By Paul Taublieb
In my look into what happened and what didn’t around the Woosley Fire, one of the more interesting and insightful conversations I had was with Fire Chief and Public Information Officer Tony Imbrenda.
(I’ve heard, btw, that he and some other firemen are unhappy with what I wrote and have claimed I misquoted Imbrenda. I have an extended an invitation to Imbrenda to respond and correct the record if he feels I was not accurate, but he has not responded. I stand by my reporting, but welcome anything he would like to add or clarify. I extend the same for anyone else included in my story. I’ve also made inquiries about getting transcripts that I’m told exist of all radio communication from the fire department during the event, but I am getting no response.)
But I want to discuss the moral dilemma that emerged from my original discussion. Imbrenda made the point that the only way to insure your safety and the safety of a fireman is to evacuate. It’s 100% effective when it comes to saving lives. (When we spoke he extended this to include Pepperdine, btw, but that’s another story.)
So for people like myself, my neighbors and many brave folks who stayed behind during the fire (and I have to state that I came and went a couple of times during the event thanks to a press pass from Cece Woods, editor in chief of The Local, so others deserve far more credit than I).
Clearly staying behind many saved homes, and my neighbors undoubtedly saved mine and many, many more on Zumirez, as others did quite effectively and dramatically throughout Malibu. (I would also add that apparently that includes our then Mayor, Rick Mullen, who endorsed the idea of “mandatory evacuation, but had his son stay, defy that order, and save his home or that of his family.)
We were, I realize in hindsight, very, very lucky. Frankly, we had no clue what we were doing. I wore a painter’s mask, which I later learned would did little to nothing to protect my lungs from fine ashes. The only goggles I could find were my wife’s pink, bedazzled, dark-lens ones, leaving me with the choice of taking ashes in the eyes or wandering around in a self-inflicted darkness (not to mention cruelly unstylish). My clothes were not fireproof. Half the time I was in sneakers with melt-able soles. I even once, so foolishly, left my house at 4 am for a possible mission to attack hot spots in flip flops, I sheepishly admit. And so on.
When you say we were ad-hoc, we were totally ad-hoc.
No, we learned out of necessity over the ensuing nights. But as we charged into the deep gullies on either side of Zumirez did we follow basic safety protocols, as Imbrenda pointed out? Did we leave a lookout on the street to alert us fire got behind us? Did we pre-plan multiple exist routes? Did we have backup hoses? Did we have a plan if someone twisted their ankle or worse? Heh, I had one plan if the fire came to my house – I’d jump in the pool! But as Imbrenda explained, was I aware that a full-on conflagration can reach 2,000 degrees and if I had come up for a single breath, the air would have been so superheated it would have sealed my throat shut and I would have suffocated to death? No, I didn’t. No, no and no across the board, no.
And did we address a deeper fundamental question: imagine a fireman, say with a wife and kids, had to come and rescue us. No, we were never close to this, but that’s just luck, not planning or strategy. But let’s say he had, and let’s say he was successful in saving me and my neighbors, but in the effort, he died. As Imbrenda pointed in making the case for evacuation, anyone staying automatically endangers firefighters lives, and moreover the need to rescue people who could have left, can impact the overall coordination of a firefighting effort. (Assume ‘ol Rick is ok with this, which he should share with his fellow firefighters.)
That firefighter would be dead, a wife would be without a husband, children without a father, and all because I wanted to save my house and my stuff, and pretty much had no idea what I was doing.
I’m not sure that’s fair or moral. I’m also fairly sure I’m going to stay again next time, as no doubt will even more people will, as there is no confidence – based on the reality of Woolsey – that fire department will be, even as they had in the past. They may do what it takes to protect Pepperdine, but our experience shows that won’t protect Malibu, either not as a priority or due to limited resources.
Now, there is also the powerful argument that the firemen know exactly what they signed up for. Risk to their life is part of the job and they (and their familes) know this going in. And they can get paid pretty good for it – a salary I’m told can be in the $150,000 range, and in the case of fire chief Mullen, eventually go over $400,000, with overtime. It was a choice, and a conscious choice included the knowledge that the job requirement included running into a burning building, and maybe rescuing a well-intentioned, but totally boneheaded homeowner like myself, who thought he could fight a fire on his own, and who had defied a “mandatory” evacuation. As our former mayor, and an experienced fireman, can tell you, given his own personal experience, it is not really mandatory.
I think this is something for each person to think about. Given what we know, it certainly makes sense to be better prepared fight a fire, and I know at least personally and on Zumirez, we will be. I think it makes sense to personally have food stocks and other supplies on hand, and I know at least personally, I will. I think it makes sense for neighborhoods to be more organized and have the ability to coordinate efforts, and thanks to things like Cece is setting up with the new community website Malibu 90265, and efforts by people like Dane Skophammer and the Point Dume Bombers, there will be cells of like-minded people ready to come to each other’s aid in better coordinated fashion.
I also think back to Friday night, November 9, 2018. My family had long left, but finally, at their frantic urging, that evening I left, too. Thanks to Cece granting me a press pass, I was able to shortly return. But I remember that night, a deep, primal, powerful longing to get back to my home and defend it, to join my neighbors who hadn’t left. I had even arranged for a friend to drive me up on a rented jet ski and I would swim to shore to get back up and in, when Cece came to rescue.
So the reality is this. I will stay and fight again, should it come to that. And I will do it better, smarter and more effectively, and in concert with my neighbors. And more people will also stay. And the reality is, firefighters lives will be put at risk as I defend my home and material goods. I can’t say I feel good about that, but I know that is what will happen. I will justify this by saying that risk is something that comes along with the job. But I will not be ignoring, and I want everyone to understand, that what goes along with it is the possibility of being at a funeral, perhaps with a young family, mourning over a loss which will never in their lives stop hurting, to save my house and material goods. And also, it might be your family at your funeral, too.
I thank Fire Chief Imbrenda for raising the question.
I will stay, but will do so with an understanding of what’s at stake.
Follow Us