(Editor’s note: Hagop Tchakerian, a long-time resident and president of the Palisades Rotary Club, posted this in the comment section of Circling the News. This editor thought it was valuable and received permission to reprint it as a letter.)
More than 6,000 structures could have been saved had the fire been put out immediately.
By HAGOP D. TCHAKERIAN
While the June 17 article (“Zone Zero Recommendations Based on Faulty Experiments”) emphasizes ember experiments in controlled environments, it omits a critical real-world factor: active fire suppression.
A fire hose connected to a hydrant or water supply can prevent structure ignition by extinguishing embers or flames before they take hold. This is a basic principle of fire science—remove heat or fuel and you prevent ignition.
Furthermore, many homes and businesses with built-in automatic fire suppression systems still burned—not because the systems failed—but because water supply was unavailable or cut off during the fire. This shows that suppression, not just spacing or plant removal, is essential—but only effective when supported by infrastructure.
In the Pacific Palisades fire, my own home reached extreme temperatures. The presence of melted glass and aluminum indicates heat exposure ranging from a minimum of 500°F to well above 1200°F, possibly up to 2000°F. At those levels, ignition occurs regardless of what exists within the five-foot perimeter—making suppression and water access even more critical than vegetation type.
Lastly, Boy Scout and U.S. Forest Service manuals confirm that a small spark on dry fuel can start a fire—but they also stress that early water application can stop it. The Zone Zero model assumes passive conditions. In real fires, active intervention is often the deciding factor.
A CTN article wrote about a Rustic Canyon residence who witnessed firemen standing around a burning home without any attempt of taking any fire fighting actions. Right next home in line was an all wood house. Only when another resident pulled out a cellphone starting filming firemen’s inaction, these firemen reluctantly started hosing down the wood house. Only under that threat, the house was saved. That inaction explained my encounter with two groups of firemen at one of the hotels we stayed during early evacuation dates. Both groups were from areas out of Palisades. When I thanked them for their service (not knowing the real situation during earlier days) their reaction was oddly mute. That also explained while driving southbound on pCH evacuating around 1:30pm on January 7 – why I saw no racing fire engines going the opposite direction for the entire 4 miles southward. I saw many fire engines all lined up in the parking lot at Will Roger’s parklot with their firefighters standing around in their blue uniform chatting among each other. Did we Palisadian not giving our local engines enough support by fundraisers to refurbish their fire station kitchens?
I was humored by the article of how we can start our own non-profit to get some of the 200m FIREFUND raised. I would have laughed if not sooo angry.
I believe the rhetoric of the LAFD right after the fire was one of apology and shame: They knew they were responsible for one of the worst catastrophes in US fire fighting history. But suddenly people who hadn’t been here during the fires were robotically saying “Thank you first responders,” they had Trump land on a helicopter automatically having them lined up so he could call them “heroes,” the Oscars ceremony and free trips to Disneyland and suddenly they must have been saying to themselves “We go away with it.” But those of us who witnessed their cowardice and passivity first hand are not going to forget or forgive. And we still have all those call logs from the fires which WILL be released no matter how much the LAFD is fighting us on this which will inevitably be damning. And an ash pit the size of Manhattan adjoining the sea is kind of hard to explain. It wasn’t “the mayor was in Africa,” or “we ran out of water” or “the wind was too strong” that cremated our town. As Mr. Tchakerian succinctly put it:” A fire hose connected to a hydrant or water supply can prevent structure ignition by extinguishing embers or flames before they take hold.” The LAFD was unable to lift a single hose during my three days of watching them as they either had a cellphone or a beverage in their hands while getting in the way of those who were engaged in active fire suppression those three fateful days.