Palisades Fire - Los Angeles

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Question from somebody who hasn't had to evacuate - when do you decide to go? My impulse would be to just leave now if I was anywhere near, but I can understand it requires a place to stay, missing work, etc. Do you wait for the order? or go sooner if you can?

I am pp who has been through it three times. We have a system that warns us to prepare to evacuate, and we all are watching location, wind speed/direction, and of course literally watching, communicating with neighbors, and paying attention to our guts. I want to be out before the order so that there is no chance of being stuck in gridlock.

Coordinating with neighbors is a must. We have some teens on the block that aren’t old enough to drive. There are plans A, B, and C for them to get out. We all have keys or codes for multiple neighbors and we know who has which pets. We have a couple of elderly neighbors that are pretty fit but we have designated people to make sure they are ok and help them if needed. We let each other know when we’re going out of town, etc.

Curious, PP: Why do you keep living in such a fire-prone area? Why not move away to a safer place?

If you haven't lived there you don't understand.

Why not ask the people who live in tornado alley? Those places have few redeeming qualities and yet people live there. California has beaches, mountains, deserts, amazing weather, etc.

if people want to go back and rebuild there they should know they won't have insurance and nobody will help them rebuild when the next fire comes. Caveat emptor. That is if they will be allowed. I think CA will make it impossible for some to rebuild as it was before. Those ocean view Malibu bluff homes won't be rebuilt, that's for sure.

They already know about the insurance situation since they have been dealing with it. I never get lesson givers with zero personal experience thinking they know better.

Why do you presume people have no experience?

Because you just asserted that people in LA have no clue about insurance. Anyone in a natural disaster area is very aware of the insurance situation.

Yet they did nothing. It should have been a signal to sell, not hope and pray for the best.

Because it's so easy to sell an uninsurable house?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Question from somebody who hasn't had to evacuate - when do you decide to go? My impulse would be to just leave now if I was anywhere near, but I can understand it requires a place to stay, missing work, etc. Do you wait for the order? or go sooner if you can?

I am pp who has been through it three times. We have a system that warns us to prepare to evacuate, and we all are watching location, wind speed/direction, and of course literally watching, communicating with neighbors, and paying attention to our guts. I want to be out before the order so that there is no chance of being stuck in gridlock.

Coordinating with neighbors is a must. We have some teens on the block that aren’t old enough to drive. There are plans A, B, and C for them to get out. We all have keys or codes for multiple neighbors and we know who has which pets. We have a couple of elderly neighbors that are pretty fit but we have designated people to make sure they are ok and help them if needed. We let each other know when we’re going out of town, etc.

Curious, PP: Why do you keep living in such a fire-prone area? Why not move away to a safer place?

If you haven't lived there you don't understand.

Why not ask the people who live in tornado alley? Those places have few redeeming qualities and yet people live there. California has beaches, mountains, deserts, amazing weather, etc.

if people want to go back and rebuild there they should know they won't have insurance and nobody will help them rebuild when the next fire comes. Caveat emptor. That is if they will be allowed. I think CA will make it impossible for some to rebuild as it was before. Those ocean view Malibu bluff homes won't be rebuilt, that's for sure.

They already know about the insurance situation since they have been dealing with it. I never get lesson givers with zero personal experience thinking they know better.

Why do you presume people have no experience?

Because you just asserted that people in LA have no clue about insurance. Anyone in a natural disaster area is very aware of the insurance situation.

Yet they did nothing. It should have been a signal to sell, not hope and pray for the best.

Because it's so easy to sell an uninsurable house?

There are a lot of cash buyers there, it wouldn't matter to them.

[Anonymous]

Switching gears (and not sure if this was covered in the previous 30 pages). But I don’t understand the folks all over the Internet who stayed behind with their house to “save it” until the very last minute. I absolutely understand the impulse to protect your home, particularly if it’s uninsured. But what do people think they are going to use within their household to fight this massive fire? It feels like a foolish attempt that will cause them to be left behind and require a rescue that endangers EMS personnel.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Question from somebody who hasn't had to evacuate - when do you decide to go? My impulse would be to just leave now if I was anywhere near, but I can understand it requires a place to stay, missing work, etc. Do you wait for the order? or go sooner if you can?

I am pp who has been through it three times. We have a system that warns us to prepare to evacuate, and we all are watching location, wind speed/direction, and of course literally watching, communicating with neighbors, and paying attention to our guts. I want to be out before the order so that there is no chance of being stuck in gridlock.

Coordinating with neighbors is a must. We have some teens on the block that aren’t old enough to drive. There are plans A, B, and C for them to get out. We all have keys or codes for multiple neighbors and we know who has which pets. We have a couple of elderly neighbors that are pretty fit but we have designated people to make sure they are ok and help them if needed. We let each other know when we’re going out of town, etc.

Curious, PP: Why do you keep living in such a fire-prone area? Why not move away to a safer place?

If you haven't lived there you don't understand.

Why not ask the people who live in tornado alley? Those places have few redeeming qualities and yet people live there. California has beaches, mountains, deserts, amazing weather, etc.

if people want to go back and rebuild there they should know they won't have insurance and nobody will help them rebuild when the next fire comes. Caveat emptor. That is if they will be allowed. I think CA will make it impossible for some to rebuild as it was before. Those ocean view Malibu bluff homes won't be rebuilt, that's for sure.

They already know about the insurance situation since they have been dealing with it. I never get lesson givers with zero personal experience thinking they know better.

Why do you presume people have no experience?

Because you just asserted that people in LA have no clue about insurance. Anyone in a natural disaster area is very aware of the insurance situation.

Yet they did nothing. It should have been a signal to sell, not hope and pray for the best.

Because it's so easy to sell an uninsurable house?

There are a lot of cash buyers there, it wouldn't matter to them.

How do you know that isn't who the people fleeing are?

[Anonymous]

Also, do you know how many schools, churches, other places of worship are gone now? Just bc children are rich it doesn’t mean that their world isn’t traumatically affected when they lose all familiarity. They will all have to move so they can get an education while the rebuilding is occurring. How about all the job loss associated with these places burning down? Do you pay teachers who don’t have a physical school? The amount of logistics associated with this is overwhelming!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Switching gears (and not sure if this was covered in the previous 30 pages). But I don’t understand the folks all over the Internet who stayed behind with their house to “save it” until the very last minute. I absolutely understand the impulse to protect your home, particularly if it’s uninsured. But what do people think they are going to use within their household to fight this massive fire? It feels like a foolish attempt that will cause them to be left behind and require a rescue that endangers EMS personnel.

There was a video of a man with his dog in his home looking out a flames feet from his home on multiple sides telling his dog it was going to be ok. I don't think it was going to be OK and I wonder what happened to him and the dog.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So when the right is politicizing this and claiming that the Dems in charge cut the LAFD budget...they are lying.

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/01/08/wildfire-threatens-karen-bass-extended-honeymoon-00197228

Bass also took heat from far-left activists online, who accused the mayor of cutting the fire department’s budget in order to pay for a costly new contract with the city’s police. Also weighing in against her was Patrick Soon-Shiong, the politically idiosyncratic owner of the Los Angeles Times, who echoed the attack, posting on X that “the Mayor cut LA Fire Department’s budget by $23M.”

That assertion is wrong. The city was in the process of negotiating a new contract with the fire department at the time the budget was being crafted, so additional funding for the department was set aside in a separate fund until that deal was finalized in November. In fact, the city’s fire budget increased more than $50 million year-over-year compared to the last budget cycle, according to Blumenfield’s office, although overall concerns about the department’s staffing level have persisted for a number of years.

Of course. Republicans are liars.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Question from somebody who hasn't had to evacuate - when do you decide to go? My impulse would be to just leave now if I was anywhere near, but I can understand it requires a place to stay, missing work, etc. Do you wait for the order? or go sooner if you can?

I am pp who has been through it three times. We have a system that warns us to prepare to evacuate, and we all are watching location, wind speed/direction, and of course literally watching, communicating with neighbors, and paying attention to our guts. I want to be out before the order so that there is no chance of being stuck in gridlock.

Coordinating with neighbors is a must. We have some teens on the block that aren’t old enough to drive. There are plans A, B, and C for them to get out. We all have keys or codes for multiple neighbors and we know who has which pets. We have a couple of elderly neighbors that are pretty fit but we have designated people to make sure they are ok and help them if needed. We let each other know when we’re going out of town, etc.

Curious, PP: Why do you keep living in such a fire-prone area? Why not move away to a safer place?

What place is safe? People live in Tornado Alley, in hurricane zones, in tsunami risk zones, beside volcanoes, in earthquake risk zones, in flood zones, in wildfire and mudslide risk zones, in avalanche zones and in terrorism/war target/crime zones.

Suburban DC.

Who wants to tell PP?

Seriously.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is a fire storm of mass destruction and will only get worse over the night.

Iconic landmarks like the Getty Villa and Palisades HS are on fire. 0% contained.

I grew up in SoCal and this is a disaster. People had to abandon their cars in traffic and run.

30,000 people evacuated but the Getty staff say the museum is very secure. My LA friends left their home before the gridlock. I have been through three fire evacuations in the last few years in the Rocky Mountain West, and several friends lost their homes with minutes to get out. The trauma of losing everything you have is unimaginable, especially for children. I have totally changed how I arrange everything. My heart goes out to anyone who has to evacuate, and wait and wonder what is happening to their home. The wind forecast looks terrible.

If you don't mind sharing, I'd like to hear what changes you made. I live in LA and have several family and friends sheltering in hotels right now.

I am glad your friends made it out, and I hope their homes make it.

We had 15 minutes in our first evacuation, many of our friends had literally two minutes. Here is what I’ve done

-Reorganized “must have” paper and objects so that they exist in one grabbable plastic file box stored in the front closet. This means that the overall organization is disrupted. Obviously it has passports, banking, emergency cash etc., but it also has my favorite drawings from each child, original genealogical documents, love letters. This is the box that is first out. It’s what you need and what you feel like you will die without. I sharpied symbols on the box to remind me to close windows, doors, and shut off power/gas. We don’t have propane but if you do you should try to remove it. This is where you put the things that you take if you have two minutes. I also have a small box of charging equipment. This is totally an emotional crutch for me. I learned the first time that slinging chargers into random places made me feel out of control and panicky, but I really wanted to take them.

-The front closet also has flat boxes, packing tape, bubble wrap, scissors that are not used for anything else. They are there primarily for art and books.

-I have packed a box with one or two pieces of each of the multiple sets of china and crystal that are family things.

-I have a packed box of our most treasured Christmas things.

-Jewelry is stored in a box with trays and I am religious about putting it away

-Books are shelved so that high priority keepers are together. Old photo albums are there (yes they are scanned, but some photos I want if I can have them).

-Every bedroom has a box of big black trash bags. You can stuff a ton of clothing, stuffed animals, special blankets, etc. in really quickly and the bags will squish into vehicles efficiently. Kids can do this while you do something else.i will never forget holding my kid’s quavering friend who barely escaped with her family and did not have a single thing left. Not one stuffed animal, baby toy, pillowcase. Nothing.

-Scanning and photographing. Pretty much everything that can be scanned is scanned, if it can’t be scanned it’s photographed. I have thumb drives here and send copies to my mother and cousin. This serves two purposes. Whatever we can’t take out, we will have a memory of, and we will get the max for our contents insurance (start scanning receipts for things as you buy). Insurance for build cost is usually not enough, and they’re only obligated to pay a % of contents unless you can document it all.

-Priorotized lists. We know approximately what can go out in 2, 5, 10, 15, 30 minutes. We know what fits in our vehicles and what we can add if our friend comes with a trailer. This is all written in order and stored in an envelope taped to the must go box. Be sure to include a device list. No matter how prepared you are, it’s scary. It’s not a time to make decisions. You don’t want to be in the basement staring at your sorority memorabilia and your grandmother’s ice skates and wondering what to take. This also means someone else can pack if you put locations and ideally a photo on the list.

Overall, my house is no longer organized for maximum efficiency, but for maximum evacuation efficiency. It doesn’t change much or look weird. It just means some extra steps and discipline here and there. Everyone will have different priorities and choices. The key is making those decisions before the crisis and organizing so you don’t have to think or search for things when you evacuate.

This is insane. I agree about people, pets, important documents, and chargers. Laterns/batteries is a good idea too. The kids have a few favorite toys/stuffies. But I don’t care about anything else you mentioned - even if I had a week to prepare I wouldn’t bring China or Christmas decorations or kids artwork. Now if Google and Amazon photo BOTH lose all my digital storage, THEN I’d be devastated. But the stuff is just stuff.

You do you. You have no right to judge anyone else. I had to leave grabbing what I could with no planning the first time. Then we watched and waited for three days. It sucked beyond belief and yes, if I can safely prevent my family from going through what our friends have, I will do it. Now we’re prepared. My best friends lost every single thing. It’s all “just stuff” until it happens to you. Make your own decisions and don’t judge other people as long as they are obeying safety orders.

+1 I’m so sick of people coming for this woman after they ASKED HER how she organizes to get out with all her stuff.

+2

This woman answered a question and shared her process. It’s not anyone’s job to tell her that her choices for what to save are wrong.

The idea about the trash bags is especially smart.

I agree. Very helpful.

+1

I’m going to have my teens scan a bunch of photos/documents for me this summer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Has this thread been colonized with people who are non-functional? Are you all incapable of basic skills like “using Google”?

The information about the deadly wildfires in Europe is easily available with a very, very basic Google search.

For some reason this thread has attracted a lot of trolls and/or terrible people.

These fires are awful and devastating. I am very sorry for the people who have lost their houses and their businesses, not to mention those who have lost their lives. This thread is one of the worst I've seen on here. No one should be snarking on the loss of whole communities and livelihoods. It's not good for us as people and it's not good for your soul as a human.

Praying the winds die down and these fires can be brought under control.

That's it.

The judgey a-holes are drawn to these threads to crap all over as many people as they can.

Every time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Switching gears (and not sure if this was covered in the previous 30 pages). But I don’t understand the folks all over the Internet who stayed behind with their house to “save it” until the very last minute. I absolutely understand the impulse to protect your home, particularly if it’s uninsured. But what do people think they are going to use within their household to fight this massive fire? It feels like a foolish attempt that will cause them to be left behind and require a rescue that endangers EMS personnel.

There was a video of a man with his dog in his home looking out a flames feet from his home on multiple sides telling his dog it was going to be ok. I don't think it was going to be OK and I wonder what happened to him and the dog.

Exactly. Is this just a panic response? Acknowledgment that there’s nowhere else to go and so they give up? A fire engulfing a city is not going to spare your home because you use water from the bathtub or wet towels. I absolutely don’t understand this. There are a couple knuckleheads on CNN this morning who filmed themselves trying to “fight the fire“ from their home before they bailed. They were cracking jokes in the interview and it really seemed like they were trying to create some Internet fame from the event. The whole thing was weird and distasteful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Switching gears (and not sure if this was covered in the previous 30 pages). But I don’t understand the folks all over the Internet who stayed behind with their house to “save it” until the very last minute. I absolutely understand the impulse to protect your home, particularly if it’s uninsured. But what do people think they are going to use within their household to fight this massive fire? It feels like a foolish attempt that will cause them to be left behind and require a rescue that endangers EMS personnel.

Our friend has a fire hose that they can hook up to their pool pump. The fire hasn't reached their area yet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Switching gears (and not sure if this was covered in the previous 30 pages). But I don’t understand the folks all over the Internet who stayed behind with their house to “save it” until the very last minute. I absolutely understand the impulse to protect your home, particularly if it’s uninsured. But what do people think they are going to use within their household to fight this massive fire? It feels like a foolish attempt that will cause them to be left behind and require a rescue that endangers EMS personnel.

Our friend has a fire hose that they can hook up to their pool pump. The fire hasn't reached their area yet.

I assume they have it hooked up to a generator?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Switching gears (and not sure if this was covered in the previous 30 pages). But I don’t understand the folks all over the Internet who stayed behind with their house to “save it” until the very last minute. I absolutely understand the impulse to protect your home, particularly if it’s uninsured. But what do people think they are going to use within their household to fight this massive fire? It feels like a foolish attempt that will cause them to be left behind and require a rescue that endangers EMS personnel.

It seems like with every fire there's always that one person who did manage to save (or seemingly save) his house by battling the flames with the hose. We've all seen the photos of an entire neighborhood wiped out except for that one house. I image that is what encourages some people to think they have a chance.

Based on some of the posts on here, I'd like to point out that Altadena is a very mixed area. While Pacific Palisades was very wealthy, Altadena had everything from mansions to tiny 1950s bunaglows and affluent yuppies to working class families and beautiful 1930s Spanish colonials to ugly ranches. In many ways the devastation of northern Altadena is the worst of all the devastations in these fires because that's a kind of neighborhood whose dynamics is forever changed. While I'm pretty confident Pacific Palisides will be rebuilt to look pretty much the same it did last week, that's not going to be the case in Altadena.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Switching gears (and not sure if this was covered in the previous 30 pages). But I don’t understand the folks all over the Internet who stayed behind with their house to “save it” until the very last minute. I absolutely understand the impulse to protect your home, particularly if it’s uninsured. But what do people think they are going to use within their household to fight this massive fire? It feels like a foolish attempt that will cause them to be left behind and require a rescue that endangers EMS personnel.

There was a video of a man with his dog in his home looking out a flames feet from his home on multiple sides telling his dog it was going to be ok. I don't think it was going to be OK and I wonder what happened to him and the dog.

Exactly. Is this just a panic response? Acknowledgment that there’s nowhere else to go and so they give up? A fire engulfing a city is not going to spare your home because you use water from the bathtub or wet towels. I absolutely don’t understand this. There are a couple knuckleheads on CNN this morning who filmed themselves trying to “fight the fire“ from their home before they bailed. They were cracking jokes in the interview and it really seemed like they were trying to create some Internet fame from the event. The whole thing was weird and distasteful.

But people aren't logical they are emotional and 95% of people have 0 common sense. That's why people don't leave when they should evacuate from any natural disaster, be it wildfires, hurricanes, etc. A lot of times I think it stems from fear but also a lot of people just don't know what to do when they are in a situation requiring quick thinking - they can't make decisions in crisis mode. I'm not kidding. A lot of people are not built to handle new situations. It's just how some people are wired - they don't do anything because they don't know what to do. Even if you tell them what to do, they freeze up and can't do anything. I don't know really how to explain it but to say that it's not shocking or surprising to me someone is acting like this. Statistically, a lot of people are like this.