Our reporter caught up with a number of people who had prepared for wildfires with built-in systems. ‘I’m sleeping with one eye open.’
By Nancy Keates | Adam Amengual for WSJ
Jan. 16, 2025 3:10 pm ET
As the fires ravaging Pacific Palisades expanded and started moving toward his home in the Malibu Hills last week, Brent Woodworth connected two 100-foot hoses to his personal fire hydrant and put one on each side of the driveway.
When firefighters showed up, they used those hoses to save his home and the two next door, he says. The next day, when the hydrant’s water pressure dropped, he used a pump to take water from the swimming pool across the street so firefighters could continue hosing down the houses and fighting off embers.
All three houses survived intact, in a neighborhood where approximately 80% of the homes burned, says Woodworth, chairman of the Los Angeles Emergency Preparedness Foundation. The hydrant and pool pumped “definitely helped,” he says.
At the bottom of Brent Woodworth’s driveway is a ’Hainy Hydrant’—a riser, pipe and gated valve attached to two fire hoses for increased water pressure and water flow. Photo: Brent Woodworth
In December, The Wall Street Journal highlighted a growing trend of homeowners in wildfire-prone areas installing pricey personal fire hydrants. The logic was that having their own hydrant ready to go—along with hoses, nozzles and adapters, and even a private water source—could assist the city’s firefighters or trained homeowners, helping to reduce the number of homes destroyed.
The historic wildfires in Los Angeles have left at least 25 people dead and wiped out thousands of homes and businesses. As worries persist about the fires spreading or new blazes erupting, Californians are searching for answers on how to protect their homes from destruction. Many got in touch with the Journal’s reporter, asking for updates on the personal hydrant owners.
Rosenbloom photographed a home near the Pacific Coast Highway where sprinklers were running to keep the house and roof wet. Photo: Kevin B. Rosenbloom
A number of the people the Journal wrote about live in Malibu and other areas west of Los Angeles, placing them at risk as strong Santa Ana winds continue to slow containment of the Palisades fire.
Many have been making preparations but haven’t had to use their personal hydrants over the past week. Others have been in the path of the devastating fires, and hydrants haven’t been their only defense. They have also used rooftop sprinklers and pool pumps. Many implemented mitigation strategies recommended by experts, such as moving outdoor furniture and closing off gutters and vents. Some were helped by a neighborhood fire brigade.
Rosenbloom photographed homes on Carbon Beach where owners had thrown patio furniture off the deck. Other homes nearby burned. Experts recommend moving outdoor furniture to mitigate fire risk. Photo: Kevin B. Rosenbloom
With his wife and 2-year-old son safely evacuated, Kevin B. Rosenbloom went through his preparations to defend his Malibu home, just as he had last month when the Franklin fire erupted. He put on his cotton flame-resistant clothing, fire boots, respirator, leather gloves and face mask. He turned on his diesel-powered generator, got the sprinklers on the roof ready, wet down the house’s exterior and hooked up two fire hoses to the personal hydrant he had installed in his front yard.
With reports of fire hydrants in the Pacific Palisades running dry, he filled up all the bathtubs, sinks and rain barrels with water—an estimated 500 gallons. He put sandbags in front of his garage and made sure the keys were in his car if he needed to leave quickly. On Saturday, a group of community brigade members patrolling his neighborhood discovered and extinguished a small fire. His area is still under a red flag warning.
“It’s mentally stressful. I’m sleeping with one eye open,” says Rosenbloom, a 44-year-old health-software business owner who has had some firefighting training.
Michael Owens has been sleeping in an RV on the property at the five-bedroom, eight-bathroom, 10,500-square-foot house he built in Westlake Village, Calif., to help keep it safe in case the raging fires reach the area northwest of L.A. The house isn’t in an evacuation zone, but the winds concern him. “We have to stay diligent,” says Owens, a developer who owns Adroit Custom Homes.
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He is updating the marketing for the house, which is for sale for $14.995 million, to emphasize its private fire hydrant, fire-resistant building materials and 200 feet of clearance around the property.
Developer Michael Owens and his dog, Handsome, are sleeping in an RV to help protect the home he built in Westlake Village, Calif. The property, listed for $14.995 million, has a private fire hydrant in the driveway.
He says he has had one showing since the wildfires started—to people whose house burned.
Dustin Khaleghi is also monitoring the 6,833-square-foot, six-bedroom house he built called Anacapa, located in the Trancas development in Malibu. It’s set to go on sale Feb. 1 for $25 million.
Khaleghi, founder of DK Development, says his work crews have been to Anacapa everyday since the Palisades fire broke out and have turned on the diesel generator, which powers the pump for the private 7,500-gallon water tank that would be used to feed the hydrant. “All the tanks and hoses are ready to go,” he says.
He expects the house will be more appealing to buyers now because of its preventive systems.
Khaleghi is grateful his own home in Pacific Palisades didn’t burn; the homes of both his sisters and of many of his friends are gone. He now plans to put in his own diesel-powered generator, rooftop sprinklers and a pump that will work with his pool.
Tensions have flared in Los Angeles over crews of private firefighters spotted battling blazes for well-heeled clients or, in more cases, protecting properties with specific coverage on behalf of insurance companies.
But there is also another set of private citizens helping out, with the backing of the city.
Dustin Khaleghi was able to get into Pacific Palisades briefly on Jan. 9 to check on the status of his house, which was spared. Photo: Dustin Khaleghi
In Rosenbloom’s Malibu neighborhood of Corral Canyon, Matt Haines, who developed what he calls the Hainy Hydrant—a riser, pipe and gated valve—is part of a local community fire brigade that organized a 24/7 neighborhood patrol after the wildfires started to make sure that the hydrants were ready to go and that no new fires were starting anywhere. They kept the neighborhood’s some 500 residents updated using special walkie-talkie-like devices.
On Saturday night, Haines was notified by a neighbor that a fire had started. Brigade members were able to get there and put it out within three minutes and keep the fire from spreading, he says.
“It gives a sense of comfort to our community,” says Haines, who is a home builder and an on-call firefighter. Along with 40 Hainy Hydrants that have been installed, the brigade has also organized pumps at six home swimming pools in case the utility water feeding the hydrants runs out.
Rosenbloom can hook up two 100-foot fire hoses to the hydrant he had installed. His gear includes cotton flame-resistant clothing, fire boots, a respirator, leather gloves and a face mask.
Keegan Gibbs came up with the idea for a community brigade after his parents’ house in Point Dume, Calif., burned down in the Woolsey fire in 2018. Gibbs and Woodworth, the chairman of the Emergency Preparedness Foundation, co-founded the official program in 2023 after a five-year process of getting it approved by county officials. Community fire brigades are set up in seven areas in the Santa Monica Mountains: County Line, Malibu West, Point Dume, Corral Canyon, Big Rock, Topanga Canyon and Hidden Hills.
During the current wildfires, the community brigades have been helping to catch embers and spot fires before they grow and going door-to-door to get people to evacuate, says Gibbs.
Keegan Gibbs, center, coordinates assignments with the L.A. County Fire Department Community Brigade Division 7 in Agoura Hills. Photo: Jacob Lee Burghart
Drew Smith, assistant fire chief for the L.A. County Fire Department, says the role of the brigades is to help with evacuations, communications and initial damage assessments; to put out small fires if they are able to handle it; and to educate people on how to make their homes more fireproof. They aren’t deployed to defend homes in advancing fire fronts, he says.
