What have we learned from the devastating fires that erupted in Los Angeles during January? Fire Chief Willie Sepeta, of the Lake County Fire Protection District and Konocti Fire Safe Council board member John Nowell agree the lesson is that preparation makes all the difference.
In the latest episode of KFSC’s Fire Talk podcast, Sepeta and Nowell shared their insights about the situation in L.A. based on a combined 80 years of firefighting experience.
When the L.A. fires broke out on January 7, 2025, Chief Sepeta was dispatched to lead a strike team fighting the Eaton fire, that consumed large sections of the city of Altadena.
“When we rolled in, there were still power lines and telephone, you know, utility poles all over. There was, natural gas,. It was burning a lot of the structures, So there was a lot of instability."
For even the most experienced firefighters the situation in L.A. represented a seismic shift.
“What we saw down there unfortunately is what we're starting to experience more and more and that is the transition from red flag wildfires to red flag wind driven structure conflagrations which is a whole new animal,” said Nowell, a retired Battalion Chief, who spent 35 years in the areas that were ravaged by the recent fires.
“We have a lot more red flag days because of, our high temps and low humidity, said Chief Sepeta. “So we're starting to experience a smaller version, very small microscopic version of the Santa Ana winds.”
With more unpredictable weather and with limits on the ability of firefighters to deal with the scale of these new fires, Nowell said preparation is key.What have we learned from the devastating fires that erupted in Los Angeles during January? Fire Chief Willie Sepeta, of the Lake County Fire Protection District and Konocti Fire Safe Council board member John Nowell agree the lesson is that preparation makes all the difference.
In the latest episode of KFSC’s Fire Talk podcast, Sepeta and Nowell shared their insights about the situation in L.A. based on a combined 80 years of firefighting experience.
When the L.A. fires broke out on January 7, 2025, Chief Sepeta was dispatched to lead a strike team fighting the Eaton fire, that consumed large sections of the city of Altadena.
“When we rolled in, there were still power lines and telephone, you know, utility poles all over. There was, natural gas,. It was burning a lot of the structures, So there was a lot of instability."
For even the most experienced firefighters the situation in L.A. represented a seismic shift.
“What we saw down there unfortunately is what we're starting to experience more and more and that is the transition from red flag wildfires to red flag wind driven structure conflagrations which is a whole new animal,” said Nowell, a retired Battalion Chief, who spent 35 years in the areas that were ravaged by the recent fires.
“We have a lot more red flag days because of, our high temps and low humidity, said Chief Sepeta. “So we're starting to experience a smaller version, very small microscopic version of the Santa Ana winds.”
With more unpredictable weather and with limits on the ability of firefighters to deal with the scale of these new fires, Nowell said preparation is key.