John Wilson shows the flag that was flying over his house on January 7. It was taken down by a DWP crew later to save it and return it to Wilson.
John and Gloria Wilson lost their home during the Palisades Fire. They also lost a half-dozen business buildings on Marquez Avenue, including those that housed Vittorio’s and Ronny’s Market.
When they came back to see their home after the fire, they found the following note, dated January 22, next to the American Flag that had been flying by their home.
Dear Homeowner,
Let me begin by saying we are truly sorry for your loss. While we working to make the area safe, we noticed the flag on your property. It was tattered and partially melted, but considering what it went through it was still flying.
It was barely hanging on so we decide to take it down. We didn’t want the winds to knock it to the ground, so we folded it and saved it for you. I know it isn’t much but I placed a new flag with it, so that you when you rebuild you can fly it proudly once again.
With our deepest sympathy – CREW 2 LADSP 702R
John who was born in Santa Monica Hospital in April 1940, was deeply appreciative. The Palisades has been the only home he’s known for almost 85 years. When he was in elementary school, he helped build Pacific Palisades. His father, Robert, a prolific architect and builder, designed and constructed buildings in the Marquez Knolls and Palisades Village, including the Bay Theater (Sunset) and about 80 percent of the town’s businesses in the mid-20th century.
For many years, Wilson also co-owned, along with more than a dozen relatives, commercial property that eventually was purchased by Rick Caruso to make way for the new Palisades Village shopping complex
Before retirement Wilson was a L.A. City prosecuting attorney and later a police detective, and he has always been active in the Palisades community, first as a Boy Scout Troop leader and then in the Palisades Rotary Club. Wilson and Gloria married in 1967 and they have two adult children.
The 1978 fire raged in the hills above Pacific Palisades.
(Editor’s note: As I researched Wilson, I found a story he wrote in 2017 urging residents to do brush clearance, which they now are required to do. The problem is governmental officials do not perform brush clearance on parklands.)
It’s Time to Complete Brush Clearance
By JOHN WILSON
October 23, 1978, 9:41 a.m.
The Santa Ana winds had been blowing for several days and everyone was on edge. Suicides had gone up and violent encounters increased markedly during this hot, windy weather.
The first call came in at 9:41 a.m. to the Los Angeles City Fire Dispatch Center. The dispatcher switched his radio mike on and broadcasted: “Mountain Patrol and Units concerned. A report of a brush fire in the mountain area on Mulholland Highway at the 405 Freeway. Stations 71, 19, 59, 108, 109, battalion 9, battalion 10, dozer 108, fire 4, fire 5….”
These words had special meaning to our firemen. They knew that homes would burn and possibly lives would be lost over the next 24 hours.
They were right. Eventually, 60 homes were destroyed in Brentwood and Pacific Palisades, along with the Chapel at St. Matthew’s Church and part of the Mill Building. Additionally, several buildings at the Boy Scout Camp Josepho in Rustic Canyon were destroyed.
We, however, got lucky: no one died. We got lucky because as the roaring fire approached Sunset Boulevard, the Santa Ana wind died, and a sweet ocean breeze swept over us in mid-afternoon.
During this time, I was a Deputy Los Angeles City Attorney whose job it was, among others, to advise the code enforcement section of the Los Angeles City Fire Department. I had the opportunity to attend a post-analysis seminar conducted to critique the Fire Department’s actions during this fire.
The Command Staff were both laudatory and brutal in their critiques. The good and the bad all came out, but in the end, everyone agreed that, but for the wind change, the Palisades would have looked a lot different the next day.
Certainly, the wind, the delays in dispatching certain mutual-aid fire trucks, shake roofing material on houses were reviewed and highlighted.
But the big focus was upon the citizens of Pacific Palisades.
The analysis showed that some homeowners were just plain lazy, or fatalistic about cleaning the combustible brush away from their homes. One homeowner just flat-out refused to clean the brush around her house because it was too beautiful to destroy.
One scientist calculated that if an acre of mountain brush were to burn it would generate enough energy to equal a one megaton bomb going off. I have had the experience of feeling this energy and I have watched how destructive it can be. Add the fact that a good wind will blow embers a mile downwind, and that when a large fire gets going, it often creates its own weather system.
Sometimes, the fire will pull all the oxygen out of a canyon as it creates a firestorm above the canyon. I experienced that in the Bel-Air fire in 1961, which destroyed 480 homes.
We know, of course, that many people can perish in runaway brush and forest fires. In happens every summer in our western states, and back in 1933, 33 firemen died and 150 were injured while fighting a brush fire close to here.
Thus, fair warning, Pacific Palisades. Now is the time to act. Don’t tell me you are too old to clear the brush around your property. Hire someone or call your local City Councilman for suggestions.
Do it now! Do it before some nut starts playing with matches in the hills above you.