WPBN: While communities may come together to rescue property during natural catastrophes, California government need to do more to stop wildfires, according to a Malibu homeowner whose local fire department saved about a dozen properties during the Palisades Fire.
According to local surfer Matt Diamond, Keegan Gibbs created the community brigade program after the 2018 Woolsey Fire, which destroyed almost 100,000 acres of land, killed three people, and forced nearly 300,000 people to evacuate. He said the residents needed “self-sustaining firefighters.”
“[Our community] didn’t have any fire support for that one, and it was kind of all the Malibu residents who had to band together,” Diamond stated. “We [residents] stayed and the city manager wouldn’t allow resources in, so we had to vote on provisions. We had axes, shovels, firefighting equipment, and food and water boated into Paradise Cove, and [the brigade] set up a makeshift camp. [It] became fully operational and started patrolling the neighborhood, doing spot-fire checks and saving neighbors’ homes.”
Since firemen dispatched from other areas are unfamiliar with the area, he added, the Los Angeles County Fire Department now views the brigade as an essential asset in preventing fires and preserving homes.
Diamond saw the fire coagulating in the Palisades as he followed fire engines toward Sunset and Pacific Coast Highway on Tuesday when the fires started. He claimed to have returned to Malibu and encountered the fire near Tuna Canyon.
“It was dark, and [the wildfire] was moving about a quarter mile every 30 minutes,” he stated. “I was with [some friends in] the brigade, and it was just taking everything in his path.”
He packed all his possessions, including many surfboards, and headed home.
“I’ve been big wave surfing on a somewhat professional level, and I have a big contest coming up, so I needed these boards,” Diamond stated. “I’ve been working really hard and these are some of the best shaped boards in the world. I took them all to the beach, along with my drum sets and music equipment, and then I went home and the fire came right through my house, all around it. It was an amazing sight – talk about an immersive experience.”
Alongside Santa Barbara firemen, Diamond said he began to assist in securing his neighborhood and property. He claimed to have worked to “convince” them to keep his job.
It was all still burning in the morning. According to him, a lot of his Palisades friends lost their houses that night.
“All my big musician friends, in some of the biggest bands in the world, lost all their Grammys,” he stated. “The biggest like producers in the world that have done the biggest projects, from music to TV and film, that have the most amazing memorabilia you’ve ever seen. It’s just gone. I was just watching it. Beautiful things framed from The Beatles, the craziest 60s Woodstock-era memorabilia – all gone.”
The most crucial factor, according to Diamond, is the domino effect: if the brigade firefighters save one house, they may also save the four nearby. The brigade saved roughly ten dwellings.
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In a statement released on Thursday, the City of Malibu announced that one of its residents had perished in the Palisades Fire.
“This is a painful reminder of the profound impact this fire is having on our community,” according to officials. “Malibu is more than a city – we are neighbors, friends, and family. Even when we don’t know someone’s name, their loss is felt by all of us. In times like this, we must come together, support one another, and show the resilience that defines our community…”
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Diamond advised every neighborhood to get in touch with government and local first responders.
Diamond stated that regulated burns are necessary to safeguard the whole, even if he acknowledged that they can occasionally spiral out of hand.
“[The government is] kind of gun-shy, in a sense, to do what’s properly needed,” he stated. “Say two homes burn and [the government] gets sued by two people, versus 1,000 homes [gone] because you didn’t do these controlled burns. The governor [Gavin Newsom] needs to attack this, because everyone’s pretty much at their mercy. Cut through the bureaucracy of it and just do what needs to be done.”
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