Held here entire — 37 passages across 10 chapters, set down from the first word to the last. The colour shifts with the film’s own mood as each chapter plays.
- 0:00smouldering, restlessPalisades Fire: Initial ResponseFire command team briefs on the Palisades Fire, its rapid spread, and initial containment efforts.
- 0:30urgent, incendiaryUncontrolled Wind-Driven FireThe fire's rapid growth was due to extreme winds, making air resources ineffective.
- 2:30grim, scorchedCurrent Fire Status and Future WindsThe fire is largely contained, but heat remains, and upcoming winds pose a risk of new fires.
- 3:45cool, analyticalFire Breaks and Fuel ManagementFirefighters create fire breaks by clearing all vegetation down to bare soil to prevent spread.
- 4:50hard-wonHistorical Context and RarityThis fire is rare, with some areas not burning in over 60 years, unlike recent major fires.
- 5:50measured, soberFuture Fire Prevention: Defensible SpaceCreating a 100-foot defensible space around homes is crucial for fire prevention.
- 7:00guarded, evenHome Hardening and Ember ProtectionHardening homes by removing flammable materials and screening vents protects against embers.
- 9:10weathered, resignedRegulatory Reform and Building MaterialsNew building codes and fire-retardant materials offer hope for safer structures in fire-prone areas.
- 9:50worn, nostalgicHistorical Precedent: Bel Air FireThe 1962 Bel Air Fire led to outlawing wood shake roofs, showing how disasters can drive safety improvements.
- 11:20detached, weighingWater Availability and SupplyFirefighters discuss the immense water needs, relying on tenders and DWP support to supplement limited systems.
The Transcript
A voice is named only when we can verify it — by voiceprint, an @handle present in the room, or the Space’s own title. Anyone we can’t confirm stays “Speaker,” on purpose.
@elonmuskWell, let's see. I'm here with the fire command team at the Palisades Fire. Hey, guys. And let's see. So this is... I was asked if we could bring some more Starlings here, so we've brought some more Starlings here, and I'm just here with the team, and they're going to provide a briefing of the Palisades Fire. So please go ahead.
@elonmuskAll right. Hello, good evening. My name is Christian Litz. I'm with L.A. County Fire, cooperating with the partnership with Cal Fire Team 2, and I'm Operation Section Chief on this Palisades Fire. So Palisades Fire, I'll just go. We've been here since the beginning of the fire on Tuesday. We were looking at extreme damaging winds, erratic fire behavior coming through and blowing in from...
@elonmuskabout midway on this map and blowing all the way down to the coastline there. So when does that start? Just to frame the thing for people? I can assume people, it's great to get the story from basically a straight shooter. And so how did it start?
@elonmuskAnd then maybe after, how did it start then? What are some of the things that can be done to prevent it in the future? But how did it start out? What's the story? So honestly, we don't know yet. It's still in an investigation. We don't know how it started. But because of the wind, honestly, it just allowed it to outpace anything possible.
@elonmuskThe winds are so strong, air resources, which we use to keep it small, ineffective. So it grew at a record-breaking pace. resources put themselves probably in a bigger danger than they've ever done okay saves as many structures but you can see it started about here with the wind okay and pushed it straight through the palisades all right and it allowed it to grow larry as the wind slowed down yeah it allowed it to grow back go back the other way but now the wind came back out of the north and blew down again so we have several windshield resources are all around trying to both structure
@elonmuskdefense, which is down along the coast where the structure is more heavy. But we do have communities all along the top that we've just been working as hard as we can from beginning to now without any stop, any rest. Resources working 36, 48 hours at times just because of the need of what we had to do. Right now, the fire is looking good.
@elonmuskWe still have heat all around the perimeter. We still have resources all over and try to to secure those edges, make sure that there is limited the potential for any kind of growth. So we're still out there, but the activity is way down. And then with these winds over the next couple of days, honestly, this fire, we have to watch it, but it's going to blow down at least most of it into its own self.
@elonmuskBut any new fire, it's going to do the same thing. We have the winds that's going to push it. It's not as strong as it was on Tuesday, but there is still going to be movement, so we're still going to... keeping all the resources available, and we're ready to actually not only respond to where the fire is now, but any new fires that start, we're able to respond and help.
@elonmuskOkay, so the fires are currently under control? This fire, we're not calling it control, but there is a line around almost all of it, very much almost all of it, but resources, we're still working. So about the excitement is about 10% of the fire where the flames are there. but 90% of the work is done after those flames are gone, and we have to secure those edges.
@elonmuskDid you ever watch a campfire where the wind comes in and it's out, and then the wind comes and it blows embers? Sure. Same thing can happen. Okay. So we have to keep pushing and pushing and pushing deeper and deeper and stay around all these homes and Montanito, Fernwood, all the way up. When you pull the barrier to stop the fire going, do you clear the brush and the trees?
@elonmuskWhat actions do you take around the perimeter of that? So along the trimmer, we call it cutting line. We use a bulldozer. But really what we're doing is taking everything out down to bare minimum soil. So there will be a path of dirt from where the black line is. It's a fire break, basically. Exactly. We're building a fire break along the edge of the black.
@elonmuskSo there's nothing left to burn. So the only danger at that point was if the wind blows an ember over that line. So we have to build it appropriately big enough to secure that, to stop that from happening. push into the black to take all the heat away. So it gives us a bigger buffer as much as possible. How big does a fire break need to be?
@elonmuskIt depends on the size of the fuel. If you look at textbook size of fuel, it's anything that we see. And it's different for terrain, size of fuel, everything like that. Usually it's a couple times, one and a half times the size of the fuel. But we have fuel in the Topanga Canyon area, the Palisades area. There hasn't been fire there in 60 years.
@elonmuskReally? Wow. 15 to 20 foot wide. This is quite a rare fire. Correct. Like it's a half century fire or something. Absolutely. The last major fires I have really pushed through Topanga is 93, 96. But there is part of these hillsides that there hasn't been recorded fire in 60 years. Okay, wow. All right. And are there things that would be...
@elonmuskI think what a lot of people are curious about is what things could be done in the future to ensure that houses are less susceptible to burning down? I mean, it's like as we rebuild for the future, because it's like, there's one thing about like past recriminations and all that, but like we can't rewind the clock. But what we can do is say like in the future, what should we do to minimize the probability that people's homes and businesses will burn down?
@elonmuskYeah, great question. And that's really what we want. Throughout history, as fire prevention gets better, we do better at safety structures. So when you look at the LA County website, LA City has references out there as well. You always hear the term defensible space. That is the biggest thing to safe structures and hardening your home.
@elonmuskSo defensible space, we'll start there. That is basically clearing brush as low as possible to about 100 feet is what our minimum standard, say 100 feet away. You start at 10 feet, but you limit it out. About 100 feet is the best. So then when it hits there, you're basically building that 100-foot buffer of fuel break around your home.
@elonmuskSo like no kindling for 100 feet, basically. That sounds pretty sensible. It is. And then hardening your home, we call hardening, is don't stack firewood right against the wall. So really a big part of when we lose structures, on a typical, maybe not a hundred mile wind, but a typical is, is there something by the house?
@elonmuskFlammable fire. Yep. Wood, furniture, something like that. And it can burn up and gets into the attic and then we lose the house. Okay. Or it gets in the porch system, right? You might have a wood deck and it goes up and it just allows the flame to go into the house. So a lot of times we talk about our ember cast that gets in the ember.
@elonmuskSo you put screens around every opening. So you have vents on your house, put screens, very small screens. So the air can get through there. But embers, good size embers that will actually catch house, get in there. So there's stuff like that. Move everything right from your house. And the vegetation in this area is astonishingly beautiful, and we understand that.
@elonmuskBut these are things you have to do for... I mean, I have heard some things, like some of the issues with fire breaks where there's some endangered... plant or something and then we can't do a fire break, well, that's an issue. Is there stuff that would be helpful from a regulatory reform standpoint that would help with fire prevention in the future?
@elonmuskWell, L.A. County, we do have standards. In certain areas, we actually have these lists of residences like this is what we have to do. I think it's just an awareness. So when people, good and bad about it, the bad thing is this happened, the good thing, maybe it'll bring a greater awareness that There is a way to help defend your homes.
@elonmuskThere is a way to help this from stop happening in the future. And that defensible space, building that and building those, that's the way to do it. As far as... Well, I guess people are like, obviously... we definitely want to give people a sense of of hope for the future and if the things get rebuilt that their house is not going to burn down again that's like a reasonable thing so so so it's like like if there are things that should we should push for from a regulatory reform standpoint this would be good to to know um you know and and uh yeah clearance space okay building building material right we could we can now
@elonmuskThese are newer things. So now the standards of building construction codes have been brought and have changed over the years. So maybe when their house was built, they weren't there. Now we have the new codes. There's going to be certain fire-retardant materials. There's going to be certain things that they can do. If you look a lot, concrete buildings don't burn.
@elonmuskSo there's some of these people that have built their concrete in the middle, and it's right on the middle of the... black all around and nothing was done, but they didn't burn because of the building material. Yeah, you can't burn concrete. Correct. So it's all space and fire-returned materials. Steel and concrete is going to be okay.
@elonmuskYes. But they have other materials out there now that will definitely help. Like what? I'm hopeful that this video can be helpful to people.
@elonmuskshould people do differently like if it's not steel concrete you said there's some new materials like like like synthetic materials or or what absolutely there's stuff that they put into the to the materials to be able to do hi yeah help my partner else over here yeah you know Anyways, I just wanted to kind of point something out.
@elonmuskBack in 1962, we had a fire. It was called the Bel Air Fire that burned from this area into kind of the same burn pattern. Okay. And then after that fire, that's when they basically, in the city of Los Angeles, they outlawed wood shake roofs. So wood shake roofs were outlawed. Yeah. I mean, that's a nightmare. That's an example of my partner saying...
@elonmuskThere's a roof made of kindling. Right. So we update the building standards, the fire code standards, the fire prevention standards. Sure. And then that's up to you and the people out there that are a little... more into the architecture and to find something that actually could be potentially more fire safe. And maybe the silver lining around the gray cloud is that that may happen.
@elonmuskMaybe we'll live in a safer fire zone or an area where there's prone to fires, but in a safer type of structure. So that's kind of what we're hoping to come out of this as maybe one of the very small but good things. All right. Sounds good. Well, I mean, do you have any guidance for people? Like obviously steel and concrete are not going to burn.
@elonmuskBut, like, are there new synthetics that you think would be better than, like, or besides steel and concrete, is there anything else? No, I really am not an expert. Or stones, actually. Okay. It's pretty hard to burn stone, steel, and concrete. Certainly there's some stuff out there. We're worried about putting it out.
@elonmuskBut, yeah, I think that some people will come together and find something. But, yeah, there's certainly some stuff out there.
@elonmuskAll right. Sounds good. All right. Everyone. So. All right. What about what about water availability was water availability? I understand that was not not an issue in Malibu. Is that correct? Was it water? Yeah. So there was water. We have several reservoirs that we use a lot. Now, just an example, if we have one building burning.
@elonmuskwe could flow 1,000 gallons a minute on that one building with the hose lathes that we put in to stop it. You can imagine 1,000 gallons per house we couldn't do, right? So the amount of water we're flowing, there really is no water system that's going to keep that pace. So we have to bring in water tenders, which are these big tank water tanks that, you know, 2,500, 3,000-gallon trucks, and they'll come in, and that's what we have to do to compensate.
@elonmuskSo they park out there and do it. DWP did a great job. They brought in... big water trucks for us. And we use them as basically mobile hydrants. And then we have our own agency as well that has water tenders. Okay. My understanding is that along the... Correct me if I'm wrong. In Malibu, along the coast, there was no shortage of water.
@elonmuskIn the Palisades, there was a shortage of water at a certain point. Or is that not accurate? We were flowing just... An amount of amount of water that those system couldn't overbearing just because of how much water these firefighters are utilizing. OK. Alright.
@elonmuskSounds good. Alright, thanks guys.