Unburned home in Pacific Palisades is damaged by landslide, highlighting new risk in wildfire zones
LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Fierce winds and devastating wildfires have shifted land in the burn areas of the Eaton and Palisades fires, raising the risk of landslides and debris flows, the director of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works said Thursday.
At a morning news conference, DWP Director Mark Pestrella was asked about a landslide that severely damaged a house in Pacific Palisades after the Palisades Fire began.
"Both areas suffered watershed damage ... to such a significance that we expect massive debris-laden flows when it rains," Pestrella said.
The home in question, which sits above the Pacific Coast Highway, apparently emerged from the fire unscathed but sustained other major damage - it was seen in aerial and ground footage effectively split in half.
The Los Angeles Fire Department and its damage assessment teams are still trying to figure out what exactly happened.
"If you look right above (the home) you're going to see a lot of smoldering debris and things that have burned," said LAFD Capt. Erik Scott. "It's apparent the infrastructure is absolutely compromised... the water is still flowing from the area... It's damaged so significantly that is has been red-tagged.
Pestrella explained that the current flood control system is designed to handle debris flows, but "in an event that we have major rain, we do expect that all areas will be impacted by debris flows that will be hazardous to human health."
"In order to address this, we are developing plans for both areas to capture and hold this debris back as much as we can during a rain event," Pestrella said.
The possibility of rain is in the forecast at the end of January, Pestrella added.
He went on to note that the Palisades is suffering from raveling of the slopes, gas lines and water lines that were destroyed in the wildfire, adding that a massive amount of water streamlined into the region during firefight.
DWP is working with CalTrans to maintain the burn areas slopes, whose soil has become fragile even amid the lack of rain in recent months, Pestrella said.
The traumatized region made it through Wednesday without explosive fire growth after forecasters warned of another round of particularly dangerous winds.
Yet with firefighters still battling the two largest fires, which have killed 25 people and destroyed more than 12,000 structures, government officials are starting the epic job that will unfold over years: clearing Altadena, Pacific Palisades and other ravaged communities of toxic ash and debris. That will be followed by the rebuilding of homes, restaurants, schools, boutiques, banks and houses of worship - all while finding financing for the work.
Because of the ongoing firefighting battle and the dangerous debris in burned areas, officials said Thursday that residents anxious to see what, if anything, is left of their homes will have to wait for at least another week. The losses range from multimillion-dollar ocean-view mansions to modest homes that once welcomed returning World War II GIs.
Hillsides have become unstable behind damaged homes, and the small landslide in Pacific Palisades this week sent debris into the streets, officials said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
