First responder of 911 Bryan Stern heads up Operation Dynamo.

Video Transcript:

Cooper James 4570 first responder during 9-11 Brian Stern heads up Operation Dynamo in Maui for search and recovery operations. At the 7-45 minute mark he discusses how this was a perfect opportunity for a dress rehearsal for the evacuation of Taiwan which I found as suspicious as the Maui fire itself and they often run rehearsals before an event. I also found his attitude to be quite cavalier in nature regarding this event. Also the rows of apartments in the back girl makes it appear to be a precision attack on a target segment of Maui. Tell me what you think. Welcome back into live now from Fox and Lexi Pachterovich thanks for being with us on this Sunday morning as we continue to bring you all of this continuing coverage especially when it comes to the destruction in Maui following the wildfires and you're taking a live look there. Right now the death toll now at 93 unfortunately officials do believe that number will continue to grow as these search and rescue efforts continue. Many people still missing. We want to now bring in Brian Stern who's a combat veteran with a purple heart metal. Right now he is in Maui rescuing people. He is also a part of Project Dynamo and Brian thank you so much for joining us here first and foremost. Thank you for your service and as I mentioned you are in Maui now. We talked to you just a few days ago while you were on your way to Maui but now that you're there tell us about what you're seeing. My team and I have been operating on the ground here for a few days already. I think we're on day three or four I think. It's all glitters together. We were in the high now all day yesterday and it's nothing short of indescribable frankly it looks like a like a meteor hit or a bomb went off. If you look at imagery of what every human eye and the sock you look like after after we drop into the weapons on them that's what it looks like. It's it's it's it looks like a big ash tray which sounds a little insensitive but that's really what it is. It's cars are melted everything's melted so it's really really really terrible. So what do the search and rescue efforts look like at this time and while you talk about how horrific this destruction is we're going to show viewers some of these aerial views here but the searching rescue efforts describe to us what you and your team are doing on a daily basis. So we've been we've been doing this we've been doing a lot we've been doing we've been doing air med of X we've been doing air supply drops via helicopter and we've also been operating on the ground trying to find survivors of course and also we did a lot of work we did we're doing a lot of our pets that that couldn't get out and we're left behind who are either straits or or didn't make it. So it's pivoting from a rescue operation to a recovery operation and we're on the ground going house to house and door to door and looking for people who have either registered on our website at projectdynamo.org that's also where your viewers can go to donate these helicopters do not fly themselves they cost money but door to door looking for people who registered on our website and also people that haven't registered our website. Frankly there's not a lot left and at this point those that survived survived and those that didn't survive probably didn't survive we're at that we're at that moment in time. And Brian what about the federal response what are you seeing as far as the aid that's been coming in and everyone who's been like you said just joining in bending together to help. For us we we were in Le Haino all day yesterday we didn't see much of it I'm not saying it's not there just it's not where we are at least. We saw some National Guard Guides at checkpoints and we saw National Guard Guides on body details and some of that kind of thing. We saw Nevada Task Force guys who are brave they they were we saw them kind of coming going a little bit but on the streets where we were operating we didn't see we didn't see much we didn't see much of response at all actually. We have as an example we haven't seen a single Army helicopter flying in the sky but should not go a black hawker or that kind of thing we haven't seen people bring you know Army helicopters bringing generators let's say those how we haven't seen that a whole lot so I'm not saying it's not happening but at least not where we're operating in Le Haino. Yeah you know Brian there's always so many stories that come from tragedies like this I'm sure you've spoken to so many people on the grounds there tell us a little bit about what people are saying their reactions to the help that you're providing and really anything that might stand out to you from what they told you so far. I think on the ground you know everyone's very thankful of course everyone's very thankful they're very happy that we're here we're actually being posted by a family on the island who took my team and I in there's there's a bunch of us here so people are very thankful my case managers who are working with the families that talk to the thousands of people trying to find their loved ones that a lot of those stories are extremely heartbreaking extremely heartbreaking so that you know all these things are terrible that's why it's called a disaster right we spoke to a guy who who was fireman worked with the fire department whose whose crew took 45 bodies out of the water of people who jumped in and lots of reason to believe some of those people couldn't swim and so they jumped in the water and desperation pretty terrible that's analogous to jumping out of the you know out of tower one in the morning of 9-11 nowhere to go surrounded by fire and they did the best that they could and what they had and then didn't survive so some of these stories are really really really terrible really terrible it really is just heartbreaking it looks like we have some video from you and your team Brian to show viewers here and this is exactly what you talked about earlier just the state of what's going on here so tell us a little bit about what we're seeing and and what comes forward from here so the video that you're seeing is us providing some water to a bunch of puppies that that we found there they I don't think that they had an owner anymore and we couldn't take them so we dropped some water into a thing and fed the puppies we love our four-legged friends as much as two-legged friends I've never met a puppy I didn't like so you know the way forward is gonna turn into pain a lot of the just like 9-11 and I was as you know as 9-11 first responder this is gonna be just like that a lot of people hoping and praying that their family made it and then receiving disappointing news at some point once the bodies are identified and the parts are identified and a lot of them are gonna be very difficult it's gonna have to be through DNA because these bodies are gonna not be recognizable so that process is gonna be absolutely terrible absolutely terrible it's gonna look like 9-11 and then it turns into a big cleanup a big cleanup there's not sadly there's not much to there's not much left so it can be cleaned up it mass a whole block so it doesn't exist anymore other than the concrete slab so it's really just a big bulldozer operation and then and then it has this waste which is terrible you know it's a very it's a big shame this is a very beautiful part of the world yeah it's been so horrible so tragic to see so many popular landmarks there too and just I mean the amount of people who have lost everything in this has been so difficult to wrap your head around and for us as viewers watching this through a screen it looks just tragic but to be on the ground there right can't imagine how much more difficult it is to actually see that in person and Brian you've done so much work internationally helping people going to all of these different places to provide assistance tell us a little bit about what stands out to you in particular about Maui and the recovery operations there um there's a there's a number of things one we we we started getting after we had helicopter flying very quickly on the morning of day one as soon as the winds allow we had we had birds in the air and our team was surging forward doing conducting rescue operations so being able to surge capacity on an island was um difficult for us we did a little we did that in hurricane Ian with boats but we hadn't done it from the air before I've been doing a lot of talking on different venues about Taiwan and in my mind ohana safe which is what we call the Maui operation this is a perfect dress rehearsal for Taiwan so being able to get helicopters and aircraft onto a target on an island nation in the Pacific and start bringing people out from where they from a bad place to a better place being able to do that was a huge challenge for my team huge challenge but being able to be but being able to show that it was possible gives us light at the end of the tunnel for things like Taiwan with respect to Maui specifically you know it's tough because it's America you know this is a US state Hawaii um but the but the people here are are Hawaiian so you know there's there's cultural nuances here that we didn't really understand for a little bit and um there's some good some bad but those cultural nuances the good parts of those cultural nuances we were able to observe firsthand and that was really really really touching in this really terrible time really terrible it really is and it's such a long road to recovery too as we think ahead so moving forward Brian how much longer do you plan to be there do you anticipate project dynamo will be there and also just because there's been so much that we've been discussing here if you could have viewers take one thing away from them from this conversation to keep with them what would you want that to be the big thing that I am again I say this all the time is that the nonprofit world the NGO world in the private sector will always outperform government every single time um we we haven't seen army helicopters in the air and we've done many many many many air operations in just a few short days that doesn't mean that they're not here but but I would argue that that the private sector and nonprofits like project dynamo where we are entirely donor funded on a shoe string budget can still outpace and outperform most most most of government certainly with respect to bureaucracy so as far as being able to save lives quickly efficiently by any means necessary doing what needs to do we are not political we're not politicians we're not Republicans we're not Democrats we're Americans that's it being able to take that approach to saving lives is a is is always going to outpace the public sector for sure that's the big one so project dynamo that org our shoe string budget needs your help as far as the way ahead and how long we're going to stay I think we're going to start winding down operations here real soon we're going to do a couple of missions today but but honestly we you know we're coming into we're coming into a point in this timeline where survivors this this is going to pivot from rescue to recovery which is very sad and the humanitarian aid part that will that will continue that will still need to be and as federal resources show up that will sort itself out as well so I'm hopeful for the future but at the same time it's going to be very very very painful I certainly expect that body count to hit in the in the high triple digits maybe even touch a thousand maybe maybe wow yeah and that's that's the fear right now is this number continues to climb we keep hearing that it's likely going to keep rising and I mean 93 in itself is hard is a hard number to grasp so to think about it grow Vegas is really unimaginable Brian thank you so much for joining us here