SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
Call it a journalistic Spidey sense - when you've covered a story for so long, the littlest details could be hints of bigger things to come. In early January, it happened to NPR producer Liz Baker.
LIZ BAKER, BYLINE: I was out hiking near Malibu out in the Santa Monica Mountains, and it was so windy, I actually turned around. It was so dry, like, my eyes were drying out, and my throat was drying out. And I did notice - because I covered so many fires, I noticed how much fuel there was. I mean, the brush was really high on the trails. There was a lot of stuff to burn, and I knew that we would be in for something. I just didn't know it'd be to this scale.
DETROW: Fast-forward two days to Tuesday, January 7, when devastating fires did break out across Los Angeles County.
BAKER: It was one of those stories you can't look away because if you even blink for a minute, you're gonna miss something really important. And so I just was up the whole night. Many Morning Edition hits and many newscast spots - things were happening so, so, so fast.
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STEVE INSKEEP: NPR's Liz Baker has the latest from southern California. Liz, good morning.
BAKER: Good morning, Steve.
INSKEEP: What have you been seeing?
BAKER: Right now, I can see a really eerie orange glow on the horizon up to the north, and that's...
DETROW: Six-hundred and sixty miles away in Boise, Idaho, correspondent Kirk Siegler was watching the news.
KIRK SIEGLER, BYLINE: My editor, who's in a different city, and I are watching KCAL, one of the LA stations...
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UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: ...To KCAL news reporter Amanda Starrantino.
SIEGLER: ...And trying to, you know, determine whether or not this is something that's going to turn into a major national news event and whether or not I'll have to deploy.
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AMANDA STARRANTINO: But again, not a good situation here in Pacific Palisades. The wind's starting to really kick up, guys.
SIEGLER: And I was actually thinking, like, well, this is probably another local news, hyperbolic, dramatic - about an hour later, you know, I've got a Slack, like, I think you should get on that 6 a.m. flight to LAX.
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DETROW: So Kirk began to pack - Nomex fire-resistant jackets and pants, a gas mask, N-95, a helmet, protective eyewear. Then an early morning flight to a city on fire.
SIEGLER: As soon as the pilot came on to say that we were starting our initial descent, across the LA basin, you could see the two big fires, and we just descended into a black plume of smoke, and it smells, and it's really just kind of ominous. And it's that moment - I feel like I've done this so many times. It's this mix of - you're like, OK, these are the last few minutes of calm I'm going to have. I don't want to sound too hippy-dippy, but sort of, you know, take a breath or two and get ready.
BAKER: At that point that he was flying in, I was desperately trying to catch an hour's-long nap because I had already been awake for, like, 28 hours. And then you woke me up, and you were like, my car isn't working. Can you come pick me up? So (laughter)...
SIEGLER: Yeah. Yeah. Liz had to come and bail me out, and we basically left a rental car, like, behind the police lines, not in the fire, certainly far enough...
BAKER: No.
SIEGLER: ...Away from it, but...
DETROW: I think NPR's going to lose its car rental...
BAKER: I know. I'm never going to be able to rent a car again. Oh, my gosh.
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DETROW: These are glimpses behind the curtain of the reporting process here at NPR. And today, we're kicking off a new segment filled with those kinds of details, a reporter's notebook. We'll start here with Kirk and Liz setting out to cover what became one of the most costly natural disasters in American history. It was a natural disaster where journalists had a surprising amount of access from the very beginning.
SIEGLER: California is a unique beast. Like, there's a law that allows us as reporters to flash our press badge and go into a wildfire or other disaster. And that is not the case in any other state that you'll cover a wildfire, anyway. You have to wait sometimes days to get in to see some of the destruction for an escort. But in California, you can just go right in.
DETROW: So you can get a lot closer right away.
SIEGLER: Oh, yeah. Like, I'm driving on the PCH, which is totally deserted, and there's, like, a big black cloud in front of me.
I'm looking at - 'cause I'm driving, so I'm trying to drive carefully - looking at something on fire. Smoke's flying everywhere. Well, I've never seen PCH this deserted. It's just fire trucks everywhere and dark. All the lights are on. And I can smell...
You're not just smelling forest fires, right? You're not just smelling burning brush. You're smelling toxins from what you know are neighborhoods and, you know, businesses being burned down. It's a horrid smell, and it's a street and road that I've traveled so many times in normal circumstances, and I'm the only one on it, and it's really surreal.
And you think to yourself - like, I always operate with a moniker of, like, it's only radio. Like, we don't have to get that close. Get to the point where you can describe what you're seeing and hopefully talk to some people, but I think it was at, like, Temescal Canyon Boulevard, I was like, OK, this is definitely far enough for me today. You know, there'll be other days later on where I can get in a little bit closer, but it's not safe. But yeah, you're focused on what you can get realistically and safely in the moment and then how you can get out to a much more secure place to be able to file your story or, in this case, you know, talk to ALL THINGS CONSIDERED or Morning Edition.
BAKER: Yeah, I think that's something that people really don't understand, is when you're near - not even like that close but near these fires, the cell signal is really bad. It can be really hard-to-impossible to connect at all. You know, the cell towers are burning to the ground.
And in a lot of places, especially in California, you get power shut-offs in advance of these fires or during these fires, and that makes it really hard, too. So, you know, there's no internet. It's hard to get a cell service connection. So you have to go in and then kind of come out really quickly to be able to report back and just to know what the officials are saying. What's the latest numbers?
So a lot of times, we have editors in D.C. or somewhere else who are keeping an eye on all the official statements and, like, what is Cal Fire saying on Twitter? What is the county saying? What's the fire department saying? - because it's really tough for us to be in the fire zone and keeping track of all that at the same time.
SIEGLER: And that's, like, the most stressful thing.
DETROW: Yeah.
SIEGLER: I mean, I guess that's kind of how you channel some of the stress of what you're seeing is, like, thinking more about, well, how am I going to file? - because multiple times when I was out there, like, of course, the connection - like, the safe connection I'm talking to you guys now on failed, like, 45 seconds prior to the live shot. And so you're sort of ready with your cellphone and hoping that the cellphone is enough to, like, you know, get the news across 'cause you're in this position of, like, pretty great vantage point and a lot of people are relying on you to hear what you have to say.
BAKER: Yeah. People think, 'cause they're watching on TV, like, we don't have sat trucks, you know? So if you're watching a live shot on TV, like, we can't bring you that on the ground. We don't have that same capability.
DETROW: Liz, what are you bringing as a producer? - 'cause you're right. Like, we're not a TV network. We don't have giant satellites with us. What are you packing, and what are you thinking about as a producer in a setting like that that you probably wouldn't think as much about if you're just, like, out in a city covering a day-to-day story?
BAKER: Well, yeah, I mean, connection is the No. 1 thing because you're trying to report, right? There's no point in seeing stuff if you can't tell people about it. Like, that's the whole point of being there, really. So one of the things I always think about when I'm doing pretty much anything on a deadline is I try to get people right away.
What's your name?
BRYAN GARCIA: Bryan, with a Y, Garcia (ph).
BAKER: Like, for this fire, I was driving into the Palisades, and I noticed some people standing on a street corner.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Yeah, we live a few blocks away.
BAKER: In Northern Santa Monica - and they were looking at the fire. You could see it really clearly. You could see the flame.
GARCIA: Wow, that just expanded.
BAKER: Going, like, straight up the mountain basically and, like, flaring and this huge plume of smoke - and all these people were gathering to watch it 'cause it was a really great view. And so I pulled over right away, hopped out and started talking to people.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Like, this is crazy looking. I've taken photos and video as it's gone.
BAKER: So that's something I always think of, is, like, never wait. Just get whatever you get along the way because you never know what you're going to get when you get in there. You could get nothing when you get in there. Like Kirk said, sometimes everyone's gone, and there's no one to talk to. And that, as a radio journalist, is kind of the worst. You know, you can describe what you see, but people want to hear from other people, and so you have to find those voices.
DETROW: I know you've both talked about this before. At the same time, you're there as reporters - you're trying to get information, you're trying to interview people - but like you said, you're some of the few humans around in this situation, and sometimes, you need to just, like, pause being a reporter and act like a person. Like, Kirk, you were telling me about how you were helping somebody evacuate in the middle of all of this.
SIEGLER: Right. Like, I met this woman in Santa Monica. You know, we're looking around for - 'cause it - we had all just gotten the alert on our phones, too, that this neighborhood in Santa Monica was evacuating, and you needed to get out now. And so, of course, we went in to try to find - Liz and I were looking around the neighborhood, trying to find people to talk to, and there's this woman on crutches, like, trying to open up her - the trunk of her car.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: And...
SIEGLER: So you're evacuating.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: I am. They finally gave us the evac order.
SIEGLER: So I went over to her, and I'm like, well, do you need help?
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Yeah. OK, Kirk's going to help me here.
SIEGLER: And do you mind - like, she's like, well, yeah, so we actually did the interview while I helped her get out of her second-story apartment.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: I have smaller bags, but I'm going to have to make several trips to take. But, you know, you can't take everything. You just can't. But it teaches you a lesson. It's like, the things that you absolutely have to have - you look around, and you think, well, I guess I don't need the rest of this.
DETROW: I mean, we're talking about how much you've both covered this, and I think that that gets to the big question of what, to you, you felt different about these LA fires other than just the massive scope of them?
SIEGLER: I think this stands out because it's an urban wildfire. Like, the Camp fire in Paradise, California, was an urban wildfire, but it started up in the national forest lands and burned into the town. This is just sort of a situation - it's extraordinary - where you've got a brush fire that started, but then it's really just the city itself fueling the fire across Los Angeles. Like, it's an urban wildfire. So that really stood out to me. Just this...
DETROW: Homes on fire, apartment buildings on fire.
SIEGLER: Exactly. Established neighborhoods, you know, with sidewalks and, like, imported trees.
BAKER: Neighborhoods you've been to, like, neighborhoods where you ate brunch, like, two weeks ago - yeah. It's really crazy.
DETROW: So this - I mean, this is just - to really hone in on it, like, this was such a personal story. Kirk, you used to live there. Liz, you still live there.
BAKER: Yeah, it was weird. So, like, I've covered a lot of natural disasters on this job, and it does feel different. It does feel harder. At first, it was kind of nice not to have to spend, you know, a red-eye, 9 hours, traveling to a story and then jumping on the ground and immediately doing a 24-hour shift. Like, that really takes a lot out of you right away. And I felt like I had more energy going into this one because I just woke up in my bed and walked out the front door. On the other hand, it's still out my front door.
SIEGLER: Right. And you're - like, Liz, you're in a situation where you can't necessarily leave. Like, I just hopped on a plane and flew back to Boise and up in the mountains, and there's snow, and I can detach. But Scott, like, that's sort of, like, the little bit of - I guess it's survivor's guilt that we feel as reporters sometimes for the disasters. You just fly in and talk to all these people in...
DETROW: Yeah.
SIEGLER: ...In full crisis, and then we get to leave, and they're still there.
DETROW: That's such a real thing, and, like - different kind of story but same general dynamic - like, I remember after I spent a couple weeks covering Ukraine, it took me months and months and months to delete the app that everyone in the country had downloaded with, like, air raid alerts...
BAKER: Yes.
DETROW: ...Because I just - the act...
BAKER: Yes.
DETROW: ...Of deleting it from my phone because I didn't need it because I lived in America and there was no one shooting missiles into the sky...
SIEGLER: Yeah.
DETROW: ...I just felt so guilty and couldn't do it. And, like, little things like that, like, stick with you.
SIEGLER: Yeah. It's like, we also - we deal with - I think in the counseling world, it's like, secondhand smoke trauma. So we do take on a lot of people's trauma, and it's hard to detach from that. You know, it does wear on us because people do open up to us and tell us all kinds of things, and it's a lot to take on.
DETROW: Liz, there's always going to be another wildfire, right? That's a big part of the story. How are you feeling and thinking about that particular moment, having been through this as somebody covering the news and somebody who lives in LA?
BAKER: Well, as Kirk knows - God knows I know it, too - there's always something bad coming next. There's always another breaking news story. There's always some weather or shooting or something. And it just feels so relentless. And I think we really need to offer people a chance to unclench and take a little bit of a breath, right? And you need to kind of break it into bite-size pieces.
I - you know, I actually talked to somebody who was facing rebuilding their house, and they put it in a very good way, I think, that has been helpful to me thinking about all of this, which is, how do you eat a whale? You eat it one bite at a time. And I think that if you can think about that approach for everything, I think it's helpful.
It's been helpful for me. I think it's been helpful for some people who are trying to get through this disaster. And I think it might be helpful for people who are listening to the news and just trying to make sense of this endless rolling waves of bad news that have been coming out.
SIEGLER: Yeah, I think you summed it up excellently. I don't really want to eat whale. I will say that.
(LAUGHTER)
BAKER: I don't also want to eat a whale, just putting that out there.
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DETROW: Kirk Siegler, Liz Baker, thanks to both of you for talking about this and just explaining how you approach these stories.
SIEGLER: You're welcome, Scott.
BAKER: You're welcome, Scott. See you soon, Kirk.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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