When disaster strikes: On the ground amid LA wildfires

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1:20 Join us at masters of scale dot com slash apply twenty six. That's mastersofscom slash apply. Twenty six. Ha ha ha. Hey everyone, Bob Sapphian here. Multiple wildfires have torn through the city of Los Angeles over the last week, destroying whole neighborhoods. Thousands of Angelinos have lost their homes and their businesses, at least 24 have died, and 100,000 have been forced to evacuate.

1:52 Today we bring you a special episode focused on the Eaton fire that's ravaged Alcadena and Pasadena with stories both harrowing and heartening from one of the most impacted corners of LA. Plus on the ground perspective from aid organization World Central Kitchen. The interviews were recorded today, Monday, January 13th, so they are very fresh. With heavy winds expected in LA over the next two days, the situation, which has already been likened to Hurricane Katrina's impact on New Orleans, could continue to evolve. To those impacted by the fires, all of us here at Rabbid Response offer our thoughts and prayers for easier days ahead. For now, let's get to the show.

2:34 I'm Bob Safian. And this his rapid response Our first guest is Guillaume Petard, the owner of Pambor, a small French bakery in Altadina. He and his wife moved to the US from France less than a year ago with the dream to create a local boulangerie. They have two small daughters, three years old and nine months old.

3:04 Here's Guillaume. We just moved from France to start this bakery and to offer uh French bread and brioche in the Altadina community and it uh It used to be a very nice little project. It's hard work to Start

3:23 a new business, especially in a new place. I put all my energy, we put all our saving and and Since uh July, honestly, I'm working constantly to try to do something with this business. It's maybe m maybe s w one of the hardest thing for me now because I was One hundred percent focus on trying to

3:44 develop this business and try to To make something nice for the community and I was uh trying to think all the time of What can we do next? During Christmas, Thanksgiving, and New Year's Eve period, I guess I I slept maybe an average of three hours per night because I was just baking all the time. And it's yeah, it's kind of hard suddenly that everything uh stop. How did the

4:08 Fires. When did you first hear about it? How did it unfold for you? When we put the girls um to bed around eight PM. My wife told me, Oh there is a fire um which started at Al Sadina, but Everybody was telling oh yeah, you know, uh it it can happen, but it's pretty far away and no worries, but

4:28 Get ready just in case you can prepare a bag with uh Mm. Important paper works and your passport and this kind of stuff. So We just Yeah, prepared a little bags and we were just

4:41 Thinking with my wife. No, we don't we don't want to wake up the girl if it If it's not important, let them slip and then uh The night was uh going on and around three. Um I went outside and I saw a a police uh car and I uh I went to speak with uh with the policeman and

5:01 Asking him if there is a An official order of evacuation because we didn't have any good connection, so we didn't know if we were missing something or no, and it told me no so far. Your IR is not uh Officially uh evacuated. But it's gonna happen pretty soon. So uh w when you told us that we we left.

5:21 And we left uh thinking we're gonna g we're gonna come back. That's uh That's that's the crazy part because Honesty and we we we could have Uh we could have brought way more things that we've got. What we

5:33 We just took a few uh few things. We could have brought way more souvenir and some jewelry for my wife and some s things for us, but But no, we we didn't and when we woke up on Wednesday morning we just realized uh That it was a real nightmare, the Altadina completely disappeared. Were you working out of the house or did your was your bakery in a different place? No, the the bakery was uh was in the house and it burned as well.

6:06 Everything burned. We were not able to to go back the oven, my uh big mixer, all my fridges and and And Yeah, the thing is I I I bought for more than I don't know six or seven hundred uh dollars of uh flour. Uh on Tuesday, so My bakery was full of flours and stuff like that.

6:25 I might be crazy, but uh I I brought my starter with me. So I still have my starter. I don't know why I said that. It seems Completely insane, but it shows, I guess, how important this business was for us. It was my life so far. It was just Well you you described it before as as your baby, so you were you were preparing that baby to evacuate too, I guess. Exactly. It's completely that. So far, I don't know what we're gonna do with this business. We were making for the

6:54 Altadina's community, that was the idea. A small business for a small community in France you have bakeries everywhere and you just have Yield bakery in the little neighborhood where you live, and that's the bakery where you go buy your bread. And I was always thinking this uh Pan Bur Bakery. To be like that, to be a small thing for a small neighborhood and

7:14 That's one of them. Most difficult. Things to accept it's we We cannot recreate that because Almost all customer, they they they lost their house.

7:24 And we lost the neighbourhood. So even if you want to restart something, it's gonna be something uh new. And that's what I cannot really accept so far because I I just want to go back in Altadina and I just want to to do the same thing that we were doing. And actually it's just not possible. You move from France to open this business because you had a dream.

7:45 And now it sounds like you have decide Do you keep following the same dream or do you have to come up with a different dream and Mm-hmm. That's that's the thing. That we we had this dream, we had this plan. Even if it was super hard, it was clear we we wanted to to come here and we wanted to develop this backery. And now we have to we have to uh to rewrite everything and we have to rethink about everything, we have to rethink about the new dream, we have to find a a stable stable situation for our girls. I don't want we don't

8:16 We don't want with my wife to just m move from one Airbnb to another trying to find a a new situation. We have to find a new dream. Um we don't know what it's gonna be. Completely devastated. It's really reassuring to be surrounded by so much love, but I guess In a couple of weeks when we're gonna be I guess on our own trying to trying to figure out what we're gonna do.

8:42 I'm afraid it's gonna be uh way harder in a couple of weeks than now. And I I'm curious, like Do you have Insurance for the for the business? Will you have resources if you decide you want to start again? I I took a

8:57 An insurance when I launched the business, but it was mostly to protect uh Myself. Yeah. Uh when I uh filled the the form there was this question, uh do you want to insure your material against fire? And I say no, I don't need that. Uh because it's I don't know, it was maybe one hundred dollars more.

9:17 And I say no, that's okay, I can I can say one hundred dollar. So far no, I don't have any insurance uh for the business, but I was working With a bread oven called simply bread oven, the launch uh um A GoFundMe for us. So in to be able for us to restart something. So they're gonna uh Apparently offer us a new oven, which is the main investment in the bakery. And they're gonna uh also try to gather money for us to be able to restart. So far I'm just so tired that I'm not

9:45 Even sure I can find the strength to restart something, but We will have to do something anyway, so It does sound very hard. Even if you get an oven, even if you have a place, you're not sure Where that place should be or Even if

9:58 But it's what you want to do now. Yeah. It's We we can go in a uh in another neighbourhood, but it's it's not the same and uh honestly the only thing so far I would like to do it I would like to make for my community I have this kind of uh fantasy or dream I don't know I If we go back in LA in if I am able to bag somewhere really, really really soon, I would like just to prepare some sweet things.

10:21 Set on a table somewhere and just to say to the my former customers I mean. And and and all the outside in the community. B please come and grab a piece of brioche, come and grab a cinnamon nut, come and grab a baguette and For free. Just uh

10:36 Try to it's it's it's nothing, but it's the only thing I can do. I I I I just can bake because it's my job, so but it seems to be just uh Crazy idea you can have at uh at one in the morning when you cannot sleep. I hope some of our listeners I'm sure will be touched by your story and You know.

10:56 Wanna find ways to help and uh so I hope those feelings and those impulses come your way and help sustain you. Thank you. Thank you guys. It is so hard to start a business, especially when you've just moved to a new country, yet Guillaume was on his way to making his dream a reality. And now, well, you can hear the despair in his voice. The practical obstacles to restarting the bakery are real enough, but it's the emotional toll that may be the hardest of all.

11:25 In our next segment, I turn the mic over to Rapid Response Executive Producer Eve Tro, who lives nearby to the Eaton Fire devastation. Her home wasn't damaged, fortunately, but she was on watch as the flames grew closer and closer. It drew even nearer to a dear friend's business. Home State is a Tex-Mex cafe with eight locations and a workforce of about 350 people. Here's Eve on the ground at the Pasadena home state, less than a block from where the roads close and the fire zone begins. I am here with Andy Valdez, the director of marketing for Home State. Andy, thanks so much for talking to us for rapid response. My pleasure. Thank you for being here. I'm used to seeing this patio full of families of all generations of customers happily waiting.

12:22 in line, you know, line sometimes out the door to to just experience the hospitality of home state. As the fires were growing last week What was the response from the company as a whole and specifically around this location? Safety was The first priority Uh the organization.

12:40 Uh so we were monitoring the weather The winds. The air quality. Making sure that they had time to get home to their families in a safe place. We

12:50 Have just seen a lot of outpour of I m of of support, but also I mean it's just been really scary. We all watched the fires come really close to this location. They came about two blocks from here And we We didn't know if the restaurant was gonna survive or not.

13:07 So we were checking c cameras. We're checking the fire maps actively. just not knowing what was gonna happen. So the fact that the restaurant is still here, it's standing even though we can't open due to uh the water contamination We can open and activate as a community center.

13:25 You've transformed this into a station where people in need can come and pick up essentials. If we had to just look around right now. Help me understand what the offerings are and where these offerings have come from. Yes, as soon as we were able And the evacuation zone was lifted. That same day we activated we partnered with our neighbors a local skate shop.

13:48 We wanted to make sure that we showed up in a a way that People need it. We have a lot of friends who have lost houses. Un unfortunately. So calling them and saying

13:59 What do you actually need? How can we actually support you? So if you look around You'll see things that Again, we're hearing people really need right now. Blankets. Towels.

14:11 Dog food. Toiletries. New shoes. clothes in really good condition. Presentation organization is the name of our game. When people walk in, I want them to feel Like it's beautifully presented and it's

14:26 It's thoughtful. It's not just a pile of things. Like it's on a human level, I think psychologically. It's that really, really matters. And people like this one woman started crying when she saw that we all of our clothing is on racks. It's not on the floor. It's on racks. It's organized. She was like, it means so much that you took the time to do that. Um, Val Surf, the skate shop who we've partnered with. they have a great relationships with New Balance. New Balance just delivered fifty pairs of brand new shoes. You think about it, like people who left their house, they've the shoes that they're wearing. That's it.

14:58 So Things like that. It uh it really does like have an impact on people's lives and it may hopefully helps them start to feel Um a little bit normal. And very much taken care of.

15:11 One of our vendors, Vital Farms. reached out and asked how they could support So would they have donated a ten thousand dollar fund. that uh we are able to use to provide tacos Um we're working with World Central Kitchen.

15:25 Provide tacos at vari at for various Uh groups. Tomorrow we have an order For

15:33 Passing a Humane Society for people who are gonna go out to the field and look for animals who are uh wounded in need of help. So we'll be feeding those uh people tomorrow. There's so many different needs. But if we can be focused on our Our restaurant teams

15:50 Uh Neighbors. And the firefighters, I think that's where our focus is right now, and we know we're just at the very beginning of this. It's gonna be a long haul effort. So We will evolve and show up and try to find ways to

16:04 Provide support as the needs Is there any particular story among the many I'm sure you've heard. I see you talking with people as they come and want to find out more about what's available at the station. I see you uh have a hug station here set up. We're standing right by the hug station sign. Are there any stories that have just stood out the most to you? Yeah, we met a family yesterday, a multi generational family. They live in one house. I guess they call it like the Little Green House. In Altadina. They've been there for about forty years.

16:36 Grandma, parents, Children. They're all now displaced. Um they were very angry. There's a lot of anger feeling like completely the the feeling is that

16:49 They were abandoned. by the city. So they're really strong, but they um The mom had to pull literally pull the dad out of the house. He didn't want to leave. So she thankfully was successful in getting him to leave. Everyone get out safe.

17:06 But now they are staying in different houses, so the family is Broken up. And they don't know. What? Their future holds.

17:15 Um we they stayed here for probably An hour and a half. just sitting, sharing their story, crying, hugging. They have two younger daughters um Um the youngest before she left just

17:28 Gave me and my sister a a hug and cried in our arms for about five minutes. I think people just Um Very

17:37 In deep emotions. and need um or in need of any type of support. Sometimes they're gonna find it in their family, sometimes they're gonna find it at a restaurant who's has seen a community drive. So as much as we can show up and be here. We'll do that. And um a lot of our team h um members who work at this location are here right now volunteering. Um

17:59 We're also working on Making sure that they're not going to be able to do Continue to receive paychecks. That's a big part of it we're not selling tacos but we still need to make sure that our team members are taken care of. Obviously lots of small business owners are not able to provide this kind of a service. They lost their businesses. They themselves may have lost their homes and schools and be displaced.

18:20 What have you learned? over the the many years of being involved in home state about what the role of business can be in society and community. It's interesting to see How restaurants. Specifically

18:37 Show up in times of crisis. The idea of nourishment. is of course extends to food but extends like so much beyond that At the end of the day we have to make payroll. And we have to figure out ways to ensure that we can do that. A lot of people have been asking how can we help?

18:55 Is it bad to order from you right now? Is that putting your team in danger? Well the answer is we need your orders. By you placing orders That means that we will continue to be a business and be here for the community. Thank you.

19:10 Thank you so much. My thanks to Eve for managing and producing that conversation to extend their impact even further. HomeState has partnered with Jose Andres's World Central Kitchen to provide food for evacuees, volunteers, and other Angelinos in need. After the break, we'll hear from the emergency operations leader at World Central Kitchen, who's been on the ground in LA. So stay with us. Humans will never be more intelligent than AI. There's gonna be two types of companies. Those were great at AI and those that went out of business because they weren't. How do we build a future?

19:52 That is human centered. I'm Rana El Calyubi. And on my podcast, Pioneers of AI, we answer that question and so many more. As an AI scientist, entrepreneur, and investor, I know what it takes to build AI that works for everyone. Every week I sit down with the pioneers shaping our future.

20:13 and we take you behind the scenes of the AI that's transforming our lives. Find pioneers of AI wherever you tune in. Hey listeners, Bob here. If you listen to Rapid Response on Masters of Scale, you may be missing half the show. Because every Friday we release a second rapid response exclusively in the rapid response feed. The guests and topics are just as compelling and timely from Ford CEO to NASA's administrator to the lessons from The Devil Wears Prada. It takes about 10 seconds to find, just search rapid response wherever you listen to podcasts and hit follow to make sure you never miss an episode.

20:58 I hope to see you there. Welcome back to Rapid Response. Before the break, we heard how two businesses were impacted by the LA wildfires, including Tex-Mex Cafe Home State, which is partnering with World Central Kitchen to feed volunteers. Now we talk directly with World Central Kitchen's project leader on the ground in LA, Wendy Escobedo. Let's take a listen.

21:26 I'm here with Wendy Escobado, emergency operations manager for World Central Kitchen, coming to us from somewhere in Southern California dealing with the wildfires. Where where are you, Wendy? Um currently I'm in Burbank. Uh this is where our sort of headquarters office is. Um, but we're obviously on the field as well. So I'm overseeing the project. So what we try to do in situations like this is Getting our scouts um out in the field as quickly as possible. So we were able to engage some of our team members that are here in LA.

21:58 And they were able to head out Tuesday and actually start seeing what what the situation was, right? So me and a few of our other team members uh drove up Wednesday morning. to kinda continue the work. If there are A consistent playbook that World Central Kitchen uses like with every activation? Is there anything sort of how did this unfold and is there anything that's distinctive to to LA and to this These fires that impacted how you activate it.

22:26 Yeah, I mean I I d you know, it's I think that's always the the question, right? What does the playbook look like? And every disaster emergency is is of course unique and different in its own way. I think our biggest playbook is adaptability, right? Um We just tend to mold in the way we need to for for for what needs to get done. Um I think that's what makes the team that we have really incredible.

22:49 You know, we've done everything from building kitchens from scratch to building uh community kitchens for people to cook in. From doing farmers market to produce boxes, um and so it all depends on on what the need is and Obviously LA is a has a very large hospitality community, right? And um it's it's honestly been incredible. The

23:09 tremendous outpour of people wanting to volunteer of volunteering them their staff, their kitchens. making meals for us, um, part of what we do we do and especially after Covid when we started partnering with restaurants was Jose's idea to really stimulate the economy, right? And to to stimulate the local economy. And so

23:27 It did make sense here for us to build a kitchen when we have all these amazing food trucks and restaurant partners that were just, you know trying to to support us. And so For us it made the most sense, especially because the fires were pretty spread out in the beginning. Um to just engage with local partners, food trucks, restaurants Um

23:46 And food trucks for this one particular were really helpful because we were just able to send them out to various locations where we Needed to feed people? Um So, you know, in terms of this response, I think that was the unique part of it, like we're sort of plugging in Um and being able to quickly

24:02 send food to a to an area. The goal is to always feed people as quickly as possible. But the situation like in in some of the disasters, there isn't food there. So you have to get it there. Here there's enough food around for folks. It's just getting it to the right places and Prepared in appropriate ways. Yeah, I mean I think that the bigger thing on this is like the logistics, right? We will set up a distribution site in a community or in an area that

24:27 that we know there are recipients that that need food. I mean on the logistical side is just making sure, you know, things change quickly. Obviously with fires, um, a lot can can change very, very fast. And so we wanted to be as flexible as we could. Um, so if I knew that there was an area that needed food you know, I can have food truck there in thirty minutes and we can start serving, right? Like that that's the ultimate goal.

24:49 And how do you know where Food is needed. Yeah, so that's uh we have a a whole team, our community outreach team. Um and they are are scouts. They are the people that are going out to these places. Um we're not doing anything over the phone right, we're all

25:05 getting out into community. In fact Tuesday night when the fires happened. our scouts went and picked up sandwiches and burritos and were out in the field, um, you know, with with food. Um, we don't want to go somewhere empty handed. We try to show up with meals. Um, engage with the community, start asking questions.

25:21 Getting to know them too, right? Just sort of establishing that relationship of like, Hey, we're here to help Um You know, no one knows their community better than than the community itself, right? They communicate They share the information to each other and and We found that that

25:36 often is more helpful and moves faster than You know, social media or Things like that. Did are there any um memorable experiences that you've had so far? I mean you've been doing this it's been now almost a week, right? That you

25:51 You've been uh engaged with trying to Trying to deal with these fires. As devastating as this this has been here, it's been incredible to see. How the community has sort of showed up for each other. Um and

26:05 To me, I was able to go out in the Altadena area. Um this week. Where there's still obviously several places that People perhaps didn't lose their home, but they still don't have power. Um, you know, obviously there's a lot of damage in the surrounding area.

26:19 And um And I was able to go to a community. hub that were that Just a gentleman set up at a gas station, right? He was friends with the the guy that owned the gas station and he said, Hey People wanna bring donations, can I set it up there? Um, you know, we we were able to to get to know him a little bit.

26:35 We were able to send a food truck and then we said, Hey, what else do you need? We're setting them up with lights. um, you know, power, trash removal, just making sure that that they can continue to help their community. And that's been really great to be able to do and to experience. I think that's probably pretty memorable to me in terms of Of this response. And for you as a as as an activation director, like when you get up in the morning in a

27:01 Situation like this. Do you know what you're gonna do that day? Um, I mean I think, you know, overall the the I think the first seventy two hours, right, are sort of our

27:12 semi chaoti hour, right? And it's because we're we're just going, right? We're like, all right, let's get food out. That's our first priority. And then, you know, after those seventy two hours, we kinda are able to take a step back a little bit and look at the bigger picture. Yeah, sort of. get more in line and organized, we have a better understanding of what the need is, where the need is, and how we can how we can fill that. Um, to be honest with you, I have a really incredible team and that and that makes this work.

27:38 So much easier. I think as as we keep doing it, we get better at it and it feels smoother. Yeah. Hm. Like do you do you know what you're gonna do? Tonight, tomorrow, after we get off this call?

27:49 Uh yes, I do. Um, you know, one of the things that I Would like to do it. is try to just get out into the field more, just check in with everyone. Um you know, we have sometimes so many restaurant partners and and food trucks and I always like to go and visit them and thank them and just just see how the community's doing.

28:07 Um you know, sometimes you can get stuck in the logistics part of it and kind of not, you know, hey, I should gotta actually get out there and see how everyone's doing. That's gonna be my goal for the next few days now that I Feel like we've we've set up a good structure. We hire

28:22 Local People to fill the roles, right? And so Um Our goal with that always

28:29 A going back to community, right? They they're familiar with the area. They know the people that that those are the people that we want, right? Um, they're there for the right reasons, they care, they wanna give back, they wanna help. Um but then also that makes it better for us to transition, right? So if let's say I have another project, I am confident that that the people we've trained can can run it. and can support their committee and continue to do that while we start to move on to other projects.

28:55 Mm. Uh I'm curious, and this is a a little bit of a delicate question, but Um You know, World Central Kitchen does work all over the world.

29:04 For a lot people who have a lot less resources. Then some of the people who have been impacted by this fire. Not all the people been impacted by this fire have resources, but some of them have a lot. Is there any part of your uh your

29:21 activity there that is as much sort of Making sure the name of World Central Kitchen and what you do is more personally resonant. To people who can support what World Central Kitchen does all over the world. Yeah, I mean I think

29:40 I think we've been we've been everywhere, right? We've been all over the world to your point. And we've seen so many disasters and you know, we go to other countries and Uh of course. You know, they've maybe never heard of us. Um so it's always kinda great to to for try to explain what we do. Um obviously it's a very unique thing that we do. Um, and here in LA, I think, you know, there's some people that obviously know know what we do, especially in the in the restaurant world.

30:03 Um And that was where we had this incredible outpour, right, of people that that wanted to work with us. And and a lot of these partners also work with us during the pandemic. Um they were providing meals for people So Yeah.

30:16 There was sort of this. chef world right connection of just like, hey, let's let's let's get this done. Um And that to me is one of my favorite parts, uh, obviously being a chef myself is like Just the effectiveness of how quickly we get things done. Um and so to the point I think here

30:34 In California and in in in particular to this activation Um it's almost both, right? I'm getting, you know, this this inundated with these everyone that wants to volunteer, everyone's that wants to give back, but also people trying to find out like more about what we do and and wanna donate and and wanna give back. And I think that that is the To your point. With LA there is

30:55 obviously a demographic of people that have lost and and are still going to be affected by this. But then there are people that You know. are okay and and but they they also want to give back to their community. They also are like, Okay, what can I do to help? Where can I donate? Um so that's been

31:10 Really great. Thank you. For taking the time in the midst of all that to talk to us today. I really appreciate it. Yeah, thank you for having me.

31:21 If the first 72 hours in an emergency are chaotic, as Wends it, then the essential core of effective rapid response. is adaptability. That doesn't mean being careless or disorganized, it means being both efficient and malleable, to work with the resources you have at your disposal. LA is known for food trucks, so great, let's use food trucks. This is a great reminder for any business leader, a compelling lesson. To be honest though

31:50 I I found these conversations today personally really difficult. I I can't imagine what someone like Guillaume is going through Having poured so much money, time, energy. Into a home and business that's no longer standing. With so many othing in pain and mourning, challenges still ahead. It's hard not to have a heavy heart.

32:11 At the same time, listening to Andy at Home State and Wendy at World Central Kitchen, it's inspiring the power of community to lift up neighbors in need. To Guillaume and all those in despair. I hope the stories we've highlighted today show. That you're not alone. Hard times can bring out the best in people, the beauty and resilience. of the human spirit. It it's certainly on display in LA.

32:36 I'm Bob Safien. Thanks for listening. Rapid response is a wait what original. I'm Bob Safian. Our executive producer is Eve Tro. Our producer is Alex Morris. Assistant producer is Masha Maku Tonina.

32:58 Mixing and mastering by Aaron Bastanelli Theme music by Ryan Holiday. My head of podcast is Lital Malad. For more, visit rapidresponsshow.com.

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