what caused the LA fires it's a fair question and it's a question that has certainly triggered a lot of speculation primarily online from a drone coverup to energy weapons to a political and economic scheme to even yes Shawn Diddy Colmes as we separate fact from fiction we're going to bring on veteran journalist Ashley Banfield to discuss all of these conspiracy theories welcome to sidebar presented by law and crime I'm Jesse Weber no story has dominated the headlines more in the first few weeks of January than the devastating fires that have overtaken Los Angeles it is
an absolute tragedy what has unfolded let me give you some stats that are current at the time of this recording so at least 24 people reportedly have died 12,000 structures have been destroyed according to ABC 88,000 residents are under evacuation orders curfews are in effect in various areas according to CNN the Palisades Eaton and hearse fires have burned about 60 square miles think about that according to JP Morgan we are looking at estimated insured losses exceeding $20 billion total economic losses could reach as high as $50 billion and in terms of when this will all
end the two major fires the Palisades and the eaten fires they're still not contained and the winds can make those worse or even start new fires as Deputy Chief of California fire Bryce Bennett told CNN over the weekend we need mother nature to give us a break but something else has quickly spread too during the course of these fires misinformation and conspiracy theories regarding the fires for example FEMA has officially addressed false speculation that it limits assistance to one payment which it doesn't or whether if you apply for FEMA assistance that the government or the
agency then automatically owns your property it doesn't there's another alarming issue that has popped up these AI generated pictures and videos like the Hollywood sign that's been engulfed in flames that never happened and the biggest concern centers around what caused these fires in the first place you see the official cause of these fires and disasters hasn't been determined as of yet now there are some factors to consider here like the fact that Southern California was in the middle of an intense dry period according to NBC this region had less than 10% of average rainfall since
the beginning of October and you couple that with the winds the offshore winds that facilitated the spread of the fires I mean think about it like this according to CNN the Palisades fire started last Tuesday carried by the wind gusts by the next day it burned more than 177,000 Acres so without a concrete answer as to how all of this started this has led to spe speculation and rumors and again conspiracy theories reportedly that includes connections to energy weapons drones even sha Diddy coms yes him we're going to explain all that in a minute but
I mean according to the Daily Mail there are those who say well this could be from the lithium batteries on smart electric meters in the LA homes and it's gotten politicized too as reported by CNN Alex Jones claimed on X formerly Twitter that the fires were quote part of a larger globalist plot to wage economic Warfare and de-industrialized the United States before trigger toal Collapse by the way trying to sort out misinformation here with the fires is just an example of what we've been trying to do all the time on sidebar our goal is to
deliver balls and Strikes just the facts and that is why we are thrilled to partner with a company like straight arrow news so this is an app in website that is focused on objective unbiased reporting as somebody who is always doing research for sidebar I know how easy it is to get lost in biased journalism while straight hour news they help cut through that with tools like the media landscape which shows where Outlets fall on the political Spectrum the media Miss tool highlighting stories that mainstream media might be skipping you can check it out for
yourself go to s.com sidebar or click the link in the description supporting them means supporting journalists like us who are committed to delivering the truth so I want to address fact first fiction how these conspiracy theories spread what can we do to fight against them and more with one of my favorite people and I don't say that lightly one of my favorite people someone who is making her sidebar day an award-winning veteran journalist host of a brand new podcast called drop dead serus premieres January 23rd anchor of Banfield on news Nation I think you know
who I'm talking about Ashley Banfield joins us right now Ashley so happy to have you here on sidebar you know this is so nice of you to have me on uh we go back I don't know if your viewers know this but um we go back a long way um I remember the first time that you showed up on my show when I was at CNN and yep and and HLN and I thought who is this guy he is so on the ball you do not always get lawyers who go on TV who know what
they're talking about and that sounds crazy but um you're whatever do you mean I have no idea what you're talking yeah I know I know right um they hang their shingle really well but but I remember from the day one I said book this guy early and often because he's really well researched and he's a super smart lawyer and that was first impression of you well thank you very much I mean that you've been so kind to me uh throughout my career and it's been a a privilege being on with you and developing a friendship
with you you're again one of my favorite people not only in the industry just one of my favorite people in general so before we even get into back thank you so what before we even get into the conspiracy theories and the fires I got to talk to you about the podcast first of all I want to know more about the podcast but can I just tell you I love the artwork did you design that because let me tell you when a lot of people make uh like you know cartoon designs or whatever Char of it
doesn't look like them she looks just like you like let's put it up that looks just like you actually I love it I love it did you design that so um in as much as I could design something yes but um I had people that worked with me on it and I said here's what I want I want to look like me but in Dick Tracy kind of cartoon-esque um yes you know fashion and so we went back a few times it didn't take long actually but then ultimately found this image um I I actually
took a picture of myself kind of like that and said yeah her tuniz this like Dick Tracy and then and then yeah and then it was done there you go now the comic strip can come out right after so what's the podcast about talk to us about it so I'm going to be doing a weekly basically looking at all the biggest stories uh that are percolating at any given time um for instance this if I were doing it this week it would be like are you kidding me we got to deal with looters in California
are you kidding me throw the book at him you know that kind of thing but I'm starting the podcast with a six-part docy series that I developed and um and created and produced over the last year and it's a it's a story about a guy I grew up with um uncle Peter my best friend from high school it's her uncle we always called him Uncle Peter and you know 50 years later he's one of the most notorious sex criminals of all time on the planet wow I didn't even know that oh my gosh well I
was gonna ask you tell oh is that what oh oh oh his name is nard and I bet a lot of people watching or listening right now will know who Peter niggard is um but he uh he did not get as much coverage in the US as Jeffrey Epstein Bill Cosby Diddy Harvey Weinstein but if you were to combine all those guys Peter nyard combined to is worse than them combined with you know it is thought to be thousands of rapes and he used his money and his power and his influence um to effectuate his
you know his Mo and it worked so it premieres January 23rd everybody can check it out it's on available wherever you get your podcasts right and YouTube TV you know um it's YouTube it's it's every platform on yeah Drop Dead series Welcome to our you know our podcast Community Ashley we've been we've been waiting for you okay so now putting that to the side you have been doing terrific coverage of the fires on news Nation generally speaking what stands out to you about what you're seeing before even get into the conspiracy theories of it all
oh well for starters of course the politicization that started right away it just breaks my heart you know I remember during 9911 um I was there and I was a victim of it it fell on me and I ran for my life and found refuge and was covered head to toe spitting out the the the dust and Ashes from my teeth and um and I do I do not recall it being politicized I just don't and there was plenty of politics going on when George W bush became president we were very early into his presidency
but I do not remember now maybe I'm a bit poana or maybe um as a victim and a journalist at the same time I might have missed it but uh we have arrived at a point I think where I sadly we as Americans can't put this stuff aside to just care for our fellow Americans and so that that's number one number two just the devastation um and the speed uh which it happened with those 100 m hour wind gusts on the first night it's hard to believe what we're seeing uh and what's happening you talk
about the politic politicization I mean I mentioned Alex Jones comment before about what's really going on here but let's talk in let's get into this because I want to start actually with drones why because funny enough Cuomo our colleague over at news Nation he posted on X yesterday hey where did all the drones in New Jersey go what happened to all that urgency about it on there and I thought to myself that's a really good point as I was doing the research for this topic I come to find out that one of the major conspiracy
theories about the fires online is connected to the drones according to the Daily Mail there are those who believe that the fires were deliberately set to be a distraction from what was going on with the drones which means let I me look Ashley I know that the airwaves change right something dominates the air waves for a week or two weeks it changes but and I know the news cycle changes but what do you make of that one you know it's the same thing again I'll go back to 911 building seven fell because it was a
conspiracy and the Jews brought it down and know come on you know um I get very frustrated again because there are real people uh dying there are real people suffering um there are people with literally nothing left but the shirt they escaped with they don't their business because it burned down and they don't have their house because it burned down and so did their daughters and their sons so um I wish we could focus more on that but you know I think just with the Advent of everybody being a publisher today um just because you
see it in type set doesn't make the purse in credible and so sadly typ set has this effect on us like ooh someone has you know postulated this is possible if you'd heard someone on the sidewalk uh wandering with a cup and and shaking it for Change and saying the same thing you would have walked right by but somehow because somebody sees it in typ set um you know it gets forwarded it gets traction it gets uh it gets chewed on and there are a lot of stories let's be frank not making it on the
air right now because there's a there's a disaster and that is what happens when there's a ma major hurricane when there's 911 when there's these fires that is the story that is most important it is prioritized for this nation it doesn't mean that the other stories go away it doesn't mean that the Drone story has gone away it doesn't mean that you suddenly need to be a detective and imagine that you know you know the facts because most of the people making these ridiculous claims do not know the facts and it's social media too it's
a double-edged sword right first of all can be an amazing tool to get information out there quickly people can digest it in easily in an easily you know digestable fashion but the other way of looking at it is I mentioned this before AI so these AI generated videos and pictures the Hollywood Sign uh in flame on Flames do you in your experience in your career right now do you have ways that you could recommend to people take a beat don't look at everything you see on social media maybe question it because with the Advent of
AI and it's only going to get better um what are your concerns what are your tips particularly in a natural disaster like this um what is your recommendation for people I tell my sons who are uh 17 and 19 and every time they come to me with some crazy claim they've seen on you know Instagram or Tik Tok um I say the same line I said don't be the dumb guy don't be the dumb guy don't be the dumb guy who just fell for it because you saw it once and that should be strong for
people who because they are repeating claims they want to sound like the smart guy who found something out and wanted to announce it to their friend group they whoever will be listening don't be the dumb guy who said the wrong thing and then is embarrassed later I think I think if we all put our embarrassment meter a little higher then we might actually take a beat and when we see something that you know strikes a cord with us we'll double check it or we'll wait on it like we have to do we see great pictures
we want to air them but we wait because chances are could have been from another fire another country um and if you can't find the answer you can't repeat it so I I wish and I think people will do this Jesse honestly because one of the things I'm I'm I'm heartened to see is in those AI images the Hollywood Sign burning all the other ones um I've seen the comments saying quit it with the AI enough already this is AI BS and it's remarkable how many of the comments say it like people aren't standing for
this crap you know they're they're getting clever faster I think with the um engineered imagery that's being funneled at them and I'm happy about that um they're not just buying at Hook Line and zinker and I think the more we get clever smart and we employ the Mantra don't be the dumb guy um I always said to my kids too if you're going to be around the the coffee you know station at school or eventually at work um you're going to hear the dumb ones who just say anything they heard unchecked and they're gonna sound
dumb don't be one of them talking about that let me ask you this because this has been proliferating a little bit we're both in the True Crime space you have covered it expertly on Banfield each night tonight did he so the man who's facing Federal Criminal sex crimes charges scheduled to go to trial in May facing numerous sexual assault lawsuits there are those online who believe that these fires were deliberately set to protect him apparently because his La home which is was raided by the feds last year during the investigation it hasn't been burned to
the ground during the fires as the Daily Mail reports his home in homele Hills is close to the Palisades fire path there are other celebrities who lost their homes his is okay we're seeing the fires you know the idea was it was destroying evidence that's what it is right it's to destroy evidence in this case it's a way to protect him I can't believe I'm saying it but you're combining one of the biggest crime stories in the past year with now one of the biggest natural disaster stories I'm not surprised people are making the connection
but I I got to get your perspective on this one well I think a lot of people like to do parlor games um it's a really simple fact fire science it hopscotches it does um lots of my friends family and uh and former neighbors who live in in Los Angeles their homes were spared when neighbors homes weren't um similarly people have lost their homes when their nextdoor neighbor didn't so that's just the reality is that homes do get spared not every building in Los Angeles has been burned to the ground only about 12 or 13,000
by this count as an estimation to imagine that someone would uh start fires in multiple locations around Los Angeles to protect Diddy first of all I don't think he's got that many supporters at that level second of all I don't think he has that kind of case and sway to make someone do that and certainly I don't think anybody on a federal level needed to do anything to bolster their case in any way it's just you know pure and simple hogwash yeah I mean we're talking about the what the greatest evidence tampering case in US
history then because then what we don't realize everything there's digital evidence it's already in the possession of the prosecutor's hands but I I had I had to say that which by the way leads into just a tangential uh con conspiracy theory because people said well what was burned to the ground what wasn't burned to the ground and because there are palm trees that are left standing I apologize in advance but I have to talk about this one there are those who believe this is a result of an energy weapon from the sky from the space
now I don't think it's taking into account some of the characteristics of palm trees but there were palm trees that were burned to the ground but there are those who believe oh well you know this is a directed energy weapon I I I have to repeat it because it's it's it's being you know metastasize a little bit uh could be Jewish face lasers remember that one you know I'm not an arborist but I do know that palm trees they do um hold a lot more water than other trees that could be part of the reason
I think also if you were watching those pictures early you could see the Embers skipping along the um the ground level so that might have been exactly what was happening is that the winds were blowing the fires in a lateral formation and those palm trees are 50 75 feet up and maybe that's why those Palms are just charred and not burned um there are all sorts of reasons and PS lots of palm trees are gone yep and and that's actually one of my one of my very sad sort of um epiphanies about this crisis is
that entire cities have no trees now you know and you need trees to breathe I mean you've got to have trees in an environment there's a CO2 issue I mean the the the toxicity in the air right now trees help clean that I don't know what they're going to do to get back to some kind of green space in these massive swaths of land palisad it's just gone um so anybody who says the palm trees survived maybe a few did maybe high up but most of them did not and uh it's ridiculous to think otherwise
let's keep that in mind uh in terms of how it's going to be rebuilt because and you mentioned something about it being politicized well I have to ask you about this where actor Mel Gibson has gotten into the mix so he apparently goes on the uh the Ingram angle hosted by Laura Ingram on Fox News and he speculates that in events like this could it be on purpose like to make the state empty perhaps to clear the land because Ingram had talked about making room for high density housing he said it was quote convenient that
there was no water acknowledge that this being on purpose is an insane thing to think about but there was even speculation online not even from El Gibson but those on X who say oh these fires were set to clear the lands for a high-speed rail network that the fire paths match the roots of the trains so again this idea that it was deliberate for some sort of political or economic reason your reaction yeah they also match the path of the Winds you know wow but um so it's weird because Mel Gibson was on with Elizabeth
Vargas before he was on with um uh Laur Ingram and he had sort of a sober conversation with with Elizabeth Vargas because I don't think Elizabeth was stoking the political fires that's not news nation's mandate um and Mel Gibson has a a tendency to step in it when you know presented with the opportunity I think he really stepped in it I don't think he should be doing that to that kind you know with that kind of an audience look uh there's no one on this Earth I think who well maybe not on this Earth but
there's no one in America I can imagine would say great idea with 100 mile an hour Santa an augusts coming up this week to start a few fires to to clear some land um too many important people lost their homes and those fires were shifting with the winds which meant that anybody who was getting involved was at risk of losing their homes too there was no way to predict Pathways that this this fire is going to take which is why it was so hard it's been so hard to fight and to contain anybody who was
you know in that conspiracy plan would be wiped out too more than likely it just it's it's frustrating to hear it from somebody who's got a a megaphone Mel Gibson and uh and Laura Ingram should know better a and by the way I think those Maps there are those online who have debunked those maps are saying those they're inac but let me ask you this do you think Governor Gavin Nome has contributed to this speculation at all why do I say that because he came out and he talked about loosening regulations in an effort to
rebuild quote La 2.0 so we talked about how to how will la be rebuilt talked about it being the Marshall Plan of California referring to rebuilding Europe after World War II what were your thoughts on that I think he's damned if he does and he's damned if he doesn't because uh some cable networks will spend their hour uh ripping him for whatever he says and the other cable network will spend their hour praising him and very few people will get to the heart of the matter which is let's talk about the emergency uh while we're
in the emergency and um stop postulating what fits your your political Theory um and your Echo chamber because that's what's selling your commercials and that what that's what really makes me angry anyway um I think Gavin Nome will probably be criticized for the circumstances that that Los Angeles Greater Los Angeles was in I think there's a reservoir that was dry but I also know that that is what happens during winter months that's when you do the maintenance because when are you going to do the maintenance on a reservoir right there's no good time they pick
the times in the winter months because that's the least uh time that they're used um I saw uh some coverage today about the timeline of the Palisades fire uh our guy Rich McHugh did an investigation with the person who was first to call 911 spotted at First Call 911 first and then videotaped how long it took for responses I did find it distressful to see how long it took for water bombers to hit in the Palisades was about 45 minutes or so I could be off by a few minutes but about 45 minutes or so
before water bombers actually got to that fire and started putting it by that point it was just far too big because the winds were blowing at 40 50 60 miles an hour that's distressing because I think if you have the Palisades without a res war and with Santa Ana winds coming you know predicted for the week I think you'd be on high alert for response it didn't seem like there was a big high alert but listen I wasn't there I was looking from one perspective and that was his lens and he was the guy that
called 911 and saw the fire start the plume of smoke and then he saw it grow and grow and grow and grow and saw a like a spectator Chopper you know assessing a scout helicopter assessing before eventually a fire bomber came within about 45 minutes 45 minutes is an eternity um when you have wins like that yeah and it's a combination of incredibly incredibly bad factors and I'm sure there will hopefully be answers as to what happened after this but right now it's trying to contain these fires and preserve um you know you know human
life and trying to save whatever property can be saved you know I I was thinking it you and I do this job all the time right we we cover crimes we cover crimes and there's always second guessing of who could have been there done more or stopped this but in the end sometimes a Madman on 42nd Street whips out two butcher knives and kills three people before you can catch him should he been in prison sure did he was he recidivist yeah um but sometimes stuff just does happen that's out of our control and people
need to also bring that into their metrics when they're deciding where to assign blame plenty of blame went around a 911 too well we had warnings well there's a warning every single week you know like which one is the one you're going to act on and when you act on it are you going to get criticized because you're acting on some crazy guy's tweet you know the problem is is that no matter how much you're prepared bad things are going to happen I I I firmly believe that and then just people who pile on for
their own benefit uh to lay blame uh sometimes are not doing the best service to us I I think we also see these conspiracy theories because people are trying to make sense of what doesn't make sense they're like how could something like this happen oh it must have been deliberate right we can't just assume that it's Mother Nature or it's certain kind of factors that are out of our control people need that sense of control they want an explanation for it and that's why I think Ashley right you don't see conspiracy theories just with fires
we see it in all different kinds of natural disasters right oh Hurricane Andrew who was on the board to make sure the codes were better than this you know like it there's always someone who either out of confusion or trying to make sense of it or honestly looking to make things better for next time uh or those who just want to profit from it like Alex Jones I want headlines and I want lots of money after this um there will always be people who second guess criticize find you know complete baloney in their claims um
I just wish there was a little bit more compassion and I'm not being poana here I've been through plenty of tragedies so I really do know of what I speak I just wish people would first and foremost use their lens uh and their filter to understand that there was a lot of suffering and direct your comments with that in mind direct your next thought process with that in mind and don't forget to tag the Red Cross every time you complain you know it's a good it's a good point it's a good point well listen if
you want sober analysis if you want the facts if you want balls and Strikes you could check out Ashley Banfield so she's got an amazing new podcast drop dead serious I can't wait to tune in January 23rd also Banfield on news Nation Ashley it was so great having you here please don't be a Strang you're always welcome on whenever you want um and it was so great seeing you and hopefully I see you again in person soon guaranteed thank you so much Jesse always great to talk to you all right everybody that's all we have
for you right now here on sidebar thank you so much for joining us and as always please subscribe on Apple podcast Spotify YouTube wherever you get your podcasts I'm Jesse Weber I'll speak to you next time [Music]
