Police sweep bluffs to keep coast clear
By JASMIN PERSCH Special to the Daily Press
PALISADES PARK — More than 100 firefighters from throughout Los Angeles County converged here Sunday night to battle a fire that is believed to have been started by a homeless man cooking his supper.
The only injury reported was second-degree burns sustained by the homeless man, who is being treated at a local hospital, officials said.
About 120 firefighters from Santa Monica, the city of Los Angeles and Los Angeles County battled the two-acre blaze that erupted on the bluffs near the 300 block of Pacific Palisades, said Santa Monica Fire Chief Jim Hone.
The wind and thick brush along the bluffs hampered fire-fighters’ efforts. Two Los Angeles Fire Department water-dropping helicopters helped extinguish the fire, said SMFD Battalion Chief Carl Bjerke.
“I’ve been on a lot of bluff fires,” Bjerke said. “This is bigger than the biggest I’ve been on.”
“I’ve been on a lot of bluff fires. This is bigger than the biggest I’ve been on.” — CARL BJERKE SMFD Chief Battalion
Fire crews arrived at the scene about 9 p.m. and had the blaze under control by 3 a.m., Bjerke said. Firefighters took turns watching over the fire in shifts of four throughout the night to make sure that deeply seeded areas did-n’t reignite, Hone said.
On Monday, firefighters continued to extinguish hot spots with foam and water.
Local resident Sharon Ellen-bogen said she heard the fire engines around 9:30 p.m.
“I saw it from my balcony,” she said. “The smoke was way up in the sky.”
The fire threatened homes on Ocean Avenue after flames traveled up the bluff and scorched palm trees across the street.
According to Bjerke, the Santa Monica Police Department began to evacuate nearby residents but soon stopped. Evacuations are issued only if there’s a potential threat, which the ignited palm trees didn’t create like thick brush would, Hone said.
Ethel Paulino, assistant administrator of Ocean Villa Assisted Living, located directly across from the burning bluff, saw the fire on the TV news Sunday night but didn’t realize how close it was to the home for seniors.
“Thank God nothing happened,” Paulino said.
Next door, Diane Makasian, who has lived in her newly refurbished 1930s home for 23 years, could see from her living room the orange glow from the fire.
“The flames were sky high,” Makasian said.
Anticipating nearby burning palm trees and the threat they posed to her house, Makasian hosed down her roof and lawn, as did several of her neighbors, she said.
“There was a spark on the lawn (lining the sidewalk)” Makasian said. “My neighbor stomped it out.”
In all her time residing in Santa Monica, Makasian said she has never seen a bluff fire as widespread as Sunday’s.
“It’s a freak thing,” she said. One of her neighbors, Nick Battaglino, said city officials shouldn’t allow homeless people to cook food on the bluffs.
“You almost can’t blame this guy,” he said.
The City Council in 2003 passed a law banning any person from being on the bluffs. The Santa Monica Police Department conducts bi-monthly sweeps intended to keep the bluffs clean and unpopulated. The steep, brushy hillside, owned by the city of Santa Monica, is often illegally occupied by the homeless.
SMPD Lt. Frank Fabrega said officers patrolled the area as recently as two weeks ago.
Bluff fires typically are sparked by a warming or cooking fire igniting surrounding brush, Bjerke said.
“The type of terrain — eucalyptus, palms — is a ripe situation for this type of fire,” he said.
Passersby stopped to stare Monday at the blackened palm trees — some still smoking — and peered down the bluff, now, with skeleton remains of brush interspersed by burnt trees, where a homeless encampment once was.
The bluff is a steep, deeply eroded and unstable area that expands about one and half miles above the Pacific Coast Highway and below Palisades Park. The bluffs’ height varies in height from 50 feet to 180 feet and is accessible from the PCH or the park.
Several tunnels, caves and shelves along the bluffs are used by transients to store belongings and for sleeping. Not only is one’s safety compromised due to the rocks being unstable and subject to slides, but the area is frequently littered with trash.
Over the years, the city has made efforts to keep people off of the bluffs with a fence that extends the length of the park, between the Santa Monica Pier and northern city border, where it becomes Pacific Palisades Bluff.
There also are signs posted saying to keep out of the area, as well as stairways and pedestrian overpasses leading to the beach that allow beach access. But people still use the area, endangering themselves and motorists below, city staff said. The steep terrain also makes it difficult for emergency workers to reach people on the bluff.
The man who is believed to be responsible for the blaze hasn’t been arrested, but is a subject of interest by the SMPD, Fabrega said.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on November 29, 2005. Read the original PDF.