Any information about the Pacific Palisades Fire

[craigster59]

Originally Posted by oldE

Unfortunately I can. In December '77, the old farm house we were renting had a chimney failure. I detected the fire in the attic around 6 AM, woke my wife and called the owner, who called the local volunteer fire brigade.
It is funny how one's mind works ( or doesn't) in times of crisis. My wife grabbed clothes from the closet and dresser, threw them on the bed and we used the bedding to get those out to the barn across the road. I remember standing in the kitchen thinking 'we have to have things to eat' and grabbing flour and mixing bowls, ignoring the electric frying pan. All of my photography equipment was in the room where the chimney failed, years of negatives and prints. My wife got our cats into the car and moved it onto the road.
We got some furniture from the ground floor out when help arrived. The house was totally involved by 8.
Later that afternoon, looking through the ashes with the insurance adjuster, I came across a couple of small caliber rifles, the remains of my wife's electric typewriter and a mug. This was special, as it had been given to my wife by her best friend. It sits on a shelf in our kitchen as a reminder that things can be lost, but the love of a good friend stays.



We were lucky. The community rallied around us and we had insurance to allow us to replace many things. No loss of life.
My thoughts are with the tens of thousands who are struggling to know what to do next.

Best
Les

Very well put Les. It's the small things that we take for granted that mean the most in times of crisis.

I've been through fire loss although it was only a cabin. It was a place we all would gather and it was the place where all of our "collectibles" ended up.

Saddles and tack, Indian rugs, a Fred Harvey collection of pictures, menus and china ware. Some firearms, tools, the truck to haul water from the spring, a VW Thing to travel the backroads, all gone in an instant. A neighbor decided it was a good day to use a cutting torch on his property in high winds. He was fine, we lost everything.

But we had our home to go back to along with our everyday possessions. But the old cabin with the huge fireplace we would warm by after backcountry skiing, the large porch you could target shoot off of, the dining table we spent countless meals around was gone.

Even these days there are constant reminders. You'll see something like a Winchester axe in an antique store and think back "Wow, that's cool. I had one of those but in nicer condition" and you just move on. You have to keep looking forward.

[speeder]

It will all get rebuilt and people will heal as best they can, as they do after any natural disaster. Human beings are incredibly resilient. Relief efforts have been underway since the first day of the fires, one cafe owned by close friends in Silverlake has been providing meals to the frontline and to refugee distribution centers since Tuesday night and another friend's neighborhood bar in Hollywood has been converted to a donation collection site that now looks like a Goodwill receiving room, he has his kids and other volunteers sorting through the stuff and organizing from morning until late at night. I will be making deliveries all day today for them, trying to get the clothes to the various distribution sites.

As some person said on social media,

"We're a city where a **** ton of production coordinators live. If you thought our disaster relief efforts were going to be subpar, I really don't know what to tell you."

[speeder]

Originally Posted by techweenie

All true. Saw a woman in Altadena happy to find one blue tile from her daughter's bathroom. Was about all that was recognizable.

Saw reporting from Altadena last night where a 1960 Thunderbird convertible was sitting with no apparent damage, surrounded by fully burned-down homes. Randomness.

Also: the media and some pols are promoting a lot of arrests for "looting," but the facts are of 4 sheriffs arrests in the Eaton area, one was a potential looter, two curfew violators; one DUI. LAPD reported the fake firefighter, a drone operator and curfew violators. I think there were two with burglary tools and three "shoplifters." But claiming 30+ 'looter arrests' plays better in the media...

There is a shockingly low incidence of looting or burglary at this time.

[speeder]

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

I would assume most of the hotels are full of the folks displaced from the fire. Many can go to a friends or relatives house, but that is usually a temporary setup.

Where will those thousands of people live for the next year or ten until they can move back into a house built on their old lot? And the few that have houses that were not destroyed, will not have any utilities for quite a while.

I posted a link a couple of pages back about rental houses already getting snapped up quickly and an already white hot housing market about to go completely postal.

[speeder]

[jyl]

Originally Posted by speeder

There is a shockingly low incidence of looting or burglary at this time.

Why would anyone think there is a lot of looting? The not-burned/evacuated areas are easily blocked off (there's not that many roads in/out of Bel-Air for example) and being heavily patrolled (watching for arson as much as looting). The burned areas, there's nothing to loot.

[herr_oberst]

Originally Posted by jyl

I guess this is a wakeup call to check our own insurance, documents, go-bag.

Living in the central city of Portland, I cannot think of any disaster that would destroy my neighborhood. Not an urban/wildland interface area, well above sea level, wood frame house bolted for earthquake. But anyone can have a house fire.

I was talking with a friend of mine who lives in Bethany in the West Hills of Portland; he can forsee a similar scenario as these Malibu fires because the many similarities of these newer Portland neighborhoods as are seen in Malibu/LA canyon neighborhoods. The street design, the construction materials, the outbuildings and plantings, the city water situation, the emergency access....

[jyl]

Oh yes, West Hills, Forest Heights - many similarities there.

[LWJ]

I live in a suburban forest- a 55 acre wooded park is essentially part of my backyard. At least 75 trees in my yard. If a fire blows up a hill in the wrong way? My home is gone. And a good amount of my small city with it.

And I live on the wet side of Oregon.

We all need to be aware and realistic about things. I don’t have plans to change and can’t even cut down trees for the most part. But I am thinking about risk.

[jyl]

L.A. folks, any latest?

My newsfeed is full of firefighters-battling-worst-yet-winds stuff but other sources suggest fires are not progressing much or at all.

[techweenie]

Originally Posted by jyl

L.A. folks, any latest?

My newsfeed is full of firefighters-battling-worst-yet-winds stuff but other sources suggest fires are not progressing much or at all.

I'm not sure what defines "containment," but looking at the periphery of the Palisades fire, it looks like there's fire activity on maybe 30% of the margins, but they are stating 17% containment.

https://lafd.org/news/palisades-fire-0

Eaton fire:

https://www.cnn.com/weather/live-news/los-angeles-wildfires-palisades-eaton-california-01-14-25-hnk/index.html

last report -- yesterday -- said 27% containment

[Radioactive]

lafd.org map doesn't look correct/updated

The calfire site seems more accurate, or at least the map

http://fire.ca.gov

[wdfifteen]

Originally Posted by oldE

Unfortunately I can. In December '77, the old farm house we were renting had a chimney failure. I detected the fire in the attic around 6 AM, woke my wife and called the owner, who called the local volunteer fire brigade.
It is funny how one's mind works ( or doesn't) in times of crisis. My wife grabbed clothes from the closet and dresser, threw them on the bed and we used the bedding to get those out to the barn across the road. I remember standing in the kitchen thinking 'we have to have things to eat' and grabbing flour and mixing bowls, ignoring the electric frying pan. All of my photography equipment was in the room where the chimney failed, years of negatives and prints. My wife got our cats into the car and moved it onto the road.
We got some furniture from the ground floor out when help arrived. The house was totally involved by 8.
Later that afternoon, looking through the ashes with the insurance adjuster, I came across a couple of small caliber rifles, the remains of my wife's electric typewriter and a mug. This was special, as it had been given to my wife by her best friend. It sits on a shelf in our kitchen as a reminder that things can be lost, but the love of a good friend stays.

We were lucky. The community rallied around us and we had insurance to allow us to replace many things. No loss of life.
My thoughts are with the tens of thousands who are struggling to know what to do next.

Best
Les

What a story Les. I'm sorry you went through that.
Your story makes it clear that we all need a plan on what to do in case of disaster before disaster strikes.

[techweenie]

For anyone interested, Kimmel last night covered community response to the fires. It was pretty moving.

https://youtu.be/XdM9Iz57lvw?si=ny8dL284p-81xDBv

[jyl]

“Contained” means the fire there is extinguished to the point that firefighters don’t need to monitor it any more. Very conservative term. That’s what I gather anyway.

Looks like the fires have not moved any more toward Brentwood or Altadena.

[Noah930]

Apparently "contained" means the front of a fire that is no longer advancing. At least that's what one reporter explained a few nights ago.

It was windy yesterday, but no wind this morning. However, it's predicted to pick up substantially today and into tomorrow/Thursday. It's also chilly (41 degrees right now), so hopefully that helps.

[RNajarian]

My cousin owns Kobe Bryant’s old house in Pacific Palisades, the fire came very close to his home but miraculously he was spared, as you can see in the photo below.

The photo was taken by my nephew a recent (4 month) addition to the LAPD. My cousin was not allowed in the area so he was grateful to see his house was spared (for now).

[Noah930]

In the morning news conference, the Sheriff was just talking. There are curfews in the areas that have been evacuated (for safety and anti-looting reasons). They made 9 arrests overnight in the Eaton area. Some were for people trying to loot. Others were for curfew reasons where the people were stopped and then found to have outstanding arrest warrants/illegal paraphernalia. "If you're carrying firearms or narcotics, you shouldn't be doing that anyway." Even my 11-year-old laughed from the backseat at that comment.

[speeder]

The real looting starts when the private equity blood sucking leeches move in.

[Shaun @ Tru6]

Originally Posted by speeder

The real looting starts when the private equity blood sucking leeches move in.

I've stopped myself from posting that, thank you. CA legislature/Newsom needs prohibit professional money from buying the land.