When Michael Olson saw what would become the Eaton fire, the flames at the base of the power tower looked small, seemingly under control.
Then the winds that night of 7 Jan. it sent a shower of sparks across the mountain above his Pasadena home.
“Within 10 minutes, the whole vista was on fire,” Olson, 70, told The Times. “It was just a mountain of flame.”
Only a dry river separated his yard from the fire. Firefighters rushed to the neighborhood as Olson and his wife left.
“We left home thinking we would never see you again,” he said.
Instead, Olson and his neighbors returned to find their homes untouched by the fire that devastated Altadena to the south and west, killing at least 16 people. Others also found trees in their yards singed and decks damaged – signs that the fire was dangerously close. The canals of another village were left to shrink, as if they had started to melt.
However, a number of areas near where the authorities suspect the ignition point are unharmed. Some residents have returned to their neighborhoods despite being surrounded by ash and debris. With the exit guarded by armed soldiers and police who do not allow anyone to leave or enter, they struggle to get food and other basic items.
Those who are left are now trying to understand why their homes, when such a big fire broke out, survived when so many others burned to the ground.
“An act of God?” Olson asked. “Good karma? I told people that I used good karma that day.”
The winds blew the inferno – but spared some homes
Being close to the mountain, residents of Canyon Close Road have an unbroken line from their yards to the power towers when Olson and other residents said they saw the flames around 6:15 pm on Jan. 7.
There are several theories to explain why not a single home burned as the Eaton fire burned the horseshoe along Olson Road and surrounding areas.
“It could be winds, open brush, luck,” said Scott Brown, a firefighter assigned to Los Angeles County Fire Station 66 about a mile east in Kinneloa Canyon. His best guess: “All three.”
To understand how the fire spread — and the decisions that led to the saving of some homes — The Times spoke with fire officials, first responders, residents and experts, and reviewed the hours of radio transmissions by emergency workers from the night the Eaton fire began.
Fire crews were stationed on streets east, west and south of the fire. They sprayed water on the burning hillside, but 70 mph winds sent embers over their heads, igniting new fires two miles behind them.
“This is something I've never seen in my 20 years,” said Chief Danny Nausha of the Pasadena Fire Department, who was in charge of the first incident of the fire. “We put equipment near the edge of the fire to prevent it from entering the buildings, but a lot of coal will fly out to the neighbors.”
Olson and his neighbors believe their homes survived for two reasons. Elsewhere, Pasadena and Los Angeles County firefighters were able to fill their street — the first place crews responded to the Eaton fire — before blazes elsewhere forced them to split their resources.
Like Nausha, Olson also praised spirits. The same storms that fanned fires in the tropical region and sent pieces of burning wood raining down like cluster munitions on roads to the west and south may have saved their homes, Olson said.
He said: “It just rained on us.
At 6:26 pm on Jan. 7, about 15 minutes after the Eaton fire was first reported, firefighters near Canyon Close Drive reported the fire had grown to 10 acres and was burning “under heavy power lines,” according to the radio station. A minute later, a crew on nearby Canyon View Lane broadcast that embers were blowing into homes.
At 6:33 p.m., a firefighter on Canyon Close Drive reported “large embers” and called for help, eventually calling for five more engines, according to the dispatcher. More than a mile away, said Pasadena Fire Chief Chad Augustin, embers were already burning trees and buildings.
Since other doors in the area are already thin that night, no backup is immediately available.
Brendan Thorn, 28, who was patrolling his home on Canyon Close Road with a garden hose, saw embers exploding, “just big balls of flames.”
Most sailed over the house that his ancestors built 70 years ago.
“We're very grateful,” said Thorn, “but my mother especially, she feels very guilty, which sounds strange to say.”
One ember fell into the yard of Thorn's next-door neighbor, Laurie Bilotta — burning and melting a metal ladder in her yard, she said. Some forests also burned, but Bilotta's house where he lived for 39 years survived.
Bilotta, 72, pointed on Wednesday to the trees in his yard.
“Not a hair on their head, not even a leaf on their branch, was touched,” he said. “It's a miracle.”
Oath of fire: 'I will defend my castle'
About a mile east of Bilotta's house, Brown secured his family's home in Kinneloa Canyon.
Brown, 44, was off duty the night of Jan. 7 and had just sat down to dinner at Villa Catrina's in Arcadia when he got the alert about Eaton Canyon.
Brown returned to his station, grabbed his gear and headed home. He filled his car with his belongings, then used the techniques he learned as a firefighter to protect his family's home.
“I've been planning this day for 31 years,” said Brown, who was in eighth grade when the 1993 Kinneola fire threatened the home. “I will defend my castle.”
Brown dragged the burning furniture out of the house, doused the roof and walls with water and turned on the sprinklers before doing the same to his neighbors' homes.
With the help of a fire engine, Brown put out the fires in his neighborhood until 1:30 a.m., when the winds died down for several hours, allowing firefighters to get a handle on the flames in Kinneloa Canyon.
Brown said he made a grilled cheese sandwich before going door to door for the next seven hours, making sure there were no gaps in the water lines that would kill the firefighters.
Crews from Nausha and the Pasadena Fire Department were hopping from house to house, trying to keep up with the new embers fueled by the embers.
“As the fire passes, it is extinguished in one place, and then it quickly moves on to the next,” he said. “They kept going from fire to fire. “
Life at the exit: 'Like the Berlin Wall'
By Wednesday, some residents had returned to Canyon Close Road, which remained under an evacuation order. Others did not plan to leave the area as long as it was under the watchful eye of National Guard soldiers, Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputies and California Highway Patrol officers, fearing they would never re-enter.
Residents described the situation as being under siege. Their homes had electricity and cell phones but no fuel. Others lived on emergency food – powdered peanut butter and applesauce, said BJ Thorn, whose son secured their home with a garden hose.
Retired elementary school teacher BJ Thorn said his sister was turned away at a National Guard checkpoint and Ralph's grocery store. BJ Thorn asked if his sister could serve food in line. The forces said no.
“It's a bit like the Berlin Wall,” he said.
BJ Thorn and his son stayed indoors all day. He is worried if they are caught outside after the 18:00 time limit, the National Guard soldiers will “escort” them out of the exit, he said.
“The Sheriff's Department is also very eager to find the person who robbed,” he said.
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