The Greater Los Angeles wildfires narrate a cautionary tale for facilities management

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Although Australia has a long and deadly bushfire history, the Greater Los Angeles fires present facility management with an existential challenge and major warning of the implications of a perfect storm of conditions – climate change, inappropriate building materials, flawed evacuation plans and an overpowered fire service. 

Facility Management spoke to experts in fire safety and environmental geography, tropical climatology and climate change, respectively, to unpack what modern fuel loads and climate change mean for fire safety at facilities and homes, how communities can rebuild following natural disasters and the extent to which catastrophes incite life-saving innovation and development.

In 2023, Canada had its most destructive fire season in living memory. By the end of the year, 6000 fires had burned across 15 million hectares of land. In mid-July alone, there were 29 mega-fires.

The Emergency Leaders for Climate Action, an Australian coalition of former senior Australian fire and emergency service leaders, were most likely far from blindsided by Canada’s deeply unusual fires and the recent wildfires in Greater Los Angeles. 

The coalition’s members include ex-commissioner of New South Wales Fire Rescue Greg Mullins, ex-commissioner of Queensland Fire Rescue Lee Johnson and numerous recipients of the Australian Fire Service Medal. 

“What we need is for governments and leadership to start listening to the experts,” says coalition member and former chief fire officer for the Tasmanian Fire Service Mike Brown AM AFSM. 

Scott Morgan AFSM GIFireE, a professional firefighter for 43 years in south-east Queensland and a station officer at Surfers Paradise Fire and Rescue Station for 28 of those years, says the Emergency Leaders for Climate Action have been issuing a rallying cry for government action on emission reduction and greater resources for fire and emergency services for many years.

“Climate change is a risk to firefighting,” Morgan says. 

“We will never have enough firefighters and we can not guarantee a fire truck at every door, particularly in bushfire situations.”

Morgan – also a high-rise firefighting expert, fire investigator and wildland firefighting instructor – says fires are burning hotter and faster than ever before. “It’s been exacerbated by climate change, and anyone who doubts that is delusional,” he says. 

The Greater Los Angeles fires, which have resulted in the evacuation of nearly 200,000 people and the destruction of more than 10,000 houses, are the purest embodiment of a perfect storm of conditions merging, according to Central Queensland University adjunct professor of environmental geography Steve Turton.

“The ducks aligned remarkably well, and I would argue that’s probably a very rare thing that would happen, but with climate change, it makes it more likely to happen again in the future,” Turton says. 

Australia and America’s shared history of wind-driven fires

The Santa Ana winds and subsequent ember attacks were the driving force behind the destruction and unstoppable acceleration of the Southern California wildfires. Turton likens the Santa Ana winds to a Category Three or Four cyclone. “There’s nothing that could have stopped that, all the water in the world would have done nothing,” he says. 

The municipal water supply in the Pacific Palisades area could simply not cope – a reality that Morgan says should encourage councils to continue to mandate buildings fit tanks for firefighting water supply.

As Turton mentioned, the destruction of the Greater Los Angeles fires is owed to a deadly cocktail of conditions conducive to fast and hot fires. 

“You’ve got valleys and the wind coming down – and fire burns four times as fast up a slope. So when it’s getting pushed by Santa Ana winds, it will burn very fast downhill as well,” Morgan corroborates. 

Morgan says the Canberra Bushfires in 2003  that left 70 percent of the Australian Capital Territory burnt were also galvanised by intense winds and left communities devastated by ember attacks. 

“In the ACT, embers hit the outlying suburbs and set fire to garden beds and fences,” he says. “And because there weren’t enough firefighters there to defend it, houses started to burn, and that is exactly what happened on the Malibu coastline.”

Chasing the beast that is modern fuel loads

Morgan addresses an inescapable contributing factor to modern fires that is pertinent to facilities management.

“Houses and facilities have never been more flammable,” he says.

“Everything inside your house or facility these days is highly flammable – your computers, your TVs, clothes – everything you’ve got in your hand is generally made of synthetic material and it burns really well, and so once the fire breaches inside, it’s not going to stop.”

Modern fuel loads were amplified as a hazard in Los Angeles, as the majority of houses are made from wood – a cheap and earthquake-proof building material that is an essential choice for an area of California experiencing approximately 10,000 earthquakes a year, although most are too small to feel.

“If you’re in a wooden building in an earthquake, it just creaks and moves and doesn’t fall down around you,” Turton explains.

Wooden structures, coupled with modern fuel loads, stand no chance against infernos. Multiple-storey buildings in Los Angeles have been reduced to concrete posts.

“The buildings themselves drove the fires,” Turton says. “Because they were made of wood, there was no hope.”

Morgan says modern fuel loads also shorten flashover time, which is deeply problematic for the fire service, as this reduced window requires firefighters on site sooner.

“Flashover time is when everything in a room reaches the ignition temperature and ignites at the same time,” he explains.

“We used to work on flashover times of about eight minutes, however flashover times are now down to about three and a half minutes due to modern fuel loads.”

“Usually by the time we arrive on site, because of modern fuel loads, the windows have broken and the fire is out and spreading throughout the house,” Morgan says.

He implores facilities to be cognisant of fuel loads and plan accordingly. “It might affect what you need to do as far as an evacuation plan goes.”

The precautions facilities and homes in interface areas must follow

Southeast Australia is one of the most bushfire-prone places on earth as demonstrated by the destructive fires that are unfortunately etched in national memory – Ash Wednesday, Black Tuesday, Black Saturday, Black Friday and Black Summer. Morgan attributes population growth in urban-bush interface zones to increased adoption of precautionary methods and greater devastation. 

“If you are in what is called a bushfire-prone area, you have to take certain precautions,” Morgan says. “You need to have an evacuation plan and prioritise decks that aren’t made of timber and screens that won’t let embers inside the house and sprinkler systems.”

The fire service in Australia regularly conducts prescribed burns, which means burning off an area to reduce fuel loads. 

Even if taking precautions, climate change increases the risk of living in urban-bush interface areas as bushlands are prone to burning more often. “They might be made to burn every 50 or 60 years, but now they’re burning every 10 to 20 years,” Morgan says.

He celebrates the movement among firefighters in Australia to adopt First Nations fire practices, such as mosaic burning, and capitalise on the opportunity to collaborate and learn. 

“We’re learning all the time from First Nations about how to better deal with reducing fuel load,” Morgan says. 

He says facilities and homes in urban bush interface zones should uphold a combination of hazard reduction methods, such as climate-responsive building materials in new builds or retrofits, clearing combustible material from a facility’s perimeter and having an evacuation plan.

“If you’ve got a facility in an interface area built out of masonry such as steel, with fire screens on all the windows and a tin roof, that will help stop or significantly slow down ember attacks,” Morgan says. 

“Construction will go a long way to mitigating loss.”

Wall-wetting sprinklers can be run over doors and windows to avoid house-to-house ignition, alongside leaving ample distance between houses. “If you look at all those destroyed properties along Malibu beachfront, there wasn’t much distance between them,” Morgan says. 

A fatal error Morgan encounters is the continued approval of new developments in interzone areas to accommodate burgeoning populations. “Developers and councillors are allowing for narrow streets, small yards and houses very close together, which creates a real problem for us,” he says. 

Turton echoes Morgan’s call to move developments out of the interface zones altogether and shatter the assumption that metropolitan areas are immune from the threat of bushfires.  

“This interface zone is where all our bushfires are likely to occur and they’re becoming hotspots for people to go and live in,” he says. 

“Over the last two decades, a lot of people have been building on the hill slopes around Los Angeles – we’re seeing this around Australia in all our major cities.”

Turton surmises that a myriad of factors exclusive to Los Angeles’ climate have led to people wanting to settle on hill slopes despite the steep geography and canyons. “People want to live up on the slopes because it’s above the smog line and you get the breeze from the Pacific Ocean,” he says.

Imperatives for fire safety at facilities 

Morgan says facility management fire safety is not only dependent on the building code of Australia, but subject to ongoing review. For example, in Queensland, any building over 25 metres must be equipped with sprinklers, whereas the previous requirement applied to buildings over 42 metres.

He addresses the non-negotiable nature of facilities having an evacuation plan. 

“Anything over ground floor considered commercial property has to have what we call a building evacuation plan,” Morgan says.  “And that building evacuation plan is not only for fire, it’s for earthquakes or explosions.”

“It has to be available for inspection by an authorised fire officer and reviewed and updated on an annual basis and it’s got to be practised.”

Morgan cites additional recurring mistakes made by facilities as failing to conduct maintenance against fire safety systems and possessing a regularly practiced escape plan. 

“In Queensland, we have an inspection regime as a fire service, but at the end of the day it’s up to the owner and occupier to ensure the premises comply,” he says. “It’s really important for people to have an escape plan, just like a bushfire plan.”

“There are Australian standards around fire extinguishers, hose reels, exit and emergency lights – everything should be tested to the relevant Australian standard and the standard for each building.”

Life-saving necessity of reevaluating fire safety plans 

Morgan refers to the One Meridian Plaza fire in Philadelphia and the devastating Grenfell Tower fire in 2017 in emphasising the life-saving significance of sprinklers and reforming fire management at high-rise facilities. 

The One Meridian Plaza fire began on 23 February 1991 on the 22nd floor of the 38-storey high-rise office building. It required 300 firefighters to contain the blaze, with three firefighters losing their lives. 

Under the building’s code, One Meridian Plaza did not require sprinklers, but one particular company occupancy decided to put sprinklers on their four floors. The fire started underneath these floors and travelled up the building. 

“As soon as the fire hit the sprinkler level, it stopped,” Morgan says. “10 automatic sprinkler heads put out this fire that had been burning for 19 hours. That’s why sprinkler systems, particularly in high buildings, are excellent.”

Morgan applauds Australia’s sophisticated and stringent laws for sprinklers in facilities. “It’s why we rarely have high-rise fires in Australia to the magnitude seen overseas.”

Now the subject of numerous investigations by the police, a public inquiry and coroner’s inquiries, the Grenfell Tower fire – which resulted in 72 deaths – reiterates the value of Australia’s robust sprinkler laws. 

It has since been confirmed that the fire’s rapid spread resulted from the building’s exterior failing to comply with regulations. 

“If Grenfell Tower was built in Australia, even when it was built, it would have required sprinklers,” Morgan says. 

Disaster relief demands innovation 

Turton predicts mass enquiries emerging from the Southern Californian fires that will deliver a daunting juggle of priorities to those in the built world.

“They’ll have to look at how they’re going to rebuild and there’ll be a trade-off between being earthquake-proof and being fireproof,” he says. Technological innovation and advancement will ensue, however, at an onerous yet life-saving cost. 

“It will really push technology in the building area and architecture and planning,” he says. 

“And as often with disasters, you do get progressive ideas, but the big thing is going to be cost.” Turton estimates the looming 2028 Summer Olympics will galvanise cost-effective rebuilding efforts into action.

Disastrous blunders in town planning also need to be overcome, Turton says, as metropolitan pockets with only one road in and out reflect a failure to foresee the complexities of mass evacuation.

“People evacuating in the Pacific Palisades area decided to abandon their cars and walk because everything was gridlocked and congestion was terrible,” he says. “A bulldozer then had to plough aside cars as fire engines needed to get up the hill.”

Turton highlights the disparity in natural disaster recovery between poor and wealthy nations and says the United States is fortunately at an advantage. “Poorer countries often can’t recover from these events and they just abandon areas and the place becomes a ghost town,” he says. 

Difficulties in rebuilding efforts compounded by climate change 

Turton anticipates a major reevaluation of building codes and materials in Southern California, yet sourcing cheap fire-resistant materials will be a challenge when coming up against the intense flammability of modern homes. “They’ll be looking to rebuild with more appropriate buildings and infrastructure, as they can’t go back to doing what they did before.”

Additionally, while increasing the frequency and sophistication of controlled burnings is essential, Turton underlines that the season for controlled burning is getting shorter because of climate change.

“Southern California’s climate has generally been drying over the last 50 years, much like large parts of Southern Australia,” he says. “And because it’s warming at the same time, the safe season for controlled burns is getting shorter.”

Photography supplied. 

Disclaimer: Scott Morgan is the author’s relative.

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