Two separate but simultaneous fires burned in upper Potrero Canyon last Wednesday afternoon (July 28), threatening several homes and even the playing fields at the Palisades Recreation Center. The blazes broke out shortly after 1 p.m. on a breezy afternoon, but were extinguished before they could cause any structural damage. Tiny fires were spotted in several other locations. According to Battalion Chief 17 John Miller, the’official cause of the fires was juveniles playing with fireworks.”It appears from the evidence and burn patterns at the scene that there were two different areas where the fire started,’ said Miller, who was dispatched from Woodland Hills when the Battalion 9 chief in Westwood was not available. ‘We originally got a call that the fire was at the corner of Lombard and De Pauw streets,’ said local Fire Station 69 Captain Mike Ketaily, whose crew went to the backyard and the canyon below the house to douse the blaze. Ketaily said he could also see a grass fire spreading across two hillsides below the Recreation Center mesa, but with Stations 69 and 23 focused on preventing the canyon blaze from reaching the home, they did not have the resources to deploy a second company. When the fire below the Recreation Center reached the hillside near the lower tennis courts off Alma Real/ Frontera, and with heavy smoke billowing into the sky, youth attending a tennis camp were sent away from the area. Alma Real resident Jason Lehel reported the fire when it first broke out in the hillside across the canyon. When he saw the second fire coming across the Recreation Center hillside towards his house, he went into his backyard and watched as a water-dropping helicopter quickly extinguished the blaze. ‘It went so quickly it was ridiculous,’ Lehel said, noting that the L.A. Fire Department had done brush clearance in the canyon four weeks earlier. That fact was mentioned over and over by firefighters as a reason why the blazes were readily contained. Ketaily praised civilian Manuel Sanchez, who was working on a construction job in the Palisades. ‘He and his buddies were phenomenal. They kept the fire on the field near Hampden Place from spreading, until a helicopter could get here.’ ‘I happened to be driving by and saw the smoke,’ Sanchez said. ‘I saw two security guards jump over the fence into private yards off Alma Real, and I thought maybe I could help.’ He followed the guards down into the canyon and over towards Hampden Place, where he saw a homeowner hooking up a garden hose. He took a shovel from him and started throwing dirt on the flames. ‘The fire came around the corner real quick,’ Sanchez said. Ketaily was worried that the 15 mph winds would whip embers onto the large eucalyptus trees on Hampden Place, directly in front of a residence with a wooden deck. ‘I thought it was going to take off, with the dead leaves and the eucalyptus,’ he said, but ‘thanks to Sanchez it didn’t.’ Meanwhile, it took Battalion Chief Miller 30 minutes to reach the Palisades. Additional fire companies arrived from West Los Angeles, Playa Vista, Mid-Wilshire and the Mulholland corridor. Three water-dropping helicopters also fought the blazes after utilizing the Highlands reservoir. ‘The Palisades is really isolated and it takes a long time to get companies up here,’ Miller said, ‘but we were fortunate. Had the fire not been reported as quickly as it was and had the brush clearance not been completed, the fire had the possibility of spreading into denser vegetation or to homes in the area with wood-shake roofs.’ By 2:05, the fires were out, and firefighters continued to work on the hot spots, hosing them with Class A foam, which allows the water to penetrate more deeply. On the fire line, four camp crews from L.A. County Fire help turn over the entire burned areas with a shovel. ‘It’s tough what firefighters do,’ Sanchez said. ‘I’ve always had respect for them, but this elevates them to a whole new level.’
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