There is definitely a “before” and “after” vibe in the air.
Before the fire, we were comfortable, complacent. Now we’re grieving, alert, angry, proactive. To our friends in Palisades, Malibu, and Altadena (and to the one homeowner in Brentwood, up in Mandeville, who lost a house) – we ache for you.
People I know in Palisades who lost their homes are still in shock. Brentwood was very lucky by comparison. But we could be next.
Teri Kahn, holding papers, demanded to be heard at the February Brentwood Community Council meeting. Kahn decried what she described as a “total lack of support” from the city when it comes to fire preparedness in Mandeville Canyon.
Fires, earthquakes, floods – natural disasters are inevitable. So there will be a next time; it’s just a matter of when. Last month I wrote a column in which I suggested we build a water pipeline from the ocean, stretching across the top of the Santa Monica Mountains.
The pipeline could supply big water tanks up in the hills. That water would be available to fight fires in the canyons below. I reposted my article on NextDoor and got over 100 comments. There is intense interest in the fire issue for obvious reasons.
Some didn’t like the idea of using salt water to fight fires. Saltwater is bad for vegetation, I was told repeatedly. But we already use salt water to fight fires. “Super Scooper” planes grab their water just off the coast of Palisades and Malibu, delivering it to targets more inland.
If it’s a choice between saving one’s home and saving some vegetation, that would seem to be a quick and easy choice. Saltwater pipes and tanks designed to fight fires already exist – in San Francisco. Such a system was built after the 1906 earthquake when much of the city burned. It’s still in place as a backup system.
The ideas on NextDoor kept flowing for several days.
- Goats in the hills to eat vegetation.
- A new reservoir west of the 405. A big water tank helicopters could dip into, replenishing their water supply.
- More escape roads so those fleeing a disaster have more options.
- Drones and automated fire towers that can use cameras to detect – and put out –
fires early.
- Fire-resistant building materials.
- Sprinklers to keep our houses wet when a fire is approaching.
- No more palm trees or eucalyptus trees.
- No more building in the hills. More space between houses.
- It’s time for Brentwood and the Palisades to secede from the City of Los Angeles.
The ideas kept flowing. It was pretty lively, really.
Here’s a link to the NextDoor chat if you are interested: https://nextdoor.com/p/QBKH9ydStg6s?view=detail&init_source=search&query=pipelines
There was a great article recently in the Los Angeles Times about “water trees” – 30-foot-high onion-shaped tanks made out of plastic that can hold huge amounts of water. I talked to the visionary behind this idea, Marco Terruzzin. He lost his home in the Palisades Fire.
Terruzzin said he believes Palisades needs 150 water trees strategically located. These tanks could supply individual homeowners and businesses or be available to firefighters. Terruzzin said having such tanks in place could have kept the water pressure high at the hydrant level.
At $80K per water tree, that’s $12 million to cover the Palisades – a very small price compared to recent fire losses (estimated to be $250 billion or more across all of greater Los Angeles).
If neighborhoods everywhere across Southern California erected water towers, the investment needed would be huge – but so might be the long-term savings.
If you missed it, here’s the article about “water trees”: https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2025-02-09/fires-water-trees-reservoirs-tech
Some LA Times readers suggested in the comments section below the article that some idiot might fire a gun at these tanks — from a far distance, even – springing a leak.
That seems like a legitimate concern. That’s the nature of brainstorming: You try a lot of ideas and look at them from different angles.
Ideas improve over time – or get set aside – or get combined with other ideas. We are early into this.
At least people are thinking – and talking. Citizens don’t seem willing to wait patiently, hoping the city will do better next time.
Rick Caruso set up a foundation, Steadfast LA, to study new approaches to this problem. Brentwood resident and LA Times Publisher Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong is doing something similar.
Two writers from the Berggruen Institute offered a lot of ideas in a recent article in the LA Times.
AP writer Brittany Peterson did an excellent job, I think, reviewing the current state of the fire-fighting terrain in a recent article entitled “How Better Water Systems Can Help a City Survive the Next Firestorm.”
During the Super Bowl, there was an ad announcing a new partnership between T-Mobile and Starlink. Soon we’ll be able to use our phones and communicate directly via satellite. This could solve a lot of communications challenges if landlines, the internet, or cell phone services go down during a disaster.
This is a very real problem up in the canyons, especially.
Surely, Palisades fire czar Steve Soboroff is absorbing all these ideas, pulling together an action plan. People want action, that’s for sure.
At a recent gathering of the Westside Urban Forum, the mayors of West Hollywood, Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, and Culver City spent a lot of time discussing the “before and after” nature of the fire preparedness discussion.
At the most recent Brentwood Community Council meeting, attendees witnessed some fire-related drama.
Michael Amster, Traci Park’s representative to Brentwood, was giving a fairly routine report when Teri Kahn, a long-time resident of Mandeville Canyon, broke in, forcefully asserting residents of Mandeville Canyon had been asking for fire-preparedness help from the city for years, to no avail.
BCC meetings are usually fairly staid affairs, and the rhythm of the meeting was thrown off kilter by Kahn, to be sure. She was going to be heard.
BCC Chair Carolyn LuBuglio assured Kahn that fire preparedness would feature prominently at a future BCC meeting.
Fire is top of mind for everyone. So, let’s keep talking. So, back to you.
If YOU had the magic wand and limitless amounts of money at your disposal, what would YOU
suggest?
Send your ideas to jeffhall@mirrormediagroupla.com.
