Our Own John Amato Lost His Home In The Palisades Fire

BRAD FRIEDMAN: Welcome back to the Bradcast, Brad Friedman from bradblog.com.

On Tuesday afternoon, our old friend John Amato, who you may have heard on this program over the years as the creator of the long running, notorious Crooks and Liars blog, he posted a photo on Blue Sky of encroaching black smoke that could be seen from his patio, apparently, in Pacific Palisades with the text, “Had to evacuate from the Palisades, not fun.”

About seven hours later, he posted at Blue Sky again, this time to say, “My house is gone. The high winds doomed our community.”

Joining us now is the great John Amato. John, thank you for taking some time to join us today. I am so sorry about what happened. Where are you right now? How are you, on the morning after you lost your house in the Pacific Palisades fire?

JOHN AMATO: Hey, Brad, thanks for having me on. Yeah, I’m okay.
A friend of mine graciously took me in. I’m in Santa Monica.
One of my, one of the residents, my neighbor across the street, she has an art school over in West LA.

So, when it started, I was saying like at 11:55, life was great, and did some work and, and talked to, and then at 11:56, they had a knock on the door and my neighbor said, are you packing? And it’s like, what? You know, and I looked, I could see the smoke and, and, but even then, there were no evacuation notices yet, but fire is always a worry.

I was a professional musician for a long time. Um, so I have a lot of instruments. So I was able to pack up my flute and my outdoor tenor sax, but, still I had the belief it’s not, it’s like, because the fires that were like, reached as far, I mean, the denial of a fire, but the winds was so high and that’s really, I mean, 60 and a hundred mile an hour winds just doomed the entire region because normally this would have been contained.

And then another issue was the fire department, helicopters and air, water, could not be used. So firemen were so handicapped that the wind just kept blowing the embers.

And yeah, I had a neighbor, so I was able, my other neighbors were able to squeeze me in. I had a car accident, so I didn’t have a new car yet. And so, I was able to take some important things.

Um, and then, yeah, the one thing is I didn’t have enough time to get all my clothes! So I got, two pairs of sweats, a pair of socks and t-shirts.

FRIEDMAN: You’ve never been known for being a great dresser, John! I wondered how, because you had said your, your neighbors helped you evacuate. So you did not get an official warning, a mandatory evacuation. They just came over and said, look, we got to get out of here. And you said, okay?

AMATO: Well, yeah, well, I mean, we were all like, there’s some great apps. So we were getting alerts from where it was happening and it was still fairly far away, but, but we all were, people I was starting to pack and my neighbor across the street, they have like, it’s, it’s, it’s a manufactured home park in the houses in front of me, to have beautiful sort of, ocean views. It’s, it’s incredible. It was, it’s just been, it was a life dream to live in that area, you know? And, and so so it was like, okay, I’ll, I’ll start to pack.
And then finally at as I was beginning to get my stuff together is when they issued the warnings to evacuate.

FRIEDMAN: Were you able to see the incoming fires from where you are or was it smoke in the distance?

AMATO: Yeah. Well, you saw the one picture. I have a couple other pictures, but I wasn’t able at that point to actually see the flames, but it was on its way.

And, down the beach, they had set up, you know places we could have like the, the managers of the park stayed, as long as they could, because they had to turn off the gas, it was going to come, and so they did that.

And my other friend, stayed with my neighbor across the street.
He was a captain in the Air Force and he’s like, the block captain, and he stayed for a long time and, we talked and, he tried to put out the fire on my house, but then everything, he said it was so bad, like trees were exploding. Um, and he actually, then he had abandoned [his home] and so he was able to get out, but it’s just total destruction.
I mean, it’s everything he said is just melted to the ground. The community.

FRIEDMAN: So you haven’t been back there to see.

AMATO: No, it’s like the, right. The police blocked off, if you, if you’re in LA, coming up the PCH from South, if you get to, yesterday, at least that, if you got to Tomesco Canyon drive, then they just blocked it off.
So, no one was able to go North. And, so then it was just, as with LA, if, if one traffic light is stopped, traffic backs up for miles.
FRIEDMAN: Well, yeah, sure.
Well, I mean, there’s not a lot of roads there in or out.
Well, there’s only one main road, right?
And we’ve heard these stories of people who have been unable to evacuate just because of the traffic and people abandoning cars to hightail it on foot. Did you run into any of that? And is that still going on as far as I know.

AMATO: I haven’t been able to check the news right now, I’m getting ready going to my, taking an Uber up to my friend’s house and to stay for a few days and, but it’s just basically getting footing, okay, what’s the next right action when you’re facing an emergency or something of this nature, it, it, it, it does not bode well if you panic or get crazy about it. So I did deep breathing.

FRIEDMAN: Okay.

AMATO: What’s the next right thing to do? You know? And so that’s how I’ve been living, since yesterday. And, so it’s just, yeah, it’s still a mess. I mean, and it was because of the winds. So, I mean, it even, the fires came even close to the Santa Monica area. And I mean, you could see the smoke.

FRIEDMAN: I was in west LA. I mean, and the smoke was just like, thick, it was crazy. I’d never seen that smoke that far away from Malibu and the Palisades.

AMATO: Yeah. So it’s, I mean, again, it was the wind that caused it. I mean, I think people just didn’t really expect the wind. It just made things progress really fast.

FRIEDMAN: Before I saw your post at Blue Sky on Tuesday night, I had been texting our mutual friend, Heather Digby Parton, who’s a frequent guest on this program. And by the way, she reports that she is doing fine. And she’s in Santa Monica. She’s not far from the Palisades on the coast there, but she’s doing fine and I thought our listeners would want to know that she says she lives in a, “concrete jungle where she believes there is no danger of fire.”

Um, but yeah, there had been warnings for days, but we’ve had so many warnings about this and about weather like this, that I think people sort of take it for granted. ‘Oh, I’ll be okay here.’ There was no particular warning to the community that this community was especially vulnerable prior to Tuesday night.

AMATO: No, I mean, when you’re in, because of the Malibu fires from years ago, everyone is always sort of on alert about this, it’s not like, ‘oh, this, oh, how could this happen?’ It could happen, but, but still, like we’ve never seen the speed of this fire because of the wind and because the fire department didn’t have the tools available to them because of the winds. It just spread so fast.

FRIEDMAN: But, I mean, cement buildings have melted down, if but it’s not, I think it’s contained or it’s not, it’s, it, it, it didn’t make it into Santa Maya, but there was evacuations, this is, north of San Vicente, which is, coming into Santa Monica. So, it was, the devastation is just, it’s incredible.

AMATO: Yeah.

FRIEDMAN: And I should say, by the way, that for folks in Santa Monica, there was an evacuation, I think it was a mandatory evacuation, if I’m not mistaken Desi, in parts of Santa Monica.
DESI DOYEN (COHOST): The edge of Santa Monica.

FRIEDMAN: That’s at the foot of the, of the foothills there. So there’s a, there’s a preparing for evacuation notice for folks that are south of that, of south of San Vicente.

And also, went to Pasadena and Altadena and a friend of mine, I just found out his house is safe, but he just said that the embers that, the wind was blowing these flaming embers everywhere.

So, that’s why if it had continued, these flaming embers could have really just, it could have kept going.

And it’s like a tidal wave of fire.

Yeah.

A tidal wave of fire.

And we should note that those winds still are kicking up in a lot of areas.

They’ve been pretty continuous out here in Hollywood where we think we’re safe as well, but they have been continuous and we’re expecting to see more wildfire weather predicted for the weekend.

I hate to say, but have you heard, John Amato, from anybody yet, authorities yet of any kind, local state, federal, anyone, or is it just too early in the hours after losing your house?

AMATO: Yeah, it’s, it’s, it’s too early. I mean, all my neighbors, at this point it appears that everybody got out so that, but there was, and everybody has animals in my community and it was a, a stray cat that I had called Cooper that, that I was feeding, that wouldn’t come in the house. Um, and so I wonder, I was just thinking about her, but they have the capacity to survive. Um, but yeah, it’s, it’s terrible.

I had actually called, I was texting with Heather and, she wasn’t home at the time, but, it is it’s too early. I actually, went on the FEMA website to start seeing, to put in, if I, if, if I can get any assistance. But again, I’m just, I do, we do have, I do have insurance, but we know how the insurance people, it’s not like, oh yes, yes, you have protection from fire, but, like, it’s not like they’re, they’re going to do anything anytime soon.

FRIEDMAN: Well, John, I will, I will look forward to hearing of your experience with FEMA and how that goes and how well that system works or does not in the days ahead. Do you have any sense of what the community is going to need in those coming days?
And if there’s anything that listeners right now can do to either, help, help you or help others in affected areas like yours and in some of the other communities that, that are experiencing the same thing today.

AMATO: Yeah, I would just, I would just, caution people just stay away from the areas because there’s still, still a lot happening. And, I mean, I think I heard where they were like, it was like hurricane category two winds blowing up up to a hundred miles an hour.

FRIEDMAN: Yeah, that’s about right.

AMATO: So, so I would just say, contact people that, that, are in the area, and offering shelter and food is, it’s, it’s, it’s the power of people and the power of community.
I have great friends and my neighbors are all just terrific and everyone’s still processing and, in shock, I mean, I haven’t shed any tears yet, but that’s coming, I mean, I, I, the one thing I did, there’s two things.

It’s funny, right? When you think about, I had gotten a foul ball from Reggie Jackson in 1973 in Yankee stadium, and I left that, and also that I recorded a couple of tracks from Ringo Starr back in 2002, and he actually drew up like on, on the jewel case they, they put the tunes on there and he put love Ringo that he drew it, and it’s like, oh man, I, I can’t believe I left that. Out of all the things that I did lose, those sticking with me right now, it’s weird how the mind works.

FRIEDMAN: And when you think about what’s important to you, anyways, you, you listen, you raise a great point. And I was going to ask, had you prepared in advance they’re always warning us, have a go bag ready with the things that you really care about, or a list of things you can grab. I guess you hadn’t thought about that until now.

AMATO: Yeah. We all have little go bags, but it’s like, it just, it happened so fast. I was able to save, I have a, a great flute and alto and a tenor sax, but I, I lost a baritone sax, a soprano sax, a clarinet, a piccolo, an alto flute, like that stuff. But I took, I was able, I was able to get what I’d hope was, my major things out and, everything else, it’s, it’s a drag to say the least.

FRIEDMAN: Indeed it is. I will say this we are really glad that you’re okay today, even if your house was not, and, and please let us know what we can do in the days ahead to help out if there’s anything.

I do want to note that you’ve got a great crew over at crooksandliars.com as they are continuing to post as ever today keeping up with all of the ongoing nightmares. So, hopefully you can take care of yourself in the coming days, not worry about the blog. Let everyone else take care of it while the Crooks and Liars folks just keep it going in the days ahead and hope you’ll let us know if there’s anything that we can do to help out.

AMATO: Thank you so much. Yes. I told them last night, I guess I’m playing hooky today.

They’re the best, I mean, they’re the best, my managing editor, Karoli, is awesome. Fran, my, my associate editor, just all the writers, right.
Red Painter, Conover and Heather and Jamie, and Capper and Susie.
Um, they’re all like, they’re just the best. Um, they’re, they’re right there. So I, I don’t have to worry about that, which is a big relief.

FRIEDMAN: Well, you get a day or two off at best, John, and then that’s it. We expect you back at work.

AMATO: Hey, I need to work, you know?

FRIEDMAN: I bet you do!

AMATO It is just keep yourself occupied as we figure all of this out.

FRIEDMAN: And to that end, by the way, thank you for joining us. I was hesitant to even call and check in with you cause I know you’ve got much bigger problems, but I think it’s helpful for, for folks to hear from you and to hear from someone who experienced what is going on right now in Southern California.