GALERIA DEL FUEGO

Photos from Skylar Peak, Keegan Gibbs and the Malibu Community Brigade.

Where you at, man?

After a very long month, I did some rain prep at home then headed up to Mammoth to snowboard with some friends. I did carving turns and I even ran into the Richards family in the lodge (Val Surf). Right now I’m behind a snow plow on the way home. 

In 50 words or less how would you describe your Palisades Fire experience?

Two friends died in the fire. Randy and Rory.  Catastrophic loss, damage and heartbreak.  This will bring our community together like no other disaster in Malibu’s history.

Everyone knew Randy Miod, but Rory?

Rory suffered from, I believe, cerebral palsy. He lived up near LACoFD Camp 8 with his mother, Shelley. The tragic loss of her son is very sad. I am very grateful that there were not more lives lost.

In five words or less how would you sum up the fire danger in Malibu?

“Have a plan. Trust the science.” That’s six, but as a community living in a high wildfire risk area we must learn from this to make our homes safer. And trust the science behind wildfire risk in California.  We all have a lot to learn ahead.

I’m surprised more houses weren’t burned in the Franklin Fire, and more people weren’t lost in the Palisades Fire.

Likewise. Day Two or Three of the incident, my volunteer LACoFD Brigade team was assigned Rapid Damage Assessment by CAL FIRE in the alphabet streets from the mountain to the ocean, devastating. Consecutive 12+ hour days.

Oh you worked on that map. Hats off to everyone involved in photographing and categorizing every house.  

It was what people can’t understand is when you live in those areas... The city of LA learned a lot from the Bel Air fire in the 1960s. As time went on, environmentally, we started to protect more things and plants and vegetation so the fuel load was very high.  Most of the last prescribed burns in the Santa Monica Mountains were circa early 90s. We need to bring things like that back, or use goats to better manage fuel loads in order to have effective fuel modification to better allow the fire department to do what they can and protect our homes.

And even more importantly, we need to focus on hardening our homes so they can withstand being impacted by inevitable fire. No department is capable of dealing with a wildfire that’s being moved with hundred mile-an-hour winds.  This was scary and humbling.

No one is. Firestorms aren’t defeatable. It’s a fire tsunami, a fire tornado. 

So we have to learn from that.

Where did you go and what did you see?

As a brigade we were initially dispatched into the Sunset Mesa area behind the Getty. The fire had not reached that area yet, but by the time we rounded Topanga, you could see the black darkness and I think the hair raised on my back.  

Everybody in my vehicle, in Brigade Team Five, knew that fire wasn't stopping till it hit the Pacific Ocean - that  it was going to be the worst, most destructive disaster that has ever hit. Not only the Malibu community, but the Palisades community and the entire Santa Monica Mountain range area. 

 I knew because of the wind speed. I referenced this to a couple of people. At one point, I was standing as a lookout for my team, up Las Flores. And I'm a big guy.

And it almost blew you over. 

I got blown onto my face. It blew me over. A wind-driven wildfire, when you hit winds that are hurricane speed, it's one of the scariest things one will ever experience.  You cannot outrun it…

Nope. I said it was like Random the Dragon got drunk and spiteful and flew around firehosing structures wholesale and at random.

Again I can't reiterate how important it is for people to respect our first responders made of the trained women and men from the fire departments, Lifeguards, Sheriffs, Police, utility workers, and others.  We work together to save lives.  Adhere to those warnings, because I think some people might have got a little more complacent in the Franklin Fire and the Broad Fire. Those fires were no comparison to the Palisades Fire.

I heard the top speed up in Camp Eight was 84 miles an hour.

I’m fairly certain there were some other RAWS stations in the Santa Monica Mountains that were clocked higher.

The only way you're going to beat these things is nip them in the bud. At the beginning. How long do you think you have until it goes out of control?

Palisades was out of control from the start. All the aircraft were trying to slow it down so they could get resources there, get people out of their houses, do structure protection:  trying to save houses from burning down.  

About the Malibu Community Brigade: When were you guys alerted? And when were you called?

We have a standard operating procedure (SOP) in conjunction with LA County Fire. When there's red flag events, we monitor and listen to what the county wants us to do. Once we’re notified or we see smoke, we mobilize and tie in where we are needed. 

FAUX FIGHTERS

These two dingalings were arrested for impersonating fire fighters in Pacific Palisades. Perhaps they should be ordered to surrender their engine to a higher cause: the Malibu Community Brigade would put it to real use.

It was instant. I had a feeling. As soon as we heard the radio traffic we mobilized. Safety is a primary concern for us. And aside from the PTSD and mental-related things of experiencing this, there was really good accountability for our guys. I think we're all very grateful and humbled by the training that we received. The Santa Monica Mountains yield some of the most dangerous conditions in the world for fighting fire.  Hats off to Chief David Updike from the US Forest Service and LACo Division 7 Chief Drew Smith for their extensive support and training.   

Terrain times fuel times wind. Years ago I rode up Corral Canyon with a fire chief and he said “We have the best firebreak in the world: The Pacific Ocean.”

And here was the perfect example: low relative humidity, minimal fuel moisture, super-high wind. That stops at the Great Pacific Firebreak.

And if these are arson fires… 

What was it Nia Peeples once said?

“Only in Malibu, when you call the fire department do you get the Chippendale Dancers.”

The Malibu Community Brigade continues that tradition. Photo from Malibu Times, courtesy Keegan Gibbs.

Tell me the movements of the Malibu community brigade. How many teams were sent? How many people went? Everybody?

I think every available member was activated at some point: around 45 plus. Don't quote me on that.  We were all over this thing from Carbon Beach to the Palisades and nearly every canyon in between at one point or another during January 2025.

I know that Haylynn Conrad found an Anonymous Benevolent Benefactor who flowed the Malibu Community Brigade $750,000.  As Spicoli said: “Righteous bucks!” You can gear up with that kind of dough. Designer Hazmat suits!

Haylynn is a rock star and Malibu must support her.  She's got a lot to learn but that $750K will fund more equipment so we as a brigade will be better suited for our greater Malibu Community.  Gearing up is one thing, but putting your life on the line as a volunteer is another. There needs to be new standards for wildland firefighting in terms of smoke inhalation. There's a very good chance that all the first responders in this will see health side effects. That's horrible, but they also saved a lot of lives.

Our advantage is…

MOM WOULD GO

Haylynn Conrad puts the “rad” in “Conrad” and deserves some props and a gallery.

The first-term City Councilwoman took time out from getting barreled (in New Guinea!) and raised $750,000 for the Malibu Community Brigade and another $750,000 + $250,000 for Captain Seetoo and the LA County Sheriffs at Lost Hills.

Some of the money will go to a drone program for fire and crime prevention.

After that wave she got bounced off the reef, in a place you really don’t want to get reef rash.

Local knowledge.

Correct. Local knowledge of the terrain and where people live.   Especially the elderly.  I would advocate that the county expand the Community Brigade Program as we learn and improve it.  

And for Malibu, check in with your neighbor, this has been traumatic for everyone..

And Local Knowledge is just knowing how the town is laid out.

Imagine you're in a fire engine and you just came from the city or Texas or Washington or wherever. Places where you deal with structure fires, but now you’re out in Malibu.   Some roads are narrow, it’s dark, the wind is ripping, and the fire is spotting rapidly.   It can be frightening but that is what a firefighter signs up for…  Safety first…   At one point we tied in with a structure team from east LA.   Those dudes were awesome and saved a large building on PCH and many others.

The roads are a tight labyrinth. It’s smoky. The wind is shifting. Maybe comms aren’t that good. Flames sweeping across roads.

Fire fighters are cautious and they won’t go into terrain and certain situations.  It's all about risk, right? If they feel we’re safe and we can handle it… 

There's never going to be a scenario where there's a fire truck at every house during these major events. And for some reason, people have the expectation that's gonna happen. 

But if you can put a few guys who can calm and help some residents in a certain area, it can be a better outcome. And if we can help educate the fire crews where maybe that's not their normal spot where they're always working, the local knowledge is very valuable. 

How long were you on the Palisades Fire? 

I was active in Palisades relief from the the IA, the Initial Attack,  till about January 30.  And of course will be dealing with the rebuilding process in my roles and history with our local government.

Would you say that learning how fire behaves is like learning the ocean? You’re learning to deal with an unpredictable and random natural force. 

Relative to the ocean… every time I go in the ocean, I learn something new. Doesn’t matter if it's the same wave I've surfed 100 times, 1000 times - you always learn. And surfing is about decision making, right? Am I going to take this wave? Am I going to take that wave? Am I going to paddle here? Am I going to paddle there? And you're constantly analyzing the ocean, and you're adjusting then based on what's in front of you, right? 

Right.

So that's the same thing with fighting fire. You're constantly reassessing the situation. There's a common term in firefighting: “Take five at two.” Every day at 1400 hours, you always want to take five minutes, no matter what, and reassess the situation: “Is my team safe? Do we have a safe exit? Does anybody need anything? Does anybody not feel comfortable? What kind of hazards can we watch out for?” That's what keeps firemen safe. 

In this fire and every fire in the SantaMoonica mountains we were assessing the situation constantly.   It was like surfing large Hanalei with no leash, getting smoked, and having to swim back out.

I don't claim to be the most experienced fireman in the world, although I have a lot of experience being in Malibu for my life. The wildland firefighters and hot shots, or the structure protection teams got the skills, those are the guys who do the real work.  Also the support teams on the logistics side and fire science pros like Bobby Milstein. 

We know the land, we know where elderly people live because we're familiar with the neighborhood. And you want to make sure they get out of their homes. Yeah, you can help along the way. You try to make a difference.

And you're taking pressure off the firefighters by handling other things. 

We communicate with the firefighters and say, “We got this lady out,” and they’ll move on, or “We think this is a defensible house,” and they're going to take an extra look.

There has been criticism aimed at Rick Caruso and maybe other POW (People of Wealth) for hiring private firefighters to defend their homes and property. People say it's selfish, but in a way it's unselfish.

It’s completely unselfish. That’s the most unselfish thing you can do. That comes down to taking ownership of the area in which you live, but what you don't want to see is a situation where people are getting in the way and impeding the activity of the fire department. That is the hardest thing about people who stay in a fire. That is what jeopardizes everything, because as soon as somebody gets hurt or falls down the hill: the first priority is life, yeah? And that's always going to be the priority. So now, when someone gets hurt, you're taking that resource out to deal with that problem. 

I wrote a story called Bu Back Better which stated there's opportunity in disaster, and, you know, there's always plans to make PCH safer and slower. And so I proposed: “Well, how about undergrounding a sewage line and take a couple hundred homes off septic and stop stinking up the place. And underground the lines. The fiber optic and telephone and power lines. All the lines.”

Edison is working to underground power lines.

Everywhere? Or just PCH?

It will take time and money.   Look forward to seeing Malibu with more underground utilities.

Are you involved in that at all?

We will see what is present but it’s widely known overhead lines have caused many devastating wildfires.

Does it make your job harder or easier?

It makes it safer.