Jacob Soboroff

So I think that people first and foremost were relying on what they were seeing on television.

Local news did, I mean, I think definitionally a public service in being on the air literally for days straight without commercial interruption in order to tell people where they were seeing fire and what was happening.

But it was too late for so many people.

I will never forget the scenes that I saw even before I was able to get out to the fire sitting at my desk in the LA Bureau of NBC News.

of people abandoning their cars in the middle of the street, literally running for their lives because this all unfolded so quickly.

And so I think, you know, it was word of mouth initially.

And I think that when people look back today, that's why so many people say, why couldn't this have been stopped before?

If this was going to be so out of control, why weren't there better warnings?

Why weren't there more fire trucks pre-positioned?

Yep.

WatchDuty was one that people were using.

Genesis Protect is another.

I guess the real question is if they got it, you know, and did they get it?

During the Eaton fire, reporting indicates that those alerts never reached those people.

I think that the reality is, as you talk to people in all parts of Los Angeles, they felt like there was no consistency to the warnings or there was not one way to get these alerts.

And it was a scramble.

That's the truth.

Despite the fact that local leaders...

And certainly emergency managers were issuing updates and telling people to get out.

I mean, literally the entire Palisades was evacuated.