The Thomas Fire spreads to Santa Barbara County, LA Angels beat out other Major League Baseball teams to sign Japan's hottest pitcher-hitter, the Golden Globes nominees are out
Why wildfires are the "equalizer" in Southern California's illusion of paradise
It's been a week since wildfires broke out in Southern California, and many of them continue to rage. While the Skirball and Creek fires, in the Sepulveda pass and in Sylmar, are mostly contained, the Thomas Fire continues to churn west through the coastal foothills of Santa Barbara County.
Officials say the Thomas Fire has burned through more than 230,000 acres with 15 percent containment. Thousands remain under evacuation orders. Recently, such orders were issued for Carpinteria and Montecito, about 75 miles northwest of Los Angeles.
The blazes have been stunning in their sweep, and unsparing in their destruction. For some, the fires are a reminder that Southern California's image as an idyllic place to live can be an illusion.
"We have to go back to the Northridge earthquake," said Thomas Curwen, writer for the LA Times. "I think that was a great equalizer, much in the same way fires have been, especially this season."
Curwen wrote an essay over the weekend about how fires are the equalizer for the idea of Southern California as a paradise.
"Small little agricultural communities are being struck as well as these communities in the Sepulveda pass. It's stunning to see both mansions and small dusty horse ranches all fall to these flames," Curwen said. "It's a pretty stunning reminder that fire really does know no boundaries."
Why wildfire tragedies are bound to continue in Southern California
"Los Angeles is really a creation of this interesting geology. The ranges are going East and West across our region and creating these pockets of chaparral around which homes and communities have been built. These little pockets of chaparral get ignited, whether it's the Verdugo Mountains as we saw during the summer or whether it's the Angeles National Forest as we saw a number of years ago. It's hard to believe that there are still areas that are underdeveloped and ready to be consumed by fire, but they are and as they move closer and closer to homes or as homes move closer and closer to these areas, we're bound to see such tragedies as we have seen this last week."
Reconsidering the concept of Southern California as a paradise
"I think over the last 20 years or so, we as Angelenos have seen increasingly that this area is not quite the paradise that perhaps our forefathers had thought it was. I'm not quite sure if we're ready to say these fires this year will create a sea change in our understanding of the region, much in the same way that the 1992 urban riots created this sort of sea change in our understanding of how our city is put together and built. Certainly the forces are happening and occurring around this point in time. They do force us to reconsider our conceptions of what Los Angeles is and what Southern California can be."
What he was feeling as he worked on his recent essay
"I was feeling a great deal of empathy for all the individuals who lost their homes and their possessions in the course of these fires. I'm just really struck by how vulnerable we are on one hand and how tender our dreams are when it comes to trying to make a place here and create a home here. It is a great equalizer. Not only does fire strike across all boundaries of the city - rich and poor, mobile and rancher, alike - but it also strikes at how we make a home for ourselves in Southern California."
Answers have been edited for clarity
To hear the full conversation about the fire's effect on life in LA, click the blue player above.
After the fire: 'The stuff I missed the most is the stuff that I used the least'
"I woke up to flames on the ridge outside my house, and I grabbed my pets, and I left. I had been hopeful that maybe they'd put it out or it would go another way, and then it didn't."
That's how Napa resident Emily Cocks described the start of what would become the long process of trying to rebuild her life.
The fires burning in Southern California have destroyed hundreds of structures and forced thousands to flee over the past week.
For many of those evacuees, it's a time of uncertainty. Several will return to find their homes still standing, but others won't be so lucky.
Napa resident Emily Cocks spoke to KPCC in October right after her home burned down in the Atlas fire.
@MaggieAwriter that's my house you took a pic of. Were they able to save any structure? Where did you get picture? pic.twitter.com/F0zTXZvicx
— Emily Cocks (@EmilyCocks) October 9, 2017
She shared an update Monday with Take Two. "I found out the house had burned when I saw a picture on the internet," she starts.
I was shocked and in disbelief and anxious and scared and heartbroken.
Two months later, I'm still sad. When you lose everything, I found that the stuff I missed the most is the stuff that I used the least. It was those memories and pictures. I found a couple of my triathlon awards in the rubble, and that's it. Everything else is gone. Now I feel like there's pre-fire and post-fire. My life is kind of divided in half.
I ended up staying with my parents for a little bit, and now I'm back in Napa trying to find a sense of normalcy while navigating getting the house demolished and figuring out rebuilding and talking to insurance. Being back in Napa is helpful. I feel a little bit more at home. But it's still hard because I'm not living at home.
I've been learning a lot. Allow people to help you. Ask questions. Write things down. Keep a list of everything. Keep your receipts. Sometimes you don't want to talk about the fire, and it's okay to say that. You have to allow yourself to mourn, because I do think it is a mourning process.
I'm thinking of you, Southern California. It's hard for me to watch because I know exactly what you're feeling. Please know that my heart is with you.
Fire insurance: 3 things to do if your home is damaged by fire
Hundreds of Southern Californians lost their homes in last week's fires, many of which continue to burn. Dealing with such a heartbreaking loss is severe enough, but for homeowners who are already struggling, there's another complication: navigating their fire insurance policies.
For some tips, Take Two spoke with Mark Hancock, an attorney in Ventura who helps with insurance disputes.
Call your insurance company
There are so many people affected by these fires that I think you want to be closer to the front of the line than the rear of it. There are only so many places that displaced people can be housed, and some places might be closer than others. Your insurance company might also help pay for the cost of living somewhere else and for the clothing that you need to wear.
If you don't know where your insurance policy is:
People should always try to keep their policies in a safe deposit box. If you didn't do that, ask your company for a certified copy of your policy right away. You're entitled to it. You do want to see what coverages you had, what limits you had, and what your time limits are.
Inventory what you have
It would be smart to go through your house and video what you have in place and to keep that video in a safe place like a safe deposit box where your policy is. That shows what you had, and it shows the condition of what you had.
If you have no photo evidence:
Hancock says that it's the homeowner's burden to prove ownership of possessions. If no pictures or video exists, he suggests using credit card records.
Know when to call a lawyer
I think people ought to give the insurance company a chance to do the right thing, but people should also know that they have a right to consult with a lawyer if they feel the insurance company is being unreasonable or unfair.
I certainly think they should see a lawyer immediately before anything like an exam under oath or if they send a denial letter because of a policy time limit. The sooner that you have a lawyer involved, the more they can do for you.
Take notes when dealing with insurance:
The insurance company keeps a claims file, and they'll note what happens, but I think people should also make a record of their conversations with the insurance people and what happens.
Options for renters:
It's always a good idea for renters — especially if they have a lot of personal property — to have a renter's policy.
If they don't have insurance, one of the things that they might want to do is look at their lease to see what happens if there is a destruction of the property or some major damage to it. That might give them the ability to get out of the rental agreement or the lease.
Unfortunately, that doesn't take care of what happens to their contents, but it might help with the idea of having to pay for a place you can't live in anymore.
Parting words:
With property insurance, there are short time limits. People whose homes have been damaged should look at their policies and make sure that they and their contractor are aware of those time limits and try to abide by them.
Answers have been edited for clarity.
Press the blue play button above to hear more about the kinds of insurance policies available to homeowners.
Shohei Ohtani - "The Babe Ruth of Japan" - is huge for the Angels
He's been called the "The Babe Ruth of Japan," and the only place to see him will be in a Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim uniform.
Shohei Ohtani, the pitcher-slash-hitter phenom, signed with the Angels after being courted by pretty much every ball club in Major League Baseball.
"He's a 23-year-old kid who since he was a teenager has been coveted around the world for his baseball skills," said Pedro Moura, who covers the Angels for the LA Times. Ohtani is set to be an impressive player for the Angels once the season begins, Moura said.
"He can both throw as hard as anyone in the world can throw and hit baseballs as hard as anyone in baseball can hit them. So those two things in tandem with a growing and developing acumen create a pretty desired player. The Angels have hit the windfall on him."
To hear more about how the Angels courted Ohtani to join the team, click the blue player above.
New pop-up museum in Dodger Stadium showcases team's LA history
Since they moved to Los Angeles 60 years ago, the Dodgers have proven to be more than just a baseball team. They’re a cultural force.
Now, the Dodgers Organization has taken all of those memories and put them into a new pop-up museum, located inside of Dodger Stadium.
It’s called “60 Years in LA.” The exhibit houses everything from game-used jerseys to rare Dodgers souvenirs to the team’s numerous player-recognition awards throughout the years.
“We used to be the new kids on the block in '58 and now we’re the oldest sports franchise,” said Mark Langill, team historian for the Dodgers. He helped organize the exhibit, to showcase everything the team has gone through over the years, including their first move from Brooklyn to L.A.
For instance, a Dodger Stadium model is encased in glass on one the side of the exhibit. It’s the same one that former Dodgers owner Walter O’Malley had in his office decades ago
“You can see his vision as far as wanting to build this ballpark,” Langill said. “He basically looked at a Thomas Guide and looked at this area and looked at this area in Chavez Ravine and knew this was the perfect spot to build a ballpark.”
Langill said it was important to also include more recent mementos, like game-worn jerseys from the 2017 team. When viewed alongside all of the other historic items, it creates a full tapestry of the Dodgers’ six decades in Los Angeles.
"The young kids will say, ‘Hey, there's a Puig jersey! Number 66! Look at that dirt! Isn't that exciting?’” Langill said. “But then somebody else is going to look at a Sandy Koufax jersey and say, ‘That's the best I ever saw.’ So different ages since 1958 are going to pick up on different things.”
Dodgers fans old and new are coming off a season that ended in heartbreak. L.A. lost Game 7 of the World Series to the Houston Astros.
"It was so disappointing and so many people were still aching over that,” Langill said.
But Langill thinks that this exhibit could help those who still long for another World Series championship in Los Angeles
“This is a great way to go swan dive into 60 years of memorabilia and the greatest Dodger memorabilia collection,” Langill said. “That really shows you the magnitude of this ball club.”
The "60 Years in LA" pop-up museum is now open Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays in Dodger Stadium until March.
To hear the full conversation about the pop-up Dodgers museum, click the blue player above.
No Place Like LA: David and the weirdos of Long Beach
No Place Like L.A. is our new series that asks L.A. transplants and immigrants: "When was the moment you felt that Los Angeles was truly home?"
This is the story of David King from West Los Angeles.
I'm from Topeka, Kansas.
In a small place like Kansas, I didn't really fit in too well. I was always a little "artistic," I'd like to say. I think most folks would say I was a little headstrong.
I started playing music in bands and people would say, "Oh, he's a musician," and they'd all nod their heads like, "Yeah, that meant something different."
I was 28 when I got this little apartment down towards Long Beach, and the first morning I was living there, I wake up, make my coffee and look out the window.
My next door neighbor is in his slippers and his bathrobe walking down the street with a cigarette. And he goes down to the corner and buys his newspaper.
I thought, "Oh my god! If this was Kansas, there'd be a riot! People would be calling the police, like, 'There's this guy in his bathrobe on the street!'"
I just smiled! I thought, oh my god, I'm home. Nobody's going to bother me at all for being different.