The fire in this new house on 15214 Earlham started the morning of January 8. Photo: REZA AKEF
This is the house at 15214 Earlham after it had burned. Photo: REZA AKEF
The Palisades Fire, which might have been prevented with deployment, a rapid air response, additional firefighters and engines – and water — burned through Pacific Palisades on January 7.
What many do not realize is possibly 100 or more structures were allowed to burn to the ground on January 8 and 9.
Mayor Karen Bass is walking down Sunset Boulevard early January 8, a photo was snapped and in the background (left) the Chase Building is shown with a small fire on the roof. Later that morning someone photographed it as the building was engulfed.
On January 8, when Mayor Bass toured Pacific Palisades the TOPA building was standing.
On January 9, the entire building had burned to the ground, when this editor walked through the town.
At the Recreation Center, the large gym had smoke coming from the roof. I asked firefighters sitting on the ground if they could put it out. They responded, “We have reported it, we don’t have hoses. We don’t have water.”
From the Via Las Olas Bluffs, this editor watched a house go up in flame on the El Media bluffs. There were no aerial drops, there were no firefighters.
Palisades YMCA Executive Jim Kirtley, sent this editor a photo of him sitting on a bench in front of the Y on January 8. The Y had burned, but the Methodist Church next to him was standing, but had just caught on fire. I asked Kirtley about the church and he said it was still standing as were the Condominiums behind the Y – “until they weren’t.”
The Methodist Church started burning on January 8. The Condo building behind the Y is still there.
Jeff Ridgeway, who lives in a condo on Haverford and stayed and fought the fires, confirmed that the condos/apartments were still standing until they were destroyed by fire on January 8.
Many of the homes on Via de la Paz burned on January 8. One resident stood there with a garden hose and was able to keep his home from burning.
I reached out to readers and found that Corpus Christi Church was still standing on the morning of January 8.
CTN spoke to Reza Akef of Metro Capital Builders. He had built five homes on De Pauw and had recently completed three new homes on Earlham; he was about to receive a certificate of occupancy for one of them.
On January 7, he worked desperately to save his homes. At 4:15 p.m., after seeing Temescal Canyon Road on fire, he went to Station 69 and asked for help and was told “We don’t have anyone.” He made a request for a water drop or retardant to save the homes on the Via Bluffs, but was told they aren’t flying anymore.
At 6 p.m. he returned to the bluffs to check on his homes. At La Cruz and Swarthmore, Palisades Elementary was on fire. At Swarthmore and Hampden Place, “one homeowner had two mini-fire engines while houses across the street were on fire!” He had heard about private firefighters, but “had I known that was an option, I would have had them, but I would have called all my neighbors and told them about it too,” Akef said. At De Pauw and Lombard both sides of those streets were on fire at 6:15 p.m. and there were no fire engines.
He left Pacific Palisades on January 7 and the three new homes were still standing at 6:30 p.m. There were no fire engines anywhere on any of the streets he drove down that evening.
He returned on January 8, with seven fire extinguishers. The middle home of the three he had built was now on fire and he tried to put it out.
A fire truck drove up and firefighters said, “We don’t have enough water. If the hydrants had water, we could save your house.” Akef followed them to numerous hydrants, none of which were working. He was told the only place there was water was on Pacific Coast Highway and Sunset Boulevard.
Firefighters called for a water-dropping helicopter to save Akef’s house, but were told all the helicopters was going to Chautauqua. “You could see the frustration of firefighters. Central Command was not respecting the boots on the ground.”
“I stood there watching my house burn down,” Akef said. He also noticed all of the gas explosions on surrounding lots, because the gas had not been turned off in Pacific Palisades. He said he saw the gas company out on January 12, starting to make sure the lines were shut off. It seems there is no master switch to shut off the gas in the Palisades, each home has to be individually turned off by breaking open the street and capping the gas line.
Rustic/Santa Monica Canyon residents received the water-dropping helicopter, requested by Akef. A spot fire had popped up off Chautauqua January 8 and grew into a blaze that destroyed three homes—had that not been put out, that enclave might have also been destroyed.
Houses below Chautauqua caught on fire on January 8. Photo: SHARON KILBRIDE
There were many Palisadians, who came back to the Palisades on January 8 and managed to save private residences, using hoses—and if there was no water, would take water from the pool and throw it on the “hot spots.”
There is a device that should be on all fire trucks, a water eductor, a simple pump which allows a firefighter to pump water out of a swimming pool into a fire truck and then allows them to use that water. L.A. County has them and this editor asked L.A.City and they said they also have the device. Why were these not used to pump water from the numerous swimming pools located in this community?
One resident who was trying to put out spot fires on January 8 reported, “The fire engines were not on the streets.”
Mitch Burmeister was also on the streets on January 7 and 8, putting out spot fires. “The fires were just starting to burn on upper El Medio, Anoka Drive and Los Lomas.” He found firemen and told them about the houses just starting to burn and they said “They were told to maintain a perimeter and did not have water pressure. Residents started pleading with them just to do something.”
This house on El Medio burned.
Photo: Mitch Burmeister
The homes on upper El Medio were just starting to catch fire. Another person with a garden hose was able to save two of the six homes that had been standing that morning.
On the day of the fire, Burmeister remembers not seeing any firefighting air support after 3 p.m. In his building, he and his wife waited for the police to evacuate an elderly woman. No one ever came, so at 6:30 p.m. they loaded the woman in the car and drove down Temescal on Sunset Boulevard, there were flames on both sides of the road. It was only when they reached PCH, did they see innumerable police standing and fire trucks staged at Will Roger’s beach parking lot “waiting for orders” they said.
He reported that two homes on Chautauqua had been saved because of a person using water from a swimming pool.
The homes on upper El Medio were just starting to catch fire. Another person with a garden hose was able to save two of the six homes that had been standing that morning.
On the day of the fire, Burmeister remembers there were no firefighting helicopters or plans flying after 3 p.m. In his building, he and his wife waited for the police to evacuate an elderly woman. No one ever came, so at 7:30 p.m. they loaded the woman in the car and drove down Temescal on Sunset Boulevard, there were flames on both sides of the road. It was only when they reached PCH, did they see police.
He reported that two homes on Chautauqua had been saved because of a person using water from a swimming pool.
There were no firefighters on Sunset Boulevard to fight the fires on January 8.
Photo: MITCH BURMEISTER
Additionally, from January 7 to January 8, PaliSkates went up in flames. A person saw the fire equipment trucks there protecting the Village and asked why they didn’t put out that fire. He was told “It’s not our responsibility.”
CTN reached out to other residents to see if they had been impacted on January 8 and 9, after the fire the night before
Kristen Ding wrote: “Homes on Arno Way and Pintoresca Drive (in the Upper Bel Air Bay Club loop) were still standing on January 8, but burned down that day when there were no attempts by firefighters to save our homes, even though pools full of water were available and at their disposal. So frustrating. Here’s the link of the 3:10 p.m. January 8 fire: click here.
Longtime resident George Wilken, who stayed in the Lutheran Church until he was removed by police on January 13, wrote: “I was mostly in the El Medio area trying to put out spot fires using garden hoses. My church is the Lutheran Church at El Medio and Sunset, and I was primarily working to save it and my apartment on Muskingham and Sunset.
“I also tried to save the Presbyterian church. The home that I know burned on January 8 was at 1142 Las Pulgas Rd, when I was there early and their deck was smoldering but was separated from the house by a concrete deck. The neighbor’s house was still burning. There was a very small fire burning in the adjoining fence that I tried to put out with a hose but there was no water. The next day that house was gone.”
Long-time resident Sam Lagana was on a bike in the Palisades on Wednesday, January 8, and rode through town and saw Methodist Church on fire and Vince Lombardo home just starting on fire
“When I left my home on Tuesday, January 7, at about 11:22 p.m. all the homes around my home on Jacob, Lachman and Via Santa Ynez were standing. This is the time the first bungalow at Marquez Elementary caught fire.
“When I came back around 1 p.m. on Wednesday, February 8, the bungalows at Marquez were burned but not the auditorium or offices. At 1:45 p.m. I heard a boom at Marquez and the Auditorium went up and the main building began burning.
“The homes above mine on Jacon at 1:45pm were on fire like dominoes burning down to my home. This is when some neighbors and CD11 assistants help fight the fire back from burning down my home.
Sarah Goldsmith wrote: “We were told by our neighbors when they left after 2 a.m. January 8 that our street was still standing. I am going to resource with some of my neighbors to see if there is video from January 8. I strongly feel that our house at 621 Las Lomas Ave. burned down on the afternoon of January 8.”
Brian Midwin wrote: “I saw a photo of my parent’s house at 17314 Ave Herradura still standing as of Wednesday a.m. January 8. Later that evening, I saw a strip of houses (17286 to 17314 Herradura) at the bottom of that street were down.
“My understanding is that 17286 started burning slowly and then one by one the houses went down and my parents’ house at 17314 was last. There were firemen there, but there was no water to fight the fire. It is reported that the 53 of the 116 houses were lost on Herradura.”
Ella Portnoy wrote: “My condo at 1649 was burned to the ground late night January 8 into January 9. It has burned together with 1645, 1647, 1651, 1653 and 1655. We were in wall-to-wall townhouse. There weren’t any signs of firefighting. This shouldn’t have happened, and it shouldn’t go unpunished.”
Immediate observations that don’t need an investigation:
- No fire deployment and no check on the brush fire that had burned only a week prior. (Especially since Pacific Palisades had been put under a red flag warning “Particularly Dangerous Situation” alert, which CTN reported on January 6.)
- A lack of response time with ground units and aerial firefighting units. A lack of firefighting engines. A lack of personal, Fire Chief Kristin Crawley had sent 1,000 firefighters home, rather than keeping them on duty to staff reserve engines.
- Two reservoirs drained dry prior to the fire: Santa Ynez and Chautauqua. The empty Chautauqua Reservoir meant there was no water for residents in the Will Rogers area.
- Hydrants were either broken or not working.
- Electricity was not turned off prior to the fire.
- There was no way to shut off gas to individual homes.
- Swimming pool water was not being used by firefighters to help put out spot fires.
- There seemed to be no one in command and CTN was told there were no resources on the eastern flank of the fire.
- Evacuation warnings were not given to some residents and there were no planned evacuation routes.
- There appeared to be no firefighters, police or DOT officers on many of the streets.
The result of the fire and DWP mismanagement was 6,835 structures were destroyed and 973 damaged. There were 12 people who died in the fire. Retirees, those on limited incomes and those with inadequate insurance (almost the entire Pacific Palisades, because insurance companies stopped covering the area) have been financially ruined. Many who have lived in the Palisades since they were children will not be able to afford to rebuild.
You can add: no traffic control officers anywhere on Sunset causing gridlock, worsened by people using the opposing lanes to exit and no room for emergency vehicles to get by. That put lives at risk evacuating and eventually the bulldozing of cars. Many of those cars burned in a heap on Sunset at the bottom of Palisades Drive. I have pictures of that. My neighbor stayed and used gas powered pump to save his house and several others. Unfortunately his house didn’t quite reach to my house. He returned and helped stop spot fires over the next day or two. He said there were tankers that held 2500 gallons near Ciela but they just sat there and were not allowed to fill 500 gallons near Ciela pumper trucks because the tanker crews were not certified to work close to fires. He eventually talked one of the tanker trucks into refilling his pool. While he was gone at one point his hose and pump were moved, indicating firefighters used it until his pool was emptied. There was not a good plan to evacuate Ciela and late the first evening a frantic call went out for ambulances to do the job. There were not enough so employees had to pile residents into their private cars and taken the the Luxe hotel and another nursing home. It apparently was not an orderly evacuation. The neighbor who saved his own home is back and living in it now. Many people who stayed and used garden hoses, something you are always told not to do, ended up saving their homes. Since fireman had no means to put out the fire, they went into homes and tried to save some valuables because all they could do was watch the homes burn. This happened to us.
There has been so little coverage on television or newspapers about the neighborhood of Will Rogers Park. Radio chatter has been reported that LAFD chose to let WRSHP burn because they couldn’t justify saving an historic structure while people’s homes burned below. Our entire neighborhood burned because there was not a single truck up there, despite that very park being the training grounds of Station 69. Heartbroken. The rangers saved 3 wooden houses in the middle of evergreen trees with a little bit of water. 12 swimming pools on Villa Woods alone and not a single one used for fighting fire.
We lost our home of 53 years on Monte Grigio… We are now ‘safe’ in Washington state since our son came to rescue us and our cats and bird from the Santa Monica motel we were in for 11 days. We had minutes to get the cats and bird in the car when the erratic winds shifted and sent thick ash and fire our way while firemen watched with their truck nearby. Our insurance adjuster when asked if they could have saved any part of our street said that there was no water… In the over 50 years of living in the area I never once saw DWP test the water pressure in the hydrant at the end of our street. They did come around and paint it red about a year ago though. I am joining the Mad wagon.. It’s not only property we lost, but also friends and a life. My new friends are the grocery clerks and the Amazon guy. PS to Sue. You might be able to find the right pan at KingArthurBaking company. I’ve just replaced many of my baking items from them.. You also can speak with a real person to order.. another new friend of mine.
Today’s piece of reporting needs to be sent to The Wall Street Journal.
It was profound.
There are three repeated paragraphs towards the end of the piece. Great article.
I left my condo, (Antioch at Haverford), around 4:30 pm on 2/7. Homes and buildings were burning around me and smoke was getting thick. I was struck by the silence – no sirens, no fire trucks, no vehicles of any kind. Traffic lights were out. I was very aware that our town was silently being consumed by fire. (By some miracle my building didn’t burn but is uninhabitable.)
Correction: I left on 1/7 (not 2/7).
The house that we were building on Tramonto (Castellemare) made it through the 7th, and most of the 8th. Late in the day it burned (melting the steel-it was that hot) and not a firefighter (likely bc no resources) in sight.
Pretty damning of the Caruso Firefighter to say “not our responsibility” as PaliSkates burned. It explained why everything around “the village” pretty much burned to the ground.
Let us hope – no, let us DEMAND – that there is a FULL investigation into how this tragedy was allowed to unfold.
I’m with you on that bus to hold the powers that be accountable… I will never forgive their incompetence… we moved last year after 50 years in PP ( to the desert) , and so have not been impacted directly.. but, we lost a home town… many of our friends lost their homes , and all of us lost a community that was special to all of us ..
We hope your hearts will mend for all who have lost so much …
Speaking personally, my family and I would have been much better off had there simply not been an LAFD. That way, when the fire came, we would have known to evacuate all our valuables in the 12 hours between the fire starting and it hitting our home. Had we known that the LAFD was not going to be putting up a fight and had abandoned their positions at around 4 pm, indeed had they even ANNOUNCED that they were abandoning their positions, we would have known to empty our house. They simply skulked down to the beach and over to Will Rogers leaving the rest of us abandoned and not knowing we’d been abandoned. LAFD harmed my family irreparably
It sure would have made a huge difference if we had been alerted to being abandoned by LAFD due to no water. We could have retrieved lots of special things like baby books, photos, my wedding ring etc which along with 43 years of life are now ash.
Who did this to us? Where is the accountability?
We are used as an ATM by our elected officials. Time to make serious changes. We can’t move forward with the same criminally negligence people running our city.
Thank you for highlighting this issue of the many homes, churches, and businesses that were allowed to FREE-BURN on the 8th, 9th, and 10th. I have yet to hear any official excuse for this one, following the string of excuses we have heard regarding the multiple hour series of failures to contain the initial fire – PRE WIND! – on the 7th, as well as the series of failures in the evacuation process. My husband, along with a couple of neighbors, battled to save my MIL’s home on upper El Medio, and neighboring homes, with a hose throughout the day on the 7th, with ZERO firefighters, not even ONE on foot, ever arriving for at least a 24 hour period (we have neighbor witnesses that battled through the night into the next day). Also, there were ZERO police assisting with the frantic evacuation from that hill. Yet, there were many news crews and individual cameramen all over our hill, just zero public service personnel. The following day, the 8th at 3pm, while we were exhausted and traumatized, we watched on Channel 7 as our home in the Upper Woodies complex in the Highlands burned to the ground. A single townhouse in the Upper Woodies complex caught fire around 3pm. There were NO firefighters doing anything! The entire Upper and Lower Woodies complex of approximately 80 homes were allowed to free burn to the ground. Our neighbor drove back on the evening of the 8th and has video of the entire complex in flames. From the upper windows of our previous, now gone, townhome we could actually see directly over to the empty reservoir. WE PAID HIGH TAXES FOR OUR ENTIRE WORKING LIVES FOR PUBLIC SERVICES AND EVERY ONE OF THEM FAILED US IN AN EGREGIOUS MANNER! WE DEMAND COMPENSATION FOR OUR PROPERTY AND THIS ABSOLUTELY NEEDLESS AND UNCONSCIONABLE PAIN AND SUFFERING!
Everything about how this fire was challenged from the first ember to the last torched structure was a perfect example of zero command, zero communication and zero preparedness. Had I not stayed and put out my own house and houses around me, my street, Tramonto, would look very different. I was in the trenches with multiple hoses until late in the evening, zero trucks, zero support, total fail. If you see my IG @CMWMOTORSPORTS, your will see my posts with a similar theme if how the F do you not at least 7 save schools and churches. Whomever told the LAFD to stand down and quit fighting, needs to be put in front of a Grand Jury ASAP. These orders and how this was managed is nothing short of criminal behavior. We will get answers, people will be held accountable.
This is so upsetting. Just keep finding more out each day. Our home miraculously survived but I got hives just visiting it. It’s just all so frustrating.
When we evacuated, we left well before any evacuation warnings or orders, and there we flames on both sides of Palisades Drive. What shocked me was that they were already closing the road going up hill. Why close the road well in advance of the evacuation order?
100% agree with my neighbors. People need to be held accountable. We were kicked off our insurnace swiftly this year with no help and then those that we relied on to protect us failed us. Their leadership or lack of it failed us. The failures at LA DWP are there too. People get paid to manage and lead, and there has been neither. No management and no leadership. They sure got paid with enough of our tax dollars. Where was the plan for this type of event?…and please don’t blame Carusso. He had a plan to defend his parcel and good management and leadership worked there
Lack of leadship, lack of management and lack of planning …now we the people have to hold them accountble. I agree with Cort. This is criminal negligence. And please don’t blame Mr. Carusso for having a ŵell executed plan for his mall. He knew the wind was coming and he saw the fires in Santa Barbara before. He executed. The only reason. My house is standing is because of Randy Stoklos and his bucket of water. That man is a hero…and by the way…he and Cort did what I would have expected the fire fighters to do…fight the fire. Sad that the actual fire fighters took their marching orders so easily too. You train your whole life for one job. What happened to American pride for a job well done
Fire Chief Crowley or the woman in charge if DWP have not been fired. No one in the city is safe under this command.
We have not heard anything about the investigation if what cases the fire. We probably won’t hear anything about the lack of fire fighting on Jan 7-8. There were too many mistakes for the public to accept.
You can extend my rebuke of Incompetent and Malevolent LAPD West LA and West Bureau management, to that of The Governor, State Legislature, County Supervisors, LA City Hall and LAFD Brass! The only City Hall person who has any credibility and my full support is Traci Park!
https://open.spotify.com/episode/6fHT24Anfma6gg1ej6L6lv?si=C23AOmeDRMemqdM4KB_gUg&context=spotify%3Ashow%3A0JAlShxgN21DWheor1Hqg7
Excellent work on the most frustrating Mismanagement and the disregard for keeping up in infrastructure so they could have their big salaries! I hope this article gets more and more coverage and more people really get to the bottom of this so we can actually make changes!
Thank you
Bass and Crowley need to be charged with negligent manslaughter and with 1 year each property owner be sent a check for the cost of rebuilding and 3 years of temporary housing. The city failed us. The county failed us. The state failed us. Palisades must form its own local government.
When we evacuated the upper alphabets at 3:30 pm on the 7th there were zero fire trucks anywhere near us. And no air support. The flames were just above upper monument at that time. We passed station 69 and their trucks were in the garage all tidy like it was just a regular day and there were a few firemen out front talking to a few residents. Sure wish we had stopped to hear what they were saying. A neighbor was on our street at 11:30 pm on the 7th and our home had not yet burned. The home across the street on the north side was just starting to catch fire. At 3:30 pm I had assumed all the firemen were trying to evacuate people off Palisades Drive and in the highlands as we had heard it was grid locked. It made sense to me with all the potential loss of life that could happen up there. But seeing the engines all tidily tucked into station 69 altered my perspective a bit. We didn’t hear any fire engines and we didn’t see any on the roads. Ironically much of upper highlands didn’t burn. But we sure did.
It is just heartbreaking to see so much loss and hear about so much incompetence of our institutions.
DWP rebuilds the electricity over land as is, no desire to even change it. How much more incompetence and ” we just don’t have the money” do we have to hear. We spent a fortune on property taxes, to figure out we have not been protected. In the meantime public pensions are super high.
What a great article! We need this journalism to go deeper and wider.
I don’t understand the criticism of Rick Caruso for not saving neighbors’ properties in addition to Palisades Village. If Rick had been elected Mayor his solid risk mitigation strategy could have been available to all of LA. We need government officials with Rick’s
skills! Our existing leaders have dismally failed us.
I have seen drone footage of my home on Herradura starting to burn on Jan. 8th. It is clear from the footage that there were no fire trucks or fire personnel anywhere in the vicinity. They evacuated us on the 7th and then abandoned Herradura. The City claims that due to high winds, water wouldn’t have helped. Yet those on my street who stayed behind, watering their homes, were able to save them. How can the City explain that away? If they were going to abandon us they should, at the very least, let us know that so we could have made informed decisions to either stay and water our homes or to collect all our valuables knowing we’d never see them again,