‘This is our house’: Mom, son use pump, hose and pool water to put out Palisades fire

Vicki Collison and Andrew Greensfield hurried past a burning house on an upscale residential street near Sunset Boulevard in Pacific Palisades. There were piles of rubble all around, and red-hot embers swirled in the air.

The mother and son had just checked on a friend’s house that was threatened by the Palisades fire and were on their way to another house. This is a difficult task. Only metal railings or charred brick chimneys remain to distinguish these heaps of ash.

They trudged back to the coastal community Wednesday afternoon, defying evacuation orders, and Collison, 60, had fled to a relative’s home in central Will County the night before. She picked up 18-year-old Greensfield from UCLA, where he was a freshman, and drove to San Vicente Boulevard in Santa Monica. With their cars unable to move on, they walked the remaining miles, passing law enforcement checkpoints to stop unauthorized vehicles and dozens of burning buildings.

They traveled along the Sunset Trail, visiting the homes of people they knew, alternately elated and heartbroken, calling to give updates. Their final destination was Collison’s own house, about three miles north of the intersection of Sunset Boulevard and the Pacific Coast Highway, where the real estate manager and her husband, music composer Dean Greensfield, 64, Grinsfelder raised Andrew and his siblings there.

Along the way, Collison and Andrew become a de facto fire lookout, their tight-knit circle scattered among the windy suburban alleys of Pacific Palisades who can’t get into their own homes.

“We were trying to walk around and see if they were still standing,” the younger Greensfield said.

The home of Andrew’s childhood friend had burned down and was still smoldering. Another friend’s house nearby remained untouched. The apartment building where Collison and her husband lived years ago was engulfed in flames.

About three miles north of PCH, they stopped at the house of Collison’s late mother, which is still owned by the Collison family. It was intact with no flame or fire damage, while the neighboring house and several others on the same block had been destroyed.

“Oma’s house is still there,” she said in an affectionate way. “Her neighbor’s house was missing. There were scorch marks on the side of my mom’s house.

The pair planned to return later to retrieve the e-bikes for better travel in the fire-stricken enclave. But first they had to determine the condition of their house and several others. One disappeared; one disappeared. The other was unaffected, but flames were faintly visible nearby. The roof of the nearby landmark Pacific Palisades Calvary Church is burning.

Finally, around 3:15 Wednesday afternoon, Collison spotted her spacious, beige stucco house, which backs up to a dry hill. It still stands, although orange flames can be seen through the woods behind the backyard pool.

“This is our house,” Collison said. “We’re going in.”

She was more focused than celebrating because there was still work to be done. “Andrew is going to climb up on the roof and generate some water to sprinkle on the roof.”

Andrew Grinsfelder hooked up a hose to a water pump so he could spray pool water onto the roof of his parents’ Pacific Palisades home to stop Fire broke out in the Palisade.

(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)

As an Eagle Scout, Andrew was prepared to respond to emergencies. He and his family grew up in Pacific Palisades and knew the risks of wildfires in the area. He is ready to take action.

When Andrew was a member of Troop 223, his father served as an assistant Scoutmaster and, according to his son, was “ready to go” and purchased a gas water pump just for such an occasion several years ago. Their goal was to find a way to keep their home moist and safer from fire even if water pressure was lost.

Collison turned the faucet in her seemingly normal kitchen to full blast. Only a thin drop of water came out.

So Andrew pulled the heavy metal pump to the edge of the pool, installed a green hose in one opening and snaked it into the murky water filled with ash and debris, and installed a long blue fire hose in the other opening. hose.

After playing around with the device and calling Dean for tips on its operation, Andrew had the pump purring like an idling motorcycle.

“It’s running. Now you have to get it to the roof!” Collison shouted to her son. “I’ll turn it on when you get there.” “

They needed a ladder and something to help hoist the hose onto the sloping roof. “How about a surfboard leash?” Collison offered.

Andrew Greensfield watered the roof of his parents’ home.

(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)

Within minutes, the pumps roared dully and Andrew stood on the roof, squirting long pools of water over the brown shingles, hoping to wet them and help put out the fire. After about 15 minutes, Collison’s son turned off the water pump and she said the home was “safe, at least for now.”

The next phase of their mission began around 5pm, with Collison and Andrew loading the pump and some important items into one of the two vehicles Collison had left behind on Tuesday before driving down the hill to Omagh’s home.

Her house was still standing, but the flames blazing in the backyard were getting closer. They quickly grabbed the e-bikes from inside and strapped them to one of the two vehicles they were now driving, then loaded up a few extra items, including a large picture frame, and headed to another friend’s house .

Brian Grimes, 54, lives in a stunning mid-century modern ranch with a large swimming pool in the Summit neighborhood of Pacific Palisades. Offers sweeping views of the Santa Monica Mountains.

When Collison and Andrew arrived at the Grimes home, they were greeted warmly and made their way through the darkness (the power had been cut off) to the backyard. Looking back toward the house from the edge of his home, a fire was clearly visible a few hundred yards away.

Andrew Grinsfelder prepares to spray water from a hose on the roof of his parents’ home in Pacific Palisades, with the Palisades fire blazing in the background.

(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)

The mother and son proposed turning off the pump and spraying water on his home and yard, but Grimes, who is retired, objected. He and a neighbor fled Tuesday night after a valiant attempt to protect their home.

“My neighbor Greg and I were fighting the fire with a bucket rope on the hillside, and I was on the roof spraying water down,” Grimes recalled. “Around seven o’clock there was a huge light coming over here, so Greg and I left. We were the last two to leave.

Grimes returned on his e-bike Wednesday, expecting to find his house destroyed. But somehow it made it through the night.

Almost 24 hours later, it still stands, but he has no illusions about its fate. If the fire reaches his home, there is nothing he can do to stop it. Therefore, he declined his friends’ offer to deploy their trusty water pumps.

“I don’t see the point,” he said. “I don’t want to waste your fuel or pool water.”

Collison and Andrew began their long journey home, taking a circuitous route, checking out several properties before passing the house in Omagh, which was still in good condition. The fire destroyed buildings, homes and communities in its path, as if fire fell indiscriminately from the sky and ignited wherever it went.

By the time they got home, the sun had set and the fire on the hilltop behind them had grown noticeably bigger. Collison ran inside to find a charging cord and plugged the phone into an outlet while it still had power.

“We’ll put the hose in here, maybe do the hose again, and then re-evaluate,” she said. “We don’t want to die here.”

Meanwhile, Andrew dragged the pump back to the edge of the pool. They briefly debated whether it was worth spraying their house and yard again, but Collison convinced her son as she spotted red-hot embers flying toward the next-door neighbor’s house.

Andrew put the ladder back in place, started the engine, and hauled the fire hose back to the roof.

There, he once again stood on the roof there, risking his life to prevent the house from catching fire and destroying all the precious objects and memories inside. As long streams of chlorinated water rained down on his parents’ and neighbors’ roofs and yards, he decided to hold on until the end:

“One of us is going to spend the rest of the night here.”

As of Thursday morning, their home was still standing.