David Ono Reports: SoCal Firestorm

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- ABC7's David Ono takes a deeper and more personal look at what was happening as the Eaton and Palisades fires ravaged the community.

Reporters Josh Haskell and Leanne Suter gave us a rare glimpse into one of the most difficult stories we've ever covered.

"I suddenly a notice on my phone that there was a fire in Eaton Canyon, and I instantly thought, 'We are in trouble,' because the winds had already started to howl," Suter said.

Reporting from Altadena Drive and Canyon Close

That night, Suter set up on Altadena Drive and Canyon Close, giving a heart-stopping report with fire burning around her.

"This was as far as we could get because the flames were over the road. You could see them coming up the canyon already. It was absolute chaos," she said.

Suter said as she watched firefighters running, "you could just feel the helplessness - and the fear."

There were moments during Suter's live shot when she appeared to almost be blown over.

"I've covered fires in Southern California for more than two decades. This was like nothing I've ever experienced," Suter said. "All of a sudden, you would be pelted with these huge pieces of embers flying through the air, and you could feel them hitting you on the back."

Homes burning on Dove Creek Lane

Suter then moved to the housing development off Dove Creek Lane. She saw one house standing and thought the area was OK, but then she turned the corner, and "everything was on fire."

"Literally every unit was on fire, and then you suddenly realize, there are only two left," she said.

The homeowner of one of those homes was watching ABC7 when he saw that his house was still standing.

"I was so happy to see it still standing, but also so worried that nothing else was standing," he said.

Sarah said she was at Sharky's with her family when her 4-year-old noticed their neighborhood on the news.

"It was scary seeing this. It was sad. There were lots of tears. But this gave us closure," she said.

Evacuation chaos in Pacific Palisades

Josh Haskell said he saw on social media a report of a brush fire in the Pacific Palisades. He and his photographer responded to the area.

He then witnessed a frightening evacuation scene. There were so many people trying to get out of the area, that traffic was at a gridlock. People were having to ditch their vehicles and walk.

"It was an evacuation scene I had never seen before, where you could tell no one was in charge," Haskell said.

Scientists at Pacific Disaster Center tracking vital disaster information

Knowledge is our greatest asset. Mother Nature's fury is going to come. How we prepare is how we survive.

At the Pacific Disaster Center on Maui, you'll find some of the world's most knowledgeable disaster scientists. They monitor catastrophes across the globe as they are happening, as well as all the related facts. The analysis of those facts is what leads to lifesaving knowledge.

In the past, they briefed me on the Lahaina Fire. And now, what they show me about our own unprecedented firestorm is a revelation.

"As shocking as these events are, they're also quite predictable in that we knew they were going to happen at some point," said Dr. Erin Hughey of the Pacific Disaster Center.

Dr. Hughey and Dr. Joseph Green show me a map that existed far before our fires that uses data to estimate the probability of a burn.

"So as you're looking at this map, you see the darker areas, the darker they are, the higher probability each year there is for a burn to occur in those areas," Green said.

Both the Eaton and Palisades fires were in the high susceptibility areas.

This is vital information - and a cautionary tale of how we have ignored the level of extreme threat, but also how we can reverse that in the future by accepting where and how to rebuild.

In addition, perhaps even more pressing, is the other communities that are susceptible to the same fate: Anaheim Hills, Simi Valley, La Verne, Highland, Temecula, in addition to so many other communities in Southern California, each day testing fate in that deep dark red.

In this new world of climate change and super winds, there is only so much emergency responders can do. In a firestorm like this, 911 is not going to save you.

"When an event happens, the response will never be fast enough ... So the only thing that we can do is make sure that we're prepared for it," Hughey said.

Preparing means thinking about those around us who don't have a car, those who need medical care, how we can have fewer cars on the road, Hughey notes.

Throughout many disasters, we've seen communities come together and save each other. First responders are often overwhelmed. So, it's our neighbors who find a way.

Hughey's philosophy emulates this response and improves on it by motivating communities to pre-plan.

"That's not something that a government can mandate," she said. "That's something as citizens, we need to embrace, to know our neighbors and to be able to to build our resilience one house at a time, one family at a time."

We need to build with knowledge and patience, and we need to do it together.