Jason
👤 SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
We were just under construction.
And I had a very smart guy still do on the team, name is Banyan, and he's the one that said, we can bring in private firefighters, we can bring in our own water trucks, we can bring in retardant.
And listen, here's another rule that's really important when you're in the commercial side of the business.
You want the firefighters that are working for the city or the county first and foremost to protect the homes.
And we know that they should be doing that.
So we want to have resources to protect our building so the resources aren't taken away from the residential areas.
That's just, I think, being a good citizen.
So fast forward to Palisades, we know we're in a fire zone.
We built it with all non-combustible materials.
We designed it so there was no open vents that an ember can get into.
About 90% of the homes in the Palisades and Altadena burned from the inside out.
So these wind warnings came, and I'm sure you all saw them, to the point that I didn't even believe that they could be true.
Catastrophic, life-threatening winds.
And our team rallied.
We had our firefighters, our water, our retardant stationed there two days before the fire.
And we were ready to go.
And I'm really proud of my team because they not only saved the village, but we saved the whole block of properties.
And we were actually on the seventh loaning equipment to LA Fire Department, who was running short of equipment.
And we were actually loaning water because we were bringing in our water tanks when the water hydrants failed to work.
Rick, it's been eight months, I guess, since these fires.