Home that survived Palisades fire is split in half by landslide. ‘This is devastating’

A Pacific Palisades home that narrowly survived the fire that rampaged through the community was heavily damaged by a landslide this week.

Photos of the wreckage showed the single-family home split completely in half. The nearly 1,000-square-foot house was listed for rent on Zillow last year.

Bryan Kirkwood, who was hired to provide security for houses that survived the fire, told KTLA that the mudslide probably originated from a home located just above.

“This is devastating. I didn’t realize it was this bad,” Kirkwood told the station. “I didn’t see the news, got out here and looked and it didn’t hit me until now. Wow. This is a big deal.”

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power confirmed that the agency first inspected the area on Jan. 12 and isolated the water main on Castellammare Drive above where the landslide had occurred, according to an agency statement.

Thursday morning, crews returned to the area and found that the home had split and slid onto the road, according to the statement.

“Upon inspection, it appears that the home above it, which had been destroyed in the fire, had collapsed onto it which also resulted in damage to LADWP’s water service line and buried the meter and curb valve, resulting in more water flow,” according to the statement.

Crews opened up a fire hydrant, connected a hose to it and diverted the water that was running through the shut gate valve to flow out of the water main instead of off the property of the collapsed house.

Los Angeles County Public Works Director Mark Pestrella said the agency is working with the California Department of Transportation to try to bolster areas where the fires burned and the soil is fragile.

“To address this, we are developing plans for both areas to capture and hold this debris back as much as we can during a rain event,” Pestrella said during a news conference Thursday.

Landslides can be triggered by rainfall — or, in this case, water from the lengthy firefight — saturating weak or loose soil, causing it to slide downhill.

“No matter where you live in L.A. County, if you have slopes behind your homes or you’re located on top of a slope, these slopes have become fragile,” Pestrella said. “The soil that is supporting your home [has] all become fragile and damaged, due to the events that we’ve had, wind included. ... There are mud and debris flow hazards that are existing even when it’s not raining, so we want people to be very careful.”

Times staff writer Grace Toohey contributed to this report.