Two homes with solar panels are untouched here in this neighborhood where the other homes are destroyed, Pacific Palisades. (ps they aren't any better or worse than other homes from going up, just countering some disinformation out there which I won't repeat) #PacificPalisades
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AI6YR Ben
In response to this postEntire neighborhoods destroyed... but less on the margins. I'm curious if the homes up against the hills had better WUI preparation vs. homes 3 blocks in (where you'd imagine you have "no risk" if you didn't know this happened). i.e. if you can see the threat on the hill, you're going to put mesh on all your vents, clear flammables away from your eaves, etc. While if you're 3 blocks away you'd think "oh, it's not going to reach here, we're 3 blocks from the hill. 🤔
@ai6yr was this a wind blown area? like, did the hill act as a wind break at all? and the wind blew the embers over those houses and and further down hill?
by MsMerope ;
You can see the nitty gritty detail of exactly how much of these neighborhoods were destroyed, thank to the NOAA's Geodetic Survey -- looks like Maxar did some flyovers here https://storms.ngs.noaa.gov/storms/2025_eri/index.html#17.38/34.053132/-118.520266 #EatonFire #PalisadesFire
by AI6YR Ben ;
@ai6yr I was wondering if the fire changed from a regular wildfire into a fire storm after passing over the first row of houses.
Your theory about less preparation tracks with what I saw in the upper Altadena area just before the pandemic the last time I was there. Lush, thick landscaping and mature trees all over. Not much or any setback. Didn't think to look for vent screens and such though at the time.
by Douglas ;
@ai6yr these images are shattering 😱😞
by Heliograph ;
@ai6yr we back onto a hill and have our vents screened (redid the whole attic and screened vents when we did that) Have fire resistant roofing and solar panels. I have no illusions of the house surviving a wildfire and would GTFO if need to. It's just not built to withstand one.
by Darwin Woodka ;
@ai6yr Could be that those houses benefitted from the earliest firefighting efforts in that area, being closest to the hill. Could be that retardant drops doused flames near those homes while ember cast from higher up the mountain blew right on over them and deeper into the neighborhood.
by CJ Moose ⚒️🌋🦉🍻⛺ ;
@ai6yr I’m going to go with radiant heat. Before we learned about the 0-5 foot area around houses that collect embers, the gold standard was 30 feet (10 meters) of clearance from the house to large groups of shrubs. You can find videos of the tests online that show that a wood sided building can resist significant radiant heat from 30 feet.
The houses in the center look like they are closer than 30 feet, plus they probably have shrubs and wooden fences separating them for privacy. So if one goes up due to embers, the surrounding ones would be well within the 30 foot zone and could ignite from the radiant heat.
by Cavedale Rhônes ;
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J. Steven York RESISTS
In response to this post@ai6yr
Interesting. Is there a particular reason why that you know? (though I notice that several homes with solar panels lower left appear to have been destroyed, so maybe it's coincidence?)
@jstevenyork There's no relation at all, there's just disinformation floating around about "only homes with solar panels burning" (which is absolutely false -- in a lot of neighborhoods, EVERYTHING BURNED) 🙄 (this is the counterpoint)
by AI6YR Ben ;
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decitect
In response to this post@ai6yr Did a similar review for the ‘24 Mountain fire in Camarillo. You have to corroborate aerial with street view before fire. Crawlspace vents, open eaves/eaves vents, ladder fuels in Zone 0, roofs with air gaps, open ridge or gable vents, tree duff in gutters… all could contribute on structure-to-structure conflagration.
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Cat West
In response to this post@ai6yr I’m wondering if they maybe had a power supply (via the panels) and could run a pump to run a sprinkler on their rooftop? Or pump water from their pool?
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