The Brief

When the fires in Los Angeles broke out, fire captain Shane Lawlor was quickly dispatched to the Palisades. He has been at work ever since.

On his first day, Lawlor was on his team's fireline for 20 hours straight with no breaks for food or sleep. He's still working the fireline and has been sleeping on-site or at his station in Santa Monica when he's not on duty.

Back at his home in Carlsbad, Calif., Lawlor's son, Cian Lawlor, is a fifth-grader and budding journalist at Magnolia Elementary School. The 11-year-old has a new podcasting kit that his family got him for Christmas.

Earlier this week, NPR asked Cian to interview his dad over Zoom. It was the first rest day since the fires began for Lawlor, who took the call from his post at the Santa Monica Fire Department Station 2. Cian was at their home in Carlsbad. This was also the first time the father and son had connected in a week.

"I'm glad he gets to do this and help people in need," Cian says about his dad's job. "He puts out his heart for the greater good."

This interview was prepared and conducted by Cian, with help from Magnolia Elementary's broadcasting club, MagTV's director, Andrew Luria. The photos were taken by Cian's friend and fellow Magnolia student journalist, Eivan Wheyland. NPR sat in on their conversation.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Cian Lawlor, 11,is a budding journalist and member of his school's broadcasting club, MagTV. He came up with his own questions for this interview.

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Cian Lawlor: What goes through your mind when you're fighting fires such as this one? Were you scared?

Shane Lawlor: Scared? Not so much. But definitely, you have to take care of yourself. You have to understand your surroundings. It is so fast-moving, and there's so much going on that hearing important radio traffic that could be very important is very difficult. Making sure that you know when you are in the wrong place and you've got to get out of there is very, very important.

Cian: How did this fire compare in its size and damage to the other fires you have fought?

Lawlor: There have been big fires in California in the past that I've been on, but nothing like this for pretty much everyone.

I used to live in Santa Monica before, so I do know a lot of the neighborhoods that have been affected, and those neighborhoods are all gone. They're not even there anymore.

In terms of the size of the fire, I haven't seen anything bigger in my career. I don't think very many people have. And in terms of the scope of the damage, it has been obviously just utterly devastating.

Cian: What were the winds like and how did they affect the fire and the job you were doing?

Lawlor: The wind makes you think that you are doing a good job on one side of a nice house, but then you go around the corner and the wind has caused the fire to start on the other side of the house. So you are kind of wasting your time and you need to redirect. So it just makes it very challenging.

The biggest effect on me was what we call embercasting. And that's just small, tiny little bits of embers that blow off a tree or a building when they're burning, and they kind of whip around you. They can come up behind you. They're all over, and when they're blowing it makes it very difficult to do your job.

Those embers are what start other fires. So you're constantly protecting yourself from those hot embers in that wind and you're constantly chasing the new fires that they're starting. So that makes it very, very difficult.

Cian: When you look at the destruction and all the homes lost in the fires, what is your reaction?

Lawlor: It starts with a sense of disappointment that you couldn't have saved a lot or more of these homes. And then it moves on to sympathy for the folks who have lost those homes.

And then you also kind of get a sense of appreciation for the fact that we still have a home to go to. We have to appreciate what we have, because there's plenty of families who don't have a home or anything like that anymore.

Cian: Tell me something that happened that made you really proud.

Lawlor: I'm very proud of the crews that were around me. They really did everything in their capabilities to save each and every home. They were working so hard all day and all night. No food, no anything for hours and hours, no sleep just to try and save whatever they could. That's a big sense of pride.

Cian: What is the morale like at the department now?

Lawlor: There's definitely fatigue, physical fatigue, and there's definitely mental fatigue from it. But we're doing OK. Everyone is very appreciative of all the support we've been shown. There is so much food and so many well-wishers coming to our fire stations that it really gives us a boost every day to keep going, knowing that we're hopefully making just a little difference in someone's life.

Cian: Are you still currently fighting fire? What does your job look like on a daily basis now?

Lawlor: Yes, I am. I'm currently assigned to the Palisades Fire. We started on 12-hour shifts, and now we're working full 24-hour shifts. So you're talking to me on my rest day. It's as much a physical rest as it is a mental break. And then I will be reporting back for my 24-hour shift at 6 a.m. tomorrow, and I'll be there for another 24 hours. So we are still directly engaged on the fire line, which is literally the very edge of the fire, where if the fire is going to kick up again, that's where it will start.

You have people who hike in and they use tools to put in hoseline along the entire perimeter of this fire. And if anything comes up, now there's a hoseline in place and they can fight it. Does that answer your question, buddy?

Cian sits for a portrait at his home in Carlsbad, Calif. His friend and fellow Magnolia student journalist, Eivan Wheyland, took the photo.

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Cian: Got it. Do you have any questions for me?

Lawlor: What would you want to tell a 10-year-old boy whose home is now gone or has been affected by the fire?

Cian: I would tell them, I'm glad you're safe. Look on the bright side. Everything's going to be OK. How can we help you with your needs?

Special thanks to Cian's mom, Jaleh Lawlor, Magnolia Elementary School's broadcasting club, MagTV, and the club's director, Andrew Luria.

MagTV is a 2024 fourth-grade winner in the NPR Student Podcast Challenge, which you can learn more about here.

Topline:

The case: In September, the city settled a lawsuit brought forward by two brothers in their 70s who said they suffered serious injuries after an LAPD officer crashed into their car. Days before the $18 million settlement was reached, lawyers for the brothers said Feldstein Soto called an expert witness testifying for the plaintiffs and “attempted to ingratiate herself with him and asked him to make a contribution to her political campaign,” according to a sworn declaration to the court by the plaintiffs’ attorney, Robert Glassman.

The response: Feldstein Soto did not respond to an interview request. Her spokesperson said the settlement “had nothing to do” with the expert witness. Her campaign manager told LAist the city attorney had been making a routine fundraising call and did not know the person had a role in the case, nor that there were pending requests for her office to pay him fees.

What Jurado says: In a statement to LAist, Jurado said she wants to “make sure that the city’s legal leadership is guided by integrity and accountability, especially when their choices affect public trust, civic rights and the city’s limited resources."

What’s next: The motion needs to go through a few committees before reaching the full City Council. If it passes, the motion calls for the city attorney to “report to council in closed session within 45 days regarding the ethics breach violation and give updates to the City Council."

Every year in Santa Ana, Luis Cantabrana turns the front of his home into an elaborate altar in honor of La Virgen de Guadalupe that draws hundreds of visitors.

Along the front of the house, the multi-colored altar is filled with lights, flowers and a stained-glass tapestry behind a sculpture of the Lady of Guadalupe. Cantabrana’s roof also is lit up with the green, white and red lights that spell out “Virgen de Guadalupe” and a cross.

Visitors are welcomed with music and the smell of roses as they celebrate the saint, but this year’s gathering comes after a dark year for immigrant communities.

Luis Cantabrana stands in front of the stunning altar he built in front of his home in honor of La Virgen de Guadalupe. Every year, his display draws hundreds of visitors.

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Why do they celebrate? 

In 1513, the Virgin Mary appeared before St. Juan Diego between Dec. 9 and Dec. 12, asking him to build a church in her honor. Her image — a brown-skinned woman wearing a green veil with her hands together in prayer and an angel at her feet — miraculously appeared on his cloak.

To celebrate in Santa Ana, worshippers gathered late-night Wednesday and in the very early hours Dec. 12 to pray the rosary, sing hymns and celebrate the saint.

Cantabrana has hosted worshippers at his home for 27 years — 17 in Santa Ana.

The altar started out small, he said, and over the years, he added a fabric background, more lights and flowers (lots and lots of flowers).

“It started with me making a promise to la Virgen de Guadalupe that while I had life and a home to build an altar, that I would do it,” Cantabrana said. “Everything you see in photos and videos is pretty, but when you come and see it live, it's more than pretty. It's beautiful.”

The Santa Ana home's elaborate altar in honor of La Virgen de Guadalupe draws hundreds of visitors each year.

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Destiny Torres

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LAist

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Gathering in a time of turmoil 

Many also look to the Lady of Guadalupe for protection, especially at a time when federal enforcement has rattled immigrant communities.

“People don’t want to go to work, they don’t want to take their kids to school, but the love we have for our Virgen de Guadalupe,” Cantabrana said. “We see that la Virgen de Guadalupe has a lot of power, and so we know immigration [enforcement] won’t come here.”

Margarita Lopez of Garden Grove has been visiting the altar for three years with her husband. She’s been celebrating the Virgencita since she was a young girl. Honoring the saint is as important now as ever, she said.

“We ask, and she performs miracles,” Lopez said.

Claudia Tapia, a lifelong Santa Ana resident, said the Virgin Mary represents strength.

“Right now, with everything going on, a lot of our families [have] turned and prayed to the Virgen for strength during these times,” Tapia said. “She's a very strong symbol of Mexican culture, of unity, of faith and of resilience.”

See it for yourself

The shrine will stay up into the new year on the corner of Broadway and Camile Street.

California’s unemployment agency kept paying cellphone bills for 4 1/2 years without checking whether its workers actually were using the devices.

That’s how it racked up $4.6 million in fees for mobile devices its workers were not using, according to a new state audit detailing wasteful spending at several government agencies.

The Employment Development Department’s excessive cellphone bills date to the COVID-19 pandemic, when it shifted call center employees to remote work and faced pressure to release benefits to millions of suddenly unemployed Californians.

It acquired 7,224 cellphones and wireless hotspots by December 2020. State auditors analyzed 54 months of invoices since then and found half the devices were unused for at least two years, 25% were unused for three years and 99 of them were never used at all.

The investigation, which auditors opened after receiving a tip, identified 6,285 devices that were unused for at least four consecutive months, and said the department spent $4.6 million on monthly service fees for them.

From the beginning, the department had about 2,000 more cellphones than call center employees, according to the audit. The gap widened over time after the pandemic ended and the department’s staffing returned to its normal headcount.

As of April, the audit said the department had 1,787 unemployment call center employees, but was paying monthly service fees for 5,097 mobile devices.

“Although obtaining the mobile devices during COVID-19 may have been a good idea to serve the public, continuing to pay the monthly service fees for so many unused devices, especially post-COVID-19, was wasteful,” the audit said.

Department officials told auditors they were unaware of the spending, but auditors pointed to regular invoices from Verizon that showed which phones were not being used.

“We would have expected EDD management to have reconsidered the need to pay the monthly service fees for so many devices that had no voice, message, or data usage,” the audit said.

The unemployment department began acting on the auditors’ findings in April, when it canceled service plans for 2,825 devices. It has since implemented a policy to terminate service plans for devices that go unused for 90 days.

The California state auditor highlighted the mobile devices in its regular report on “improper activities by state agencies and employees.” The audit also showed that the California Air Resources Board overpaid an employee who was on extended leave as he prepared to retire by $171,000.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.