Shark Tank EP Phil Gurin, who runs an international TV sales outfit, speaks to Deadline during a two-hour long commute that he says has more than doubled since the wildfires. The native New Yorker says he always anticipated earthquakes in L.A. but was totally unprepared for fires and the accompanying trauma, which set in immediately.
“It looked like Dresden after the war,” adds Gurin, who says he had gathered his belongings of most sentimental value in case of the need to evacuate during the fires. “I have way too many friends who lost everything. A friend and his wife who live in the Palisades went to work one morning and then had nothing but what was in their briefcases.”
Throughout these last few weeks, Gurin has been laser-focused on keeping the company lights on, but he says an event like the L.A. wildfires makes one consider the bigger picture. “You find yourself feeling silly talking about TV with people who lost their homes,” he says. “You see the small ‘mom and pop’ stores and neighbourhood shops that have been lost and think you’re lucky that a lot of people in the entertainment biz have some means to weather the storm. Although, of course, not everyone.”