Terry, Miguel and Eric discuss the devastating wildfires in greater Los Angeles, and what our industry can do about it to help those directly affected.
00:00 - Introduction
01:07 - Close to home
05:37 - Worse smoke and ash than forest fires
11:37 - our condolences
14:00 - How we are going to help
21:39 - Closing
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Natural disasters like the wildfires in Los Angeles are painful reminders that no matter how much we think we have domesticated nature, nature is always more powerful than we are.
Our deepest condolences to all affected by these fires. These hit close to home, as so many of our customers and HASA employees have been evacuated, and many of whom have lost everything. Our prayers are with you.
We are here to support you however we can, so please do not hesitate to call your local HASA rep if you need someone to talk to.
167. Los Angeles Wildfire Relief
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[00:00:00] Eric Knight: Welcome back everybody to the Rule Your Pool podcast. I'm your host Eric Knight with Orenda and HASA, and with me in the same hotel room at the Mid America pool and spa show, miguel Chavez. Good to have you back on the show. Miguel.
[00:00:11] Miguel Chavez: Oh, sorry. Sorry. I thought it was the Spanish podcast.
[00:00:15] Eric Knight: Oh yeah.
[00:00:16] Miguel Chavez: No, no. We're in the English version.
[00:00:17] Eric Knight: This is the English podcast. That's right Miguel. Good job.
[00:00:20] Miguel Chavez: Welcome to Rule Your Pool, Controlando la Piscina, and then we're also with
[00:00:26] Eric Knight: Terry. Terry Arko, welcome back to the show as well.
[00:00:30] Terry Arko: Yeah. Buenos dias, you guys.
[00:00:32] Eric Knight: Yeah, I don't know what either of you said, but yeah, so anyway, it is the second week of January, 2025. And I have a plan for a bunch of episodes this season. This was not in the plan. And that is the wildfires that have been doing unspeakable devastation to these towns around Los Angeles, just North of there.
[00:00:54] And Terry, you are from that area, the Pasadena area. So this is episode 167. I'm just going to, right after the break, let Terry lead this. And we will talk about these fires.
Close to home
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[00:01:07] Terry Arko: Thanks, Eric. I think the biggest thing for me cause I grew up in that area. Pasadena, the Altadena area. I know that area all very well because I have relatives who I used to go to their homes when I was a kid growing up. You know, all the time spent a lot of time there.
[00:01:45] And, and obviously the Palisades, Malibu, all of that. I mean, I know all that area. Cause I lived in California for 30 years. But in particular for me when I was watching TV, and I see the Altadena area and the Pasadena area, I serviced pools in a lot of those areas. Those neighborhoods they're showing. When they're talking about, you know, at the top of Lake Avenue and these homes are being destroyed. Well, I know that very well.
[00:02:09] So, first of all, for me, it was something where it was, it was family. It was heart. It really hit me because I know those areas so well. And then as it developed, the unprecedented destruction of infrastructure and damage that took place there. But then also showing in Altadena where I mean, virtually Altadena is just overwhelmed with the destruction. And knowing that area. As I begin to think, and I look and I see all these homes that are gone. I realized that a lot of those homes have swimming pools. And a lot of those swimming pools are taken care of by a service pro, a service tech. And now that's gone.
[00:02:52] That is a source of income for somebody who's has a small business. And when I hear of, you know, like certain companies were reporting to me you know, larger companies, you know, Hey, we think we've lost 30 pools in one night. Or 40 in one night. But then I think, what about the independent person who that's their whole business is maybe those 30 pools? And they're gone.
[00:03:17] And so then I began to think about that, and feel that in my heart. And my big response to that, as I'm watching that from up in the Pacific Northwest now is hey, industry, we got to do something. We have to come together, we have to step up. We have to be able to, you know, I realize there's resources and there's, but you know, a lot of, a lot of folks got their fire insurance canceled three months ago.
[00:03:43] Miguel Chavez: Certainly.
[00:03:45] Terry Arko: So to me, some of the resources that might be available, there's a lot of red tape to that and so forth. So they're going to struggle. There's going to be some struggle and they're going to need help from everywhere. And as far as the industry and the pool industry goes, my main feeling was, you know, this is our time. This is our time. We've got to give back to these people and help them out somehow. So that's my initial thoughts on that.
[00:04:10] Eric Knight: Yeah. And you came to us several days ago. I was taking some time off while this was happening and I came back to a flood of messages. And you were the first person to message everybody in the company, basically saying that exact same thing. We got to do something. And what are we going to do? So we had a meeting today and I don't know if anything's set in stone now.
[00:04:30] And today's Monday, January 13th, this will come out the 15th. Right now the general idea is to have sort of a coalition of a lot of different companies and organizations in the industry try to raise funds for these people directly affected. I know one thing that our company is going to be doing is a Wildfire relief package for free that people can get in those affected areas to recover some pools that were not destroyed, but are in the periphery that are just loaded with ash and soot.
[00:04:59] And, you know, that gets into the wildfire conversation that we've had in previous episodes. Where we've talked quite a bit about peripheral wildfire stuff. I know episode 38 was Wildfires and Swimming Pools, and it kind of ties into episode 151 of Saharan dust, Haboobs and Wildfires. We touched on it there as well.
[00:05:20] These wildfires are putting a whole bunch of stuff into these pools in the surrounding areas and chemistry alone, doesn't fix. a pool that's now destroyed.
[00:05:31] Terry Arko: Yeah,
[00:05:32] Eric Knight: There's a lot more pools in the surrounding areas that also are going to need a lot of help.
Worse smoke and ash than forest fires
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[00:05:37] Terry Arko: Absolutely. And And there's lots of information. You guys Orenda, you've done a good job on the information. HASA, we have a tech sheet, which I think will be going up. People will be seeing that with lots of details. So there's definitely lots of information, but I think when you have these fires where there is such a large contingency of infrastructure. So, these aren't fires that are just burning trees and vegetation. They're burning buildings they're burning automobiles. Manufacturing plants you know, gas stations, those kinds of things.
[00:06:06] So that changes the consistency of even that smoke and that ash. And when you come in contact with that smoke that's a health hazard. And this is what I say to pool pros when they're going to go in, you know, even the pools or homes where they haven't been affected as far as they haven't been destroyed or burnt down, but they have a lot of ash and a lot of smoke residue left behind. That smoke residue can be harmful. It can have benzenes in it and formaldehydes and things that, you know, you don't want to touch those things. So if you're cleaning up an area, be careful. You know, wear gloves. Put on a mask, you know, like industrial type mask. And keep yourself clean, wash your hands and stuff and be aware of that.
[00:06:48] So that's something right away. I just want to say, because I think most of the smoke and the ash and the residue coming from these fires is going to really have some harmful substances in it.
[00:06:59] Miguel Chavez: I was thinking a lot of about the climate impact that this was going to have, but to your point, what do you think would be like a safe radius if you had to just guess? Like the areas that you think you have to be extra cautious? Specifically because you know that area very well areas that you think, hey, you're doing service around this territory, you've got to be careful because of the aftermath of all the fires and the toxins were talking about.
[00:07:29] Terry Arko: Well, the thing about it, the smoke coming from these fires, so much smoke, I mean, it's traveling the whole basin down there. I just say if you can smell smoke where you are, if it's in the air and you can see it if you have ash that's coming down in your pools, on your decks, on your equipment, things like that, then yeah, those are places even. You know, you may not have the actual flames and the fire. But just the presence of the smoke.
[00:07:54] And I can speak for, up here in the Pacific Northwest where, you know, we get wildfires in Canada and the smoke comes down here. And literally, it's like a cloudy day. You can't see. So the fires are, are miles and miles and miles and miles away from us. But the residue of that smoke comes down here. And so I say, if you're in an area and you smell the smoke, you see the smoke, you see signs of the ashes in the pool and it's on the deck. Then that's where you got to be careful.
[00:08:22] Eric Knight: I remember a time that I was driving from Spokane, Washington over to Seattle. And there was so much smoke in Spokane. I was like, where's the wildfire? We drove across the state of Washington and it was smoky the entire state of Washington. Come to find out the fires were in Kamloops way up in British Columbia. You just think like, wow, that's hundreds of miles that it traveled and it's hundreds of miles wide. So you got to think that this smoke is going to travel into Arizona. It's going to travel past Vegas.
[00:08:56] Is it going to be traveling to a point where it's going to have really strong impacts on chemistry? That I don't know. But to your point, Terry, I agree with you when you start burning buildings and chemical plants and gasoline stations, automobiles, paints on houses, all sorts of stuff. That's way different than a forest fire. That's a lot of man made substances that are going into the air that are not good. It makes me wonder about like, what are people going to do with the water table? Reclaiming all this water that's going to run off
[00:09:29] Terry Arko: that as well, because that's, that's affecting the water also. And, and the other interesting thing too, and I was just doing some reading on it. Because of the, especially Palisades area, their lack of the fresh water to deal with this. And of course, the ocean's right there. And so now they've got these big plane scoopers and so forth that are are dumping you know salt water.
[00:09:54] Eric Knight: Ocean water, yeah.
[00:09:54] Terry Arko: On things. And so there's repercussions of that overall to even just, you know, the soil and the regrowth of plants and everything else based on that. So that's a whole nother thing also.
[00:10:04] Eric Knight: Yeah. But you got to put the flame out somehow.
[00:10:06] Terry Arko: No, understood. Absolutely. Absolutely. But it's, it's unfortunate that you had to resort to that. But the repercussions down the road are going to be there too.
[00:10:17] Eric Knight: Yeah. I mean, both of you guys have lived in Southern California. You're down in the San Diego area now, Miguel. And you lived in the what, what exact town you were in Monrovia?
[00:10:27] Terry Arko: So I lived in a town called Monrovia. Yeah. Which is east of Pasadena, Altadena, and then there's Arcadia, which is, Arcadia is mostly famous for the Santa Anita racetrack. That's how everybody knows it. And then and then Monrovia is right there. But it, they're all, in a line, they're Foothill, Foothill communities.
[00:10:45] Eric Knight: Well, one thing that strikes me and I've never lived in Southern California, but every time I've visited, I've noticed the smog. There's like a haze of smog, even when there's no fires. It all seems to travel down the Coachella Valley. I'm wondering if the smoke's going to do the same thing and get down into like Palm Springs.
[00:11:03] Terry Arko: No doubt. That's the thing too about me being a kid and growing up in Monrovia being right against the mountains, because we're foothill communities. They back up to the mountains. So everything kind of comes to where we are and then stops and settles in there in that area.
[00:11:18] And then it all tends to kind of head south and down towards you know, like Palm Springs and Coachella, like you're saying. When I was a kid growing up there, we got the worst smog alerts because it was just all come. And then you got to understand like the ocean and all the pressure of the ocean, all that, it just pushes everything up to where we are. And then the mountains, it stops at the mountains. So
Our condolences
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[00:11:37] Eric Knight: Yeah, it's brutal. And I just personally, I want to extend my deepest condolences to those who are directly affected by this. Not just to the homeowners. And we know a lot of you live in these areas. That listen to this podcast and you've, you've reached out in the past. We hope you're okay. We hope safety is the number one priority.
[00:11:55] These are irrecoverable losses. There are people that have lost every single thing. And it's, it's, I don't know, it's really hard to put in words, just how hard that is. And I saw it in Western North Carolina with Hurricane Helene this year. A lot of people in Florida, they get hurricanes every single year. But this, this is like absolute complete destruction, not a flooding of a house per se. This is, there is nothing left. It is rubble. It is a foundation. There's nothing left. Complete destruction. Everything's gone, not just waterlogged, but gone, gone.
[00:12:30] It's not to say one natural disaster is worse than the other. I think this just happened so fast. Nobody had time to prepare.
[00:12:37] And,
[00:12:37] Terry Arko: yeah, that, that's it. And I think it's the, it's the mass of evacuees as well. I heard it's a hundred thousand now. A hundred thousand evacuated. And I was talking to somebody earlier about, you know, since I mentioned you know, Santa Anita racetrack, which is in Arcadia. Which is actually, it's a, that's a huge area that they, obviously they have an immense parking lot . And I just saw a thing a couple of days ago that there's a bunch of evacuees that are just, they're living in the parking lot at Santa Anita racetrack. You know, and they have food trucks set up, but I mean, they, they're just out in the elements. You know, these people and it's It's just tough, man.
[00:13:17] And I know those areas so well that I guess it makes it even tougher for me to go. Wow. You know? And so like you, Eric and I posted something on instagram a few days ago, just basically saying that you know, my thoughts, my prayers, my heart, you know, it goes to you people. And particularly since I'm a pool guy and since I serviced pools in that area, and I kind of understand the dynamic. Cause I've been through Santa Ana conditions. I've been through wildfire conditions servicing pools. And I know just alone how, how tough and stressful and, just the anxiety of just that, you know. But let alone you throw in the destruction, the loss of homes, the loss of equipment and everything. That's, that's just unprecedented. And
How we are going to help
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[00:14:00] Eric Knight: well, let It's unprecedented for that area, but it's not unprecedented. Think of the Maui wildfires last year. And think of the paradise wildfires in Northern California a few years back. And I guess our point is what can we do about it? Is the question. And you had some great ideas in our meeting today.
[00:14:18] And I'd like you to share that with what we're proposing to do.
[00:14:22] Terry Arko: The details are getting worked out and they will get worked out. The main thing here to start off with first we need to come together. We need to support our own. You know, I mean, this is our community, right? And in a good community, people come together and they help one another. So let's help one another.
[00:14:39] One of the things that's coming up here just in a few weeks is Western Pool and Spa Show. And by the way, that's a stone's throw from the epicenter of destruction. There's people that will be attending that show who, they may be at the show, but they're going to be hurting. You know, there's going to be stress. There's going to be stuff. So that's the demographic and that's our demographic.
[00:15:00] And so for me, my one main idea was through the show, and particularly through there's an event that's going to take place. There's a concert event going to take place. We're looking to draw a lot of people into that. And to use that concert as a means to give back to the pool community. I felt like would be a really good thing to do a really positive thing. And everybody in the industry can come together. at that focal point and and do something to contribute and use that as a point where we give back. That's very poignant. And also, that's very could be very meaningful to the people who are going to be attending and going to be there.
[00:15:38] So that was the main idea. Obviously, my battle cry in the beginning was Industry and if it's PHTA, IPSSA, whoever it is, manufacturers trade associations, magazines, everybody, we all have to do something,
[00:15:56] Eric Knight: Yeah.
[00:15:57] Terry Arko: Whatever it is we do. But I see the Western and I see this concert event that was booked as a charitable event to now be the charitable event for our brothers and sisters that are in that area right there.
[00:16:11] Eric Knight: And as far as I know, that has already been put in motion thanks to you for spearheading this Terry. So that's already in the works and we've partnered with Heritage and a few others to make that one awesome concert event to raise money.
[00:16:24] We were already going to raise money but for a different cause now it's going to go towards the wildfire pool pro victims. But we're going to above and beyond that as HASA as well. So, talk about this wildfire recovery pack that we're going to be giving away for people in those immediate areas.
[00:16:41] Terry Arko: It's first of all, something that, that we wanted to do, obviously, the headquarters and main location of HASA, where HASA began is just up the road there in that area. And by the way, in the past has been threatened many times. Fires have come close that plant. So, so we understand that we've been there since 1964 working with people. And so again, that's our area. That's our heart. You know, those are our people. We want to help them. We want to support them.
[00:17:10] Eric Knight: And our employees. Think of how many HASA employees live in these affected areas.
[00:17:14] Terry Arko: That as well. Yeah. We wanted to do something to just give back. And the give back is we also realize there's a lot of cleanup ahead. And there's a lot of expense in the cleanup that's coming ahead. Like we talked about the pools that may not be mainly in the affected area, but they have had that ash. From the winds, they're loaded with organic materials. There's the threat of pools turning, becoming algae filled. Maybe there's power out. You know, so those pools can't circulate and they're becoming green and you got to keep those pools clean and sanitized.
[00:17:45] So we're working through distribution in those main kind of harder hit and outlying areas to offer some free liquid sodium hypochlorite bleach some free acid. You can come in, pick it up. You know, I think we're working out the numbers and the amounts and all that, but that'll, that'll get promoted.
[00:18:04] And that's going to be, like I said, strictly for those who are affected, those who need help and those who need a little bit of an extra boost. I believe Orenda is going to contribute some enzyme product as well as a part of that package. But they'll, you know, have the opportunity to be able to get some stuff and not have to use money to get it, to help clean up.
[00:18:25] Eric Knight: Yeah, the exact details are over our heads, but the company is committed to doing that and to giving this stuff to the pool pro. No strings attached. We just got to, you got to get these pools on the recovery path and the peripheral. Obviously it doesn't do anything for those that are destroyed. That's where the fundraising is coming in.
[00:18:42] But those of you listening to this, we may not have it by the time this gets published. So please be patient with us. When we figure out what we're doing with the fundraising and where you can go to contribute, we will put it all over our social medias. We'll put it on there.
[00:18:57] We don't have it right now at the moment of recording this. But everything's going full cylinders towards this as of this morning. So we hope you're able to help out those in need. And we know we will be contributing as well. Miguel, is there anything you want to add? Cause you live in the San Diego area and this is your territory. You have a lot of customers in this area.
[00:19:20] Miguel Chavez: Yeah, I guess I know there are a lot of people that listen to the podcast, both in English and Spanish. And sometimes they brought up to my attention that they really like the information you present. But, English sometimes is not their strongest language.
[00:19:37] So, if you missed any on this information, basically the summary is that Vamos a estar Ofreciendo paquetes de ayuda a todas las personas que fueron afectadas por los incendios en el área de Pasadena, en el área de Los Ángeles, in the valley.
[00:19:55] Y HASA como compañía, Orenda como compañía, y las diferentes compañías de nuestra industria también están ofreciendo.
[00:20:25] We're together in this and, yeah, we, we, we're sorry for all those people that lost their homes and their business entirely. And we feel for you and we're here to support you as a, as an industry. Not only as a company, but as an industry.
[00:20:40] Eric Knight: So, check out our Facebook pages. We will have updates on there. Both Orenda Technologies and HASA Facebook pages in both English and Spanish. If you could just repeat that, let them know where to look. And then, do you know the date, Terry, of the concert at the Western? Because it's not the 6th, that's the first day. Is it the 7th?
[00:21:01] Terry Arko: It's this, I believe it's the seventh. It's the, well, no, I, it's the Thursday. I believe it's the Thursday night.
[00:21:07] Eric Knight: 7th, or I don't know, maybe I, whatever it is, there is a concert that's going to be there and it's limited to a thousand people. So not everybody can get into the concert, but everybody can contribute. That's for sure. So if you don't mind repeating that, that the concert is available.
[00:21:24] Miguel Chavez: Stay tuned to our social media, Instagram, Facebook.
[00:21:29] There we will be posting more details about the donations, about the aid programs.
Closing
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[00:21:39] Eric Knight: Thank you and again, our deepest condolences to all of you directly affected by this and we're going to do what we can to help you out. Terry, anything else?
[00:21:48] Terry Arko: Yeah, I just, to close this from my standpoint. First of all again, our heart goes out, we're going to do what we can to help, to help out obviously. So we're getting those details worked out. Please be patient with us,
[00:22:00] but I do want to point out, listen. We are not out of the woods yet in this area. There's still fire burning. They're still looking at another chance of high Santa Ana winds coming up. So the main thing I really want to say to everybody is just like, you know, be careful out there. Be aware help each other out as much as you can. And God be with you guys. So that, that, that's it for me.
[00:22:24] Eric Knight: All right. Well, thank you so much. This has been episode 167 and I imagine that not everybody's going to rebuild. I know it takes a long time to rebuild. Metaphorically speaking, the rebuilding process is going to start as soon as the fires go out. A lot of people may leave that area. I don't know what's going to happen. I'm not there. It's just so sad to see all this.
[00:22:46] But people have an incredible tenacity to adapt in the moment of crisis and whether it's a natural disaster, like a hurricane or a flood or something like this. In any event, we're here for you. If you need to talk to somebody and you're in that affected area, we have HASA representatives all over Southern California.
[00:23:06] Call your local HASA rep. And we'll talk to you. I live on the other side of the country, so I don't fall into that category, but I'm happy to talk to you either way. You can reach me at podcast@orendatech.Com. If you have chemistry questions or you want to find out needs to be done to recover these pools, just go to the website, search the word fire, or you can search the Orenda app under blogs. Search fire, you'll find it. And you can listen to episode 38 as well.
[00:23:32] So for me and Miguel and Terry, thank you all for being here.
[00:23:36]