:42:33.600 - 00:42:46.870

we jumped right back into school and I can't even concentrate on that and it's so stressful and, um, and like, it's hard for them to even think prioritize that after everything that's been going on. So not to say we didn't give them work, but it's just

00:42:46.879 - 00:42:59.199

sounded like maybe other, there were a lot of other classes that, um, that may may not have been as flexible and like I said, I don't know that for sure. But based on how some of the students responded, it sounded like that may have been the

00:42:59.209 - 00:43:19.310

case. So um What do you think the long term effects of the fire have been on the Pepperdine community and on y'all's community, your neighborhood. Well, our community is still struggling so we still have meetings and we discussed the fire. It's not as often in the

00:43:19.320 - 00:43:33.610

beginning, we were having like counseling sessions that were offered for free to the community. We had um, like lawyers that we invited, um, contractors. Uh, all these different groups of people that we would say come to the Mabu Lake uh clubhouse. Um, if you want to

00:43:33.620 - 00:43:44.655

learn more about how to deal with insurance. And so they're just really supportive and it wasn't even just at Mabu Lake, they would even invite people outside of Mabu Lake. Say come to our community. We have something called the P Phoenix members, I believe is what

00:43:44.665 - 00:43:59.495

they call it. And so basically, those are the Phoenix are the ones, um, members are the ones that lost their homes. And so I know the community offered like free dinners for those people. Um We have a lot of events throughout the community probably three or

00:43:59.504 - 00:44:12.889

so a month roughly. And I think for many of them, they are basically just free to those members as well. Um I don't know this for sure, but I think we also, they also tried to uh help compensate with some of their ho a fees and

00:44:12.899 - 00:44:26.090

things. So they've done a lot to really try to help as much as possible. Um, our board is very active. I would say it's August right now almost, you know, 10 or so months, nine or 10 months later and in our meetings, we're still talking about

00:44:26.100 - 00:44:39.169

how we're trying to contact the, um, the authorities to take out, uh, to take out the boats that are still down in the, in the water. And that's been really stressful because we don't, if people are swimming in the lake, they could get hurt. Um And

00:44:39.179 - 00:44:54.550

so because we don't know what's down there. So I don't, I think they're just starting to do that now. Um And so uh but things that burned were like a main dock that a lot of people would hang out on. Um Our community is a, is

00:44:54.560 - 00:45:09.810

a backdrop for a lot of movies, so classic movies. Um But also there's one I think with John Cusack from the nineties where gaze there was a main gazebo and that burned. Um And so just like little, little things like that that are like really memorable

00:45:09.820 - 00:45:24.229

for the community. Um Unfortunately, are no longer there. Um And then of course, just a lot of the houses, some of them are like 19 twenties, they're very old. So you can't, you know, build that or you can't replace a 19 twenties house, you can replace

00:45:24.239 - 00:45:40.020

it with a new house, of course, but there's a lot of character that's compromised. Our fence was burned. Um You know, So it's just been a lot of like redoing remodeling. Um and it's still happening and even though there's been so much more growth from the,

00:45:40.030 - 00:45:54.540

from all the trees and plants and flowers, everything is so beautiful. Now, I am ever so often speaking to people in our community who do lose their house because they'll come over sometimes and they say, right, they've, they have said multiple times like it's harder than

00:45:54.550 - 00:46:09.699

ever now because again, so much has grown. It's so beautiful. A lot of people have moved on. Um We actually even had a, a car fire about two weeks ago at the lake. And L and I are two of maybe 15 or so people that joined

00:46:10.040 - 00:46:24.510

the community emergency response team cert and this is in response to everything that happened because we realized that we don't have anything. We don't have an actual plan. We didn't realize until recently that we had a food supply um that was there for emer emergencies like

00:46:24.520 - 00:46:38.399

the fire. But, but we've also realized that a lot of that expired in like 2002. So, um so we put this community of, of uh group together and just to figure out how to respond to things like this um in the future. And so we had

00:46:38.409 - 00:46:51.159

a small community or a small car fire two weeks ago and I spotted it from across the lake. And I remember thinking like, oh my gosh, what did I learn, what do I do first uh from this training. But then also realizing like, oh, I think

00:46:51.169 - 00:47:01.929

I still have a little bit of trauma actually because I feel like it went from 0 to 80 quick for me. And I still was able to think quickly and say, ok, I need to call the police. I need to text the group, we need to

00:47:01.939 - 00:47:14.209

rush down there. But it really did just feel like we've got to take care of this as soon as possible because all I could envision was how big it was going to get because of what we've been through. And I think a lot of people in

00:47:14.219 - 00:47:28.520

the community felt that way. Um And so a lot of people were out there, they were on their paddle boards, they were watching, they ever, everyone, like multiple people called 911 and the people that I talked to um were just really concerned, of course. Um And

00:47:28.530 - 00:47:39.590

yet I would say a lot of people because it's a little bit out of sight out of mind being 10 months, nine months later. Um Not until they saw maybe that little fire again. Did they start to feel like, ok, like we, you know, this is

00:47:39.600 - 00:47:54.040

um this is important for us to be just know what to do or how to train. Um Whereas it's starting to not feel as real anymore because it's so far it's been so long. Um And So we actually, I would say even had trouble probably getting

00:47:54.050 - 00:48:08.510

more people involved in wanting to come to some of these events that teach you um like first aid CPR how to be prepared. All these different things that our community especially should be um jumping, you know, jumping to get to because it's so crucial and important.

00:48:08.520 - 00:48:25.149

But um but again, because it's been so long, I think the interest starts to, probably starts to lessen over time because of it un unless there's again, another reminder like there was a few weeks ago. So, yeah, yeah, it's, there's good and bad about how quickly

00:48:25.159 - 00:48:41.449

your mind can kind of heal and how often forgetting almost intentionally is a part of that process. And so, you know, it's obviously beneficial. So people aren't constantly reliving that that trauma that only happened a few months ago. But at the same time, um, yeah, like

00:48:41.459 - 00:48:56.469

we said, we met some frustration when we were like, this cannot be more relevant than, right? Like this just happened if we're having this, these open meetings where it's, you know, catered and you get great food and helpful information on like how to survive the next

00:48:56.479 - 00:49:12.320

one of these. It was astounding that there was so many people that weren't interested or didn't see the value in that even though it had just happened a few months ago. And so, um, I think, you know, I have a, uh a good appreciation for the

00:49:12.330 - 00:49:31.250

people in our community and in the, the Pepperdine community, whose sole job is that sort of preparatory thinking um to be able to prioritize making these plans and having these drills in place and training the members, uh the first responders of how to, how to do

00:49:31.260 - 00:49:48.540

these things. Um because it's so easy to downplay the importance of that when you are not immediately facing one of these disasters. Um So I'm glad we have, you know, people like the insurance and risk and, and, and, and things like that that are coordinating with,

00:49:48.550 - 00:50:04.000

with uh members of the fire departments and things like that to make sure uh obviously how well, Pepperdine, whether the storm um is proof that those planes work and, and so I'm, I'm glad that we're part of a place that is intentional about that everything from

00:50:04.010 - 00:50:24.550

our landscaping to, you know, how they respond. Um I think one thing that could help is um both in our community and here just the transparency of communication is really important. Um because like you said, everybody is dying for up to the second reports. And so

00:50:24.560 - 00:50:37.310

some, you know, some of the kids, you, you hear all these crazy rumors. One of the things we asked actually when we started classes back is like, what was the craziest thing you heard um during the fires that ended up not being true? And some people

00:50:37.320 - 00:50:51.370

were saying like, oh, yo, I heard Pepperdine wanted to let the fire get close enough to damage buildings so that they could get insurance and like renovate it. Obviously, that is ridiculous. Or other members of the community saying, oh pepper, I didn't want to let the

00:50:51.379 - 00:51:07.080

kids leave because this high ri you know, priority target of having all these college kids quote unquote trapped on campus means all the firefighter support is gonna have to center on them. And that's why they let my house in Malibu burn because they were hogging all

00:51:07.090 - 00:51:22.169

the resources. Like obviously, these things come from a place of, of hurt and they're not true. But um some of the, the kids were legitimately worried whenever they were told, stay put, stay put. This is the safest place to be and they can, they realize the

00:51:22.179 - 00:51:38.250

danger is very close. I think, you know, being, being more clear like this is why this is the best thing. These are all the things we have in place to keep you safe. These are all the resources we are actively employing to make sure that this

00:51:38.260 - 00:51:50.510

is like a controlled burn. It, there's not enough fuel here for it to get out of hand. We have this many people that can respond if the worst case scenario happens. And the reason why we're telling you not to leave is that if 3000 of you

00:51:50.520 - 00:52:03.320

get on the road at the same time and there's a fire that is still just up the way that could easily jump onto PC H you are in a cons sig significantly higher danger than if you had sheltered in place. So I think like just kind

00:52:03.330 - 00:52:22.040

of being able to communicate those things either before or during or even after the disaster, I think will probably help put more people at ease and be more compliant, um, in, in future disasters. Um, so that way, you know, rumor and hearsay are spreading like wildfire.

00:52:22.379 - 00:52:38.010

Um And people can feel, you know, more in control of their situation like, oh yes, I'm making this choice, not because I'm forced to cuz they just tell me to and I'm blindly obeying, but I actually see the wisdom in it. I feel safer now that

00:52:38.020 - 00:52:51.500

I know all these resources are, are being employed and that people have practiced this, they have, they know they have a strategy, they have a plan, they're not just winging it. Um And so, you know, it's, it's a lot easier to, to deal with that way,

00:52:51.510 - 00:53:28.979

not become hysterical. Do you think the relationship between the outside and, you know, I think um I haven't personally heard anything of like community wide response of like how this has positively affected or negatively affected the perception of, of Pepperdine. Um All the stories that I've

00:53:28.989 - 00:53:44.459

heard about our community members have been overwhelmingly positive of people coming to, to work when they didn't need to, to help take care of people or you know if there's, if you need, I remember the previous fire when I was a student here on campus, just

00:53:44.469 - 00:53:59.159

members of the local community coming in and bringing their, you know, animals and seeing like cats and dogs in like giant Tupperware bins cuz they couldn't find their pet kennel in time and Pepperdine welcoming everybody in to, to again, shelter in place, you know, in the

00:53:59.169 - 00:54:14.209

campus Tyler Campus center or the gym or things like that. Um, so obviously I have kind of a biased sample set there of only talking to Pepperdine community members rather than I'm conducting an interview with Malibu locals. Um, so the only negative things I had heard

00:54:14.219 - 00:54:32.199

was, was just from people who lost their home and when were looking for, for some reason. Yeah, I think, um, similar is that what he, to, what he was saying is just a lot of it probably being hearsay, not, not really understanding what was happening on

00:54:32.449 - 00:54:48.379

Pin's Campus. So, um, for example, I just know on the news, I think there were a few different times based on what I heard and a little bit of what I actually heard, um, in person on, from the new, watching the news. I, it sounded like

00:54:48.389 - 00:55:08.600

it was reporting Pepperdine in a way that made it sound a little bit more like, uh, uncontrolled maybe. Or that, um, at one point I think someone, yeah, they're being held like saying someone or a news reporter or some news source, I think, said something about

00:55:08.729 - 00:55:27.209

students feel like they're being held against their will or just, um, I, because the news is portraying Pepperdine in that way, I could see how that would affect the way Malibu members might Pepperdine too. Um, especially again because there's a lot of emotions they're upset, especially

00:55:27.219 - 00:55:43.500

if they lost their house or almost lost their house. Um, and not realizing kind of what's going on here and how everyone's feeling here too. So, other than that, I hope it doesn't affect things too negatively in the long run. Um, because at the end of

00:55:43.510 - 00:56:00.750

the day, I think everyone hopefully understands that there's just a lot happening no matter where you are, whether you're on campus or not on campus. Um, besides maybe some bitter feelings, but hopefully that's something that over time will not be a problem, but otherwise that's, I

00:56:00.760 - 00:56:25.620

don't think, hopefully, I don't think it's gonna be too much of an issue. Is there anything else you would like to talk about? Mm. I don't think so. I mean, the, uh, like I said, the whole event was just kind of like a, a surreal look

00:56:25.629 - 00:56:40.010

at, you know, if nothing else, it helps give you pause to realize like what's obviously really important. Uh cuz when you are frantically searching your home through all of your personal desires and you're like, what one thing out of all this do I wanna bring with

00:56:40.020 - 00:56:55.610

me, uh, it does kind of help you realize like what's important to you and when we were gone and just dying for, for information and really hearing nothing but the worst and kind of coming to grips with, like, I'm pretty sure it's gone. Um, you know,

00:56:55.620 - 00:57:11.919

we'd, we'd been in the house just over a year at that point, we just got this house and, um, of course, when you're thinking the worse, it's just, you're kind of already in shock until literally, it was literally, until I walked through the front door again

00:57:12.270 - 00:57:28.260

that I couldn't really fully let go of this idea that it was gone. Um But coming through that and realizing like, you know, even if it is like, I'll just plant some grass or live in a nice tent for a couple years. Like we still have

00:57:28.270 - 00:57:42.320

the land, like it'll work out, it'll be ok. And, and I was amazed like how quickly I could start trying to see like, ok, well, if this is, there's nothing I can do about it now. So let's just see what we can do to make the

00:57:42.330 - 00:57:58.949

best of, of this situation. Um Obviously, incredibly thankful that it didn't have to come to that. But, um, it was in some ways, like, again, the silver lining was like, just being able to kind of take stock and realize like both what's important to you. But

00:57:58.959 - 00:58:14.100

also like, hey, this is a good wake up call. To say, let's be prepared for the next one. And, um, so I'm glad we were able to take steps and do things like that cert team how uh I'd encourage other people even if you weren't affected

00:58:14.110 - 00:58:27.949

by the disaster. Like taking those kind of classes is really empowering and you'll sleep better at night to realize like, wow, there is a lot of this stuff that could happen at any moment's notice. Even just, you know, cuz I left the oven on or burnt

00:58:27.959 - 00:58:38.239

the popcorn or whatever. And now all of a sudden I gotta deal with a small fire, like, you know how to turn your gas off and you know how to shut your water main off and, you know, like, what, where you gonna evacuate for a disaster

00:58:38.250 - 00:58:52.830

and like that's stuff that everybody knows that they should know, but nobody actually takes the time usually unless there's a very bad disaster and even then sometimes no, um, to take, to take, take account of. And so I, I don't, I think that's kind of the

00:58:52.840 - 00:59:12.590

best take away for us is like doing some steps to help in the future. Um, cuz if everybody is, is more educated in that, like we can minimize the damage uh, in the future, cuz it absolutely will happen again. A again and there's no really way

00:59:12.600 - 00:59:29.439

to tell when. So you might as well be ready now. Mhm. Mm. Yeah, I guess I just realized through all this, how much, I don't know and how much I don't have prepared. And I think that's true for a lot of people, but I think our

00:59:29.449 - 00:59:42.010

personality types is more like, ok, now, what do we do to prevent it from in the future? And so that means we purchase a lot of things to be prepared. Um, know where things are. Even when we had that car fire a few weeks ago, I

00:59:42.020 - 00:59:57.510

didn't have everything I needed, but I remember within five minutes, I grabbed a lot of things, packed it in the car and called and texted everyone and just, and had my fire extinguisher by me ready to go. And that's kind of how you need to do

00:59:57.520 - 01:00:11.270

it though. And so I was grateful that at least I have a little bit of a better idea of a plan even if it needs some tweaking still. Um And I think again, as he was saying, after all that just really thankful that um once we

01:00:11.280 - 01:00:27.179

were able to go into the house, we just felt like we wanted to continue to welcome everyone and to um fill it with more people and help people, but also just, just like be even more appreciative. We were already but even more of like just sharing

01:00:27.189 - 01:00:42.080

it and as with others because we just again, felt so fortunate and lucky and but at the same time for no reason, no, besides like luck and God because we just, it could have easily been ours, it could be ours in the future. Hopefully not. So

01:00:42.100 - 01:00:57.280

we just wanted to, um, just, we just felt very grateful and also, like you said, just to really be prepared from in the future and figure out ways to do that and how to respond better in the future. Um, and so I think that's kind of

01:00:57.290 - 01:01:07.860

the main takeaway and so we're just, uh, we're grateful for it all, but we hope it never happens again. Ok. Well, thank you all so much for your time.