Inside the dramatic air attack that saved Brentwood and Encino from the surging Palisades fire
On Friday afternoon, the winds across the Santa Monica Mountains suddenly shifted, and the Palisades fire pushed north and east, making a run in two different directions: toward Encino and Brentwood.
Across the southern San Fernando Valley and West L.A., terrified Angelenos watched as leaping flames and massive plumes of smoke continued to rise over ridgelines well into the night, worried that the already catastrophic blaze could devastate new parts of the city.
But this time, there were two critical differences in the firefight: There was a squadron of massive water- and retardant-dropping aircraft at the ready, and winds — although strong — still allowed for them to take flight.
So pilots went to work.
The next 24 hours became an all-out attack of air resources, with enough helicopters responding to the fire’s flare-up that the choppers were, at times, lined up, just waiting for orders to make their next drop. Conveniently located water sources, particularly the Encino Reservoir — less than a mile from the northern front of the fire — also helped expedite tank refills, officials said.
And although the fire did end up growing by about 1,000 acres and likely damaged or destroyed some homes, the massive push held the flames back from making another major run into urban areas. By Saturday evening, much of the region had breathed a collective sigh of relief.
“A lot of it, honestly, just had to do with the amount of resources available to us, and everybody briefed and everybody ready,” said Sean Preader, a battalion chief for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection focused on aviation. “Even though we were ready the first day ... we still didn’t have as many [resources] as we did on Friday, and that’s honestly a huge part of our success — and not just in the air but the ground also.”
In contrast to the chaos of Tuesday — when aircraft were grounded during a key portion of the initial firefight due to winds that hit up to 80 mph — the aerial attack Friday into Saturday was key in halting another disastrous run from the fire.
“We had so much aircraft up that there was no break in the firefight,” said Jim Hudson, the Cal Fire incident commander over the Palisades fire. “They’ll go circle out of the area, get clearance to come in, they drop, they go fill. It’s just a constant cycle. ... It was a lot; it was what was required.”
Flight trackers showed the fleet circling between Encino Canyon and the north front of the fire Friday evening, as well as down into Mandeville Canyon on the eastern edge of the blaze.
With that amount of air support, crews dropped more than 650,000 gallons of water on the fire from 8 a.m. Friday to 8 a.m. Saturday, Preader said — about half of which was dropped overnight Friday into Saturday.
“That’s huge,” he said, noting it was by far the most water dropped during any 24-hour period of the Palisades fire. “That day was all hands on deck.”
Under a unified command among several fire agencies, helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft had been made ready from several nearby jurisdictions, as well as from across the state, nation and Canada. Brett Willis, Los Angeles Fire Department’s battalion chief over air operations, said there were at least three sizes of helicopters flying during the attack, including ones that can hold 480, 1,000, and 2,500 gallons of water, as well as the fixed-wing aircraft that primarily dropped retardant. He estimated there were more than a dozen aircraft on the fire at various times Friday and Saturday. Capt. Erik Scott, a spokesperson for the LAFD and the Palisades fire, said that more than 40 helicopters were assigned to the fire at that point, along with several fixed-wing aircraft shared across the region’s fires.
“It was constant,” Willis said.
He recalled flying over the fire early Friday, worrying how a shift in the weather could threaten Mandeville Canyon, a small, affluent area of Brentwood.
“If this weather flips, if we get the wind, we’ve got a real shot at losing Mandeville if we’re not careful,” Willis remembered saying.
And that’s exactly what happened, as the winds switched from a typical offshore Santa Ana pattern into an onshore flow, further fueling the fire.
“We watched the wind very slowly shift, and we ordered aircraft out of our helibase,” Willis said. “Very quickly, we went from about three or four aircraft on a very quiet fire to 12 aircraft, with heavy heli-tankers, and prepping the air attack to order fixed-wing.”
As the blaze pushed north and east with those new winds, officials called for the evacuation of Brentwood and the hills of Encino and Tarzana. Flames pushed up against established fire lines set up along Mulholland Drive and jumped over the lines west of Mandeville Canyon.
By Saturday morning, fixed-wing planes joined in the fight.
“The fixed-wing retardant-dropping aircraft just pummeled that area,” Willis said. “It was absolutely necessary, and it was probably what was the turning point, saving the rest of that area.”
Not only were planes filling up at Encino Reservoir, they were also getting water from Stone Canyon Reservoir, just over the 405 Freeway, and at several nearby locations where planes can fill up at hydrants, including in Topanga, Willis said. He estimated some helicopters could make a drop, refill, and drop again within 10 to 20 minutes, if they were needed. In some cases, they were lining up, waiting to be dispatched out to a hot spot or fire line, Hudson said.
“They just line them up,” Hudson said. “They go 12 miles out until their turn, and then it’s a constant rotation. ... They come in, retardant, next aircraft up, retardant. They’re just building that line and connecting the dots. They go reload, and they’re right back in the stack.”
Although the air attack proved critical, Willis said it only works in coordination with ground crews.
“It’s total teamwork; we just have different jobs,” Willis said. “But with the amount of geography to cover and the volume of fire we were seeing with fire behavior that we’ve never seen before ... we knew that fighting fire from the air was gonna be a critical component.”
After spending much of Friday night watching constant water drops and hoping the fire wouldn’t threaten her Tarzana home, Sarah Cohen said she was in awe of the firefighting effort.
“They deserve a parade and bonuses,” Cohen said Saturday.
While the blaze rages on and winds remain a concern, it’s hard to feel too much relief, but Willis said he’s proud of what they accomplished Friday and Saturday.
“With all of that devastation or loss, we had a lot of successes, a lot of saves,” Willis said. “And I think the air assets were an absolute key component to large-volume saves.”
Times staff writer Dakota Smith contributed to this report.
