When wildfires threaten neighborhoods, the official directive is always the same: evacuate immediately. But now, fire officials in Los Angeles County are starting to break from that long-standing message, saying some residents may be able to stay back and fight to protect their homes amid a growing threat.

Los Angeles

Los Angeles County has introduced a program to train residents in defending their homes against wildfires, following incidents where local firefighting resources were stretched thin. The initiative allows residents, with proper training and equipment, to stay behind during wildfires to protect their properties, a departure from the previous policy that mandated evacuation.

Fire officials emphasize that this approach is not suitable for everyone, especially those with health issues or without safe escape routes. The community brigade program provides training to residents from various backgrounds, aiming to reduce the number of homes lost in increasingly severe wildfire events.

L.A. County training residents to stay behind and fight wildfires

After flames ripped through the Pacific Palisades, among the widespread devastation, clusters of homes still stand. Not because firefighters saved them. Residents did. Some had professional equipment. Others used whatever they could find. Court Wagner evacuated his family and grabbed a garden hose. If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I would say I couldn't have saved anything. But the truth is you can save stuff. I mean, I saved multiple homes with garden hoses. You could see this fire. I was covering the Palisades fire January 7th, and it was clear firefighters were overwhelmed. One of the real concerning things for me, though, is I live a block right down there. My wife, Lauren, is also a reporter, and together we defended our home, drawing on decades of wildfire coverage. You could see that ember cast behind me. This is how homes catch on fire. Embers that are the problem. We chased everyone for 14 hours, but unchecked at nearby homes, they were igniting. There's a spot fire over there. You'll get that. There are not enough firefighters or four fire engines to adequately defend every structure in the path of the fire. And there will never be. And there will never be. L. A. County Fire Chief Anthony Maroney's department helped battle the Palisades fire and nearby Eaton fire. It was only because you were allowed to stay behind that you were able to save your house and your neighbor's houses, which is why the chief is now saying something the public hasn't heard before. And we've always told people that when the evacuation order comes, you must leave. We've departed from that narrative with the proper training, with the proper equipment and with the proper home hardening and defensible space, you can stay behind and prevent your house from burning down. It's not for everyone, especially those with health problems or if there's no escape route to do it safely. L. A. County Fire created a community brigade. I'm a mechanical engineer, a landscape contractor, a marketer. Firefighters trained residents like Keegan Gibbs, who lost his home in a wildfire. That was the motivation that kept driving me to going. How do we solve this? The community level instead of looking to other people to try to solve it for us. We're losing in the thousands of structures in in these impossible firefights in situations that we've never experienced before. Something has to change. Something's changing and we need to change with it so that next time more homes like these will be left standing for I in America. I'm Carter Evans in Los Angeles.

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Caracas

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Tel Aviv-Yafo

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Breakdown