‘Oily Rag’ Warning After Dramatic Five-Story Blaze

By MATTHEW MEYER | Reporter

A Palisadian man was awoken by the sound of shattering glass early last Wednesday morning to find his five-story, hillside home on the 800 block of North Las Casas in flames.

By the time firefighters arrived around 5 a.m., the approximately 3,000-square-foot home was fully engulfed—constituting a “Greater Alarm” fire that forced LAFD to “go defensive in their operation,” combating the leaping flames from the exterior to prevent spreading.

The home’s lone occupant escaped the blaze unharmed, and it took 89 firefighters just under two hours to extinguish the fire as news helicopters hovered overhead.

Fire crews—including LAFD Stations 23 and 69—managed to protect neighboring structures and a hilly brush area behind the home, which is owned by USC’s revered professor, doctor and researcher John Daniels.

LAFD Captain Erik Scott told the Palisadian-Post that the cause of the fire is still under investigation, but that “oil, varnish-type products” found outside the home might have contributed.

Rags soaked in oil-based paints, stains and varnishes used for home improvement projects can ignite on their own, he explained, if they are not handled carefully.

Oily rags release heat as they dry, and if they are left in a pile without room to release that heat, they can start a fire without a spark.

Regardless of its ultimate cause, Scott told the Post, Wednesday’s fire “warrants a reminder for many people who are surprised to learn that oily rags can spontaneously combust.”

Last week’s fire came on the heels of another Las Casas blaze that claimed two homes in April, just blocks away. The fire injured five Palisadians, two critically.

Scott said that he and his LAFD colleagues “want to remove fear from local Pacific Palisades residents that there may be an arsonist on the loose,” adding that there is “no sort of suspicious connection between the two fires.”

A potential common thread, however, is that “both incidents incorporated construction:” the homeowner was re-staining his wooden deck before Wednesday’s fire, and last month’s blaze started amid construction involving an exterior wood fence, Scott said.

Rather than spreading fear along Las Casas, Scott simply urged all Palisadians to exercise vigilance when their homes are under construction.

Oily rags, he said, should be taken outside to dry separately, then placed in a metal container with a metal lid, filled with a water and detergent solution to break down the oils.

An LAFD spokesperson directed the Post to nfpa.org for more fire prevention information.