Скачать или смотреть "Heat Hawks" assist firefighters and residents in California's Topanga Canyon

(13 Jan 2025)
FOR CLEAN VERSION SEE STORY NUMBER: 4546512
ASSOCIATED PRESS

Topanga Canyon, California - 12 January 2025

++BEGINS AND ENDS ON SOUNDBITES++

1. SOUNDBITE (English) Derek Mabra, Heat Hawk:
"We helped hopefully save a couple houses and we put out some spot fires. But most of us have been on turning off propane tanks in dangerous areas downwind of the fire like propane fairies were calling them."
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Cody Webb, Heat Hawk:
"The reason it got started is we just loved this neighborhood, man. We couldn't just sit and not help."
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Derek Mabra, Heat Hawk:
"Contrary to a lot of talk online, that we started this out of lack of resources from fire department, that's absolutely not true. Those guys are on it. They've been on it since second one. They're incredible."
4. View out front window of car
++SOUNDBITE #5 COVERED++
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Derek Mabra, Heat Hawk:
"We are again just some artists, musicians, carpenters, blue collar dudes who just love this place and wanted to help."
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Cody Webb, Heat Hawk:
"At probably three in the morning I texted this and said, if anybody needs anything, I'm putting my phone on do not disturb. I need a second. Tomorrow. I will be running into the canyon for anything you guys need. The first request was literally, Please go to my house. Smash my back window. Try to save my cats. Please get the money out of there. Please get my birth certificate. Photos of my family, things like that."
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Derek Mabra, Heat Hawk:
"I'm sorry. I can't. I feel like I'm going to cry right now. Looking at the beach. I can't be on camera."
(Reporter: "What are you seeing right now? What has happened?"
Mabra: "It's a complete and total devastation."
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Cody Webb, Heat Hawk:
"It's all gone. Oh my God. To put it into perspective. This was all people's homes. You couldn't see the water because the houses were so high right here in some places. And it's gone. That's a chimney right here from someone's house where they probably spent Christmas or something. So wild to think about."
++ENDS ON SOUNDBITE++
STORYLINE:
A group of local residents in the Topanga Canyon area of Los Angeles County is taking initiative to assist firefighters and residents.

The group calls itself the "Heat Hawks." One member, Derek Mabra says he hopes to become certified to officially serve the fire department in some way, but for now, he's looking for ways to be helpful.

"We are again just some artists, musicians, carpenters, blue collar dudes who just love this place and wanted to help," Mabra said on Sunday as he drove toward a beachfront location that was affected by the devastating fires in the Los Angeles area.

He emphasized that the group is not taking part in the more difficult firefighting tasks, leaving that to trained firefighters.

"We helped hopefully save a couple houses and we put out some spot fires. But most of us have been on turning off propane tanks in dangerous areas downwind of the fire like propane fairies were calling them.

"The reason it got started is we just loved this neighborhood, man. We couldn't just sit and not help," said Heat Hawk Cody Webb, who added that he sent out a text message at 3:00 a.m. shortly after the fires started, telling people he was going into Topanga Canyon and asking what people needed.

"The first request was literally, Please go to my house. Smash my back window. Try to save my cats. Please get the money out of there. Please get my birth certificate. Photos of my family, things like that," he said.









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