‘This is our house’: Mom and son fought off Palisades fire with pump, hose and pool water
Vicky Collison and Andrew Grinsfelder hurried past a burning home on an upscale residential street just off Sunset Boulevard in Pacific Palisades. There were piles of rubble on all sides and glowing embers swirled in the air.
The mother and son had just checked on a friend’s house threatened by the massive Palisades fire, and they were headed off to stop by another home. It was a grim duty. Metal railings or a charred brick chimney were all that remained to distinguish the ashen piles.
Ten people have died, more than 9,000 structures have been damaged or destroyed, and at least 130,000 residents are under evacuation orders. Experts say L.A. is not out of danger yet and that these fires have the potential to be the costliest wildfire disaster in American history.
They made the treacherous trek back into the coastal neighborhood on Wednesday afternoon, ignoring the evacuation order that had driven Collison, 60, to flee to a relative’s home in mid-Wilshire the previous evening. She picked up Grinsfelder, 18, from UCLA, where he’s a freshman, and drove to San Vicente Boulevard in Santa Monica. Blocked from proceeding by car, they went the remaining several miles on foot, past law enforcement checkpoints keeping out unauthorized vehicles and dozens of burning structures.
They worked their way up Sunset, stopping by the properties of people they knew and making alternately jubilant and heartbreaking calls to deliver updates. Their ultimate destination was Collison’s own house about three miles north of where Sunset meets Pacific Coast Highway, where the real estate property manager and her husband, the music composer Dean Grinsfelder, 64, raised Andrew and his siblings.
Ten people have died, more than 9,000 structures have been damaged or destroyed, and at least 130,000 residents are under evacuation orders. Experts say L.A. is not out of danger yet and that these fires have the potential to be the costliest wildfire disaster in American history.
Along the way, Collison and Andrew came to serve as a de facto fire surveillance squad for their close-knit circle scattered across Pacific Palisades’ windy suburban lanes who were unable to access their own houses.
“We’re trying to go around and see if they’re still standing,” the younger Grinsfelder said.
Andrew’s childhood friend’s home had burned to the ground and was still smoldering. Another friend’s house nearby remained remarkably untouched. An apartment complex where Collison and her husband had lived years earlier was engulfed in flames.
About three miles north of PCH, they stopped by Collison’s late mother’s house, which the family still owns. It was intact, free of flames or fire damage, while the adjacent home and several others on the same block had been destroyed.
“Oma’s house is still there,” she said, using a term of endearment. “Her neighbor’s house is gone. My mom’s got scorch marks on the side of her house.”
Ten people have died, more than 9,000 structures have been damaged or destroyed, and at least 130,000 residents are under evacuation orders. Experts say L.A. is not out of danger yet and that these fires have the potential to be the costliest wildfire disaster in American history.
The duo planned to return later to fetch their E-bikes for better mobility in the fire-ravaged enclave. But first they had to determine the status of their own house and several others. One was gone; another was untouched but flames loomed nearby. The roof of Calvary Church of Pacific Palisades, a neighborhood landmark, was burning.
Finally, about 3:15 p.m. Wednesday, Collison laid eyes on her spacious, cream-colored stucco house set against the bone-dry hills. It was still standing, though orange flames could be seen through the trees behind their backyard swimming pool.
“This is our house,” Collison said. “We’re going in.”
She was more focused than celebratory as there was work to be done. “Andrew’s going to get on the roof and generate some water to sprinkle on the roof.”
An Eagle Scout, Andrew was prepared for an emergency. Growing up in Pacific Palisades, he and his family knew the risk of wildfires in the area. He was ready to take action.
His father, who served as assistant scoutmaster when Andrew was a member of Troop 223 and “is into preparedness,” according to his son, purchased a gas-powered water pump a few years ago for just such an occasion. Their goal was to have a way to keep their home wet, and presumably more safe from encroaching fires, even if they lost water pressure.
Collison turned the faucet to high in her eerily normal-seeming kitchen. Just a thin dribble of water poured out.
Ten people have died, more than 9,000 structures have been damaged or destroyed, and at least 130,000 residents are under evacuation orders. Experts say L.A. is not out of danger yet and that these fires have the potential to be the costliest wildfire disaster in American history.
So Andrew pulled the heavy metal pump over to the edge of the pool and affixed a green hose that snaked down into the ash- and debris-muddied water to one opening and a long blue fire hose to another.
After fiddling 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’ve got to get it up on the roof!” Collison shouted to her son. “I’ll turn it on when you get up there.”
They needed a ladder, and something to help hoist the hose up to the pitched roof. “What about a surfboard leash?” Collison offered.
Within a few minutes, the pump was at a dull roar and Andrew was standing on the roof, spraying long blasts of pool water out over the brown shingles, hoping to wet them enough to help keep the fire at bay. The home, Collison said after her son turned the pump off about 15 minutes later, was safe “at least for now.”
The next phase of their mission began a little before 5 p.m. Collison and Andrew loaded the pump and a few important belongings into one of two vehicles Collison had left behind Tuesday, then drove back down the hill toward Oma’s.
Ten people have died, more than 9,000 structures have been damaged or destroyed, and at least 130,000 residents are under evacuation orders. Experts say L.A. is not out of danger yet and that these fires have the potential to be the costliest wildfire disaster in American history.
Her house was still standing, but the roaring flames just past her backyard had already gotten closer. They quickly grabbed the E-bikes from inside and strapped them onto one of the two vehicles they were now driving, then loaded up a few additional items, including a large framed painting, before heading toward another friend’s house.
Brian Grimes, 54, lives in a stunning midcentury modern rancher in Pacific Palisades’ tony Summit neighborhood, with a large pool and sweeping views of the Santa Monica Mountains.
When Collison and Andrew arrived at Grimes’ home, they were greeted warmly and walked through the dark — the power had been cut — to the backyard. Looking back toward the house from the edge of his property, a sizable conflagration was clearly visible a few hundred yards away.
The mother-son duo offered to bust out the pump and spray down his home and yard, but Grimes, who is retired, demurred. He and a neighbor had fled Tuesday night after making a valiant attempt to protect their homes.
“My neighbor Greg and I were putting out fires on the hillside with a bucket line, and I was on the roof spraying that down,” Grimes recalled. “At about 7 there was a big glow coming this way, so Greg and I left. We were the last two here to leave.”
Grimes returned Wednesday on his E-bike, expecting to find his house destroyed. But somehow it survived the night.
It was still standing almost 24 hours later, but he had no illusions about its fate. If the fire came for his home, nothing he could do would be able to stop it. So he declined his friends’ offer to deploy their trusty water pump.
“I don’t see the point,” he said. “I don’t want to waste your fuel or the water in the pool.”
The fires in L.A. have caused terrible air quality conditions across the county. Here are ways you can protect yourself, and your children, from the health impacts of wildfire smoke.
Collison and Andrew began a long journey home, taking a circuitous route to check on a couple more properties and back again past Oma’s house, which remained in good condition. Blazes tore through buildings, homes and neighborhoods all along the route, as if the fire had dropped indiscriminately from the sky, igniting every place it landed.
When they got back to their house, the sun had gone down and the fire on the hilltop behind it had grown significantly. Collison ran inside to find charging cables and plug their phones into outlets while they still had power.
Ten people have died, more than 9,000 structures have been damaged or destroyed, and at least 130,000 residents are under evacuation orders. Experts say L.A. is not out of danger yet and that these fires have the potential to be the costliest wildfire disaster in American history.
“We’re going to get the hose down here and maybe do another hose-down and then reevaluate,” she said. “We don’t want to die here.”
Meanwhile, Andrew dragged the pump back to the poolside. They argued briefly over whether it was worth spraying their home and yard again, but Collison convinced her son that it was, as she had spotted red-hot embers flying toward their next-door neighbor’s property.
Andrew set the ladder back up, got the motor running and towed the fire hose back up onto the roof of the house.
There he was again on the roof of his childhood home, risking his life to keep it from catching fire and destroying all the treasured objects and memories within. As long arcs of chlorinated water rained down onto his parents’ and neighbors’ roofs and yards, he resolved to stand his ground until the last moment:
“One of us will be up here the rest of the night.”
As of Thursday morning, their home still stood.
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