Shamita Basu

Yeah.

We also know that there was, for some people, reluctance to leave their homes.

Can you talk about what that decision looks like?

Jacob reported on the ground for days, wearing eye protection and masks on air, assessing the damage and trying to make sense of the loss.

He spoke to a restaurant employee he knows named Albie Fuentes at the site of the eatery where he worked for 15 years.

The cafe was reduced to rubble.

Jacob also came across two people riding bikes through the closed off streets, coming to check if their homes were still standing.

Then Jacob found his own childhood home and he stood before it with the cameras rolling.

Only a few exterior walls and the chimney remained.

Jacob's connection to the loss that these communities feel was a big driver for him to write this book.

But another major theme emerged while homes were still on fire—calls for accountability.

This was just two weeks before President Biden's term ended and President Trump was sworn in.

And the responses were politically charged.

She was not in town at the time.

Well, let's talk a little bit about some of what Trump was saying at the time.

Again, not yet in office, but on the verge of taking office.

He was sharing these incorrect theories about water.

He was saying there was no available water for the firefighters to use and that it was largely the fault of Governor Newsom's water policies.

Now later it was determined that there was plenty of available water, but because so many fire hydrants and hoses were being used, there wasn't enough water.

pressure in the system for firefighters to sufficiently fight the flames but tell me how this played out in that moment in those early days and hours of this disaster unfolding