The Brief

Messages obtained by LAist show that Orange County Public Works officials were alerted to high fire danger, yet failed to take precautions on the day a crew accidentally started the massive Airport Fire during a September heat wave. Over the next 26 days, the fire burned down more than 160 buildings, injured 22 people and resulted in nearly $400 million in claims county taxpayers could be on the hook for.

Sean Doran, a spokesperson for the Orange County Fire Authority, told LAist the fire was sparked the afternoon of Sept. 9 while the crew was using heavy equipment to move large rocks in Trabuco Canyon.

LAist’s review of messages sent on Microsoft Teams, obtained through a public records request, show Operations & Maintenance supervisors and a senior manager were informed at 10 a.m. that morning of high fire danger. By that time, work at the site had been underway for three hours, according to Doran.

Even after the high fire danger warning, no water truck was brought in. More than three hours after that warning, work at the site sparked the fire.

That work was taking place without a water truck present, according to an equipment log in the job’s work order obtained by LAist. However, in a chat log from Sept. 10, Edward Frondoso, the deputy director for operations and maintenance at O.C. Public Works, says: “I know yesterday morning Bud had asked them to take the water truck out.” Nina Quimsing, an operations and maintenance manager, responds by noting that using a water truck is a department best practice.

On Sept. 10, the day after an O.C. Public Works crew unintentionally started the Airport Fire, department managers discuss what one described as a request for the crew to take a water truck with them. An OCFA spokesperson told LAist the fire was classified as unintentional.

(

Illustration by Olivia Hughes for LAist

/

County of Orange public records

)

The records prompted LAist to seek answers with the county officials to understand decisions made that day, including:

• What is the county’s protocol for doing field work when fire risk is high?
• Who was responsible for making sure the crew took appropriate precautions?
• What, if anything, is the county doing to make sure such a misstep isn’t repeated?

Shannon Widor, a spokesperson for O.C. Public Works, told LAist he couldn’t comment for this story “due to pending claims and the likelihood of litigation.”

James Treadaway, who was the head of O.C. Public Works at the time of the fire, left his job suddenly in late September without a public explanation.

LAist reached out to the public works departments of Los Angeles, San Diego, Riverside and San Bernardino counties and the National Forest Service to ask about their policies for limiting risk on days when fire danger is high.

Several agencies require supervisors to only schedule work on low fire risk days or halt work on high fire risk days. Riverside County both forbids work on high fire danger days, and requires a water truck to be present for roadside work that could start a fire.

In contrast, an LAist review of Orange County’s policies did not find any reference to wildfire prevention, nor requirements to bring water trucks or halting work when the fire risk is high.

Image shows a re-creation of Microsoft Teams messages sent Sept. 10, the day after an O.C. Public Works crew unintentionally started the Airport Fire.

(

Illustration by Olivia Hughes for LAist

/

County of Orange public records

)

The Airport Fire burned more than 23,000 acres in Orange and Riverside counties before it was contained nearly a month later. It was officially declared out on Nov. 15.

The total cost of fighting the fire is expected to reach $95 million, according to Adrienne Freeman, a spokesperson for the U.S. Forest Service.

Numerous families reported losing their homes and livelihoods in claims to the county, which now reach into the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Among those injured in connection with the Airport Fire were eight firefighters, who rolled their vehicle as they were returning home from duty. Two of the firefighters were treated in a specialty neurorehabilitation hospital in Colorado. One was released last week after two months of treatment. The other continues to receive rehab treatment in Colorado.

A house burns in El Cariso Village along Ortega Highway during the Airport Fire.

(

Wally Skalij

/

Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

)

What the messages say

One thing that is clear: County officials have said the fire started when the crew was moving boulders to block off illegal paths and turnouts made by offroad vehicles along Trabuco Creek Road. An OCFA spokesperson told LAist two employees — a crew member and a supervisor — saw smoke coming from the basket of a truck loaded with boulders. They called 911 and used fire extinguishers at the scene in an unsuccessful attempt to put out the fire.

LAist’s review of Microsoft Teams messages between high-level O.C. Public Works managers detail some of their discussions after the fire started, and raise further questions about who’s responsible.

Fire officials received reports of a fire near a model airplane field in Trabuco Canyon around 1 p.m. on Sept. 9. About an hour later, at 2:08 p.m., Frondoso, the deputy director for Operations & Maintenance, sent a message through Microsoft Teams to his colleague Fiona Man.

“i kind of have something important to talk to KO about,” Frondoso wrote. Frondoso's boss at the time was Kevin Onuma, who is now is the interim director of O.C. Public Works.

The following exchange between Frondoso and Man took place over the next 15 minutes:

LAist tried to reach out to all supervisors and managers named in the messages by phone and email and reached 10 of the 12. No one responded to the requests for comment.

What the crew did, and didn’t have that day

A house in flames at El Cariso Village in Lake Elsinore on Sept. 10.

(

Apu Gomes

/

Getty Images

)

Flames are seen near the side of a road as the Airport Fire gained ground near Lake Elsinore.

(

David Swanson

/

AFP via Getty Images

)

LAist obtained the crew’s master work order for the Trabuco Canyon job via a public records request. The project to place boulders and barriers called K-rails began on Aug. 28 and was set to finish on Sept. 13, according to the work order. On the day of the fire, the equipment assigned were a CAT loader, dump truck, and pickup truck, the work order shows.

Records the county disclosed to LAist do not show an order for a water truck or tank associated with the work on the day the fire started, although work orders from previous weeks along the same road do include a water truck or tank.

Messages obtained by LAist via the California Public Records Act from Sept. 10, the day after the fire started, show managers trying to piece together why the crew didn’t have a water truck.

“On the work order, it shows what equipment will be used, but I know yesterday morning [a crew supervisor] had asked them to take the water truck out,” Frondoso wrote to his subordinate Nina Quimsing, an operations and maintenance manager.

Quimsing wrote back:

“Use of water truck or water buffalo would be considered a BMP. It is up to the crew to use BMPs where appropriate. But our Field Operations Manual activity guidelines state ‘Use appropriate BMP.’ For every maintenance activity.”

“BMP” refers to best management practice.

LAist requested from O.C. Public Works all of its written policies and procedures regarding fire prevention during the type of work the crew was doing that sparked the fire. County officials have turned over 99 pages of documentation, which include a fire prevention plan.

That policy specifies that “all heat-producing equipment/appliances shall be kept at a sufficiently safe distance from other combustible materials and have adequate space for air circulation.” But it does not specifically address fire hazards associated with field work, such as whether to bring a water truck or cancel work on high fire danger days. Those conditions are addressed in plans by other counties’ agencies.

Crew were informed of fire danger after work had already started

Garrett Keene stands in the rubble of his home in El Cariso Village on Sept. 12.

(

Gina Ferazzi

/

Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

)

Vintage cars destroyed by the Airport Fire.

(

Etienne Laurent

/

AFP via Getty Images

)

At 11:48 a.m. on Sept. 10, Frondoso wrote to Quimsing: “have you ever heard of us delaying or deferring work due to fire safety concerns?”

Quimsing replied: “This is why we announce the fire danger ratings over the 800 Mhz in Silver 1 so crews are informed of the risks when operating equipment etc.”

The National Weather Service had issued an excessive heat warning for Sept. 9, the day the fire broke out, advising the public of “dangerously hot conditions” in the Santa Ana Mountains and foothills, which include Trabuco Canyon. Records show temperatures in the canyon reached 100 degrees that day.

Public records obtained by LAist document that a public works dispatcher followed the standard practice of radioing twice daily announcements about the level of fire danger to field crews, at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. Work at the site began at 7 a.m. A log of those announcements shows that on the day the fire started, the dispatcher warned in both announcements of “high” fire danger — the first warning of that level in 2024.

In addition, public records show “Darrell, Bud, Brandon and David” were sent an email and called about the high fire danger alert. In the organization chart obtained by LAist via a public records request, Darrell Wilson is an operations and maintenance manager and David Fernandez, Brandon Morgan and Erik Budzinski are all listed as maintenance supervisors. They are all listed in the chart as working under Frondoso.

The struggle to get records

LAist filed a public records request with OC Public Works for the Microsoft Teams chat logs on Sept. 12, three days after the fire started. Initially, county officials responded that no chat records were found and closed our request on Sept. 23. LAist asked again if there were relevant records. They then disclosed dozens of chat messages, saying the records were identified in a “subsequent search.”

County officials have told LAist that this is just one batch of records and more will be released in the coming weeks. Staff told LAist that all public records requests related to the Airport Fire are being reviewed by legal counsel because it is a “high visibility” item.

Chat logs reviewed by LAist also reveal how staff were directed to “pick up the phone” if they were discussing the fire. “As a reminder, please do not email, message or text any opinions or details,” Widor wrote via Teams to some managers.

Claims for damages and the fallout

As a result of the Airport Fire, Orange County has already received claims for damages amounting to close to $400 million. They range from people who say they lost their entire homes, to hotel costs due to evacuation orders.

“My entire retirement plans + future have been affected by this loss, and I have lost everything to plan for my future wellbeing,” one person wrote in their claim, seeking $1.8 million for losses.

Another man, who claimed $39,000 in damages, said his vehicle was torched with all of his construction equipment inside.

Residents wishing to file a claim against the county have six months to file from the date the damage was incurred.

How to file a claim

• If it is a claim related to personal injury or damage to property against the County of Orange, a claim form must be filled and mailed or hand delivered within six months to:

  • Clerk of the Board of Supervisors
  • 400 W. Civic Center Dr., 6th Floor, Santa Ana, CA 92701
• All other claims have to be filed to the same address within one year.

Residents with damages to their property caused by the Airport Fire can also file for property tax relief.

To apply, fill out this form and submit to the County Assessor’s office within 12 months from the time your property was damaged.

At some other SoCal agencies, work stops on high fire danger days

LAist reached out to the public works departments of Los Angeles, San Diego, Riverside and San Bernardino counties and the National Forest Service to ask about their policies for limiting risk on days when fire danger is high.

Notably, San Bernardino adopted fire guidelines in 2010. In a memo released to LAist, then-San Bernardino County Public Works Director Granville Bowman said the new guidelines were adopted due to two earlier fires caused by “vehicles and equipment being used to conduct field operation assignments.” The guidelines require supervisors to “schedule all non emergency activities that can start fires to a period of low fire risk and ensure all risks are considered before scheduling,” among other measures.

The county’s guidelines also say vehicles should not be operated in “high risk” areas defined by a combination of dry vegetation, temperatures over 85 degrees, and humidity of less than 25%. Failure to follow the guidelines can result in disciplinary action or dismissal.

The National Forest Service relies on a fire risk management tool called the “Project Activity Level” (PAL) system to determine which industrial activities, including timber harvesting and maintenance, can be safely allowed to proceed on a daily basis. On the day the Airport Fire broke out, the danger rating for the closest Forest Service stations, and most stations in Southern California, was “E” — the highest danger level.

Freeman, the U.S. Forest Service spokesperson, said “anything that’s not emergency work” is prohibited when the PAL system indicates that level of fire danger. “We actually can and do shut down things like utility work if we feel like there's a high potential for a fire to start based on that work,” Freeman said, referring to work on U.S. Forest Service land.

The Airport Fire started just outside of forest service land. But at least one local agency, San Diego County, relies on the Forest Service fire danger alert system to plan its own field work.

Donna Durckel, spokesperson for San Diego County’s Land Use and Environment Group, said the county’s senior equipment operators receive a text each day advising them of the current PAL level. They use that information to determine “what work is allowed to take place,” she said.

In Los Angeles, the public works department halts construction and maintenance activities in fire-prone areas during red flag days, according to Lisette Guzman, a spokesperson for L.A. County’s Public Works Department. O.C. was not under a red flag warning the day the Airport Fire broke out.

In Riverside, the county’s Transportation and Land Management Agency, which maintains county roads, has a written policy that requires a water truck be assigned to tractor mowers when trimming vegetation on roadsides. Felisa Cardona, a spokesperson for the agency, told LAist the policy also applies to other types of road maintenance work that has the potential to start fires.

Riverside’s policy also requires employees to check the weather forecast in the morning, and to postpone work when there’s low humidity and/or high winds that could spark fires.

Head Start centers in Southern California say they’re operating as usual despite the Trump administration proposing a vast overhaul to the early education program.

The administration last week proposed stripping many of Head Start’s regulations, saying it would provide more local flexibility. Advocates fear it could gut many of the features of the program, which goes beyond early education services.

For now, providers and advocates say parents should continue to enroll their children.

“Head Start programs will remain open. We will continue to offer services as currently designed. And that won't change until all of this is ultimately resolved,” said Luis Bautista, executive director of early learning at the Los Angeles County Office of Education, which serves around 7,000 children in Head Start through local organizations.

The proposed rule will now undergo a 60-day public comment period.

“We want to make sure that everyone is involved in raising their voice and providing feedback,” Bautista said.

After the public comment period closes, the federal government is expected to analyze the comments before moving forward.

Bautista and others said it’s possible that if some changes go through, there could be litigation that also puts off implementation.

 ”A lot of times I think people feel because something is proposed, it will just happen, but that is not the case,” said Stacy Lee, who oversees early childhood initiatives at Children Now, an advocacy group for children in California.

“They do have to take public feedback into consideration, and it is documented as part of the process,” Lee said.

The proposed rule marks the latest effort by the Trump administration to reshape the federally-funded program. Previously, the administration tried to eliminate funding for Head Start in an early draft budget before restoring the money.

The administration also tried to ban undocumented children from attending, an effort that's been tied up in court.

The city of Long Beach has proposed cutting library hours and laying off librarians to help balance its budget. In response, educators, the local library foundation and union leaders are pushing back, saying the city can’t afford to lose a vital service for kids and families.

Under the budget proposal, five of the city’s 12 libraries — Bay Shore, Burnett, El Dorado, Harte and Michelle Obama — would drop from six days of service back to five, losing their Monday hours just a few years after those hours were added. (The city’s other libraries were already closed on Mondays, and all are closed Sundays.)

On an average Monday, those branches see a total of more than 1,000 visitors, according to city data.

“In a city the size of Long Beach, and with our population, we could be seeing a 2027 where there are no libraries open on Monday. I think that’s pretty crazy,” said Kristen Hernandez with the Long Beach Public Library Foundation. The nonprofit, which raises money for the local library system, is gathering signatures on a petition protesting the cuts. As of Friday, it had more than 1,800 signatures.

Changes to the city library system are a sliver of the cuts unveiled last week by Long Beach City Manager Tom Modica as part of a citywide winnowing in programs and services to close next year’s expected $58 million deficit.

Beyond cuts to programs and facility hours, Modica proposed laying off more than 260 city workers and cutting more than 200 additional vacant positions — about 4% of the city’s roughly 6,000-person workforce.

The proposed library cuts

Local libraries would lose 14 positions, 11 of them currently filled, including five library clerks, four library assistants, a vacant general librarian position at the Billie Jean King Main Library, and a mental health associate who serves as the library’s teen specialist. The plan also cuts funding for library pages who stock books and funding for security services, as well as nearly all print and digital newspaper subscriptions.

The combined cuts would save the department a little more than $1.4 million.

Elizabeth Cespuglio, a librarian at Billie Jean King Library, said that the library assistants at risk of being cut are responsible for planning and running workshops and programs at the branches, pulling materials, tracking which books and genres are most in demand and staffing the information desk. Clerks handle check-outs, check-ins and library cards, while pages keep the shelves organized.

Perhaps most at risk, Cespuglio said, is the library’s mental health associate, Jasmin Flores, who spends her days building rapport with teens in need. Losing that specialist, she said, leaves her “quite fearful” for the patrons and staff alike, since the library’s other social worker focuses on unhoused adults and doesn’t have the time and energy to build the same relationships with youth.

Each day, Flores is the calming face for more than a dozen kids. Many of them are in and out of homelessness; some have been in juvenile detention. Others are LGBTQIA and struggle to find friends; others struggle to find food. She’s already told some that she may not be showing up anymore. It’s a difficult conversation, she said, having to console others for the loss of her job.

“It honestly breaks my heart that I probably will not be in that position anymore,” she said.

Flores’ main worry is that some of them will stop showing up. “We’ve built that rapport, and it hasn’t been easy to build,” she said. “It’s taken a while to get there, and I just hate to see all that go to waste.”

Librarians say they’re already stretched thin

The real problem, Cespuglio said, is that libraries are losing funding even as they’re increasingly in demand — more than 2,800 patrons visit daily across Long Beach’s 12 branches, an 8% rise since last year. The number of programs offered has increased by 50% in the past year, with more than 1,000 adult participants.

Annually, city libraries have continually climbed in foot traffic since the onset of the pandemic, though averages are still lower than in 2018 and 2019.

Branches have been understaffed for more than a decade, Cespuglio said, at least since the last time the city announced library layoffs in 2012.

“There’s still an expectation on the system for us to be doing all of these things and continue the same level of service as we’ve done,” she said. “Cutting those hours, or those Mondays, not only does it impact the public’s access to the library all over the city, but it has these other ramifications in the rest of the five days that the rest of us are working.”

The looming cuts have created an “undercurrent of anxiety” among staff who still don’t know which of them may lose their jobs, according to Cespuglio. Her own position is not at risk, but her partner’s is, and she said the possibility of losing half her household income is real. She said that rent in Long Beach has outpaced her pay raises for the 12 years she’s lived and worked in the city.

The bigger budget picture

The library cuts are part of a far larger fiscal reckoning for Long Beach.

The proposed layoffs stretch across more than a dozen departments and offices, hitting fire, police, homeless services, parks and libraries alike, as the city grapples with rising personnel costs, mounting legal payouts, the loss of federal grants and a local economic slowdown that has weighed on tax revenue.

City officials have said the strategy of previous years — pulling from cash reserves to delay layoffs — is no longer sustainable; the city drained tens of millions of dollars from its reserves, including its emergency fund, just to close out the current fiscal year.

Sashi Muralidharan, a labor representative with the city’s largest union, IAM Local 1930, said they will “fight for every job,” even as labor negotiations — which coincide with the budget talks — are looking grim.

Eighty percent of the positions proposed to be cut are represented by IAM, including 209 filled positions.

“Anything that does result in a layoff, we will be bargaining over those impacts to make sure that we lessen the negative impacts,” Muralidharan said.

At a Long Beach City Council meeting this week, nurses, union shop stewards, library staff and other city workers turned out to protest the cuts, arguing they would bring greater ramifications to the public’s quality of life and further enervate its remaining staff, pushing them to look for work elsewhere.

Nate Kim, a city nurse and negotiator with IAM Local 1930, told the council that while his own position had been renewed, many of his colleagues had not been so fortunate. “Many have been laid off already,” he added. Emily Quest, a resident who uses the library’s free craftspace, begged council members through tears not to cut the hours or the staff who run it.

Mayor Rex Richardson has proposed restoring 70 of the positions slated for elimination and said the city remains on track for its first structural budget surplus by 2028, even as another deficit, projected at $27.3 million, looms for the following year.

The City Council is expected to hold public hearings on the budget through the summer before a final vote in late September. You can find a schedule of hearings to attend here or fill out an online survey to share your priorities with the City Council, which must debate and pass the budget by Oct. 1.

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

Two months after an oil spill shut down streets in East Los Angeles and disrupted businesses along the Cesar E. Chavez Avenue corridor, many owners are still waiting for reimbursement.

The May spill forced street closures after crews punctured an underground pipeline, sending more than 25,000 gallons of crude oil onto nearby streets and into storm drains. Along the commercial corridor, owners of restaurants, barbershops and bike shops had to cancel appointments, delay deliveries or close their doors for a week as cleanup crews worked in the area.

What the spill cost businesses

In the days following the spill, a survey of nearly 50 businesses near the intersection of East Cesar E. Chavez and Eastern avenues found a 70% to 75% loss in revenue, according to Kelly LoBianco, director of the LA County Department of Economic Opportunity.

“You know how the barbershop gets on a Friday. … We lost a lot of business that week,” said Barber Avila, owner of Brooklyn Lab Barbershop. Avila preferred not to share his first name for this story.

For the past month, Avila has been working with LA County and pipeline operator Pacific Pipeline System (PPS) to submit documents – including tax records, sales reports and expenses – to show how the spill affected his business and file a claim for reimbursement.

Avila said his claim was approved this week and he is now awaiting payment.

Reimbursement has been slow

Many other businesses are seeking reimbursement from PPS, but the process has been slow, LoBianco said.

As of Tuesday, 19 businesses had filed claims. Only one had been approved, while three others were close to approval, LoBianco said. She did not have details on the amount reimbursed.

Veronica Ramos, co-owner of Ramos Industries, a commercial and residential glass and aluminum contractor, said she was reimbursed by PPS a week after submitting a claim. The spill caused contracted jobs to be canceled and deliveries to be rescheduled for a fee because trucks could not access the shop.

Ramos said her business had a bookkeeper who was able to quickly gather the required documents but she worries her neighbors may struggle to provide the needed records for a claim.

A PPS spokesperson said claims are still being accepted and processed. A third-party claims administrator has been helping businesses with the filing process in English and Spanish, the company said.

“We understand how important a timely resolution is for those affected and remain committed to working through each claim as efficiently as possible,” PPS said.

Cleanup could stretch into 2027

What lies ahead are months of soil testing and excavation to remove contaminated soil from the site of the spill, which county officials say could continue into January 2027. Neither Avila nor Ramos knew about the remaining work and worried about how additional street closures could affect their business again.

“It’s good to keep it in mind,” Ramos said.

Was your business affected by the oil spill?

Anyone who believes they were impacted by the oil spill can still contact the PPS claims line at 1-877-817-5465 to be connected to a third-party administrator who can guide them through the process in English and Spanish, PPS said. There is currently no deadline to submit a claim.

The Department of Economic Opportunity’s Office of Small Business (OSB) is continuing to provide guidance on claim preparation, documentation requirements, and submission for affected businesses. To book a one-on-one appointment, businesses can:

• Call OSB at (844) 432-4900,
• Visit OSB’s East LA Entrepreneurship Center located at 4716 E. Cesar E. Chavez Ave., or; 
• Email osb@opportunity.lacounty.gov. 

All impacted businesses seeking assistance should indicate that their request is related to the East LA oil spill.

How to avoid scams:

Rafael Carbajal, director of the LA County Department of Consumer and Business Affairs (DCBA) said bad actors may prey upon communities during environmental disasters like the oil spill including contractors and legal services providers.

Carbajal said the DCBA office is helping residents verify contractors, legal services providers and is providing information on their website on how to recognize scams.

Residents who have concerns or questions can call the DCBA hotline at (800) 593-8222.

Composer Charles-Henri Avelange has wanted to find a way to honor firefighters with music since the 9/11 attacks.

Last month, that longtime dream started to take shape when over 85 orchestral musicians working in Hollywood gathered at a Sony Pictures Studio soundstage to record the “Fireman's Prayer.”

The poem, written by Alvin William “Smokey” Linn, was inspired by an apartment fire in 1958 in which three children died. It’s something every firefighter learns to recite.

Not long after moving to the U.S., Avelange found the Fireman’s Prayer inscribed on the wall of a firehouse in 2006 — and began singing a melody.

Avelange asked the firefighters whether the piece was already set to music. “Because to me, this is not just a prayer, it's an anthem,” he said.

Twenty-four hours later, he had written the first draft of the anthem.

Charles-Henri Avelange.

(

Slava Pedan

/

Courtesy The Fireman's Prayer project

)

A $100,000 vision, and no idea how to pull it off 

Avelange’s vision was to have 200 to 250 musicians, including a children's choir, full adult choir, full orchestra and a 56-piece drum and bagpipe corps for the recording, which costs nearly $100,000. All proceeds from the song would go to firefighters.

 “Everybody who knows me eventually always heard about the Fireman's Prayer,” he said. “I have no idea how or when it will get done.”

Composer Charles-Henri Avelange has set the poem, The Fireman's Prayer, to music.

(

Slava Pedan

/

The Fireman's Prayer project

)

Then the January 2025  fires hit Los Angeles. Avelange and his wife found themselves just blocks from a Palisades Fire evacuation zone. They could see the firefighters protecting homes on their street.

“My wife, Jennifer … looked at me and she said, ‘Well, if this is not a sign, Charles, this thing is needed. It is really time.’”

Thanks to private donations, Avelange recorded with the Los Angeles Children’s Choir and the Los Angeles Master Chorale in May. He is still fundraising to record  the Pipes and Drums of California Professional Firefighters performing.

Last month, he was joined by Grammy-winning conductor Grant Gershon and many of Hollywood’s best musicians — some are survivors of the Eaton and Palisades fires — to record the orchestral portion of an anthem he had heard only as digital samples for nearly 20 years.

Joining them in the audience were members of the firefighting community.

 “When I heard them playing, it sounded exactly the way it's supposed to and actually even better,” he said. “It was quite a magical moment.”