Home » How did homes near the Eaton fire’s ignition point emerge unscathed? – Jobsmaa.com

How did homes near the Eaton fire’s ignition point emerge unscathed? – Jobsmaa.com

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As Michael Olson watched Eaton burn, the flames at the base of an electrical tower seemed small, seemingly manageable.

Then on the night of January 7, wind blew a shower of sparks across the hillside above his Pasadena home.

“In 10 minutes, the whole vista is lit up,” Olson, 70, told the Times. “It is a mountain of flame.”

Only a dry creek bed separated his backyard from the fire. Fire trucks rushed to Olson's neighborhood as he and his wife drove away.

“We left the house thinking we'd never see it again,” he said.

Instead, Olson and his neighbors found their homes untouched by the fire, which ravaged south and west of Altadena, killing at least 16 people. Some found trees singed and decks damaged in their backyards — signs that the fire was dangerously close. A house's gutters were hanging as if they were starting to melt.

Dozens of properties that authorities still suspect were the flashpoint emerged unscathed. Some residents have already returned to the neighborhood despite being surrounded by ash and rubble. With the evacuation zone guarded by armed troops and police officers, they struggle to access food and other basic supplies.

Those who survived are now trying to understand why they survived when their homes, at the center of such a devastating fire, burned to the ground.

“An act of God?” Olson asked. “Good karma? I told people that I used a lot of good karma that day.

The wind stirred up an inferno – yet few houses were spared

Up against the hill, residents on Canyon Close Road have an unbroken view from their backyard to the power towers, where Olsen and other residents say they saw the flames on Jan. 7 around 6:15 p.m.

As the Eaton Fire burned a horseshoe around Olsen's street and surrounding neighborhood, there are several theories to explain why not a single house caught fire.

“It's wind, brush clearance, luck,” said Scott Brown, assigned to Los Angeles County Fire Station 66 about a mile east of Kinaloa Canyon. His best guess: “All three.”

To learn how the fire spread — and the decisions that led to some homes being saved — the Times spoke to fire officials, first responders, residents and experts and reviewed hours of radio traffic by emergency crews since the night the Eaton fire started.

Firefighters were stationed on East, West and South streets battling the blaze. They sprayed water on the burning hillside, but 70-mph winds sent embers over their heads, sparking new fires two miles behind them.

“It's something I've never experienced in my 20 years,” said Pasadena Fire Department Battalion Chief Danny Nowsha, the initial incident commander on the fire. “We placed the apparatus very close to the edge of the fire to prevent it from going into the buildings, but a lot of embers would fly out into the surroundings.”

Olsen and her neighbors believe their homes survived for two reasons. For one thing, Pasadena and Los Angeles County fire departments were able to flood their street — where crews went first to respond to the Eaton fire — while flames in other neighborhoods forced them to split their resources.

Like Nausha, Olsen credits the wind. Olson said the same gusts that drove the fire into an inferno rained down burning wood like cluster bombs on streets to the west and south, saving their own homes.

“It washed over us,” he said.

Jan. 7 At 6:26 p.m., 15 minutes after the Eaton fire was first reported, firefighters near Canyon Close Drive radioed that the fire had grown to 10 acres and was burning “beneath high-tension power lines.” A minute later, a crew on nearby Canyon View Lane radioed that embers were being thrown toward homes.

At 6:33 p.m., a firefighter on Canyon Close Drive reported “large volcanic casts” and called for help, eventually requesting five more engines, according to dispatches. About a mile away, Pasadena Fire Chief Chad Augustine said trees and structures were engulfed in flames.

As other sectors in the area were already stretched thin that night, no immediate backup was available.

Brendan Thorne, 28, protected his home in Canyon Close Road with a garden hose when he saw “just giant balls of flames” curling up above the burning volcanoes.

Most traveled over the house his grandparents built 70 years ago.

“We're very grateful, but my mom especially, she feels very guilty, which seems strange,” Thorne said.

An ember fell into the backyard of Thorne's neighbor, Larry Bilotta — so hot it melted a metal ladder in his backyard, he said. Some bushes caught fire, but Bilotta's home of 39 years survived.

Bilotta, 72, pointed to the trees in his backyard on Wednesday.

“Not a hair on their head, not a leaf on their branch, was touched,” she said. “It's a miracle.”

A firefighter's vow: 'I will protect my castle'

About a mile east of Bilotta's home, Brown secured his family's home in Kinneloa Canyon.

Brown, 44, Jan. 7 was off duty that night and was sitting down to dinner at Villa Catrina in Arcadia when he received the warning about Eden Canyon.

Brown returned to his station, grabbed his gear and headed home. He loaded his own supplies into his car and then used the techniques he learned as a firefighter to protect his family home.

“I've been planning this day for 31 years,” said Brown, who was in eighth grade when the 1993 Kinneola Fire threatened the home. “I will defend my castle.”

Brown pulled flammable furniture from the house, poured water on the roof and walls, turned on the sprinklers, and did the same to his neighbors' homes.

With the help of a fire engine, Brown battled the blaze in his neighborhood until 1:30 a.m., when the wind died down for a few hours, allowing fire crews to extinguish the Kinnelowa Canyon fire.

Brown said he made a grilled cheese sandwich before spending the next seven hours going door-to-door, making sure there were no broken water lines that would cut off supplies for fire crews.

Nausha's crew with the Pasadena Fire Department jumped from one house fire to another, trying to keep up with each new blaze ignited by the swirling embers.

“When a fire moves, you put it out in one area and you quickly move on to the next,” he said. “They kept moving from fire to fire.”

Life in the Exclusion Zone: 'Like the Berlin Wall'

By Wednesday, some residents had returned to Canyon Close Road, which was under an evacuation order. Some didn't plan to leave the area until they were escorted by National Guard troops, Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies and California Highway Patrol officers, fearing they wouldn't be allowed back in.

Residents described the situation as a siege. Their homes had electricity and limited cell phone service but no gas. Some survive on emergency food supplies — powdered peanut butter and applesauce, said PJ Thorne, whose son secured their home with a garden hose.

Retired primary school teacher B.J. Thorne said her sister was turned away at a National Guard checkpoint with Ralph's groceries. BJ Thorne asked if his sister could order the food. They said no troops.

“It's like the Berlin Wall,” he said.

BJ Thorne and his son stay indoors most days. He worries that if they are caught outside after the 6pm curfew, National Guard troops will “guard” them from the evacuation zone.

“The sheriff's department is also very interested in finding someone who is committing a robbery,” he said.

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